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Mega Man: The Power Battle (Arcade) artwork

Mega Man: The Power Battle (Arcade) review


"Ladies and Gentlemen, a flock of seagulls. "

Ladies and Gentlemen, a flock of seagulls.

"KAW KAW!

::flaps arms really hard::

"Hello, all. Vegita here, your odd-reviewer, telling it like it is, where he is, whatever he is. Who is he? He is what he is!

::swoops down to perch on a nearby rock::

"Today I'm writing about a very odd video game that not many people over here in the 'States have gotten the chance to play - Rockman, the Power Battle.

::picks gnats out of make-shift wings using an oversized, foam beak::

"This was a very popular arcade game based off of the immensely popular Rockman series. Now, for those of you who don't know Mega Man is really named Rock Man. He was once a normal boy who liked to hang out with his sister, Roll (Rock and Roll, folks...there's JOKE there that we never got!). When he became a super hero, he donned the blue suit, helmet, plasma gun, and Suffix 'Man' to become the pint-sized hero we know him to be today.

::gracefully takes flight again::

"In this arcade game, you got to play as either Rockman, his brother Protoman, or their friend and occasional teammate Forte. The gameplay is simple - you control whoever you picked, and use 1 button to charge and fire your Mega-buster, 1 button to jump, and 1 button to switch between the special weapons you have gained from the enemies you fight.

"For those of you who are familiar with the Mega/Rock Man series, you are probably wondering 'How can they make an arcade game out of the Mega/Rock man series?' Well, it's simple. Using space-age materials, the magical little pixies at Wonderland have taken all the fun of the Rockman games and fit it into this oversized box of wires and circuits to give you this fun game. In other words, you fight only the bosses of the Rock Man games. The fights are more in depth here than they ever were on the Nintendo/Famicom and Super Nintendo/Famicom, so you don't need to worry about getting bored with it (even though you might anyways, since I'm not guaranteeing anything). You (and up to 2 teammates) battle it out against each enemy, then you move onto the next, until all of the bosses have been terminated. Then it's on to Dr. Wily's castle, where you take out 2 bosses, then Wily himself in some nefarious, skull-related machine. Good luck against him!

::swoops lower to dodge a plane::

"Whew, that was close!

::continues on his flight towards the horizon::

"So, let's talk about the game's good and bag points, shall we? First off - the graphics. Graphically speaking, this game kicks a LOT of tail. I mean, you get your monkey tails, you get your horse tails, you even get your extremely rare Siberian Tiger tail kicked by this game's graphics. It's that good. Rockman, Protoman, and Forte are extremely-well animated, and the bosses from their respective games have been upgraded and animated faithfully and remarkably well. I remember the first time I saw 2 Japanese people playing this game in an arcade during one of my layovers in Japan, as they were fighting a VERY nicely drawn Gutsman...

::sounds of a harp as we are taken into the past::

Vegita: Hey, is that a Mega Man arcade game?
Japanese Boy #1: (incomprehensible Japanese)
Vegita: Um...yeah. ::gets out Japanese/English Dictionary.
Japanese Boy #2: (incomprehensible Japanese)
Vegita: My eggs are on fire in the church pantry. I think this is the wrong page...
Japanese Boy #1: (incomprehensible Japanese)
Vegita: Hold up, I'm trying to translate what you just said 2 paragraphs ago!
Japanese Boy #2: (incomprehensible Japanese)
Vegita: (incomprehensible English, just to get even)
Japanese Boy #1: Wow, you speak English so well! Why didn't you speak like that before?


"As you can see, I was clearly bowled over by the graphics. The sounds are at about Par, as I was hoping for lots and lots of individual voice work for each character, including bosses (and Wily). Oh well, the music's faithful.

::briefly flies into the ocean, re-emerging with a fish in his mouth::

"The gameplay is just like any Mega Man game - it's a tight as you can get, with each character able to either slide or dash, charge up their weapon, wall climb, etc. The challenge of the game doesn't vary depending on the level you pick (Rock Man Bosses 1-3, Bosses 4-6, or Bosses from 7), which was a downer for me. I wanted some more challenge, darn it!

::eats fish::

"I guess the only problem with this game is the monotony of it. You pick your character, you fight one of the 6 bosses, you get his power, etc., until you get to Wily. That's the game in a nutshell, folks. They could have come up with different ways to fight the bosses (standard Rock Man style, 3-D fighting, RPG, Shooter, strip poker), but I guess you have to stick with what works, right?

::lands on a log floating downstream::

"So what have you gained from this review? You have learned that there is an arcade game based off of the Rock Man games, and while it lacks the majority of what those games consisted of, it is still fun to play. You can have up to 3 people blasting away at the enemies at the same time, or you can go at it solo and watch as you die a bunch of times. At least you don't have to deal with disappearing-reappearing blocks.

::looks downstream and notices the current is starting to get a little faster::

"The graphics are top-notch, and the sounds, while not absolutely-horrible, could use some tweaking. The music is great, though. I suppose my only real problem with the game is the lack of enemy characters! When I first played this game I thought it was going to randomly pick 6 characters from the selected Rock Man games, and those would be the ones you'd fight. But NOOOO, you have to fight the same enemies OVER and OVER and OVER...at least in games like Marvel vs. Capcom 2, the odds of you fighting the same guy twice are really low, but this is ridiculous! Oh well...THAT game had Rock Man, too! And Roll!

::realizes the log he's perched on is headed over Niagara Falls::

"You know, I think I should get off of this log now.

::tries to fly, but make-shift wings fall apart at the seems.

"Great. This is what I get for building these out of old scrap I found in the dump!

::splash::


This has been a public service announcement. Friends don't let friends fly junk.



reverend's avatar
Community review by reverend (September 12, 2004)

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