Mega Man is back… well through this Legacy Collection by Capcom which puts together the six original games in the series, exactly as you remember them. A great way to bring nostalgia back and introduce the blue bomber to a whole new generation, but can Mega Man still hang with today’s icons?
As mentioned earlier, the Mega Man Legacy Collection features the original 6 games and for beginners, it’s a great way to be introduced to this iconic character. Each of the games follows a narrative that culminates in the last title and while the years may have passed and gaming has evolved, these titles still hold the bar when it comes to difficulty… well either that or I really suck at them.
For some reason the whole Mega Man hype sort of passed me by as I grew up, so it was really great to see this collection come out. It’s one thing to know about a character and another to actually play the games they were involved in. While for the most part things play pretty smoothly, you may also get a rare slowdown when the screen is clogged with too many enemies.
For those who have played the games to death, do not worry as there is something here for you also in the form of Challenge mode. This mode includes 50 challenges that remix and mash up stages for Mega Man games. Five challenges are available when you start off and are sure to challenge even the most die-hard fan.
You can also scan your standard Mega Man or Mega Man Gold Edition Amiibo using the NFC reader to unlock 11 exclusive challenges created by the passionate fans. As I didn’t have the Amiibo on hand, I couldn’t test this feature unfortunately, but I liked the idea of involving the community as they are the ones who have kept the character alive.
The Music Player does exactly as it says. Here you can rock out to all the tracks you here from all 6 of the original Mega Man games. How about the Air Man stage from Megaman 2? Or Needle Man stage from Mega Man 3? All your favourite jingles can be found here in all its 8 bit glory.
In terms of using the 3D functionality, there really isn’t much I can say here and quite frankly it doesn’t lessen the overall experience. However if you are one of those people who must have a 3D option when playing games on the 3DS, you can opt to include a border from the menu that pops out when the slider is up… other than that, nothing else uses it.
Last but not least is the Museum mode which is stuffed to the brim with concept art from the series, looking at the enemies, robot masters and even some unused monsters.
The Mega Man Legacy Collection is certainly a blast from the past and with six titles and other features to play with, it’s a sure pick up for long-time fans of the blue bomber. Who knows? If this does well, it may just force Capcom to consider bringing back the character for a whole new entry in the series and not the diabolical version we witnessed in Street Fighter X Tekken… like come on seriously.
