Mega Man 6 is a good Mega Man game, it's arguably one of the most polished in the entire series. It's got a strong weapon roster, some neat new mechanics, some of the best visuals on the NES, and a fantastic soundtrack... but I'll be damned if it isn't absurdly easy. Last time I played MM6, I remember half of the levels being pretty fantastic... and the other half feeling almost entirely disposable. So I'm curious to go into this one into a bit more detail to see why Mega Man 6's level design felt so uneven, what made the game as a whole feel so easy, and if I was maybe being a bit too harsh on it.
Introduction
- Mega Man 6 kicks off yet another solid intro cutscene, detailing how this game is going to be... a tournament arc against Robot Masters from around the world. Yeah, you can kind of tell that Capcom is starting to run out of ideas for plots here, but it's not necessarily a bad hook. I like that MM6 leans so heavily on the world tour theming.
- Otherwise, Mega Man 6 mostly plays out like the other entries so far, but with one particularly frustrating change. You can't jump out of your slide like in the previous games! You have to commit to your slide in MM6. I know this sounds like a nitpick, and it probably is, but it does actually mess with the flow of the game a bit and I do think this alone puts MM6 behind the previous game in terms of game feel.
Flame Man
- One thing I definitely remember from MM6 is that Flame Man has one of the better implied intro stages in the series. It takes the simple concept of navigating oil and really plays around with it in a ton of ways.
- The stage also looks great, with the purple building silhouettes in the background being particularly striking and memorable. As I said, I think Mega Man 6 stands out as one of the best-looking NES games, maybe even a Top 3 candidate.
- The stage starts with you figuring out the oil physics in a fairly safe area, only for fire enemies to show up that can light the oil on fire. This kind of dynamic level design is really impressive for the NES and it only gets better from there.
- Soon after, you encounter these mine enemies that you can flip over by hitting them with a Charge Shot. But if they land on an oil puddle, they'll turn into a raft you can use to float across it.
- Sadly, the second half of the stage isn't quite as impressive, but it does have a pretty neat environmental shift where you enter an interior cavern area, and dodging the flamethrower enemies is fun. I like that some of those enemies are too high up for standard Mega Man to reach, so you have to focus purely on dodging since you can't take them out.
- Flame Man's fight, on the other hand, mostly just feels like a souped-up version of Wave Man, as he shoots fire up from the ground that can block your shots. It's fine, but nothing particularly special.
- Beating Flame Man's stage nets you two things. First off, you get the fantastic Flame Blast weapon which shoots out a small fire right in front of you. It seems dinky at first, but it's also insanely powerful, has a decent ammo pool, and can even melt certain blocks that hide secrets. That's right, we even have environmental interaction in this game.
- We also get the Power Adapter and this is where Mega Man 6 starts to get... iffy for me. So, Rush has been replaced with these two unlockable adapters that Mega Man can wear to augment his abilities. While you can't equip any weapons with them (which is probably for the best), you can use these infinitely. The Power Adapter makes Mega Man stronger and allows him to punch blocks, and the other one is the Jet Adapter which allows Mega Man to fly.
- I'm of two minds about this system. On one hand, it's a unique and memorable evolution of the series' formula, and Mega Man 6 hides a ton of secrets and alternate paths behind using these Adapters, so you're encouraged to get them early to fully explore these levels. On the other hand, they completely trivialize the game, and they de-incentivize using the weapons. Why would you use one of the limited boss weapons, when you can just use the unlimited power buffs instead? Why would you actually engage with the platforming when you can just fly over it instead?
- There is one caveat to using the Adaptors though, thankfully, which is that they can't slide. However, the fact that you can quickly swap back and forth between them at will means this doesn't feel like as much of a con as it sounds.
- So to get the most out of these stages, I'm not going to use the adapters for most of my playthrough, only when I need them to get secrets.
Blizzard Man
- Thankfully, Blizzard Man's stage keeps the streak of the solid levels going, at least for now. It's predictably a snow-themed level, with pretty visuals and even prettier music, but there's also some really neat mechanics here.
- Most importantly, Blizzard Man's stage introduces one of my favorite Mega Man platforming elements: The countdown bomb. These platforms detonate soon after you step on them, so you need to hop across them fast, but they can also be angled sideways to be used as one-way doors. They're a cool concept and are explored really thoroughly throughout the level.
- And as mentioned, Blizzard Man's stage also has icicles that you can only destroy with Flame Man's weapon, which is very nice to see.
- The middle section of the stage introduces sentient hockey pucks which serve as quite the fun enemy, along with a miniboss, and a pretty solid one too! The squid miniboss shoots out both ice cubes and homing missiles at you, dodging both is really fun and satisfying, and the boss's health pool feels perfectly reasonable.
- Near the end of the stage, we get yet another super memorable setpiece as you need to traverse across a submarine that's rising and sinking. There's spikes both on the ceiling and in the ocean, so you have to be careful not to jump to high and hit them, which makes for a really fun challenge. I also like how you can use the Power Adapter to break blocks in the way making this sequence just a tad easier.
- I also love the little countdown bomb puzzle in the final room, where you need to hit bomb in the right order to progress without being blown up yourself. Blizzard Man's stage is just such a fun and fully-formed stage, it's genuinely really good.
- Blizzard Man's fight is also quite fun. He rolls into a ball and dashes into the wall ala Sonic while also shooting snowflakes at you, but his pattern is well-telegraphed enough to be satisfying to dodge weaponless. I also love how his design has him using skis, it's silly in the best ways.
- As for the weapon, the Blizzard Attack is a solid spread shot, but it takes up quite a lot of ammo which leaves it being fairly middle-of-the-road.
Plant Man
- Plant Man is the most infamous stage in the game, and it's probably the hardest too. This is because it has some of the toughest platforming, while also being the stage that houses the Jet Adaptor meaning that it's really the only stage in MM6 that forces you to play it as it's intended. Personally, I think it's quite the fun stage.
- The first stretch of Plant Man's stage is fairly straight-forward, though it does introduce yet another really solid miniboss, a giant monkey mech that slowly crawls towards you. You can shoot it back with your buster, or you can just annihilate it with the Flame Blast if it gets too close.
- After your first encounter with the miniboss though, you'll be introduced to Plant Man's main gimmick, the springs. They're pretty intuitive to use, but I like how the stage introduces them, first in a safe area and then with spikes floating above to make sure you know that you can not hold the A button to bounce low on them.
- The final stretch of the stage is the really infamous one, as you need to bounce on springs over pitfalls that fish can jump out of while also dealing with beetles that fly right at you. On top of that, there's platforms that can only be opened by lining up a shot with them, leading to a pretty hectic section... but I still don't think it's that bad.
- All of the enemy patterns are predictable, most of the fish can be jumped over so you know they're there, there's health pickups everywhere, and the stage as a whole isn't even all that long. I do like that Plant Man is one of the most difficult stages in an otherwise easy Mega Man game, but it really isn't as bad as people have made it out to be.
- It also doesn't help that Plant Man himself is a bit of a joke. His pattern is that he spawns his shield, jumps super high, and then shoots it at you. Keep your distance, and he really can't harm you.
- Plant Barrier is basically the Skull Barrier. Like, it's pretty much a carbon copy, but this time the game doesn't feel nearly as built to accommodate it. Easily the weakest link as far as weapons are concerned, especially with how much of an improvement Star Man's weapon was.
Tomahawk Man
- As far as theming goes, Tomahawk Man has one of my favorite stages in the series. I love the western theme, it packs some of the prettiest vistas in a Mega Man game, and the soundtrack goes incredibly hard. But in terms of level design... it could be better.
- To give the stage credit, despite being the first stage you're likely to have the Jet Adapter for, there isn't much platforming here to break. This is a combat stage first and foremost, kicking off with a ton of breakable objects with the Power Adapter, and a bunch of cowboy-themed robot enemies with popguns to deal with.
- The miniboss is sadly one of the weaker ones though. The concept of a Met dispenser is charming, but also I hate dealing with Mets so it's a lot less fun than it sounds in execution. Thankfully, it has a short health pool and can be quickly taken out with a few charge shots.
- Midway through the stage, you'll be greeted with an absolutely gorgeous sunset, probably my favorite screen on the entire NES, along with the first true split path that you'll need the Jet Adapter for. Thankfully, it's well-executed here. The Jet Adapter path is a tough platforming challenge with the platforms spaced far apart requiring you to precisely use the jets to navigate, and reward you with a few goodies before quickly plopping you back on the main path.
- The end of Tomahawk Man's stage finally introduces the game's main collectibles. First off, you can use a precise Power Adapter shot to access a room where Proto Man gives you the Energy Balancer which allows energy capsules to automatically refill your weapons even if they're not equipped. I like this, it feels like a fitting upgrade and I'm glad it sticks around in future games.
- In addition, Tomahawk Man has the first split ending. In four of MM6's levels, there are two boss rooms, one being locked behind an Adapter. If you find the alternate room, you will get one of four BEAT letters that will eventually unlock the bird himself. It's a fine enough addition and does encourage exploration, though I do prefer having the collectible letters in MM5 in every level.
- As for Tomahawk Man himself... Okay, look, everyone's already mentioned how stereotypical some of these boss designs are and Tomahawk Man gets the worst of it, so I'll just talk about the fight itself, and it's solid. He hops around and either tosses his headress feathers or his tomahawks at you. Both attacks can be reliably dodged by hopping and he always exposed to being hit, so the fight is fairly manageable.
- The Silver Tomahawk is a unique weapon as it arcs upwards. Its arc is a bit too wide to use particularly effective, but it's decently powerful, can pierce enemies that it takes out, and doesn't require too much ammo so it's a solid option.
Yamato Man
- I remember Yamato Man's stage feeling really empty and dull, and looking at a map of it, I can instantly see why. Despite the fun music and cool theming, Yamato Man is a perfectly example of what happens when MM6's love for alternate paths goes too far.
- Yamato Man's stage has two major split paths. The first one has you either take a fairly normal path with a few pits to jump over and enemies to fight, or use the Power Adapter to skip all of that and fight an optional miniboss that you can once again tear to shreds with the Flame Blast.
- The second alternate path once again allows to pretty much skip the entire second half of the level with the Jet Adapter, and the most frustrating part is that you need to take it if you want the BEAT letters. If you take both paths, you can be done with this stage in about a minute!
- And are there any notable mechanics or gimmicks in this stage? No, not really. Even if you don't take the normal paths, Yamato Man's stage is fairly unremarkable. The second half has these spinning wheels that you need to platform across, but other stages have them too so it's not particularly special.
- Yamato Man's fight is another fairly easy and standard boss fight. He either spins his spear and shoots its blade at you before going to pick it up, or jumps and shoots three spears downwards. The jump attack is really what gives the fight any sort of difficulty, but even then, it's quite simple.
- As for the Yamato Spear, it's basically the Needle Cannon but it has way less ammo and pierces shields, so it's another fairly unremarkable one.
- Oh, and speaking of difficulty, by Yamato Man's stage, I already nearly maxed out both my E-Tanks and my lives! Mega Man 6 hands those out like candy, even compared to the previous game.
Knight Man
- Knight Man's stage is one of the cooler ones for me because it actually has a sense of place, having you infiltrate a castle through the dungeon before making it through the actual halls in the second half. It's also almost entirely lacking in split paths (outside of getting the Beat letter which is at the very end of the stage mercifully), and some of the obstacles you have to deal with are quite fun.
- The dungeon section is probably the most memorable part of the stage as you need to navigate a spiked ceiling that rises and lowers. Those wheel platforms I mentioned in Yamato Man's stage also get much more fleshed-out here.
- The final section of Knight Man's stage is also really fun as you have to deal with these bumpers that uncontrollably bounce you around the room. I had a bit of a tough time here at first because there's a lot of those enemies that are invincible to the Mega Buster, but then I discovered that they're weak to the Blizzard Attack of all weapons which felt very satisfying to figure out.
- Knight Man is actually a pretty neat puzzle boss as he has a shield that he holds in front of him at all times, so you can only hit him from the back or while he's throwing his flail. I also love how his design signals to you that the Yamato Spear can be used to pierce shields, very clever stuff.
- Knight Man's weapon, the Knight Crusher, is actually a really solid weapon. It's a Boomerang that can be shot in six directions and packs a solid punch, though it is fairly slow. The decent ammo pool also helps to make this one of the best weapons in the game.
Centaur Man
- Centaur Man's stage is the water level of the game, and it starts fairly unassuming. The first third or so is your standard water stage which jellyfish enemies that pop into the water (one of which is cleverly placed to encourage using the Knight Crusher), and spikes on the ceiling to dodge.
- The stage really comes to life midway through when you enter a room where the water is on the ceiling moving up and down. Dealing with the constantly changing physics as you platform around is a really fun and memorable setpiece that reverses series' conventions in a clever way, as long as you don't use the Jet Adapter of course.
- Sadly, this section is quite short and the final stretch doesn't add too much new aside from bringing back the squid miniboss. And once again, there's a split path for the Beat letter at the end of the stage.
- Centaur Man has one of the cooler Mega Man designs in my opinion since he's... well... a centaur. He's only one of a few Robot Masters to not have two legs which makes him stand out. Sadly, his fight is kind of annoying. He can march around, shoot a bullet at the wall which turns it into a spread shot, teleports, and... sigh... freezes time. I generally don't like Mega Man bosses that freeze time and Centaur Man makes it very easy for you to take unavoidable damage.
- And of course, with a time stopping boss comes a... screen clear weapon? Yeah, Centaur Flash doesn't freeze time, it just hits all the enemies on screen. Either way, I've never been a fan of screen clears and this one doesn't change things.
Wind Man
- Wind Man's stage is actually pretty great... in a world where the Jet Adapter didn't exist, I guess predictably given the name.
- The main mechanic here are these fans that push you up, you'll need to platform across them while dealing with enemies and trying not to hit the spikes at the top of the screen. Pretty standard stuff, but it is quite fun, and the level gradually builds up the difficulty at a nice pace.
- Of course, though, if you have the Jet Adapter, you can easily skip all of these segments with zero effort, and the combat in Wind Man's stage is fairly weak. The enemy variety mostly boils down to those invincible enemies you can use the Blizzard Attack on, or the same beefy panda enemies populating the stage.
- Thankfully, Wind Man as a boss is actually really good. This dude moves fast, shooting propellers at you at a fast race. He can also suck you in ala Dust Man, but he can still be hit in this state and even gets more aggressive the more you hit him. On top of that, he even has a third attack where he lifts himself up with his jets and dashes across the screen, usually forcing you to slide. It's a really solid final Robot Master fight.
- As for his weapon, the Wind Storm is yet another ground-based weapon. It once again is no different from the Water Wave leaving it as one of MM6's weaker weapons.
Mr X Fortress
- Out of all the Fortress stages, this is the one I remember the least about, at least beyond the incredible music. I got the sense that I skipped a lot of it with the Jet Adapters, so let's see how it holds up when I limit my use of them.
- The first Mr X Fortress level is as you'd expect, a vertical climb up the fortress. To give these stages credit, now that they know you have the Adapters, they're able to craft challenges that take full advantage of them, so X Fortress 1 actually manages to have some precise Jet Adapter bits.
- The split path here is also fairly well-executed. You can either use the Jet Adapter to go across the roof, or break through a window with a deceptively precise Power Adapter punch to take a shortcut.
- The first fortress boss, the Rounder 2 is kinda weak though. They move along a track ala Metal Storm and you need to take them out with carefully placed Flame Blasts, though they also have a shield and figuring out where that ends and their hurtbox begins is surprisingly tough.
- Mr X Fortress 2 is also quite rough. It's pretty much just a straight line mostly composed of cramped Met halls and blatantly obvious fake floors. It's incredibly short and feels bizarrely lacking as a stage.
- The boss, the Power Piston, is thankfully quite a bit better, a wall robot that shoots spread shots at you and rains down boulders making for quite the chaotic fight. He's perfectly positioned for the Silver Tomahawk to take him out, so it's nice to see that weapon get some solid use.
- Mr X Fortress 3 is mercifully a big improvement, introducing a new mechanic in these scale platforms that weigh each other down. Platforming across them without the Jet Adapter is a fun challenge, especially when they start tossing in Flame Man enemies to deal with.
- The Metonger Z is also quite the fun boss, a Met tank that chases after you and shoots bouncing orbs for you to avoid. It's not especially difficult, but it's a decently fun setpiece even though it'll probably waste all your Blizzard Attack.
- Mr X Fortress 4 is honestly pretty unremarkable as well. It's decently lengthy which is nice, it tosses a ton of old enemies at you while also adding some surprisingly annoying new bird enemies to the mix, but as far as platforming challenges go, there's nothing you haven't already seen.
- X's Crusher is another boss I find pretty average. It swings around at a very predictable pattern, and can be beaten quite quickly, especially compared to something like Cossack's machine. And speaking of which, we once again get another twist where it's revealed Wily was the bad guy all along, how surprising.
- Now you might me wondering about Beat? Well, Beat was severely nerfed in this game since he now can't attack bosses, and as such, I don't find myself using him much.
Wily Fortress
- Wily Fortress actually starts out on a strong note with one of my favorite Fortress archetypes, a long drop through a bunch of spikes. As a matter of fact, this might be the longest drop in the series so far, also tossing in more platform types from other stages, fans from Wind Man's stage, and a tricky but very rewarding alternate path.
- I also am so grateful that you can't use the Jet Adapter to instantly halt your fall, it's still affected by gravity and can't save you if you screw up during this part.
- It's also worth noting that Wily Fortress 1 brings back the squid miniboss one last time, and has you fight it very precariously over a pit.
- The Mechasaurus fight is also really fun, tossing out rising platforms that you need to use to reach the weakspot on its head while also shooting fireballs for you to dodge. That being said, like with the Rounder 2, figuring out its hitbox can still feel a bit unreliable and irritating.
- Wily Fortress 2, on the other hand, is once again nothing special beyond the first half being frozen (I always thought it was Wily having done a bad paint job) and a small disappearing block screen that can be easily skipped. It's once again incredibly short, especially if you take the shortcut as usual.
- The boss of this stage is a lot like that gorilla miniboss from Plant Man's stage in that it slowly rolls towards you, but you can wipe it out within seconds by spamming the Wind Storm so it's nothing special.
- Wily Fortress 3 is just the usual boss rush stage, but wait! There's an actual level here! This stage starts with a fairly lengthy underwater section where you deal with fans that suck you in or push you away, it's nothing crazy but it helps give this level a bit more substance than the previous Wily Fortress 3s.
- Wily Fortress 4 also tries to flesh itself out... by tossing in the worst miniboss in the game, the Met Dispenser!
- Thankfully, the actual final boss might be the series' best so far. Wily Machine 6 does get criticized quite a bit for being easy, but it at least feels like a competent final boss that earns the moniker. It even has three phases!
- Phase 1 is a fun scrolling fight where you dodge the shots that the machine is firing at you while on the move, Phase 2 starts to tamper with the scrolling as Wily moves more unpredictably, and the final phase brings back the Wily Capsule but has his bullets home a bit and makes him generally easier to hit with your roster of weapons.
- And to cap the game off on a strong note, Mega Man 6 ends with Dr Wily finally getting arrested, serving as the ending for the Classic Mega Man series on NES. The entire game had a real sense of finality to it, but it especially shows with this final boss.
- The staff roll is great too, getting to see all the bosses and their movesets as their respective themes smoothly transition between each other. It's really cool that Mega Man 6 actually allowed non-Japanese fans to join the boss creation contest, no other game did this.
Conclusion
As I said, I think Mega Man 6 is a good game, maybe even a great one. As far as the NES Mega Man games go, it's absolutely an easy third place behind 3 and 5. It looks fantastic, it sounds fantastic, and it has a good amount of strong levels, bosses, and weapons, but it also has a lot of flaws. The slide and Beat being nerfed, the Adapters trivializing the difficulty, alternate paths mostly resorting to being shortcuts rather than actual alternate routes, and a batch of fortresses that, while not bad, don't add much new to the table. Unlike with 1, 2, and 4, I don't think these issues actively hinder the game to a noticeable degree, but they do prevent Mega Man 6 from being as good as I think it really had the potential to be. There's a reason I feel the game peaked with its first three stages, and if the rest of the game kept up that level of quality, it totally could've been one of the best Mega Man games.
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