Retro Redux: NES Quest – Mega Man

• Game: Mega Man
• Release Date (North America): December 17, 1987
• Developer: Capcom
• Genre: Action-platformer

I didn’t grow up playing the Mega Man series. The first I ever played was Mega Man II, after downloading it on Wii. My accumulated time with that game probably adds up to less than an hour. Though I have little experience with the series, I do know that, even though Mega Man came first, Mega Man II perfected the formula and is considered one of the greatest video games ever.

Thanks to the hand of fate, however, I ended up playing the original Mega Man first for the NES Quest relaunch. As I’ve mentioned numerous times, even a used Mega Man NES cartridge is pricey nowadays, so I played the game digitally on Wii U. I wanted to avoid using the Virtual Console’s restore point feature, but I ended up using it at two key points, which I will discuss in more detail shortly.

Mega Man was quite a bit of fun, of overly punishing at times. I got to choose, of course, from 6 stages right out of the gate. I assumed it would be wise to tackle the levels in clockwise order, because that’s the direction the cursor went automatically. I began with Cutman’s stage. Several tries and a couple game overs later, I earned Cutman’s weapon, a boomerang-like “cutter”, by defeating him. It wasn’t as painful a process as I expected. As I continued playing, I came to realize that the stages in Mega Man aren’t that large, giving the whole experience a sense of pacing that feels bite-size and somewhat arcade-y. I had to start every stage over at least a few times each, but with each try I became better at the game and that specific stage. I really felt my skills improving. If that doesn’t signify a skill-based game, I don’t know what does.

I had essentially beaten Mega Man when I finally learned that certain boss powers work well against others. These “super effective” match-ups don’t go in order and don’t always make sense. For example, I thought Fireman’s weapon would work well against Iceman. Not so. I used a restore point just before the Elecman fight to experiment and find out which power-up would work well on him. Cutman’s boomerang did the trick.

I also used a restore point to give myself a chance to beat the Yellow Devil. I assumed the game would be beat after this difficult boss fight. When I finally took him down, I did a happy dance. No, seriously. I really did a little dance. I guess that was a bit premature, though, because I was launched into yet another stage directly after.

It was all a bit too much, so I quit the game after that. Thanks to the Wii U’s automatic save feature, I can go back to that stage any time, but I doubt I will do that for a long time, if ever. Still, I’m glad I accomplished what I did in the game. NES games are difficult, but they can really hone your gaming skills.

Coming Next

I’ve already begun to struggle through the first part of another NES game called The Battle of Olympus. After that I’ll play Zelda II: The Adventure of Link; a cartridge for that is on its way toward me in the mail as we speak. What I play after that is, as always, up to you! Leave a comment below voting for one of the following:

• Gargoyle’s Quest II, recommended by Justin Riley
• Metroid, recommended by Erik Abrams
• Super Mario Bros., recommended by Mike Fullam
• Adventures of Lolo, recommended by KevIn