It's a two for one offering this week. Double the Mega Man!
I've wanted to discuss these two games for a while and it's been quite some time since I have discussed the Mega Man series, so I figured now was the time. I know I've covered these games a lot, but what can I say, I love that little blue guy. While I've certainly discussed MM a ton, probably more than any gaming franchise, I've found that the series provides tons of oddities that most mainstream series' just don't. I think it comes from being one of the early targets of the "its the same game over and over again" critics, it's definitely the first series I remember being slammed by reviewers for that. Honestly, they weren't completely off base in that assessment. It seems that Capcom heard the criticism and took it to heart, sometimes almost too much so. Some of their spinoffs worked, some didn't. But I'm not sure any of those spinoffs are quite as obscure as these two games.
What makes these two titles so unique? For one, they are the first and only arcade games in the Mega Man franchise. Power Battle and Power Fighters, released in 1995 and 1996 respectively, were Capcom's attempt to mix things up for what was becoming something of a stagnant franchise. Never heard of it? Probably because the original cabinets never left Japan. Arcade culture was still going strong in mid 90's Japan, but it was fading fast in the U.S. I can think of a grand total of two, maybe three arcades that were within an hour of my house. Even then, those arcades were populated almost exclusively by light gun shooters, racers with big peripherals and carnival games. In terms of "real" video games, your options were usually limited to what I call the holy trinity of arcade beat em' ups (Turtles in Time, X-Men and The Simpsons) or 2D and 3D fighters. Even then, your options were usually the big names, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken or Virtua Fighter. I remember being super pumped when one of the arcades near me got Soul Blade and X-Men: Children of the Atom cabinets, not that I don't love SF or MK but I already had those games at home. You almost never saw games like that in the dinky arcades that I used to visit. You certainly didn't see any boss rush arcade games, a genre that I had never known was popular until I got older.
Which is where Power Battle and Power Fighters come in. These titles were essentially boss rushes, pitting your choice of Mega Man, Proto Man or Bass against a series of robot masters, a sub-boss and finally, Doctor Wily himself. These were apparently common in larger arcades, especially in Japan, in the 90's. As I mentioned before, these games were not initially released stateside. The first (and only) time they were officially released in the U.S. was as part of the Mega Man Anniversary Collection, released for all three 6th gen consoles in 2004. I myself have the Gamecube version, but all three are basically identical. I decided to group the games together as they don't really do enough differently to warrant separate reviews. It's very clear these games were designed to munch quarters (I guess munch whatever denomination of Yen it is goes into a Japanese arcade machine?) and not provide extended playthroughs on a home console. Playing these games the way I did takes some of the challenge away and I can't say it didn't make an impact on how I enjoyed them. However, Capcom's signature style and quality are prominently on display in both of these titles. They may have been mere diversions, but they were fun, well designed, quality diversions. They did leave me wanting more, or more accurately something different, but we will get to that later.
Let's start with the first thing most people notice, graphics and sound. These games look absolutely phenomenal. These were some of the best 2D graphics of their time, bar none. It really was amazing how far superior the arcade was to home consoles at this point and it was especially apparent when working with characters that had only appeared on 3rd and 4th gen consoles at this point. All the sprites are big, expressive and detailed and each robot master has tons of personality. For a lot of people, this was the first time they saw the 8-bit robot masters as anything more than just a uniquely colored mass of pixels and even in 2004, it was cool seeing Quick Man, Shadow Man, Crash Man and their contemporaries looking like their best selves. The stages all looked great as well and it was kind of cool seeing how they mixed the assets from each of the previous games. I especially like in the ice stage in Power Fighters where you can see the whale submarine from Dive Man's (MM4)stage run aground on an iceberg while Ice Man (MM1) is standing on top looking around like "uh oh, Dr. Wily is going to have my head for this." The sound is awesome too, all of the tracks are arranged or remixed versions of songs from the original games. I'm not going to say they are better than the originals because there is something about chip music that just makes me smile internally, but they are definitely top quality. If I had one gripe its that they don't always match the track on each level to the robot master you are fighting, but that's splitting hairs.
Any Mega Man fan is instantly going to recognize the controls. One button jumps, one shoots, down and jump slides and holding the shoot button charges your attack. No fighting game controls or special moves here, it's the same as the original series. You can perform a wall jump and some stages have interactable edges, but this was rare and usually didn't make an impact. Each robot master has their own pattern, combining some of their attacks from the mainline games with new moves. Some have been made more complicated, like Cutman and Gutsman, while others have been simplified, like Shadow Man. Mega Man, Protoman and Bass are playable in both PB and PF, while a new character named duo was added to PF. All of the characters do feel kind of the same except for Duo, and I found him to be far worse than the other three. Still the controls are responsive and the hit detetion is fair, which is especially important because you take tons of contact damage from the robot masters. I will say knowledge was a bit of a curse for me, I would face a robot master and think to myself "ok, his pattern is X" and then forget I was playing a different game until he started throwing Y and Z at me. That's more of a me problem than an issue with the game, but other Mega Man fans might have a similar experience.
Upon defeating each robot master, you get to take their special weapon. Most of these remain unchanged from their original incarnation, with iconinc powers like Wood Man's Leaf Shield and Gemini Man's laser behaving just like they do in their respective games. Give Capcom credit, they knew exactly which powers could stay the same and which needed to be changed due to the game's environment. Bubble Man's Bubble Lead now longer travels only on the ground and Guts Man's super arm no longer requires you to find rocks before picking them up. Some of the powers needed to be changed outright, Centaur Man's Centaur Flash has been replaced with flash arrow, as a screen clear attack wouldn't be necessary in a game like this. Stone Man's power stone was changed so it didn't completely suck. Each boss has a weakness weapon you can exploit for extra damage, though the weakness isn't as pronounced as it is in the regular MM games. This is one of the biggest differences from PB and PF, because in PB you can't choose in which order you face the robot masters. That's a massive problem, because the later opponents are very tough without their weakness weapon. PF allows you to choose which enemy you face and even gives you a hint as to what their weakness weapon might be. In some cases it outright tells you thanks to the lousy translation.
While the games play the same, they are structured a bit differently and this is really what makes PF stand out as the slightly more advanced title. In PB, you are given three ladder options, Mega Man 1-2, Mega Man 3-6 and Mega Man 7. You will fight only robots from those respective games in a random order, which as I mentioned before is a bit problematic given the weakness system. You will have a mid-boss fight, which is always a yellow devil, before a showdown with Dr. Wily. It's a little disappointing that the yellow devil is the only sub boss, though he at least behaves differently depending on which track you take. PF allows you to choose one of three paths, hunting Wily, searching for Roll or recovering parts. Each one allows you to choose the order of enemies you face and then provides you with a different mid-boss. PF also has an easier to read life bar and sprinkles in powerups during and after each round. Eddy also makes an appearance, allowing you to power up with Beat or everyone's favorite robotic good boy Rush. Both games have stories, but they are largely insignificant and the translation is so bad you have absolutely no idea what anyone is talking about.
While it's fun, I couldn't help but feel like I was just playing half of a Mega Man game. The controls are no different and the structure is the same, so it really did feel like classic MM with the platforming removed. Obviously, the idea in the arcade is to take this thing down with as few quarters as possible. Some of these enemies are really tough and the yellow devils have some truly insane patterns (don't they always?), so I understand where the challenge comes from. But on a hone console, you can just keep pressing continue to your heart's content. I tried a few times before I was able to beat PF with one life, but once I did I just blasted through so I could see as much content as I could. Even then, this isn't that hard compared to some of the arcade games out there. Anyone that's ever played Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat in an arcade knows that the last few opponents are always cranked up to insane difficulty levels. I'm convinced they are harder than it's possible for them to be on home consoles. Maybe that's the case with PB and PF, but I don't know.
And speaking of MK and SF, this is where I feel like Capcom really missed an opportunity. I always felt Mega Man would have really lent itself to a traditional tournament fighter and honestly, I can't help but think that's what these games should have been. It's not like Capcom is a stranger 2D fighters or that they weren't massively popular in the 90's. I know Mega Man and Roll have made appearances in Marvel vs. Capcom and Super Smash Bros., but it's just not the same. There are so many cool robot masters with unique powers and it would be easy to program a few of their moves as either charge or rotation attacks. You wouldn't have to have included all the robot masters, just the most iconic ones. They could have always included more in the sequel. Hell, if Capcom decided to do something like this today they could just release them as DLC gradually until they all came out. Provided they are reasonably priced, people would buy them. I usually avoid DLC but that is one instance where I would definitely shell out some extra. The whole arcade boss rush thing was cool, but a true Mega Man tournament fighter would have been better. I know other companies have tried the same thing with their IPs and failed before (lookin' at you, Sonic the Fighters), but most of those companies didn't also happen to make the greatest 2D tournament fighter of all time.
At the end of the day though, PB and PF were still fun. They didn't offer a huge amount of depth or gameplay options, but they were a good way to kill a few hours. I should also mention they are 2 player co-op, which can definitely add to the fun. While I didn't love all the design choices and some of the robot master inclusions were head scratchers (Metal Man out? Plant Man in? Seriously, Plant Man?) the graphics are amazing and the sound is excellent. These games were clearly targeted at a niche market, so your mileage may vary. I happen to fall squarely into that niche, so I really liked these games. Was I disappointed they didn't do more? Sure. It's almost 20 years later and I'm still waiting on my Mega Man tournament fighter. But are they still worth playing? I'd say so.
Mega Man: Power Battle 7/10
Mega Man 2: Power Fighters 7.25/10
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