RGR Game #018: Mega Man

The power of Mega Man in the
PALM OF YOUR HAND!

Aww... look at his cute little dangly feets!

Sorry for the many delays, but it's finally time to move on to the next game, Mega Man for the Game Gear. Though Mega Man built a reputation as a third-party mascot of sorts for Nintendo, that doesn't mean he never tried out any other systems. I mean, he's got a remake of the first three games on the Genesis in Europe and Japan (which is called the Mega Drive in both regions, so it's all so fitting). So here we have the Blue Bomber's one and only Game Gear outing, an awkward mix of elements from the 4th and 5th games in the series. The game was developed by a company called Freestyle, but it's definitely got the Mega Man feel down pat.

Thanks to the superior graphical capabilities of the Game Gear, the backgrounds and sprites benefit from increased color palettes, though Mega Man himself looks a bit strange with the extra shading and that little belly button dot he's rocking. Everything is the exact same size it was in the NES games, but due to the Game Gear's small screen, vertical scrolling was added to keep Mega Man in the center of the screen. This can actually make things tricky at times, since a pit of spikes might not quite be visible until you've already fallen into it. The music is all a little off as well, mostly due to differences in the audio hardware. All of Mega Man's abilities survived the port, so sliding and the chargeable Mega Buster are in, as is Rush the Dog in his Rush Coil form. But I found the Rush Coil to be essentially useless, so the one image of him you see below is the only one you're going to see. I just never needed him again.

The game's intro mimics that of Mega Man 4, with a few scenes removed to simplify the story and make it all less sequel-y. After starting the game, we're presented with a selection of four bosses, rather than the usual eight. And they're not much of a selection, with Bright Man from Mega Man 4, and Stone Man, Napalm Man and Star Man from Mega Man 5. But bad robots are bad robots, so we'll take all comers.

AD 200X? So this takes place in the past?

Yep, those are some... uh... bosses.

Arbitrarily-Chosen First Boss: Star Man

Star Man's stage takes place on a space station with limited gravity, so Mega Man jumps unusually high here. Of course, that means that the ceilings are often lined with spikes, as are the floors in several places. The aforementioned vertical scrolling only makes things tougher, but it's easy enough to learn where the spikes are and avoid them next time. There's a good variety of enemies, including gun turrets, robot walkers, and adorable little rocket Metools.

Star Man himself is easy enough, though understanding his patterns and being able to avoid them are two different things. He usually generates a star shield, jumps toward the ceiling, and throws the shield at you, but he'll occasionally stay low and hop directly at you. And he's quick, so you have to be on your toes. Several charged shots from the Mega Buster will take him down, as long as you wait until he's thrown away his current star shield. Defeating him yields the "Crash Weapon", formerly known as the Star Crash.

Pro Wrestling did Star Man better.

The spikes were off-screen until I fell.

Surprise!

Would you just die already?

High five?

Where's your shield now, huh? HUH?

Yes... come to me, power... NOM NOM NOM

It's not really a crash. Or a weapon.

Arbitrarily-Chosen Second Boss: Stone Man

Stone Man's stage looks an awful lot like Guts Man's stage from the first game, with its metal-on-rock construction. But there doesn't seem to be any construction going on here. The stage has several hidden passages which can be opened by shooting certain portions of walls that look a little different. A few areas also contain false walls you can just walk through.

Stone Man's strategy is simpler than Star Man's; he just keeps trying to jump on you. After a high jump, his body will collapse into a heap of rubble, only to reform a second later. He's only vulnerable when he's intact, so his greatest offense is also his greatest defense. The Star Crash only does one point of damage, so at this point, the charged Mega Buster is the way to go. Just wait until he picks himself up after a collapse, and let him have it. Defeating him earns you the Power Stone, or in this case, the "Stone Weapon".

I should've brought my Paper Weapon.

Kids today...

Why all the robot bugs?

Ooh, a secret passage!

Um...

Too bad I'll never get a chance to use this.

I don't like where this is headed.

Platform-jumping robot... Mega Man!

He's good at throwing temper tantrums.

That is to say, you get a stone.

Arbitrarily-Chosen Third Boss: Bright Man

Oh boy. This is where it all went downhill. Bright Man's stage is fairly interesting, with a couple of areas full of light and dark enemies. Destroying a floating bulb enemy causes the screen to go dark, while destroying a little walking enemy causes a small fireworks display that lights the screen back up. Other areas feature long tracks of spikes that can only be traversed by the robot grasshoppers that stand around waiting for you to hop on their backs.

Bright Man would be a simple enough boss, if it weren't for a silly little bug that can ruin things completely. His special power is the ability to stop time, causing Mega Man to freeze in place while Bright Man opens fire on him. Normally, getting hit would cause you to break out of the frozen state, but an unchecked situation can arise if time is stopped as Mega Man is reeling from damage. In this state, Mega Man is frozen in his damage position, and since there's an invulnerability period that lasts until a second or so after Mega Man regains his bearings, it becomes impossible for Bright Man to do any more damage, and you're stuck with no way to fight back.

Somehow, I doubt it.

I could use a Rush Flashlight right about now.

This kind of makes no sense.

Ooh, it'd be nice to have their spike-surviving power.

Here's the first and last picture of Rush. Enjoy!

Super sliding robot? Mega Man!

Mega Man has no time for fireworks.

Ack, some of my pixels fell off!

Is that your threatening pose?

OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW

Fortunately, I wrote down my passwords along the way, since the game doesn't allow you to continue when you run out of lives, so I was able to reset and try again immediately. Unfortunately, the emulator I was using didn't keep track of the reset. See, I've recently started recording my playthroughs so that I can concentrate on the game, and worry about taking screenshots later. But since the reset wasn't included in the recording, this caused a desync that has taken me entirely too long to fix. I've just about got it, so rest assured I'll be back soon to finish this thing up.