Welcome to a brand new edition of Retro Corner and we move on to the fourth Mega Man title. Capcom was always known for rehashing the same formula for years in most of their IPs. Mega Man IV is one of those titles as the company continued to tweak the original formula. To be honest the fourth game is one of my least favorites of the series as the gameplay feels off to me. It's here when the formula starts to get redundant which is something Capcom suffered from over the years. The theme is about a new threat from Russia as a scientist named Dr. Mikhail Cossack has unleashed his own robot masters. Cossack wants to conquer the world and to show people across the planet he is superior in his genius. As Dr. Wily is surprisingly absent, Mega Man once again sets out to prevent another evil genius from conquering the world. Gameplay As mentioned before, not much as changed since the second game and the basics are all there as seen from the previous titles. A new feature called the Charge Shot got added and provides double damage when fully charged. There were several times the charge shot actually got me out of trouble. I ran into several enemies who got placed on a platform and instead of taking a few shots, it now takes only one. There is also a couple of new features like the grappling wire that lets Mega Man shoot a cable to bring him up to a high platform. Even the balloon item helped in several situations like getting to a ladder faster with those blocks that appear but disappear. The powers from the bosses weren't all that special this time. However, there are a few good ones as seen from Ring Boomerang, Dust Crusher and Drill Bomb. The Ring Boomerang is a combination between the Shadow Blade and Metal Blade. It enables me to attack enemies at an angle and would come back without wasting energy most of the time. The Dust Crusher might sound lame, but this power did more damage to the bosses in Cossack and Wily levels. The Drill Bomb wasn't as effective as I hoped for, but when used against the right boss in Cossack and Wily stages then they deal real damage. As routine, MMIV has a handful of issues around its level design and actually went backwards on a few ideas. Some of the jump platforming in the stages were so cheap that I fell into the spikes and gaps many times. These are found in the Bright Man stage with the grasshopper platforms and the water torrents in Toad Man's level. For Bright Man, there were several moving platforms that looped back and forth as I would miss the timing to jump off. In the Toad Man stage, water rushed on the surface of these floors between gaps and would push Rock away. It doesn't help that there are enemies coming down on the player between the gaps. I also noticed some of the bosses had essentially the same pattern of using a special attack and then would shoot buster pellets afterwards. Of course, the 16 level format returns from MMIII but now you can't select the stages and must complete each one after the other at Cossack's Citadel. After completing his castle then you face Dr. Wily in his own fortress of four levels. It came off repetitive especially when Capcom completely rehashed the same formula. Unfortunately, they would continue this format until MMVII on the Super NES. Rating: 8.5/10 Graphics/Presentation The enemies continue having their wonky and funny designs in a Mega Man fashion. The Mummira (mummy), the Metalls, Dompans, Hover, and even Toten Polen continues the tradition. The Metalls (those small enemies with hard hats) have become a staple enemy to the series when the fourth game rolled around. Capcom really went the extra mile for these little guys as this time they have given them whimsical traits. There’s one that falls from the sky with an umbrella hat, one that dances in a twirl and another literally has a snorkel. Its like each title that comes out, they are giving more personality to these mechanical critters. I still find it hilarious for the Robot Masters to have weird but funny names. I mean they include the likes of Bright Man, Dust Man, Toad Man and even a Skull Man. Seriously, what does he do? Dig dinosaur bones using an energy shield made of skulls? The presentation got upped in its quality a little compared to the previous games. There is now an intro that provided a short description of how Rock became Mega Man. It is possible Capcom mastered what the NES could push by 1991. That could explain the extra special effects and animation being added so much compared to the previous games. The best level came from Pharaoh Man as the inside structure felt like a temple environment left in ruin. The torches along the walls also added to the background’s dark environment. Capcom seemed to have also master what they could push on when it comes to the special effects. In Dust Man, the fire effects on the burning trash did give the feeling that this was the last stop for expired machines. Meaning, it's where robots and machines go to die and even the music hints at the feeling. The levels' environments came off weird and not in a good way. Sure they matched what they represented but between a dust factory (I'm not making this up), a bone yard within a canyon (I'm assuming it is) and even a skyline for Ring Man. I would never have considered these ideas for a concept as they came across a little too wonky. What makes this even stranger is I love the ideas of whimsical themed levels. However, this really doesn’t work here as much as it usually does for the series. The environments are really uninspiring as not one moment during my play through did it come across as engaging. The soundtrack was much worse this time compared to MMIII as nearly none of them were memorable. At least MMIII delivered some catchy songs that didn't get on my nerves most of the time. The music just came off dull and inspiring and even annoying at times. Take the boss battle theme; I mean it was as bad as Dr. Wily's boss from the first game. I guess the studio can’t always produce quality music every time a new title gets released. The only other tracks that came off decent was from Dust Man, Bright Man, Prologue Part 2, Dr. Cossack Fortress Part 2 and Wily Castle Part 2. It's not Yasuaki Fujita’s best work (who also composed MMIII) compared to his previous soundtrack. Rating: 8.7/10 Features/Content When it came to their IPs, Capcom doesn't change a formula regarding a game's content. Unfortunately, MMIV doesn't have that much replay value since I felt bored with its standard features. The content just feels the same as always with a password system and 16 stages. I already explained that you couldn't pick any of the four Cossack levels after beating the original eight stages. Why did they remove that feature to replace it with a castle section of four levels is beyond me. It's also annoying that there are no cheat codes or a hard mode to play through. Like I said the last time, unless you are playing this game on the Legacy Collection is the only way to get a hard mode. It is true that the gameplay is already challenging but having some extra difficulty settings would've made the game less boring. For cheat codes, this was a standard feature to have in retro gaming during the Golden Age. Its clear Capcom had no desire to include their Mega Man games with any cheat codes. Conceivably, Capcom was probably trying to differ itself from Konami with Contra and Nintendo with Metroid which both games were notorious for having. Rating: 8.1/10 Final Rating The fourth game didn’t feel special as most of them are and this was my least favorite out of the 11 titles. The gameplay kept true to its formula of facing robot master followed by eight more stages before facing Wily. Capcom continued tweaking the gameplay by adding new features like the Charged Shot. Even the Wire and Balloon Items helped in many ways because this made it easier to get through the levels’ hazards. The graphics were really pushed this time as the studio made sure to add extra effects. The environments weren’t the best choices for themes, but these developers still managed to make them come off lively. Even the enemy design continues maintaining that hilarious and wonky appearance. MMIV does suffer from many problems as seen in the gameplay and its level design. The jumping between platforms shouldn’t have enemies coming at the player in droves especially when there are gaps. The same format of 16 stages felt repetitive here and it doesn’t help that I couldn’t select the four levels of Cossack’s Citadel. The shallowest part of the presentation was clearly the soundtrack. Most of the songs weren’t catchy at all and came of uninspiring most of the time. MMIV in the end will always be one of the lesser entries compared to the others in Classic Series. Gameplay: 8.5/10 Graphics/Presentation: 8.7/10 Features/Content: 8.1/10 Final Rating: 8.3/10 Very Good
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Retro Gamer has over 25 years of gaming experience and played many classics since the Golden Age. She has been an avid fan since the day the NES graced her life and changed it forever.
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