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 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 10: Rockman World 4 for GB
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
So far we’ve only had games in this series for the Famicom. It’s time to finally journey onto a new console with the Game Boy being next. Capcom has already had a couple of games on the handheld like Red Arremer and Ducktales. It was time for Rockman to make the jump to it and it wouldn’t be easy as Handheld games require different ideologies for it to work. You can’t just port the Famicom game with 0 chances and boom, put it out for sale. This one was also outsourced to a company named Minakuchi Engineering. I haven’t played these games too much and for the later ones I’ve only played them once before in my life.
Unlike the past two games, we only have 4 Robot Masters to choose from and they’re all from the first game? So for context, Dr. Wily after his defeat in Rockman 2, he actually got four of Right’s robots on his side again and this is why you’re fighting them. You’ll be facing off against Cut Man, Elec Man, Ice Man, and Fire Man. You can tell this was outsourced because I guarantee you they would have forced Guts Man into this somehow. It’s now up to Rockman to once again put them back into their senses and defeat Wily once and for all!
Rockman is back to his moveset from the 2nd game meaning you won’t have a slide in this game. He’s also back to climbing ladders slower which isn’t the worst thing ever. They even removed E-tanks in this game which is confusing. Sadly his controls aren’t the best in this game. It’s hard to explain but he feels a little hard to stop when he’s moving. It’s especially bad when he’s on ice. There’s not much else to be said otherwise, he has no new offerings besides the different controls.
One common thing I sometimes hear from people is disliking that the GB games outside of 5 aren’t too original. I would disagree completely as I really do appreciate what was done here with level design. Some of the levels were changed around compared to the Famicom game. Cut Man’s level has a focus on conveyor belts and even has a couple of new features like the new enemy named Cutting Wheel and a new hazard called Super Cutter. Elec Man’s stage features some Appearing block sections along with many fans. It even incorporates the cloud platforming from Air Man’s stage in Rockman 2. The stage for Ice Man has a lot of slippery ice along with ice that melts when you stand on it and even icicles that you use to help make certain jumps. Fire Man’s stage however is kind of just there. It’s just your typical fire level. Interestingly there’s no water in the game. Honestly I don’t have much problem except I sometimes just didn’t make jumps right and die. I must be rusty because it always felt I wasn’t close enough to the edge when making the jump. I never had this problem when playing Rockman 3 a few days ago so I kind of wanna blame the game. For the order I did Elec -> Ice -> Fire -> Cut. Levels are well made but nothing outstanding, it’s really more impressive they went above than just doing simple remakes of the levels they once had.
Bosses play pretty similar to their Famicom counterparts but this is where one of the weaker aspects of the game comes in. The room is a lot smaller but your sprites are still the same from those console games. It’s hard to move around and dodge and they seem to have forgotten that Cut Man was meant to be the easy one. It’s crazy that now Elec Man is the easy one considering how hard he could be in the original. It’s a shame they couldn’t capture the fun of fighting them but maybe they’ll get it down in future games.
We also have the same special weapons from the past though there have been changes. Rolling Cutter looks like it doesn’t go as high when you first throw it. To give it credit though, it seems it’s good against some enemies. Thunder Beam was nerfed, I swear they made its hitbox less overpowered. It’s still one of the best weapons in the game but more effort is required for this weapon. Ice Slasher is still amazing in fact it’s my favorite weapon in the game. It’s helpful in so many situations that you better use it as much as you can, especially with some annoying enemies like the Sniper Joes. Fire Storm feels very underwhelming in this game especially since it seems to not kill enemies in one shot anymore. I’m sure it’s good against some enemies but I never found much use. I’m almost positive they nerfed all the ammo counts on these weapons. I always felt I had less uses of them but the game loves to drop weapon energy pickups all the time so it’s not a big deal.
Once you beat all four then it is time for Dr. Wily! You will also now have a new item called Carry that puts a platform in front of you or under you to help you with a jump or from dying. I will say that the game doesn’t really use it well and it feels like an inferior version of Item 1 from Rockman 2. The first Wily stage isn’t too bad except for the fact that this level likes to pull the trial and error card and have you transition into a room with spikes that will 100% kill you if you landed in the wrong spot. It feels very uninteresting otherwise like the developers weren’t able to come up with much new with this one. Once you reach the end you’ll get the obligatory boss rush so alright let’s get it over with, first one up is…Flash Man? Okay this is weird, you actually fight Flash Man, Quick Man, Bubble Man, and Heat Man for the end of the stage. You even get their special weapons however you lose them if you game over here. They aren’t hard fights if you know the weaknesses but you won’t know what is what since the teleporters aren’t labeled. So if you want my help, do bottom left, top left, top right, and then bottom right. Once that is done you have a new boss. Welcome one and all to the first Rockman Killer named Enker. He’s fast and has a spear that can absorb your bullets. The more you shoot, the more powerful the beam he sends. The most challenging part for me is just being able to tell when he jumps or runs. Defeat him to get a brand new weapon called the Mirror Buster!
Let me now talk about these special weapons. Time Stopper was actually buffed in this game. It will now stop once you transition to a new screen. Sadly it doesn’t really have much use otherwise. Quick Boomerang feels a bit redundant in this one considering we have Rolling Cutter. Bubble Lead isn’t atrocious anymore but that’s probably because it has obligatory enemies die to this move quicker. Don’t even bother with Atomic Fire because you need to save it for the final boss. It can melt these new metal blocks but it isn’t worth it. Mirror Buster lets you reflect projectiles back at enemies as long as you hold the button which is pretty nice. It’s a shame you get all these weapons on the final stage because I would love to try them out more.
The final stage now takes place in a station up in space but the level itself is about the same as before and nothing interesting. It does feel a bit long but besides some of the trial and error, nothing about it is really all that memorable. I guess there’s the Appearing block sections but they’re somehow easier to me than something like Heat Man’s stage in Rockman 2. The only other thing I have to add is that the first two enemies you face use projectiles giving you a perfect opportunity to use the Mirror Buster. I love game design details like this! Once you reach the end you’ll fight Wily Machine World 1! He’s actually really easy. For the first phase just stand close and jump over the launching cutter and pull back for the lobbed cutter. It takes two fully charged Atomic Fires to defeat him but keep in mind getting hit forces you to shoot it and you will end up hitting the cutter most of the time. Phase 2 is even easier as you just need the Mirror Buster and just stay close and pull back when the claw attacks you, you could easily do a no hit run of this after a few attempts. Once he’s down, Wily will beg for forgiveness and he will never go evil for go-wait this is before Rockman 3, well shoot. Anyway Rockman then leaves in Rocket Ship as he awaits arrival back on Earth.
This game looks pretty good for a 1991 GB game. A lot of the sprites haven’t lost detail and environments look nice. The only real problem with the graphics being faithful is more just the space of it all considering how small the screen is. That said I rarely have screen crunch problems outside of maybe those trial and error parts in the final two stages. This game also has a very weird looking weapon get screen showing an X-ray of Rockman. What’s up with that? I also like the graphics for the ending sequence as Rockman walks inside the ship. There’s even a fun enemy rollcall along with cute face portraits of every robot master and even Enker. The music is something special. I really like how these aren’t just rips of the Famicom songs and put with GB sound. It feels like an actual attempt to make these sound more unique for the game was made and they sound really good. It does at times go a little too high pitch but otherwise it’s all good stuff. Even stuff like the title screen, password, stage select, and boss themes are unique and they’re all great. The ending song is something special too. I always loved the more calm, relaxed feel it has with the defeat of Wily. It even transitions into this more bombastic sounding piece to celebrate the heroism of Rockman. It’s probably one of the best songs on GB for me personally. Weirdly enough there’s also an unused version for the credits that was used in a prototype though it’s used for Fire Man’s stage. I personally prefer the one we got.
Rockman World is flawed but that’s OK. I like that it tried. It’s not just Rockman 1 but lamer, it’s a new game, a new start! It’s expected to not perfect it the first try and I still think the game is good despite its flaws. I never really agreed with the negative opinions on this game but I do understand why people would feel that way. To me I enjoy what it tries to do and you could do a lot worse than this. Would I recommend it nowadays? Not really unless you’re trying to play everything. At best, it’s good to play if you want to see what the team did differently compared to Capcom’s works. Rockman World would be a start but sadly we will see a fumble in the near future but that’s for another time. Next time I’ll be heading back to the Famicom with Rockman 4. I’ll see you then, I’m very curious to see what I’ll think about that game.
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 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 10: Rockman World 4 for GB
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
So far we’ve only had games in this series for the Famicom. It’s time to finally journey onto a new console with the Game Boy being next. Capcom has already had a couple of games on the handheld like Red Arremer and Ducktales. It was time for Rockman to make the jump to it and it wouldn’t be easy as Handheld games require different ideologies for it to work. You can’t just port the Famicom game with 0 chances and boom, put it out for sale. This one was also outsourced to a company named Minakuchi Engineering. I haven’t played these games too much and for the later ones I’ve only played them once before in my life.
Unlike the past two games, we only have 4 Robot Masters to choose from and they’re all from the first game? So for context, Dr. Wily after his defeat in Rockman 2, he actually got four of Right’s robots on his side again and this is why you’re fighting them. You’ll be facing off against Cut Man, Elec Man, Ice Man, and Fire Man. You can tell this was outsourced because I guarantee you they would have forced Guts Man into this somehow. It’s now up to Rockman to once again put them back into their senses and defeat Wily once and for all!
Rockman is back to his moveset from the 2nd game meaning you won’t have a slide in this game. He’s also back to climbing ladders slower which isn’t the worst thing ever. They even removed E-tanks in this game which is confusing. Sadly his controls aren’t the best in this game. It’s hard to explain but he feels a little hard to stop when he’s moving. It’s especially bad when he’s on ice. There’s not much else to be said otherwise, he has no new offerings besides the different controls.
One common thing I sometimes hear from people is disliking that the GB games outside of 5 aren’t too original. I would disagree completely as I really do appreciate what was done here with level design. Some of the levels were changed around compared to the Famicom game. Cut Man’s level has a focus on conveyor belts and even has a couple of new features like the new enemy named Cutting Wheel and a new hazard called Super Cutter. Elec Man’s stage features some Appearing block sections along with many fans. It even incorporates the cloud platforming from Air Man’s stage in Rockman 2. The stage for Ice Man has a lot of slippery ice along with ice that melts when you stand on it and even icicles that you use to help make certain jumps. Fire Man’s stage however is kind of just there. It’s just your typical fire level. Interestingly there’s no water in the game. Honestly I don’t have much problem except I sometimes just didn’t make jumps right and die. I must be rusty because it always felt I wasn’t close enough to the edge when making the jump. I never had this problem when playing Rockman 3 a few days ago so I kind of wanna blame the game. For the order I did Elec -> Ice -> Fire -> Cut. Levels are well made but nothing outstanding, it’s really more impressive they went above than just doing simple remakes of the levels they once had.
Bosses play pretty similar to their Famicom counterparts but this is where one of the weaker aspects of the game comes in. The room is a lot smaller but your sprites are still the same from those console games. It’s hard to move around and dodge and they seem to have forgotten that Cut Man was meant to be the easy one. It’s crazy that now Elec Man is the easy one considering how hard he could be in the original. It’s a shame they couldn’t capture the fun of fighting them but maybe they’ll get it down in future games.
We also have the same special weapons from the past though there have been changes. Rolling Cutter looks like it doesn’t go as high when you first throw it. To give it credit though, it seems it’s good against some enemies. Thunder Beam was nerfed, I swear they made its hitbox less overpowered. It’s still one of the best weapons in the game but more effort is required for this weapon. Ice Slasher is still amazing in fact it’s my favorite weapon in the game. It’s helpful in so many situations that you better use it as much as you can, especially with some annoying enemies like the Sniper Joes. Fire Storm feels very underwhelming in this game especially since it seems to not kill enemies in one shot anymore. I’m sure it’s good against some enemies but I never found much use. I’m almost positive they nerfed all the ammo counts on these weapons. I always felt I had less uses of them but the game loves to drop weapon energy pickups all the time so it’s not a big deal.
Once you beat all four then it is time for Dr. Wily! You will also now have a new item called Carry that puts a platform in front of you or under you to help you with a jump or from dying. I will say that the game doesn’t really use it well and it feels like an inferior version of Item 1 from Rockman 2. The first Wily stage isn’t too bad except for the fact that this level likes to pull the trial and error card and have you transition into a room with spikes that will 100% kill you if you landed in the wrong spot. It feels very uninteresting otherwise like the developers weren’t able to come up with much new with this one. Once you reach the end you’ll get the obligatory boss rush so alright let’s get it over with, first one up is…Flash Man? Okay this is weird, you actually fight Flash Man, Quick Man, Bubble Man, and Heat Man for the end of the stage. You even get their special weapons however you lose them if you game over here. They aren’t hard fights if you know the weaknesses but you won’t know what is what since the teleporters aren’t labeled. So if you want my help, do bottom left, top left, top right, and then bottom right. Once that is done you have a new boss. Welcome one and all to the first Rockman Killer named Enker. He’s fast and has a spear that can absorb your bullets. The more you shoot, the more powerful the beam he sends. The most challenging part for me is just being able to tell when he jumps or runs. Defeat him to get a brand new weapon called the Mirror Buster!
Let me now talk about these special weapons. Time Stopper was actually buffed in this game. It will now stop once you transition to a new screen. Sadly it doesn’t really have much use otherwise. Quick Boomerang feels a bit redundant in this one considering we have Rolling Cutter. Bubble Lead isn’t atrocious anymore but that’s probably because it has obligatory enemies die to this move quicker. Don’t even bother with Atomic Fire because you need to save it for the final boss. It can melt these new metal blocks but it isn’t worth it. Mirror Buster lets you reflect projectiles back at enemies as long as you hold the button which is pretty nice. It’s a shame you get all these weapons on the final stage because I would love to try them out more.
The final stage now takes place in a station up in space but the level itself is about the same as before and nothing interesting. It does feel a bit long but besides some of the trial and error, nothing about it is really all that memorable. I guess there’s the Appearing block sections but they’re somehow easier to me than something like Heat Man’s stage in Rockman 2. The only other thing I have to add is that the first two enemies you face use projectiles giving you a perfect opportunity to use the Mirror Buster. I love game design details like this! Once you reach the end you’ll fight Wily Machine World 1! He’s actually really easy. For the first phase just stand close and jump over the launching cutter and pull back for the lobbed cutter. It takes two fully charged Atomic Fires to defeat him but keep in mind getting hit forces you to shoot it and you will end up hitting the cutter most of the time. Phase 2 is even easier as you just need the Mirror Buster and just stay close and pull back when the claw attacks you, you could easily do a no hit run of this after a few attempts. Once he’s down, Wily will beg for forgiveness and he will never go evil for go-wait this is before Rockman 3, well shoot. Anyway Rockman then leaves in Rocket Ship as he awaits arrival back on Earth.
This game looks pretty good for a 1991 GB game. A lot of the sprites haven’t lost detail and environments look nice. The only real problem with the graphics being faithful is more just the space of it all considering how small the screen is. That said I rarely have screen crunch problems outside of maybe those trial and error parts in the final two stages. This game also has a very weird looking weapon get screen showing an X-ray of Rockman. What’s up with that? I also like the graphics for the ending sequence as Rockman walks inside the ship. There’s even a fun enemy rollcall along with cute face portraits of every robot master and even Enker. The music is something special. I really like how these aren’t just rips of the Famicom songs and put with GB sound. It feels like an actual attempt to make these sound more unique for the game was made and they sound really good. It does at times go a little too high pitch but otherwise it’s all good stuff. Even stuff like the title screen, password, stage select, and boss themes are unique and they’re all great. The ending song is something special too. I always loved the more calm, relaxed feel it has with the defeat of Wily. It even transitions into this more bombastic sounding piece to celebrate the heroism of Rockman. It’s probably one of the best songs on GB for me personally. Weirdly enough there’s also an unused version for the credits that was used in a prototype though it’s used for Fire Man’s stage. I personally prefer the one we got.
Rockman World is flawed but that’s OK. I like that it tried. It’s not just Rockman 1 but lamer, it’s a new game, a new start! It’s expected to not perfect it the first try and I still think the game is good despite its flaws. I never really agreed with the negative opinions on this game but I do understand why people would feel that way. To me I enjoy what it tries to do and you could do a lot worse than this. Would I recommend it nowadays? Not really unless you’re trying to play everything. At best, it’s good to play if you want to see what the team did differently compared to Capcom’s works. Rockman World would be a start but sadly we will see a fumble in the near future but that’s for another time. Next time I’ll be heading back to the Famicom with Rockman 4. I’ll see you then, I’m very curious to see what I’ll think about that game.