Mega Man IV (Game Boy)

One word to describe Mega Man IV. Badass. Wait... is that one word or two? Fuck it.

Mega Man IV takes the classic series to a new level, and I'm not just talking about the Game Boy games. If Mega Man IV took the place of the actual Mega Man 4, there wouldn't be a single person talking about the declining quality of the series starting with that game. It's good, it's extremely good. It's better than Mega Man 3, it's better than Mega Man 9 and it's better than 90% of video games out there, especially on Game Boy. This is one of the best Mega Man games of all times.

When I review these games, I play through them and pick a handful of screenshots out to show off the game. Blogger makes putting up images a real pain in the ass as it is, so I try to limit myself to no more than 10 screenshots. I want to say right now, this game has so many great moments it's really hard to pick just 10.

New Features

• The Mega Buster has been upgraded and now fires to Mega Buster shot from Mega Man 5, but with a twist. It's so powerful now it has a knockback effect and it's fucking awesome!
• In game and out of game cutscenes that reach a whole new level of detail previous games hadn't matched.
• Collect the BEAT letters to bring our bird friend back. Afterwards you must collect the WILY letters to enter the final stages.
• Dr. Light's lab which allows you to spend p-chips that drop from enemies on various items which assist Mega Man.
• W-Tanks which restore weapon energy and S-Tanks, which function as M-Tanks from Mega Man 5.
• This is the first appearance of the Energy Balancer as well.
• This is the first Mega Man game for Game Boy to feature boss refights!
• Proto Man shows up to give Mega Man a few power ups as well!

Story
We all know the story to every Mega Man game. Some event justifies Dr. Wily having 8 new or used Robot Masters in which Mega Man has to track down and take out before reaching Wily himself. This game is no different. Wily steals four of Dr. Cossack's robots at a convention and lets them loose on the world. For once though, it's not what the story is about, it's about how you tell the story.

The intro to the game opens up with Wily's saucer launching his robot masters onto the city. A split screen occurs with a laughing Wily and grimacing Mega Man. Flash another split screen with Mega Man opposite the new Mega Man Killer Ballade. We get another shot of Mega Man charging up, and he shoots the camera revealing the title of the game.

Damn, are you pumped up yet?

Press start and what the hell is this!? An introduction cutscene complete with text!? That's right, the story is, actually in the damn game!

The boss selection screen comes up, and it even gives you a view from the outside of the level to show you how it fits in it's given space in the world. Awesome! Pick a boss and a flash of lightning surrounds him, and we get into the game proper.

After beating Cossack's bots, Mega Man heads after Wily, who has hidden his fortress in the Amazon. The fortress stands up on hind legs (METAL GEAR!?), and fires missiles at Mega Man. Mega Man fires back and duels the fortress for a few minutes before disabling the missiles, allowing him to teleport close enough and destroy it's sonar radar.

Unfortunately, Wily has set the place to blow, and has Ballade show up to delay Mega Man while Wily makes his escape. Mega Man defeats Ballade who retreats. While this happens, Wily unleashes a second wave of Robot Masters (the Mega Man 5 robots) onto the world, and Mega Man heads after them.

Mega Man finally catches up with Dr. Wily, who heads into his space fortress. Once again, just before facing Wily, Mega Man is confronted by Ballade, who unleashes his own final form (ie, he wears sunglasses now!), and the duel continues. Mega Man defeats Ballade, badly damaging him, and then continues on to re-fight the previous robots he had fought before.

Finally, the final confrontation with Wily approaches, as Mega Man must face the biggest Robot Wily has ever built. This thing is a two story fight. Mega Man beats the robot, and Wily uses one last desperation to finish him off, but Mega Man is able to take out his saucer. Wily pulls a fast one and escapes using a weird device out of a back pack. Doing this, he activates the self destruct sequence.

Mega Man, in a frantic frenzy to get out, gets trapped inside the fortress about to blow. Suddenly, Ballade shows up, badly damaged still. Ballade tells Mega Man to stand back, as he can do one last thing to help him. Mega Man screams his name as Ballade self destructs taking the final obstruction out of Mega Man's way, allowing him and Rush to escape. Wily's whereabouts are unknown, as Mega Man sits back on earth watching the stars, and the credits roll to an old school rendition of the classic Mega Man 2 theme.

I don't know about you, but that's about as awesome as Mega Man stories get, especially in the classic series, and this is easily the best presentation in a Mega Man game ever! It's the same old story, but told in an action packed climatic way.

Aesthetics
This game will blow you away. Every inch of it has been painstakingly crafted to ensure a sense of adventure unlike any other game before it. We've got ingame cutscenes, out of game cutscenes, weapon demonstrations, animations that enhance every part of this game. As mentioned, the Mega Buster now has a recoil to enhance the power of it.

The stages, while based on previous games, are not direct copies, and still have some unique flavors to them that play and look good. I even prefer some of them to the original stages. Charge Man's stage, for example, is much better in this game. Still, if anything has to be said, it's the out of game cutscenes that steal the show here, and really make you feel a sense of power Mega Man never had before.

Sound
Again, mostly remixes of the bosses stages from the NES games. This isn't a bad thing as the sound track to these games are very good. The original tracks are decent too, but what the sound on this game does well is highlight the grander tone this game has given itself with the aesthetics and story.

Design
But of course, the important thing is how the game plays. Well thankfully, it's about a million times easier than Mega Man III without dropping the difficulty too much. The collection of P-chips and Dr. Light's lab is a welcomed addition to the beginner player, who struggles with the game, as they can purchase E-tanks and 1ups to compensate for their skill level. Veteran players can make due with what they get through the stages well enough, but it never hurts to spend those extra chips.

The weapon utility is higher than Mega Man III, in part due to them giving all the good Mega Man 4 weapons to this game. Rain Flush, Ring Boomerang, Pharaoh Shot and Flash Stopper all have their uses, and even the Mega Man 5 weapons have their strong points. I mean, they even use Charge Kick to find some hidden items to keep it from being a complete waste.

Interestingly enough however, the Mega Buster is actually funner to use this time around instead of just being a necessity. You might find yourself Buster Dueling, because you prefer the feel of it compared to the bosses actual weakness. At least, I do.

The levels themselves vary in difficulty, but nothing is particularly strenuous. The later half of the levels are noticeably more difficult as you would expect them to be, but a lot of the game is reaction based more than memorization, and that's always a plus.

More so to the credit of the game, is that the original stages these are based off of are not so blatantly copied, and a lot of enemies and gimmicks are entirely original to this game. A bit of a refresher over Mega Man III, which felt a bit more like a port than a new game. Overall, this game excites you with it's presentation and doesn't ever let up on it's design. You'll have a blast with this one.

Playability
Watch out, that recoil can knock you off of a platform if you get too careless with it. Otherwise the game plays as smooth as silk.

Extras

• Boss Order: Toad Man, Bright Man, Pharaoh Man, Ring Man. Not only is this the route from easiest to toughest, Toad Man also has Rush Coil on him. For the second series, go Charge Man, Crystal Man, Napalm Man, Stone Man. The justification here is that Stone Man's weapon is pretty much useless anyway and Charge Man drops Rush Jet. His level is also the easiest of the four.
• Dr. Light's name has been mistranslated and changed to the unlocalised name of Dr. Right.
• You have to collect the WILY letters to beat the game, and some of them are a tiny bit out of the way. Remember this as you are playing.
• Charge Kick is a lot less dangerous now as you are invulnerable while using it.
• The flames in Napalm Man's level can be put out with Rain Flush. Use this to get to Proto Man for a free S-Tank.
• The first thing you should buy with your P-chips is the energy balancer. It'll refill your lowest charged weapon. This is extremely helpful considering how often you'll have the Mega Buster out anyway.
• Pharaoh Shot can aim up and down, making it the weapon of choice to deal with the bombs you need to shoot in order to escape the exploding fortress.
• Flash Stopper is the MVP of the game in freezing those annoying enemies that jump out of the pits to hit you or fall from the ceiling. Those bastards will knock you into a pit, and you'll have to time your jumps otherwise unless you use this weapon.
• Ring Boomerang can grab items and bring them back to you, so use this to grab the 1ups and E-tanks behind walls.
• If you're having trouble and die many many times, Dr. Light will upgrade your buster to do more damage... shouldn't he have done this in the first place?
  

Mega Man IV is a game that surpasses so many expectations, and there are surprisingly a lot of people that have never touched it. It's better than most of the NES games, and one of my personal favorites. It's hard to imagine Mega Man games being much better than this... but actually the next Game Boy game is. It's much better, and given all the praise I've given this game, that's a hell of an accomplishment.

Playthroughs
Robot Master Mismatches Galore: Let's Play the Mega Man Gameboy Series! by Vprisoner
I'm a bit sad that there's no speed run of this game.