Mega Man Legacy Collection

Genre: Compilation / Action-Platformer

Players: 1, Online Leaderboards

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Review:

(Note: This collection is included in the physical collection Mega Man Legacy Collection 1 + 2, along with Mega Man Legacy Collection 2.)

Mega Man Legacy Collection is a collection of the first six Mega Man games released on the Nintendo Entertainment System, all Action-Platformers with the same basic premise – you are a peacekeeping robot out to take on eight various enemy robots (six in the first game), each with their own elemental theme and thematically-appropriate stage to traverse before you can reach them. Upon defeating one of them, you’ll get a version of their weapon that you can swap to, with a large part of the strategy of these games being learning which order to play the game’s stages, since each robot is weak to one of the others’ weapons. Upon defeating them, you’ll challenge a final gauntlet of difficult stages and bosses before taking on the mastermind behind the threat (usually the nefarious Dr. Wily).

These games are absolute classics of the 8-Bit era, some of the most beloved and influential games of their time, but at the same time they’re also notorious for being “Nintendo Hard”, although thankfully this collection offers some features to mitigate that frustration. As for how each of the games fares today, here’s what I thought:

Game	Genre	# of Players	Grade
Mega Man	Action-Platformer	1	C+
tl;dr While this game still has some quality gameplay, it’s overshadowed by its sequels, and age has really revealed some of its flaws. Frustrating controls that have your character sliding a little when you try to stop, level designs seemingly designed to aggravate players (including a required item presented as an optional one), and some nasty sprite flickering all add up to a game that had some great ideas, but those ideas were clearly done much better in the more polished later games.
Mega Man 2	Action-Platformer	1	A
tl;dr Longstanding fans go back and forth on whether Mega Man 2 or 3 is the better game, but whichever one is your favorite, Mega Man 2 is nevertheless a superb game that improves on the first game in numerous ways, with much better level design, tighter gameplay, more detailed and varied visuals, some of the best music ever featured in an NES game, and a more reasonable challenge level (though still absurdly tough by today’s standards). That challenge level is a large part of what keeps this game from getting an A+ grade – by today’s standards, this game still gets ridiculous in places. However, make no mistake – this is an absolutely must-play game.
Mega Man 3	Action-Platformer	1	A+
tl;dr Mega Man 3 adds a new slide move for added mobility, the new sidekick character Rush the dog, and a more well-rounded challenge level. On top of that, we have even more detailed environments, another legendary soundtrack, and some additional levels after beating the first eight to extend the game’s length using remixed stages and fanservice callback bosses. This game is without a doubt a highlight of the series and a must-play title.
Mega Man 4	Action-Platformer	1	A+
tl;dr Mega Man 4 adds some big changes to the series formula, such as the charged-shot Mega Buster, and hidden optional traversal powers, as well as the less-noteworthy helper character Flip-Top AKA Eddy. While not as iconic as Mega Man 2 and 3, this game delivers just as much imagination and variety, excellent level design, fantastic NES-era visuals and a fantastic soundtrack, and I would argue this is the most well-balanced challenge level in the original Mega Man series. All in all, I’d say this is definitely a must-play entry in this series.
Mega Man 5	Action-Platformer	1	B
tl;dr This is about where I’d say the Mega Man series starts to lose steam. There’s nothing especially wrong with this game, and it does try to do some new things like adding collectible letters strewn through stages to get the new helper character Beat, and changing how Rush Coil works, but many of the stages here start to feel samey, the challenge level feels uneven in places, and the music is largely forgettable. Not bad at all, but definitely a step down from the earlier games.
Mega Man 6	Action-Platformer	1	B+
tl;dr I feel like this game is a step up from Mega Man 5, but not as good as 2-4. The challenge level definitely feels better here, but this game still suffers from the other problems Mega Man 5 had – it’s samey and forgettable, with a disappointing soundtrack compared to the legendary second and third games. Still well worth playing, but not up to par with the true classics.

Despite that the series starts out on a frustrating note of “way too hard by today’s standards”, and ends with games that felt a bit uninspired and samey, overall the quality of this collection is top-notch, with three truly great games, two pretty good ones, and one game that’s still pretty decent if you can forgive it for being a relic of its age.

Thankfully, there’s far, far more to this collection than just the games themselves. Firstly, players have multiple settings to make for a smoother gameplay experience – there’s an optional CPU Speed setting to reduce slowdown (it doesn’t stop the sprite flickering present throughout most of these games though), there are multiple resolution options, the option to play these games in their original Famicom format, and every game in this collection supports a rewind feature and save states – something that is a godsend for those who don’t want to have to re-play stages hundreds of times to burn them into muscle memory so they can actually beat them.

Beyond this, the game offers a wealth of support content in the game’s menus, including a Challenge mode with a selection of remixed sections from multiple stages for players to compete for the best times on leaderboards (with more challenge levels unlockable with Amiibo), a full music select menu, and a huge museum of box art, manual art, production art, concept art, and a “database” detailing every character in each game, their background, and weaknesses.

I should also mention that if you’re looking to buy the physical version of Mega Man Legacy Collection 1+2, be warned that playing Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 requires a digital download, so bear that in mind when deciding which version of the game to get.

As game collections go, Mega Man Legacy Collection is an embarrassment of riches. The games here are largely top-notch, presented with tons of options, and an absolutely massive amount of supplementary content. For a price tag of $15, that works out to $2.50 per game, which is absolutely insane given how good these games are and how much bonus content is included. Heck, even if you ignore the games that aren’t quite must-play, it’s like you’re paying $5 per game for three spectacular games, and getting three other games tossed in with them. No matter which way you slice it, this is a spectacular deal on an incredible package. If you like Action-Platformers, you need to own this collection.

tl;dr – Mega Man Legacy Collection is a collection of the first six NES games in this series of Action-Platformers. Two of these games are absolutely legendary, one is just as good if a bit less-iconic, and the other games here are all at least worth playing. Pair that with an absolute wealth of options and bonus content and a very reasonable price tag and you have an absolute must-have collection that any fan of Action-Platformers should own.

Grade: A+

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