12/40

By Charles - August 23, 2025

I really enjoy Mega Man, so I'm going to try and review a bunch of Mega Man games over the next couple months. While this game is certainly not the best, the series only gets better from here.

Mega Man

NES, 1987

~$900 Sealed

~$120 Used

Other Releases:

Virtual Console

Mega Man Legacy Collection

Mega Man Anniversary Collection

Presentation

3

Mega Man feels annoying to play. The music is very simple but has very grating instrumentation. At least each of the main stages has its own level theme. Mega Man has a great design and that is carried over into the bosses, but most of the enemies and backgrounds look way too simple. The level tiles are well done but have very odd colour schemes that aren’t very aesthetically pleasing. On top of all this, even the sound effects are abrasive. The menus, especially the Stage Select, are very bland.

The 6-level Stage Select is very bland.

Controls

4

Mega Man controls well and usually does what you tell him to, but the physics are poor. Mega Man always falls faster than Mario, but the original game was awful. Mega Man drops a whole screen in the blink of an eye. Mega Man usually stands very still and can inch forward, but sometimes he slips out of nowhere, causing you to fall down pits. Worst of all is knockback. Mega Man flies backward whenever you hit an enemy, and the insta-death spikes ignore invincibility frames, so you’re better off dodging enemies than fighting them. The special weapons aren’t very useful outside of bosses.

Many levels have very ugly colour schemes.

Content

2

This game is extremely short, so you can say you played it and quickly move on to Mega Man 2. There are only 10 levels in the entire game, with two of them being mainly comprised of boss rushes. There is a points system, but it’s useless since you aren’t timed, so you can just farm enemies until you have the maximum score. The physics and poor enemy programming make platforming a pain, and the level design is boring. The boss weakness system adds great depth to the game, but bosses are too difficult without their weaknesses and too easy with them.

Cut Man is one of the easier level bosses.

Fun Factor

3

This game is not very fun. The music is annoying. The physics are annoying. The enemies are annoying. The graphics are annoying. There is really no replay value since you’re better off moving on to 2. However, you can see some elements of the Mega Man formula, and, since the game is fairly short, you shouldn’t be pulling your hairs out. If there were as many levels as Mega Man 2, you would be pulling your hairs out. Trust me. I’m very glad that the formula was improved on in later entries, but this game is not it.

The high score system is largely pointless.

Worth the Time?

Worth the Money?

If you're playing through every Mega Man game, you can't skip this one - you have to see where it all started. If you struggle with some of the bosses, you can use the Pause glitch. If you're only going to play 1 Mega Man, try a different one (more reviews soon).

I don't think this game is worth getting on NES unless you're collecting the whole set of Mega Man NES games. While it's not the best on the Legacy Collection, it still adds to the value of that game.

Screenshots from [Mega Man Legacy Collection] © [Capcom], used for review purposes.