Mega Man Anniversary Collection for GameCube Review
- Product:
- Mega Man Anniversary Collection for Nintendo GameCube (company site)
- What’s Good:
- All of the classic Mega Man game-play and graphics.
- What’s Bad:
- Some mediocre later installments, some frustrating game-play.
Back in the day, the Mega Man Nintendo game series stole a significant amount of my youth. Mega Man 2 and 3 in particular. I though I’d try for some nostalgic game-play and see if Mega Man would steal some of my adult life as well.
The bottom line on Mega Man Anniversary Collection is this: if you played and enjoyed the original Mega Man series, you will enjoy this collection. If not, you shouldn’t bother.
Mega Man Anniversary Collection is just that, a collection of all 8 Mega Man games on one Nintendo GameCube disc. You can choose which games to play, and keep saved games independently in each Mega Man installment.
The old-skool graphics hold up surprisingly well.
The first four installments of the Mega Man series are Nintendo classics - second only to the Mario series. They hold up surprisingly well compared to more modern GameCube games. The graphics, sound, and game-play are exactly as they were in the originals.
I hadn’t played anything beyond Mega Man 4 (having grown up by the time Mega Man 5 came out). I was skeptical of the quality of the later games. Mega Man 5 and 6 surprised me by living up to the quality of the 4 previous games. Mega Man 7, however, is where things go off the rails. It reminds me of all of those Land Before Time movie sequels that went straight to home video; just not worthy of their heritage. I haven’t played Mega Man 8 or the other bonus games yet.
The classic game-play is as good as any new game.
The game-play in the originals is engrossing, but also just as frustrating as it was back in the early 90s. If you look up game-play hints online, things are a lot less frustrating - and a bit more fun (does that count as cheating?). To beat some of the bosses, you just have to keep trying over and over - and after a while, it can feel a bit more like work that fun - but it is at least challenging. Also, when you get frustrated with one installment, you can take a break and play another.
So, like I said above, if you played and enjoyed the original Mega Man series, you will enjoy this collection. If not, you should probably steer clear.
Comments
Tedius Zanarukando - September 6, 2004 4:14 pm
I am not going to bother with MMAC. I have a problem with seeing NES graphics on sixth-generation consoles (GameCube, PS2, or Xbox). The old graphics get blocky when ported to sixth-generation consoles, and they look no good on flatscreen televisions. NES games were designed for 13" television screens. If you want to play MMAC, use a 13" screen. I would rather see enhanced remakes, as well as new games that would outclass these old classics.
Obviously - November 29, 2004 10:17 pm
Sure they don't look good Steve... but it's the gameplay that's still there. These games are classics and deserve to be preserved on modern consoles to remind us how far we've come and of what we accomplished with the little technology we once had. If you don't put classic games on modern consoles then the games will eventually dissapear forever. It's all about preservation.
And in any case, these games still far out class the recent Mega Man Crap that Capcom has been releasing, even with the old graphics.