Finally leaving is NES roots behind, Mega Man 7 is the first installment to appear on the SNES. But with a series in decline, can this game uplift the Mega Man name to its previous heights? No. Not by a mile.
A departure from the NES series right away is opening the game up with only 4 levels available instead of 8. This doesn't enhance the game at all, and only serves as an excuse to throw in a cutscene before being allowed to visit the other 4 levels. This time around, you're allowed breaks between Wily castle stages to replenish whatever items you with. However, even though you can save/password, turning off the game will reset your progress and you'll have to start back on stage one of Wily castle, which really defeats the point of saving entirely. The game also brings in the element of currency. Screws can be found by either defeating enemies or having Rush dig them up for you. These screws are used to buy items from the shop. How to access the shop is a bit of a mystery at first, but you have to press select in the middle square. Buying items is a bit of a hassle. You always have to listen to the bit of text the robot salesmen has to say before you can buy anything, and the selection of items doesn't appear right away.
One thing this game tries to do different is put more emphasis on the narrative of the story. However, most Mega Man plots can be summed up with "Dr. Wily is evil, go get him." This story does not need anymore focus beyond being used as an excuse to go blow up robots. However, the game throws unskippable dialog at you between missions, after mission and before boss fights.
What really throws this installment off is the wavering difficulty. When encountering a boss with its known weakness, the boss simply crumbles most of the time and is completely helpless. This extinguishes most of the challenges found with these fights. In previous games, it was almost logical for one boss to have another's weakness, but this game seems to have them just randomly assigned. Also, levels are guilty of some of the cheapest designs yet. There are many instances where your jumps need to be highly accurate or you face death. Often, there are some moments where you are basically required to take a hit due to the arrangement of enemies or layout design. This defeats the idea of skill conquering your challenges, and makes the game play feel more unfair. Of course, there are those trial and error moments which the game throws at you. Still annoying.
The graphics certainly have been upgraded from previous titles, but the color palettes and choice of objects that make up a level seem too comical to be taken seriously. Older Mega Man titles gave you industrial, raw textures and a mixture of lifeless grays contrasted against brilliant purples and such. This game seems to throw the entire spectrum at you in an attempt to distract from the lack of creativity that went into this game. Some of the special effects in the game cause the frame rate to just plummet, and in some areas where timing is essential. This is unacceptable in a Mega Man game. It may be just the port to the PS2, but these moments are noticeable enough to be distracting. Some of the boss designs are just plain silly, especially creations like Spring Man.
The soundtrack is bad. The quality and tone do not accurately match the levels or the game itself. The SNES is capable of much more than what's being given here. Almost every track feels too light-hearted or too artificial and end up being very forgettable or falling into the background noise of the game. The sound effects also feel too whimsical. Its almost as if this game were targeted to a younger audience than previous Mega Man games, but that's still no excuse to churn out bland, uninspired music.
A special mention has to be made for how cumbersome the menu was made for this game. Normally, Mega Man games consist of a menu which displays all your available weapons, extra lives, E Tanks, etc. Mega Man 7 has broken this up into two full screens, using the shoulder buttons to navigate between the two. The problem lies with trying to exit out of the menu. You cannot just simply hit start where ever you please or even a cancel button. The only way to exit is to select a weapon. But when moving between the screens to say, use an E Tank, when moving back, the Next button on the next screen is where the default start point is, not your current weapon. This makes using the menu more of a hassle than it needs to be. It wouldn't be a problem, but you use the menu so much in this game, that it really shouldn't have strayed so far from what was already working.
Overall, this is not what Mega Man deserved in his first SNES appearance and doesn't hold up on its own or as apart of the Mega Man series and ends up being the worst in the series thus far.
Images courtesy of www.Gamefaqs.com
No comments:
Post a Comment