Like many other gamers my age, I grew up with Mega Man. Even though my interest slowly fizzled out as the series progressed, Mega Man remains one of the most important and recognizable icons in gaming history to me and many others. Luckily, now that all my old Mega Man cartridges won’t load up, Capcom has released Mega Mans 1 through 8 on a single disc for the Playstation2 and GameCube.

All 8 Mega Mans are included in their original glory, and there are even extra features that can be unlocked by progressing through the games. When you load up the Playstation2 version, navigation of menus is handled by maneuvering Mega Man from door to door, each door representing a different menu. I like this design a lot, because while a menu works just fine, this way adds more character and something to look at.

From the main menu you can select New Game, which in turn takes you to the game select screen. From here you run along a long line of doors marked Mega Man through Mega Man 8 with two locked doors at the end. These two doors become unlocked as you progress through the other games. After completing a level in one of the Mega Man games, your data is auto-saved. Each Mega Man is saved separately, but all within the same save file. So for example, if you have completed most of Mega Man 1 and 6 but wanted to start a game of 2, you would choose New Game from the main menu. After playing a little Mega Man 2 you are ready to complete Mega Man 6, so you go back to the main menu and choose Load Game. Now as you run down the line of doors, only games you have in progress light up. When you enter the Mega Man 6 door, your game loads up right where you left off. It’s an extremely convenient system, and you don’t have to worry about writing down any passwords or losing your progress.

Before you start playing, you have the ability to go into the options and turn on “Navi mode.” There’s a good and a bad to this mode; the good being that if there is a new remix for the stage music, it will play instead of the original music (this isn’t always a good, though – I much prefer the original Cutman music over the new remix). The other good is an improved weapon select screen. In some of the old Mega Man games, it could be really annoying trying to navigate through the weapons. The bad thing about Navi mode is that it can really make you feel stupid. Mega Man games are very straightforward and there’s never a question where you’re supposed to go next; each room makes it very obvious where to head to get to the next room. Navi mode adds a little “helper” that points you in the direction you need to go. It will also flash an exclamation point when there’s a pit or potential danger. All this stuff is silly, and actually pretty annoying. If it weren’t for the things that insult the players’ intelligence I would recommend this mode, but I just can’t.

Unless you’re a Mega Man veteran and can conquer them in your sleep, these games are very hard. I played them a ton as a kid, and as I started playing Mega Man 1 again I was more frustrated than when playing Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox. I don’t know how I did it back then. What I really like and respect about these games is that they are truly difficult. No camera problems, no insanely intelligent AI, and no super ability requirements, just strategic enemy and pit placement. These games aren’t based on exploiting a glitch and mastering the camera controls, they’re based on pure skill and timing.

The buttons are mapped well, giving you X to jump and Square to shoot. Pressing start gives you the in-game pause screen, featuring the weapon select and such, and pressing select gives you the Anniversary Collection pause menu with options like return to game select.

There aren’t many graphical improvements, besides the reduction of slow down on some of the old Mega Mans. In some parts the screen even flickers, just like it used to. It’s a little frustrating that they weren’t able to get rid of that, but at the same time it doesn’t really hurt anything and it’s kind of nostalgic. On the other hand, it’s really cool to see how the Mega Man series has evolved, and how much 2D graphics have improved since the NES.

The sound is spot on. All the old songs and sound effects are there, and some of the remixes are really good. Once you get up to Mega Man 8, you get to experience the terrible voice acting. Since Mega Man isn’t about the story, it’s not a big deal, and it’s fun to laugh at.

As if the addicting gameplay and difficulty of the Mega Man games wasn’t enough to keep you playing for hours past your bedtime, unlockables have been added to sort of coax you along. Various things like art galleries, remixed stage music, and even all new games can be unlocked by progressing through the main game. I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff, especially for entirely new games, so I was a big fan of this. One of the games you can unlock is a 2D fighter where you pick which generation of Mega Man bosses you want to fight. As you beat them you gain their weapons (just like in the real games) and you can switch between your weapons during the fights. It’s a really easy game, but it’s really fun and looks great.

Mega Man Anniversary Collection is an absolute steal at 30 bucks. For a mere 30 dollars you are getting 8 of the best 2D platformers ever created, plus 2 more secret games that you have to earn. The Mega Man games have a unique kind of difficulty that you don’t see in a while lot of games; it’s the kind of difficulty that drives you forward. Each time you fall in a pit, you become more determined to get further. It’s this kind of difficulty that makes you proud to say you beat a Mega Man game. Mega Man is definitely one of the best games of its kind, and whether you’re new to the series or have them memorized forwards and backwards you can’t go wrong with this title.  

Gameplay: 8.5
This is what Mega Man is all about. Its creative level and enemy design, difficulty, and easy controls are what made Mega Man a classic from day one.

Graphics: 7.8
The first of the series still suffer from slow down and flashy screens, but it has been slightly reduced. No noticeable graphical improvements were made to any of them, but for the later ones that doesn’t really matter. In this collection you have a wide range of graphics, beginning in the NES era going all the way up to the original Playstation.

Sound: 6.5
Some of the remixed songs are cool, but you just can’t beat the original Mega Man music. Even though the quality isn’t the best, it really is good music. In the newer generation of Mega Man games the sound effects change for the worse, and they attempt to incorporate poor voice acting.

Difficulty: Hard
I’ve played Ninja Gaiden, I’ve played Maximo, I’ve played Shinobi, Viewtiful Joe, and Ikaruga, but none of them compare to the difficulty of the old school side-scrollers. Mega Man is hard, and that’s that. Many veterans of the series will argue that they’re easy, but that’s because they did all the practicing necessary to be good at anything in life.

Concept: 8.9 
It’s so nice to have all the classic Mega Man games in one place. Instead of wrestling with the old systems and cartridges, you can now pop in one disc and have access to Mega Man 1 through 8. Also, thanks to the auto-save feature, you no longer have to write down or try to memorize all those passwords to pick up where you left off. Even though it’s great to see remakes of classic games (Shinobi, Rygar) it’s also great to bring the original versions to a new age of consoles.

Multiplayer: 7.0
While none of the Mega Mans are multiplayer; there is an unlockable game with a multiplayer feature. It’s a fun game, but it won’t last for very long.

Overall: 8.7
Mega Man Anniversary Collection is a perfect collection of the Mega Man games. It brings together the series that started it all, and fans of more recent Mega Mans can see where it all began. Fans of the old Mega Man games shouldn’t miss this either, since it’s a great way to relive these treasures. Now I can’t wait for the Street Fighter Collection due out next month!