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"The start of the blue bomber"

December 17th of this year will mark the 20th anniversary of the first Mega Man game. Known as Rockman in Japan, Mega Man the US name of this dude came to the NES on December 17th 1987. Quite possibly one of the best games on the NES and quite possibly on of the best franchises of all time next Mario and Mortal Kombat, I will be reviewing today about the first Mega Man game to be released and what it's impact on society on today's world.

Graphics 7/10

Since this is the first game and this is NES the graphics were not bad. Considering what the NES was capable of I feel that the game was well designed but did have some slight flaws. Some of the backgrounds seemed kinda stale and the overall title screen blinking really did not impress me. The colors were weird too and felt out of place.

Story 8/10

The standard story for pretty much every MM game that was released on the NES was to defeat the Robot Masters and then defeat Dr. Willy. Every MM game on the NES had 8 Robot Masters but this game has 6. I'm not sure why maybe they could not come up with two more names and designs for robots, I was not there so I don't know why. The names of the bosses were simple in nature and remained that way through the NES versions of MM Sadly some of the X games use odd names and odd designs but that is another story all together. Mega Man has to go to various stages to defeat the bosses and then take their weapon that they use and then when all of the first bosses are defeated then Mega Man has to proceed to Dr. Willy's castle and then fight in more stages and then fight the 6 bosses again along with other bosses, finally coming face to face with Dr. Willy.

Controls 9/10

The controls in this game are near perfect. Perfect timing was needed to make a lot of the jumps to prevent death from the spikes or falling into pits. Moving left and right is easy and jumping is easy as well.

Difficulty 8/10

A tough game for the first one. The bosses can be hard by just using your blaster alone. However though if you know their weakness and have the weapon that is their weakness you can easily beat them. Th stages them selves and hard at times. Correct timing of jumps and when to shoot the enemies is important so that you either make the jump and or kill the enemy. The learning curve make take a while since most the bell and whistles in later games are not in this game. There is no charge shot, and no slide. No energy tanks or weapons tanks either. If you used your ammo poorly you were out until you found a weapons recovery capsule. If you were poor with moving your character you take too much damage and die. The only way to recover was to use the energy pills that were dropped. You had to second chance in a sense, like Yoda said before "Do or do not, there is no try". Just you and your cannon to beat the enemies. Some of the enemies and can be hard since some use shields that prevent them taking damage while it is in front of them or use their hard hats to protect them as well.

Time to beat 8/10

There is no save or password feature in this game as previous games so if you have to reset your system or turn it off you have to start from the beginning again. If make take you several tries before you get to Dr. Willy's castle and beat the game. I say that if you would play for at least 1 or 2 hours every day for one of two weeks you would probably be able to beat the game near the en of the first week or sometime during the second week.

Sounds 8/10

Other than good game play and tough difficulty the MM games well known for their sounds and sound tracks that they have. This game is no exception. The sound in this game can be weird at times mainly when you pick up some power ups but some of the best sounds tracks are from the first game. While the NES games soundtracks are not on par with todays game they hold out as some great soundtracks in their own right.

Replay value 7/10

While there are no super secrets or unlocks when you beat this game, you can always go back and play the game again this time trying to fight the bosses in a different order and see what you can do this time around. Also since you beat the game you now can play it faster and will get through it quicker.

Pro and cons of the game.

Pros
* Good controls
* Excellent sound tracks
* Good difficulty level overall

Cons
* Weird colors
* No Password system
* Only 6 bosses
* weird power ups

Impact on society and culture.

While it is just a game Mega Man soon become of the best known names on the NES next Mario, Double Dragon, Final Fantasy, and the Tecmo games. Games are still being made today based on Mega Man but some of those games are not that good. Anybody who had an NES in the either late 80's or early 90's will remember Mega Man and his impact on the world. While I will admit my first Mega Man game that I played was Mega Man 2, I was hooked on the series. Not too long after I played the second game I had a chance to play the first Mega Man game. While I enjoyed the first game in this awesome series the second game will still hold it's place in my heart and is also my favorite to date. The success of this game demanded that a sequel be made. Every Mega Man game that came out on the NES was quite good, except for Mega Man 4 in which I think the ball was slightly dropped by Capcom.

Mega Man still impacts society today. The series has survived on many platforms and an the next in line series of Mega Man games came out on the SNES as Mega Man x which spawned off 8 games. Who knows maybe more Mega Man games will be made in the future and the series will still be going strong for another 20 years.

Would I recommend this game?

In one word yes. This game started one of the best franchises in Video Game history. A good difficulty level gives a good challenge to the game and makes you play the game again and again to beat your best time and try different strategy's to beat the game. Something though make make you turn away from this game. Mainly the score pellets which in my opinion were worthless since the did nothing except raise your score. You can't get upgrades with the pellets so what is the point. Not having the save system is a pain as well since you may get very far in the game and then lose power and then have to start all over again. While Mega Man has its share of problems the pros out weight the cons and make this truly one of the best games on the NES system and one of the greatest games of all time.

If you can find it buy the cartridge but keep in mind that the cartridge may not work now or may have problems. If you have the cartridge then a rom version of the game and play it. If you don't have the cartridge then you can buy the Mega Man Anniversary Collection which comes on the Playstation 2, Gamecube, and Xbox consoles however some of the fun is taken out since you can save in these version for Mega Man 1. If you can find any of these versions of the game get it, you won't be disappointed in your choice, and if you were a 90's kid like you me well a feeling of nostalgia and remembering your youth of the 90's and how popular Mega Man was back in the day.

If I have children and want to know something about video games of the past I will explain to them in detail about Mega Man and what his impact on society, culture, and the video game industry alike have been effected by the little blue bomber by the name of Mega Man.


Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/13/07