Hey, at least I finished it this year. Also, I think this is the first review I've ever made with proper audio balancing. I'll probably fix the peaking in the next video.
Megaman 4 was MY FIRST Megaman game back in 1994. And still, one of my most beloved games of all times. Though my favorite of the classics is 6, this one has a very special place in my heart, because I knew these series thanks to this game. This is the only one I have a Japanese original cartridge! So I agree with you in everythig! Waaaay better than 2 (that was the last one I played from the NES ones). Excellent video!!
4 is where it all comes together. Its presentation is more polished and game feels more robust than the earlier installments. I remember this being my favorite.
Cossack is mostly just mentioned in lore bits. In 5-6, he's the one who makes Beat for you. In 11, Tundra Man's manufacturer is listed as Cossack Labs iirc
Glad to see someone recognizing Mega Man 4! I may be biased since Mega Man 4 was my first and a very important childhood game to me, but as you said it's often overshadowed by 2 and 3 when I feel it's honestly a solid improvement over both. I will say I do like how Cossack being essentially a victim is handled here, especially how in the two stages before fighting him, the game subtly starts communicating that something isn't right. Particularly, the music track Siberian Dream that plays during the latter 2 Cossack stages is rather effective, it's dire and melancholy sound is just unsettling enough to convey "Something is wrong, what's going on here?" It's not the most effective twist, and Cossack had more potential as a character, but I do like what we got. (And hey fun fact, did you know Beat, the robot bird who helps you in later games, was built by Cossack? Beat is essentially his way of apologizing for the trouble.)
Apparently the upgraded buster in 5 is also Cossack's doing. He had to substitute for Mega's home base in 5 since Dr. Light had been kidnapped- another way for him to make penance.
I'm so glad one of my favorite games of all time is finally getting the recognition it deserves. Not just from you, but from hundreds of others! My other favorites in my Top 5 are 7, 11, X1, and Legends 2.
I agree. I had a BLAST beating MM4 the other night. Bright Mans level is frustrating to me toward the end. Phaoroh Man IS my favorite robot master in the whole series.
This was the first Mega Man game I beat without seeing any guides in a gaming magazine or any help from friends. The first one I beat going into it blind and it was blast back in 1991 and it's still a blast now!
Fresh off the Legacy Collection, I can't say I agree. It's still a kickass NES game but I'd say it's about middle of the line when viewed as part of the classic Mega Man series. The stages are on the easy side (except Ring Man if you don't know what to expect), not that that's a bad thing. Just a bid jarring when you're coming from the previous games, which you most likely are. However, while E-Tanks aren't lost upon getting a Game Over (like in Mega Man 3), they _are_ lost upon resuming a game via a password. Removing such a quality of life feature introduced in Mega Man 3 only artificially lengthens play sessions (for newer players) or just encourages farming for E-Tanks on Skull Man's stage (for experienced players). This just makes the nifty ability to replay stages that you've beaten seem like the solution to newly introduced problem. I don't find the stages to be as replayable as Mega Man 2's stages. In that game, there were goodies tucked away that you couldn't get without Items 1 or 2 or the Crash Bombs. This made replaying the game more varied if While the Mega Buster is iconic, it takes less time to kill enemies by spamming 🍋🍋🍋lemons than it does with a fully-charged shot and I found myself barely switching to different weapons. Some of the weapons don't feel distinct enough or are just rehashed from past games with a small twist (Skull Barrier -> Leaf Shield but purely defensive; Pharaoh Shot -> Atomic Fire but with optional diagonal aim; Drill Bomb -> Crash Bomb but with optional manual detonation, Flash Stopper -> Time Stopper but actually good this time). The two enemies I disliked were the Mono Roaders (if you miss the initial window to kill them, it's really hard to avoid getting hit, sometimes more than once), the Sasoreenu (the entire quicksand section is a complete mess without Rush Jet, much like Heat Man's Item 2 section) and the Shield Attackers (only due to their placement, they're fun to fight). Everything else is fine. The robot masters are either too easy to get in an AI loop (looking at you Toad Man, Bright Man and, to an extent, Drill Man) or put out insane pressure with speedy attacks (mostly Ring Man and Dive Man, somewhat). The castle bosses are either pretty easy (for Wily Machine 1, you don't even have to jump to hit it) or pretty cheap rather than hard (the ones that are immune to most weapons, like Wily Machine 2 and the final boss). At least it's not atrocious like Mega Man 2's Boobeam. Look at how they massacred my boy! Rush Jet has little use outside where it's obviously required but, on the other hand, Rush Marine can now fly in the air ✈when the water lowers in Dive Man's stage. I find the music to be good but nowhere near as badass as Mega Man 2 and 3's absolute bangers, or as plain catchy as Mega Man 1's humble soundtrack. I personally dislike the plot twist, if you can even call it that. I guess it might have worked back in '91 even though Dr. Wily was totally a good guy in Mega Man 3, but playing while knowing it's coming feels like a filler episode. Nitpicks aside, I found Mega Man 4 to be a pretty solid game in the classic series. Nothing outstanding but nothing frustrating either. Nothing to make me go "Yeah, baby! Time to replay Mega Man 4!" (like 2 and 3), and nothing to make me go "I am never touching this game again. Thank God it's over!" (like Dr. Wily's Revenge) either.
I really appreciate the amount of time and thought that went into this comment. I agree that the E-Tanks and Wily Stage bosses were minor issues, but they definitely weren’t a significant enough detriment to my experience with the game that I found them worth mentioning. I can see why a lot of people take issue with the bosses being easily exploitable, although, boss fights are almost always my least favorite part of a platformer game, so I’m not exactly complaining when the game makes them easier. I don’t remember if I mentioned this I’m the video or not, but this is the only Mega Man game where I can beat all the bosses with just the buster without too much trouble, which I really like since it allows me to do the stages in any order. There are only two things I’m going to fully disagree with. The first is comparing the Crash Bomber from 2 to the Drill Bomb. If I remember right, the Crash Bombs were so buggy that they usually didn’t work, and even when they hit they did pitiful damage. Also, I disagree that spamming the uncharged buster shots is the fastest way to take out enemies, because I also believe that is the Drill Bomb, which usually does more damage than the charged buster and can be spammed nearly as fast as your regular shots. I will never turn down an opportunity to stand up for the Drill Bomb, as I feel it’s one of the most underrated weapons in the series.
many people say that MM2 was the true start of the series, but in my opinion i’d say that game is MM4, it was the first game in the series that feels fully realized, the previous games had a quite the number of problems, the first one has punishing level design, MM2 has no idea what weapon is weak to which robot master, the wily stages suck and MM3 is unfinished. MM4 however, perfected the controls, weapons and level design, this is my 2nd favorite classic Mega man game (my favorite is MM5)
I was planning on doing a stage ranking of all the classic mega man games in the future, but there are a few other videos I’d like to make first. Beyond that, I’m sure I’ll review many of the games in the series and/or do a ranking of them.
The single best thing in MM4, which is my favourite, is Cossack. The stage design and music were great, and "plot twist" was still fresh, better than those empty rehash Doc Robot stages.
My first and still my favorite for all the reasons described. It's also one of the hardest which could turn some people off, but the difficulty is alleviated if you use the boss weapons right, and you can start the chain easily if you target Toad Man first. They had to give him a major design weakness since his rain is unavoidable if he actually uses it. It often feels like Mega Man 2 with the worst/glitchy parts of it fixed (no Buebeam Trap, yay!). I also really like the intro cutscenes and the melancholy music when the city is under attack. Great NESplosions.
When I wanted Mega Man 2 on the NES, I got Mega Man 4 instead. I'm glad I got Mega Man 4. When I've played Mega Man 2 later on, OMG!! When you get a Game Over, your Energy can disappears. Mega Man 4 allows you to keep farming Energy cans before proceeding to another thing. IIRC, Even if you get a Game Over in Mega Man 4, you can still keep your Energy cans. If I didn't get Mega Man 2 on the NES, I got it for the Gameboy. Different but still fun. Oh yeah. I recently got Rockman Classic Collection on the Switch when it was on Sale. Planning to play Rockman 4 soon.
My favorite Nes 🎮 with the best cut scenes is Ninga Gaiden 3! Wow! This is my favorite 🎮 to play on my Nes and I just finished it today and the ending was fantastic!
I've recently played through Mega Man 1-10 for the first time, and I'm honestly with you on 4. It's my personal favorite classic series game and probably my fav NES game too! Even though my first playthrough of it was a little rough, replaying it more and improving at it has made me appreciate it a ton. My two favorite things about the game was definitely the stages and special weapons. Like you said in your video (I'm pretty sure), there isn't a single bad level or special weapon I can think of. Ring Man probably had my favorite stage since I enjoy finding easier ways to beat all the mini bosses as well as the fun level gimmick. Picking a favorite special weapon is hard, but I'd probably go with the Pharaoh Shot since it's a mix of the charge shot (but better) and the Metal Blade (but not as OP). I especially love that it has a hitbox above Mega Man as it's charging, which I like to use for the falling rocks in Drill Man's stage. I could ramble on about how much I love 4, but I don't wanna make this comment too long lol. I actually rarely ever comment on youtube videos, but I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed the video! Excited to see more videos from you in the future. :)
My favorite is *MM3.* My friend growing up owned a NES and we kept borrowing 2 and 3 all the time until they decided to just donate the games to him. 4 is really good, but it doesn't have the music. I think skullman's stage is boring, and bright man is too dorky. But I can agree that it is overall a very balanced game, and that the charge shot is not as overpowering as in MM5 or 6. It improves the gameplay from MM3 but it lacks the music and the character design for bosses and enemies are a little bit worse.
4 has been my favorite game of the series since I started playing the entire series, eventually landing all the classic NES games, Game Boy games, SNES games (including Rockman and Forte, aka Mega Man and Bass), including the X series on the console, Mega Man Soccer, Rockboard Famicom, Mega Man 8 PS1 US and Japanese Saturn version, and 9 and 10 on Wii, Mega Man Wily Wars repro for Genesis, Mega Man Powered Up PSP, and the Anniversary Collection and X Collection on PS2. Something about 4 sticks out to me. When it comes to the Game Boy series, MM V sticks out to me as my favorite.
We really gotta thank Dr Cossack for creating one of the best Robot Assistants in the series, Beat. And also for upgrading Mega Man's charge shot in Mega man 5
Finally Megaman 4 gets the praise it deserves, best Megaman game on the NES. Soon enough the niche opinion will become the regular opinion and saying “Megaman 4 is super underrated” will be like saying “Earthbound is underrated” the best timeline
At first this made me feel worried about my fan game but then I realized feeling official is a big compliment to a fangame and mega man 4 was made by a big and experienced team of people
The charge shot is underpowered. Rapid firing the mega buster does more damage faster. I found it easier to use charged shots than to switch to a boss’ weapon.
My favorite level is Gemini's man on MM3. Very beautiful great music and its not the only one in megaman 3, I don't know about the mechanics... Maybe you are right.
i love 2, but 4 was my very first mega man game, and will always be my favorite. 2 and 3 difficulties were inconsistent, but in 4 they found the correct balance. 3 being unfinished gets it some forgiveness, and 2 has the best soundtrack of the franchise. 5 had some cool points, but was almost the same as 4, just a bit faster maybe. 6 is boring and forgettable, and 1 was the first, so they were flying blind (or something). also, dr. Cossak levels 3 & 4 rivals MM2 Dr. Wily fortress 1 as the best tune in the entire franchise, and no one will change my mind of that.
Mega Man 4 is an amazing game with great stages, a amazing soundtrack, great weapons, fun bosses, a great set of Robot Masters, and great sprite work. However, I think Mega Man 2, 9, and 3 are better than this if I'm not including the X, Zero, or ZX series. Mega Man 3 especially which is my favorite Mega Man game and my favorite NES game of all time. Also, you're a pretty underrated TH-camr because I think this video was pretty good.
Thanks! I like Mega Man 3 a lot and think it has a lot of great ideas, but some of the Doc Robot sections are really annoying in my opinion and I thought the Wily levels were lackluster. I think Mega Man 9 is probably the strongest game in the classic series, if not the entire franchise, but the Wily Stages make me want to tear my hair out.
@@superharpuia Yeah, but if I remember correctly, that one jump in Wily Stage 2™ is made easier because you can damage boost through the spikes, so it might balance out in the end.
@@semicolin367 the same thing also happens in Jewel Man's stage in that kinda annoying platform Spike bit. In hero and super hero mode, there will be enemies there and you can use them to damage boost your way through. But that platforming bit with the Jewel enemies before the mini boss can go screw itself. Back in August 2021, I played through all 12 classic Mega Man games and I played them on the hardest difficulty and for bass, 9, and 10, I played as every playable character. As for 9, I regret playing it on super hero mode. Hero mode is Classic Castlevania/NES difficulty where it's hard as hell, but when you finally beat a boss or stage that's been giving you trouble, you feel satisfaction. In super hero mode, it just means the pain is finally over.
@@superharpuia I’ve been meaning to play 9 again on one of the harder difficulties, but I didn’t know which one. People online said Superhero mode was better, but I tried a few stages on both, and I thought I preferred Hero mode. It’s good to know I wasn’t alone in that. I usually prefer to play platformers on Normal mode, but Hero mode actually seems pretty well done.
I feel like people forget about certain genres when it comes to NES games. Tetris is the closest game I’ve ever seen to perfection, and it was released on the NES. Also games like Gradius and Life Force are awesome games for the system. But I agree that Mega Man 4 is great, but I haven’t played it enough to see if it is the best game on the system, but I doubt it’s better than Tetris. And also while not a NES game specifically, the Dragon Quest III remaster on the SNES is one of the best JRPGs of all time.
Honestly, I’ve only played Mega Man 4 out of the games you listed besides Tetris (which I find hard to rate against other games because of its nature). I guess a more accurate title for the video would be “Mega Man 4 is the best game on the NES that I’ve played”.
4 had some highlights but I definitely think 4&5 are the boring ones out of the series. This being said I don’t think there is one bad megaman game for Nintendo. I love them all!
I can see why 4 s considered a “boring one”. Like I said, most of its aspects are just “solid”, and not trying to be overly memorable or unique in any particular way. I just like it for its consistency.
The thing is I grew up playing all the megaman games in order. By the time 4 came out I was DONE! 🤯🤣 Like damn another megaman game? STOP! I didn't play 6 until 97-98? I don't remember but the 5th gen was popular around the time I got around to megaman 6.
You make a lot of fair points, but the only one I take issue with is calling Mega Man 2 one of the hardest Mega Man games. I would argue that every Mega Man game beyond 5 is a more difficult game than 2. I get that it's not your favorite, but Mega Man 2 is not that hard.
I definitely wouldn’t say 2 is “that hard”. I consider it “somewhat difficult”, as it’s probably the one I struggle with the most besides 1 and 9. Now thinking back, it’s probably easier than 3 as well. I disagree that every game beyond 5 is harder, because I personally consider 11 the easiest game in the series by far.
@@semicolin367 I've never played 11, so I'll take word for it; I've only played 1-10 and just assumed that it was. But yeah, I can agree with that. You've just earned yourself a subscription, my friend. Keep up the good work!
PHARAOH MAN is only special in the cartoon. He has a very minor role and disappointingly easy death. You freeze him with Bright Man’s weapon and shoot him while he just takes it.
Fair enough but I usually do him first because his stage is easy buster only and his fight is very fun when you don’t have his weakness. I still think his design is incredible and he’s great in the comics
Have you ever played the mega man zero games? If you like more fleshed out villains and a deeper story that series is a great choice. Great video btw, mega man 4 was certainly a revolution for mega man games
I played the first Zero game on GBA and decided it was way too hard for me to enjoy it, in addition to barely being able to see the game. I got the Legacy Collection when it first came out and tried the game again but still got very frustrated with it and I never ended up finishing it. I’ve heard the series gets a lot better but I thought you had to play them in order to get the story. Then again, not playing a great game at all is far worse than just missing out on understanding it’s story, so I should really give Zero 2 or 3 a try.
I think 4 is the 2nd best mega man NES game and you're right, there's not a lot of flaws in it. The lag that is there at times is about it, but it's probably worse in 3, which I think is the best one. I'd completely disagree about the difficulty though. When I was a kid we got this game and I was a major vet of 1-3. Couldn't beat a robot master the entire weekend. Mega Man 5 I beat it the first weekend and it was just a year later. Check points in mm4 are brutal in the majority of the stages. I think 4 might be the hardest one if you are starting the series blind. As a kid I had no idea you could blow up the drill bombs remotely, and I didn't know charge shot hit wily's 2nd form in the refight stage. So I would end up killing him with wire and the rush weapons, this took like 5 etanks. I love the fact that you think that Mega Man 4 was the best game up to that point in gaming, and I'd say it is 2nd behind 3, but it's probably still on the list of the top 10 or so best games ever made
I’ve got a lot of comments on the difficulty, so I’m gonna say that it’s probably just my familiarity with Mega Man 4 that skewed my perspective on the difficulty. I thought I might be criticized for saying the game was harder than it actually was rather than easier, but that wasn’t the case. The checkpoints are a real issue, and I should have brought them up. I only mentioned it in Ring Man’s stage, which I think is the worst offender. I disagree with it being the hardest one when starting the series blind (although if you’re just talking about the NES games, I could maybe see that). Looking back, I think I did have more trouble with 4 than I ever did with 2 when I first started playing it, but by the time I hit the Cossack Stages, I was doing much better and struggling less. I think other games are much worse than 4 to start with, particularly 9. 9 is way harder, the checkpoints are even nastier, and you have to restart the whole fortress if you game over during it.
@@semicolin367 yeah I was just referring to 1-6, 9 is my personal favorite "classic" game and x2 is probably my favorite overall. 3 favorite on NES. I did think of 2 flaws btw, and they are also in mm5. You can't jump out of slide in water, and you can't jump out of slide over any foreground tiles, so you can't jump out of slide on ladders or things of that nature. Which is nitpicking, but still. mm3 you can't jump out of slide in the first 8 frames though :/
also I speed run mega man 1-6 rom hacks, so I am speaking about the natural difficulty of the game. I can beat mega man 1-6 with 1 hand only half way paying attention, same with difficult hacks. MM4 is (imo) obviously the hardest one, other than a few things like no etanks in 1 and stupid wily 4 in mm2. But overall, that's them.
I have watched that video, though I couldn’t tell you anything specific he said in it, as I really don’t remember any of it besides the comment section agreeing and being happy with the notice it got because that was around the time I realized how much I actually liked Mega Man 4.
It's interesting to hear you say that 4 isn't a hard game. When it was the last of the OG 6 that I beat. Though it was probably not understanding the Pharoh shot than anything else. I had trouble with Wily's final form from running out of ammo and not understanding it could be charged or even shot in any direction. So yeah, there were some long ass sessions trying to beat him. Which usually ended with me giving up. If memory serves, I think it was the only one with a 3 tier battle in one, with the machine, machine phase 2, then the capsule, where 5 and 6 separated the capsule to a different level. Yes, 1 suffered from some questionable bad level design choices, insta-kill spikes with s, and near impossible robot masters without using their weakness (Ice man & Elec Man), but was still possible to learn how to dodge and get around those things. I don't think the Pharoh shot is ever explained it can be shot/charged like a metal blade. And with the relience on the buster for robot masters if you don't have the weakness, the player isn't given ample opportunity to play around with it. While Heat Man's shot also follows this, more people believe that "metal blade" is woodman's weakness despite a charged heat shot killing him in 1 or 2 hits (depends on the difficulty level selected). I don't even know who is weak to Pharoh shot as I probably just use the charged shot against that master.
I never really thought about the pharaoh shot not being explained well because I believe I watched people play the game before trying it myself, so I knew from the start how the weapon worked. The other thing is that it might explain how the weapons work in the game’s manual, and this game was designed with its players reading the manual first in mind. If it doesn’t, that’s a genuine problem with the game, but definitely not one exclusive to it, especially if we’re talking about NES games in general. I never found 4 to be that hard, but I’ve also beaten it more times than any other classic Mega Man, so my opinion could easily be skewed. But 4’s final boss *is* split into different levels, while 6’s are done all at once (and 5 I don’t know because I’ve never beaten it).
@@semicolin367 I've beaten 2 & 3 more times than any other, which usually are considered to be "best". 4 is still a great game and I agree with nearly all the positives about it - it was a game that got me through a major surgury when I was in second grade, and for that, it's definitely one of the better ones from those memories. 5 is about the easiest one in existance. Like all the masters have super easy patterns and can be beaten even easier than 4. But yeah, it's just one of those things about NES games in general, if you know the tricks and functions up front, it makes the game easier. Like knowing the 'pause' glitch in MM1 makes it laughably easy, or even just knowing the functions of weapons like in Castlevania where the difficulty is raised artifically similar to not knowing the pharoh shot in MM4.
Cool video, I understand why you love it so much, I really do, personally though it's not for me. I prefer 5 and 2 equally over 4. The Robot Masters and music are nice though.
The 3DS version of Legacy Collection 1 is absosmurfinlutely BIZARRE in a particularly odd way: the controls. A few years ago, I had the physical cartridge, and the controls...weren't great. Megaman 4-6 were passable at best, and 1-3 were almost impossible to play. But then I got the digital download version (after having sold off the cartridge and a couple other games), and boom, the controls are just about perfect across the board!! I wonder what happened... And there is something about Megaman 4 I'm surprised you didn't mention, though you probably didn't notice it in your playthrough: the damage itself. In general, everything deals more damage to Megaman here than in other games. For instance, the standard 1-2 units of damage you take from weak enemies and shots in other games is now a solid 4 units. Where stronger enemies (including bosses) did around 4-6 units a pop, they deal anywhere from 5-8 units in Megaman 4. (In-universe, this is why Dr. Light upgraded Rock to have the charge shot, the enemies and the new Robot Masters were stronger than Wily's previous efforts) Also, the weapons are not only more versatile, they're also better balanced on energy consumption than previous games. The Top Spin in Megaman 3 with its massive inconsistency is a huge, impossible to clean skidmark amongst the weapons, and the Metal Blade & Quick Boomerang in Megaman 2 literally sip energy like something outta X4...while everything else chugs it. Oh!! About Pharaohman...since he's your favorite of the MM4 Robot Masters, would he also be your favorite Net Navi in his Megaman Battle Network 2&3 iteration??
I didn’t notice that the enemies did more damage across the board in Mega Man 4, I only noticed how much damage bosses did on contact. And I haven’t played the Battle Network games, so I’m not sure about him also being my favorite net Navi. I’ll get back on that once the legacy collection comes out and I play the games.
I think you had to be there when 4 came out to understand why people tend to like 2 and 3 better. I personally started with 3 as a kid, then quickly got 2 and 1. By the time 4 came out the excitement was just starting to wear off. By the time 5 came out no one even cared about the NES anymore until emulators showed up in the late 90s. 4 probably is the best in a bubble(man). For some reason I found 2 and 3 easier as a kid, got stuck at Wily in 4 and didn't finish it until years later.
Oh, I absolutely understand that perspective. I just don’t think that it’s fair to judge the game based on that, at least in my opinion. I think 4 might have a higher “average difficulty”, but I find it easier to complete than 2 and 3 because it doesn’t have any “big problem stages” that I really struggle with (MM2’s Wily 4, Doc Robot stages).
I was planning on reviewing all of the GameBoy/Color Mega Man games in one video in the future, but here’s my brief review of Mega Man V: It’s really good. The stardroids are super cool, and the weapons and stages are great. The only real issue I have are with the physics, which I’ve been told are caused by the GameBoy physics. But I’m sure there’s a fan game out there that fixes that.
1 minute in: Mario 3, the game that's in the DNA of many platformers' level design to this day, inventor of the Angry Sun, crossing the sky on Para Beetles, that manic ascent while under assault by Fire Chomps, chases from a giant fish that wants to eat you, Big Island (and the alternating "big and normal" stage), the "anti-gravity" fortress, blocks that are actually disguised enemies trying to stomp on you, and literally dozens of other off-the-wall concepts, is bland and forgettable. Absolutely radioactive take to just drop and move on from. Not even saying that it's the clear-cut best NES game, just that that particular criticism is wild.
Yeah I should have either elaborated on why I didn't think Mario 3 was as good or just not brought it up altogether. I didn't want to say more because I didn't want the video to get sidetracked and I wanted to at least mention Mario 3 because it seems to be widely considered the best game on the system. I completely agree that some of the concepts that Mario 3 brings to the table were revolutionary and the levels featuring them are incredibly memorable and fun. But I personally felt like that only accounted for a small part of the game's levels. The rest all had cool ideas, but weren't fun in practice, or were just completely standard. I realize that part of that is because Mario 3 was far from my first Mario game, and it introduced a lot of things that I'd already seen several times before and weren't cool to me. I do retract my statement about the level design being "bland and forgettable", but I don't think it's all that great either.
Castlevania 3 But Toad Man is awesome yeah Though no, Wily isn't ALWAYS the final boss in the classic games. Sunstar obliterated him and took the final boss spot in GB 5. The charge shot is great, I feel like the games without it make bosses too tedious and annoying at times. I'd say 3 and 10 are the hardest, 3 due to the insanity that are the Doc Robots and 10 due to the Hard Mode. I definitely disagree with your good final boss picks, 9 and PARTICULARLY X1's are some of my least favorites. I think X7, X8, Zero 2, 4, the first, fourth and fifth Game Boy games have great ones.
@@dreamlandnightmare Top Man and Spark Man's stage themes are absolute bangers too. And how, HOW can you forget the title theme?! Seriously one of the greatest in all of gaming.
I noticed you used a lot of footage from The Wily Wars version of Mega Man 2. It is an infamously less precise feeling version of the game and arguably worse sounding than the NES version too. I think your point still stands as Mega Man 4 being better, but if the Wily Wars version of 2 is all you had, it is an unfair comparison. Mega Man 4 on the NES all day. Curious to hear your flaws of Mega Man X. To me, it is just the armor helmet and its applications. Only used twice to get heart tanks, one of which is very jankly placed. The game is overall on the easier side and bosses are a little too cheesable with weaknesses. An argument I hear all the time is not being able to start with the dash. But these points are fairly minor on what I consider to be one of the most well designed video games. Side note, I hear the Legacy Collections have a significant amount of input lag especially on PC. I may want to see how bad it is. I’ll refund it, if it is really noticeable. But I want to enjoy having access to these games easily on my computer, even though I own the collections on gamecube.
I’ve played Mega Man 2 fully on both the NES and Genesis. I already had footage for the Genesis version, but not the NES version, so that’s what I used. I do want to emphasize that I don’t think Mega Man 2 is a bad game at all, it’s just the “least good”. I don’t remember criticizing X at all in this video, aside from saying the buster wasn’t any less overpowered than in 4, which I didn’t think was really a criticism. I actually like Mega Man X more than 4, and it’s probably my favorite game in the entire franchise. I’ve never heard about or noticed the classic legacy collections having severe input lag. I know the X collections do, at least for the SNES games. Although I’ve never played any of these games on original hardware, but I’ve played 4 off a cartridge using a Retron, so if there isn’t input lag on that, I couldn’t tell the difference between that and the Legacy Collection version.
@@semicolin367 At 17:31 You mention through on screen text that even the 3 games with good final bosses have some glaring issues. I then went to check out your review on the first X game. Now I understand. The final form of the final boss is a huge difficulty spike compared to most of the game. I've been watching people play through the game, usually the X Legacy Collection on PC and always wonder if some of the jumps that they take that get them killed is partially due to the lag. And after playing some of it, I can definitely tell that the SNES ports have some noticeable input lag. The SNES mini runs way smoother by comparison. The Playstation games in the collection don't have this issue and allegedly have less lag than their original releases according to GigaBoots. I've been hunting down configuration guides online to make the SNES games run better. I think there is some optimizations that improve it very slightly, but there might always be inherently more lag unfortunately. Really wish Capcom would've handled the NES and SNES ports to the PC with more care. I may just hang on to the game to support Capcom make X9 someday.
@@SolidBren I still think the final boss is a pretty steep difficulty spike, but I don’t think it’s as bad as I made it out to be in that review. Besides the difficulty, I think the actual fight is pretty good, and it’s not that bad if you have 4 full sub tanks (though you only really get one shot at that without grinding). It’s funny you mention the SNES mini, because last time I played Mega Man X, I started out playing on the Legacy Collection but the input lag was bothering me enough that I switched to the SNES classic edition and finished it on that.
Again “best game on the NES” is entirely subjective and dependent on what you value in a video game. It’s just my favorite game on the nes and I titled the video that way because I don’t know clickbait. I haven’t played a huge amount of NES games though so if there are some hidden gems I don’t know about I’d love to hear some of them.
@@semicolin367 I know only 2 dozen NES Games but the Ones I Like the Most are Super Mario 2+3, Zelda, Mega Man 3+,4. But I I guess the Game I Liked the Most was *Faxanadu*
Mega Man 4, 5 and 6 are progressively easier than Mega Man 3. MM3 is ridiculously hard and the Doc Robots are horribly balanced. The Wily battle is equally frustrating.
This game drags on. Never feels like you accomplish anything. The boss weapons you get, you don't really need. Sure the controls are tight, but over all it is just mediocre.
Megaman 4 and 6 are easily better than 2 and megaman 3 and 5 are arguably better than 2. I stand by your opinion firmly. 2 is great. All Megaman games are, but 2 isn't DEFINITELY NOT the best
I can see why people really like 6. The adapters are really fun to use and some of the stages like Knight Man’s are incredible. But all the fortress stages are really annoying with how much you have to switch adapters and how long it takes to do so. Still definitely my second favorite of the NES games, though.
@@GameboyFanatic woah, I didn’t even know that existed. If it fixes that, and it has an arranged soundtrack and new power ups like it says, I really have to give it a try.
I think it’s a bit overrated for sure. It’s really good compared to most other NES games but I don’t think it’s anything too special by modern standards and it’s definitely not my favorite 2D Mario game.
There are some really annoying levels, but overall still top 10 Mario game material and still one of the best games on the NES. But I totally understand it not being some people’s number 1. You got the Zeldas, Castlevanias, Mega Mans, Ninja Gaidens, Contras.
Indeed
Agreed
Megaman 4 was MY FIRST Megaman game back in 1994. And still, one of my most beloved games of all times. Though my favorite of the classics is 6, this one has a very special place in my heart, because I knew these series thanks to this game. This is the only one I have a Japanese original cartridge! So I agree with you in everythig! Waaaay better than 2 (that was the last one I played from the NES ones). Excellent video!!
4 is where it all comes together. Its presentation is more polished and game feels more robust than the earlier installments. I remember this being my favorite.
Cossack is mostly just mentioned in lore bits. In 5-6, he's the one who makes Beat for you. In 11, Tundra Man's manufacturer is listed as Cossack Labs iirc
Mega Man 4 is my favourite game of all time and it has been so nice to see people praising this masterpiece :3
MM4 was my favourite game on the NES. I'd play it for the music alone sometimes and use it as a music player when I'd be drawing.
Glad to see someone recognizing Mega Man 4! I may be biased since Mega Man 4 was my first and a very important childhood game to me, but as you said it's often overshadowed by 2 and 3 when I feel it's honestly a solid improvement over both.
I will say I do like how Cossack being essentially a victim is handled here, especially how in the two stages before fighting him, the game subtly starts communicating that something isn't right. Particularly, the music track Siberian Dream that plays during the latter 2 Cossack stages is rather effective, it's dire and melancholy sound is just unsettling enough to convey "Something is wrong, what's going on here?" It's not the most effective twist, and Cossack had more potential as a character, but I do like what we got. (And hey fun fact, did you know Beat, the robot bird who helps you in later games, was built by Cossack? Beat is essentially his way of apologizing for the trouble.)
Apparently the upgraded buster in 5 is also Cossack's doing. He had to substitute for Mega's home base in 5 since Dr. Light had been kidnapped- another way for him to make penance.
Honestly, 3 is the worst of the NES games
I'm so glad one of my favorite games of all time is finally getting the recognition it deserves. Not just from you, but from hundreds of others!
My other favorites in my Top 5 are 7, 11, X1, and Legends 2.
I agree. I had a BLAST beating MM4 the other night. Bright Mans level is frustrating to me toward the end. Phaoroh Man IS my favorite robot master in the whole series.
Just beat MM5 the other day and I'm excited to start working on 4. Good review brother 😃👍
There's a fan theory that Axl was the last robot built by Dr. Cossack, just like X is by Light and Zero by Wily.
Cool to find another huge fan of Mega Man 4. Love everything about it from the stage design, the music and the weapons.
This was the first Mega Man game I beat without seeing any guides in a gaming magazine or any help from friends. The first one I beat going into it blind and it was blast back in 1991 and it's still a blast now!
Fresh off the Legacy Collection, I can't say I agree. It's still a kickass NES game but I'd say it's about middle of the line when viewed as part of the classic Mega Man series.
The stages are on the easy side (except Ring Man if you don't know what to expect), not that that's a bad thing. Just a bid jarring when you're coming from the previous games, which you most likely are.
However, while E-Tanks aren't lost upon getting a Game Over (like in Mega Man 3), they _are_ lost upon resuming a game via a password. Removing such a quality of life feature introduced in Mega Man 3 only artificially lengthens play sessions (for newer players) or just encourages farming for E-Tanks on Skull Man's stage (for experienced players). This just makes the nifty ability to replay stages that you've beaten seem like the solution to newly introduced problem.
I don't find the stages to be as replayable as Mega Man 2's stages. In that game, there were goodies tucked away that you couldn't get without Items 1 or 2 or the Crash Bombs. This made replaying the game more varied if
While the Mega Buster is iconic, it takes less time to kill enemies by spamming 🍋🍋🍋lemons than it does with a fully-charged shot and I found myself barely switching to different weapons.
Some of the weapons don't feel distinct enough or are just rehashed from past games with a small twist (Skull Barrier -> Leaf Shield but purely defensive; Pharaoh Shot -> Atomic Fire but with optional diagonal aim; Drill Bomb -> Crash Bomb but with optional manual detonation, Flash Stopper -> Time Stopper but actually good this time).
The two enemies I disliked were the Mono Roaders (if you miss the initial window to kill them, it's really hard to avoid getting hit, sometimes more than once), the Sasoreenu (the entire quicksand section is a complete mess without Rush Jet, much like Heat Man's Item 2 section) and the Shield Attackers (only due to their placement, they're fun to fight). Everything else is fine.
The robot masters are either too easy to get in an AI loop (looking at you Toad Man, Bright Man and, to an extent, Drill Man) or put out insane pressure with speedy attacks (mostly Ring Man and Dive Man, somewhat). The castle bosses are either pretty easy (for Wily Machine 1, you don't even have to jump to hit it) or pretty cheap rather than hard (the ones that are immune to most weapons, like Wily Machine 2 and the final boss). At least it's not atrocious like Mega Man 2's Boobeam.
Look at how they massacred my boy! Rush Jet has little use outside where it's obviously required but, on the other hand, Rush Marine can now fly in the air ✈when the water lowers in Dive Man's stage.
I find the music to be good but nowhere near as badass as Mega Man 2 and 3's absolute bangers, or as plain catchy as Mega Man 1's humble soundtrack.
I personally dislike the plot twist, if you can even call it that. I guess it might have worked back in '91 even though Dr. Wily was totally a good guy in Mega Man 3, but playing while knowing it's coming feels like a filler episode.
Nitpicks aside, I found Mega Man 4 to be a pretty solid game in the classic series. Nothing outstanding but nothing frustrating either. Nothing to make me go "Yeah, baby! Time to replay Mega Man 4!" (like 2 and 3), and nothing to make me go "I am never touching this game again. Thank God it's over!" (like Dr. Wily's Revenge) either.
I really appreciate the amount of time and thought that went into this comment. I agree that the E-Tanks and Wily Stage bosses were minor issues, but they definitely weren’t a significant enough detriment to my experience with the game that I found them worth mentioning.
I can see why a lot of people take issue with the bosses being easily exploitable, although, boss fights are almost always my least favorite part of a platformer game, so I’m not exactly complaining when the game makes them easier. I don’t remember if I mentioned this I’m the video or not, but this is the only Mega Man game where I can beat all the bosses with just the buster without too much trouble, which I really like since it allows me to do the stages in any order.
There are only two things I’m going to fully disagree with. The first is comparing the Crash Bomber from 2 to the Drill Bomb. If I remember right, the Crash Bombs were so buggy that they usually didn’t work, and even when they hit they did pitiful damage. Also, I disagree that spamming the uncharged buster shots is the fastest way to take out enemies, because I also believe that is the Drill Bomb, which usually does more damage than the charged buster and can be spammed nearly as fast as your regular shots. I will never turn down an opportunity to stand up for the Drill Bomb, as I feel it’s one of the most underrated weapons in the series.
many people say that MM2 was the true start of the series, but in my opinion i’d say that game is MM4, it was the first game in the series that feels fully realized, the previous games had a quite the number of problems, the first one has punishing level design, MM2 has no idea what weapon is weak to which robot master, the wily stages suck and MM3 is unfinished. MM4 however, perfected the controls, weapons and level design, this is my 2nd favorite classic Mega man game (my favorite is MM5)
Great review,hope to see you do more Mega Man (or Mega Man X) type reviews. Would love to see your "Favorite Levels" from all the games, etc.
I was planning on doing a stage ranking of all the classic mega man games in the future, but there are a few other videos I’d like to make first. Beyond that, I’m sure I’ll review many of the games in the series and/or do a ranking of them.
The single best thing in MM4, which is my favourite, is Cossack. The stage design and music were great, and "plot twist" was still fresh, better than those empty rehash Doc Robot stages.
It is clear that Capcom has put a lot of love into this project.
Pharaoh Man’s design makes him look like a Final boss. He’s way too powerful-looking.
He is like Ra the Sun god.
My first and still my favorite for all the reasons described. It's also one of the hardest which could turn some people off, but the difficulty is alleviated if you use the boss weapons right, and you can start the chain easily if you target Toad Man first. They had to give him a major design weakness since his rain is unavoidable if he actually uses it. It often feels like Mega Man 2 with the worst/glitchy parts of it fixed (no Buebeam Trap, yay!). I also really like the intro cutscenes and the melancholy music when the city is under attack. Great NESplosions.
Mega Man 5 is my favorite game on the system. The level designs are super creative
Mega man 5 is really weird 🤣🤣🤣
When I wanted Mega Man 2 on the NES, I got Mega Man 4 instead. I'm glad I got Mega Man 4. When I've played Mega Man 2 later on, OMG!! When you get a Game Over, your Energy can disappears. Mega Man 4 allows you to keep farming Energy cans before proceeding to another thing. IIRC, Even if you get a Game Over in Mega Man 4, you can still keep your Energy cans.
If I didn't get Mega Man 2 on the NES, I got it for the Gameboy. Different but still fun.
Oh yeah. I recently got Rockman Classic Collection on the Switch when it was on Sale. Planning to play Rockman 4 soon.
If there was a rom hack of mega man 6 that mixed elements of 2 4, 6, and MM&B, it would be the best mega man game
My favorite Nes 🎮 with the best cut scenes is Ninga Gaiden 3! Wow! This is my favorite 🎮 to play on my Nes and I just finished it today and the ending was fantastic!
I've recently played through Mega Man 1-10 for the first time, and I'm honestly with you on 4. It's my personal favorite classic series game and probably my fav NES game too! Even though my first playthrough of it was a little rough, replaying it more and improving at it has made me appreciate it a ton. My two favorite things about the game was definitely the stages and special weapons. Like you said in your video (I'm pretty sure), there isn't a single bad level or special weapon I can think of. Ring Man probably had my favorite stage since I enjoy finding easier ways to beat all the mini bosses as well as the fun level gimmick. Picking a favorite special weapon is hard, but I'd probably go with the Pharaoh Shot since it's a mix of the charge shot (but better) and the Metal Blade (but not as OP). I especially love that it has a hitbox above Mega Man as it's charging, which I like to use for the falling rocks in Drill Man's stage.
I could ramble on about how much I love 4, but I don't wanna make this comment too long lol. I actually rarely ever comment on youtube videos, but I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed the video! Excited to see more videos from you in the future. :)
My favorite is *MM3.* My friend growing up owned a NES and we kept borrowing 2 and 3 all the time until they decided to just donate the games to him. 4 is really good, but it doesn't have the music. I think skullman's stage is boring, and bright man is too dorky. But I can agree that it is overall a very balanced game, and that the charge shot is not as overpowering as in MM5 or 6. It improves the gameplay from MM3 but it lacks the music and the character design for bosses and enemies are a little bit worse.
Oh yeah James Ian Colbert voiced megaman. One of the original voices of ocean dub dragon ball z for goku.
you need more subscribers bro!!
golden content fr 🔥
The Wily Capsule window’s not small, it’s just invisible
4 has been my favorite game of the series since I started playing the entire series, eventually landing all the classic NES games, Game Boy games, SNES games (including Rockman and Forte, aka Mega Man and Bass), including the X series on the console, Mega Man Soccer, Rockboard Famicom, Mega Man 8 PS1 US and Japanese Saturn version, and 9 and 10 on Wii, Mega Man Wily Wars repro for Genesis, Mega Man Powered Up PSP, and the Anniversary Collection and X Collection on PS2.
Something about 4 sticks out to me. When it comes to the Game Boy series, MM V sticks out to me as my favorite.
Underrated TH-camr Right here folks.
We really gotta thank Dr Cossack for creating one of the best Robot Assistants in the series, Beat. And also for upgrading Mega Man's charge shot in Mega man 5
PHARAOH MAN must be weak to Bright Man’s Flash stopper because, he’s found in a tomb and you aren’t allowed to use flash photography in a tomb.
Finally Megaman 4 gets the praise it deserves, best Megaman game on the NES. Soon enough the niche opinion will become the regular opinion and saying “Megaman 4 is super underrated” will be like saying “Earthbound is underrated” the best timeline
Honestly, I think it is now at the point where it isn’t a niche opinion. Everyone seems to really like this game now, and I’m also really about that.
I would like to hear the other 5 pages about Pharoah Man please!
At first this made me feel worried about my fan game but then I realized feeling official is a big compliment to a fangame and mega man 4 was made by a big and experienced team of people
The charge shot is underpowered. Rapid firing the mega buster does more damage faster.
I found it easier to use charged shots than to switch to a boss’ weapon.
Megaman 4 is my favorite NES game
My favorite level is Gemini's man on MM3. Very beautiful great music and its not the only one in megaman 3, I don't know about the mechanics... Maybe you are right.
Megaman 4 was my first game! I first played megaman 10 years ago
I've played the Japanese version (Rockman).
The charged buster shot helps a lot to fight bosses when you run out of special weapon energy.
i love 2, but 4 was my very first mega man game, and will always be my favorite. 2 and 3 difficulties were inconsistent, but in 4 they found the correct balance. 3 being unfinished gets it some forgiveness, and 2 has the best soundtrack of the franchise. 5 had some cool points, but was almost the same as 4, just a bit faster maybe. 6 is boring and forgettable, and 1 was the first, so they were flying blind (or something). also, dr. Cossak levels 3 & 4 rivals MM2 Dr. Wily fortress 1 as the best tune in the entire franchise, and no one will change my mind of that.
Underrated + good footage
I love Megaman 4
Mega Man 4 is an amazing game with great stages, a amazing soundtrack, great weapons, fun bosses, a great set of Robot Masters, and great sprite work. However, I think Mega Man 2, 9, and 3 are better than this if I'm not including the X, Zero, or ZX series. Mega Man 3 especially which is my favorite Mega Man game and my favorite NES game of all time. Also, you're a pretty underrated TH-camr because I think this video was pretty good.
Thanks! I like Mega Man 3 a lot and think it has a lot of great ideas, but some of the Doc Robot sections are really annoying in my opinion and I thought the Wily levels were lackluster. I think Mega Man 9 is probably the strongest game in the classic series, if not the entire franchise, but the Wily Stages make me want to tear my hair out.
@@semicolin367 try Mega Man 9's Wily stages on super hero mode... it'll make you want to grab the nearest object and destroy the TV.
@@superharpuia Yeah, but if I remember correctly, that one jump in Wily Stage 2™ is made easier because you can damage boost through the spikes, so it might balance out in the end.
@@semicolin367 the same thing also happens in Jewel Man's stage in that kinda annoying platform Spike bit. In hero and super hero mode, there will be enemies there and you can use them to damage boost your way through. But that platforming bit with the Jewel enemies before the mini boss can go screw itself. Back in August 2021, I played through all 12 classic Mega Man games and I played them on the hardest difficulty and for bass, 9, and 10, I played as every playable character. As for 9, I regret playing it on super hero mode. Hero mode is Classic Castlevania/NES difficulty where it's hard as hell, but when you finally beat a boss or stage that's been giving you trouble, you feel satisfaction. In super hero mode, it just means the pain is finally over.
@@superharpuia I’ve been meaning to play 9 again on one of the harder difficulties, but I didn’t know which one. People online said Superhero mode was better, but I tried a few stages on both, and I thought I preferred Hero mode. It’s good to know I wasn’t alone in that. I usually prefer to play platformers on Normal mode, but Hero mode actually seems pretty well done.
One of the best game for sure, especially the music :)
I feel like people forget about certain genres when it comes to NES games. Tetris is the closest game I’ve ever seen to perfection, and it was released on the NES. Also games like Gradius and Life Force are awesome games for the system. But I agree that Mega Man 4 is great, but I haven’t played it enough to see if it is the best game on the system, but I doubt it’s better than Tetris. And also while not a NES game specifically, the Dragon Quest III remaster on the SNES is one of the best JRPGs of all time.
Honestly, I’ve only played Mega Man 4 out of the games you listed besides Tetris (which I find hard to rate against other games because of its nature). I guess a more accurate title for the video would be “Mega Man 4 is the best game on the NES that I’ve played”.
@@semicolin367 yeah, don’t change it, it is implied. I just think that a lot of the discourse of best NES games is missing certain genres.
now i got your power
4 had some highlights but I definitely think 4&5 are the boring ones out of the series.
This being said I don’t think there is one bad megaman game for Nintendo. I love them all!
I can see why 4 s considered a “boring one”. Like I said, most of its aspects are just “solid”, and not trying to be overly memorable or unique in any particular way. I just like it for its consistency.
The thing is I grew up playing all the megaman games in order. By the time 4 came out I was DONE! 🤯🤣 Like damn another megaman game? STOP! I didn't play 6 until 97-98? I don't remember but the 5th gen was popular around the time I got around to megaman 6.
MEGA MAN 4 is much better than MEGA MAN 2 as great as 2 is. Also MEGA MAN 4 is the introduction of the MEGA BUSTER.
Mega Man 4 is the most polished one. It is overall good, nothing to complain about. 2 and 3 have their faults but still great games.
great video! my personal favorite is mm5, the buster may be too OP but otherwise it's phenomenal. that may be nostalgia speaking though lol
You make a lot of fair points, but the only one I take issue with is calling Mega Man 2 one of the hardest Mega Man games.
I would argue that every Mega Man game beyond 5 is a more difficult game than 2.
I get that it's not your favorite, but Mega Man 2 is not that hard.
I definitely wouldn’t say 2 is “that hard”. I consider it “somewhat difficult”, as it’s probably the one I struggle with the most besides 1 and 9. Now thinking back, it’s probably easier than 3 as well. I disagree that every game beyond 5 is harder, because I personally consider 11 the easiest game in the series by far.
@@semicolin367 I've never played 11, so I'll take word for it; I've only played 1-10 and just assumed that it was.
But yeah, I can agree with that. You've just earned yourself a subscription, my friend. Keep up the good work!
PHARAOH MAN is only special in the cartoon.
He has a very minor role and disappointingly easy death.
You freeze him with Bright Man’s weapon and shoot him while he just takes it.
Fair enough but I usually do him first because his stage is easy buster only and his fight is very fun when you don’t have his weakness. I still think his design is incredible and he’s great in the comics
mega man 4 was peak
I Always though this was the last Megaman game because i mean it tells the past stories giving that is the end of the series vibes
Have you ever played the mega man zero games? If you like more fleshed out villains and a deeper story that series is a great choice. Great video btw, mega man 4 was certainly a revolution for mega man games
I played the first Zero game on GBA and decided it was way too hard for me to enjoy it, in addition to barely being able to see the game. I got the Legacy Collection when it first came out and tried the game again but still got very frustrated with it and I never ended up finishing it. I’ve heard the series gets a lot better but I thought you had to play them in order to get the story. Then again, not playing a great game at all is far worse than just missing out on understanding it’s story, so I should really give Zero 2 or 3 a try.
I think 4 is the 2nd best mega man NES game and you're right, there's not a lot of flaws in it. The lag that is there at times is about it, but it's probably worse in 3, which I think is the best one.
I'd completely disagree about the difficulty though. When I was a kid we got this game and I was a major vet of 1-3. Couldn't beat a robot master the entire weekend. Mega Man 5 I beat it the first weekend and it was just a year later. Check points in mm4 are brutal in the majority of the stages. I think 4 might be the hardest one if you are starting the series blind.
As a kid I had no idea you could blow up the drill bombs remotely, and I didn't know charge shot hit wily's 2nd form in the refight stage. So I would end up killing him with wire and the rush weapons, this took like 5 etanks.
I love the fact that you think that Mega Man 4 was the best game up to that point in gaming, and I'd say it is 2nd behind 3, but it's probably still on the list of the top 10 or so best games ever made
I’ve got a lot of comments on the difficulty, so I’m gonna say that it’s probably just my familiarity with Mega Man 4 that skewed my perspective on the difficulty. I thought I might be criticized for saying the game was harder than it actually was rather than easier, but that wasn’t the case. The checkpoints are a real issue, and I should have brought them up. I only mentioned it in Ring Man’s stage, which I think is the worst offender.
I disagree with it being the hardest one when starting the series blind (although if you’re just talking about the NES games, I could maybe see that). Looking back, I think I did have more trouble with 4 than I ever did with 2 when I first started playing it, but by the time I hit the Cossack Stages, I was doing much better and struggling less. I think other games are much worse than 4 to start with, particularly 9. 9 is way harder, the checkpoints are even nastier, and you have to restart the whole fortress if you game over during it.
@@semicolin367 yeah I was just referring to 1-6, 9 is my personal favorite "classic" game and x2 is probably my favorite overall. 3 favorite on NES.
I did think of 2 flaws btw, and they are also in mm5. You can't jump out of slide in water, and you can't jump out of slide over any foreground tiles, so you can't jump out of slide on ladders or things of that nature. Which is nitpicking, but still.
mm3 you can't jump out of slide in the first 8 frames though :/
also I speed run mega man 1-6 rom hacks, so I am speaking about the natural difficulty of the game. I can beat mega man 1-6 with 1 hand only half way paying attention, same with difficult hacks. MM4 is (imo) obviously the hardest one, other than a few things like no etanks in 1 and stupid wily 4 in mm2. But overall, that's them.
Agreed
out of curiosity, have you seen nico evaluates comparing mega man 2 vs. 4? I also agrees 4 is the best nes mega man.
I have watched that video, though I couldn’t tell you anything specific he said in it, as I really don’t remember any of it besides the comment section agreeing and being happy with the notice it got because that was around the time I realized how much I actually liked Mega Man 4.
It's interesting to hear you say that 4 isn't a hard game. When it was the last of the OG 6 that I beat. Though it was probably not understanding the Pharoh shot than anything else. I had trouble with Wily's final form from running out of ammo and not understanding it could be charged or even shot in any direction. So yeah, there were some long ass sessions trying to beat him. Which usually ended with me giving up. If memory serves, I think it was the only one with a 3 tier battle in one, with the machine, machine phase 2, then the capsule, where 5 and 6 separated the capsule to a different level.
Yes, 1 suffered from some questionable bad level design choices, insta-kill spikes with s, and near impossible robot masters without using their weakness (Ice man & Elec Man), but was still possible to learn how to dodge and get around those things. I don't think the Pharoh shot is ever explained it can be shot/charged like a metal blade. And with the relience on the buster for robot masters if you don't have the weakness, the player isn't given ample opportunity to play around with it. While Heat Man's shot also follows this, more people believe that "metal blade" is woodman's weakness despite a charged heat shot killing him in 1 or 2 hits (depends on the difficulty level selected). I don't even know who is weak to Pharoh shot as I probably just use the charged shot against that master.
I never really thought about the pharaoh shot not being explained well because I believe I watched people play the game before trying it myself, so I knew from the start how the weapon worked. The other thing is that it might explain how the weapons work in the game’s manual, and this game was designed with its players reading the manual first in mind. If it doesn’t, that’s a genuine problem with the game, but definitely not one exclusive to it, especially if we’re talking about NES games in general.
I never found 4 to be that hard, but I’ve also beaten it more times than any other classic Mega Man, so my opinion could easily be skewed. But 4’s final boss *is* split into different levels, while 6’s are done all at once (and 5 I don’t know because I’ve never beaten it).
@@semicolin367 I've beaten 2 & 3 more times than any other, which usually are considered to be "best". 4 is still a great game and I agree with nearly all the positives about it - it was a game that got me through a major surgury when I was in second grade, and for that, it's definitely one of the better ones from those memories. 5 is about the easiest one in existance. Like all the masters have super easy patterns and can be beaten even easier than 4.
But yeah, it's just one of those things about NES games in general, if you know the tricks and functions up front, it makes the game easier. Like knowing the 'pause' glitch in MM1 makes it laughably easy, or even just knowing the functions of weapons like in Castlevania where the difficulty is raised artifically similar to not knowing the pharoh shot in MM4.
Cool video, I understand why you love it so much, I really do, personally though it's not for me. I prefer 5 and 2 equally over 4. The Robot Masters and music are nice though.
Finally, a correct take
Mega Man 4 is epic.
The 3DS version of Legacy Collection 1 is absosmurfinlutely BIZARRE in a particularly odd way: the controls. A few years ago, I had the physical cartridge, and the controls...weren't great. Megaman 4-6 were passable at best, and 1-3 were almost impossible to play. But then I got the digital download version (after having sold off the cartridge and a couple other games), and boom, the controls are just about perfect across the board!! I wonder what happened...
And there is something about Megaman 4 I'm surprised you didn't mention, though you probably didn't notice it in your playthrough: the damage itself. In general, everything deals more damage to Megaman here than in other games. For instance, the standard 1-2 units of damage you take from weak enemies and shots in other games is now a solid 4 units. Where stronger enemies (including bosses) did around 4-6 units a pop, they deal anywhere from 5-8 units in Megaman 4. (In-universe, this is why Dr. Light upgraded Rock to have the charge shot, the enemies and the new Robot Masters were stronger than Wily's previous efforts)
Also, the weapons are not only more versatile, they're also better balanced on energy consumption than previous games. The Top Spin in Megaman 3 with its massive inconsistency is a huge, impossible to clean skidmark amongst the weapons, and the Metal Blade & Quick Boomerang in Megaman 2 literally sip energy like something outta X4...while everything else chugs it.
Oh!! About Pharaohman...since he's your favorite of the MM4 Robot Masters, would he also be your favorite Net Navi in his Megaman Battle Network 2&3 iteration??
I didn’t notice that the enemies did more damage across the board in Mega Man 4, I only noticed how much damage bosses did on contact. And I haven’t played the Battle Network games, so I’m not sure about him also being my favorite net Navi. I’ll get back on that once the legacy collection comes out and I play the games.
I think you had to be there when 4 came out to understand why people tend to like 2 and 3 better. I personally started with 3 as a kid, then quickly got 2 and 1. By the time 4 came out the excitement was just starting to wear off. By the time 5 came out no one even cared about the NES anymore until emulators showed up in the late 90s. 4 probably is the best in a bubble(man).
For some reason I found 2 and 3 easier as a kid, got stuck at Wily in 4 and didn't finish it until years later.
Oh, I absolutely understand that perspective. I just don’t think that it’s fair to judge the game based on that, at least in my opinion. I think 4 might have a higher “average difficulty”, but I find it easier to complete than 2 and 3 because it doesn’t have any “big problem stages” that I really struggle with (MM2’s Wily 4, Doc Robot stages).
Mega man 6-8 are my favorites which 8 coming out on top
Please review mega man V for game boy. The one MM game that starts with our hero getting beat
I was planning on reviewing all of the GameBoy/Color Mega Man games in one video in the future, but here’s my brief review of Mega Man V:
It’s really good.
The stardroids are super cool, and the weapons and stages are great. The only real issue I have are with the physics, which I’ve been told are caused by the GameBoy physics. But I’m sure there’s a fan game out there that fixes that.
This was the easiest Mega Man from all 6 that I've played.
It does have pharaoh man
Porque de ahí salió el megaman minus infinity
1 minute in: Mario 3, the game that's in the DNA of many platformers' level design to this day, inventor of the Angry Sun, crossing the sky on Para Beetles, that manic ascent while under assault by Fire Chomps, chases from a giant fish that wants to eat you, Big Island (and the alternating "big and normal" stage), the "anti-gravity" fortress, blocks that are actually disguised enemies trying to stomp on you, and literally dozens of other off-the-wall concepts, is bland and forgettable.
Absolutely radioactive take to just drop and move on from. Not even saying that it's the clear-cut best NES game, just that that particular criticism is wild.
Yeah I should have either elaborated on why I didn't think Mario 3 was as good or just not brought it up altogether. I didn't want to say more because I didn't want the video to get sidetracked and I wanted to at least mention Mario 3 because it seems to be widely considered the best game on the system.
I completely agree that some of the concepts that Mario 3 brings to the table were revolutionary and the levels featuring them are incredibly memorable and fun. But I personally felt like that only accounted for a small part of the game's levels. The rest all had cool ideas, but weren't fun in practice, or were just completely standard.
I realize that part of that is because Mario 3 was far from my first Mario game, and it introduced a lot of things that I'd already seen several times before and weren't cool to me. I do retract my statement about the level design being "bland and forgettable", but I don't think it's all that great either.
based
it has a nice ring to it lol
Castlevania 3
But Toad Man is awesome yeah
Though no, Wily isn't ALWAYS the final boss in the classic games. Sunstar obliterated him and took the final boss spot in GB 5. The charge shot is great, I feel like the games without it make bosses too tedious and annoying at times. I'd say 3 and 10 are the hardest, 3 due to the insanity that are the Doc Robots and 10 due to the Hard Mode.
I definitely disagree with your good final boss picks, 9 and PARTICULARLY X1's are some of my least favorites. I think X7, X8, Zero 2, 4, the first, fourth and fifth Game Boy games have great ones.
It's been so nice to see 4 appreciation lately. I don't feel like i'm in the total minority opinion anymore when i say it's my favorite
I like mega man 2 but mega man 4 better and my favorite out of the original six
2 is my favorite, but I definitely take 4 over 3, which I found suffered from boring enemy and stage design and dull music.
you are my favorite
3’s music dull? WHAT THE FUCK, MAN! Actually there might’ve been some mediocre ones in it, but people only remember the awesome ones.
@@SolidBren Snakeman is really good, but I find the rest of the music forgettable by Capcom standards.
@@dreamlandnightmare Top Man and Spark Man's stage themes are absolute bangers too. And how, HOW can you forget the title theme?! Seriously one of the greatest in all of gaming.
I personally feel MEGA MAN 2 and 3’s soundtracks were the best.
Followed by 9 and 10.
1 and 4 come afterwards.
5, 6, 7 and 8 were forgettable.
I noticed you used a lot of footage from The Wily Wars version of Mega Man 2. It is an infamously less precise feeling version of the game and arguably worse sounding than the NES version too. I think your point still stands as Mega Man 4 being better, but if the Wily Wars version of 2 is all you had, it is an unfair comparison. Mega Man 4 on the NES all day.
Curious to hear your flaws of Mega Man X. To me, it is just the armor helmet and its applications. Only used twice to get heart tanks, one of which is very jankly placed. The game is overall on the easier side and bosses are a little too cheesable with weaknesses. An argument I hear all the time is not being able to start with the dash. But these points are fairly minor on what I consider to be one of the most well designed video games.
Side note, I hear the Legacy Collections have a significant amount of input lag especially on PC. I may want to see how bad it is. I’ll refund it, if it is really noticeable. But I want to enjoy having access to these games easily on my computer, even though I own the collections on gamecube.
I’ve played Mega Man 2 fully on both the NES and Genesis. I already had footage for the Genesis version, but not the NES version, so that’s what I used. I do want to emphasize that I don’t think Mega Man 2 is a bad game at all, it’s just the “least good”.
I don’t remember criticizing X at all in this video, aside from saying the buster wasn’t any less overpowered than in 4, which I didn’t think was really a criticism. I actually like Mega Man X more than 4, and it’s probably my favorite game in the entire franchise.
I’ve never heard about or noticed the classic legacy collections having severe input lag. I know the X collections do, at least for the SNES games. Although I’ve never played any of these games on original hardware, but I’ve played 4 off a cartridge using a Retron, so if there isn’t input lag on that, I couldn’t tell the difference between that and the Legacy Collection version.
@@semicolin367 At 17:31 You mention through on screen text that even the 3 games with good final bosses have some glaring issues. I then went to check out your review on the first X game. Now I understand. The final form of the final boss is a huge difficulty spike compared to most of the game.
I've been watching people play through the game, usually the X Legacy Collection on PC and always wonder if some of the jumps that they take that get them killed is partially due to the lag. And after playing some of it, I can definitely tell that the SNES ports have some noticeable input lag. The SNES mini runs way smoother by comparison. The Playstation games in the collection don't have this issue and allegedly have less lag than their original releases according to GigaBoots. I've been hunting down configuration guides online to make the SNES games run better. I think there is some optimizations that improve it very slightly, but there might always be inherently more lag unfortunately. Really wish Capcom would've handled the NES and SNES ports to the PC with more care. I may just hang on to the game to support Capcom make X9 someday.
@@SolidBren I still think the final boss is a pretty steep difficulty spike, but I don’t think it’s as bad as I made it out to be in that review. Besides the difficulty, I think the actual fight is pretty good, and it’s not that bad if you have 4 full sub tanks (though you only really get one shot at that without grinding).
It’s funny you mention the SNES mini, because last time I played Mega Man X, I started out playing on the Legacy Collection but the input lag was bothering me enough that I switched to the SNES classic edition and finished it on that.
MM4 Best OG MM Game? Might be true...
But BEST NES? Oh boy there is some tough competition NOT amused by that claim 😂
Again “best game on the NES” is entirely subjective and dependent on what you value in a video game. It’s just my favorite game on the nes and I titled the video that way because I don’t know clickbait. I haven’t played a huge amount of NES games though so if there are some hidden gems I don’t know about I’d love to hear some of them.
@@semicolin367 I know only 2 dozen NES Games but the Ones I Like the Most are Super Mario 2+3, Zelda, Mega Man 3+,4. But I I guess the Game I Liked the Most was *Faxanadu*
MEGA MAN 2 is the ideal best game to start with.
Mega Man 1 is overly difficult due to some poor game design.
Mega Man 4, 5 and 6 are progressively easier than Mega Man 3. MM3 is ridiculously hard and the Doc Robots are horribly balanced.
The Wily battle is equally frustrating.
underated but kirby adventure better and more fun for me
This game drags on.
Never feels like you accomplish anything.
The boss weapons you get, you don't really need.
Sure the controls are tight, but over all it is just mediocre.
Disagree megaman 3 was the best music characters and the first megaman game to introduce the slide.
Mega Man 4 was the first game in the series I owned - I love it!
Megaman 4 and 6 are easily better than 2 and megaman 3 and 5 are arguably better than 2. I stand by your opinion firmly. 2 is great. All Megaman games are, but 2 isn't DEFINITELY NOT the best
Mega man 4 has an ass soundtrack kills it for me compared to other mega man games on the nes
If this game was released as Mega Man 12, people would love it.
If the series jumps back to 8-bit it'll give people a heart attack more likely.
4 and 5 are te best. I don't care.
mega man 6 is better
I can see why people really like 6. The adapters are really fun to use and some of the stages like Knight Man’s are incredible. But all the fortress stages are really annoying with how much you have to switch adapters and how long it takes to do so. Still definitely my second favorite of the NES games, though.
@@semicolin367 Play the Complete Works versión that has quick swapping for them
@@GameboyFanatic woah, I didn’t even know that existed. If it fixes that, and it has an arranged soundtrack and new power ups like it says, I really have to give it a try.
@@semicolin367 I don't remember new powerups, I think all of them have an arranged soundtrack, but on some of them you need a cheat code
You're crazy if you think the music is good
Ok
Super Mario 3 is absolutely overrated hands down
I think it’s a bit overrated for sure. It’s really good compared to most other NES games but I don’t think it’s anything too special by modern standards and it’s definitely not my favorite 2D Mario game.
There are some really annoying levels, but overall still top 10 Mario game material and still one of the best games on the NES. But I totally understand it not being some people’s number 1. You got the Zeldas, Castlevanias, Mega Mans, Ninja Gaidens, Contras.
I'd rather mega man 4 over mega man 3 since its easier bosses and stages make up for it