Articles
A Critical Look at Mega Man 5 Stages: Charge Man
Charge Man's Stage and Music Rembakun is our only enemy for the first section. It flies forward while dropping three bombs, and aims in front of Mega Man. They die in one hit, but are reasonably fast and the bombs deal six damage, so they can be dangerous if we're...
A Critical Look at Mega Man 5 Stages: Crystal Man
Crystal Man's Stage and Music Pukapucker is our first new enemy of the stage. Shooting the feet causes the head to bounce away in the direction it was facing, but taking out the head destroys both. The head is constantly moving and is thus more difficult to hit, which...
A Critical Look at Mega Man 5 Stages: Stone Man
Title Music & Stage Select Music Mega Man 5 gives us a somewhat lackluster intro compared to the last one, this time using Proto Man as Wily's new scapegoat. The Robot Master selection is as ridiculous as always, and Mega Man gets a spot on the screen again....
A Critical Look at Mega Man 4 Stages: Afterword
Mega Man 4 is not a bad game, despite how often I may seem to be calling it such. The main stages flow nicely, the end game stages keep their quality up much longer than previous games, and there were a lot of great new stage mechanics thrown in. We got a full water...
A Critical Look at Mega Man 4 Stages: Dr. Wily Stages 3 & 4
Wily Stage 3 and Music This is the path leading to the teleporter room. As you can see, there's not much to it. This is fine, given that we'll be taking on all the bosses with one set of lives, and rewarding us for pressing against the wall on the third screen but...
A Critical Look at Mega Man 4 Stages: Dr. Wily Stage 2
Wily 2 The first two screens here seem to be missing something. There are four paths to take, with the second one down leading out and the rest leading to death or nothing. I'd have expected an item to snag at the end of one of the lower ones, or an enemy shooting at...
A Critical Look at Mega Man 4 Stages: Dr. Wily Stage 1
Wily Stage 1 and Music Right away, we can see the gimmick for this stage. It is filled with Mets, and only Mets. Despite this restriction, the first few screens offer a good mix of interactions with them. The first two we meet are jumpers. The first one on the next...
A Critical Look at Mega Man 4 Stages: Dr. Cossack Stage 4
Cossack Stage 4 The path to Cossack starts off with some refills, an E-Tank, and a nice view of the night sky. Pakatto and Jumbig are easily dealt with by now, and we've already met both in worse situations. Biree makes another appearance here. This time we'll have to...
A Critical Look at Mega Man 4 Stages: Dr. Cossack Stage 3
Cossack Stage 3 and Music This stage... is an autoscroller. I'm going to be honest here; no matter what I say about the design, I'm always going to hate this stage because I can't stand this mechanic in platformers. It does raise tension for newcomers by adding a time...
A Critical Look at Mega Man 4 Stages: Dr. Cossack Stage 2
Cossack Stage 2 After warping in, we find ourselves presented with a choice of two ladders. It's unfortunate that nothing else of note was done with this room, but the following room is neat. The Minoans will both drop immediately if we take the left path, but Mega...
Looking Back: Mega Man for Game Gear
As part of our celebration of the Mega Man series hitting its 25th anniversary, we are featuring a look back at many of the games of the Mega Man series. This time, I’m looking at Mega Man for Game Gear, the rare, odd game published by US Gold, developed by Freestyle,...
A Critical Look at Mega Man 4 Stages: Dr. Cossack Stage 1
Cossack Stage 1 map and Music Mega Man starts this one waist-deep in snow. The snow decreases his walking speed, but won't affect sliding. We'll soon come to a series of platforms covered in ice, which does exactly what you'd expect it to by now. The contrast between...
A Critical Look at Mega Man 4 Stages: Bosses
Boss Theme Something to note about this game is that the sound of the boss's life bar filling interrupts the music, so you won't hear the part between roughly 0:03 and 0:06 during these fights. Every boss deals eight points of contact damage except for Pharaoh Man,...
A Critical Look at Mega Man 4 Stages: Weapons & Items
Once again we've collected all the weapons and items the game has to offer, so let's try them out. Flash Stopper This is a much more powerful upgrade to Flash Man's weapon, allowing seven uses instead of draining the meter and giving Mega Man the ability to shoot...
Looking Back: Mega Man V
As part of our celebration of the Mega Man series hitting its 25th anniversary, we are featuring a look back at many of the games of the Mega Man series. This time, I’m reviewing Mega Man V, which perfected much of the groundwork laid down by its predecessor while...
A Critical Look at Mega Man 4 Stages: Pharaoh Man
Pharaoh Man's Stage and Music Mega Man sinks into the quicksand slowly, and will die if he reaches the bottom. This takes a long time and the sand doesn't hinder his jumping at all (though it slows his walking speed a little) so it's not a serious threat. The...
Looking Back: Mega Man IV
As part of our celebration of the Mega Man series hitting its 25th anniversary, we are featuring a look back at many of the games of the Mega Man series. This time, I’m looking at Mega Man IV, one of the best games of not just the Game Boy sub-series, but of the...
A Critical Look at Mega Man 4 Stages: Bright Man
Bright Man's Stage and Music Dompan and 100 Watton here have an interesting dynamic. Shooting Watton makes the room dark, but Dompan lets out a burst of fireworks when shot, lighting it again. Both can be destroyed in one hit, and Watton occasionally fires a bomb...
Looking Back: Mega Man III
As part of our celebration of the Mega Man series hitting its 25th anniversary, we are featuring a look back at many of the games of the Mega Man series. This time, I’m examining Mega Man III, the midway point of the Game Boy sub-series and one of the toughest games...
A Critical Look at Mega Man 4 Stages: Ring Man
Ring Man's Stage and Music Our new enemy is Wall Blaster, who fires three shots at a time towards Mega Man and can take five hits. We also get introduced to the stage gimmick the moment we teleport in, as the floor starts to vanish underneath us. It moves from left to...
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