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Mega Man Anniversary Collection

PlayStation 2 - Capcom - Action - E - 1 Player

One common, oversimplified view of the Mega Man series is that the games peaked early on and got progressively worse as the designers ran out of ideas. To some extent this is true. Concerning the series bosses; much like a successful action figure line the creators inevitably ended up repeating themselves. For example; while "Crazy Cowboy" Donatello might be bigger than the earlier model off of which he is based, and might sport more opposable joints, the impact of it all is greatly diminished by the utter lack of originality and cheese factor of the new design. A turtle is still a turtle, whether it's wearing stirrups or not.

This analogy extends beyond the reach of the Robot Masters and applies to the series as a whole. Mega Man one introduced the basic play mechanics the blue bomber would become known for. Mega Man two gave birth to the structure that the series still adheres to today, and spawned many level design concepts that were reused in later titles. Mega Man three and four expanded on what was introduced in MM2, such as introducing Rush to the series and adding the odd move here and there. MM5 was sheer unadulterated brilliance. Most every game in the series offers some twist on an already established concept, however minor that twist may be. But at its very core - much like with that aforementioned Turtles figure- each game in the series remains essentially unchanged. But again, this is an overly simplified and inherently flawed outlook on things that does not account for the fact that playing through each Mega Man game in chronological order has been one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences I've had in a long time. Every once in a while, innovation takes a back seat to the sheer joy of blowing things up.

Throughout each of Mega Man's eight adventures, the game presents you with a choice of which stage to tackle next. Destroy the boss character at the end and you receive said boss’s weapon. Naturally, this can be used with great results against another Robot Master, giving the entire series the feel of an absurdly long game of rock paper scissors. This is a thread that runs throughout all the Mega Man titles. After the initial stages have been completed, a new set opens up that requires you to use all the skills and abilities gained throughout the game up until its inevitable conclusion.

One reason why Mega Man has not changed much over the years is that the games were originally ahead of their time. The original titles, particularly the original trilogy of NES games hold up just as well, if not better than some of the later entries in the series. Mega Man got off to a decent start, and just progressively improved until the fourth game where Capcom stumbled a bit with a dearth of creativity and an iffy-at-best implementation of the charge shot. MM5 got the series back on track, and it wasn't until Mega Man jumped to the Super Nintendo that things started to turn bleak.

The problem with the later entries in the series is that Capcom was trying to deliberately keep the series standing still, as if to differentiate it from the new ‘X' series, which in my opinion was the natural extension of the NES titles. X' injected fresh life into the series by drastically quickening the pace, adding an exploration element to the stages, and revamping the power up system from the original games in the process. However, once Mega Man hit the SNES, all that really changed was the quality of the graphics. Limits were no longer being pushed, and as such, the series stagnated at a rapid rate. However, the thing about Mega Man titles - and something that is easy to forget - is that taken alone, even the worst game in the series is leagues above the average platformer. But when presented with both the series highs and lows in one package, it's not hard to be underwhelmed every now and then.

Taken as a retro gaming collection, Mega Man Anniversary Collection rates as one of the best on the market. If not for the fact that most every game in the series is of such high caliber, then for the fact that MMAC is the only time I can honestly say I would rather play an emulated version of a game over the original that I already own. Taking advantage of the extra buttons offered by the PS2 controller, Capcom added rapid fire, the ability to scroll through your weapons, and a one-button slide to the first few games in the series, as well as an auto save to do away with the archaic password system. Another addition is that the help mode from MM8 is present in all of the titles, helping out in some of the trickier spots and easing new fans into the series. Beating each game in turn unlocks numerous things ranging from original song compositions and art galleries to never-before-released-in-America Mega Man arcade games and an episode of the early 90's tv show.

All in all, if you've ever played a Mega Man game before, you'll know exactly what to expect with this package. There will be no surprises, trust me. But new to the series or not, you owe it to yourself to pick up Mega Man Anniversary Collection.

+/- Starting off rather poor, the quality of the graphics improves from game to game, and takes a drastic jump up in quality for the last two titles.	5.5
++ For the most part, the music is phenomenal. + Ability to hear remixed tracks for some of the games. - Occasionally grating sound effects.	8.9
++ Unstructured order of stages, ‘Rock-Paper-Scissors' weapon mechanics, and some of the most spot on control this side of a first party Nintendo title. If there's any single reason why Mega Man has been around for 15 years now, this is it.	9.0
- While there are some exceptions, the longer the series ran on, the worse the character designs became.	6.0
++ There are ten games in this package, two of which have never seen the light of day in America before. - Whether you can sit through 10 highly repetitive games or not, that's up to you.	7.0
+/- In some respects, 10 Mega Man titles is too much. In others, it's not nearly enough.	8.0
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