Mega Man 6 (1993)

I played through every megaman on the legacy collection. Two and Four were both very enjoyable to me. Wasn't as much a fan of Three and I really disliked Five. I was honestly very surprised at how much I enjoyed Six.

All the little things add up

Graphics

It's things like bosses getting a splash of detail and life to their presence when you start a stage. When you beat a stage you get to watch a cool shot of megaman that is more than just the little sprite.

These mind sound like minor graphical updates but those two things are the core of the experience of megaman. How cool is the boss and how cool does it feel to get his power.

Gameplay

None of the powers this go around really wowed me. Lot of reused power types from previous NES era megaman games. But they were actually useful unlike megaman 5's powers which there was about three good ones and the rest were beyond bad.

The real standout here is the Energy Equalizer. This is the single greatest QoL feature in the entire history of the megaman series. It completely changes how you use powers. Normally you end up conserving power usage because it's a pain to refill your powers. The energy equalizer gives power refills to your lowest power which finally lets you run around like you can in more modern megamans really using all of your arsenal.

The second standout is Jet Megaman and Power Megaman. Two of the greatest upgrades to rush in existence. Even some of the modern megamans like megaman 11 are inferior compared to these two powers. They completely overhaul rushes bad system of limited forward flight and springboard. Which also could run out of power. The flight and punch are infinite and are a crazy amount of fun to use.

Level Design

Fantastic level design in megaman 6. Easily the best level design of any of the NES megaman games. It's not even close. It blows all the other ones out of the water by a thousand fold. Power Megaman and Flight Megaman give you all kinds of opportunities to get around and explore different areas. Theres different routes through levels. It's more fun and rewarding to get items. The game can't troll you as much with stupid mechanics.

The mechanics that do exist are fun and engaging, not frustrating! Really enjoyed all the stage gimmicks. Megaman 6 might be one of the most fair megaman games. Not necessarily easy just fair. It's not trying to cheat you out of winning. If you play well you are rewarded.

Jet Megaman yet again comes into play here because elements like falling through spike tunnels don't just cause an instant death your first time like in every other spike tunnel in every other megaman game. Because you can use the flight to slow down some to see which direction you should fall on your first attempt. Brilliant use of strategy with your powers.

Music

Really really enjoyed the music in this one. I'm not sure I would rate it the best megaman music of any NES era megaman game. But the music was definitely great and varied.

Verdict

I didn't even get around to mentioning the bosses themselves. Centaur Man might be one of the coolest Robot Masters in classic megaman. I love that his design is really unique.

I personally rate this one a 4.5 out of 5 stars. Within the context of the NES era. The super nintendo era of Megaman kind of blows the NES era away. But this one easily is worth playing and holds its own really.

Mega Man 6. I'm not familiar enough with all these games to rank them, but this is definitely one of the better ones in the Rockman classic series of games. It's also definitely a bit easier, as others have noted.

Whether or not it's the best Mega Man so far is one thing, but I think it has some of the most top-notch, detailed backgrounds I've yet to see in an NES game.

I think this game is actually the only Mega Man I've played that had ZERO slowdown in any of the parts of the game. This is very noteworthy because even some of the earlier, much-loved titles (such as Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3, common contenders for the title of GOAT) were not free of this problem.

The level for Knight Man is definitely my favorite, with the contrasting chartreuse and purple color scheme. Tomahawk Man's stage is also similarly quite colorful.

Visually, this game is awesome. Palettes are cool, and video effects run smooth. It sounds fantastic as well, and I am somewhat familiar with about half of this music already (I must have played part of the PSX release of Rockman 6 through the Japanese release of Rockman Complete Works before abandoning it, as there were some issues with that release that made me want to experience the original instead).

Level design is also good, in the same tier as Mega Man X with lots of side-paths, shortcuts, and secrets. (Mega Man 6 was developed alongside Mega Man X).

This is also the only Mega Man I think I've played where I was able to intuitively pick bosses in the hopes of gaining weapons that might work against other bosses. In previous games, this seems almost arbitrary, but there was some logic to some of the boss weaknesses in this one.

The game features two 'abilities' you can use with Rush (your robot dog) that are kinda cool. I always thought the little 'jump spring' trick was corny and dumb, so what they did here was, in my opinion, much better. Flying around on the jetpack is especially fun and makes for an interesting break from a gravity-bound platform shooter (particularly fun to use that one in boss battles I found).

There is also a lot of stuff in the game I missed. Similarly to Mega Man X, if you want to fully experience the game, it will take you a while.

I'm tempted to give this one the full five stars that I feel both Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3 deserve. It's arguably the best Mega Man for the NES, beating both those mentioned games with more variety, cooler boss battles, nicer looking levels, better music, better programming. However, it was also made in 1993, and I'm not even going to look up how many Mega Man games were released post-Mega Man 3, but needless to say, it should have all sorts of these kinds of improvements anyway. Most of the new features in this game are also similar to the features that were introduced in Mega Man X.

Despite this, it feels wrong not to give this title a max score since it is indeed a very sharp gem for the NES, plays perfectly, and implements everything Capcom perfected along the way as they made platform action and shooting games, making it an absolute must-play for anyone checking out games to play for the NES.

Thus ends my run of all 6 of the original Mega Man games. I honestly think this one was my favourite. Playing them all chronologically, you can see how they all built on each other, and this was the culmination of the series at that point. I like how they worked in Rush to be completely different than how he was before, and Beat was a little less broken. It was still challenging, but not to the point of complete frustration.

Some people complain that this game felt rushed, but I think it gave it a sense of simplicity. The developers knew what they were doing at this point, and rushed though it may have been, they got a good product out of it.

I also hear people complain about the soundtrack, but I usually play in the library between study sessions, so I don't have volume turned on. Can't comment on it.

As I began the sixth entry in the series, I expected the normal introduction to the game’s plot: Dr. Wily plans on taking over the world, and Mega Man the boy robot has to stop him. The first five games in the series follow this plot, why wouldn’t the sixth? So, when the sixth game started, I was shocked to see something different: there is a tournament featuring all the world’s strongest robots. Eventually, the tournament is taken over by a “Mr. X” (who looks painfully like and is revealed to be Dr. Wily) and is taking control of the robots. The player in control of Mega Man must put an end to Mr. X’s attempts.

Beyond the plot, the gameplay of Mega Man 6 plays typical to the series. Jump button. Shoot button. Get to the end. Gather weapon. Proceed. The specific robot masters in Mega Man 6 came off in desperation. Plant man? Centaur man? Yamato Man? Really?[1]

About a month ago, I viewed you a video[2] of Mega Man fan Colin Moriarty playing through Mega Man 6. I highly recommend it. In the video, Colin explained that Capcom reached out to North American fans through the acclaimed periodical Nintendo Power to request two fan designs for the robot masters.[3] The winning submissions ended up being Wind Man and Knight Man (FN: Knight Man’s theme song is phenomenal). I can’t help but smile at the weird and quirky robot masters in Mega Man 6 more than I do cringe at them with the Nintendo Power contest in light.

The game’s level designs grew with the series, as well. The levels are the most colorful for the NES. I am again impressed by Capcom’s ability to utilize the NES’ technology with each iteration. The level designs featured some interesting components to them that change the series up, but ultimately proved more annoying than they were worth.

I have taken to making a habit of researching the historical context behind each Mega Man game as I have played them. Mega Man 6’s marketing and advertising seemed to be heavily focused around the new “Rush Power Adapter” Mega Man, a power that features Mega Man fusing with Rush to break big blocks with his fist. Another power up was Jet Mega Man, enabling Mega Man to fly! Again I am impressed by the developers’ attempts to move the series forward with new mechanics. They want gamers to truly feel as if they are playing the “sixth game in a series.” These small new details and powers help accomplish that.

I want to take time in my review to remark on the difficulty of the game. For some reason, Mega Man 6 seemed very easy to me. Now my fourth game in the series, undoubtedly I am getting better at Mega Man. The controls seem more intuitive to me. The flow of the game has improved. I am more comfortable with the 3DS in my hand. However, I also think that Mega Man 6 really is easier than its predecessors.

Sure enough, turns out there is data to support this. The game featured more E-Tanks than Mega Man one through five.[4] Further, some remark that Mega Man 6 does not feature as many “cheap traps and obstacles” as the earlier games do.[5] I can’t quite find the quantitative data to support it, but the anecdotal claims are there.

The soundtrack to Mega Man 6 also feels like it is the sixth game of the series. There are a couple fun tracks here and there, but unfortunately I felt the game was “trying to hard” to capitalize on the soundtracks of the previous games. The only track that would make it into my “favorite Mega Man songs” playlist would be Mega Man 6’s Dr. Wily Battle.[6] The track feels great, and I am currently listening to it while I write this paper!

I also feel compelled to remark on the game’s unapologetic racism. As mentioned earlier, the game takes place in a tournament setting featuring robots from various parts of the world. Each robot represents a different country – and goodness, I cringe at the stereotypes. Yamato Man is from Japan. Tomahawk Man, the American Indian chief, is from the United States. Centaur man is from Greece. Flame Man wears a turban, features a stage on an oil development facility, and is from Saudi Arabia. Of course, I understand that the game was published in 1994 and was published by Capcom Japan. Perhaps the game would have looked differently if published by Capcom USA. But even after giving the game the benefit of the doubt, there’s still racism - and that’s not okay. Really not.

Finally, the journey that was Mega Man 6 marketing is fascinating! I am new to the franchise, and simply assumed that NES’ Mega Man 6 came out before SNES’ Mega Man X. However, it turns out that the games were both released at the same time. Not only were they released at the same time, but they announced together, marketed together, and showcased together at the 1994 CES show in Vegas.[7] This is fascinating from a business and marketing perspective, and may help understand some of the contemporary critiques of Mega Man 6.

All in all, I was satisfied with my experience through Mega Man 6, but I can’t write that I was blown away like I was with some of the previous games. New powers, mechanics, and concepts helped to create moments that were fun and innovative, but nothing spectacular or groundbreaking.

[1] Though I did enjoy discovering that Mega Man’s Smash Bros. down smash came from Flame Man! MatthewPatrick13. "Smash History: Mega Man (Super Smash Bros 3DS and Wii U Move Analysis)." YouTube. 2014. Accessed August 10, 2016.

[3]

[4] "Mega Man 6/Items." StrategyWiki, the Video Game Walkthrough and Strategy Guide Wiki. Accessed August 10, 2016. http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Mega_Man_6/Items.

[5] Such as instant death spikes or weird jumps. See referenced forum thread for conversation on topic. "Easiest and Hardest Mega Man Games - Games Discussion - GameSpot." GameSpot. Accessed August 10, 2016. http://www.gamespot.com/forums/games-discussion-1000000/easiest-and-hardest-mega-man-games-27411370/.

[6] GBelair. "Mega Man 6 (NES) Music - Wily Battle." YouTube. 2009. Accessed August 10, 2016.

[7] "Mega Man 6 Development." Wikipedia. Accessed August 10, 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mega_Man_6#Development.