Review: Mega Man Legacy Collection

Legacy secure

If you’ve kept a close watch on the site for the last three years or so, you’d see that it’s no secret that I love Mega Man. Despite the fact that Capcom hasn’t given him any love in the past few years, it’s still my favorite series, and one day, I’d like to see it return to glory.

While the Mega Man Legacy Collection wasn’t everything I was looking for, it’ll do just fine for now.

Mega Man Legacy Collection (3DS, PC, PS4, Xbox One [reviewed])
Developer: Digital Eclipse, Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Release Date: August 25, 2015 (Digital – PC, PS4, Xbox One) / TBA 2016 (3DS, physical sets)
MSRP: $14.99 (Digital) / $29.99 (Physical)

So what exactly is the Legacy Collection? Well, it’s a package that includes the six original NES games, as well as a few other extras, and a challenge mode — it’s that simple. Every game has the option of three aspect ratios (original, wide, and full), as well as two additional visual filters meant to replicate old TVs and monitors. That’s basically all you get in terms of mixing up the games from the way they were originally presented.

The key mantra from Digital Eclipse is “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it,” which is going to be a polarizing choice for many gamers out there. Personally, having grown up with the NES, I’m completely okay with things like slowdown effects and choppy, warped visuals. Yep, that’s right — the developers have opted to retain the original look and feel of the games, for better or for worse. You also won’t find any quality of life improvements, such as the ability to switch between subweapons with the triggers — a feature from the PSOne Classic re-releases a few generations ago. In case you’re wondering, yes, the Elec-Man subweapon pause glitch still works.

There are some nice extras though, like a music player that features every original track from all six games, and a hefty database mode, which showcases artwork and concept art for every enemy in the game. It’s all old archive material that exists in some artbook somewhere, but it’s still nice to be able to flip through it all in one centralized location. One really cool feature of the archive is the ability to instantly fight any Robot Master at will from the menu screen, with every weapon from that game at your disposal.

Ok, so onto Mega Man 1-6 — how do they hold up? Quite well, actually, from this gamer’s point of view. You can peruse through some quick thoughts here on all six games, but I really think that each title deserves a spot in the collection. The original Mega Man is a bit rough at times with some haphazard level designs, the Blue Bomber seal of quality is immediately apparently upon progressing to the second game — and of course, the third, which is my personal favorite of the original lineup. While I did feel the burn with Mega Man 5 due to a lack of innovation (as I always do), I enjoyed it all the same, and Mega Man 6 wowed me, again, with just how clean and interesting it is.

My view on the stalwart commitment to the “originals” is mixed, but ultimately positive. While it would have been nice to possibly play a remixed edition separately with more modern options, every game is a classic in its on way, even when you’re looking at it years later, free of the tint of nostalgia goggles. If you’re feeling finicky and want to switch between games however, it takes seconds to do so with the highly responsive menus, and save states are available for each game (as well as old school password support, of course).

So onto the big daddy feature — 50 challenges, accessible by way of a standalone mode. This is likely the deciding factor for many of you out there, since they are technically the only thing new in Legacy Collection. While I was initially worried that they wouldn’t do enough, I was pleasantly surprised after working my way through them, especially with the approach that they took. In recent years, we’ve seen a “remix” mentality for challenge modes, spearheaded by NES Remix. It’s a trend that sees developers taking locations from multiple games and mashing them up, and it’s a trend that I can get on board with.

While Legacy Collection features standard challenges like timed boss rush modes, they also have remixes, which function like obstacle courses of sorts. The game will task you with getting through 15-30 second bite-sized pieces of existing levels, complete with a portal at the end, which brings you to another mini-section. It’s addicting, as the game forces you to constantly rethink your strategy, and sometimes hilariously drops you into a sticky situation, like the beam section in Quick Man’s stage.

Even better, multi-game remixes are unlocked later on, which require you to deal with taking on successive areas from multiple games. It’s crazy jumping from title to title, as I would often forget that certain experiences didn’t have sliding or charged shot capabilities. Getting a respectable clear time will definitely test the mettle of even the most seasoned Mega Man vets out there.

Thankfully, all of this comes complete with leaderboard support, so you can see how you rank up against your friends and the world. I’ve already started a friendly little competition with a few members of the press, and I think I’m going to get addicted to this feature all over again, just like I did with Mega Man 9. I’m interested to see the top times from players all around the world, and this is a truly great way to unite Mega Man fans old and new.

After booting the game up I was inspired to beat all six games again and work on the challenges, so the Mega Man Legacy Collection did its job. I’d really like to see more Legacy packs down the line from Capcom — perhaps with a bit more bravado in terms of extras and alternate modes of play.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}