Megaman 1. The beginning of an era
Overview
Here we are. This is the very Megaman (aka Rockman in Japan) game that started a worldwide frenzy for years to come. As Megaman, you run jump and shoot you way past 6 bosses in an effort to stop Dr. Wily from taking over the world. The six bosses are (in order of creation): Cutman – quick robot with clippers on his head that he tosses, Gutsman – big strong looking robot who tosses rocks and shakes the ground which momentarily stuns you, Iceman – looks like an Eskimo who throws ice wedges in threes, Bombman – has a Mohawk and jumps around tossing bombs that only hurt if you’re an inch away, Fireman – has a torch on his head and sends walls of fireballs, and Elecman – looks like a ripoff of Flash but throws deadly bolts. Each robot is weak to another’s weapon. Cutman to Gutsman (2 hits), Gutsman to Bombman (3 hits), Iceman to Elecman (3 hits), Bombman to Fireman (7 hits), Fireman to Iceman (7 hits), and Elecman to Cutman (3 hits).
Graphics 9/10
The graphics seem ok. The colors are a little too bland for my taste but not too bad. I like the colors that Megaman has when he equips a boss’s weapon which he obtains by beating the boss first. The stages are well designed. They fit according to their robot master and everything related.
Gameplay/Controls 8/10
The controls are very simple. What is good is if you think you jumped to far, you have time to steer yourself back in time in most situations. There’s also that oh so famous select button cheat where if you fire a weapon each time you hit select to pause as the weapon hits then unpausing it will cause the same weapon to hit again as it passes through the enemy everytime the game is unpause. I beat the game easily with this method. Gameplaywise, this game was a real challenge, the first Wily boss who will make a whole lot of appearances in future Megaman games is a pain. Out of the regular series Megaman 1 was the second hardest to beat. I had to take points off lack of password feature because that woulda really made the game more exciting and also for the points feature, if they were gonna get rid of the point feature in later games, why put it in Megaman 1 to begin with?
Sound/Music 7/10
The soundtrack is so-so. The only theme that really wasn’t good IMHO was Gutsman’s. It was too redundant and too short. The rest of the robot bosses on the other hand were awesome. Fireman and Iceman’s fit their stages to a T, that a person who never played Megaman, could tell what the stage was about according to the music (of course, I do that with other videogames too.)
Replay Value 10/10
I can play Megaman games all day and all night and this game is no exception. I just get a kick out of shooting the bad guys and using the bosses’ weapons. Most Megaman games never get old including Megaman 1 itself.
Overall 9/10
Megaman 1 is just the beginning. I bet Capcom didn’t know how well Megaman would grow until after Megaman 2 came out when people couldn’t get enough of him. When it comes to the original, Megaman 1 proves it can hang with the rest.
- By Tora Kouhi
