Mega Man 8

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Mega Man 8
When we find that meteor, we'll find Doctah Wahwee." — Dr. Light
Protagonist(s): Mega Man
Genre(s): Platformer
Rating(s): ELSPA: 3-10, 11-14, 15-17 & 18+
ESRB: E
Platform(s): PlayStation
Sega Saturn
Release Date: PlayStation
JP: December 17, 1996
NA: January 28, 1997
EU: May 15, 1997
Sega Saturn
NA: January 28, 1997
JP: January 17, 1997
Developer(s): Capcom
Publisher(s): Capcom (Japan & North America)
Infogrames Multimedia (Europe)
Country: Japan
Series: Mega Man
Predecessor: Mega Man 7
Successor: Mega Man & Bass (chronologically)
Super Adventure Rockman (by release date)

Mega Man 8, known as Rockman 8: Metal Heroes (ロックマン8 メタルヒーローズ Rokkuman Eito Metaru Hīrōzu) in Japan, is a action-platform video game released by Capcom. It is the eighth installment in the original Mega Man series, and was originally released on the PlayStation in 1996 and Sega Saturn in 1997 and localized for both consoles on the same date of the year, and Europe only saw release of the PlayStation version. The game was re-released as part of the Mega Man Anniversary Collection for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Nintendo GameCube in 2004, and later as part of the Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows and Nintendo Switch in 2017.

Good Qualities

  1. Great soundtrack, with some standout tunes here and there. Similar to the Mega Man X games on the same platform, the Japanese version even features a unique opening theme, "Electrical Communication", which sounds awesome.
  2. The graphics might not push the PlayStation or the Saturn to their limits, but they are still colorful, polished and full of detail for 1996 to 1997 standards.
  3. Tight controls. They don't have any chance of being unresponsive, like Marble Madness. This means you won't fall to your death if you are playing extremely well.
  4. Incentive and mostly fun level design. As what would you expect from a Mega Man game. Looking at the level design would make you want to get it to your head for a long time.
  5. Some of the Robot Masters have cool designs even for Mega Man standards.
  6. Creative boss fights which fill their role pretty well, although with noticeable exceptions.
  7. Great gameplay that's very similar to the previous games. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
  8. If you die against a Robot Master with their weakness depleted, all of your weapon energy is automatically refilled, which helps alleviate the difficulty.
  9. Each Robot Master has two level sections, and if you pass the first part and die, you'll respawn at the second part of the level, even when you get a game over.
  10. In the Saturn version, there are two robot masters that return from the previous games.
    • Cut Man can be found in the middle stage after defeating the first four robot masters.
    • Wood Man can be found as a mid-boss in Search Man's stage.
  11. Neat weapon selection, including Astro Crush, Thunder Claw, Mega Ball, and Flash Bomb, among others.
  12. While the upgrade system is pretty flawed, it is somehow rewarding. This means that even flawed upgrading systems can be rewarding. And this game is the best example.
  13. Well animated cutscenes. However, there's a flaw in them, which tries to ruin them from being good, and make them bad. See BQ#1 for reasons why.

Bad Qualities

  1. Laughably terrible voice acting in the English dub, as mentioned in GQ#13, with Dr. Light constantly stuttering and mispronouncing lots of words (like the infamous scene where Dr. Light pronounces Dr. Wily as "Doctah Wahwee" and Mega Man pronounces Bass' name with a short "A" sound as in the fish, not a long "A" sound as in the instrument.) and Mega Man and Aqua Man's voices sounding like young, squeaky children, Mega Man's in particular is so childish and squeaky that it can be compared to Caillou's. SomecallmeJohnny, in his review, has said that Dr. Light has a serious case of Elmer Fudd Syndrome and that Mega Man sounds more like a girl than Roll.
    • Speaking of, there's a scene where a giant robot grabs Mega Man and electrocutes him, causing him to scream in agony.
    • Because of the terrible voice acting, Mega Man suffered from flanderization in the English version of the game, but he still be tolerate in Japanese version.
  2. A somewhat repetitive Mega Man experience that offers only a handful of new features.
  3. Astro Man's stage is absolutely tedious and boring, and getting the screws in this stage is even more annoying!
  4. Despite the controls being great, it can be hard to control Mega Man while he's swimming due to the fact he increases in momentum when he swims.
  5. Unlike the previous games, there are no E-tanks.
    • Though, this isn't much of a problem since the weapons and health energy refill automatically after dying or loading a continue point, and Rush can be called in to deliver power-ups in case Mega Man runs low on health.
  6. Some sections include jumping and sliding very quickly (like Frost Man's stage) and are notorious for being extremely difficult.
  7. Bolts (which are your main currency) are limited, which is incredibly off-putting. Some of the bolts are also placed in places where it's impossible to backtrack to, like in Clown Man's stage, for example. You also can't buy every upgrade.
  8. The Sega Saturn port suffers from a few hiccups and frame rate slowdowns. The English Saturn version is also very hard to find, with the Japanese Saturn version being less expensive.
    • Because the Sega Saturn is known to be one of the hardest consoles to emulate due to its infamously difficult architecture consisting of 8 processors overall and the use of quadrilaterals rather than triangles as polygons, re-releases of the game used the original PlayStation version.
    • This can also be the reason why the Sega Saturn version was unreleased in Europe.
  9. With the exception of Astro Crush and Flash Bomb, while not as broken as Metal Blade, weapons are kind of broken and poor since practically all do the same damage to enemies (they can kill them in one, two or three hits) and they waste a bit of their weapon energy.
  10. Although the soundtrack is generally great for Mega Man standards, some songs sound similar to songs from other franchises, for example, the opening stage's underground theme sounds very similar to the underground theme from Super Mario Bros..

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Trivia

  • Much like Mega Man 7, the game saw a fan demake known as Rockman 8 FC, which is a recreation of Mega Man 8 in the style of the NES games.

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