Mega Man 4 is the best NES Mega Man game, actually

2024-09-11

Which of the six¹ NES Mega Man games is the best has been debated for eternity, give or take a few years. The most common candidates for that title are Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3, the former having a slight edge with its reputation as "the best Mega Man game evah, OMG!!!111" But because I'm a smart, cultured person whose opinions on entertainment are always correct (/s), I believe it is Mega Man 4 that is the best NES Mega Man. Here are my reasons.

• New additions to the gameplay

  I've seen some people bashing MM4 for not bringing anything new to the series. I honestly have no idea what those people are smoking. MM4 did bring new things, such as Charge Shot, Eddie, and a better weapon menu. They might not be as radical as, say, MM3's Doc Robot levels, but I'd argue they were much better executed by virtue of not being needless padding.

• Level design and difficulty

  This game is where Capcom finally figured out how to design Mega Man levels. Each level has a unique theme and exclusive gimmicks that are fully realized and iterated upon. The difficulty is pitch-perfect, neither hair-rippingly frustrating nor sleep-inducingly boring.

• Soundtrack

  Seriously, imagine listening to Pharaoh Man's and Ring Man's themes and thinking MM4's music is anything less than amazing.

• Special Weapons

  If there's one undeniable flaw the previous three games have, it's their weapon arsenals. Sure, there are some winners in there (e.g. Thunder Beam, Metal Blade), but on the whole it's mostly stinkers. MM4 finally overcame that with weapons that are useful and fun without being completely busted. My favorites gotta be Flash Stopper, Pharaoh Shot, Rain Flush, and Dive Missile.

• The ending

  I don't know why, but I always liked MM4's credits sequence the best. There's just something about the imagery of Mega Man atop the train with this music track playing that really gets to me.

• You can kill Wily with Rain Flush

  Nuff said.

Flaws

Okay, I know it may be strange to have a section about MM4's flaws when the whole point is to praise it. But I'm the kind of person who'll criticize even the things they love, so here goes.

• In contrast to their levels, the bosses themselves are largely boring and simplistic. They rarely have more than two kinds of attacks, and their patterns are predictable and easy to manipulate. About the only boss I had trouble with is Ring Man, but he's only difficult thanks to his speed. The devs tried to compensate for this by setting most bosses' collision damage to eight (!!!), but it only makes the game harder for newbies. As a result, the bosses fall into an unhappy middle ground where they're too hard for beginners and too easy for veterans.

• Skull Man's level feels a little undercooked. Aside from Skeleton Joes and the tileset, the skeleton theme the level has going on is not developed any further. It's only one level, though, and it's still fun to play through.

• Speaking of Skull Man, his Special Weapon, Skull Barrier, is actually completely worthless. Just like Leaf Shield from MM2, it's supposed to protect you from damage. And just like Leaf Shield, it fails to protect you from shit, thanks to its inability to survive more than one hit.


• This one is more of a nitpick than an actual flaw, but it still bothers me. In Dive Man's stage, there's a room with Eddie. For some reason, this room has a big hole in it, so whenever you enter and don't approach Eddie, he will just walk right and fall through the hole. I have no idea why it's like that.

1. Okay, so there also was Wily & Right's RockBoard: That's Paradise, making it seven, but who's gonna call that their favorite?↩