tommy_lop's Full Review: Mega Man 8 for PlayStation 1
When I bought my Playstation is was for 2 gaming series in general Final Fantasy, and Mega Man. Since I didn’t want to spend by last week in front of the Playstation sucked into a final fantasy game, I went with two Mega Man games. Mega Man 8, and Mega Man X5.
For you Pokemon whippersnappers who haven't ever played the original Mega Man series should know there are differences in gameplay between the original and X series.
Story.
A huge robot has crashed onto a deserted island, and the evil Dr.Wiley was seen escaping the scene. Mega Man finds out about this and brings the robot to Dr. Light for repairs. While Light repairs the robot, Mega Man is out destroying the 8 new robot creations created by Dr. Wiley.
Graphics.
Now you should prepare yourself for more cartoonish graphics if you have been playing the Mega Man X series. The graphics are definitely aimed at the younger crowd, a good example of this is that when you destroy a robot they burst into little bitty bolts and screws. Cartoonish has they may be there still fun to look at and don’t bring down the fun in this game.
Then there are the anime cut scenes. These are pretty blurry, and the animation in them is not the best in the world, but it’s nothing that will make you go blind by looking at it. What really bring these scenes down are the voices in them, but I’ll get more on that when we get to the sound.
Sound.
Of course like most Mega Man games the soundtrack is nice to listen, to and doesn’t detract from the game. There are a few nice songs that will get stuck in your head, and you'll find yourself humming out loud to.
However this is brought down by the horrible voice acting in the game. This is especially found in the cut scenes. Now in my X4 review I criticized X for sounding something like a 2 and a half-year little girl, well in Mega Man 8 he must be voiced by her little sister. Is voice is really high pitch, (more high pitch then the person who plays his sister Rolls voice) it's also really annoying to hear after a while. The rest of them are just plain awful, there slow, flat, and just plain dull to listen to. The worse of them would have to be Dr. Light, who sounds like an idiotic version of Elmer Fudd.
I should also warn you that each of the 8 boss have there own taunts and voices, these are equally bad has the main cast, however, I did find a few chuckles out of them. I especially like Frostman’s “ouch that hurt” whenever you hit him with a flash bomb.
Gameplay.
Now as I said in the beginning of my review there are differences in the gameplay between the X and original Mega Man series. While they both have the choose a level with a boss in it, complete to get a weapon and then use it against another boss in another stage. The differences come with the levels, and bosses. While Mega Man X's stages are short compared to the Mega Man series’, X's bosses are bigger and a lot harder to beat. You can also add on top of that in the X series you are able to wall jump, find extra power ups (armor, hear pieces etc), and allowed to go faster through dashing. All this makes the original Mega Man series seem a little bit slowed pace and dull.
So anything new in the Mega Man formula. Now every Mega Man game they have to add a little something new to the formula to keep it from getting too archaic. In this one you can collect screws, which you can later use to buy, power ups, these are hard to find and they’re only a certain amount of them per stage. With these you can buy an escape from a stage power up, to different blaster power ups.
There are also new ways to use Rush in this one to. After you fight some mini bosses they might drop a power up for Mega Man’s canine friend Rush. These power ups allow you to call Rush and he’ll help you in one of four ways. However you can only use these once per stage, or once per life, which ever one happens first.
Bike.
This is the first one by selecting this Rush turns into a motor bike and Mega Man can ride around on him for a while, he goes much faster and jump’s higher then Mega Man’s walk.
?
Rush beams down and can give Mega Man a helpful item. Or he can seemly yawn and go to sleep. This might be a good one to call if you’re headed into a situation that might need a power up. Don’t wait in till your in the thick of things to call Rush, cause if he decides to take a nap your screwed.
Rush Bomb.
Rush fly’s close to the top of the screen and drops bombs on the enemies. Good to use on bosses, and when your in a situation where’s there is a lot of enemies around.
First aid kit.
This is the most beneficial Rush Powerup there is. Because some idiot decided to take out the energy cans, and subtanks you’ll be relying on this to power you up in a bad situation. Rush fly’s on top of the screen and drops power up’s for you to grab and refill your life bar.
Recomendation.
If you’re a Mega Man fan then you probably already played this game and don’t need to know about it already. If you aren’t a Mega Man fan, I strongly suggest a rental first.
A giant meteor containing two robots crashes down on the surface of the planet. The evil Dr. Wiley takes control of one of the robots and uses it to w...More at GameQuest Direct. com
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