(Review archived from April 20, 2023*)
Ah Mega Man 6, the Blue Bomber’s swan song on the 8-bit system that brought him into our living rooms. Our boy was growing up. Upon the U.S. release date of Mega Man 6 however (November 5, 1993), what ‘growing up’ really meant for Mega Man is that we were only a month away from the release of Mega Man X, the series debut on the SNES (setting aside series lore and character nitpicks of course). So it was tempting, and even easy, to overlook Mega Man 6 at the time of its release. Deference to, and the pursuit of, ‘the new’ is a heady ambrosia we gamers tend to imbibe of deeply (well … not ‘we enlightened retro gamers’ naturally … though the allure is still ever present). Thus when it was new, Mega Man 6 already felt like something of an anachronism; a game already considered retro long before its time. Even Capcom saw the truth in this, opting out of publishing this game in the U.S. due to the impending end-of-lifecycle for the NES. Instead Nintendo themselves picked up the publishing rights, making Mega Man 6 the only Mega Man game not published by Capcom in the U.S. (and neither company bothered to publish the game in Europe until it was released for Virtual Console in 2013).
So the question then becomes, was it a mistake to overlook Mega Man 6 at the time of its release? And I think the answer for most would be … no, probably not. Look, I absolutely adore the Mega Man games for NES, and it has one of the deepest overall series rosters of any series on the NES. But by the time Mega Man 6 rolled off the assembly line, well … things were getting a bit same-y. Mega Man X moved the series forward in some (desperately needed) new and interesting ways, so during the 1993 holiday season, given the choice between the two … it was basically a no brainer. And yet, if hindsight is an accurate guide here (as it so often is), the sunset years of the NES produced some of its best and most technically savvy titles. Developers for the NES had more or less mastered the technical aspects of the system at that point.
Comparing Mega Man 6 against X is not at all a fair comparison though, because of course Mega Man X comes out looking like the more impressive game in that comparison. The leap from 8 to 16-bit was a quantum leap for most series that made the transition. No, obviously the more even-handed assessment is to compare Mega Man 6 against the 8-bit titles in the series that preceded it. As is de rigueur for this series in its 8-bit incarnations, this requires an examination of the subtle nuances of the game. As opposed to some of the other giant series on the NES (Legend of Zelda, Castlevania, Super Mario Bros., etc.), Mega Man never really had an ‘experimental phase’ on the 8-bit system. It successfully struck upon a solid formula right out of the gate and largely stuck to that formula for every subsequent series entry on the system. “If it ain’t broke …” and all that. There are of course changes from one entry to the next, it’s just that they’re subtle, largely consisting of tweaks to mechanics and gameplay.
One aspect that Mega Man 6 introduced to the series was a new ability for Rush to ‘combine’ with Mega Man in order to grant additional powers to the Blue Bomber. In practice, these transformations weren’t really all that functionally different from the Rush transformations of old, but it did incorporate some new character animations. In terms of the boss roster, a couple of them have interesting designs; the level and character designs for both Knight Man and Tomahawk Man both stand out to me as being a cut above. And the design of Centaur Man is almost a preview of the animal inspired bosses of Mega Man X. But for the most part I wouldn’t really call any of the bosses here iconic.
At the end of the day though, it’s 8-bit Mega Man. You love it, I love it, and it’s hard to go wrong with a winning formula. So even if it does rank somewhere in the middle of the pack in terms of the overall series, that series is one of the best series on one of the greatest game consoles of all time. So if you dig Mega Man like I dig Mega Man, it’s definitely worth your time. And that pretty much encapsulates my recommendation. Definitely schedule a play through if you’re a fan of the series, but if you’re not already a fan, play one of the earlier titles instead.
* This is an archived review I’ve had sitting in my Google Drive since 2023. I figured it was time to let it see the light of day, so I’ve presented here in largely unedited format.
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