Mega Man 4 is so good (as are most MM games) but there's just something so special about Mega Man 4. It definitely improved on the greatness of its predecessors. This made me realize now I have to make a Mega Man 4 cover which I haven't yet. Great introspection man!
For us old folk, the major reason 4 is considered the 'black sheep' of the classic series is simply that it was yet another NES entry in the dead month of January 1992. In January 1992, most gamers had moved on to 16-bit. Megaman fans were craving a 16-bit successor like Mario had got. We were accustomed to trilogies on NES before a Super Nintendo sequel, like with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4 and Castlevania 4 on brand new 16-bit hardware. All expectations were that Capcom would release a spectacular 16-bit fourth Megaman game. But that didn't happen. Instead, Megaman 4 came out on NES, and after Christmas. There was very little hype for it, especially since screenshots showed it looked almost identical to Megaman 3. A good looking 8-bit game for sure, but not leaps and bounds better. We were also somewhat getting tired of the robot master ideas. You went from 3 which had a ninja and snake to a.....dust man? Really lame! This lead to a lot of people dismissing Megaman 4 before really giving it a chance.
That's totally the feeling I got watching TH-cam videos made by folks older than me in that 2009ish time period. I totally understand the feelings. But hey, glad people have come around on the game.
This is the best-balanced Mega Man game ever. No one weapon dominates all situations and makes you never want to pull out and play with others, no weapon is strictly worse than the buster in all situations, good rate of energy and ammo drops, good difficulty curve.
If I had any gripe, it's that none of the special weapons - except maybe a little bit the Rain Flush - has significant potential to be used as a crutch. Which... is a double-edged sword. MM1 has the Thunder Beam, MM2 the Metal Blade, and they both trivialize certain encounters. MM3 has the Shadow Blade, which can make a lot of stages easier but is nowhere near as dominant as the Metal Blade was. MM4? Not as much - you have to know what you're doing, not much cheese is possible. Though the Rain Flush, as a full-screen hit-all attack, can let you get through some annoying enemy packs. I can't decide if not being able to cheese things is good or bad. Overall I'd say good, except that there's nothing to lean on if things get hard. That said, the weapon spread is way better than MM5, where most of them are hot garbage.
@@MaoRatto Pharaoh Shot is a great weapon, but I'm a Ring Boomerang man, and Drill Bomb nd Dive Missile are great too. There's a fantastic BALANCE between the weapons and buster.
4 is my favorite entry in the main series. The weapons feel unique and powerful (overall) and there's better energy balance with the weapons over other games like MM2, which I think is the worst example of how poorly some games handled how much energy each shot costs. Mega Man 4 was also the first game to "pad" itself with an additional Boss Castle. 5 & 6 had this as well, and it is really cool playing stages designed that you have all the powers, and I rather the double Castles to remix of stages that 3 tried. It is odd that after 6, Capcom dropped the double Castle and just reverted back to 4 Wily Castle stages and "secret" boss battle stage. I also recently replayed the Legacy Collection on Switch. I find that each new Mega Man game is easier than the previous entries. So I went backwards 6-1 and dealt with the ... rough spots, but I got through it. Really enjoy MM4 best of all!
@@VGPreserve I'm kind of divided on the Doc Robot stages. They yockle on for way too long and some of them verge on more cheap than challenging, but the idea of refighting the previous game's robot masters with new weapons is kind of cool. I guess I could say I hate the remixed stages but kind of like Doc Robot himself.
feels like forever ago, I was saying how i like 4 and 6 over 2 and 3. Been playing MM games since 1990. 2 was my first one. When I first played this after 3, I was happy, but enjoy it more years later.
My appreciaton for Mega Man 4 grows more and more as time goes on. The boss weapons are great in this one! Also, it might have my favorite castle/fortress in the series.
I played through MM 1-6 again over the past week. MM4 just keeps getting more fun! To be honest, when I first played it, I thought that it was a step down from MM2 and MM3. At the time, I thought that it was significantly harder. It took me a little while to realize that the game was designed around you being proficient with the charge shot. Also, I was spoiled by how there were some bosses in MM2 and MM3 that you can beat in 2-4 hits, and they got rid of that starting in MM4.
Yup! MMIV will always hold a special place in my heart…it was the first one I bought, and I had no clue what MM was; it just looked cool to me. Had one helluva time beating it, and THEN I went back and played the first 3, which I found to all be way harder!!
MM4 was the first Mega Man game I owned. Definitely agree that it was the most refined of the NES titles. All of the weapons are useful, but none are OP. It rewards exploration but doesn’t go overboard with it. It set the paradigm for MM and MMX in terms of base abilities going forward. It has some great themes in the soundtrack too. I might have given it to MM3 if the game had been given the time it needed to be fully finished and balanced, a fleshed out story, and no useless weapons. Alas MM4 is the one that refined everything.
I have one and only one issue with MM4: the invicibility time the bosses get when hit. I would love if they decided to make it like 1-3 (and 9 -10 too), when we could just blast them with repeated shots. I know this trend was to enforce the use of the charged shot, since 4-8 kept that, but... we could have had both ways, right? Unfortunately, my preferred way of defeating bosses and enemies, which is without the use of charged shot, gets a little unrewarding in this game. The rest, just perfect. Or close to it. My favorite classic NES Megaman game (together with 3) since 1993, the year I first played it. Wily Stage 1 soundtrack (from the stage where all enemies are Mets) made a hell of an impact at me as a kid. I just love it!
If Mega Man 4 had been Mega Man 3 everyone would of loved it at the time. The cutscenes and music are all bangers and you cam tell it wasn't a rushed hack job. It's easily a top 3 Mega man game for me
I came late to the MM series so I have no nostalgia bias. MM4 immediately jumped out as being the best of the original hexology not only because movement felt good, but the weapons felt useful. The slide was still klunky in MM3 and whereas MM5 felt good, the weapons were booty. Long live MM4.
I recently started giving this a better look since I had only beaten it once. My only complaint is how hard contact damage hits for in it. Other than that it's amazing
I'm definitely one of those who isn't a fan of the charge shot, as it tends to trivialize the usefulness of the boss weapons when you can simply one-shot 95% of enemies with an infinitely usable charge shot. That said, if you don't like the charge shot, then it's just as easy to simply choose to not use it. That's what I usually do, with the exception of boss battles and a few of the really tough standard enemies.
My favorite MM. 1 & 2 were too hard, and so was 3 but 3 was cool. I played this one so much that I could beat all the bosses with just the regular weapon, but I never beat the final wiley. Even to this day his final ufo form wins edit: good catch on the cold war Russian bit. Never even noticed that!
The first mega man game I EVER played back in late 92…and what way to start from the awesome intro to the music so I will always be bias towards MM4 even as I played the older games much later on I felt handicapped lol like where is my slide and where is my charge buster lol but yea …any video giving MM4 love you will find me in the comments lol
People only hated 4 because they had already bought the first 3 games and their parents wouldnt let them get any more games in the series until the Super Nintendo replaced their NES (which as you know, people werent all gung ho about)
Let's see: +The Charge Shot. +Better special weapons compared to 3 and 5. +Interesting storyline for once (for a Mega Man game). +Nice to see the Levitation Platform...er, Balloon Adapter again. +Wire Adapter is nice too. -Disappointing OST (unless you are listening to the Complete Work remixes). -The WORST incarnation of the Rush Jet Adapter ever! A crappier Jet Sled from Mega Man 2 is what it is. Only advantage over the Sled is that you can move Rush up and down. Mega Man 6 Rush Jet is the one for those who whine about 3 being too easy without making it a poor man's Jet Sled. -Mega Man X1 is the game that Mega Man 4 should have been to begin with. The few good robots in that series like Zero and Vile could have been introduced in the main series. This is why I hate Keiji Inafune and why I think he did more LONG TERM damage to the I.P. than good. Bottom line: Only 1 is worse than 4...if only the NES version of 1 existed. Translation: Mega Man 4 is the worst one of the six NES Mega Man's when you include remakes.
IMO, Mega Man 3 and 6 are the worst ones. MM3 obviously needed a bit more time and polish. Mega Man 6 has the weak buster shot (smaller, and weaker sound), and IMO just boring stages. Mega Man 2 and 5 are my favorites. We all know why 2 is great so I won't bother there. I know people say 5 has the worst weapons, but honestly those weapons are just right for the times they are needed. As for Mega Man 4, the biggest downer (to me) is that super slow boss energy meter when you enter their room. Still hoping someone can ROM-hack that into proper speed. Also, I didn't like the change they made to Rush Jet from 3 to 4, MM3 definitely had the best Rush Jet. Mega Man 5 had the worst Rush Coil, but I rarely used it so w/e.
Hot take: "Megaman 4 may be the best on the NES" isn't fully accurate..... I think of it more like, Megaman 4 is the third entry in the REAL Megaman trilogy, which is 2, 3, and 4.
@VGPreserve It's like..... fine? Obviously the music and character design are classic beyond words, but the overall game flaws cast a pretty big shadow over the entire thing. I don't consider it to be an absolute joy from start to finish like 2, 3 (Doc Robot stages notwithstanding), and 4.
Not everything. Most robot master room layouts and many RM battles are a bit dull. Everyone taking exactly 4 damage from their weakness and 1 from everything else is disappointing.
In terms of robot master weaknesses, I think MM3 did a better job than the later or earlier ones (though there is a bit too much standardization, such that every weapon needs either 28, 14, 7 or 4 hits to kill a robot master, but that still leaves interesting options, and robot masters may have more than one weakness). But, MM4 did a better job with the weapons themselves - there's no OP Shadow Blade, useless and buggy Top Spin, janky Gemini Laser or mostly-pointless Spark Shock. (I can never tell if the Spark Shock is going to damage an enemy or just freeze it.) There's a shield, which some think is lazy, but with none of the other weapons being actively bad or OP, it's fine.
Mega Man 4 is so good (as are most MM games) but there's just something so special about Mega Man 4. It definitely improved on the greatness of its predecessors. This made me realize now I have to make a Mega Man 4 cover which I haven't yet. Great introspection man!
Thank you so much! I had a great time with the game.
Would love to hear a Skull Man or Pharaoh Man cover for sure!
For us old folk, the major reason 4 is considered the 'black sheep' of the classic series is simply that it was yet another NES entry in the dead month of January 1992. In January 1992, most gamers had moved on to 16-bit. Megaman fans were craving a 16-bit successor like Mario had got. We were accustomed to trilogies on NES before a Super Nintendo sequel, like with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4 and Castlevania 4 on brand new 16-bit hardware. All expectations were that Capcom would release a spectacular 16-bit fourth Megaman game. But that didn't happen.
Instead, Megaman 4 came out on NES, and after Christmas. There was very little hype for it, especially since screenshots showed it looked almost identical to Megaman 3. A good looking 8-bit game for sure, but not leaps and bounds better. We were also somewhat getting tired of the robot master ideas. You went from 3 which had a ninja and snake to a.....dust man? Really lame!
This lead to a lot of people dismissing Megaman 4 before really giving it a chance.
That's totally the feeling I got watching TH-cam videos made by folks older than me in that 2009ish time period. I totally understand the feelings. But hey, glad people have come around on the game.
Still an overrated game. Mega Man 6 and 8 are the underrated ones.
This is the best-balanced Mega Man game ever. No one weapon dominates all situations and makes you never want to pull out and play with others, no weapon is strictly worse than the buster in all situations, good rate of energy and ammo drops, good difficulty curve.
Totally agree! I had a great time with it!
If I had any gripe, it's that none of the special weapons - except maybe a little bit the Rain Flush - has significant potential to be used as a crutch. Which... is a double-edged sword.
MM1 has the Thunder Beam, MM2 the Metal Blade, and they both trivialize certain encounters. MM3 has the Shadow Blade, which can make a lot of stages easier but is nowhere near as dominant as the Metal Blade was. MM4? Not as much - you have to know what you're doing, not much cheese is possible. Though the Rain Flush, as a full-screen hit-all attack, can let you get through some annoying enemy packs.
I can't decide if not being able to cheese things is good or bad. Overall I'd say good, except that there's nothing to lean on if things get hard.
That said, the weapon spread is way better than MM5, where most of them are hot garbage.
The 4th entry to me is easily the best due to great music. OP pharoah shot, and just smooth to play.
@@MaoRatto Pharaoh Shot is a great weapon, but I'm a Ring Boomerang man, and Drill Bomb nd Dive Missile are great too. There's a fantastic BALANCE between the weapons and buster.
MM4 was my first MM game back in the early 90s probably around 93-94.. I love this game, and still to this day my favorite MM game
Thanks for keeping the Mega Man spirit alive and well. MM 1-5 were my absolute favorite platformers as a kid.
Thank you! Btw, my play through on the NES was of course hooked up to that Quasar TV that I found on the street 😉
My favorite out of the 8 bit Mega Man, I started with the original in the 80s debut 😅😅😅
4 is my favorite entry in the main series. The weapons feel unique and powerful (overall) and there's better energy balance with the weapons over other games like MM2, which I think is the worst example of how poorly some games handled how much energy each shot costs.
Mega Man 4 was also the first game to "pad" itself with an additional Boss Castle. 5 & 6 had this as well, and it is really cool playing stages designed that you have all the powers, and I rather the double Castles to remix of stages that 3 tried. It is odd that after 6, Capcom dropped the double Castle and just reverted back to 4 Wily Castle stages and "secret" boss battle stage.
I also recently replayed the Legacy Collection on Switch. I find that each new Mega Man game is easier than the previous entries. So I went backwards 6-1 and dealt with the ... rough spots, but I got through it. Really enjoy MM4 best of all!
I definitely prefer a whole new castle compared to the remixed stages of 3 as well!
@@VGPreserve I'm kind of divided on the Doc Robot stages. They yockle on for way too long and some of them verge on more cheap than challenging, but the idea of refighting the previous game's robot masters with new weapons is kind of cool. I guess I could say I hate the remixed stages but kind of like Doc Robot himself.
That's a very valid point for sure!
feels like forever ago, I was saying how i like 4 and 6 over 2 and 3. Been playing MM games since 1990. 2 was my first one. When I first played this after 3, I was happy, but enjoy it more years later.
My appreciaton for Mega Man 4 grows more and more as time goes on. The boss weapons are great in this one! Also, it might have my favorite castle/fortress in the series.
I agree it certainly has grown on me (and seemingly many others) as time has gone on!
I played through MM 1-6 again over the past week. MM4 just keeps getting more fun! To be honest, when I first played it, I thought that it was a step down from MM2 and MM3. At the time, I thought that it was significantly harder. It took me a little while to realize that the game was designed around you being proficient with the charge shot. Also, I was spoiled by how there were some bosses in MM2 and MM3 that you can beat in 2-4 hits, and they got rid of that starting in MM4.
Yup! MMIV will always hold a special place in my heart…it was the first one I bought, and I had no clue what MM was; it just looked cool to me. Had one helluva time beating it, and THEN I went back and played the first 3, which I found to all be way harder!!
MM4 was the first Mega Man game I owned. Definitely agree that it was the most refined of the NES titles. All of the weapons are useful, but none are OP. It rewards exploration but doesn’t go overboard with it. It set the paradigm for MM and MMX in terms of base abilities going forward. It has some great themes in the soundtrack too.
I might have given it to MM3 if the game had been given the time it needed to be fully finished and balanced, a fleshed out story, and no useless weapons. Alas MM4 is the one that refined everything.
Totally agree! It does feel like a very refined MM experience.
I have one and only one issue with MM4: the invicibility time the bosses get when hit.
I would love if they decided to make it like 1-3 (and 9 -10 too), when we could just blast them with repeated shots. I know this trend was to enforce the use of the charged shot, since 4-8 kept that, but... we could have had both ways, right?
Unfortunately, my preferred way of defeating bosses and enemies, which is without the use of charged shot, gets a little unrewarding in this game.
The rest, just perfect. Or close to it. My favorite classic NES Megaman game (together with 3) since 1993, the year I first played it.
Wily Stage 1 soundtrack (from the stage where all enemies are Mets) made a hell of an impact at me as a kid. I just love it!
4 is my favorite since I was little, forever ago. (But I might be biased, because this is the one I initially owned on the NES)
If Mega Man 4 had been Mega Man 3 everyone would of loved it at the time. The cutscenes and music are all bangers and you cam tell it wasn't a rushed hack job. It's easily a top 3 Mega man game for me
The game had a lot of care put into it for sure!
I came late to the MM series so I have no nostalgia bias. MM4 immediately jumped out as being the best of the original hexology not only because movement felt good, but the weapons felt useful. The slide was still klunky in MM3 and whereas MM5 felt good, the weapons were booty. Long live MM4.
Used to be 2 and 3 now I see it's 4's time to be glazed
Funny how that works, isn't it? I still dig 2 and 3 for sure, though, haha.
@VGPreserve I'm more of a fan of 5 lol
I love 5, the first vid I did in this style was actually about MM5!
Skullman music is best NES music.
Don't @me, bro.
It's a killer track for sure!
I ❤all of the nes mega man games but 4 is got all the good stuff packed into it I think anyways 😊
I recently started giving this a better look since I had only beaten it once. My only complaint is how hard contact damage hits for in it. Other than that it's amazing
Yeah some of those bosses and even regular enemies really do hit hard!
Did you ever try the Sequel Wars port?
I have never even heard of that! I'll look it up.
I'm definitely one of those who isn't a fan of the charge shot, as it tends to trivialize the usefulness of the boss weapons when you can simply one-shot 95% of enemies with an infinitely usable charge shot. That said, if you don't like the charge shot, then it's just as easy to simply choose to not use it. That's what I usually do, with the exception of boss battles and a few of the really tough standard enemies.
I think that's a solid outlook on it for sure!
My favorite MM. 1 & 2 were too hard, and so was 3 but 3 was cool. I played this one so much that I could beat all the bosses with just the regular weapon, but I never beat the final wiley. Even to this day his final ufo form wins
edit: good catch on the cold war Russian bit. Never even noticed that!
I'm sure this Wily with the Mega Buster is brutally hard!
I hate that the Anniversary Collection had more content and the WEAPON QUICK SWITCH! Bring back the quick weapon swapping!
They could definitely make some improvements to the Legacy Collection!
No.
"No" is the answer to your thumbnail.
Yep, MM is the best NES MM.
No doubt about that.
The first mega man game I EVER played back in late 92…and what way to start from the awesome intro to the music so I will always be bias towards MM4 even as I played the older games much later on I felt handicapped lol like where is my slide and where is my charge buster lol but yea …any video giving MM4 love you will find me in the comments lol
Glad you're here!
Big skull dude at 7:50…. hear me out
That's a great hear me out 😂😂😂😂
People only hated 4 because they had already bought the first 3 games and their parents wouldnt let them get any more games in the series until the Super Nintendo replaced their NES (which as you know, people werent all gung ho about)
Mega man 4 life
Ayyyy I see what you did there! 🤠
Let's see:
+The Charge Shot.
+Better special weapons compared to 3 and 5.
+Interesting storyline for once (for a Mega Man game).
+Nice to see the Levitation Platform...er, Balloon Adapter again.
+Wire Adapter is nice too.
-Disappointing OST (unless you are listening to the Complete Work remixes).
-The WORST incarnation of the Rush Jet Adapter ever! A crappier Jet Sled from Mega Man 2 is what it is. Only advantage over the Sled is that you can move Rush up and down. Mega Man 6 Rush Jet is the one for those who whine about 3 being too easy without making it a poor man's Jet Sled.
-Mega Man X1 is the game that Mega Man 4 should have been to begin with. The few good robots in that series like Zero and Vile could have been introduced in the main series.
This is why I hate Keiji Inafune and why I think he did more LONG TERM damage to the I.P. than good.
Bottom line: Only 1 is worse than 4...if only the NES version of 1 existed. Translation: Mega Man 4 is the worst one of the six NES Mega Man's when you include remakes.
Mega Man 4 is great but I think Mega Man 5 and 6 are better
IMO, Mega Man 3 and 6 are the worst ones. MM3 obviously needed a bit more time and polish. Mega Man 6 has the weak buster shot (smaller, and weaker sound), and IMO just boring stages. Mega Man 2 and 5 are my favorites. We all know why 2 is great so I won't bother there. I know people say 5 has the worst weapons, but honestly those weapons are just right for the times they are needed. As for Mega Man 4, the biggest downer (to me) is that super slow boss energy meter when you enter their room. Still hoping someone can ROM-hack that into proper speed. Also, I didn't like the change they made to Rush Jet from 3 to 4, MM3 definitely had the best Rush Jet. Mega Man 5 had the worst Rush Coil, but I rarely used it so w/e.
I love 5 as well! That was actually my first video in this style and I recommend checking that video out!
I don't really like the soundtrack in MM4. I don't know why, but it grates my ears. I prefer the songs from 1-3.
Totally fair! 1-3 also have awesome soundtracks!
Hot take: "Megaman 4 may be the best on the NES" isn't fully accurate.....
I think of it more like, Megaman 4 is the third entry in the REAL Megaman trilogy, which is 2, 3, and 4.
That's an interesting take. I take it you're not big on MM1 then? 😅
@VGPreserve It's like..... fine? Obviously the music and character design are classic beyond words, but the overall game flaws cast a pretty big shadow over the entire thing. I don't consider it to be an absolute joy from start to finish like 2, 3 (Doc Robot stages notwithstanding), and 4.
Not everything.
Most robot master room layouts and many RM battles are a bit dull.
Everyone taking exactly 4 damage from their weakness and 1 from everything else is disappointing.
In terms of robot master weaknesses, I think MM3 did a better job than the later or earlier ones (though there is a bit too much standardization, such that every weapon needs either 28, 14, 7 or 4 hits to kill a robot master, but that still leaves interesting options, and robot masters may have more than one weakness).
But, MM4 did a better job with the weapons themselves - there's no OP Shadow Blade, useless and buggy Top Spin, janky Gemini Laser or mostly-pointless Spark Shock. (I can never tell if the Spark Shock is going to damage an enemy or just freeze it.) There's a shield, which some think is lazy, but with none of the other weapons being actively bad or OP, it's fine.