Mega Man 4 (1991)
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Mega Man 4 Game Review
Mega Man 4 is a 1991 platform game developed by Capcom for the NES. It’s the fourth game in the Mega Man series and the weakest one up until this point.
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“Dr. Willy took me hostage
and forced my father to fight you“
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First and foremost, let’s talk about the gameplay, and there is a lot to talk about here. The player still has the same options to shoot, jump and climb as in the previous games while the sliding ability returns from its predecessor. I love sliding in this series, so I was quite happy to see it return. Everything is the same here with one major change and that is the Mega Buster.
Unlike its predecessors, here you have the chance to hold down the firing button and fire a charged shot that can be very powerful. I do realize those who criticize this move as it rendered the acquired bosses’ weapons somewhat irrelevant, but there are bigger problems with this game than this one. I personally mostly found this addition fine as it was really helpful at times.
The protagonist’s dog Rush is here once again and although I have personally never used his Marine form, at least I think not, the Coil and Jet forms were not only useful, but simply necessary to get from one screen to the next. Both were superbly utilized. But the adaptors were not that important unfortunately. I loved the newly introduced “Flip Top” Eddie. This creature appears at certain sections to give you a power-up and he is both adorable and helpful.
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Per usual, you have to beat eight Robot Masters before moving on to the last stage. Each boss has his own special attacks and weaknesses and each can be defeated with another weapon acquired from other Robot Masters. I at first did not love this idea introduced in ‘Mega Man 3’, but I’d come to like it now as it added a lot of tactics to this classic platformer.
The Toad Man stage is fine. The black background was dull, but the water was really well incorporated into the gameplay. Toad Man himself, though, is absolutely horrendous! He has to be one of the worst bosses in the history of this series as he can be beaten just by standing next to him and firing at him as he jumps from left to right like a lunatic. Horrible.
The Bright Man stage is suitably brighter in graphics and more difficult in the jumping platforms and the boss himself is perfect in terms of difficulty level. His Flash Stopper is a pain in the ass, but he can be beaten with the Rain Flash if used well. I loved the Pharaoh Man stage. Even more could have been done with the theme of Ancient Egypt, but there is enough variability here in terms of obstacles and color palette that I really enjoyed it, especially the dunes. The Robot Master himself is tough, but incredibly easy to finish off with the Flash Stopper.
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Ring Man is very demanding. Even with the fully powered Pharaoh Shot, you still have to escape his attacks from the left to the right part of the screen by jumping at the exact times. He is one of the most difficult bosses for sure. The entire stage of his is also very hard with those hippos being particularly frustrating to beat.
Dust Man is not all that hard to conquer and his stage is one of the more unique with those columns that crush you being the most original, different part of this game. Dive Man is very easy to beat with the previously acquired weapon and the entire stage is forgettable for the level of quality that I expect from underwater levels. Drill Man is also not that tough, but his stage is very good, visually pleasing and authentic. Skull Man is middle of the road when it comes to difficulty, but his stage is incredibly hard to pass given that the obstacles are frustrating.
Let’s talk about that final stage, which to me is the one thing that really made this game infuriating to play. Basically, what happened here is that you do not get any level codes within the last stage, which lasts for so long and if you quit playing, next time you have to play it all over again from the start. That made it a frustrating experience for me.
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That would be fine if this stage weren’t all that tough in difficulty level. The stages before the bosses themselves weren’t especially hard, but the bosses were just insane. I loved that mechanism where you had to slide into it to defeat the boss inside. Again, it was hard, but admirably authentic. When you defeat Cossack, a crazy Russian scientist, there is a twist that he was forced to work for Dr. Willy. This twist was fun and the only memorable part of an otherwise straightforward per usual Mega Man narrative.
I hated that jumping clock and I barely defeated him, and that vehicular creature that followed was so damn hard to finish off. Then, you have to destroy all of the bosses once again, which was ludicrous and absolutely insane. The game is truly sadistic and one of the hardest that I have ever played. As for Dr. Willy, he was at first okay. Nothing to worry about if you have the energy replenishment in spades. However, that final part where you battle him in the dark with the Pharaoh Shot was sadistically difficult, though perfectly realized in design and tactics.
Mega Man 4 features so-so level design. Many of its parts I adored, but sometimes instead of just being refreshingly authentic, you got parts that stand out like a sore thumb when compared to the rest of the game (the automatically scrolling platforming section in the last stage instantly springs to mind). The design of the bosses was done by the fans of the series themselves through a big competition organized by the creating team and it shows in some of the amateurish looks, but overall I loved most of them. The AI obstacles were random in certain levels in design, but very cool and/or cute nonetheless.
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Graphically speaking, the game looks cool, polished and very appealing throughout, but the soundtrack is easily the weakest one so far as it just felt overly repetitive. The world building is great, the controls are excellent and the overall game runs smoothly, but that difficulty made it tough to sit through.
In the end, Mega Man 4 is the weakest entry until this point in this franchise. The gameplay is mostly very strong, the visuals are great and so are the designs, but the final stage was simply sadistically insane to get through, making it an infuriating experience even for me, a fan of such hard games. It’s at first fun to play, but it eventually became one of the hardest games that I have ever played.
My Rating – 4.2
