System: PSX & Saturn
Company: Capcom
Released: March 1997
Catagory: Action/Adventure
After seven fantasic games in the Mega Man series, the Blue Bomber moved on to his third system. From 6 GREAT NES games to a cool SNES game and now to a Sony Playstation installment, the Blue Bomber was everywhere! Capcom did a GREAT job of adding new stages with new enemies while putting a LOT of classic elements and cameos in the game as well to celebrate Mega Man's 10th anniversary. (such as the Guts Man and Ice Man dolls in the Clown Man stage) To celebrate Mega Man's 10th birthday, Capcom decided to add a small booklet that briefly describes the foes that Mega Man has fought in the previous game paks and to also add an offer for a Mega Man figure. I heard that the figure thing didn't turn out too well. :)
Now to the game Mega Man 8 itself, it offers a new and exciting adventure with lots of challenge yet is fun to play. There are NO energy tanks in the game which really makes the game itself much more challenging. It also seems much more difficult to get energy in Mega Man 8. The most exciting additions are the shooter stages and the jetboarding levels. You can find items in the shooter stages that enable your friends like Auto, Beat, and Fliptop to come and add extra firepower. There are also bolts hidden in each level that will allow you to purchase items at Dr.Light's Shop. Mega Man 8 holds several surprises and the game seems to have more strategy. Certain weapons acquired from beating bosses can be used to do more than just attack.
Other new additions include the enormous and powerful Duo and his evil counterpart the "Evil Energy."
Storyline: I personally like the storyline to Mega Man 8. It starts out with a battle in space between two mysterious robots. One is Duo and the other is an evil robot. Duo seems to destroy the robot but before the battle can be finished, both robots find themselves hurled towards Earth. Both mysterious figures crash on an island that seems to be on no world maps. Meanwhile, Mega Man is battling Bass in the city when he gets a call that Dr.Light wants to talk. The Blue Bomber learns about the mysterious crash on an even more mysterious island. He must investigate the island and learn what happened!!
Graphics: While the graphics in MM8 are both colorful and impressive, I'm not sure if they fit the atmosphere of a Mega Man game. I mean Clown Man??? :) Anyway, all in all I like the graphics anyway. The backgrounds and animation look smooth and the action is nonstop. One thing is that Mega Man doesn't look...well...Mega Man-ish. He seems to look a little weird. Anyway, I like the graphics because they do give the game a cool feel. There is also a lot of parallax scrolling involved such as in the first stage of Dr.Wily's Tower. I LOVE this effect! While not anything groundbreaking, the graphics in Mega Man 8 earn a thumbs up from me.
Music: This is what makes the game Mega Man 8. The music is a combination of jazz and techno and I LOVE it!! :) It is a different style from the GREAT soundtracks of the earlier Mega Man games but is still fitting for a Mega Man game. For some reason, the first stage theme really sounds nostalgic. I like it!! Although ALL of the music is superb, my favorites are the Beginning Theme, (with the anime of Mega Man's past battles) the Island Stage theme, and the Wily Tower stage 2 theme. The music in MM8 surpasses the GREAT music from most of the other Mega Man games but still can't match the nostalgic tracks from Mega Man 3. However, the music is super and I wish that more MIDIS would be done of the music from Mega Man 8.
Play Control: No complaints here. Capcom did the right thing by leaving the controls the same as before. Although the Blue Bomber seems to move a little slower, the controls are smooth as ever and are responsive. Still pretty cool. What else can I say? :)
Challenge: Mega Man 8 will challenge THE BEST video game players out there. Consider yourself a video game ace if you can beat this one without breaking a sweat. The elimination of energy tanks and the challenge of riding a jetboard makes this game super tough. It's still fun though. Dr.Wily at the very end is VERY, VERY tough. I like how Capcom made this game more challenging.
Funfactor/Lasting Value: While very tough to beat, Mega Man 8 is still a blast to play. Just blasting away at baddies, searching for hidden bolts, fighting robots, and reliving the nostalgia of playing a Mega Man game for the first time, Mega Man 8 has everything that a great game needs. With the secrets and different routes in some stages, Mega Man 8 has plenty of replay value also. You could buy some different items at Dr.Light's shop the second time through the game or could just try to find every item you can. Mega Man 8 is very fun which is what every video game should be.
Ending: Besides the TERRIBLE voices, the ending of Mega Man 8 is great. After beating Dr.Wily, he begs again. What a wimp. Before Mega Man can shoot the mad Doc, he gets caught by the evil energy. Duo finds Mega Man out for the count on the ground. Evidently, Dr.Wily's Tower is destroyed. Duo looks inside Mega Man's mind and sees that Mega Man is fighting so hard to justice. Protoman comes by and asks what happened. Duo says that Mega Man will be fine but that he must go. When Mega Man regains consciousness, he sees his best friends celebrating and Dr.Light smiling at his creation. Mega Man searches for Duo but learns from Protoman that Duo has left. Then, he sees his new friend in the sky. After that, the credits screen rolls. There are some WILD looking pics that seem to be drawings of robots. The music in the credits is VERY nice. I personally like the ending although getting rid of Dr.Wily would have been nice.
Here are my personal ratings for the game Mega Man 8 on a scale of 1 to 5:
Storyline: 4.4
Graphics: 4.3
Music: 4.9
Play Control: 4.2
Challenge: 4.9
Funfactor: 4.7
Ending: 4.5
Negatives: Mega Man 8 sure deserves some good ratings. Although strong on all counts, the GREAT music and challenge that can't be beat stand out to me. There really aren't many negatives but one REALLY stands out. The voices and acting is just plain LOUSY. Mega Man sounds like a wimpy girl and Dr.Light sounds like Elmer Fudd! The anime could have been MUCH better. Although the play control is great, it could have been a little faster. Contrast the speed of the jumps in Mega Man 3 and Mega Man 8. The jumping speed is just too slow. Some of the robots are very unoriginal. However, if you're a Mega Man freak like me, you won't care. MM8 is a GREAT game that surpasses Mega Man 7 in all counts although MM7 is still great. MM8 is more original. All in all, MM8 is a great game.