_Mega Man (NES, 1987)
Graphics-7.5 Sound-8 Control-7 Challenge-8.5 Story-6
Level Design-7 Frustration-8.5 Fun-7 Originality-7.5
Overall Score-7
+
Origin of the boss/ability system (gain a modified version of each boss's attack after beating it, each boss is weak to one or more other weapons)
You can replay beaten levels (only reason is to rack up lives and to get the platform creation item though)
Makes you use nearly all of your earned abilities to get through its levels
Some good bosses (yellow devil, ice man, guts man, elec man)
Some special weapons affect the environment (freeze fire pillars, throw boulders)
Create platforms in mid-air with a gained item
Good variety
Good character design
+/-
Bosses take less hits from the regular buster than in later games (makes less of a difference to have the right weapon)
Can't walk on spikes during invincibility time (added in later games)
Unlimited continues
No E-tanks
The platform creating item is a bit overpowered
Off screen enemy respawning (as soon as you scroll the screen away from their spawning point)
Point items (kind of meaningless when the game doesn’t even have a high score table)
Enemy drops disappear after a few seconds
Fairly long knockback
Elec man’s weapon also destroys the large blocks that you can throw using guts man’s weapon
-
Trial & error (forced backtracking if you missed the platform creation item, you need to save certain weapons for unknown occasions or you are screwed, boss patterns (especially fire man), bosses’ projectiles still do damage after they die, spike traps when jumping down to the next screen)
Slowdown and flicker
Some control issues (slight delay before you start moving and mega man floats a bit after releasing the button, very picky hit detection when jumping past the bottom of a ledge, very fast fall speed when moving off a ledge)
No difficulty options
No password save
You can't pause if any of your bullets are on screen
Pausing while on a ladder makes you lose your grip
Some sloppy hit detection (the moving platform enemies – sometimes you’ll fall right through them, other bigger sprites, spikes)
Power ups from enemies disappear if they bounce over the top of the screen
Uneven difficulty (guts man and ice man stages are harder than average, fire man is pretty cheap (spams projectiles and the pattern is hard to read), the yellow devil and the clone are quite tough, bomb man and cut man are easy, fairly easy final boss (with the right weapons))
Most bosses only have one pattern
Level Design-7 Frustration-8.5 Fun-7 Originality-7.5
Overall Score-7
+
Origin of the boss/ability system (gain a modified version of each boss's attack after beating it, each boss is weak to one or more other weapons)
You can replay beaten levels (only reason is to rack up lives and to get the platform creation item though)
Makes you use nearly all of your earned abilities to get through its levels
Some good bosses (yellow devil, ice man, guts man, elec man)
Some special weapons affect the environment (freeze fire pillars, throw boulders)
Create platforms in mid-air with a gained item
Good variety
Good character design
+/-
Bosses take less hits from the regular buster than in later games (makes less of a difference to have the right weapon)
Can't walk on spikes during invincibility time (added in later games)
Unlimited continues
No E-tanks
The platform creating item is a bit overpowered
Off screen enemy respawning (as soon as you scroll the screen away from their spawning point)
Point items (kind of meaningless when the game doesn’t even have a high score table)
Enemy drops disappear after a few seconds
Fairly long knockback
Elec man’s weapon also destroys the large blocks that you can throw using guts man’s weapon
-
Trial & error (forced backtracking if you missed the platform creation item, you need to save certain weapons for unknown occasions or you are screwed, boss patterns (especially fire man), bosses’ projectiles still do damage after they die, spike traps when jumping down to the next screen)
Slowdown and flicker
Some control issues (slight delay before you start moving and mega man floats a bit after releasing the button, very picky hit detection when jumping past the bottom of a ledge, very fast fall speed when moving off a ledge)
No difficulty options
No password save
You can't pause if any of your bullets are on screen
Pausing while on a ladder makes you lose your grip
Some sloppy hit detection (the moving platform enemies – sometimes you’ll fall right through them, other bigger sprites, spikes)
Power ups from enemies disappear if they bounce over the top of the screen
Uneven difficulty (guts man and ice man stages are harder than average, fire man is pretty cheap (spams projectiles and the pattern is hard to read), the yellow devil and the clone are quite tough, bomb man and cut man are easy, fairly easy final boss (with the right weapons))
Most bosses only have one pattern