Mega Man 7
Mega Man 7 is a side-scrolling platform game developed by Capcom and released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1995. This was the first Mega Man in the classic series to make the 16-bit jump to the SNES. This game was a massive transformation for the classic series, providing a huge upgrade to the graphics and sound. Despite that, Mega Man 7 feels like a huge step backwards if you play Mega Man X first, as most people did back then. Mega Man X greatly expanded on the Mega Man formula with many innovations, even though it was actually released before Mega Man 7. Capcom developed Mega Man 7 for fans that were turned off by the darker tone and more complex mechanics of Mega Man X. Unfortunately, fans of the 8-bit Mega Man games don’t like Mega Man 7 much. As a result of that, Mega Man 7 is the black sheep of the series. Fan expectations aside, this is still a solid game, even if it pales in comparison to the X series.
Dr. Wily is a mad scientist who tried to conquer the world with his robots six times in a row. Mega Man, a dandy blue robot created by Dr. Light, was there to foil Wily’s plans all six times. The ending of Mega Man 6 showed that Wily was actually captured and imprisoned, much to the surprise of many fans. Due to that, many thought that Mega Man 6 was the end of the classic series. Obviously, that wasn’t the case. As the opening cutscene to Mega Man 7 reveals, Wily had a backup plan. Before his imprisonment, Wily hid four robots in a secret laboratory that would activate in the event that their master was captured. The powerful robots, known as Robot Masters, would then start destroying stuff in an attempt to locate their creator. After six months of peace, that’s exactly what happened. The only one man enough to stop these dastardly robots is Mega Man. Mega Man 7 is the only game in the series that starts with a prison break, which is pretty cool.
Unlike all the previous classic games, Mega Man 7 has an intro stage, which is an idea taken from Mega Man X. The intro stage starts off with Mega Man riding inside a goofy truck with his sister Roll and a new friend of his named Auto. This part is a little obnoxious, because it has a lot of dialogue that takes forever to get through. Once the intro to the intro stage is over, Mega Man gets off the truck and the stage begins proper. During the stage, you witness Wily break out of prison and encounter Bass. Making his first appearance in Mega Man 7, Bass acts as Mega Man’s robotic rival. Oh, and he has a robotic dog appropriately named Treble. There isn’t a whole lot to the opening stage beyond jumping over a few pits and taking down some enemies. The intro stage in Mega Man 7 mostly exists for expository reasons, which is unnecessary, as there’s already an expository cutscene before the title screen.
Upon completing the intro stage, you are taken to the stage select screen where you choose which of the four Robot Masters you wish to take on… wait a minute, only four? If you played previous Mega Man games, then you’re probably wondering why there are only four Robot Masters and not the usual eight. There are actually still eight Robot Masters in total, but only four are accessible from the start. Hardcore fans mostly hate this change, but there are a few benefits to it. For one, the second set of Robot Masters is much harder than the first set, so this creates a better difficulty curve. In addition to that, there is an extra boss you fight in between the two sets of Robot Masters, which is nice. Still, this doesn’t make up for the fact that you can’t select all eight Robot Masters right from the start. A big appeal to the Mega Man series is being able to select all the stages right away, after all.
Defeating a Robot Master allows Mega Man to absorb its weapon, which is then used to exploit the weakness of another boss, just like in the other games. The incredibly detailed designs make these some of the best looking Robot Masters in the series. There are a lot of cool designs and even a few original ideas here. Turbo Man is literally a transformer, as he’s a robot that transforms into a race car. Shade Man is a robotic vampire, which I imagine would be popular with Twilight fans. Spring Man is pretty silly, but he’s easily one of the most unique Robot Masters in the series, so he’s one of my personal favorites. The stages all reflect the themes of the Robot Masters pretty well, like Shade Man lives in a Gothic castle, Spring Man resides in a toy factory, Turbo Man is in a racetrack, and Slash Man is in a robotic version of Jurassic Park. The extremely varied stage themes and unique cast of Robot Masters are some of Mega Man 7’s strong points.
Mega Man keeps all of his innate abilities from previous adventures, such as the slide and Mega Buster. The slide lets him stylishly avoid certain attacks and get through tight areas, and the Mega Buster lets him charge his shots for more destructive power. Something a little different about Mega Man 7 is the effects that the Special Weapons have on the environment. The Special Weapons will occasionally interact with the environment in unique ways to either uncover secrets or make the stages easier. For example, Cloud Man’s weapon shoots out an electrifying shot that powers inactive machines to reveal moving platforms. Another good example is Freeze Man’s weapon, which freezes lava solid, allowing Mega Man to walk across safely. This isn’t entirely new, as Mega Man games have experimented with this concept before, but Mega Man 7 places a greater emphasis on it. All in all, this is a neat feature.
Mega Man 7 features a shop where you buy items and upgrades in exchange for bolts, which enemies frequently drop. The shop was actually first introduced in one of the obscure Mega Man games for the Game Boy, but this is the first time a home console Mega Man had a shop. You access the shop from the stage select screen, and boy, is it useful. You can buy extra lives, Energy Tanks, Weapon Tanks, the Special Tank, all of Rush’s upgrades, the Energy Balancer, and a few other useful things. Energy and Weapon Tanks are items that may be used during a stage to fully restore Mega Man’s life or Special Weapon energy, so those are the most useful things to buy. The Special Tank does the same thing, but it restores everything. As for the Energy Balancer, this handy item will refill the Special Weapon that has the lowest energy whenever you pick up an energy refill. It’s very convenient, as it means you won’t have to constantly switch to a particular weapon in order to restore its energy. The shop is one thing that not even Mega Man X had going for it, giving Mega Man 7 a slight edge in at least one aspect.
Rush, the robotic dog, returns to aid Mega Man with various functions and transformations. You begin with a single Rush ability and earn more by collecting hidden items or buying them at the shop. Some of Rush’s abilities return from past games, such as the Rush Coil that allows for higher jumps, and the Rush Jet that Mega Man rides for short distances. A new ability is Rush Search, which has Rush digging into the ground to find hidden items. The greatest new Rush transformation is unlocked after collecting four letters that spell his name. Known as the Super Adaptor, this allows Rush to transform into an awesome armor that Mega Man wears, giving the blue bomber some new abilities. This idea originated in Mega Man 6, in which Rush could transform into two types of armors for Mega Man. In Mega Man 7, the effects of those two armors were combined into a single one. With the Super Adaptor on, Mega Man can hover for a short distance during a jump and also shoot his arm out like a rocket. The rocket arm does major damage, and with an additional upgrade, gains homing abilities. The one drawback is that you can’t slide while wearing the Super Adaptor, but that’s hardly a drawback. The Super Adaptor is the best thing about Mega Man 7.
Mega Man 7 alienated many fans by not being as sophisticated as Mega Man X while also lacking the classic feel of the older games in the series. Its existence is sort of a paradox, being that it tries to bring the series forward, but not too forward. Fans of the old classics complain that the sprites are too big, the sounds are too cute, and the difficulty is too low, whereas fans of the X series didn’t like the lack of wall jumping and dashing. It’s hard to find people who appreciate this game for what it is. However, the game really isn’t that bad. The music is decent, the graphics are great, the boss and enemy designs are creative, the Super Adaptor is fantastic, the shop adds an extra layer of depth, and Bass is cool. There are really only two problems: the wordy intro stage, and the inability to select all eight stages from the start. Mega Man 7 is still an enjoyable game, even if not many people enjoy it.
