Mega Man 6 Did Something Incredible...

the Mega Man franchise received a staggering amount of games on its console of origin Mega Man debuted in the NES in the late 80s and Mega Man 6 was his final outing on the console long past the point where other franchises had moved on to new hardware and that's what's so interesting about Mega Man 6 it released so late into the console's lifespan that it almost was not released in North America at all the reason why it was is quite interesting but before I even think about it I imagine that building robots like the ones in the first annual robot championship requires a lot of intelligence I mean I wouldn't know because I don't make robots but Mr X definitely does and I would say he's pretty smart which is why he's definitely going to pay attention to the following ad because I've decided to partner up with brilliant to be the sponsor of today's video brilliant is an online learning platform created by instructors researchers and other professionals from MIT Caltech Duke Microsoft 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there were three Super Mario Bros games on NES two Legend of Zelda games two Contra games two Metal Gear games one Metroid game and so on getting more than three games is pretty unusual for many classic franchise is that debuted in the original Nintendo and this is Mega Man 6 on the exact same console as Mega Man 1 I think this also played a part in why Mega Man's 4 through six aren't as well remembered as 1 through three these games kept getting made for the same Hardware while other consoles like the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo were dominating the gaming Market by the time Mega Man 6 was released on the NES it was 1994 the console was released in North America in 1985 in the tech world that is ancient this Super Nintendo came out in 1991 in the west and by '94 it was well into its prime and the next Nintendo console the N64 was only 2 years away by the standards of the Western Market I can see why Mega Man 4 was released the Next Generation wasn't fully in go mode yet but then Mega Man 5 was pushing it but six's existence is pretty wild that's only if you look at it from a western perspective apparently in Japan these consoles had a less defined shelf life you could release a game on technically outdated hardware and there would still be a market for it for people who were not early adopters of new technology so Mega Man games releasing on outdated Hardware is something that's happened more than once in the franchise's lifespan because in Japan it's fine that's why Capcom published Rockman 6 in Japan with no issue however even they realized there was just no reason for it in the west and decided that they wouldn't publish Mega Man 6 instead focusing on the upcoming release of Mega Man X for the Super Nintendo which was a long overdue leap to the Next Generation for the series Mega Man X is a game that needs no introduction you can watch my videos on it if you need to be caught up to speed because it's one of my favorite games ever made really innovated upon the Mega Man franchise in a desperately needed way given that the NES Saga was growing stale but where did that leave Mega Man 6 well the interesting thing is that in the United States Mega Man 6 was published by Nintendo not Capcom Capcom still owned the game and the IP but they didn't see the value in releasing the title so Nintendo did it for them but then that begs the question why bother as I said Nintendo already had the SNES with a plethora of big games coming out for it on the regular and the N64 was on its way what was in it for them well in 1993 Nintendo released the NES top loader a significantly Slimmer cheaper rendition of the classic console costing about 50 bucks which would be worth about a 100 bucks in today's money ironically today the bulky original version of the NES that you see before you now is cheaper on eBay than the top loader but it served its purpose this is a cheap machine for consumers who didn't already own an NES and didn't want to get an S NES if you got the top loader when it came out and didn't have an NES before then now you had a cheap version of the system with a huge library of games accessible looking at this american commercial Mega Man 6 was a featured game for Nintendo they saw Mega Man 6 as the perfect game to attach to the top loader and that is how Mega Man 6 came to be in the United States and I'm glad it did because Mega Man 6 is a game I've always felt pretty positively about just like all the previous games I haven't played this all the way through in about 8 years or so since I did the full playthrough of it on my other channel but I won't spend today's Nostalgia segment talking about that this time instead when thinking back on Mega Man 6 I'm actually pretty sure this was the first or one of the earliest Mega Man games I tried I always say that I became a fan of the series when I first played Mega Man X all the way through in 2015 but Mega Man X alongside Mega Man's 6 and 7 caught my eye the most I think it was in 2014 or so when I tried out Mega Man on an emulator on the house computer because that's when I was first getting into emulation I was playing flame man's level with the keyboard and having never played much Mega Man I got my butt kicked but there was something I found really Charming about Mega Man 6 which made me want to try it more than the other classic Mega Man games I chocked that up to the story and art of Mega Man 6 this time around the first ever annual robot Master tournament is being held as eight of the most powerful Robot Masters are going to compete nothing could possibly go wrong with that I'm sure but of course the host of the championship Mr X De decided to turn all the combatants night man centur man Tomahawk man flaman windman Blizzard Man plant man and Yamato man into his own Army as he seeks to take over the world Mr X is apparently the Mastermind behind Dr wy's previous schemes Mega Man and rush now have to travel across the globe to stop it there's nothing revolutionary about that premise but taking Mega Man across the globe interested me in this game from the offset cuz it was a great excuse for diverse level theming the visuals in these games got much better with each installment and Mega Man 6 is a fitting sendoff for the NES era of Mega Man they truly got everything out of the console they could have by this point great looking effects like this giant sun in the background of a stage more detail in the areas like the castle of night man stage or the foreground in Tomahawk man stage and a wide variety of colors in the screen at all times too I would nominate this as one of the best looking NES games if I were made to pick one the global theme of Mega Man 6 also made the boss roster really compelling before I played it as well starting with Mega Man 2 the Japanese fan base is allowed to submit designs for potential Robot Masters and the art team at Capcom would pick the best one and refine it to be in the game Mega Man 6 was no different but they also opened it up to the us as well and windman and night man were the bosses that made it from us submissions this is actually why those are the Robot Masters on the US cover art but before I get to that the Boss Designs are just so much more complex than earlier games just look at the boss roster of Mega Man 1 where almost all of them had the same kind of body type that was easy to make Sprites out of to Mega Man 6 where they all look and function so differently and have such varying Sprites it's incredible how much the art team had grown in terms of character design and Sprite art as well the actual art style had evolved with each game too in Mega Man's 1 through three kg inafune was the lead artist and character designer and you can see his style evolve with each one but with four you can see the style still looks like the previous games as inafune was an artist in all the Mega Man games up to X3 but the key art in many character designs from 4 through six were done by hayato Kaji and this is the most recognizable classic Mega Man art style the one that was perfected in Mega Man 5 and used again in Mega Man 6 enhanced in Mega Man 7 and 8 and directly paid homage to with Mega Man's 9 and 10 meanwhile the US artwork had also reached a point where it looked perfectly fine too I didn't mention it last time because I figured I'd save it for the Mega Man 6 video since I knew I'd be talking a lot about art in this one but Mega Man 5's box art still has that thing where Mega Man's face was adjusted to make him more manly looking than his actual design especially when you compare the US Mega Man 5 to the European one where he just looks like Mega Man but I think this is plenty good enough and has a lot of charm to it as well then Mega Man 6 despite the angry expression actually just looks like Mega Man they finally did it took them the entire NES run of Mega Man games but they did it but this one doesn't have European art because fun fact Mega Man 6 wasn't released in Europe when looking into it the NES version didn't come to Europe for the reason I went into earlier Capcom didn't feel the the need to release this game in englishspeaking countries and Nintendo didn't publish it in Europe either the NES Mega Man games were later ported to PlayStation one but those were Japanese exclusive so it didn't get to Europe then either the PS2 Anniversary Collection was Us exclusive and thus European players weren't allowed to play the game there either officially speaking European Mega Man fans weren't allowed to play Mega Man 6 until the 3DS eShop version came out in 2013 and then when the Mega Man Legacy Collection came out in 2015 two whole decades after the game originally released just thought that was really interesting but yeah the art design of Mega Man 6 and its development history has always fascinated me but how's the actual game upon the replay well that's what we're here to find out if you've been playing all the NES Mega Man games up to this point you're undoubtedly up to speed and how to play Mega Man 6 cuz the base move set is exactly the same as Mega Man 5 the only change I can think of is that Mega Man's charge shot is slightly smaller in Mega Man 6 compared to Mega Man 5 but it's still larger than the charge shot in Mega Man 4 but on the subject of charge shots it was stated in the Mega Man 5 comments section that it was a downgrade from four cuz if you got hit while charging you have to start the charge from the beginning when in four getting hit didn't affect the charge at all honestly this is the kind of thing I never would have noticed in a million years or rather it would happen in Mega Man 5 and I wouldn't even question it and assumed it was always like that in four but now I know differently and Mega Man 6 does not fix this issue assuming it was even an issue in the eyes of the designers to begin with and not something they did on purpose which it very well may have been but as should be expected by this point the meat of the game was in the level design and in that area Mega Man 6 hits even when I first played it so many years ago I recall being impressed by how well tutorial IED the gimmick of flame man stage was these enemies in the Sky Drop Flames that light this oil on fire that was otherwise safe to Traverse you get shown that in a spot you may not even be in and if you are it's very easy to get through you're also shown that charg is the only way to hit this enemy that becomes a platform you can use to get through the oil the stage then combines these gimmicks at the end it's simple stage design but remarkably effective similarly Blizzard Man stage introduces a gimmick with these bombs and a timer that get activated by pressing them and as the stage goes on you need to solve the puzzle of what order they need to be pressed in so you can progress while dealing with all the usual Mega Man platforming and the obstacles that come from this being an ice level like slippery controls the art design of Mega Man 6 lended itself to visually diverse areas but also cool stages that are a lot different from levels you've explored in previous games night man stage is in a castle that has these bouncy things to jump on centor man stage is the water level by this point you know what the drill is that Mega Man jumps much higher underwater but this stage has this cool segment where the water is rising up and down from the top of the screen so you need to platform around this part by timing your jumps to get into the water so you can take advantage of the higher jump and then land back on the ground where the controls are normal Mega Man 6 is littered with this kind of stuff the only level segment I can think of that I just don't like is the ending of plant man stage it's kind of a cluster as you have to jump from Tiny point to Tiny point with a pit below you and enemies flying at you and Diving up from the abyss to attack you as well it's just too much at once and it's kind of a Liv strainer whenever I play it but besides that brief segment this is a very well-designed roster of stages Mega Man 6's unique gimmick is the rush Transformations the usual Rush abilities like Rush coil and Rush jet just aren't in Mega Man 6 instead Mega Man and Rush can merge into new forms by beating flame man stage you unlock power Mega Man this form is focused on strength the suit of armor is heavy making Mega Man slower but you can charge up your punches to do a lot of damage and destroy or move heavy objects behind heavy objects are often hidden e tanks or extra lives beating Plant Man stage gives you the jet Mega Man transformation which I have to say is a pretty cruel prank as you have to clear the hardest jumps in the game to unlock a form that makes platforming significantly easier jet Mega Man allows you to fly after jumping for a brief period this can be useful in platforming but is most often used for reaching higher areas and Alternate Pathways when you list out the functions of these forms like that it's pretty simple how it works but again I think it really lets Mega Man 6 stand out because the levels have all these opportunities to use these forms effectively and the other games just don't have this so it's pretty unique the biggest issue with this is how you can only access weapons from the menu and so using power and Jet Mega Man forces you to pause the game and switch to it but that's just a product of this being an NES game there weren't any other buttons to work with for a quick swap power and Jet Mega Man do contribute to this game's exploration in the ways I just said though there are not as many Collectibles as Mega Man 4 and especially five the only major thing to grab is the energy balancer a new must-have upgrade with this collecting weapon energy with no special weapon equipped will automatically fill up the weapon with the least amount of remaining ammo this is actually something that Mega Man X had at default but you need to collect in Mega Man 6 often times ammo would be pretty Pace breaking in previous games because if you really needed it for a weapon you'd have to pause the game and equip it first so I'd usually not even bother so this is a must have for that reason though it is funny how this is protom man's only appearance in Mega Man 6 and he doesn't even say anything when dropping it but as I said this is the only physical collectible in the game Yamato man centur man Tomahawk man and night man stage reward you with the beat letters but you don't actually collect those the trick is that these stages all have diverging Pathways that lead to different boss doors if you pick the easy path you'll beat the boss and get the weapon but if you pick the alternative route you fight the boss and get the weapon as well as the beat letter this is all right though I'll admit I felt like Mega Man 5's exploration got me more engaged with the level design since the Mega Man letters could be hidden anywhere in the stage this is just see the other path take the other path the rewards also not that special in Mega Man 5 beat was just super powerful but here I almost never use it that's a compliment to the special weapons of Mega Man 6 though fives are much less power ful and I think this game made up for it the functionality of many of these is nothing too out of the ordinary for the series like plant man's weapon forming a barrier around you Tomahawk man's flying upward in an arc Yamato man's firing straight blizzard man's firing in a spread flame man's working at close range and so on and so forth however the usage is simple and easy and the Damage output is high so the special weapons more than carry their own combine that with the Super Mega Buster and the new Rush Transformations and that's why something like beat was ultimately kind of a lame reward in Mega Man six but generally speaking bosses are pretty easy in this one too I didn't really remember the weakness order from this game like some of the others so I started with flaman who was an easy first pick and then I went to winman who also was then Blizzard Man was weak to flam man's weapon and then plant man was weak to Blizzard man's weapon and so on and so forth regardless of whether or not I had the weakness or not I never felt underere equipped fighting bosses this game's boss roster is just on the easy side but like always I appreciate how the attacks are readable and thus can be fun to avoid even if the battles are over pretty quickly moving along to the end game Mega Man 6 is the third and last Mega Man game to have two sets of final stages I thought Mega Man 5es really improved on what four had to offer so when going into the Mr X Fortress of Mega Man 6 I was hoping for more of the same but in reality I thought it was all right I think the level design in six's finale is good there are a lot of perilous segments that make use of both power and Jet Mega Man fitting for the game's final stages and I really like how if you know how to use these forms effective L you could take these shortcuts that bypass the more difficult sections however I think these stages came stocked with too many lives in E tanks by the end of the game I had seven lives and seven e tanks which is just a lot having said that there are segments here that demonstrate smart thinking from the designers like how Mr X stage 2 has these pits you fall into that are clearly marked by the yellow walls with holes in them but you get shown this in a safe way first you fall in and there's ground to walk on before you jump out now you know how the this works before it becomes deadly later in the stage these are solidly designed stages not as good or challenging as Mega Man 5 but solid just too short too many extra pickups and the bosses went down really easily but I thought the Aesthetics were great and the music felt properly climactic though the final boss with Dr Wy is probably the easiest one yet I mean look at how the silver Tomahawk shreds this health bar and then the Final Phase is basically the same thing as Mega Man 5 so it's not that climactic but that reminds me Dr Wy is in this game surprise surprise he was Mr X all along I get why Wy would pretend to be Mr X to Commander the robot Championship but I don't know why he'd keep the ruse going past that point but Dr Wy schemes are pretty godamn stupid for a vast majority of the series but that's part of the charm though to this game's credit something finally happens in one of these games Dr Wy doesn't escape in this one Mega Man finally captures him and he actually goes to jail it's like they knew this was the last NES Mega Man game and wanted a status quo shift to finally occur for the first time in three games but the ending credits do come with a 2B continued so they knew Mega Man 7 was going to exist on the SNES but that's the story for another day so when just talking about Mega Man 6 I like it that much should be obvious by now I suppose there are some things I thought Mega Man 5 executed better like exploration and final stage design but I think Mega Man 6 wins out purely because it's the sixth installment in the same series that usually didn't change much from game to game that managed to do enough new things anyway and look aesthetically pleasing enough to the point where it stands out inside of this six game roster I think Mega Man 6 is really good game and to bring It full circle to where we started I'm glad the game was localized in the west I can easily picture a parallel world where Rockman 6 never leaves Japan until eventual re-releases and for a while is only accessible in English through ROM hacks on the internet Mega Man 7 would still release and take place after six but maybe they'd pull a final fantasy and just call that one six cuz we didn't get the real one needless to say I'm glad we live in the timeline we do where Nintendo saw something in this game and decided to release it themselves even if what they saw was a marketing opportunity but yeah now that I've replayed and covered all six Mega Man games in the NES I can say I had a lot of fun with this as you may know the Mega Man X Games X1 through X4 in particular are ones I've played an uncountable amount of times will continue to do so in the future and I also go back to Mega Man zeros 2 through 4 every now and again as well however the Classic Series has just never gotten that much serious attention from me I played them all a couple of times or just once depending on the game when I first got into the series and then I LPD them all in 2016 and in the time since besides sampling them for stock footage I never fully played through them again for 8 years so going through these games again was nostalgic but also fun to look into their histories more and critique them from the same lens I did in the X series of course I'm not done with classic Mega Man since there are many many more of these games but having replayed and covered the first six is definitely a cool milestone and I hope the fans of mine who have envisioned these videos for like seven or eight years got what they were hoping for but yeah when I return to Mega Man next it'll be Mega Man 7 8 Mega Man and base and probably some spin-offs in there as well but until that time comes I will close by saying what I always do if you made it this far into the video I thank you all for watching and I'll see you next time

Channel: J's Reviews

Views: 70,627

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Id: 83rCh2_oI_w

Length: 20min 18sec (1218 seconds)

Published: Mon May 20 2024