Mega Man 3 wasn’t particularly hot in my opinion. Capcom messed with the new formula by adding in the slide ability and didn’t come up with any creative uses for it. Additionally the roster of robot masters was uninspired, and the main game was overly long with some recycled content from previous outings. That’s why I’ve always thought they should have stopped the series at that point, because if they’re already running out of good ideas it’s best not to run it into the ground. Capcom isn’t one to listen to reason, and thus Mega Man 4 was released two years later. I had high hopes that they had somehow hit a point of inspiration, but sadly that’s not the case. While it’s not the low point that part three was Mega Man 4 isn’t particularly good by series standards.
What is surprising is the fact that Capcom took an even different route from their last outing in terms of story. After Wily met his end at the end of the last game a new doctor has risen up to crush the world with a new cast of robot masters. This Dr. Cossack has assembled a line up more powerful than the last, and it’s up to Mega Man to stop him. While this is a new and interesting twist to the formula the scenario quickly degenerates toward the end and we’re left with a story that’s far too similar to the past three titles. Aside from the changes to scenario gameplay is almost identical to the last games. Mega Man 4 is a side scrolling action platformer with an emphasis on projectile weapons. You start out with just your mega buster that shoots pellet shaped bursts, but this time around it has been upgraded and you can charge it by holding down the B button for a more powerful shot. This is a decent add-on, but unfortunately it makes the secondary weapons less useful. It has infinite shots which makes this upgrade unbalanced.
Other weapons are acquired by defeating robot masters. These function as the boss characters in the game and each has their own like-themed stage. What’s interesting is the fact that from the beginning you can select to tackle them in any order you choose. The roster of robot masters is a little weird this time around. This is one of the few Mega Man games where I didn’t particularly like any of them because thematically they’re all over the place. The worst offenders are Dust Man (based off of a vacuum cleaner of all things), Dive Man (extremely generic and boring), Pharaoh Man (who the heck thought this would be a good idea?) and Bright Man (he has a light bulb on top of his head… it’s not as clever as it sounds). Others such as Ring Man, Drill Man, and Skull Man are too boring to even mention. I guess Toad Man would have to be my favorite of the bunch; I always thought it was interesting that this game features two different aquatic based bosses.
Mega Man 4 features some of the most boring weapons in the entire series. The flash stopper is a blatant copy of the time stopper from Mega Man 2 with the added ability of allowing you to hit shielded monsters. Rain flush creates a full screen storm that damages all enemies, but because you don’t directly shoot any projectiles it isn’t particularly useful. The drill bomb is just a drill that explodes, but I guess it’s kind of neat that you can detonate it early by pressing the attack button after shooting it. The ring boomerang as well as the skull barrier and heat seeking dive missile are self explanatory, and have no interesting effects. One that always made me laugh was the dust crusher which, as far as I can tell, shoots garbage at your enemies. The pharaoh shot is the most interesting of the bunch just because it is the only other weapon besides the mega buster that can be charged for a more powerful shot. The typical Rush adapters return and are virtually unchanged. They’re best for finding shortcuts or reaching out of the way items, but some levels require them which is unfortunate. It’s unfortunate that the arsenal in Mega Man 4 is so boring.
The level designs feel mostly phoned in. Through most of the primary stages it feels like there’s too much empty space, and the enemy attack patterns are too similar to those in the last game. The level specific mechanics are okay, but they’re the only interesting gimmicks the developers were able to come up with. I like how in Bright Man’s stage the lights go out and you have to destroy enemies to reveal the way forward. In addition Drill Man’s level has switches that must be pressed in order to make platforms appear, Toad Man’s lair is in the sewers and you must deal with water flowing on the ground. Those are the only noteworthy mechanics unfortunately. The robot masters themselves are super easy this time around due to some really bad attack patterns. You can beat Toad Man almost by standing still because he just jumps around when hit. Dive Man is the worst offender because he simply fires his missiles at you (which are very easy to hit) and then flies across the screen. You can dodge him entirely just by jumping at the right moment, and it’s not hard to judge when. I found every design aspect very disappointing in this game.
It’s hard to say whether the graphics have been upgraded at all in this sequel. On one hand the new enemy designs are pretty good, and the additions are an improvement on the last game. Unfortunately the rest seems to be just ripped from the old engine, and that’s really disappointing. The framerate still suffers from some major issues, and anytime more than one enemy is on-screen at once you can expect the action to slow down significantly. In addition flickering actually seems worse in this one. Dust Man’s stage in particular, with its platforms made of garbage, can be hard to see when the objects are forming and everything is flashing in and out. On the other hand the interface has been upgraded significantly and this game actually has a proper weapon select screen which is really nice. The soundtrack is very by the books, but it doesn’t have the charm of parts one and two. It’s about on par with the third in this regard which is quite poor.
Mega Man 4 is largely unnecessary. It brings virtually no refinements to the formula with the powered up mega buster being the only one and it’s not particularly good. The robot masters are dull, the level designs suffer, and it’s boring overall. The only thing I liked was the introduction of a new villain, but his role is short lived as the game quickly falls back into the old tired routine.
