Rockman 7: Destined Showdown!
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Memories of Mega Man 7: This is...your Proto Shield?? SWEET!by Protoman Blues
What's this I see on the bottom right of the Box Cover? A "Super" Nintendo Enterment System? That's right, true believers. My latest classic game review is the first Classic Mega Man game to appear on the SNES. Personally, this is one of my favorite classic Mega Man games of all time, right behind Mega Man 2 and 3. With our new console change comes new changes in the game as well. These are some pretty major changes from the Mega Man norm too. Come with me, and I'll show you.
If you never played, never beat, or never read my review of Mega Man 6, then I'll give you an update.
 
As you can see, at the end of Mega Man 6, Mega Man finally catches his fiendish foe, Dr. Wily, and brings him to justice. However, Wily is no fool. He secretly hides 4 Robot Masters in case he's ever caught. Without a signal in 6 months, these 4 Robot Masters awaken and begin searching for their master. Now, unlike the previous six Classic Mega Man games, this game comes with an Intro Stage. That's right, a stage before you get to choose which Robot Master to give a sound beating too! Already 1 minute into the next Classic Game, and already we see brand new things! Way to go, Capcom. Not only do we get a intro stage, but we also get new characters to go with it! Will start with Dr. Light's new assistant, Auto!
Apparently, Dr. Light is building them with a sense of humor now! Or he's going senile. Anyway, meet Auto, Dr. Light's personal lab assistant, as well as the proud dealer in our newest game feature...a Store. Taking a feature from the Rockman World series, Mega Man 7 adds a store for our hero to stop at, to buy such essentials as E-Tanks, Extra Lives, and other suchs useful items. No longer must you search high and low for them. Of course, this store makes the game a lot easier, but you'll hear no complaints from this end! Now, onto our next new character, or characters.
 
Once again playing on the Classic series love for musical names, here we have Bass and Treble. Known as Forte and Gospel in Japan, Bass and Treble are a mysterious duo that appear in the beginning of the intro stage to challenge our Blue Bomber. Bass states that he is also fighting Dr. Wily. Now, I'm a fan of Mega Man's Strong Sense Of Justice, however, he is far far FAR too trusting. Never did he stop to think, who created Bass and Treble in the first place, nor why did they almost match him and Rush perfectly. No, he just grants Bass and Treble access to Dr. Light's lab, and low and behold, you find out that they are working for Dr. Wily. BIG Surprise! They also steal Dr. Light's upgrades for Mega Man and Rush as well, which provide for an awesome fight later on in the game. However, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'll continue with another new aspect of the game.
Yes, your eyes do not deceive you. There are only 4 Robot Masters to choose from in the beginning. These 4 Robot Masters are FreezeMan, CloudMan, JunkMan, and BurstMan. This is certainly a change from the previous 6 Mega Man games, which allow you to choose all the Robot Masters from the beginning. During these first 4 Robot Master stages, we have the opportunity to collect the R U S and H pieces, which we'll get into later. After you defeat the first 4 Robot Masters, a quick trip back to Dr. Light's lab reveals that Dr. Wily is attacking the Robot Museum, so off you go!
I think we can learn two things from this part of the game. The first thing is that we finally get to see what happens to the Robot Masters after Mega Man has defeating them. They get to be displayed in a museum, so the people can be reminded of all the chaos that these Robots have caused them! The second thing is that Dr. Wily seems to have this strange love for GutsMan. He steals him in Mega Man 1, then makes a tank in his image in Mega Man 2, and now he steals him from the museum for some strange reason. Ah well, who are we to stand between Wily and his Guts-love. But after this quick side trip, the remaining Robot Masters show themselves!
Now that looks more like it! The remaining 4 Robot Masters are SlashMan, ShadeMan, SpringMan, and TurboMan. The gameplay is still pretty much the same as before. The same glorious feature of obtaining the Robot Masters weapon is still intact, as is the Mega Buster and Slide, as well as the importance of never touching the spikes. Well, now that we've reviewed some of the new characters, lets move on to what some of the older characters have to offer.
We'll start with Fliptop. Nothing's really changed here. So lets move on!
Next up, we have Beat. Unlike the previous two Mega Man games, no longer must you collect pieces of Beat to open him up. In this game, you simply must free him from a cage he must've flown into on SlashMan's level. Once Beat has his freedom, he helps Mega Man out in a whole new way. Instead of attacking with a feathery fury the likes of which should not be seen by children under 5, he helps out our hero by saving him from death. If Mega Man happens to fall into a hole, Beat will fly in after him and pull the Blue Bomber to safety. Now that's loyalty! I don't see Rush flying in to save Mega Man. And he CAN fly too. Well, since we're on the subject, lets talk about Rush, and his improvements!
Ah Rush. What more can be said about the awesomeness of Mega Man's Best Friend? Plenty, actually! First of all, he's got his former abilities back, which were taken away from him in Mega Man 6. Back, in all their glory, are the Rush Coil and Rush Jet. No Rush Marine sadly, but I'll survive with Rush's new ability, the Rush Search. Using his super robotic nose, Rush can now search and dig for useful items to help our Hero. Believe me, this comes in handy when you need health, or some Bolts to shop with at Auto's shop. However, Dr. Light wasn't foolish enough to forget about Rush's previous Adapters.
Using that super brain of his, Light has combined the Power and Jet adapter into one main Rush Adapter. This is where the R U S H pieces I mentioned earlier come into play. With this new adapter, Mega Man once again gets his Jet Pack, and now has a detachable fist which will seek and destroy the nearest enemy. The Mega Arm's distance can be increased with an item found in TurboMan's level. This is the same Adapter upgrade that Bass stole from Dr. Light's lab as well. Bass and Treble also have this ability, as you will see when you go through the Wily Castle levels. Now, with all these additions to the game, how could they add anything more? How indeed! Now I will come to my favorite part of the game. Of course, I'm talking about ProtoMan.
Indeed it has, ProtoMan. Indeed it has! After his sad performance in Mega Man 6, ProtoMan is back. In Mega Man 7, ProtoMan is here to give Mega Man some helpful advice.
   
What a guy! However, that's not all. If you manage to find ProtoMan these two times to receive his helpful info, then you have a chance to fight him on ShadeMan's level. This is truly one of the happiest moments in my history of gaming! Lets go to the video tape!
 
Finally, we get to see what the coolest character in Mega Man history can do. His Charge Shot looks awesome. Okay, now that I've got that Blues Fanboy-ism out of me, lets move on. Yes, our hero does get to fight his Brother. Not only is the fight awesom to begin with, but the reward is one of the coolest things ever in any Mega Man game, plus the title of this review!
  
That's right! Our hero gets to use his bro's Proto Shield. I mean, come on. How awesome is that? Words couldn't describe my joy and happiness when I got to use it!
This game really stands out among the lot, in my opinion. It really doesn't take anything away from the Classic Mega Man series, and only stands to add and improve upon it. Except, of course, for Disappearing Wily. Sadly, another thing that has returned is Disappearing Wily. Deciding that 4th Time's A Charm, Wily once again resorts to this annoying and played out tactic. It's quite sadly really. However, the music to this game is superb in my opinion. It has, in my opinion, the second best Robot Master Battle theme, next to Mega Man 2, as well as a fantastic Wily Machine Fight theme as well. Plus, it gives us Bass's Theme as well, and just all around kicks ass. A definite download from Atomic Fire! And, as well as a terrific beginning and middle, Mega Man 7 also gives us one of the coolest ending to a Mega Man game ever, as well.
     
Well, this about wraps up my review of Mega Man 7. Would Mega Man have actually killed Wily? What suspense! What drama! What a great game. I'd like to thank Vixy for providing me with the majority of the pics you see here! What a gal! The Blue Bomber's switch from the NES to the SNES is definetely worth while. Thankfully, Mega Man shows that even in 16-bit, he can still Fight For Everlasting Peace!
Thank You For Playing!
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AbnormalGravity
