Welcome to NAdventures, if we feel that you as an adventures fan will be interested in a game or peripheral, we will give it coverage right here on NAdventures. If you enjoy other genres of games in addition to adventures, then be sure to visit NShooters and NSports in order to get your fill of gaming content. Check out http://hub.ngenres.com for the highlight stories from each genre.

Editorials   Mega Man: 15th Anniversary Spectacular - The 32/64-Bit Era
- By Francis Bonnet

Mega Man 8
System: Playstation/Saturn
Released: 1997

By the time MM8 had come out, the 32-bit war was well underway. During this time in gaming history almost all the games coming out had gone 3D, disappointing many 2D fans. Fortunately, MM8 kept the series true to its roots – in 2D! Capcom actually had to fight with Sony to get this game released because Sony (the bastards that they are) didn’t think that MM8 was “3D enough” for their precious Playstation. This is why the Saturn version of MM 8 has a few features that PSX gamers are missing (namely Cut Man & Guts Man’s return). Visually, the graphics were amazing. The animation was fluid and there were tons of enemies on screen at a time. Gameplay was fast and really put your reflexes to the test. A cool new feature was the addition of Full Motion Video sequences to progress the game’s story. If it wasn’t for the God-awful voice acting, the FMV could have actually been enjoyable. Music was different than in any other Mega Man game to date with a sound that was more techno than rock. Although the music quality was good, I consider the tunes in this game the most forgettable Mega Man tunes to date. But remember, the gameplay and graphics really shine in this puppy. Grade: B+



Mega Man X4
System: Playstation/Saturn
Released: 1998

Mega Man X4 was released shortly after Mega Man 8 for the 32-bit systems of the time. X4’s graphics were more serious and anime-style than the graphics in MM8. One interesting development in X4 was the storyline, which finally unlocked many of the mysteries surrounding the series; namely, how it connected with the original series. In fact, there were two separate story lines, one for X and one for Zero; each one was a selectable characters. Gameplay varied greatly depending on which character you selected at the beginning. X played traditionally; jump, shoot, gain an enemies weapon, whereas Zero played more like a Street Fighter game; close combat sword fighting with special moves. X4 featured the same action and fast-paced music that fans of the X series were used to. With the power of CD quality sound the tunes were not only high in quality, they were also good! It was nice to see that like MM8, Capcom kept X4 true to its 2D roots, although many magazine publications whined about this and continue to whine about it to this day. X4 is considered by many, including myself, to be the best Mega Man X game next to the first. Grade: A

Mega Man X5
System: Playstation
Released: 2000

In what seemed like an eternity, Mega Man X5 came out almost three years after Mega Man X4. For the first time since Mega Man’s creation in 1987, Mega Man was now able to duck! Not a big leap in innovation, but it varied gameplay slightly. As for the enemies, they had some pretty wacky names (The Skyver? Dark Dizzy?). I found the tunes in MMX5 greatly disappointing when compared to the awesome soundtrack found in X4. Graphics ran on the same engine as X4 so the quality was good, but the gameplay didn’t seem up to par with previous X games. X5 marked the first time in which you started with the armor you aquired in the previous game. Instead of upgrading your armor you could now get multiple armors. That was pretty cool. Unfortunately, the stages were poorly put together; they were extremely short and one or two seemed like they were ripped right off of X4! Capcom could have done better than this with 2+ years of development time for a 2D game! At least X5 revealed even more how it ties into the original series. Grade: C



Mega Man X6
System: Playstation
Released: 2001

Mega Man X6 was released less than a year after X5. Given such a small window of development time, one would think that X6 would have to suck, right? Well, surprisingly, X6 was superior to X5 in terms of gameplay and music, but inferior in terms of visuals and story. The tunes were much better and had more of a hard rock sound to them. The stages were also creative in design. X6 took away the silly “time limit” that X5 threw at you and instead incorporated a “Nightmare System” which randomly changed the levels each time you went back. Of course, this innovation was never truly exploited because each time you returned to a level the biggest difference you found was that a rock had moved from one location to another. Wow. Casual gamers probably didn’t even notice the difference. As for the graphics, it ran on the same engine as X4 & X5, however animation was rather poor overall. Bosses seemed to move with difficulty even the small ones like Infinity Mijinion. Another interesting note is the fact that X6 came out a week after it released in Japan… and you could tell. The bosses kept their Japanese names, the voices and songs were Japanese, and you could tell the text was translated quickly because there were numerous grammatical and spelling errors. Although it seems like X6 had its share of faults most of them were minor and they really didn’t take away from the overall fun of the game, which is what matters most. Grade: B

Mega Man Legends
System: Playstation
Released: 1997

Mega Man Legends was an interesting twist on the Mega Man mythos. This was Capcom’s attempt at bringing the Blue Bomber into the 3D world and changing they way he played. Instead of a pure shoot ‘em up, we were given an action RPG with great characters and the foundation for a deep story. MML takes place in a world covered by water with only a few small islands scattered throughout it. When Mega Man and his companions, Barrel Casket, Roll Casket and Data crash-land their airship (Flutter) on an island, they must go into town and make repairs on it. This starts the main story off and Mega Man ends up having to protect the island from a gang of pirates known as the Bonnes. MML was filled with an arsenal of uniqu characters and featured some of the best voice acting I’ve ever heard before in a video game. This is very good on Capcom’s part because MML is filled with cut scenes that further the story. Action scenes take place in ancient underground caverns, which required a lot of exploration in order to locate items, refractors and money (zenny). Passive scenes require exploring the island and the town and gaining access to parts of the town that you didn’t have access to before. Overall, MML was an enjoyable game and left many questions open at the end for a sequel. Somehow you felt as if things were just getting started. Grade: B

The Misadventures of Tron Bonne
System: Playstation
Released: 1999

Tron Bonne was a spin-off of Mega Man Legends featuring Tron, the 14-year old girl pirate. Although the game was a spin-off, it actually took place before MM Legends and before Tron ever met Mega Man, so naturally, he was nowhere to be found in the game. Instead, Tron Bonne focused on Tron and her family. The game was made up of various missions; some of which were action, some were puzzle, some were RPG, some were strategy, however, you didn’t have to choose certain types of missions if you didn’t want to. The main objective in the game was to make enough zenny to pay back a loan that Tron’s brother, Teasel, owed. There was so much to do in Tron, from stealing money from townsfolk to torturing Tron’s servebots – everything in this game was unique, and those are usually the best games. The gameplay is what set this game slightly above Legends in my opinion. As for the graphics and sound, graphics were a slight improvement on the MML engine and sound was also up to par. Tron Bonne also featured a preview disc of Mega Man Legends 2! Wow, what a deal! Grade: B+

Mega Man Legends 2
System: Playstation
Released: 2000

Picking up shortly after the first MML, MML2 took everything that was the original and expanded on it. Instead of just one island to explore you were given a world map and could explore numerous islands. There were many more dungeons, more characters, and more mysteries to discover as the game progressed. The size of the game was more than twice the size of the first one bringing the playing time of an average gamer to roughly 20-25 hours. The story answered many questions the first game brought, but also brought with it more questions, which I hope will be unveiled in a future title. The visuals were improved slightly from the original with more textures contained within the backgrounds and characters. Sound was pretty much equal to the first Legends, only with more overall tunes. If you liked the original, chances are you’d like part 2 even more, but if you hated the original, well then you’re pretty stupid for thinking you’d like the second. Grade: B+



Mega Man: Battle & Chase
System: Playstation
Released: 1997 (Japan and Europe only)

Mega Man: Battle & Chase was actually supposed to come out in the U.S., but because of Sony and their asinine ways it was canned at the last minute (some of you may remember even seeing Battle & Chase advertisements in gaming publications). This review is based on my Japanese import so there are some things about the game that I don’t fully understand (such as upgrading characters). What I can say is that Battle & Chase was an attempt at a Mario Kart game only with Mega Man characters. Unfortunately, the game’s funfactor falls short of being anywhere near the ranks of Mario. The tracks were flat and unoriginal and all the characters looked too blocky. Instead of being able to pick up various weapons, you picked your character at the beginning of the game and could only use their specific weapon until you chose another character. What’s even worse is the fact that even when playing in 1-player mode you only got half a screen! MM Battle & Chase was good for the novelty of seeing your favorite Mega Man characters in a kart-racing game, but if you wanted a good kart-racing game, it was best to stick to Mario Kart. Grade: C-

Super Adventure Rockman
System: Playstation
Released: 1998 (Japan only)

For those of you who think that FMV (Full Motion Video) games went the way of the Sega CD and 3DO, think again. Capcom released Rockman Super Adventure in Japan in 1998, which marked the Blue Bomber’s first foray into the world of complete FMV. Super Adventure Rockman spanned 3 discs making it quite a large game. Because this game is in complete Japanese I can’t provide a complete review, but I can say that it strays away from the “up, down, left, right” concept of early FMV games like Sega CD’s Road Avenger and Night Trap. Rockman Super Adventure is more like those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books in which basically all you’re doing is watching an animated program of Rockman and then decide whether or not you want him to turn down path A or turn down path B. Of course, if you choose wrong you could kill our blue hero. As with most FMV games, you only got a small viewing space, but thankfully it wasn’t terribly small and the animation wasn’t grainy. Grade: N/A

Mega Man 64
System: Nintendo 64
Released: 2000

Okay, if you scroll up a bit you’ll see my review for Mega Man Legends on Playstation. Mega Man 64 is the exact same game except for the fact that it came out three years later and was a whole lot crappier. The sounds were muffled, the graphics were muddier and even some of the areas were smaller. So why would Capcom release a slightly “enhanced” version of Mega Man Legends on N64? Who knows, but at least we can still say that Virtual Boy is the only Nintendo system never to receive a Mega Man game.
Grade: D

Continue to the 16/32-Bit Handheld Era...