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AN
ANNIVERSARY WORTH CELEBRATING
MEGA
MAN ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION
Written By Shaun McCracken
This game was long overdue, at least for me personally. For years, I
have waited for SOME form of a collection of the classic Mega Man games
be it on the Game Boy Advance or any home system. As the number of
compilations grew from companies such as Midway, Namco, Atari and even
SEGA, I wondered when would be the moment when Capcom would whether
crap or get off the pot when it came to giving the Mega Man series a
long overdue compilation, especially after seeing how well the Sonic
Mega Collection did. Well, crapped Capcom did, in the form of the Mega
Man Anniversary collection, which includes nearly every "numbered" game
in the Mega Man series (1-8), as well as a couple of Mega Man based
arcade games that has never been released in America. And all for $30.
Is that a deal? Absolutely, considering that finding Mega Man 7 alone
would cost you more than this collection. But as with all "classic"
compilations, there is really the one big burning question: how well do
they translate, that is, how well are they emulated?
In the past, we have seen many a classic compilation. While the games
included are generally timeless and great in their own right, they can
be horribly butchered by some bad emulation, and that's generally a
concern with any compilation you decide to buy. Sure, things may be
arcade (or console) perfect like the Namcomuseum series or Sonic Mega
Collection, but you can't forget about the poor Sega Smash Pack for the
Dreamcast or badly emulated versions of Midway's games on the GBA.
Luckily, the Mega Man Anniversary Collection arrives on the Gamecube
(as well as the PS2) with very few emulation quirks. It's not 100%
perfect on every game, but it's very damn close to the original.
The NES installments (1-6) of the Mega Man games in the collection seem
to have the best emulation, and that's great. The visuals are nearly
identical (if not a little sharper), the sound is on key (other than
the odd pause when the music loops after 10 minutes or so), and the
control is tight. This is what you expect when you buy a compilation.
Mega Man 7 seems to have suffered the most on the emulation front, and
that may be because it came from Super NES hardware. The visual quality
is very similar, but the music seems to be missing a layer or a
channel. Maybe some might not notice it, but if you've played the
original SNES version Mega Man 7 (like I have), you'll definitely
notice that everything in the music is "not quite there". It's far from
terrible, it's not like Sega Smash Pack here, but it's something I
noticed. Mega Man 8 is pretty much a dead-on port, but it looks like
they opted for the Saturn version than the PlayStation version. I
remember the PS1 version of MM8, and there are small things in this one
I didn't remember. Again, not a major problem. As for the arcade games,
they seem fine, but since there wasn't a US release, there's nothing to
compare it to. Overall, the emulation is solid, if not close to the
level of quality seen in SEGA's Sonic Mega Collection.
For this collection, some adjustments have been made, and it's really
for the better. The best thing this game does is actually SAVE your
progress through each of the Mega Man games you're playing through.
You're granted one save slot for each game to save your progress
(except for MM8, which gives you 3), which means no more passwords.
Atomic Planet did something that SEGA should have done in the Sonic
Mega Collection, and I think that shows that other companies do learn
from other companies mistakes. Another new "adjustment" is the Navi
mode that you can enable for Mega Man 1-6. Here, you are given hints
and the ability to switch weapons using L and R just like you could in
MM7 or MM8. That in itself is handy. Unfortunately, for the Gamecube
version, the Navi mode doesn't include remixed songs that play during
the stages like the PS2 version does. I really didn't consider that a
major thing, since CD-quality remixes would really clash with an 8-bit
look, it just wouldn't match.
The controls are essentially the same within the collection, except
there's one thing that some critics didn't like here. The jump and the
firing buttons are ass backwards. On the NES, jump as assigned to the A
button and fire was assigned to B. Well, on the Gamecube version, jump
is assigned to B and fire is assigned to A. Not sure why that was
decided, but it's something to get used to at first. That doesn't make
this version impossible to play or enjoy. At least you can move around
by either using the D-Pad or analog stick, which gives you a choice
(unlike some games). Some new additions to controls (at least in Mega
Man 1-6), which include a rapid fire button (Y) and a slide button (X).
Rapid fire is actually pretty damn useful here, and it's a nice
inclusion, especially for those who don't own a third party controller
with that function built in. The control problem that jumped out at me
was the way the developer mapped the pause screen for the game you're
playing and the pause screen for the collection. In the past, to bring
up your items screen, you would just press Start. But pressing start
here would bring up the options for the collection itself. To get the
item/weapon screen, you need to press Z. I found that more confusing
than the jump/fire problem that others had. Again, it doesn't make the
game unplayable, it just switches things around from what you
remembered in the past.
As for the extras in the collection, you are given some artwork, song
remixes (the ones I believe were supposed to be the Navi mode), and an
exclusive video feature for each version. PS2 owners were given an
episode of the Mega Man animated series (although I'm not sure from
which era), and Gamecube owners get a Behind The Series documentary
produced by G4. In all honesty, Gamecube owners got the better part of
the deal when it came to features. A documentary actually makes more
sense to include in a compilation, because it tells the back story of a
game. And the one included here is actually pretty good and well
produced (as it should be, as it came from cable network G4). Sometimes
you're given some crappy video documentaries in games, but this one is
one of the better ones I've seen.
Final Thought
It's about time that Capcom released a collection of Mega Man games,
and it was a very wise decision on their part. Before this collection,
you either had to resort to paying up to $50 for just one of these
games or downloading an illegal rom. Capcom finally realized that they
could cash in on games that are not in production anymore, and give
people a legal and cost-effective way to get their nostalgia on. As
great as it is to have Mega Man 1-8 in a collection, you can't help but
pine for the Mega Man X series to be included in the series, or include
other Mega Man titles such as Mega Man and Bass, Mega Man Soccer and
Mega Man Legends. But for the price and the games you get in the
collection, this is a no-brainer. The game play still holds up very
well today, and even though the graphics aren't as great as what we see
today, there is very much still a charm to it. If there was one
collection/compilation to get, this would be it.
.
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Published
By :
CAPCOM
Developed
By:
ATOMIC
PLANET
Year Published :
2004
Players :
1-2
ESRB Rating:
EVERYONE
OVERALL
SCORE
8.7
VISUALS |
8.1 |
AUDIO |
8.5 |
GAMEPLAY |
9.2 |
REPLAY
VALUE |
8.5 |
INNOVATION |
7.5 |
By far one of the best compilations released, even if this version's
button configuration was ass-backwards.
Sonic
Mega Collection
Sonic Gems Collection
Namcomuseum 50th Anniversary Collection
Unless
you hate Mega Man, there really isn't a compilation worse than this one.
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