It has been YEARS since I've played a Mega Man game. I'd heard mixed things about this particular one, but I was excited to jump back in after a long hiatus. But my excitement soon turned into nervousness when I started playing, because someone on the level design team LOVED spikes, and especially enemies coming from off-screen and knocking you into bottomless pits. It was aggravating, but, the stages got progressively easier the more weapons I unlocked (I guess that's how it goes in Mega Man, use your powers to ignore all the bullshit), so I found myself having more fun the more I pushed through. Drill Man's stage can suck it though.
Questionable design aside, there's a lot I enjoyed about Mega Man IV. The most obvious thing is the huge presentation boost. Not just the opening cutscene and the new weapon acquisition animation, but also the level themes. The coolest thing about the first Mega Man is how its level design really played into its themes; Cut Man's stage really felt like infiltrating this towering fortress, Guts Man's stage felt like descending down a huge construction shaft. MMII and III had way more visually creative themes, which was certainly for the better, but lost some of that... grounded adventurousness for lack of a better term. MMIV incorporates that same feeling, but with the way more interesting aesthetics of II and III, making for what is easily the best looking game thus far, and by a much more substantial margin than you'd expect.
I also like this game's (slight) emphasis on exploration. It's really not all that special (and from what I know the rest of the classic series and especially the X series do this way more), but it's cool to occasionally stumble upon a different path and be rewarded with the balloon and wire (which are both awesome, btw).
And the core gameplay feels just as good as ever. Mega Man's still got the slide, he has the charge shot finally, Rush still rocks, Eddie's always a welcome surprise whenever he shows up, and I think the weapons are... ok. I like how the Pharaoh Shot essential gets two fully charged shots per use by hitting an enemy while charging and then throwing it; Rain Flush and Flash Stopper are great for when you don't wanna deal with things, and I like how the level design makes you use these two like you would Rush or the items, navigating around enemies rather than strictly being combat weapons. I like the Dust Crusher and the Drill Bomb as alternatives that aren't just a worse version of the Mega Buster (although I usually just used the charge shot). The Ring Boomerang sucks, I don't think I ever used the Dive Missile for anything that wasn't a boss, and the Skull Barrier is great for letting me ignore everything in Drill Man's stage, but I rarely used it outside of that. Nothing here replaces the Mega Buster for me, nor is anything as fun and broken as the Thunder Beam or the Metal Blade, but I also don't feel like most of them are worthless imitators of my basic attack like most of MMIII's arsenal.
The soundtrack I also think is... ok. It's head-boppy enough while I'm playing, but there's nothing here'd I'd go out of my way to listen to sadly. BUT there's also nothing I actively dislike, which I think is a first for a classic Mega Man.
Yea, I guess this game being just... ok... could summarize my whole opinion on it, and I guess in that sense I don't really disagree with the consensus on this entry. And as future classic games continue to iteratively improve on the formula, maybe I won't think of this as fondly. But, frustrating as it was at times, I did have a lot of fun with this one! I wouldn't shrug it off as a worthless entry in the series, and I think it at the very least is better than both I and III.
Questionable design aside, there's a lot I enjoyed about Mega Man IV. The most obvious thing is the huge presentation boost. Not just the opening cutscene and the new weapon acquisition animation, but also the level themes. The coolest thing about the first Mega Man is how its level design really played into its themes; Cut Man's stage really felt like infiltrating this towering fortress, Guts Man's stage felt like descending down a huge construction shaft. MMII and III had way more visually creative themes, which was certainly for the better, but lost some of that... grounded adventurousness for lack of a better term. MMIV incorporates that same feeling, but with the way more interesting aesthetics of II and III, making for what is easily the best looking game thus far, and by a much more substantial margin than you'd expect.
I also like this game's (slight) emphasis on exploration. It's really not all that special (and from what I know the rest of the classic series and especially the X series do this way more), but it's cool to occasionally stumble upon a different path and be rewarded with the balloon and wire (which are both awesome, btw).
And the core gameplay feels just as good as ever. Mega Man's still got the slide, he has the charge shot finally, Rush still rocks, Eddie's always a welcome surprise whenever he shows up, and I think the weapons are... ok. I like how the Pharaoh Shot essential gets two fully charged shots per use by hitting an enemy while charging and then throwing it; Rain Flush and Flash Stopper are great for when you don't wanna deal with things, and I like how the level design makes you use these two like you would Rush or the items, navigating around enemies rather than strictly being combat weapons. I like the Dust Crusher and the Drill Bomb as alternatives that aren't just a worse version of the Mega Buster (although I usually just used the charge shot). The Ring Boomerang sucks, I don't think I ever used the Dive Missile for anything that wasn't a boss, and the Skull Barrier is great for letting me ignore everything in Drill Man's stage, but I rarely used it outside of that. Nothing here replaces the Mega Buster for me, nor is anything as fun and broken as the Thunder Beam or the Metal Blade, but I also don't feel like most of them are worthless imitators of my basic attack like most of MMIII's arsenal.
The soundtrack I also think is... ok. It's head-boppy enough while I'm playing, but there's nothing here'd I'd go out of my way to listen to sadly. BUT there's also nothing I actively dislike, which I think is a first for a classic Mega Man.
Yea, I guess this game being just... ok... could summarize my whole opinion on it, and I guess in that sense I don't really disagree with the consensus on this entry. And as future classic games continue to iteratively improve on the formula, maybe I won't think of this as fondly. But, frustrating as it was at times, I did have a lot of fun with this one! I wouldn't shrug it off as a worthless entry in the series, and I think it at the very least is better than both I and III.