Skullbuggy's Completely and Totally Honest Video Game Reviews (Among Other Things)/vg2

Overview

Video Game Review #2: Mega Man 6

- SR - YOU GET SCATHING REVIEW!

Transcript

What it is, my dogs? Welcome once again to

SKULLBUGGY'S COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY HONEST VIDEO GAME REVIEWS (AMONG OTHER THINGS)

I'm Skully B., and today's review is of a classic game that

I personally love. Mega Man 6, for the Nintendo Entertainment System, was the last of the 8-bit Mega Man titles, and in my opinion one of the best.

It starts off with Dr. Wily in prison once again. Nobody has heard a peep from him since Mega Man 5, so things are cool, right? Some people deem that it is, in fact, cool, so they start up a robot tournament. Robots from around the world attend, and the whole thing is being sponsored by a mysterious Mr. X.

I WONDER WHO THAT COULD BE HMMM

Spoiler: it's just Dr. Wily. Ho-hum. He somehow broke out of prison and took eight of the robots captive. Now he's sending them after--guess who--Mega Man! Mega Man and Scooby Doo Rush have to take care of the robots and the mysterious Mr. X Dr. Wily in their most rambunctious adventure yet!

After five games, the guys at Capcom were starved for ideas, so they had a contest where kids made up Robot Masters. Considering the things the kiddies came up with, I'm guessing it was either these or every other Guts Man recolor. Allow me to, because I'm anal about descriptions, talk about each of the Robot Masters.

The first, Tomahawk Man, is exactly what you think--a robot injun Native American. He attacks using his feathered headdress and a spinning tomahawk. His lair, a giant steampunk/Wild West crossover, is interesting, to say the least. I say this because it has a couple branching pathways, only accessible by different suits. Suits? I'll go over that later.

Knight Man, a jolly old Brit as we are to assume, makes his lair in an ancient castle, referred to in the game as a "scientific facility". They probably called it that because I'm guessing they would get a lot of letters had they named it Westminster Abbey. But I don't know a damn thing about castles. Knight Man uses a mace, and has the lovely gimmick of being invincible from the front. Without a certain weapon, it takes a couple minutes.

I've gotta ask--what were they thinking when they made up Centaur Man? He's a half-man, half-horse, half-robot thing. Or is it half-man, half-horse robot? Whatever. He uses some weird weapon the game calls the "Centaur Flash", which means centaurs can bend time and space I guess? I'm guessing they needed a screen-wide attack and they gave it to the one Robot Master who was awkward enough to have it. Fun fact: in Mega Man: the Power Fighters, Centaur Man has an attack called "Centaur Arrow", one that makes a hell of a lot more sense. Oh yeah his stage is in Greece or something whatever.

Flame Man is the standard Arab pyromaniac Robot Master of the game, and by God he will drive that point in with his pointy shoes. His stage is filled with oil pits that seem harmless at first--until, of course, they light on fire, taking you with them. As a boss, he's unremarkable--he just seems like a Arabian copy of Heat Man. He does have rockin' desert tunes in his stage, though.

Plant Man is a wuss. His stage is all flowery and grassy and WAIT ITS A GIANT GORILLA ROBOT AND PIRANHAS AND BEETLES AND ARRRRGH

In reality, Plant Man has one of the more challenging stages, and one of the better tunes in the game. As a boss, he just jumps around and tosses flower petals at you. It's just slightly better than Wood Man's attack, but not by much--at least it doesn't fly off of you when you move. Oh and there's this one enemy that you can't hit with your normal buster and it keeps hopping into you and AHHGHGH but that's another story.

Wind Man is fat and has a bath plug on his head according to my brother Nalos. His stage is up in the air, and you know what that means!

BOTTOMLESS PITS

And lots of them. There are also pandas for some reason because obviously they live in the air in giant metal structures? But more about the boss. Wind Man shoots little helicopter blades, tries to suck you in using GALE FORCE WINDS HRMMM and tries to land on you. Beating him nabs you the Wind Attack, which is exactly as lackluster as it sounds.

Blizzard Man is a giant snowball on skis or something. His stage has lots of ice and seals and a submarine. He shoots snowflakes at you. Bleargh.

Yamato Man, who is Japanese apparently, lives up in the mountains of NI-PON~! I'm sure Im a bell is drooling right now, but this is less about fanboys and more about the game. Yamato Man attacks with a spear that frequently breaks, which leads me to wonder how long it takes him to realize his weapon sucks. Whatever, you get the one attack that can pierce Knight Man's stupid shield, so yeah.

Now that I've finished talking about Robot Masters, let's talk about the rest of the game!

The music is spectacular, like all Mega Man games. The tunes give you a feel for the environment of the level, and despite being bleeps and bloops, they still remain popular today. My favorite track, remixed or otherwise, is Tomahawk Man's track. It really does evoke a sense of western-ness, if you can call it that. Another track that ranks high is Plant Man's stage.

The graphics are standard NES-era Mega Man fare. Nothing really special about them, but it does evoke a feeling of familiarity. Plus they're not that chunky MM7 crap, so that's another win for MM6. The environments are well-made, too, so I like that.

The challenge has been considerably toned down from past Mega Man games. Compared to Mega Man 2 or 3, Mega Man 6 is quite easy. But that's not a bad thing! This could be a good game for beginners to start off on--then they could work their way on to harder games.

All in all, Mega Man 6 is a solid game. However, it might be best enjoyed if you're a die-hard Mega Fan... like I am. SHAME, SKULLB.

SHAME.