Apparently the people at Capcom weren't satisified
with the look and feel of the Mega Man X games for
the SNES. "What is people want the classic, cutesy
Mega Man, of days long ago?", the designers probably asked
when proposing this project. So, Capcom took a veering
from the more futuristic and serious sidestory and went
back to the original line of games. This game is Mega Man 7.
If you're an obsessed Mega Man freak like me, you'd know
that Dr. Wily was finally and captured and put in jail
after Mega Man 6. Well, Dr. Wily has a back-up plan and
using a remote control, sends a bunch of robots to break
him out of jail. As the Blue Bomber, you must stop him!
Much like Mega Man X, the game begins with a little
introduction stage. Mega Man is riding along with his
robot sister Roll in a car being driven by a new character
name Auto. After hopping off, Mega Man finds Dr. Light
just to time to witness Wily's escape. After a bit
of jumping, Mega Man will come across a mysterious new
robot. After a quickie fight, you discover that his
name is Bass and he's also after Dr. Wily. You also
meet his dog companion Treble for a quick bit before
he takes off. Not to spoil anything, but Bass and Treble
are really working for Dr. Wily...it's a ruse you can
just kind of see through (though not as bad as the
ridiculously obvious Dr. X of Mega Man 6.)
With that stage completed, you can choose from four
robot masters to fight: Freeze Man, Junk Man, Burst Man, and
Cloud Man. Yep, I said four robot masters. Instead of
giving you eight at a time like previous games, it splits
it up. After these four jokers get destroyed, you play
through an intermittent stage (set in a robot museum) and
then are allowed to choose the next four bosses (Turbo Man,
Shade Man, Spring Man, and Slash Man.)
Mega Man's a bit bigger than he was in Mega Man X and
the NES games, but it doesn't feel cramped like you'd
think. It's sort of like how Super Castlevania IV compares
to the other NES Castlevania games...it's bigger but
still the same. Since you don't have a dash attack,
you have to slide like the NES games. You also can't scale walls any more.
For this reason, the game seems to have a slower pace than the X games...
something I kinda liked.
There are plenty of hidden things in Mega Man 7 as well.
The bosses no longer give you the various Rush accessories...
Instead, you find them in tough to reach places or in
a secret area. You start off with the standard Rush
Coil, but you can find the Rush Jet and a new item called
Rush Search (that searches for hidden items and locations.)
You can also get a jet pack like Mega Man 6 by collecting
four letters to spell RUSH. Little things like this
make it interesting to hunt through trying to find
every little thing. There are even hidden routes through a few of
the levels.
This is also the first big screen Mega Man game to let you buy things (Mega
Man IV for the Gameboy originally introduced this.)
Auto the robot can make you stuff if you can supply him
with enough bolts. Energy Tanks, extra men, and
various other parts can be bought. Also hidden somewhere
is Auto's Mega Bolt that not only introduces new items
for him to produce, but reduces the price of all existing
items by half.
The main thing I have to complain about though, is the
lack of originality. Mega Man X changed the series in
a way so that it didn't seem so stale on the 16-bit
platforms. As good as Mega Man 5 and 6 were, you can't say that
it didn't start to feel the same. Well, Mega Man 7 produces that
same feeling of deja vu. Some parts are even directly ripped from
other games...the dinosaur that you ride, jumping and running over spikes
is just like the grasshoppers in Mega Man 4. The platforms that move
on rails and occasionally flip over are right from Guts Man in Mega Man 1.
And even an area where you're chased by lava down a shaft is ripped from
Quick Man in Mega Man 2. It just seems that the designers lost some originality,
especially with some of the generic bosses (Cloud Man's stage is just like
Air Man, right up to many of the bad guys.)
The graphics are okay...they could've been done much better though. Again
comparing it to Mega Man X, it all seems rather plain. The music's the
same sorta cutesy-ish stuff you'd expect, although some of the tunes
are quite cool (especially the intro stage.) And Mega Man controls
as nicely as he always did.
On a whole, Mega Man 7 seems to be a step down from the likes of Mega Man X.
Why couldn't there be a power-up that lets you charge all weapons instead
of just the Mega Buster? Why do the graphics pale in comparison to a
game that's older? In spite of this, Mega Man 7 does have enough neat
extras to make it an enjoyable Mega Man title. All of the secrets are
quite good and well hidden, plus at least SOME of the bosses are cool (I
happen to like Shade Man, who's somewhat like a vampire.) If you've grown tired
of the NES Mega Mans, stay away, but you'll enjoy it quite a bit if you're
a fan.
