EdenMaster

Mega Man 4 is a standout game in this already great game series. Featuring:

Dust Man - Who fires exploding dust and sucks you towards him.
Pharaoh Man - Who jumps a lot and fires fireballs, some small, some huge.
Dive Man - In an underwater level, he shoots homing missles and charges you like a torpedo.
Bright Man - Who stops time momentarily while he shoots you. Not too diffrent from his predecessor Flash Man.
Drill Man - Drill Man shoots drills out from his arms, then burrows underground where you can't see him, then launches out right underneath Mega Man a few seconds later.
Ring Man - Throws Rings, thats about it.
Skull Man - Has the ability to use a skull shield, which protects him from anything, until he throws it at you.
Toad Man - Jumps around and does a weird dance causing acid rain to pour down.

Gameplay is pretty decent. Some parts are challenging, none of the levels can really be called "easy". The bosses have a bit more kick in them now too.
Music, once again, is very addictive. Graphics are very good. Dust Man's level in particular is very well done.
The background consists of conveyor belts, hammers, gears and other mechanical stuff.
Later on in the level, you find parts where some garbage is burning, and that looks really cool.

I rate Mega Man 4 a 7 out of 10, it's a great game, I recommend it highly.

Dark Jaguar

MM4, to me, was the last truly epic one before they just starting spitting out more on the treadmill. Don't get me wrong, they were all great, but the first 4 to me are the ones that really defined it and the rest just copied it. MM1 started it all, MM2 refined the gameplay to make it truly epic and made the "extra items" really stand out. MM3 added Rush as the source of the "extra item" powerups and further refined the gameplay to epic proportions and is still one of my favorites, with an inclusion called the "slide" which while silly looking wasn't just a cheap puzzle solution but an important instant speed or escape tool you had to use in battle (all future games used this in some form or another). MM4 finished the formula by making the levels a little longer than before, having unique bosses and two different end fortresses, hiding powerups in hidden alternate paths in two levels, and most importantly changed the dynamic of battles throughout this and all future games by adding the Mega Buster to Megaman letting him charge up a powerful blast. MM2 did include a similar feature in the form of Heat Man's weapon but this game made it Megaman's own and designed the whole game around it with enemies that needed that extra power for you to beat them, thus rather than firing shots in bursts you now could either do that or you would go into "survival dodge" mode for a while building up power and waiting for a good moment so you could use that shot without wasting it. When that thing missed, you always felt like you were doomed, due to the extra working in building it up.

After this game, the look of the series went a little more "cartoony" so this was also the last one to have a more serious look to it (not that the later ones had anything wrong with them, they still looked Megaman to me and they did a good job, plus I love the look of Megaman in MM8, though I do hate his look in Powered Up). At any rate, this was the last game to really add something major to the gameplay and it was these first 4 that really defined all later games.

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"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)

A Black Falcon

(this isn't a review, just commentary...) I've always loved MM4. It was perhaps the first Mega Man game I played; I know I played it on the NES a few times in the early '90s, and don't remember playing any other Mega Man games on the NES back then, much less the Game Boy games... so nostalgia certainly is a part of why it's my favorite of the classic series. Even without that, though, I agree that it was a great game... I wouldn't say that it was the last MM game before they started all seeming the same -- "Mega Man games are all the same" is a criticism I've heard since at least Mega Man 3 -- but I would agree that after 4 the classic series went downhill. 5 is decent but too easy, 6 is just bland, 7 okay but nowhere near as good, and 8... blah... (Mega Man & Bass is solid, and probably better than 6, 7, or 8, but not 1-4, but it's oh so hard...) Still though, if you include the spinoff serieses, the game system has continued to evolve -- X added the wall-climb, for instance, and X5 has crouching and shots that don't go through walls anymore... Mega Man IV's (remember the convention to use roman numerals for the Game Boy titles and numbers for the NES releases) "money" system was also a major addition to the series, I'd say -- though it was only used in IV, V, 7, 8, and MM&B, I believe... 6 should have had it, coming out after IV, but that game was a complete rehash, so I'm not surprised that it didn't have it...

Anyway, the point. Mega Man 4 is a great, great game. The bosses are awesome, the levels very well designed, and the graphics and music are the height of what is possible on the NES... Mega Man 2 might be the popular favorite, and I'd say that it's the second best classic Mega Man game, but 4 gets my vote. From the bosses (Toad Man, Pharoah Man, Skull Man, Ring Man, and... uh... the other four...), it's my favorite game in the series. { 4 2 1 3 MM&B 5 8 7 6, I think}

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Currently Playing: Guild Wars (with expansions) (PC), Donkey Kong Country series (SNES), Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 1 and 2 (GBA), sometimes Warcraft III or Starcraft (PC) Mega Turrican and Universal Soldier (Genesis), various other stuff

Dark Jaguar

Megaman 5 for Gameboy on the other hand, THAT was an amazing game, and it did change things up a bit with the boomerang style weapon that you not only had to charge but couldn't even fire your normal gun until it came back. Plus, it was just plain well designed.

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"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)

A Black Falcon

All of the Game Boy Mega Man games are good, despite the rehashed bosses, but yes, IV and V are clearly the best two, and V has by far the most innovations in the (GB) series... I only had I and IV though, so I mention those ones first. And IV was the first one with the points (P-chips in that case) and store...

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My Games Collection My Webpage!
Currently Playing: Guild Wars (with expansions) (PC), Donkey Kong Country series (SNES), Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 1 and 2 (GBA), sometimes Warcraft III or Starcraft (PC) Mega Turrican and Universal Soldier (Genesis), various other stuff

Dark Jaguar

I never really saw the store as that big a deal frankly. I prefer searching levels for one of a kind items in odd places to running around places I've already been grinding myself some bolts or chips to purchase a special item. MM8 sorta mixed the two by making the bolts themselves limited items that were hidden in special spots and could only be found once, but you couldn't buy every upgrade in a single game and had to pick and choose (further, you couldn't turn in an upgrade to buy a different one).

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"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)

A Black Falcon

Yeah, MM8's system worked well, forcing you to choose which things you want... two very different ways of doing it, a "money" system where time is all that matters to getting items versus a "special collectables" system where you need to find the hidden items... for a game like Mega Man 8's system might be better, but still, trying a money system in Mega Man was an interesting idea that did add to the game. You are right that the item buying system is not a major addition to the base gameplay in some ways, but still, it is a gameplay system addition, even if it doesn't have the impact of the charge shot or something...

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My Games Collection My Webpage!
Currently Playing: Guild Wars (with expansions) (PC), Donkey Kong Country series (SNES), Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 1 and 2 (GBA), sometimes Warcraft III or Starcraft (PC) Mega Turrican and Universal Soldier (Genesis), various other stuff