I’ve been playing back through some of the first Megaman games lately on my broadcast. Now, I played nearly all of them (before the X series) when I was younger but I never actually completed one. And after playing them again lately I’m not surprised in the least, because these games are incredibly hard! In the newer Megaman games you’ve got lots of abilities at your disposal that can make getting out of tough situations very feasible: charged shots, wall-jumping, dashing, etc. But in the older games, you can move, jump and shoot and that’s it. You either have to do it right or Megaman is toast.
Those one-touch death spikes are surely famous enough to be known by most of you guys. Throughout most of the Megaman series, if you’re flashing (after being hit by an enemy) and land on these spikes, you have until the flashing wears off to make it to safe ground. But in Megaman 1, you don’t even get that! On top of all this, the bosses can be real pricks and some of them are nearly impossible to defeat without knowing which weapon they are weak against, unlike some of the other games where the X-buster is more than sufficient. That means you can endure an entire level just to realize that you don’t have the correct gun and subsequently suffer humiliating defeats until you’re kicked back to the stage select screen. At the same time though, you’d be hard pressed to find another platformer that was more solid or polished when Megaman was in its prime. The Megaman series remains legendary for its difficulty, concrete platforming, and memorable tunes.
I’m happy to report that I have now successfully finished Megaman 1 and 2 on an emulator without the use of save states (except at password screens), and I want to commend anyone that has completed any of the earlier Megaman’s at any time, especially in their childhood. The newest game in the series, Megaman 9, features a return to the graphic style and gameplay that made the original series so popular. It can be purchased on Xbox Live Arcade, the Wii Shop Channel and the PlayStation Network.
Oh, and for anyone that has never witnessed the full glory of the original Megaman box art, check it out below. It’s just too terrible and hilarious to depend on a written description!
im pretty sure all old school video games are insanely difficult, i never beat street fighter 2 or super mario brothers for snes and i played them quite religiously