16th July 2018, 9:28 PM
The Game Boy Mega Man series is mostly great! MMIV for the GB was the first Mega Man console game I owned, and I really love it not only because of that but because it's an amazing game. MMIV is fantastic, period, with its great gameplay, levels, visuals, music, etc. Just about as great is MMV. I like the original bosses, though some things in it are weird, like the knockback on the full-charge gun, which make me maybe like IV more, though nostalgia might be a good part of that. Third is III, which is an outstanding game but is frustratingly hard; it's a really, really tough game which I liked a lot, but ... maybe it could have been a little easier? It's a fantastic game though and I think it's under-rated. People love to heap praise on V, and often also IV, but III gets overlooked in comparison. It deserves better. Fourth-best is the original, which I've owned since the mid '90s (it was the other GB Mega Man game I owned as a kid). It's a shorter game than its sequels and on a technical level it lacks, as you see with the bad slowdown and such, but the engine, gameplay, levels, and everything else are all there, and are good. It's a tough game, I thought at the time, but it is fun. There may be only five levels, but they all present a reasonable challenge. I wrote a review of the game years ago which is on this site, go read it for more. I gave it a C-something score, so I thought it was alright but average. That's probably about right. I have always kind of liked MMI and still do, it's fun and if I reviewed it now I might give it a higher score than I did then.
Then, worst, MMII is by a very wide margin the weakest of the series on GB, and the worst Mega Man game on either the NES or Game Boy. With zero difficulty -- I beat the game in under two hours the first time I played it in the late '90s when I played my cousins' copy, and was very glad that I wasn't the one who had paid for that game; the worst music of any 8-bit Mega Man game; forgettable stages; graphical issues; and more, MMII is a pretty bad game. What about II do you actually like over 1? Because I can't think of even one single thing except for maybe some elements of graphical design, that it does better. That soundtrack is painful to listen to, the complete lack of challenge makes the game boring to play, etc; it's got nothing. The first game on GB might be annoyingly hard at times, but at least it's a complete game! You got plenty of money for your money there. But anyone who paid $30 for MMII kind of got ripped off.
It was pretty frustrating when Nintendo re-released Mega Mans I and II for the Game Boy in the Million Seller line back in the late '90s... and then didn't do so for the other three. Come on, re-release the good ones, not the disappointing ones! This is why IV and V cost so much.
On the musical front....
MMII, again, sounds terrible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QhHBvBg...1AD21C32A6
How did that happen when the first game sounds good? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGW6MUY7...02F1050329 It's got great renditions of classic songs from the original game, plus some new stuff.
Of course things improved a lot again after II. MMMIV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2hQA1uj6eg
Then, worst, MMII is by a very wide margin the weakest of the series on GB, and the worst Mega Man game on either the NES or Game Boy. With zero difficulty -- I beat the game in under two hours the first time I played it in the late '90s when I played my cousins' copy, and was very glad that I wasn't the one who had paid for that game; the worst music of any 8-bit Mega Man game; forgettable stages; graphical issues; and more, MMII is a pretty bad game. What about II do you actually like over 1? Because I can't think of even one single thing except for maybe some elements of graphical design, that it does better. That soundtrack is painful to listen to, the complete lack of challenge makes the game boring to play, etc; it's got nothing. The first game on GB might be annoyingly hard at times, but at least it's a complete game! You got plenty of money for your money there. But anyone who paid $30 for MMII kind of got ripped off.
It was pretty frustrating when Nintendo re-released Mega Mans I and II for the Game Boy in the Million Seller line back in the late '90s... and then didn't do so for the other three. Come on, re-release the good ones, not the disappointing ones! This is why IV and V cost so much.
On the musical front....
MMII, again, sounds terrible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QhHBvBg...1AD21C32A6
How did that happen when the first game sounds good? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGW6MUY7...02F1050329 It's got great renditions of classic songs from the original game, plus some new stuff.
Of course things improved a lot again after II. MMMIV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2hQA1uj6eg