Mega Man 4: A Deep Dive

Mega Man 4 is a weird entry in the series for me. I've seen increasingly more people cite it as the best Classic Mega Man game, and I kinda see why. After the tumultuous developments of MM2 and MM3, Mega Man 4 was the first game since the first to feel like it was an actual finished product with no caveats. However, even with all that extra polish, something about MM4 never really sat right with me, I never got the hype. And it's not some obvious issue like with MM2's poor weapon systems, it's a lot of really small things that just add up. I don't think MM4 is a bad game, I'd actually rank it over the first two, but it also came across as unremarkable especially sandwiched between two of my favorite Classic entries. So what I'm hoping for from this deep dive is that I can really dig into why MM4 doesn't fully land for me, and why it might for others.

Story

- Right off the bat, Mega Man 4 starts off with a lot more in the way of production values. You get that sleek new Capcom logo for the first time in the series, along with a full-on intro cutscene just like the one intended for MM3.

- Unfortunately, it's a shame that the first game to get a full intro cutscene like this... just so happened to have one of the weakest Classic Mega Man stories. The main premise is just that Mega Man goes to Russia to stop a new evil scientist named Dr Cossack. I always found it weird that the Mega Man series just goes full "Cold War flick" in this game, it really gives off the vibe that Capcom ran out of ideas for Classic stories after completing that initial trilogy.

- The whole game also really leans in on the concept of Mega Man being in Russia, the soundtrack has this militaristic sound to it, and some of the locals, particularly Cossack's fortress, have a multi-colored look akin to the palaces in Moscow.

- Speaking of the soundtrack, that's another thing I'm not huge on in this game. I've raged on MM4's OST quite a bit before so I'll keep things brief. While the game has some strong tracks and notably catchy melodies, the entire score sounds strangely echoey compared to the far crisper music from 2 and 3.

Toad Man

- Mega Man 4's main addition is the Charge Shot while I normally really like this mechanic, I'm not a huge fan of MM4's version. The main issue mostly comes down to feedback. The Charge Shot in this game specifically has a far thinner and more wrinkly design that makes it look far less powerful and satisfying to use than it really should. Later games would give the Charge Shot a look that resembles a large energy ball that I feel sells its power a lot better. I also think MM4's version flickers a lot more which is a bit annoying to the eyes. That being said, the mechanic is still a good addition to the series and works well enough mechanically, it's just the visuals that really need patching up in my opinion.

- Mega Man 4 removes the multiple weakness chains that 2 and 3 had, instead going for one singular weakness chain with an intended entry point. As I've said before, I actually love the multiple weakness chains, but Mega Man 4's approach works fine too, it's such a mainstay of the series at this point that there isn't much use in complaining.

- In MM4, Toad Man is intended to be the first stage you do, and it's... honestly kinda rough. Right from the get-go, it starts you off in a rainy outdoor area where you're constantly being pushed back while having to make tight jumps and dodging swarms of birds. It's an overwhelming start for a new player, and stands out as the hardest part of the level.

- Thankfully, the rest of Toad Man's stage is pretty solid. The central mechanic are these waterfalls that push you around, not an especially novel concept for an NES game but Toad Man's stage explores it quite thoroughly. That's one of the best aspects of MM4, actually, each stage takes a few central mechanics and develops them really well throughout.

- I also like the minibosses in Toad Man's stage. They're these snails that lob bombs at you, and unlike the minibosses in Top Man's stage, these attacks feel telegraphed well enough that they fit into an intro stage quite well.

- As for the boss... well... Honestly, I think the bosses in Mega Man 4 are by and large a step down from the ones in 3, there are some real stinkers here. I also think it's worth noting that boss health takes a lot longer to charge in 4 specifically, no other game has this problem.

- And Toad Man is unfortunately one of those stinkers. He jumps around and rains down unavoidable acid, so the core concept of his fight is just a battle of attrition. But even more offensive is the fact that hitting Toad Man with a charge shot cancels his acid rain attack meaning that you can stun lock him for pretty much the entire fight without any weapons. There's Spark Mandrill syndrome and there's whatever the hell this is.

- On the other hand, I think Mega Man 4's weapon lineup is actually one of the series' best. There aren't many weak points in the bunch, and while Toad Man's Rain Flush is one of the lesser weapons in my opinion, it's still a perfectly solid screen clear that works decently well in a pinch.

- Oh yeah, and the Password theme is an abomination. It's a Mega Man 4 review, I have to mention that.

Bright Man

- Bright Man's stage is a great example of what Mega Man 4 does right in terms of stage design (as well having as a singular example of what it does wrong). It also just looks really nice. Toad Man's stage looks fine even though it is a sewer level, but I love the bright red color scheme and technological details in Bright Man's lab.

- Right off the bat, Bright Man's stage continues to evolve the blackout gimmick from previous games. Now there are both lantern enemies that turn off the lights when you kill them, and firework enemies that turn the lights back on when you kill them.

- Bright Man's stage also has this fun setpiece where you ride on crickets that hop along spikes. It's a really memorable bit of imagery from the game, even if it also has a tendency to induce lag. Yeah, while MM4 doesn't have quite the same levels of slowdown as its direct predecessor, I'd still say it's the second worst Classic NES game in this aspect.

- The last of Bright Man's main mechanics are these pendulum platforms that you have to time hopping between. They're very fun to use and you even get a little sideroom to mess around with them for an E-Tank and a life. That's another thing I like about MM4, it added a bunch of siderooms containing goodies to encourage more exploration.

- The final room is this gauntlet that combines the pendulums with the blackout mechanic, which is perfect. It's a big final challenge that brings together everything you've learned, but having to dodge those aforementioned lanterns while also hopping across the moving platforms was a really tough time for me when I first played the game. At the time, it felt like a bit of a Beginner's Trap but nowadays, I don't really get why I found this part so hard.

- As for the fight, it's fine. Bright Man shoots these skewed Mega Buster shots at you and occassionally freezes time. Unlike Hard Man, he can actually shoot at you while time is frozen, so you place yourself at just the right spot to dodge it. Or you could cheese the whole fight with Rain Flush, your call.

- Bright Man's Flash Stopper is basically the Time Stopper but it lasts a shorter period of time and you can shoot while it's in use, meaning it's basically better in every conceivable way.

Pharaoh Man

- We're on a roll because Pharaoh Man is next and he's has yet another really solid stage, though it's primarily carried by its aesthetics. As you'd expect, it's purely Egypt themed, so it mostly takes place in a pyramid filled with booby traps. The music is also a serious bop.

- The exterior section is where you can find one of the two hidden adaptors in Mega Man 4, the Balloon adaptor which is basically Item 1 from Mega Man 2. MM4 is the first game in the series to have optional collectibles, you don't need either of these adaptors but they're worth seeking out because they can really help in the fortress stages. It's nothing too special, but it's neat to see how this lays the groundwork for the later entries in the series.

- Once again, Pharaoh Man's stage introduces and develops a fun platforming gimmick, this time being these balloon platforms that float along spikes while also shooting from the sides, so you need to be careful jumping across them.

- The bulk of the enemies in Pharaoh Man's stage can be a bit annoying to deal with, though. The drill scorpions and mummies are both tanky and have a fair amount of invulnerability periods, so they can be quite a pain at points.

- This stage is also bizarrely short, feeling like it's ending just as it's really getting going which is a bit of a shame considering how cool the theming is.

- The boss fight against Pharaoh Man is once again just fine. He either jumps and shoots two small shots, or stands still and charges up a big Charge Shot, though he mostly picks the latter which makes for a very immobile boss. Something I've noticed is that the bosses in this game tend to move a lot slower than the ones in 3 which probably adds to why I find them so underwhelming.

- Then again, if you have the Flash Stopper... well, let's just say there might as well not be a fight at all.

- Thankfully, Pharaoh Man's weapon is once again quite good. His Pharaoh Shot is basically another Charge Shot, but you can hold it above your head and smack enemies with it. There's a lot of depth in conversing your energy with this thing, making for a really engaging weapon to use. Speaking of which, the energy output for all these weapons is pretty much perfect. No weapon feels too overpowered nor too lacking in ammo.

Ring Man

- And would you look at that, another fantastic stage. I always liked how weird Ring Man's stage looks, with you climbing up these glass rainbow machines from the sky up to space, all the while one of the most surreal tracks in the series plays in the background.

- It's also the best example of MM4's level design philosophy, taking a singular mechanic and really stretching it out. Ring Man's stage is all about these rainbow platforms that disappear in a certain direction the moment you step on them, and by the end, you will be an absolute master in using them. I love how the stage spawns you on one of these platforms so you immediately understand how they work.

- Unfortunately, what most people remember Ring Man's stage for is its crushing four minibosses, and none of them are especially fun. Two of them are these irritating hippo bosses that stand on these constantly rebuilding towers while also shooting homing missiles on you, which is an immense pain to deal with. And the other two are these weird hoop monsters who are vulnerable most of the time outside of the split seconds they release their hoops, you'll either need perfectly timed Charge Shots or the Flash Stopper to have a chance at beating them. They also flash a lot so it's really hard to get the timing right, they're probably my least favorite minibosses in the franchise. It's a real shame too because the visual and level design in Ring Man's stage is some of the best in the series, it's just held back by these assholes.

- Thankfully, Ring Man's boss fight rules. His sole attack is that it tosses rings that boomerang back to him, but his fast movement and the fact that he can jump to skew the rings' trajectory makes for a tough but fun fight that's far more reminiscent of the MM3 bosses.

- His weapon is pretty great too. The Ring Boomerang is exactly as it sounds, it's a boomerang. It requires a bit of setups to really use effectively, but it can be very helpful for hitting enemies in awkward places as well as nailing shielded foes from behind.

- That being said, the Minus Infinity version that lets you aim anywhere and grab items pretty much spoiled me. The original Ring Boomerang just feels weak by comparison.

Dust Man

- While I didn't feel like many of the stages encouraged the use of boss weaknesses like in 1 or even a bit of 2, Dust Man does actually have a fair amount of shielded enemies that the Ring Boomerang works really effectively on. That's one good thing about Dust Man's stage.

- While nowhere near as bad as the World 3 equivalent, Dust Man has one of the weaker stages in 4 as it introduces one of the worst enemies in Mega Man history, the Up'N'Down. These enemies hide in pits and pop out just when you get close enough to jump over them. There's no way to tell these guys are there without slowly and tediously sidling up to the edge of every pit you see, and they're once again a massive Beginner's Trap. The worst part is that several future games would bring over enemies that act just like these, particularly the Inti Creates ones, so you can thank Dust Man for that.

- That being said, there are some neat platforming bits here still, like hopping across those red blocks that form from trash, and the crusher section where you need to carefully dig through junk to make it through.

- Dust Man's fight is alright, but it suffers from a similar issue to all the others in the game in that he stands around a lot. His main attack is shooting out these piles out junk that split out which can be fun to dodge, but he also can try to suck you in which only ends up dragging out the fight since he's invulnerable when he does this.

- The Dust Crusher is yet another cool weapon though. It's another straightforward projectile that splinters off when it hits something. If I had one issue with MM4's weapons, it's that there aren't many that allow you to hit enemies above you, so the Dust Crusher's splinters help it feel somewhat useful.

Skull Man

- I like how the first two enemies in Skull Man's stage are perfectly placed for you to use the Dust Crusher on.

- But aside from that... what happened here? Skull Man's stage isn't awful by any means, but it feels far lazier than the others in the game. There's no main platforming gimmick here, unless you call hopping across static skull platforms a gimmick.

- I guess I could say I appreciate the abundance of multiple pathways, there's a bunch of E-Tanks that are pretty fun to go for, but otherwise, Skull Man's stage is kind of a bore.

- The visuals here are also a step down from the rest of the game. The interior sections actually look pretty nice, with giant skeletons embedded in the walls, but the exterior sections use a mostly flat background with all the platforms being these repeating bone sprites making for a fairly sparse look. At least I like how the stage ends at sunset, even if the background still doesn't really do enough sell the impact (yet).

- As for Skull Man's fight... wait a second! This is just Bright Man's fight, but he shoots a bit faster and spawns a shield instead of stopping time. Once again, Skull Man is stationary when he uses his shield so there's absolutely zero danger in him using it. Geez, for as much as MM4 is praised for its polish, this stage feels particularly rushed.

- That being said, I don't hate the Skull Barrier. I know many give it flack for being a shield weapon that can only take a single hit and can't be thrown, but to give it some credit, I think the game does manage to make decent use of it regardless and it can be pretty useful for hitting enemies directly above you, which I mentioned is a bit harder to do in this game.

Dive Man

- Things aren't getting much better, sadly, because Dive Man has one of my least favorite Robot Master stages in the entire franchise, on pretty much every level.

- Let's start with the visuals. This stage looks like a Mega Man 1 stage. The background is a flat shade of blue regardless of whether you're underwater or above it, the floor tiles have noticeable seams that look pretty bad, and the nothing looks especially polished. Mega Man 4 can look great when it wants to, but stages like Dive Man and Skull Man show an inconsistency in art direction that just wasn't in the previous game.

- The main mechanic of the stage is pretty unremarkable too. It's a stage that takes place entirely underwater with you need to dodge mines that shoot down once you get near them. They're not hard to avoid, just kinda tedious and repetitive, and while you do have the Rush Marine you can use here, it feels even less useful than it was in 3. MM3 had dedicated sections where using the Marine made them easier, and they even had energy meters so you could keep using the Marine. Dive Man's stage not only doesn't do this, but the mines and the moving water surface actually make it easier to be on the ground as Mega Man.

- The Whale minibosses once again kinda suck too. They shoot out these insanely fast homing missiles that are already hard to avoid as Mega Man, but are borderline impossible to dodge in the Rush Marine. Once again, isn't the Marine supposed to give you an advantage underwater?

- The one thing I actually like about this stage is the fact that it houses the Wire Adaptor. Figuring out that you can drop through the one hole in the stage that isn't covered by spikes is really satisfying, and you get do one of those fun spike-drop challenges that classic Mega Man games tend to love.

- Oh yeah, I forgot! So, the end of the stage has these spikes that float on the surface of the water. One screen has a mine right next to the edge that you're expected to jump over, but if you jump too high, you'll be killed by one of those spikes which is placed right at the edge of the next screen. Beginner's Trap!

- And if you thought Dive Man's fight would be better? Nope! Dive Man's pattern is that he shoots 1-3 missiles, then dashes across the floor 1-3 times, then repeats. There's no way to tell how many times he'll do this move, and if you don't react and adapt immediately, he can take out a massive chunk of your health. I actually think using his weakness, Skull Barrier, makes the fight harder too since you need to get up close to him while not accidentally hitting his homing missiles. With the Buster you can just shoot his missiles as they appear and keep a safe distance, but even then, the fight is still a pain.

- At the very least, his weapon is a solid homing missile that works way more reliably than the Magnet Missile from 3.

Drill Man

- Thankfully, after three weak stages in a row, Drill Man's stage is actually pretty good! It looks great, there's flying weapons that make use of the Dive Missile and an E-Tank that you need the Wire Adaptor for, and the enemy encounters are engaging. I don't have too much to say here, it's just pretty solid all around.

- The stage peaks in its final challenge, though. You need to run through a long hallway dealing with boulders falling from the ceiling, while also hitting switches to activate platforms in front of you. It's a fun concept and makes fantastic use of the Skull Barrier. The whole stage actually feels like it's made for you to take advantage of all the weapons you've gained up to this point, making for a perfect final Robot Master stage.

- As a boss though, Drill Man is kind of a pain, but not as bad as a pain as Dive Man. He can either dive under the surface for a bit and pop out where you're standing, or he'll run back and forth shooting powerful, explosive, bullet-blocking drills at a fast pace. He's aggressive as hell and his fight suffers from a lot of downtime, but he isn't as frustratingly unpredictable as Dive Man, and his weakness can at least make short work of him.

- The Drill Bomb is a heavy weapon like the Hard Knuckle that can even destroy certain barriers, but unlike the Hard Knuckle, it activates instantly so it's automatically better. It can even manually detonate (not that the game tells you). Now that I think about it, a lot of MM4's weapons kinda feel like better versions of weapons from previous games.

Cossack Fortress

- After the divisive Doc Robot stages, MM4 decided to introduce a two fortress system where the endgame is composed of two different fortresses each with four stages. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of this approach as having to spend half the game in a castle can really drag by the end, but I'll try to be as fair as I can with the level design here.

- Cossack Fortress 1 takes place outside his Moscow inspired castle, so as you can expect, it's quite colorful and covered with ice and snow. If you know me though, you know I like ice physics, so this doesn't bother me. If anything, I encourage it!

- What does bother me, however, is the fact that this stage brings back the Up'N'Downs. They're not as frustratingly placed as the ones in Dust Man's stage, but they're still a pain.

- The final section of the stage is also a vertical climb that encourages using the Balloon adaptor, though the Rush Coil also works for those who don't have it. It's mostly fine outside of a particularly frustrating final screen where you have to climb up a bunch of ladders while avoiding these beartraps with huge hitboxes.

- The boss is great, though, many of the Castle bosses in MM4 are actually pretty huge steps up over the Robot Masters. Mothraya floats around shooting energy balls at you, but it also can also spike and destroy the floor. It's not especially hard if you have its weakness, but I like bosses that affect the environment like this.

- Cossack Fortress 2 has the obligatory Rush Jet segment, and it's as fun as ever. Rush Jet in this game is far less broken than in 3 as it exclusively moves forward, but I think it lends this particular sequence a bit more challenge as you need to hop off and on it to get energy capsules.

- I also like those blocks with spikes on them that switch sides, it's a pretty neat platforming challenge that I find a lot more satisfying than the typical disappearing blocks. 

- If Cossack Fortress 1 was the Balloon Adaptor level, this is the Wire Adaptor level, there's a lot of hidden collectibles that you need it to get.

- The Square Machine is another great boss, though it's quite hard to describe. I like trying to see how many hits I can get in a single cycle.

- Cossack Fortress 3 is... an autoscroller. I appreciate the multiple paths hiding collectibles, and those platforms that sink when you stand on them is kinda cool, but the painfully slow scrolling really kills this stage for me.

- On the other hand, I actually love the puzzle at the end. There's an E-Tank hiding on an elevated ledge that can only be entered by sliding. How do you get in there? Well, there's just enough room to fit in a Balloon that you can use as a platform. Mega Man isn't really known for its puzzles or anything, but this was a really satisfying one to figure out.

- The boss is kinda pathetic though. They're these two droids that walk on the ceiling and walls, occasionally stopping to shoot slow-moving buster shots at you. 

- One thing I do generally want to praise the fortresses in this game for, though, is the difficulty. While 2's castle felt horribly designed and 3's castle was too easy, 4's fortresses feel like a fitting challenge. As a matter of fact, MM4 really deserves props for how consistent it is. For all I've raged on it, it lacks the low points that its predecessor had, even if it lacks many high points as well. I also like how all the E-Tanks require actual thought to get this time around.

- Cossack Fortress 4 is pretty much the peak of Mega Man 4's strong exploration, as it's the first stage in the entire series to include a full-on split path. You can use the Wire to take a shortcut that also leads you to an E-Tank.

- The fight with Cossack isn't too remarkable, but it's fight. The fact that he pilots a giant claw machine is a bit goofy, but it can be fun to try to work around his movement.

- And of course, after fighting Cossack, we get the big twist. Cossack's daughter shows up to reveal that he isn't evil, and that he only did what he did because Dr Wily was holding her hostage, with Proto Man rescuing her off-screen. It's... fine. This is the first time we got the Wily hijack twist so it hasn't been fully played out yet, but I do find it kinda disappointing that the big conflict of the game was pretty much resolved off-screen.

Wily Fortress

- One of my big issues with the two fortress structure is that the Wily Castle often tends to feel a bit underwhelming coming off the more experimental first fortresses, especially since two of its stages need to be dedicated to the boss rush and the final boss, and Mega Man 4 definitely gets this the worst.

- Wily Castle 1 in this game is a literal joke, an entire level solely build around Mets. It's a funny concept, for sure, and makes for an enjoyable stage, but is this really what you want to use one of your two full stages on?

- This stage also brings back the underwater spikes-on-the-ceiling concept that we haven't seen since Mega Man 2. As always, it's a fun challenge, but once again, it makes the Rush Marine kinda not useful here. Crazy how despite having more water segments, the Rush Marine gets less use in this game than 3.

- The disappearing blocks are back too?! Damn, this is a cavalcade of returning Mega Man mechanics. I'm not sure how intentional this is, but I like how after Cossack's barrage of entirely new platforming gimmicks, the Wily Castle feels like more of a throwback to previous games. 

- The boss fight is of course against a giant Met, but he's actually kinda tough! He hides in his helmet, jumps around and creates shockwaves, and even floods the rooms with Met that run across the screen. I've seen many people call this fight really silly and stupid, but I don't know, he serves a legitimate challenge.

- I don't have too much to say about Wily Castle 2, though. It starts strong with a drop through some spikes, but the vast majority of it are pretty basic enemy encounters. Nothing we haven't already seen before in the prior castle stages.

- The boss fight is against a giant version of those vending machine enemies you encountered throughout the game, and it's yet another solid Castle boss. He's placed upon on a ledge so you need to work your way up to hit him, but also shoots large projectiles that try to force you back to the ground.

- Wily Castle 3 is the boss rush, so it plays out like all the previous ones. There's a short drop with some enemies and health pickups, and then you fight all the bosses again.

- As usual, you face off against the Wily Machine here, and it's really not great this time. As usual, there's two phases, but the bulk of the phase has the Machine shooting this plasma shots at you at a pretty fast pace. The first phase is brainlessly easy since the Wily Machine has a blind spot where you can keep shooting without getting hit, while the second phase is kind of ridiculous since you need to use the Drill Bomb and manually detonate them so that their explosions hit the weak spot while also deal with the fast-moving plasma shots at the same time. Keep in mind that the game never tells you the Drill Bombs can manually detonate, so an average player may not even be able to figure out the boss's weakness.

- The final boss fight against Wily's capsule isn't too great either. He cloaks himself while charging powerful energy blasts at you, and only reveals himself at split seconds. Sometimes, he even appears underneath the platform you're on so you can't even hit him. It's not a hard final boss, it just feels really lazy and not super fun. However, he is weak to the Pharaoh Shot which makes for a great opportunity to mess around with its energy conservation techniques.

- And while the final boss is pretty lacking, I will say I love the credits scene with Mega Man riding the train home. It's definitely up there with 3, 6, 7, and 9 as one of the best in the series.

Conclusion

Mega Man 4 is a good Mega Man game, but it has so many little issues holding it back from being a great Mega Man game. The core level design and weapon design philosophy is some of the best it's been, with a nearly spotless lineup of weapons along with a set of stages that each bring in and iterate upon a set of fun platforming mechanics while also adding in brief moments of exploration. Those two aspects of MM4 are executed pretty much perfectly.

On the other hand, though, MM4 comes with a weak soundtrack, an underwhelming story, a dinky charge shot, a shaky lineup of boss fights, more inconsistent and often flickery visuals, and a fair share of Beginner's Traps that come in out of complete nowhere. On their own, none of these issues are especially bad, but combined, they make Mega Man 4 a game that I just don't come back to all that often.