Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 (PlayStation 4) Review

Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 is a good example that not all old games withstand the test of time. This collection presents a chance for players to get the harder-to-find copies of these games, as the series essentially disappeared from Nintendo after Mega Man 6 (7 was on the SNES, but was in all ways inferior to Mega Man X). As will be seen, recalling the older games might be interesting from a curiosity point of view, but from a gameplay perspective, they largely were a mess.

First, a quick clarification is needed. This collection features Mega Man titles 7, 8, 9, and 10, of which, originally, 7 and 8 were around 20 years old, and 9 and 10 were recently made, but created purposely in a "throwback style." This may be a little confusing, but the worst looking ones (9 and 10) were the most recent, having been released digitally on PSN and Xbox Live.

Imagine back in 1995, Mega Man has left the NES, and it has already been a year since the colossal hit of Mega Man X, which blew fans away with the radical and successful change to the formula. Now, Mega Man 7 comes along, and it is a direct continuation of the NES series, meaning things like finding upgrades hidden in the level, dashing, and wall jumps are all completely gone. It was a step back, and many at the time felt it, with its mediocre reviews. There was a story attempted in Mega Man 7 with dialogue and so on, but it is largely forgettable.

Playing the game today, to be blunt, is painful. The lack of a dash keeps the pace slow, and the lack of anything to do with cliffs and wall jumping is an exercise in frustration. There is a reason conventions in genres become standard, and with platforming, there is a basic level of understanding that with walls the player either needs to be able to climb them, slide on them, or grab the edge. Not having this, as is the case in all these games, means frequent trips into the abyss due to missing jumps by mere pixels.

Mega Man 8 is, arguably, the best one out of the bunch. It is colourful, the grindy nature of finding bolts from the previous title is gone, and the original formula of Mega Man finds its highest conclusion. For old times' sake, it is a decent romp, but far too frequently modern players will be annoyed by the lack of a run/dash, and of the previous problems mentioned of walls/edges being the largest issue in the entire game.

Notably, Mega Man 8 started including anime scenes and voice acting. At the time, it might have been interesting, but now it is laughably bad. For proof, check out one of the most universally agreed "worst voice acting ever" scenes in a video game.

Oddly, Mega Man 9 and 10 stick out as they are true copies of Mega Man 1 in that the graphics are that bad, and the controls are only jump and shoot. No charge, no dash, nothing. These were released fairly recently as throwbacks to the older style, but, to be blunt, they fail on multiple levels. To go back to the larger points above, there are reasons conventions in platformers exist, and deaths such as falling onto spikes you couldn't see from the previous screen were done away with. "Trial and error" gameplay existed as a way to artificially extend short games, and is not a convention most modern gamers take kindly to.

Frustratingly, this is far too common in these last two games. All too frequently, a blind leap down a hole is required, and - whoops, you died. Should have hung the right wall instead of the left. This kind of stuff was fine back in the 80s and early 90s when kids had nothing to do but grind on their NES games all day, but to make a game featuring this element is mostly a crime in this day and age. Even the bosses are largely boring, due to Mega Man himself not having any options. There are only so many patterns to have an enemy do when all the player can do is jump and shoot.