Mega Man 8...what's your stance?

[Malon_Forever]

Just started playing it for the first time ever on the PS1, and I must say it's really fun, BUT it fails at almost every other aspect IMO. The music, for one, does not fit the series at all and it's not that good either. Frost Man's stage is frustrating to all hell. The robot masters are pretty dull, but I must say the gameplay is kinda fun, even though it's very different. It's definitely my least favorite due to the atmosphere of the game. What are your thoughts?

[TonyTheTiger]

It isn't my favorite but I like it more than Mega Man 7, which feels a little "off" as far as Mega Man games go. Mega Man 8 has it's problems. Mega Man swimming is weird and I don't like how Capcom restricts the stage select to four robot masters at a time. Then there's the whole "jump jump slide slide" nonsense. But it's a solid B, all things considered.

[Tanooki]

It's a numbered series release, plays well enough, and a big plus it's not part of the x series.

[ShinobiMan]

I think it's an impressive entry to the series! At the time of release, the 2D animations were unparalleled and the robot masters, although cheesy, had lots of personality (partly due to the voice acting). "I'm Clown Man!" Lol love it!

[Graham Mitchell]

I think it's an awesome mega man game, one of the best in the canonical series. I never beat it due to excruciating difficulty, but I love it. 9 and 10 should have used this engine. I don't get why everybody wants their 2d platformers to look like a NES game these days. Saturn and PS1 (and Neo-Geo) have some of the most beautiful 2d sprite-based games ever made, but they've all been forgotten over the years. It makes no sense to me.

[Zthun]

Just started playing it for the first time ever on the PS1, and I must say it's really fun, BUT it fails at almost every other aspect IMO. The music, for one, does not fit the series at all and it's not that good either. Frost Man's stage is frustrating to all hell. The robot masters are pretty dull, but I must say the gameplay is kinda fun, even though it's very different. It's definitely my least favorite due to the atmosphere of the game. What are your thoughts?

I don't know, Duo's theme and the USA intro were pretty good tunes.

[Bloodreign]

I own the US PS1 and Japanese Saturn versions, I prefer the Saturn one due to the extra fights against Cut and Wood Man. The music is also different I believe in spots, though Mega Man still sounds like a 12 year old girl. XD

[ShinobiMan]

I think it's an awesome mega man game, one of the best in the canonical series. I never beat it due to excruciating difficulty, but I love it. 9 and 10 should have used this engine. I don't get why everybody wants their 2d platformers to look like a NES game these days. Saturn and PS1 (and Neo-Geo) have some of the most beautiful 2d sprite-based games ever made, but they've all been forgotten over the years. It makes no sense to me.

I totally agree with this statement. While I definitely enjoy the nostalgia of new 2D platformers that look like NES games, it's shame that the focus is no longer on beautiful hand drawn sprites. 9 & 10 were nice trip down memory lane, but Mega Man should return in this fashion.

[Tanooki]

When I had it, it was the Saturn copy too, then the GameCube collection had it too and I think it was Saturn as well.

As to 2D being forgotten, I think going by history Sony had a big play with that. Back when the psx came out in the 90s Sony did this business decision to assault Nintendo as of being the past, 2D was for kids and garbage, and for a couple years they fined companies for releasing 2D games on the system as punishment. Much of those earlier capcom arcade ports had to eat a fine to release those. Eventually Sony dropped the fines but discouraged it still. Due to that a generation grew up being shadow programmed to dislike 2D gaming as it was junk and 3D and FMV was the future. People who got into 2D were handheld players and phone gamers.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Personally, I think Megaman 8 is the most underrated game of the Megaman classic series. Everyone always quickly dismiss it as that one with the awful voice acting, or criticize it for its music and even the level design.


Megaman 8 was a breath of fresh air that kept the series relevant into not only the 32 bit era, but also alongside the much more complex Megaman X series.


The cartoony art style fit the classic series like a glove. The way the sprites moved was fantastic and it showed off the power of the 32 bit platforms in less subtle ways compared to DASH/Legends (ZOMG 3D!!!!1111111).

The music was also quite a departure, but not in a bad way. Again the team at Capcom were experimenting with new things to keep the game experience fresh. The Megaman 8 soundtrack is very distinctive among Megaman games, and even in 8-bit remixes, it's easy to tell them apart from random samples from the others. Megaman 8's music never does the same thing twice, and I commend them for the effort to keep things fresh. All the tunes are hummable too.



Then there are the unique gameplay additions. The jump/slide segments of Frostman and Wily 1 were welcome, if a bit difficult at first. I liked the introduction of two part levels, mid bosses, and the ability to find bolts for the store. Most of the weapons were cool (with the exception of Water Balloon and the Mega Ball) and also the Mega Buster power ups were welcome to keep the experience fresh.

The voice acting is harder to defend, but it too has it's charms. You gotta remember that the game came out when FMVs were new and voice acting was a novelty rather than something that developers really poured resources into. Voice actors were poorly paid and companies looked to their own staff for voice actors.

Most of Megaman 8's voice acting is so-bad-it's-good, and the main criticisms of the voices of Megaman and Dr. Light aren't really fair, given that both voice actress and voice actor weren't changing their voices for those roles - that's their natural speaking voices.


You can find youtube videos of the voice actress of Megaman and X from X4 selling Tokyo Realestate, with the same voice. I picture Megaman selling the real estate when I watch those.

Anyway, the point is Megaman 8 is underrated. Anyone who doesnt like it, at least play it all the way through. If you don't like it then hey, at least you gave it a shot.

[The Adventurer]

My opinion of Mega Man 8 is visually its fantastic. Updates the classic design in a logical way, and is generally a joy to look at.

Unfortunately, its gameplay is really all over the place. Its moments of brilliance (side scrolling shooter level) but its got a lot of problems. In particular, the hold over from Mega Man 7 where you can only select 4 Robot Masters at a time. Dumb, and goes against everything that came before. Voice acting criticisms get a pass because ALL early PS1 era games had horrendous voice acting. It was basically a rule.

What they did for Mega Man 9 and 10, to take things really back to basics, I think was smart. And brilliantly executed. I do think we could stand to have a 'modern' HD 2D Mega Man. But its desperately needs to take more cues from the '8-bit' era and not try to reinvent the wheel to 'compete'.

8 Robot Masters, no Swimming.