Mega Man 8: Anniversary Edition

The Good
Ahh yes...Mega Man. The Blue Bomber himself. A classic game character if there ever was one. Although some people say that the Mega Man series should be put out to pasture already, I sort of disagree. Although Mega Man 8 is pretty much the last Mega Man game to be released (the X series does NOT count!), at least it ended the series with a bang...nay, a HUGE blast! Read on about what is quite possibly the best of the Mega Man series. Please note first: I own the Japanese version (Rockman 8: Metal Heroes), so that's what I'll be basing this review on, although I have played the English version, and I'll note it where appropriate.

For starters, now that the Mega Man series has finally jumped from the NES and Super NES (both cart based systems) to the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation (both 32-bit CD based systems), it finally allowed Capcom a chance to make a much larger, more challenging, and ultimately greater Mega Man game than what was released on the NES and SNES. Levels are now much larger, and all the Robot Master stages are now two parts each. Yes, you actually have two levels to complete before confronting the Robot Masters! Also, there are now anime cutscenes played throughout the game, as well as some voice acting. All of the Robot Masters, Mega Man, Roll-chan, Dr. Light, Wily, Bass...nearly EVERYONE...has at least one thing to say in the game. It's quite cool to finally hear Mega Man talking, and it's even cooler to have the Robot Masters taunting you as you fight them! This is truly taking advantage of the CD format!

Well, let's move on. The gameplay is pretty much normal Mega Man fare. Mega Man still has his Mega Buster, he can still slide and jump (duh), and he can still use Rush to assist him. But in MM8, a few things were altered. Rush no longer has most of his old transformations, such as Rush Coil or Rush Marine. Instead, you now get Rush Cycle, in which Rush transforms into a motorbike for Mega Man to ride on; Rush Bomber, where Rush will fly across the screen tossing bombs everywhere; Rush Health, which is the same as Rush Bomber, except Rush drops health items, and Rush Random, where Rush will toss you a random item in a similar sense to Eddy (the little flip-top from the earlier games). Energy Tanks and Weapon Tanks are totally gone in this game, which may anger a few old time Mega Man fans. I didn't miss them too much, since it actually made the game a little harder (and that's a good thing; more on that later). Also, Rush Jet returns in this game, but it's only used on certain stages (like Tengu Man's stage), and Rush activates it automatically. One other small change was made: taking an idea from Mega Man 7, Mega Man can collect Bolts he finds in the stages to turn into enhancements for himself. However, unlike MM7, Mega Man doesn't acquire them from defeated enemies; instead he just has to search them out in the stages (most are hidden, but a few are in plain sight).

Now, onto the cosmetics. Mega Man 8's graphics look quite good, with a lot of bright, well detailed stages and enemies. Mega Man himself is not a little bit taller, and moves extremely fluidly, and as in MMX4, he moves and stops with extreme care (as in he stops when you stop him). All of the Robot Masters are nicely designed, with some great animations and (sometimes) bizarre reactions when you attack them. Wanna have a bit of a laugh? Toss a Tornado Hold at Clown Man and watch as his arms get tangled up on top of him and he struggles to untangle them! Or watch Frost Man cringe in pain as you Flash Bomb him! Even better yet, use Astro Crash on Aqua Man and watch him flail about like crazy trying to dodge the attack! It's a blast to watch the Robot Masters in action here!

Sounds and music? Both are pretty good, although sometimes the sounds get a little too squeaky, especially Mega Man's jumping sound (can you say "Boing"?). But the music, on the other hand...all of it is still classic Mega Man-sounding music. But best of all are the intro and ending songs in the Japanese version: Ganasia's "Electric Communication" is a masterful piece, and it opens the game so perfectly in the intro. The ending song, "Brand New Way", is just as awesome, and is probably one of the best, most fitting ending themes I've ever heard. If you can get your hands on the Japanese version, you'll understand exactly what I mean.

The Bad
What Capcom did to the English version.

Basically, the voices in the Japanese version fit extremely well with everyone. Capcom U.S.A. just...ruined it all. Most of the English voice actors sound terrible, and Mega Man himself is especially granted no mercy. His English voice actress (note: on both sides of the pond, Mega Man is voiced by a girl) screams his lines out in too high pitched a tone, and a lot of the voice actors sound like they're just reading off the script as opposed to ACTING. The Robot Masters don't sound any better, save for one or two (Tengu Man and Sword Man both have very decent voices). Duo sounds horrible, especially if you have heard his Japanese voice, which is much deeper and more heroic sounding than his slightly nasal sounding English voice.

Also, Ganasia's songs were both removed in the English version. Just completely yanked out. Instead, a very bland sounding instrumental piece was added to the anime intro, and only the instrumental piece from the ending credits of the Japanese remained. It's a horrible crime (IMHO) to do such a thing, since the songs were probably one of the best parts of the game's musical score.

Finally, I found the PlayStation version to be much too easy, even with the Energy Tanks and Weapon Tanks totally missing. The Saturn version seems much harder, and not just in the fact that the Saturn version has more enemies and such. It's almost like the AI in the Saturn version is actually more refined, since the Robot Masters actually REALLY tried to fight me with all their might. This leads me to believe that the Saturn version was developed first, and then the game was just tossed over to the PSX and scaled back. Is it really me? Maybe anyone who has both versions can do a side-by-side comparison and see.

The Bottom Line
Mega Man 8 is quite an awesome game by Mega Man standards, and if it really is going to be the final Mega Man game ever, at least the series went out with a blast. I salute to you, Mega Man, and I highly recommend this game to both Mega Man vets and newcomers alike!