Angel_Arle Rockman reviews
Part 1: Rockman for Famicom
Part 2: Rockman 2: Dr. Wily no Nazo for Famicom
Part 3: Rockman 3: Dr. Wily no Saigo!? for Famicom
Part 4: Rockman World for GB
Part 5: Rockman 4: Aratanaru Yabou!! for Famicom
Part 6: Rockman World 2 for GB
Part 7: Rockman 5: Blues no Wana!? for Famicom
Part 8: Rockman World 3 for GB
Part 9: Wily & Right no RockBoard: That's Paradise for Famicom
Part 11: Rockman 6: Shijō Saidai no Tatakai!! for Famicom
Part 12: Rockman's Soccer for Super Famicom
Part 13: Rockman World 5 for GB
Another Game Boy game? It feels like it wasn’t too long since I did World 3. I actually had a lot of appreciation for this one. I played it only once on 3DS VC and thought it was one of the best games in the series but oddly never played it afterwards. I was very curious about replaying it. Was I gonna praise this one massively? Was I going to talk about how underlooked it was? Well I only knew the answer once I finished playing.
Seems we have a more normalish plot this time around. Months after World 3, a new expo named the World Robot Expo begins with Dr. Right attending with Rockman, Rush, and Beat on his side. It was all going well until that pesky Dr. Wily comes in with his UFO to take control of Robots from the Expo thanks to the power of Radio Waves controlling them. Beat also loses parts scattered around and as for Rockman and Rush? Well they weren’t affected thanks to having…a strong sense of justice. What? Well okay it’s up to Rockman to save the day once more and there seems to also be a real threat ready to attack very soon. Now unlike past games there actually is an intro this time if you wait on the title screen. There’s no dialogue and it doesn’t even show this expo but it looks pretty nice visually.
We do have one change for Rockman this time. Not only is he sporting the Super Rock Buster from 5 but it also has seen a nerf. When you do a fully charged buster shot you now move a tiny bit backwards. Be careful where you shoot from because this can put you in danger if you’re not thinking but it’s also not something that’ll screw you over unfairly. You can also get a better version of it that charges faster if you game over too many times. The controls in the air have also been improved a little, it’s still a tiny bit off but now I don’t even notice it while I was playing it after a while.
How’s the stage design in this game? Well it has improved a lot since Rockman World 3. No more frustrating moments here and now we have the rest of the stages from Rockman 4. There’s also half of the stages from Rockman 5. The stages this time aren’t 100% copied from the past titles. One example being the falling rocks that move bit by bit every time you step on them. I’ll be honest, it’s fine as a Pharaoh Man gimmick but they use this in like 5 more stages and it feels like a little odd to use this that many times.One stage I found very interesting was Napalm Man’s stage where it not only removed the Jungle theme from the stage but it now has a very heavy focus on running away or riding the Rolling Drills. There’s even a couple of sections of running from exploding block floors. Bright Man’s stage has these platforms you jump from while in the dark, you even pull a switch like it’s the opposite of Drill Man’s stage. Crystal Man’s stage also has these weird platforms that move as you land on them and also has way better design on the falling crystals gimmick. There’s stuff like this and I really appreciate them trying to shake things up while still feeling like old stages. That said there is one flaw with them. Now look, I’m sure it has happened in past games and I just never paid much attention but this game has a big problem with copy and pasted rooms. There were a few times I said “Wait, wasn't I here already?” and for a few stages this is actually correct and it bothered me a bit when playing. I’m also not sure if I’m used to other games but some stages feel like they go on a bit too long. For the order of Robot Masters, I went Toad -> Bright -> Pharaoh -> Ring -> Napalm -> Stone -> Charge -> Crystal. There is good stuff here and it’s a lot more solid then what World 3 was doing but it still could be better especially for a couple of the stages from 5 which are still nothing amazing.
The Robot Master fights are practically the same fights as before with pretty much nothing interesting to say. Literally the only note I wrote down for these were “I hate Charge Man please never come back” and “I hate using Charge Kick for Crystal Man, I hate everything about Charge Man and his weapon.” Not really much to say here sadly.
With the weapons I was hoping they would buff the ones from 5 but let’s discuss the ones from 4 first. Rain Flush from Toad Man was both nerfed and buffed. You can now use it more and it also solidifies the sand in Pharaoh Man’s stages and puts out fires. The problem is they made the move weaker unfortunately. Flash Stopper from Bright Man is good but I found it less useful here compared to 4. Pharaoh Shot from Pharaoh Man is still very good and it even has that bug still where hitting a big enemy with the charged shot doesn’t consume energy if hit while still charging. I actually forgot to mention that in the 4 review. Otherwise the move still has its positives from that game. Ring Boomerang from Ring Man is about the same as last time except it was given a buff. You can now grab items with it that are in walls or are far from reach. Napalm Bomb from Napalm Man is still good at what it does though it did make me miss Drill Bomb. Power Stone from Stone Man is still garbage, seriously why did we bring this back? Charge Kick from Charge Man is also still garbage and I still can’t stand using it, screw this thing and screw Charge Man! Crystal Eye from Crystal Man is still decent but I really don’t care to use it most of the time. It’s a shame they had to borrow weapons from 5 because they still are mostly not that good and make the 4 weapons look even better. I should also mention that this is the first game to actually demonstrate the weapon for you after you beat a stage though it sadly doesn’t have any text so some aren’t the best shown like Beat and Flash Stopper. Still cool to see however.
Why do these games still make me have to get Rush Coil? Well it’s still here and thankfully it’s not like how it is in 5. There’s also Rush Jet and it’s used in the most basic level design you can imagine. Beat also returns if you unlock him and works the same as he did in 5. Eddie is oddly not here but instead Blues gives you items, I think this is his first appearance in these GB games. There is one thing I haven’t mentioned though. Dr. Right holds a shop in this game. That’s right this is a new thing in the franchise. You can find P-chips dropped by enemies or lying around in the stage to spend stuff in this shop. You can press select on the stage select or press the button the game asks when beating a stage to go there. You can buy stuff like 1-ups, E-tanks, the new mini E-tanks where getting 4 forms a new E-tank, W-tanks that restore a full weapon energy for one special weapon, S-tanks to fully restore everything, and a new item called the Energy Balancer which will restore a special weapon of the lowest amount if you have nothing equipped. It’s very helpful if you forget to switch or can’t pause fast enough before grabbing it. Though there is one other thing you can buy and this will lead to a rant I have with the game.
Now I noticed this when I was playing through the stages from 5. In most Rockman games up to this point, if you beat a stage that isn’t a fortress stage, you get your weapon energy restored for the next stage. The only game to not do it was Rockman World 2 but that was probably because of how they designed the area for how you did the Rockman 3 robot masters. I’m guessing because you go through the castle halfway to fight a boss and Ballade, they decided to change the rules. Beating a stage here doesn’t restore energy which means you have to spend 80 P-chips to restore everything up to full. P-chips aren’t something you get a lot of either. In a way I feel like this discourages using special weapons a lot and I almost gave them credit for letting me use Beat more only for the game to do this. But you wanna know the worst part, getting a game over has about as much punishment as previous games meaning it’s only booting back to the beginning of the stage. They also restore all of your weapon energy so what is even the point of this mechanic when I can just die multiple times in the beginning to get them back? It feels flawed and not well thought out in my opinion.
Halfway through the game you go through a Wily fortress to fight a Satellite Cannon and the new Rockman killer named Ballade who looks pretty cool and has a nice fight albeit pretty easy once you understand his pattern. Another cool thing to add is just how amazing the cutscene is before going in, Wily actually tries to attack Rockman before he enters and you get to see him shoot back and dodging with his slide before teleporting in. It’s a really cool thing to see especially when we’ve never seen this in the series. Though eventually you’ll go through more levels with a start against Ballade once again as Wily makes his escape. However make sure you grabbed the letters in the 2nd half of the stages because you can't progress further until you do. Thankfully they are very easy to get. Ballade is stronger this time but then you unlock Ballade Cracker and omg this move is amazing! It’s fast, it has the most ammo in the game tied with Ring Boomerang, you can throw it in 7 directions, it kills almost every enemy in 1-3 hits even the huge ones, and it explodes on contact. Easily a top 5 weapon in the franchise so far. The next section has you running and breaking exploding capsules as the level is breaking apart and you can daddle around. You finally then do the fortress up in space and this one is fun. I don’t have too much to say besides the first one being pretty straight line feeling and the other stages being pretty solid and fun to use Ballade Cracker in. One really cool detail is that stages are now done as a full one. Once you beat a boss, you go further instead of just teleporting out and teleporting back in. You’ll first fight a boss named Bridge and it’s a machine that can use special weapons that you have but Beat beats it pretty easily. Then you fight two different forms of Hunter which again isn’t too hard with Pharaoh Shot but fun regardless as you’ll have to dodge lots! Then you sigh have to rematch all the Robot Masters. Whyyyy? So boring. Then you’ll be ready for the final boss. You’re given a small cutscene just to see how huge this Wily Machine is. This time it’s Wily Robo Iron Golem! The first form is hard as you’ll be dodging projectiles along with his fast giant fists that can hit you in two different ways. Then once you think it’s over, now it’s time for the head. He’ll try to suck you in and even ram you so you’ll need to use Ballade Cracker for hits and buster for his charge. Finally we have his capsule as he’ll try to destroy the floor you’re on and throw projectiles as he flees. Why he doesn’t keep destroying the floor I’ll never know. Once you hit him enough it’s all over for Wily! Until he just gets away easily wow what a shocker who could have seen that coming?! Though we have trouble, Rockman can’t escape! It might be all doom and gloom for our hero. That is until Ballade comes in and actually sacrifices himself for Rockman as he finally gets out and drives back home with Rush as once again the day is saved for now. Surprisingly a good ending compared to previous titles, the fact it even had dialogue was really cool. Honestly it makes me like Ballade the most out of all the Rockman Killers. You also get to see Rockman fight all of the bosses optimally during the credits which is cool.
The presentation in this game is pretty solid for the Game Boy. Like I said before, it’s really cool that we got some cinematic cutscenes that weren’t just the intro. Even stuff like the logo has to show up with how it stretches out first when you begin the game. The stage select screen is also one of the best I’ve seen in the series yet, they didn’t try to copy what the Famicom games did. The only real bad thing I have to say about the presentation is the slowdown is pretty bad still and I’m guessing there really is just no way to fix this as spoiler alert, the next GB game has it too. The music is nice and I like that they do try new music for stuff like the Robot Master selection tune and beating a stage with new music. It even reuses that unused tune from World 3 and I finally realized, that was supposed to be the Rockman 4 credits theme! I don’t know how I made the mistake in my World 3 review. Overall it’s mostly good stuff even if a lot of it is reused from the console games.
Rockman World 4 is such a weird entry for me. It seems like Minakuchi Engineering really wants to improve the gameplay and this is easily the best game on the handheld so far. It’s just unfortunate that it’s held back by some of the issues I’ve stated before. If they had just not used Rockman 5 stages I’d guarantee this would be an 8/10 game. Even with that, it still has weird flaws like the weapon energy problem. I do think it’s worth playing but it sadly wasn’t as good as I remember it being. I want to like it more but it is what it is. I still think you should try it if you haven’t. It’s also just impressive that this entry managed to introduce some things that the Famicom games haven’t done yet. They still got one more try to make a great game and we will be seeing that sometime soon but for now it’s time to go back to the Famicom and end it all as I’ll finally be doing Rockman 6. See you soon!
Part 1: Rockman for Famicom
Part 2: Rockman 2: Dr. Wily no Nazo for Famicom
Part 3: Rockman 3: Dr. Wily no Saigo!? for Famicom
Part 4: Rockman World for GB
Part 5: Rockman 4: Aratanaru Yabou!! for Famicom
Part 6: Rockman World 2 for GB
Part 7: Rockman 5: Blues no Wana!? for Famicom
Part 8: Rockman World 3 for GB
Part 9: Wily & Right no RockBoard: That's Paradise for Famicom
Part 11: Rockman 6: Shijō Saidai no Tatakai!! for Famicom
Part 12: Rockman's Soccer for Super Famicom
Part 13: Rockman World 5 for GB
Another Game Boy game? It feels like it wasn’t too long since I did World 3. I actually had a lot of appreciation for this one. I played it only once on 3DS VC and thought it was one of the best games in the series but oddly never played it afterwards. I was very curious about replaying it. Was I gonna praise this one massively? Was I going to talk about how underlooked it was? Well I only knew the answer once I finished playing.
Seems we have a more normalish plot this time around. Months after World 3, a new expo named the World Robot Expo begins with Dr. Right attending with Rockman, Rush, and Beat on his side. It was all going well until that pesky Dr. Wily comes in with his UFO to take control of Robots from the Expo thanks to the power of Radio Waves controlling them. Beat also loses parts scattered around and as for Rockman and Rush? Well they weren’t affected thanks to having…a strong sense of justice. What? Well okay it’s up to Rockman to save the day once more and there seems to also be a real threat ready to attack very soon. Now unlike past games there actually is an intro this time if you wait on the title screen. There’s no dialogue and it doesn’t even show this expo but it looks pretty nice visually.
We do have one change for Rockman this time. Not only is he sporting the Super Rock Buster from 5 but it also has seen a nerf. When you do a fully charged buster shot you now move a tiny bit backwards. Be careful where you shoot from because this can put you in danger if you’re not thinking but it’s also not something that’ll screw you over unfairly. You can also get a better version of it that charges faster if you game over too many times. The controls in the air have also been improved a little, it’s still a tiny bit off but now I don’t even notice it while I was playing it after a while.
How’s the stage design in this game? Well it has improved a lot since Rockman World 3. No more frustrating moments here and now we have the rest of the stages from Rockman 4. There’s also half of the stages from Rockman 5. The stages this time aren’t 100% copied from the past titles. One example being the falling rocks that move bit by bit every time you step on them. I’ll be honest, it’s fine as a Pharaoh Man gimmick but they use this in like 5 more stages and it feels like a little odd to use this that many times.One stage I found very interesting was Napalm Man’s stage where it not only removed the Jungle theme from the stage but it now has a very heavy focus on running away or riding the Rolling Drills. There’s even a couple of sections of running from exploding block floors. Bright Man’s stage has these platforms you jump from while in the dark, you even pull a switch like it’s the opposite of Drill Man’s stage. Crystal Man’s stage also has these weird platforms that move as you land on them and also has way better design on the falling crystals gimmick. There’s stuff like this and I really appreciate them trying to shake things up while still feeling like old stages. That said there is one flaw with them. Now look, I’m sure it has happened in past games and I just never paid much attention but this game has a big problem with copy and pasted rooms. There were a few times I said “Wait, wasn't I here already?” and for a few stages this is actually correct and it bothered me a bit when playing. I’m also not sure if I’m used to other games but some stages feel like they go on a bit too long. For the order of Robot Masters, I went Toad -> Bright -> Pharaoh -> Ring -> Napalm -> Stone -> Charge -> Crystal. There is good stuff here and it’s a lot more solid then what World 3 was doing but it still could be better especially for a couple of the stages from 5 which are still nothing amazing.
The Robot Master fights are practically the same fights as before with pretty much nothing interesting to say. Literally the only note I wrote down for these were “I hate Charge Man please never come back” and “I hate using Charge Kick for Crystal Man, I hate everything about Charge Man and his weapon.” Not really much to say here sadly.
With the weapons I was hoping they would buff the ones from 5 but let’s discuss the ones from 4 first. Rain Flush from Toad Man was both nerfed and buffed. You can now use it more and it also solidifies the sand in Pharaoh Man’s stages and puts out fires. The problem is they made the move weaker unfortunately. Flash Stopper from Bright Man is good but I found it less useful here compared to 4. Pharaoh Shot from Pharaoh Man is still very good and it even has that bug still where hitting a big enemy with the charged shot doesn’t consume energy if hit while still charging. I actually forgot to mention that in the 4 review. Otherwise the move still has its positives from that game. Ring Boomerang from Ring Man is about the same as last time except it was given a buff. You can now grab items with it that are in walls or are far from reach. Napalm Bomb from Napalm Man is still good at what it does though it did make me miss Drill Bomb. Power Stone from Stone Man is still garbage, seriously why did we bring this back? Charge Kick from Charge Man is also still garbage and I still can’t stand using it, screw this thing and screw Charge Man! Crystal Eye from Crystal Man is still decent but I really don’t care to use it most of the time. It’s a shame they had to borrow weapons from 5 because they still are mostly not that good and make the 4 weapons look even better. I should also mention that this is the first game to actually demonstrate the weapon for you after you beat a stage though it sadly doesn’t have any text so some aren’t the best shown like Beat and Flash Stopper. Still cool to see however.
Why do these games still make me have to get Rush Coil? Well it’s still here and thankfully it’s not like how it is in 5. There’s also Rush Jet and it’s used in the most basic level design you can imagine. Beat also returns if you unlock him and works the same as he did in 5. Eddie is oddly not here but instead Blues gives you items, I think this is his first appearance in these GB games. There is one thing I haven’t mentioned though. Dr. Right holds a shop in this game. That’s right this is a new thing in the franchise. You can find P-chips dropped by enemies or lying around in the stage to spend stuff in this shop. You can press select on the stage select or press the button the game asks when beating a stage to go there. You can buy stuff like 1-ups, E-tanks, the new mini E-tanks where getting 4 forms a new E-tank, W-tanks that restore a full weapon energy for one special weapon, S-tanks to fully restore everything, and a new item called the Energy Balancer which will restore a special weapon of the lowest amount if you have nothing equipped. It’s very helpful if you forget to switch or can’t pause fast enough before grabbing it. Though there is one other thing you can buy and this will lead to a rant I have with the game.
Now I noticed this when I was playing through the stages from 5. In most Rockman games up to this point, if you beat a stage that isn’t a fortress stage, you get your weapon energy restored for the next stage. The only game to not do it was Rockman World 2 but that was probably because of how they designed the area for how you did the Rockman 3 robot masters. I’m guessing because you go through the castle halfway to fight a boss and Ballade, they decided to change the rules. Beating a stage here doesn’t restore energy which means you have to spend 80 P-chips to restore everything up to full. P-chips aren’t something you get a lot of either. In a way I feel like this discourages using special weapons a lot and I almost gave them credit for letting me use Beat more only for the game to do this. But you wanna know the worst part, getting a game over has about as much punishment as previous games meaning it’s only booting back to the beginning of the stage. They also restore all of your weapon energy so what is even the point of this mechanic when I can just die multiple times in the beginning to get them back? It feels flawed and not well thought out in my opinion.
Halfway through the game you go through a Wily fortress to fight a Satellite Cannon and the new Rockman killer named Ballade who looks pretty cool and has a nice fight albeit pretty easy once you understand his pattern. Another cool thing to add is just how amazing the cutscene is before going in, Wily actually tries to attack Rockman before he enters and you get to see him shoot back and dodging with his slide before teleporting in. It’s a really cool thing to see especially when we’ve never seen this in the series. Though eventually you’ll go through more levels with a start against Ballade once again as Wily makes his escape. However make sure you grabbed the letters in the 2nd half of the stages because you can't progress further until you do. Thankfully they are very easy to get. Ballade is stronger this time but then you unlock Ballade Cracker and omg this move is amazing! It’s fast, it has the most ammo in the game tied with Ring Boomerang, you can throw it in 7 directions, it kills almost every enemy in 1-3 hits even the huge ones, and it explodes on contact. Easily a top 5 weapon in the franchise so far. The next section has you running and breaking exploding capsules as the level is breaking apart and you can daddle around. You finally then do the fortress up in space and this one is fun. I don’t have too much to say besides the first one being pretty straight line feeling and the other stages being pretty solid and fun to use Ballade Cracker in. One really cool detail is that stages are now done as a full one. Once you beat a boss, you go further instead of just teleporting out and teleporting back in. You’ll first fight a boss named Bridge and it’s a machine that can use special weapons that you have but Beat beats it pretty easily. Then you fight two different forms of Hunter which again isn’t too hard with Pharaoh Shot but fun regardless as you’ll have to dodge lots! Then you sigh have to rematch all the Robot Masters. Whyyyy? So boring. Then you’ll be ready for the final boss. You’re given a small cutscene just to see how huge this Wily Machine is. This time it’s Wily Robo Iron Golem! The first form is hard as you’ll be dodging projectiles along with his fast giant fists that can hit you in two different ways. Then once you think it’s over, now it’s time for the head. He’ll try to suck you in and even ram you so you’ll need to use Ballade Cracker for hits and buster for his charge. Finally we have his capsule as he’ll try to destroy the floor you’re on and throw projectiles as he flees. Why he doesn’t keep destroying the floor I’ll never know. Once you hit him enough it’s all over for Wily! Until he just gets away easily wow what a shocker who could have seen that coming?! Though we have trouble, Rockman can’t escape! It might be all doom and gloom for our hero. That is until Ballade comes in and actually sacrifices himself for Rockman as he finally gets out and drives back home with Rush as once again the day is saved for now. Surprisingly a good ending compared to previous titles, the fact it even had dialogue was really cool. Honestly it makes me like Ballade the most out of all the Rockman Killers. You also get to see Rockman fight all of the bosses optimally during the credits which is cool.
The presentation in this game is pretty solid for the Game Boy. Like I said before, it’s really cool that we got some cinematic cutscenes that weren’t just the intro. Even stuff like the logo has to show up with how it stretches out first when you begin the game. The stage select screen is also one of the best I’ve seen in the series yet, they didn’t try to copy what the Famicom games did. The only real bad thing I have to say about the presentation is the slowdown is pretty bad still and I’m guessing there really is just no way to fix this as spoiler alert, the next GB game has it too. The music is nice and I like that they do try new music for stuff like the Robot Master selection tune and beating a stage with new music. It even reuses that unused tune from World 3 and I finally realized, that was supposed to be the Rockman 4 credits theme! I don’t know how I made the mistake in my World 3 review. Overall it’s mostly good stuff even if a lot of it is reused from the console games.
Rockman World 4 is such a weird entry for me. It seems like Minakuchi Engineering really wants to improve the gameplay and this is easily the best game on the handheld so far. It’s just unfortunate that it’s held back by some of the issues I’ve stated before. If they had just not used Rockman 5 stages I’d guarantee this would be an 8/10 game. Even with that, it still has weird flaws like the weapon energy problem. I do think it’s worth playing but it sadly wasn’t as good as I remember it being. I want to like it more but it is what it is. I still think you should try it if you haven’t. It’s also just impressive that this entry managed to introduce some things that the Famicom games haven’t done yet. They still got one more try to make a great game and we will be seeing that sometime soon but for now it’s time to go back to the Famicom and end it all as I’ll finally be doing Rockman 6. See you soon!