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It all starts here

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: November 13, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Before appearing in hundreds of sequels and spin-offs, Mega Man made his first appearance on the NES over 15 years ago. Coming out at a time where the platforming genre was booming due to the success of Super Mario Brothers, Mega Man had it's share of qualities that made it stand out from the rest. The graphics were colorful and detailed, the music was cool, and the gameplay was top notch. The game also gave the player a choice as to which stage they wanted to play. Each of the bosses had their own distinct world which included environments, enemies, and traps unique to that world. But what really made this game a standout from the genre was the ability to gain a boss's ability after defeating them. For instance, beating Cut Man would give you the ability to throw scissor-like boomerangs, while defeating Elec Man would give you the power to shoot electric beams in 3 different directions. The way you used your accquired powers also brought a strategic element to the game, for using a particular weapon against a boss could kill them with a few hits. For example, Fire Man was weak against the Ice Slasher and Guts Man could be defeated with a few hits from the Hyper Bomb. The storyline in the game is basically the same in later Mega Man sequels; stop Dr. Wily and his robots from taking over the world. Although this is the only Mega Man game to feature just 6 bosses instead of the standard 8, it is still a tough game to beat. In fact, it might be the hardest game in the series. There are no energy tanks to collect so you will have a hard time in some areas, especially Dr. Wily's castle. There is also no password feature so be prepared to beat this game in one sitting. And while the control is good for the most part, Mega Man has a tendency to slide just a little bit before coming to a stop, but it can be enough to throw you off balance at times. Overall a good beginning for the Mega Man series, but Mega Man II and III are much better games due to better graphics and sound, more bosses to face, and the inclusion of password features.

Different, yet good

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 25, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game differed from most of the other games (except number 2) in that it was a fighting style game, not a platformer. You could charge, but Rush was not in this game. The health monitor allowed you to take very little hits, but the bosses had no invicibility period (BIG flaw). Although this would have made the game harder, that would just have made it challenging to the point of absolute impossibility. There are 3 characters in this game: megaman, who you probably know about; Bass, a Wily robot gone rogue; and Protoman, the HIGHLY underused and incredibly cool prototype.

Childhood memories

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 02, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I was in the 6th grade when I first played Megaman (in 1988). This one was different from most games of the time for two reasons: A) You could pick which stage to go to! and B)you were able to obtain your opponent's weapons! Those two factors more than any others are what made megaman a winner.

The premise:

Dr. Wright's partner (in the other games he's known as Dr. Light) Dr. Wily goes mad, steals the industrial robots they created together, attempts to reprogram "Rock" who resists programming and left behind to be found by Dr. Wright. "Rock" volunteers to be transformed from (I think he was a butler or something) into a fighting robot: Megaman, thus Megaman begins his very, very, very, very, very loooooooooooooooong journey to bring Dr. Wily to justice.

Game play:

For its time, the original megaman had superb game play. The ability to selct which stage you wanted to tackle, the ability to use the vanquished robot masters weapons and indeed, the ability to go back to the stage you defeated and defeat the robot master again all contributed to the superb game play of megaman. These factors actually make it superior to megaman 2 and 3 where you cannot return to any previosuly beaten stage. Even in subsequen megamans where you can return to beaten stages, you cannot refight the vanquished robot masters.

Also, you can pause this one with the select button, which is something of a trick because you can defeat difficult enemies by pausing and unpausing repeatedly. Unfortunately, when you go to the subscreen, or unpause when you're on a latter, megaman lets go (well, he doesn't just let go, he shoots down a couple of rungs).

Another thing pertaining to gameplay that's different about this one is the scoreboard. You collect points for defeating enemies. The amount of points set for defeating robot masters is generated randomly, while the price on Dr. Wily's head is set squarely at 200000 points. It's a nice touch that's lost on the later games.

Pluses:
-First Megaman game.
-Good play control.
-The special weapons are cool.
-The music is good.

Minuses:
-No save or password feature.
-Replay value limited.
-Megaman likes to fall off of latters in this one (for example, when unpausing the game or selecting a special weapon from the subscreen).
-Graphics by todays standards are not so good (but at the time were tops).

Conclusions:

A good game. Probably worth a look if you're curious about where it started. The rock monster (of which incarnations are found in Megaman 3, 8 and X5) is extremely difficult in this installment. They didn't go over the top with this one. Later with all of the skull castles and castles in general got to be too much. In this one you battle your way through 'monsteropolis'. Better than megaman 2.

Mega Man's first adventure and a pretty good game, if a little rough around the edges

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: October 31, 2007
Author: Amazon User

When Capcom released MEGA MAN (or ROCKMAN in Japan), they could have had little idea that they just launched their biggest franchise, nor would it be possible for the buying public to realise this character would go on to become the most prolific game character ever.

His first game, an action platformer from 1987, famously introduced the concept of chosing your own order in which to beat the stages. Not only that, when you defeat the boss of that level, you get his/her powers, and can use these powers against other robot masters. While the weaknesses had some logic in them in the first three games, as it is based off the game Paper, Rock, Scissors, the further we got along in the MM series the less that analogy really worked (seriously, why is Tomahawk Man in MM VI weak too ?). While the game itself is pretty linear, MM still gave the players a rather remarkable sense of freedom in the 1980s. While the concept has since been beat to death, if you're from that generation of players you can't help but appreciate MM's rather daring game play. But that doesn't mean it's a perfect game. Not by a long shot.

The game has some of the most notorious cover art in video game history. The cover art has absolutely nothing to do with the game, and Mega Man looks like a forty five year old man holding a gun in some bizarre futuristic place.

Like most franchise that began in the 1980s (Castlevania, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Ninja Gaiden, Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and several others), this first game may seem a little bit rough compared to later installments. While arguably SMB could be released in today's game market with little or no changes, games like Metroid, the first Zelda, and this title would never be released without some significant revisions. Metroid has no automap, and you're left wondering around this labyrinth maze with little or no direction where to go. Zelda has the same issue, though instead of a maze it's a large overworld, and it's damn near impossible to find all its secrets without referring to some type of map or game guide, which in the 1980s were hard to come by if you didn't have a subscription to Nintendo Power (the essential gaming magazine of the 1980s). Metroid is a particular favorite of mine, particularly for the lack of auto-map, but for those professional critics who criticize its game play, the original LEGEND OF ZELDA is just as unforgiving and obtuse at times. Still both are great games.

Mega Man is the same way. There [are undeniably some great parts to the game, but it's a little rough around the edges by today's standards, like most games of that era]. Overall, the game's difficulty is rather high, especially in the last stages. And, like Zelda II, the game difficulty also has just some plain cheap shots to it. If it weren't for the Magnetic Beam, I would probably never get past the last half of the Ice Man's stage (which involves jumping from platform to platform, dodging shots). You can be standing directly on the platform, in the dead center, get shot and get knocked off or fall through to your instant death. Even with Mega Man's infamous recoil he should be knocked that far back. Guts Man's roving platforms at the beginning of that stage are also rather notorious.

Speaking of the Magnetic Beam, all six NES titles have special items that you must use to further advance in the game. From MMII on, you would get said item after defeating a particular robot master. In this game, however, the item is in plain view in the Elec Man stage, though you must have defeated Guts Man and use his weapon to throw away the blocks that keep Mega Man from getting the item. You may or may not pick it up. But here's the trick. You must have it to get past a certain area in the opening stage of Dr. Wily's castle. The game is rather cheap like that.

Other difficulties include lack of Energy Tanks as well as no password feature. That means every time you turn on the game you must start all over. Now, this problem has since been alleviated with the game's release on the MEGA MAN ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION. But if you're playing on an original NES, well, good luck.

Back in 1987, most gamers were still going for high scores, and so MEGA MAN, the only game in the entire (massive) franchise to do so, has points and keeps score. Anyone who gets a high score on this game I do admire, as when you run out of lives you die, and given the game's difficulty, you will end up losing your accumulated score quite often. Still, there's no high score keeper, and you don't get anything for high points. Overall, this feature feels much more like a relic of its time, and very much feels like the high score feature was simply tacked on to an already existing game. The high score serves no real function, and Capcom wisely disregarded it when they made MEGA MAN II.

The game also features different graphics for the health powerup and the weapon powerup. These items graphically are the same for MM2 to MM6, but in MM1 they appear totally different. The game also features an exclusive item to the series, a powerup called the Yashichi. It only appears once in the last stage of the game. Capcom used the item in other games in that same era.

[Throughout the series, if Mega Man is hit by an enemy, he becomes temporarily invincible to further attacks. From Mega Man 2 on, this invincibility would even protect Mega Man if he fell onto spikes. However, in the NES version of Mega Man 1, that is not the case. While the temporary invincibility is featured in this game, it will not prevent Mega Man from perishing if he falls onto spikes. This aspect of the Mega Man 1 play mechanics contributes greatly to the game's overall difficulty.

Also, for the six NES games, MM1 is the only one that makes the player fight enemies after reaching the Robot Master's lair. In the other five installments, once Mega Man reaches the Robot Master's room, Mega Man goes into a short passageway into the next room to fight that particular level's boss. There are no enemies in these passageways, and are only one screen long. However, in MM1, the corridors are longer than one screen and there are enemies to contend with when bartering passage to the Robot Masters. These corridors might have been leftovers during development, during which Capcom originally was going to release the game on the Famicom Disk System. The corridors would have been used as "loading tunnels", allowing the disk to be accessed and load up the boss fight without any major pauses in the action. In the end, Capcom switched to cartridges instead, but the tunnels stayed, anyway.

Mega Man 1 is also the only NES Mega Man game that makes the player climb up or down once he or she reaches the inner chamber. In Elec Man's stage, the player must climb up a ladder to reach his lair; in Bomb Man's stage, the player climbs down a ladder (or falls) to reach his lair.

At the end of every NES Mega Man game, the player must fight the game's Robot Masters a second time before going to the final showdown with Dr. Wily. MM1 is the only game that spreads these fights across two separate levels (Mega Man must fight Cut Man and Elec Man on Wily Stage 2, and then has to fight Bomb Man, Fire Man, Ice Man, and Guts Man on Wily Stage 4). MM1 is also one of the only two games in the Classic series (the other being Mega Man & Bass) that does not allow the player to select the order in which to fight the Robot Masters a second time. In Mega Man 2 through 6, after defeating each Robot Master the second time, a large energy pellet appears. In Mega Man 1, these do not appear, making the last stage considerably difficult.

Starting with Mega Man 2, the player is shown a visual representation of Dr. Wily's castle (or, in Mega Man 4, 5, and 6; Dr. Cossack's castle, Proto Man's castle, and Mr. X's castle, respectively, with Dr Wily's castle following each). Each stage is a dot on the map, and when Mega Man beats one stage and goes to the next, this progress is shown on the map. Mega Man 1, however, does not have this feature. In the PSP remake, Mega Man Powered Up, it can be seen as the player loads one of four final levels, and is named "Castle Wily". Mega Man 1 is also the only game where the player selects Dr. Wily's stage and he appears like the Robot Master with the clear points listed next to him.

This section in brackets drawn from Wikipedia. I wrote these sections in that article, however.]

I can proudly say that I have beaten this game, but only once. The last stage on Dr. Wily is absolutely brutal, and the last fight with those four bosses back to back extremely hard. Without the pause trick I don't know how people do it. And the Yellow Devil is a nightmare as well. Still, I beat the game (this one's harder that LOST LEVELS any day).

Of all the six NES games, this has the most old-school feel to it. Other installments to the series feel much more refined and much more polished. This title, though, feels like it stands along the ranks of Zelda, Metroid, Ninja Gaiden, and Mario for that old-school, mid 1980s gaming goodness.

Despite its difficulty, this is easily one of my favorite NES games. The game has proven to hold up remarkably well, despite the rough edges, and it is only by tinkering with the game engine slightly (by lowering the difficulty and introducting a couple new features) that Capcom introduced the masterpieces MMII and MMIII. But the foundation for those games was all here.

Overall, this is the worst of the original Mega Man trilogy. Still, a legendary start, and rightly so.

This is my order of Mega Man NES titles from best to worst. II and III are the best, though I give a slight edge to II because this is the game that really redefined the Mega Man formula, but III is just as good, and probably better. IV and V are about the same as well, though neither approach the sublime quality of the first three.

MEGA MAN II
MEGA MAN III
MEGA MAN
MEGA MAN V
MEGA MAN IV
MEGA MAN VI.

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