Mega Man's had it rough. After several cancellations of high-profile projects, many gamers assumed that Capcom hung the blue boy's helmet up for good. And unless you count merchandise and a guest spot in Super Smash Bros., he may as well be retired. However, Capcom, in collaboration with Digital Eclipse, has decided to delve into the robo-boy's past with a $14.99 collection that does the original six NES Mega Man games justice—the Mega Man Legacy Collection, available for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Mega Man Legacy Collection is one of the best retro compilations around, and the best one dedicated to Capcom's foremost, forlorn mascot. Besides the recent Rare Replay , Mega Man Legacy Collection is the closest to a video game equivalent of the Criterion Collection the medium has seen. It's an easy Editors' Choice and one of the best PC games you can play.
The collection is available on multiple platforms, but not the Wii U , which is odd considering that Mega Man debuted on a Nintendo system, and his current incarnation can be found in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS($260.00 at eBay). However, Mega Man Legacy Collection will have a 3DS release at a later date.
In the Year 200X...
In case you missed out on Mega Man over his 27 years of existence and 100-plus game milieu, here's a rundown: You play as Rock, a household robot that's converted into a combat droid by his creator, Dr. Light, because bad guy Dr. Wily's vying for world domination with an army of rogue 'bots. As Mega Man, you jump and shoot your way through levels packed with traps and annoyingly placed enemies to reach a boss, or Robot Master. Each Robot Master has a different power that Mega Man absorbs when he defeats them. You can then use that power against a different Robot Master that has a weakness against that power. It's like Pokémon, or rock-paper-scissors, except you can choose which Robot Master's level to take on in a brilliant display of non-linear gameplay before that even became an industry selling point.
8-bit tunes rock the soundtrack (some of them reminiscent of REM songs) and the graphics, while antiquated, look charming and retroactively timeless in this age of indie games inspired by these very games. And in 920p resolution, the games in this collection have never looked better.
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Why You Should Game on a PC
Mega Man Legends
There are dozens upon dozens of Mega Man games. Legacy Collection focuses on the original six that came out between 1987 and 1993 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. They're some the best 8-bit action games ever made, particularly the first three, and though they all look the same at a glance they feature some distinctions.
The first Mega Man is the most challenging of the classic series, though there are only six Robot Masters as opposed to eight bosses, the series' standard. Simply put, the difficulty is punishing. Mega Man controls a little slippery (he'll still move for a pixel or two when you take your finger off the D-pad), and it's a bit rough around the edges (slowdown abounds), but worth playing to see where it all began.
Mega Man 2 is largely considered the best game in the entire franchise (and one of the best games of all time), and while I don't disagree, it has its share of flaws, like the slippery movement from the first game and an overlong end-game with some un-fun to downright broken bosses (one fight near the end can cause you to restart if you run out of the prerequisite boss weapon). Otherwise, yes, Mega Man 2 is terrific; the music, bosses, enemy sprites, and near-perfect balance of challenge and fun cement the franchise's formula.
Mega Man 3, however, may be even better. The music is just as good, and the boss fights and levels are just as creative. More importantly, Rock loses his slippery movement, so the controls are perfect. The game introduces a slide move, which changes how levels are laid out and gives Rock some much-needed speed. Mega Man 3 is also the debut of Rock's Racer X-like brother, Proto Man, and his Friender-like dog (from the anime Casshern—look, the rabbit hole goes deep), Rush.
Mega Man 4 adds Ninja Gaiden-like cutscenes—a charming addition. Gameplay-wise, the slide returns and the Mega Buster makes its woeful debut. Now Mega Man can charge his default blaster by holding the Fire button to deliver more powerful shots. This lets you take out normal enemies quicker, but it devalues the weapons gained from Robot Masters—the point of the whole series. This dopey, overpowered feature wouldn't go away until Mega Man 9, but the game's still worthwhile for memorable bosses (Pharaoh Man, Skull Man, Frog Man, Dust Man, Ring Man!) and, thanks to a more powerful Rock, some of the friendlier hazards in the series. Mega Man 5 and Mega Man 6 fare better with minor surface additions like Rush Armor, a Gyro Suit, and superior level design.
Rock: Legacy
And the best thing is, the Legacy Collection preserves these games just as they were 22-plus years ago, albeit with a few necessary, modern flourishes. For instance, you can load and save games at any time you want, which is a godsend for the first game. It never had a password system; originally, you had to beat it all in one go.
Additionally, these games run in HD at 920p—quadruple the Nintendo's original 240p. You can set borders with Mega Man art on either side of the screen, or go for pure black. You can also stretch the game into widescreen format or set ugly scan-line filters in case you like to replicate old school CRT monitor visuals.
New leaderboards show the world how quickly you've finished the new Challenge Modes, which are fantastic remixes of areas from each Mega Man game. They're gauntlets of madness that only the best of the best can complete. Challenge Modes are great fun, and with about 50 of them in total, they add even more value to a package that's already teeming with it.
On top of that, there's a comprehensive collection of character and concept art from each game scanned at high resolution. You can zoom in, zoom out, and regale in the original designs of characters like Dr. Light, Dr. Wily, and the rest, and read short biographies on every enemy 'bot in each game. It's basically a digital Mega Man encyclopedia. All that's missing are Criterion-level essays written by the world's leading Mega Man experts.
I suppose if there's a caveat here, it's the absence of the American box art in the selection menu (the game uses the Japanese box art). The American box art is pretty awful, but those things existed and don't deserve to be buried. But if you want to see the American box history in all its messiness, you can view the U.S. art in the Extra section.
Another nitpick: the collection lacks Mega Man 7 through 10, and The Wily Wars, the Sega Genesis remakes of Mega Man 1-3. But, I see what Digital Eclipse was going for with this batch of games. This particular collection is focused on Mega Man's NES titles, which must have been enough of a hell to reproduce. Mega Man 7 was for Super Nintendo, Mega Man 8 appeared on the original PlayStation, and Mega Man 9 and Mega Man 10 were last-generation games. So it makes sense for the NES games to all come in one highly refined package.
Speaking of the NES, Legacy Collection's games are all near-authentic (ability to save instantly aside), so all the slowdown, glitches, and colors are exactly as they were in the original games. There's no video game equivalent of Ted Turner colorization here; the next best thing would be to play the old cartidges on a physical NES.
Note: the mouse cursor does not go away in the PC version. It remains onscreen at all times. If you want to get rid of it, just move your mouse to the side. Otherwise, it's no problem. Just plug in your controller of choice and go to town. Thankfully, Mega Man Legacy Collection does not suffer from the backwards controls found in 2004's Mega Man Anniversary Collection.
For Everlasting Peace (and Preservation)
If Digital Eclipse and Capcom apply their magic to other classics—Street Fighter, Onimusha, Mega Man X—then we could have a bonafide panacea to all those video game preservation problems. At least for a while. Out of all the major companies Capcom is in the best position to become the first (or second, if we're counting the masters at M2, which made 3D Out Run and 3D Streets of Rage 2) Janus Films for video games. Capcom's repertoire is so massive and so revered; it would be a no-brainer. The company could continue to iterate upon Street Fighter and Monster Hunter ($29.99 at GameStop) (and it should, those games are terrific), but it should also take great care of its great library, keeping it alive for future generations. Mega Man Legacy Collection proves that preservation can be done without breaking the bank.
If you somehow missed out on Mega Man over his 27 years of existence and 100-plus game milieu, or simply want to revisit the classic NES titles, there is no better entry point than this collection. And at $14.99, it's a steal. Otherwise you need to download inferior versions piecemeal on the PlayStation Network or Nintendo eShop for four or five bucks a pop. And who wants to do that?
This compilation boasts six classic games, preserved in as-close-to-original form as possible, at a great price. If you never played Mega Man before, this is where to start. If you have, relive the greatness.
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