Now Playing: Clock Tower 3

 I've mixed feelings about it so far.

 At first, the intro was so good, the creepy man, the creepy mansion. I was creeped out and second guessing my every move during the initial manor segment! I thought that it got the ambiance right... and then it teleported me back in time, and I felt it was a bit... ridiculous? And then I was helping ghosts, and the scare factor disappeared entirely. I was actually a bit disappointed....

 ...Until I entered the creepy Tailor Shop and the first stalker appeared. The setting was spectacular, with broken glass and blood everywhere. And then came that phenomenal cutscene that introduced the Hammer stalker? The game just got scary again!

 Basically, I'm a bit torn. On the one hand, I feel some things are a bit... ridiculous. But when the game gets scary, it gets it right oh so well. I was expecting something a bit more like Haunting Ground, but oh well, I'm only 30 minutes into the game and got into the Concert Hall, so there's still time.

Review #286: Megaman Powered Up

 And now we've come full circle, the first game I started the marathon with, is also... the last one.

 And now it's Megaman Powered Up's turn, a remake of Megaman 1 with a ton of new bells and whistles to make it worth the price of entry. As with Megaman Maverick Hunter X, this game is much more than 'just' a remake, with multiple modes and character to make it enticing both for new players and people that know Megaman 1 by heart.

 At the start of the game, you can choose either 'Old Style' or 'New Style'. 'Old Style' is probably not what you'd expect. It's Megaman 1 redone with the new game's engine, which means 3-D graphics, new physics(Megaman doesn't slide anymore, but his movements comes with a bit of a... quirk) and what not, which translates into a much easier and much more manageable game. You don't get any of the new features, like the cutscenes, the two new robot masters or the alternate playable characters, plus, the screen has borders on the edges, in order to maintain the original game's ratio. This mode doesn't unlock anything, so I think it's best of left as a curiosity.

 But if you pick 'New Style', you get to pick a difficulty setting(Easy, Normal and Hard), features two new robot masters, for a total of eight, and entirely redesigned stages. It doesn't stop there, defeating a robot master using only your Mega Buster lets you unlock as playable characters. You can also unlock Protoman, Roll and variations of Megaman(A version that can slide, one that can charge his Buster and another one that can... kick?), Oh, and it has fully voiced cutscenes, which are fantastic. The entire game has been redone in a 'super deformed' style, with huge heads and tiny bodies, with the entire world being very colorful and animated. The entire audiovisual presentation makes it look like a children's cartoon, and it's amazing.

 But you are not done with the game yet! You can create your own levels and even share them online(The servers are still up!), or download stages from other players. Still want more stuff? How about 100 challenges, which unlock Protoman on completion!

 As fantastic as it all sounds, there're a couple of issues with the game... Firstly, there's a ton of construction pieces, as well as Roll and all her costumes, that need to be downloaded.... except that you download 'unlock keys' since everything is already on the UMD. This is downright idiotic, as one day Capcom's online servers will close and you won't be able to get them anymore, even though they are on the UMD. And y'know, as with almost every PSP game, it suffers from slowdown every now and then. Lastly, Megaman's movement is a bit quirky, after coming to a full stop, when you start to move again, Megaman will stop for a second or so before taking another step. This was probably done to help you with some pixel perfect jumps, as it makes moving towards an edge much easier and precise, but, unless you're planning a jump, it just makes movement feel weird, although, eventually, you get used to it.

 And just like Megaman Maverick Hunter X before it, Megaman Powered Up is a phenomenal little game, that packs a lot of content into a tiny UMD. Capcom really knocked it out of the park with this one.
8.5 out of 10

Review #285: Megaman Maverick Hunter X

 And thus I conclude with my Megaman Xathon.

 So, Megaman X was amazing, arguably the best game in the series. Let's go back in time, Megaman X's story had gotten incredibly convoluted, after Keiji Inafune kinda left the series to work on Megaman Zero, so with Maverick Hunter they planned on reboting the entire series. Sadly, sales weren't very high, and the whole plan was scrapped.

 While there is a story to each installment in the series, it's a mess, both in part due to poor translations(on all entries, even X4 had a few errors(Like Magma Dragoon being referred as an Irregular, what the Japenese call the Mavericks)), but Maverick Hunter features, for the first time in the series, a good translation and fantastic voice-acting. If you've played the first game, you know the deal, Sigma goes Maverick and it's up to X and Zero to stop him, although Zero works on the background, while you, as X, do the legwork. The 8 Mavericks have been given a bit more developement, thanks to dialogue before each battle, and they get three different, fully voiced introductions: One for X, another one for X after watching the OVA and a third one in Vile Mode. Speaking of the OVA, finishing the game unlocks an animated 30-minute OVA as well as Vile Mode.

 As for the game itself, it's basically the same 2-D Action-Platform game from before, but now with 3D graphics. There's been slight changes to some levels, and while the Heart and Energy tanks are hidden on the same places that they were before, the four capsules have been switched around, and if you opt for the secret Z-Buster, it's actually different from the upgraded X-Buster. I noticed that some things are slightly harder this time around, and others are easier. For example, Armored Armadillo's stage, destroying the excavators is much easier this time around, but remember those annoying birds near the end of the stage? They can knock you out of the mine-cart very easily this time around(I think it has to do with the minecarts being a bit smaller than before). Boomer Kuwanger's invincibility period lasts longer, so you can no longer just spam missiles until he dies... but Spark Mandril can now be frozen immediately after he defrosts, making him a much easier boss. After you are done with the 8 Mavericks you'll unlock the 4 Sigma Stages... and they've been completely redone. While they are not terrible, they are not quite as good, or fair, as the originals. But hey, at least now you can replay Sigma Stages, save mid-way through them and keep the Hadoken! These changed stages would've made me lower the score a bit, but while Megaman X(SNES) had the better stages, Maverick Hunter X makes up for it with....

 VILE MODE! Clearing the game unlocks Vile, and he plays entirely different from X. Mind you, at the start, it's incredibly challenging, expect to die on the tutorial stage. Multiple times. Not only is Vile slower, but the new enemy placement is much cheaper and annoying. When you start off as Vile, you are supposed to move slowly and take out enemies methodically... until you defeat your first Maverick(Preferably Chill Penguin, since he drops an upgrades that halves the damage you receive) and get new weapons. Unlike X, who carries 8 different weapons from the 8 Mavericks, Vile can only take 3 weapons with him.... from a weapon pool of 45! There's a ton of variety and combinations to make Vile a lean, mean killing machine. Vile Mode is a fantastic little extra with a ton of replay value by itself.

 If there was one thing to complain about, besides me preferring the old Sigma stages, is that every now and then, the game suffers from slowdown. It's not a huge deal, and it's not very prevalent, but it's there and it's a tad annoying. One time, the game froze for a second or two as it decided if X had died or not(To be fair, a lot was going on at the time of my death!).

 I wouldn't say that Maverick Hunter X is superior than the SNES game, but I wouldn't say it's worse either. It has different strengths and weaknesses. I may not like the 4 redesigned stages, but Vile Mode is a blast and the 30-minute anime OVA is a nice treat. It's clear that a lot of work went into this game, and the result is phenomenal, it's a shame it didn't sell much, but what was Capcom expecting making it a PSP exclusive?
 9.0 out of 10

Review #284: Megaman X 8

 Almost but not quite.

 Megaman X hasn't been quite the same since X4. X5 was alright, X6 was a disaster and X7 was a mess. Instead of building upon X7, they decided to begin anew with X8, axing the 3D/2D segments(as well as crouching!) and opting instead for classic Megaman X 2D action, albeit with 3D graphics(2.5D if you will). It goes a little further, characters have been redesigned and streamlined, so no more silly stubby legs, and look better than ever.

 It's the eight time around, so you know the gist of it: Defeat the 8 Mavericks then tackle Sigma, yadda yadda. The three heroes have been further differentiated this time around, X is a long-distance power house, however, charging his Mega Buster takes a while, Axl can't charge his shots, but he fires rapidly in any direction(Although it roots him to the ground) and is the only character that can hover, while Zero is the only character with a double jump and specializes in close combat. And just as it was on X7, you can take two characters with you, and a new 'Team-up' attack has been introduced, which is fairly unimpressive but deals decent damage.

 X5 introduced the Reploid saving mechanic, which I never cared for, but after X6 they got tied to upgrades. Not this time, now you have to find their chips and then buy them. Yes, Megaman X8 introduces a shop system and I love it. You can purchase a few basic upgrades, like more health or one-time use health items, and once you find a life tank, extra charges, at the outset, but the really juicy stuff must be found. I absolutely love this new system, much, much more than having to rescue Reploids. And on New Game plus, you can unlock new armors for the three main characters(Or, y'know, use a cheat code and get them on your first playthrough) as well as three female characters, which behave as nerfed versions of their male counterparts, but hey, new characters! Kinda. And you can cheat codes to unlock them early as well.

 The game's difficulty is a bit higher than what we've gotten used to, more reminiscent of X3 than anything. And it's mostly fair. Mostly. All fairness goes out the window once you hit the last levels, filled to the brim with cheap deaths and stuff you can't see coming the first time through. And the last boss, if you take too long to figure out how to off him, he automatically kills you, no matter how much health you've got left, because that's fun, isn't it? At least Megaman X4 through X7 offered unlimited continues and generous checkpoints, this time around, continues must be bought and they are a one-time use only, so unless you've got the cash, you are stuck with the default two continues. There's also an Easy mode, but they don't let you fight the true boss and get the true ending, not cool. There's also two horrible, horrible vehicle stages. The least said about them the better.

 When all is said and done, while not as good as the SNES games, this is the best Megaman X game since X4. Level design is, mostly, fair, the weapons are fun to use, all three characters are completely different from each other, there's a bunch of fun unlockables as well. It's a fine game all around, that lacks some refinement, but the X series had finally gotten on the right track again. Not that it matters, since Capcom basically did away with the series.
 7.0 out of 10

Review #283: Megaman X 7

 At least it's not Megaman X 6.

 Took long enough, but Megaman X, a series that worked wonders as 2D action games, finally took the plunge and went 3D. Kinda. It actually mixes 2D and 3D areas for... interesting results. I'm gonna cut straight to the point here, Megaman X 7 isn't very good, but at least it ain't X 6.

 The story... well, you should know by now, a villain who is totally not being manipulated by Sigma, must be stopped, there's 8 robot masters to defeat, yadda yadda yadda. New to the series is Axl, a hero who can copy normal enemies's forms for a little while. He isn't too bad, but his voice actor is terrible and doesn't fit him very well... something that stands true for the rest of the cast. Something that irked many a player was the fact that X must be unlocked, either by saving 64 reploids or defeating the 8 Mavericks, but I don't mind. Series evolve, you don't need to play as the same characters all the time. That said, between the plot being centered around Axl, who is a very stereotypical rash teenager, is a bit annoying. Not that you should play these games for their stories anyhow...

 As with previous games, there's 8 Mavericks to defeat, which you can tackle in any order, and they leave a weapon that is extra effective against another Maverick... kinda. Just as with Megaman X 5, even the 'effective' weapons don't deal that much damage, as soon as you unlock X, you'll find out that his charged Mega Buster is the most effective weapon in the entire game. Speaking of characters, now you can bring along any two characters between Axl, X and Zero, which a lot of people like, but strikes me as odd. It's only three characters, so I found it a bit dumb to only let you take two characters. Either let me bring all three of'em, or only one. Zero is a hard hitting, close-range fighter that can double jump... but sans boss-fights, he is gonna have a hard time connecting with his sword. Axl can shoot from afar and glide and X is Axl but with the added benefit of a Charge Shot. Oh, and Axl can turn into enemies defeat by the copy shot... which you'll never use, since transformations are useless(Except for rescuing a few reploids) and dealing the killing shot with the copy shot is pure guesswork against enemies that can receive a ton of punishment.

 Strewn throughout each level are 16 Reploids which you can rescue... or if you fail to get to them before an enemy hits them, they die. Forever. These reploids reward you with upgrades, life and weapon energy upgrades or... nothing, but you never know who has what. This offers a bit of a predicament when it comes to X, y'see, in order to access to him early you need to rescue 64 reploids, which if you are particularly good, can achieve in 4 levels, but it took me 5. This means that a ton of upgrades are gonna be going Axl and Zero's way, since you have to use them the moment you get them. Sure, you could also try to finish all 8 Mavericks without rescuing these Reploids, but remember, they can die, and it can cost you an upgrade. That said, after I finished the 5th level and unlocked X, I used him the remainder of the game, and once I managed to catch him up with the other two, became the best character in the game.

 Controls are also a bit of an issue, but I think it has to do with the game mechanics rather than the controls themselves. It's hard to explain, but wall jumping can be pretty finicky, since it seems that characters have troubles clinging to certain walls or objects. It was also fairly stupid to make Axl's hover work by holding the jump button, since in this game, depending on how hard you press said button it alters the height of your jump, so if you want to get maximum air out of your jump, you might accidentally trigger the hovering and screw yourself out of the air-dash, plummeting to your death. And hilariously enough, X's hovering works by tapping jump again, so if you are using both characters(Like I was!) prepare to have your muscle memory trick you.  The game also has auto-targeting, which loses its target very easily if you move around, and you toggle targets by tapping R2, although the reticule has a mind of its own when it comes to multiple moving targets, so it might make you waste that charged shot when the boss unleashes projectiles. Goddamn. This also means that when targeting, the camera doesn't follow the target, so bosses like the Kangaroo are a pain in the neck, as you hold Square, to charge your shot, tap circle to avoid its lounge attack while holding R1 to spin the camera and see where the hell the boss is, you'll be a hand gymnast in no time.

 That said, level design is.... OKish. Something tells me that the same team behind the terrible MMX6 was behind this one as well, since leaps of faith abound. The game physics are a bit wonky as well, standing over moving objects will jerk your character around sometimes(The Hyena boss battle, one of the moving planes in the planes stage.) and just try jumping over an object that moves vertically, it will mess with your jump. As for the 3D sections of the levels, they are not as terrible as people make them out to be, but for some reason, the game will only let you spin the camera on CERTAIN sections of this kind. Which is hilarious, because the sections with fixed camera angles are all kinds of terrible, like in the Flying ships stage, even parts throughout which you are supposed to go through will have walls obstructing your view. Genius. I could handpick a few other terrible pieces of the other levels, but I think that's enough to prove my point: Levels can be pretty bad. But, if its worth anything, it doesn't get as bad as X6.

 Megaman X 7 can be a tiny bit fun at times, when its working properly For as poorly designed as they are, the ideas behind some levels are pretty cool, and not something that they could've done in 2D, so they tried to take advantage of this new, third dimension. Not that they succeeded, but they tried. But the mediocre levels, the wonky controls and bad design choices all conspire against it. Megaman X 7 is amongst the worst Megaman X games, but sadly, the series has seen worse.
 4.5 out of 10

Review #282: Megaman X Collection

 A bit more inconsistent than Megaman Classic...

 Remember that little blue guy that would steal his enemies' weapons? Well, now imagine if that little guy was a bonafide badass and you'd get Megaman X. The game's basics remain the same, jump and shoot your way through 8 different bosses, obtaining a weapon from each that is extra effective against another specific boss, until you defeat them all and then you are ready to tackle the last gauntlet of stages before the last boss. But besides being darker and edgier, Megaman X is much faster than its predecessor series, the 'dash' mechanic becoming a core move that you'll need to use in order to deal with the new obstacles and enemy patterns. X, the hero, can also cling to walls and jump off them for extra verticality when it comes to stages. This is a whole 'nother beast, and when it's at its best, its even better than classic Megaman.

 Megaman X 1: The first entry in the series is downright fantastic. The difficulty is just right, and everything works just right. There's a ton of stuff to find on the 8 levels, from different armor pieces, health upgrades and extra sub-tanks(Rechargeable health packs). They got everything right on their first iteration. 9.0

 Megaman X 2: Almost as good as the first one. My biggest gripe is that some of the bosses are a bit of a drag, as you have to wait for them to become vulnerable to attack, which leads to a lot of waiting. 8.0

 Megaman X 3: The game I liked the least on the SNES, not that that is a bad thing, as I only prefer X2 slightly more than this one. This version is the PS1 port, which means it includes anime cutscenes, which if you ask me, feel a bit out of place. This game is noticeably harder than the other two, but don't worry, if you got through the other two, you are well prepared to tackle this one. This time around, there are multiple endings, and you can even play, in a very limited form, as Zero, at the cost of one life. There's a new type of hidden collectible, to add to the armor pieces, health upgrades and sub-tanks: Rider Armors. I felt like these added nothing to the game, as you only get to ride these on some sections of only some stages, which translates to busy work. And you will need to collect these if you plan on collecting the other upgrades, since some require the rider armors. 8.0

 Megaman X 4: The first entry on the PS1, it looks fantastic. Like, really, really good, bosses have never looked this cool, and they have some of the most interesting movesets in the series. It also features some of the most memorable stages as well. You also get to play as either Zero or X, both have different storylines, and while they fight most of the same bosses, their play styles are completely different. 9.0

 Megaman X 5: Now you can play as both X and Zero, picking who before each stage. They also, finally, added the option to crouch! There's new equippable parts to customize your characters. This one is a bit of a misstep. They added this arbitrary 'time limit', until you beat the eight robot masters, that while it isn't very strict, it's annoying. The Boss Rematch at the end of the game is a pain in the butt, as enemies take ages to die, luckily, if you are savvy enough and collected the Ultimate Armor in the previous stage, you can cheese them to death with unlimited Giga Strikes. There's also a lot of handholding, Allia, your navigator, will interrupt you mid-stage to tell you the most obvious things she can. Things like 'HEy, break that door in front of you to continue', goddammit, I'm not playing on easy, I'm not stupid, I just want to play. Not gotta lie, this game made me want to play the SNES originals again... 6.0

 Megaman X 6: An absolute joke of a Megaman X game. Level design is absolutely atrocious. Leaps of faith, damage that looks unavoidable and, as a matter of fact, one area has RANDOM rooms, and some house upgrades, so you might have to replay that one level multiple times. So. Much. Fun. There was also that junk compressor stage, turns out if you manage to avoid it, and stop holding down to crouch, it will kill you anyways. And even if only X's toe stretches into the hitbox, he dies. There're also parts that can't be cleared without the right 'optional' parts, some which can, potentially, be lost forever on a playthrough. There's also that terrible avalanche stage.... it seems as if stages were purposely designed to annoy players. And while I don't care about graphics, it's hard not to notice how poorly animated the new sprites are. This is a sad way to finish this collection. 4.0

 Megaman Battle and Chase: But hey, maybe you finished X1, X2 and X3, which unlocks Megaman Battle and Chase, a PS1 kart racer that never made it out of Japan before! And... it's terribly average. It has a few original ideas, like collecting kart parts from defeated enemies, but it's not very fun. It also doesn't look very good, which in a racing game, where you need to see what's coming and what's in-front of you is quite vital. 5.0

 Alright, so this collection's quality isn't as consistent as Megaman Anniversary Collection, but I'd say that X1, X2, X3 and X4 are absolutely worth it and are even better than anything Megaman Classic can offer. And even then, you are left with an above average platformer in X5 and Battle and Chase which justifies itself as a fun little curiosity. X6 is best left alone.
 9.0 out of 10

Review #281: Mega Man Anniversary Collection

 Basically, what the upcoming Megaman Collection should've been...

 This game nets you the original Megaman games on the NES, which means 1 to 6, Megaman SNES(7) and Megaman PS1(8), plus, the bizarrely entertaining pseudo arcade fighters, for a total of 10 games.

 The games' premises are, basically, all the same and pretty simple to boot. Dr. Light is the good scientist who created Megaman, the robot who must stop Dr. Wily's evil Robot Masters. Even if it looks like it isn't Wily, it IS Wily. With that out of the way, all these games are 2D action-platform games, and tough as nails to boot. They require observation, patience for pattern recognition, as well as good reflexes to deal with the obnoxious enemy placement, deal with hazards that you'll only know about once you get hit or killed by them. As a matter of fact, all of the 8 main games have at least one obstacle that's unavoidable until you know about it. Whether it's the Dragon that pops up below you in Megaman 2, or the inverse-U mine-trap when the water rises in Megaman 7, somewhere, somehow, the games will get you. Cheaply. Oh, and a few of the games have sections that are just unbeatable without ammo, so if you run out of ammo,  you've got to either killing yourself until you can use a continue(And get your ammo refilled) or grinding enemies for minutes on end until you get the ammo. The latter is not always possible, like with the final Boss in Megaman 2 or one of Wily's stages in Megaman 3.

 All that said, the games are usually pretty fair, hard, but fair. Usually. Besides the issues mentioned above, Megaman 1 and 2 have a couple of spots where it's practically impossible to avoid getting damages, even if you know it's coming. These games are from another era, when games had to be tough in order to incite sales and not have the games returned after a quick rental.... luckily, if you don't have the skill, or the time, this collection lets you up the starting lives to 5 and choose an 'Easy' difficulty, which removes some obstacles, ups your damage and reduces the damage you receive on all 8 platformers. These options makes this collection the ideal way to experience these games, making it accessible for everyone, without sacrificing the oldschool challenge for purists.

 Another addition to this collection is letting you switch between powers with the shoulder buttons. On paper it sounds great, but in practice you'll find out that going into the menus can be faster and more useful(Since you have to remember what each color-swap corresponds to which weapon) which makes it more efficient than this new functionality. One thing that has been kept intact, for better or for worse, and I vie towards the latter, is sprite flickering. Basically, when the NES got taxed, graphically, sprites would flicker, which can make it hard to keep track of what's going on, luckily, it only applies to the NES games. Megaman 7 suffers from occasional slowdown, which I don't know if it was present in the SNES original. Oh! And from Megaman 1 to 7, picking up health restores pauses the action, which can really throw you off and ruin your platforming.

 All the games follow the same formula, pick a stage from any of the starting 8(6 for Megaman 1, and 7 and 8 are divided in two sets of four), beat the boss, obtain its weapon until you clear all 8, which then takes you onto 'Wily's Castle' which is made up of four(Later games add a second Castle, for a total of 8) new stages, in which you must use all the powers you've acquired to clear new obstacles, defeat new bosses, defeat all previous bosses and finally defeat the final boss. The game's main gimmick is that every boss is weak to another boss' weapon, which can turn their battles into a cakewalk.

 Megaman 1 was the first game in the series, and it's very rough around the edges. The difficulty is through the roof(I'd say even harder than Castlevania 1), for whatever odd reason Megaman slides when you stop moving, which can make you fall to your death. And it's the only game with only 6 robot masters.

 Megaman 2 is Megaman 1 times ten. There's 8 robot masters, new sub-weapons to facilitate going through stages, energy tanks to refill your health. The soundtrack is fantastic, but it still suffers from a few of Megaman 1 issues, like Megaman's slippery stops and some sections being downright unfair. Honestly, I'm pretty sure the reason most people consider it one of the best is due to nostalgia, since subsequent games would fix most of what this game did wrong. Not to say that the game is bad, just that the next games are even better. Except, maybe, 5.

 Megaman 3 is my favorite of the bunch. Now Megaman can slide by holding down and pressing jump, which adds a whole slew of new obstacles. But even better, when you stop moving, Megaman no longer slides, making movement a whole lot more precise. Rush, Megaman's robot dog is introduced, who serves as your 'sub-weapons' to traverse level, as a jet, a spring or a submarine.

 Megaman 4, another one of my favorites, second only to Megaman 3. Now you get the ability to charge your Mega Buster(Basic attack). This game has my favorite bosses in the series. It's hard to explain just why I like it so much, but in a few words, it's because it polishes everything the previous games did to a shine, and with the addition of the charge shot and the slide, the game just became so much more fun.

 Megaman 5 is... strangely one of the games I liked the least. It has to do with how forgettable it is, as a matter of fact, I finished the game today and I don't remember anything about it. Strange, because it's basically Megaman 4 but with new bosses... but stages aren't very remarkable. Again, it's not a bad game(I think the only game I would say is 'bad' is the first one), but the other games have more personality, more charm than this one. This is just filler.

 Megaman 6 now lets Megaman fuse with Rush intro Power mode or Jet mode. Power mode is fairly situational, the range is too short, even if, technically, it's stronger than your mega buster, so you'll probably just use it to open up secret areas. Jet mode is much more fun and useful, letting you hover for a short while. While it sounds gimmicky, it's fairly fun to use these new forms. The stages and bosses are fairly memorable, bosses in particular are particularly badass, as opposed to the cutesy look they were going for before. It's fairly fun, third spot on my favorites no doubt.

 Megaman 7 was the first, and only, classic Megaman on the SNES. Something that may throw you off at first is that Megaman now looks huge, and takes up more space on the screen, but you'll get used to it fairly quickly. This game has a ton of extras and secrets to find, which makes this game particularly fun to play. It also introduces a shop-system, so it's easier to stock on Energy Tanks.

 Megaman 8, the one on Playstation. Graphically it looks fantastic, even if it's a bit too colorful and cheery for my taste. It adds the ability to shoot your basic mega buster while using the other weapons. You can no longer carry Energy tanks, and the shop has been revised, so that there's a limited amount of 'money' to be found, but the upgrades you can buy are much more useful and actually affect the way you play. When it's at it's best, it's great, but it has a couple of stages that can be fairly frustrating... particularly the auto-scrolling skate stages, like Wily Castle's 1...

 Megaman The Power Battle and The Power Fighters are the two arcade games. They are basically boss rushes and can be played with another player. They are fairly fun distractions.

 Megaman games can be pretty inaccessible to some people, which makes the ability to adjust the difficulty on this collection a great way to ease new players into the franchise. You also get every Megaman game that was released up to the date of its release on one disc(Except 'Megaman and Bass', but at the time, it had only been release on Japan, for what its worth).... and you get more games than you would on the upcoming collection, which makes this a way better deal.
 8.0 out of 10.