From Virtual Console to PlayStation Network and Capcom’s decade old Mega Man Anniversary Collection, there are plenty of ways to beat the NES robot masters. Mega Man Legacy Collection offers something new – 50 challenges that remix and mashup stages for Mega Man games.
Five challenges are available when you start Mega Man Legacy Collection. MM1 Remix 1 jumps players between robot master stages from the first Mega Man game, MM2 Remix 1 takes parts of levels from Mega Man 2, the Yellow Devil challenge is a timed battle against the iconic boss from Mega Man, Mecha Dragon is the boss battle from Mega Man 2, and Craig’s Challenge takes snippets from each of the stages. You might start out in Crash Man’s stage climbing ladders then warp onto a floating cloud in Air Man’s stage. Switching stages keeps players on their toes and even if you memorized all of the block puzzles jumping to a completely different level feels fresh. All of the challenges arm Mega Man with all of the weapons from that game (including secret items like Beat in Mega Man 5 challenges), weapons refill each time you touch a warp point, and players have unlimited lives. The goal of the challenges is beating the clock. Mega Man Legacy Collection automatically saves replays and I’m looking forward to seeing how players creatively race through levels.
After clearing three of the five challenges, players unlock a new set of challenges from Mega Man 1 and Mega Man 2 including a boss rush for Mega Man, a timed Dr. Wily battle, and “Megamix” challenges which are stages plus robot master battles. Challenges aren’t always locked to a specific game. When players unlock the Mega Man 3 and Mega Man 4 challenges you’ll get a Mega Man 1 and Mega Man 2 mashup which jumps players between both games. While Mega Man cannot use the Metal Blade in Mega Man 1 stages like the Game Boy games, shuffling from one Mega Man game to the next is an interesting twist since Mega Man’s skills constantly change. Some of the other awesome challenges are a Dr. Wily boss mash up and a group of disappearing block challenges.
Mega Man Legacy Collection also has a built in art database with sketches of the robot masters and some unused boss monsters. Most of the artwork can also be seen in books like MM25: Mega Man & Mega Man X Official Complete Works, but if you don’t own the book (which costs more than Legacy Collection) it’s an awesome bonus. Each game also includes a database with profiles of enemies, weaknesses for bosses, and an option to fight any boss monster by pressing X when their profile is selected. A built in music player also lets fans listen to songs from all six games.
I haven’t mentioned much about the six Mega Man games in Mega Man Legacy Collection because these are pixel perfect conversions right down to the Elec Man bug from Mega Man 1. The games haven’t been touched and even the feature where you could rotate through weapons using the shoulder buttons which was in Mega Man Anniversary Collection isn’t present in Mega Man Legacy Collection. Instead Mega Man Legacy Collection preserves the Mega Man games in their original form with one major bonus, Challenge Mode, which is a worthwhile addition designed for diehard Mega Man fans that already own multiple versions of Capcom’s classics.
