Mega Man 8
Platform Played On: PS1
ABOUT
Mega Man 8 is the 8th game in the mainline series of games that's, Yet again, About Mega Man saving the world. However, This game features Brand new weapons, Mechanics, Sound, graphics, FMV, and more. Dr. Wily, He just never stops.
STORY
Mega Man 8's story takes a more interesting turn as it features 2 Robots fighting in space all the while on Earth Mega Man and Bass are fighting, trying to convince Bass to stop doing what he was doing as he does not want to fight him. However Roll reaches Mega Man for important measures as they have found the robot that have fallen from the sky as it had this dark energy coming from it. Dr. Light asks Mega Man to find this energy before Dr. Wily manages to obtain it. Later on, The robot finally woke up as it travelled towards a place by Dr. Wily's fortress in which Mega Man was there to stop what was going on. However, Mega Man ends up actually getting defeated as the giant robot electricutes Mega Man in his hand. It wasn't until the Robot actually came to aid Mega Man and actually defeated the giant robot. It was revealed that this robot is none other than "Duo" who tells Mega Man that the energy is an Evil Energy that must be cleansed. Proto Man is skeptical over Duo as he theorizes that Duo might be one of Dr. Wily's evil inventions still. At the end, Mega Man actually had this Evil Energy inside of him as he was really banged up, Duo helps out Mega Man as he cleansed the Evil Energy out of him. Duo then asked Proto Man a favor before leaving as later Mega Man woke up with Proto Man telling him what Duo said, Ending the scene with Mega Man looking up in the sky as Duo is shown like he's dead or something (He's not really dead just thinking about him). Overall, I think the story parts is actually one of the better stories for the series and probably the best up to this point since Duo not being some twist villain but an Genuine character really does change it up a bit. Oh and did I mention that all the cutscenes have FMV's and bad voice acting? I honestly think the Bad Voice acting actually adds to it since I think it's really funny, Trust me it's worth at least seeing Those.
GAMEPLAY
Sigh... Mega Man 8's Gameplay, It has a promising start to it if you're doing things in order but, Let me just say this, THE LEVELS SUCK. Bosses? They're fine, I think the bosses are *mostly* fine for the most part and that the voice acting is really nice too for some of em, It really does bring out the personality of each character out with their snarky lines before each fight (Except swordman, I love that one). But the Levels, The powerups, Etc... So to start out, They removed E Tanks, Which most of it is kinda easy and you probably won't need one... Buuuut there are some boss fights that feels very necessary to have, Especially the final fight. So the store in this game mainly consists of Powerups which this time, There's not Rush Search so you need to outright buy them all. Oh and the currency? Yeah, Instead of it being random drops, There's just a singular Bolt you gotta find through the levels and each level may vary in how many Bolts you can get, Once you get a Bolt, That's it, It will not come back so each item is worth like a few bolts or something compared to the many bolts it would cost something in Mega Man 7. The Level designs are not good in this game either, They are too gimmicky and that some things like "JUMP JUMP SLIDE SLIDE" may come back around which is one of the most haunting things I have ever dealt with in a video game, Like ever. There's also the Sword Man Stage where you have to do literal Trials before you can continue, Where you can pick and choose which ones you wanna do if you have the powerup, It's also just annoying because if I remember right one of the power ups you will need to use against him. Sometimes the Mini Bosses for each stage can also be so annoying as well, I think it was in the same stage where you have to fight this snake and you gotta dodge some stuff or something like that. And of course Dr. Wily Stage 1 is the worst of em all, Mainly the Jump Jump Slide and the Boss at the end will take you a long ass time to do before you finally beat it, Everything else is quite fine actually. The Final boss is easier fortunately as it is somewhat of a rehash of the previous game's final boss but MUCH easier and Fairer (I will never forgive the dev team for making MM7's final boss that hard on purpose). The only other positive thing I can mention is the Graphics is also better and Mega Man is even smaller which actually is better than 7, But this game tried to do something unique too hard and it ultimately tends to flop in various areas, It's just not that fun.
MUSIC
Of course, Being a PS1 game, The music compartment ampled the music quality even more as the music is in that nice MP3 quality, Every part of the OST is great, You can't mess it up. I think one of the themes I really liked was Aqua Man's stage theme, But many of the other themes are also just, Great. Go give them a listen if you want.
FINAL THOUGHTS
For it being a predecessor of Mega Man 7, It does some things right and many other things wrong. I can see how some people will consider this game one of their faves but sadly I'm part of the majority that did not like Mega Man 8 and it's the pesky level design that really killed my liking for it and other questionable changes that were made because the bosses are all fun and the most unique fights in the entire series up to this point in the mainline. But if you can go past that point, I can see how people enjoy it.