For the past 30 years, Mega Man has been one of the all-time greatest videogame characters. Ranging from his humble beginnings in his NES debut to his guest appearance in Super Smash Bros. For Wii U, the blue bomber has been a favorite for a lot of gamers over the years. Which is why Capcom released yet another compilation disc of one of their iconic mascots. However, in comparison to past discs from 13 years ago (I.E: GameCube, Xbox and PlayStation 2), this 'legacy' one feels like it was severely lacking in the contents department.
Now for those who did not experience a Mega Man game here's the M.O: his games have always been a 2D platformer at heart, shooting enemies down to reach the bosses of choice at the end of levels. Like all 6 of these games, the main objective is to face the robot masters, beat them, take their powers and then fight your way to Dr. Wily and save the day. Now the Mega Man franchise was ahead of its time with its innovative ability to choose which robot master you wanted to go after and in which order you would like to go after them with. Another innovative addition from the series was to take the power of the defeated robot masters and use them for your own. Each of the robots had a weakness and it was up to you to find and figure them out.
Mega Man Legacy Collection is a compilation of his first outings on the NES with a twist. Mega Man; his initial debut, Mega Man 2; the game that started his popularity, Mega Man 3; another major fan-favorite, Mega Man 4; underrated title, Mega Man 5; the beginning of the downfall of the franchise and Mega Man 6; the final outing on the NES and not the best one. Why was 7, 8, 9 and 10 not included here was a mystery until the reveal of Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 slated for August 2017. As for the twist in regards to Mega Man Legacy Collection; with the exception of artwork, music and sketches from the games, Capcom added something new: challenge mode. If you thought you knew everything about Mega Man then you better think again. They, Capcom, took the idea from Nintendo with their NES Remix titles and riddled a lot of time-based challenges based on all 6 of the Mega Man games. From reaching point A to point B as fast as you can whilst the stages change randomly at given intervals, going through the bosses in random order while trying to do it in the fastest time imaginable. Including two of the greatest challenges that would make any Mega Man fan's mouth water: taking on all 46 robot bosses in a massive gauntlet with their weakness or the ultimate challenge by taking them all on again with only your trusty Mega Buster. And as an added bonus for bragging rights, an online leaderboard was added (with video replay) for more replayability and tips from other pro-runs to further better yourself.
Presentation wise, the games are all presented in 8-bit glory and in HD. The Legacy Collection also comes with a save feature, giving you the ability to save your game at anytime with one simple press of the button (comes in handy for the first Mega Man game) and also screen presentation. Whether you want to play it in its original 4:3 ratio format or stretch it to a 16:9 ratio format, with the weird stretches included. Also added was the addition of concept art, a museum of each enemy and etc. along with music from the respective games that they come from. Quite a bit of stuff to get into; as small as it is.
Mega Man Legacy Collection does not have a lot of substance behind it in comparison to the Mega Man Anniversary Collection which had TEN games, including 2 arcade games never released in North America, and the pilot episode to the Ruby-Spears Mega Man cartoon (it wasn't a good cartoon show but it was worth it I guess). They could've easily covered all of the classic Mega Man games on one disc, but instead we'll have to wait for Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 to complete it. For diehard Mega Man fans, this is a must-buy. That I will give this short-changed compilation.