@@eduardoaguero1220Yeah, it catches the player off guard and Mega Man's falling speed makes avoiding death pretty hard. There are a few other gotcha moments like that in MM4. Also, someone must have really loved spikes, because there are quite a lot of those.
6:30 to be fair the screen scrolls so slowly in this game you didn't have to "predict" the spikes, you could just see them coming up from the bottom of the screens
All the MM games have at least one segment like that. Like the spike shaft right at the start of the Wily Fortress in MM5. If you don't know which way to fall, you die.
@@WhiteFangofWar That part is much much worse. You don't even have a way to dodge the spikes if you pick that path, and both paths look the exact same! Meanwhile here you can just hold right during the screen scroll to move instantly and dodge the spikes
MMX5 is the only game where the instant death traps are genuinely annoying (without using the time stopper equivalent there's almost no way to see those lasers coming)
Megaman 4 might actually be my favorite of the classic games. I love the levels and I especially love the bosses. I genuinely believe that megaman 4’s boss line up is one of the best in the classic series
Mega Man 4 is my favourite game in the classic series for many reasons. • It introduces the Charge Shot which is so fun to use • The Level Design is great and creative • The Special Weapons are good (except Skull Barrier) • The Bosses are fun to fight because they have unique attack patterns • It also introduces Mid-game Stages like Dr Cossack’s Citadel • Great Soundtrack • the new Took weapons the Wire & Balloon are fun • & the new character Eddie is amazing because he gives you Extra Lives, Health/Weapon Energy & E-Tanks to aid you in your journey.
I agree. Except for few things. Skull Man's, Dust Man's, Ring Man's & Dive Man's weapons aren't that impractful for me, an few levels I'm not an fan of like Ring Man's, Dust Man's & Bright Man's stage and while the bosses having different patterns was nice, they go on an little bit long to kill, even with the weapon weaknesses. And some like Toad Man & Pharoah Man are pathetic in battle. But the rest I agree.
@@thomasblackwell9946 that is the whole point. its only supposed to protect you from 1 or 2 instant death hits. its not supposed to turn the game into easy mode like you probably want it to do. Mega Man 4 is a game from an era where 1 hit deaths were the norm in games. in Mega Man 4 you pretty much die in 2 or 3 hits from a boss. if you git gud & learn the boss attack patterns, you can easily block attacks with skull shield. running in close & doing massive damage to the boss with skull shield is usually only done by skilled players. unskilled players will just get hit & die. so I can see why people who aren't as skilled & haven't put much time into the game, don't find the skull shield useful.
Megaman 4 has long been my favorite of the NES games, and it's great to finally see it getting some love these last few years. And yes, I tend to type it "Megaman" as one word. The logo for Megaman X4 lives rent free in my head, so that's likely a large reason why
Would it be crazy if the major reason I like MM4 alot is because of Pharoahman? I just think he has one of the coolest designs of any robot master to date, and his weapon is pretty cool.
Megaman 4 is my favorite for many reasons, it introduced the charge shot, Dr. Cossack as a third doctor which was a breath of fresh air from it just being Light and Wily, an extra gauntlet of fortress levels before the actual Wily Fortress. Many people might like the Megaman 2 Wily Castle theme but I’m one of the few who prefer the Dr. Cossack level themes.
Mega Man 4 is my favourite out of the NES games and probably up there with my favourite classic games. It keeps a nice balance where it controls well, has fun levels and good robot masters (although the RNG of most of them being influenced by distance can be exploited fairly easily. Toad Man is Toad Man, enough said. Ring Man and Skull Man have strict patterns.) Alongside that, I can find a fair use for most of the weapons in stages. I still love replaying the game to this day and I particularly like experimenting with the special weapons and boss order, sometimes finding new uses for them
Bruh for real. I used to think how does it get slower when the game is more advanced than the first 3? I think the energy filled up the fastest in the first game
Mega Man 4 is often cited as the downward spiral of classic era Mega Man games, but I don't think that's true. For all their faults, I still think the classics are consistently good. Maybe just MM8 is the only classic fans seem to have a black eye towards.
Charged shot was honestly a great feature. MM4's implementation had some mild jank (which did make me use weapons a lot) but it elevated the megaman design further.
The problem is that it is lumped with 5 and 6 who added very little to the formula. All the games are good but a lot of people will still compare the entries.
My biggest problem with Mega Man 4 is that the Mega Buster will only start charging if you initially press the B button when you're in a state where you can shoot. For instance, if you have your finger off of B, take a hit, then hit B when you're in your stun state you won't immediately start charging when you come out of stun. You'll have to let go of B and press it again when you want to charge up. It's a minor annoyance, but it happens often enough to make me pass over MM4 when I want to play a late-era NES Mega Man game and go with MM5 instead, which doesn't have that problem.
I have to credit Nico Evaluates for making me see this game for how polished and well-designed it is. It's not perfect (having to do the second half in one sitting is a bit much), but "Mega Man 4" is a fantastic action affair from start to finish, nonetheless.
@@fictionalmediabully9830so what? He didn’t even say anything about Megaman 1-3. Why exactly would deciding the better game devolve into a pissing contest about who has the least amount of cheap moments? Especially for NES games I might add
4 is the magic number for both the original Blue Bomber and X, the peak of both series'. This was actually my first ever MM game, and it got me hooked despite the high difficulty. Definitely could have benefitted from having a checkpoint/password for the Wily Fortress, especially with how rough Wily stage 3 is. You pretty much need some E-tanks to survive it.
Historically, Mega Man has never allowed you to password skip the castles. Hell, even in Mega Man 9, a game with a proper save system, if you leave the castle to go shopping, you have to redo the entire Wily Castle from the start, which I personally hate, but that's because I hate that game's Wily 3
On the logo/title, I found myself in a compromise solution without thinking: Writing "MegaMan" like 1 word but capitalized like 2, since that's what I took away from the logos.
I concur with a lot of peeps in the comments: MM 4 is my favorite of the Mega Man NES titles. It’s got everything: a well done fake out villain, great robot masters, awesome weapons and utilities and the music in this game might be my favorite of the whole classic series.
Despite being the installment that introduced the chargeable Mega Buster, Mega Man 4 has the best robot master weapon balance among the NES games. You can readily use 6 or 7 out of 8 weapons during the actual stages, not just against bosses. Dust and Ring are useful all-round projectiles, Dive missiles are good against platform hippos, Toad rain clears the screen, Skull shield is protection while jumping across chasms, Drills are powerful against minibosses, and Bright flashes freeze almost everything. Even Pharaoh fireballs have their uses, e.g. 2-shotting the ring monsters.
Megaman 4 was my first ever mega man game... our neighbor bought a van and found a mm4 NES cartridge in it. He wasn't interested in video games so he gave it to us. Will always hold a special place in my heart
The term "Rock Buster" actually dates back to MM3's development, if MMLC is anything to go by "New Mega Buster" is the actual name of the upgrade seen in MM4, but a lot of people misconstrued it it seems
THANK YOU. Some of the biggest content creators on UA-cam rank this at the bottom and only give it kudos for it peak OST. They claim the mega buster made the game too easy or they hate the boss designs so much that they soured on everything. I don't get that. I love this game so much and I appreciate you giving it it's proper due.
Im honestly surprised how fondly this game is seen today. When it fitst game out, it was met with lukewarm reception. Time really was kind to megaman 4 and 6 compared to before.
Sure has, especially on the net scape, people wrote off on those two before in favor of 2 and 3, and now you see more appreciation for 4 and 6. Gotta love it
Yeah time has been kind to this game. I can see that 4 games in a row with the same formula can get stale when you are buying a brand new game, but in retrospect people appreciate it for sticking to its guns instead of wildly changing the game
While not my favorite Mega Man game, Mega Man 4 is for sure my favorite of the six original NES games. I think the game just gets so much right, especially with the soundtrack, bosses, stage designs, weapons, etc. Also, I use a space between Mega and Man, and tend to follow that format for every other character with that naming convention. My only exception is when I say "Rockman". Correct me if I'm wrong, but aside from the title logos' inconsistency with Mega Man's space, I believe the games follow this format too.
MegaMan 4 was the first game I bought with my own money when I was a kid. Although I'd say I like MegaMan 2 ever so slightly more, this is a great game.
I love Mega Man 1, 2 and 3, but I am definitely in the camp that I feel 4 and onward definitely improved the foundation and gameplay mechanics for the Classic Series. And even to an extent series like X, Zero and ZX.
Eh, I like that Mega Man bosses have their weakness and that they actually show the boss suffering in some way because of it (after all, it wouldn't be a weakness if the boss wasn't hurt in some way). It is supposed to be a reward for experimenting. That it can be found online? The answers to any game can be found online, you aren't supposed to search prior to playing the game.
I get what you're saying, but there's a lot of design space between a boss weakness doing nothing and a boss weakness completely trivializing the fight. Flashman's weapon in Megaman 2 would take off half of Quickman's health for free. But you still had to fight him for the other half.
@@GeneralBolas *"and a boss weakness completely trivializing the fight."* This is a problem how? Again, that's the reward for your experimentation. If you want a challenge you could simply not use the weakness, is that simple.
@@toumabyakuya Because it makes the fight trivial and thoughtless. The first time you do it, it feels nice. But in your 20th run, it makes the fight a pathetic chore. Halving Quickman's health definitely helps. That's your reward. But you still have to demonstrate competency to finish the fight. Thus, fighting him with his weakness is still a fight even if it is clearly easier. There's a lot of room between hard and easy. Boss weaknesses should not make the fight go from hard to easy. Except for Metalman, because it's funny that his weapon is so OP that he is his own weakness. Also, it makes his fight take 2 seconds, unlike many boss weaknesses which trivialize the fight but still make it 10-20 seconds even though you have the bosskiller weapon and they're no threat to you.
@@GeneralBolas *"Because it makes the fight trivial and thoughtless."* Then you could simply just not use their weakness. Again, you have options. What this argument amounts to is to basically take away the options *for everybody* simply because *you* do not want to have said option. That's a bit self-centered, wouldn't you agree?. *"The first time you do it, it feels nice. But in your 20th run, it makes the fight a pathetic chore."* Then just use the buster and nothing else. *"But you still have to demonstrate competency to finish the fight."* That's not a good reward. A good reward is the Boss dying to their weakness.
I would love to know people who have vivid memories playing these classic Mega Man games as kids. I sure don't but I just remember constantly giving up the controller to my brother's if I lost a life. Despite not remembering 1-7 clearly, I still feel like they honed my want for challenging games & increased my tolerance. Enjoyed the video & have a nice day everyone! (Did you catch the joke. I did the thing)
i played 4 obsessively & its the only Mega Man I can for sure beat from start to finish. very vivid memories of this one. i've beat this game on my real youtube channel (not this one) like 20 times.
While Mega Man 4 is my least played of the NES games, it's definitely still a great time! I still remember accidentally running into the Balloon and Wire the first time and thinking the secrets were fun. Next time is my personal favorite of the six, so I'm excited to see where you land on it. And "Mega Man" is the answer.
Megaman 4 is a great entry in the original Megaman series i would not say its my favorite in the series or anything but i still love it. Fun fact for the Boss character contest Capcom held for this game. One of the winning robot masters of this contest Dust man was made by Yusuke Murata who later on would be known as the illustrator for the One Punch Man series.
Love this game. It has probably one of my favorite assortment of weapons. The Pharoah Shot is everything the Metal Blade should've been. Fantastic review as always, J. Looking forward to see where you stand on 5 NES.
I write "Mega Man" when referring to Classic Era/Rock but "Megaman" when referring to Battle Network and Starforce/Hub and Geo. As for the actual titles...I tend to switch it up on a whim.
My favourite from nes era is definitely megaman 6 especially its music but mm4 by far has the best balance between megaman's skills and boss weapons and that is this game's biggest strength BALANCE.
I think my only issue with MM4 is the slow health bar charging cutscene during the boss fights. I actually enjoy the Wily Castle stages a lot. The first one is the ultimate Met level (the shell enemies), and the music is one of the best of the NES era.
Mega Man 4 is my personal favorite, despite the endgame being more of a casual romp than the main eight levels were. Having recently replayed both Legacy Collections, 4 was one of those games I enjoyed the most in the first LC. It's where I could tell they started having an actual direction for the franchise instead of just making a single game and hoping that one doesn't flop (the 1st game was lucky to be given a second chance in the first place, 2's gigantic success was unexpected and thus 3 suffered from "oh shoot we have to follow up on THAT now?!" syndrome imo). The presentation is a noticeable step up, and while the story kinda ends anticlimactically, it felt like a genuine effort to avoid the "same old" syndrome, by giving the illusion of replacing the big bad at first. And when it came to the game itself, it was one of the ones I felt the least frustrated playing; if I lost a live it often felt moreso my fault than the game's (bar that one jump for the E-tank in Skull Man's stage), as the level design felt tough but fair. I daresay it was the Mega Man game in the classic series that I enjoyed the most, as even 5 and 6 still had their share of BS at times despite being just as solid. I'd say it's my top favorite of the first Legacy Collection, followed by 2 and 5, and 6 not too far behind those. 1 is a game I could probably re-enjoy for the sheer novelty of old, so that leaves 3 in a... unfavorable position there.
Mega Man 4 is my second favorite NES Mega Man and second most played, and I did not know about that E Tank at the start of the first Cossack stage. I look forward to your video on my favorite, Mega Man 5.
7 year old me loved the hell out of this game. It had everything from adrenaline inducing music to the hearty ones that hit you in the feels, all while traversing in an exciting journey through different environments sometimes in the deep and other times high in the sky. It was the adventure. The box and the manual promised heart thumping jumping and sliding into action with a cherry on top (Mega Buster), and it did indeed deliver. Mega Man 4 was my favourite and only title in the series but it also had a soul, and therefore will always be with me both physical and in spirit.
I never minded the weaknesses putting some bosses into a loop. They are robots after all. It makes sense to me that some of them would have their inner CPUs fried and force them to execute an action.
Mega Man 4 is probably the most forgettable in my opinion out of the NES classics, though I will say Mega Man The Sequel Wars really helped change that perception to me. It's a fangame that is recreating Mega Man 4, 5, and 6 in The Wily Wars style with updated music and added playable characters, with MM4 being out and MM5 being on the verge of release. Hope you end up checking that out at some point.
MM5 never impressed me. It was just "meh, ok". I'll play it on The Sequel Wars, but the one I'm really looking forward to is MM6 on there. In MM4-6, it's always been MM4 and MM6 that I've liked the most.
Mega man 4 was my first MM game so I have the nostalgia attachment when I first played it in late 92’ and also objectively I feel it’s better than the predecessors in terms of gameplay I need my slide and mega buster lol
Seeing Drill Man again after such a long time made me remember alot. I used to draw Drill Man and Crash Man together back in 2008 becaude I like their designs. And specially because Drill Man sorta looks like he transforms. And I also remember that B-DaMan Drill Dog upgrade because I knew of them at the same time, except I still don't know the name of that Drill Dog.
Weird we give 1-3 credit for "evolving" classic Mega Man, with 3 giving us a whoopie doop slide, but completely gloss over the charged shot in 4 that has become a series staple and influenced other games.
I appreciate these reviews a lot. It's nice to see my favorite game franchise to NES being reviewed by somewhat fresh eyes and gain that perspective. Now, Mega Man 4 for me is... it actually is a bit uninspired and forgettable. I see people doing lists where they try to work out the quality of the game as something quantifiable, that if a game has "THIS and also THAT and then you add THIS then the sum of all parts is THIS MUCH" but it doesn't really work like that. I played 2, 3 and 4 back-to-back earlier this year and my impressions and complaints about Mega Man 4 are as follows: - If you play Mega Man 4 directly after Mega Man 3, the music has zero impact. Certain stages I even found to sound annoying. - There is no need for Wire and Balloon and they don't add anything to the game since you already have Rush Coil that takes care of movement in the vertical direction. In fact, everything I can reach with Wire I can also reach with just Rush Coil. Which is okay to a certain degree because they are optional items, but it really makes me lose interest in picking them up on future runs. Wire still looks awesome. I wish Mega Man had Wire as default item instead of Rush Coil. - The weapons and the levels don't interact with each other that much. Mega Man 2 will always be the champion in this regard where every stage has thought this through thoroughly. In Mega Man 4 you are not gonna find immediate obvious uses for every weapon and even when you do, it doesn't change that much. I played Mega Man 4 twice because I found out about the resurgence of 4s popularity worthy of inspection and I even followed some redditors advice on how to best utilize the weapons, but it didn't change the game that much. One route suggested I would spam Bright Man weapon on Pharoah man to get across the sand faster, but it ended up with me having to take time to fill up the weapon again before the boss fight and I didn't win that much time by doing so. I think the exception of this though is Drill Man stage where you can use a lot of different weapons in so many ways to help you speed through it completely. - About the level design in general... it's not bad at all in 4 but in 2 the levels are so thought out about weapon usage and in 3 the levels are fun cuz they really lean into both the slide and attacking the player with multitude of enemies.... explaining why 3s levels are awesome is really hard - best short explanation I can give is that they all inspire high activity from the player. Otherwise 3 is worse than 4 on the department of weapon usage for levels. - Shadow Man stage already did the Bright Man stage gimmick. I noticed it much faster cuz I was playing the games back-to-back and I think both Shadow Man stages did it better, especially the second one cuz certain lamps you have to use Magnet Missile to reach. - I think the weapons are really cool in Mega Man 4 - but they are all either nerfs or buffs of older weapons. This adds to 4s general felling of "meh". Again, I was playing the games back-to-back. And I can never get over how "perfect" all the weapons in 2 are... - I remember liking Dr Cossacks stages a lot, but on replay I didn't find them as amazing as I once did in the past and it bummed me out. Cossack Stages are better themed and more interesting than the Wily levels. They should've gone all the way in with making all the last stages take place in Cossack's castle for more flavor. - Both 3 and 4 have very lackluster Dr Wily stages tbh. But with 3 the music does some lifting to set the right tone for the final levels. In 4 the Wily Stages has a more happy sound, as if you are supposed to be happy to see your old archvillain... which maybe is what they intended. But my favorite Wily Stages are from 2. They are dark, dirty, scary and it genuinely feels like you are entering a dreadful place where mechanical nightmares live. It felt so final. In 4 the tone of the stages is like they know Wily is gonna get the Team Rocket treatment ("looks like we are blasting off AGAIN!") in all the sequels later. - I don't think the charge shot is fun to use. It is much more fun to be pressing B like a maniac to shoot many pellets. It creates more endorphin for me. The charge shot works for me in Mega Man X, but not in 4. I think it is because often when you charge the charge shot in X you are also climbing the walls, jumping and sliding like a maniac in order to avoid stuff from big bosses. You don't move around as much in 4 as you do in X. Therefore, in 4 it feels like they took something from me rather than adding something - Robot Master patterns and how well it meshes with their weaknesses... is a mixed bag. Like using Toad Man on Bright Man... is actually a bad idea imo. Even if it is his weakness the weapon is so slow that it leaves me open for more time freezes than if I just use the P-shooter and spam him. Drill Man has this thing where he can deflect Dive Missiles sometimes even if is weakness. Skull Barrier is a weird weakness for Dive Man cuz it is his bodyslams that deal the most damage and making you get close to him puts you at risk. There's more, but think of the bosses in Mega Man 2 and how they kinda fell in perfect line with their weakness-weapons. It doesn't just feel like you are dealing extra damage on them. It feels like you are using the best methods to hit them. Exception is ofc if you wanna try crash bomb on Quick Man (though he does run against the walls a lot, leaving him open) but you can use Flash Man on him too... I can totally respect people liking 4 more, but at the time they are making 4 it's very clear they have found a formula. Like 2 turned out amazing because it was a passion project, 3 became a (somewhat flawed) diamond because they were under huge pressure to beat 2 and 4... feels like it was made in a lab. Like carefully tested and under supervision and like they now know what people like about Mega Man, so let's focus on those things. And then they continued this approach in 5 and 6... and that's kinda why it felt like the death by too many sequels. Because it wasn't about too many Mega Man games, it was about the staleness. Okay, I wrote an essay and it's late. I'm going to bed. I love that you all in the comment section that love Mega Man 4 so much and don't let my opinions deter you from liking the games you like. We are all different and I just wanted to offer my 2 cents. Goodnight
I definitely like the Cossack-Wily twist. It did a good job at fooling the player that Wily wasn't the villain for once. Plus plot-wise it allowed Wily to force someone else to do his dirty work since his own attempts had failed.
4:22 I've gotten to the point in my life where I refer to the character and mainline games as "Mega Man" but reference the spin-off series as "Megaman X", "Megaman Zero", "Megaman Z/X", "Megaman Legends", "Megaman Battle Network", and Megaman Star Force". I know that's not 100% accurate or w/e, it's just what I find most natural for me and have decided to do. At the end of the day, we all know what we're all talking about, even if we're choosing to use slightly different spellings from one another, so even if one formatting rubs some of us the wrong way, we should be able to take a deep breath and let it go, because it's all basically the same anyway.
I’m a new mega man fan and I got into the series thanks to you. Mega man 4 is currently in my top 3 mega man games (probably number 1) along with X4 and 9 (haven’t finished the entire series). It was the final of the nes era of games that I played and I wasn’t expecting much but I loved it. There wasn’t anything that I disliked and I loved the music especially the final boss theme.
for a newcomer to the franchise, you've got great taste. 4 & X4 are the best of both their respective series imo, but thats not a popular opinion. they have the best music too. thats also an unpopular opinion, even though its probably true. 9 is great.
Street Fighter 6 had a vote for your favorite Mega Man game thing; Mega Man 4 is my favorite The manga shows that the Cossack robots had other jobs before fighting Mega Man
I am a graphic designer and I heavily enjoyed the logo segment and it is actually quite interesting. I personally prefer the split of Mega and Man instead of the words being conjoined. By far the X series has the best logos in my opinion.
I enjoy 4 because of its difficulty, design, polish and the tools it provides you to make said difficult experience much easier. It’s also why I enjoy 9 so much. 4 and 9 have some of the best robot master weapons in the classic series yet are arguably the most difficult games (aside from 1) in the classic series. If you use the weapons the game provides it makes for a much easier experience by design.
4:27 - I prefer "Mega Man" as two words - like "Game Boy" is (but so many people mess that up when it should be so obvious)! Also, "Bomberman" is one word and "Spider-Man" is hyphenated, and I'm constantly correcting people on these.
I originally skipped this game out of frustration when I first tried to beat the og 6 games back to back many years ago, but the praises this video and the rest of the comments gave inspired me to go back and give this game another fair shot. I ended up really enjoying this game and while I thought some of the bosses were brutally unfair, the level design was a lot better than I remembered. Thanks for getting me back into classic Megaman. I've got 6 more games in the series to conquer.
I had MegaMan 1, 2, 4 and 6 as a kid. Born in 1999 and had the privilege to grow up owning an NES, N64, GameCube, and a Wii, so I got to play a *ton* of amazing games. MegaMan 2 and 6 were my favorites of the classic titles and the only ones I beat as a child. I to this day find 4 to have the hardest of the regular Robot Master stages if we disregard some of the questionable designs in Megaman 1.
This is the 2nd weakest of the NES MM games for me, but it really is a fantastic looking game. Looking forward to your reviews of 5 and 6 - two games I feel are often unfairly criticized.
While 4 may not be my favorite, there are some things about it that I find that make it decent at best for me, and I can consider to be part of the good NES lineup. A lot of my concerns with 4 were very well addressed and demonstrated already. In addition, I also have little nitpicks about it being harder to jump after a slide and a sort of “pause glitch” where you can reserve the charge of your Buster by switching weapons. In terms of personal preferences, I like an endgame with a single set of solid castle stages that have an impact on the story while not being too time consuming at the same time. The concept of revealing Wily as the true villain in classic Mega Man is fine with me, but I feel that the twist villain reveals were best executed in games like Mega Man 10 or Unlimited.
@@thomasffrench3639That is a fair point. I do think that it does decent in this game, especially in the Archie comics version that would’ve built up to it! 5 is just Wily getting revenge on Protoman by framing him. Then 6 could’ve used some more polish for it to have worked.
MegaMan 4 might not be my favorite but that's only because it's my second favorite! And objectively I think it's the most polished out of the 6, even more than 6 and 5 in a sense. Like I really think this is the closest to perfection out of the nes games while also reaching some highs. Only reason why is not my favorite is because I like the soundtrack of 2, 3 and 5 more and I love how final megaman 6 feels.
I thank Mega Man IV for introducing me to the wonderful concept of "charged attack". After playing MMIV, I always try holding the attack button on every action games to see if the character has more powerful and awesome moves.
Things were too different back then. When I played this at 7 years old, I thought it was awesome to have two final castles. When I played 3 at 9 years old, I thought it was awesome to have more robot masters to kill. Back then, you really wanted to play more of something you liked because developers put those things there as a treat. Nowadays more content means padding so developers can boast longer playtimes, more chances for us to engage in microtransactions and such. So, that's how it was more than 30 years ago. Longer games meant more fun.
10:38 skull man actually doesn’t do anything if you dont press any buttons. If you press left or right he will fire 3 bullets. If you press B he will jump towards you pull up his shield for a random amount of time and then run at you. He wont do the same thing 3 times in a row. Finally if you charge the buster preemptively before entering the boss door you can fire it at him for free damage since he dosent react to releasing the B button. (You can do the same thing with pharoh shot but hes immune to it)
I personally feel like Mega Man 4 was the best of the classic series. It didn't feel rushed like 3 and didn't have the design issues I wasn't fond of in 2. It also still has some bite to it, which I feel were lost in its successors. I don't think the Mega Buster fundamentally obviated other special weapons. Case in point, I would put 4 as one of the strongest special weapons sets in the series, with the Pharaoh Shot being my choice for series best and most of the others having at least very solid use cases. But I think if there are design issues with the special weapons and gameplay, then the Mega Buster CAN be overcentralizing. I think this was a much worse problem in the X series, where I honestly feel like most of the special weapons are afterthoughts and only the first game had a solid set. But it was also a problem in Mega Man 5...I'll talk more about that later. I'm not gonna give high praise to the story, but at least there was story IN the game this time. In fact there was more actual story in game than there was in the first three combined. It's not gripping story, but none of the NES Mega Man games have that, so whatever.
I always wished they did a little more with the story in MM 4-6 than Dr. Wily is totally not the bad guy this time. He could've been hinted at before reappearing in MM6. Tbf they probably didn't expect to make 3 more FC/NES entries.
MM4 had the best set of Robot Master weapons (or at least tied with MM9). MM4 seems to have fixed a lot of issues with MM2 (particularly with weapons being unbalanced): - Flash Stopper is a much better Time Stopper - Pharaoh Shot is a much better Atomic Fire with enough utility from Metal Blade to make it perhaps the second best weapon in the series (it's not totally broken like Metal Blade) - Ring Boomerang is Quick Boomerang + piercing - Drill Bomb is better than Crash Bomber in many ways (cheaper), but doesn't seem as powerful Skull Barrier, while being the worst weapon in MM4, does one thing better than Leaf Shield: you can actually move while it's activated. Leaf Shield is way more resilient when standing still, though.
2:58 that's because everything was about "attitude" during that time. That's why sonic looks like a smartass. I guess having one eyebrow higher or lower than the other conveys attitude 😂
Fantastic review. It's really cool to see how Mega Man and Capcom improved over the years. Side Note: The No-Intro Database made me realize how inconsistent Mega Man is with it's one word/two words name structure. One day I used GBxCart (cartridge dumper) to transfer my save file to my computer. It uses No-Intro's name scheme, so I was shocked when it changed from two words: "Mega Man Battle Network" to one word "Megaman Battle Network". It's weird because the end credits and even the official website and eShops will spell it two words: "Mega Man Battle Network", but the logo is clearly one word: "Megaman Battle Network". My guess is No-Intro went with the logo as that's the most visible and rawest of official sources: what's on the Title Screen, Cartridge Label, Boxart, etc?
I loved the music in Megaman 4 so much, both the original NES music, as well as the updated version in the Rockman 4 Complete Works edition on the Japanese PS1 as well. I can't recall if Megaman 6 or X was one of the first Megaman games I played, but have been hooked ever since. :P
by far my favorite title, it is generally not a popular opinion, but everything was there, the music, the slide, the mega buster, explosive missile weapons (my favorites) and the usual arsenal (time stopper, shield, ice ,fire, etc.... MM2 will always hold a special place in my heart cause its the very first title that I played and it was an instant classic for me, but the athmosphere and music in MM4 was definitely unique
In one of _only _*_Two_*_ Game Theory_ episodes, the important thing that happens in _Mega Man 4_ is that we see Dr. Wily achieve a new level of *growth* ; In eps. 1, 2, and 3, Wily ASSUMES he is going to be victorious as 'the greatest robot designer in the world'. In 4, he plans a *contingency* in the event "the Metal Meddler* thwarts his 4th attempt at world domination.
What I love about the US Mega Man 4 logo is the fact that, with the text being blue, the number 4 is blue as well. And I associate number 4 with color blue so it's simply satisfying. Note: I really dislike the color orange used on all numbers on the Japanese logo and also wonder why don't they change the color much between entries, would've helped to distinguish 'em more as the boxarts and cartridges already came in different colors anyways.
While 3 is my personal favorite, 4 I believe is the "best balanced" classic Mega Man in that thanks to the Charge Shot being good but not overtuned, all bosses are equally valid first stages to tackle and all Robot Master weapons are useful in general cases in stages and not just in boss fights (or useless in general). This is the game fan projects should look to for an example of weapons design and balance. MM5 has only two or three weapons even worth considering using SOMETIMES and MM6 has the Jet and Power adapters basically render the entire boss weapon system irrelevant. I'm also reminded of a review of MegaMan Network Transmission. "This is only the worst parts of the Classic, X, and Network series slapped together. It's still a 7/10 game because even bad Mega Man is still a good game." No matter how much I nitpick any of my favorite Mega Mans, the series is Rockman solid.
You didn't bring up the one other issue people have with the megabuster, its sound effect being obnoxiously loud. You're encouraged to run around with a full charge all the time, but that also means the background music is drowned out by the constant WEE-WEE-WEE. The two next games would fix this and also make the megabuster two tiles high so it could hit things easier.
I like these mega man reviews as a mega man fan, also fun fact, you can glitch your way during the auto scroller sections by using the wire on a platform then wait for the screen to push you from it, and one in if you use toad man's weapon after beating the wily machine you kill wily but you'll soft lock
Fun Fact: Dust Man in this game was designed by a then 12-year-old Yusuke Murata. You may know him as the guy who illustrates the One Punch Man manga.
That must be why One Punch Man shoots garbage from his head that explodes in four directions!
he also designed Crystal Man in Mega Man 5 and received a special thanks in 3 for his submission Double Man, though they didn't use his design
Oh, O!? H
@@ChibiKami his friend also designed star man, iirc
Funner fact: his designs were so good Inafune barely made any changes to them
6:27 ok to be fair, you had A LOT of time to react to that
true lol
I think he just reacted wrong, you turn right to avoid being spiked
Fr
@@eduardoaguero1220Yeah, it catches the player off guard and Mega Man's falling speed makes avoiding death pretty hard. There are a few other gotcha moments like that in MM4. Also, someone must have really loved spikes, because there are quite a lot of those.
6:30 to be fair the screen scrolls so slowly in this game you didn't have to "predict" the spikes, you could just see them coming up from the bottom of the screens
I was thinking the same thing. The slow screen-by-screen scrolling helps mitigate cheep deaths like that. There was room for him to get out of the way
All the MM games have at least one segment like that. Like the spike shaft right at the start of the Wily Fortress in MM5. If you don't know which way to fall, you die.
@@WhiteFangofWar That part is much much worse. You don't even have a way to dodge the spikes if you pick that path, and both paths look the exact same! Meanwhile here you can just hold right during the screen scroll to move instantly and dodge the spikes
MMX5 is the only game where the instant death traps are genuinely annoying (without using the time stopper equivalent there's almost no way to see those lasers coming)
@@duhdeedee MMX6 is far worse with the instant death though, especially Blizzard Wolfang and Metal Shark.
Megaman 4 might actually be my favorite of the classic games. I love the levels and I especially love the bosses. I genuinely believe that megaman 4’s boss line up is one of the best in the classic series
Megaman 4 is definitely my favourite of the NES Hexology
Amen!
I prefer 6 myself. But 4 is still really good.
I’d say 3 is my favorite!
It may be unfinished but definitely a good one
6 for me, its justvthe most polished. But 3 has best ost imo. All the songs just feel like they'd be on a 8-bit radio station.
Hexology didn’t know that was a word
Mega Man 4 is my favourite game in the classic series for many reasons.
• It introduces the Charge Shot which is so fun to use
• The Level Design is great and creative
• The Special Weapons are good (except Skull Barrier)
• The Bosses are fun to fight because they have unique attack patterns
• It also introduces Mid-game Stages like Dr Cossack’s Citadel
• Great Soundtrack
• the new Took weapons the Wire & Balloon are fun
• & the new character Eddie is amazing because he gives you Extra Lives, Health/Weapon Energy & E-Tanks to aid you in your journey.
I'd say that number 6 is my favorite.
skull barrier is great. you just use it like the flash shield in sonic & do a sh*t ton of damage on bosses.
I agree. Except for few things. Skull Man's, Dust Man's, Ring Man's & Dive Man's weapons aren't that impractful for me, an few levels I'm not an fan of like Ring Man's, Dust Man's & Bright Man's stage and while the bosses having different patterns was nice, they go on an little bit long to kill, even with the weapon weaknesses. And some like Toad Man & Pharoah Man are pathetic in battle. But the rest I agree.
@asdfxcvbn746 there my friend I would have to disagree. That is a weak shield that shatters at the slightest damage.
@@thomasblackwell9946 that is the whole point. its only supposed to protect you from 1 or 2 instant death hits. its not supposed to turn the game into easy mode like you probably want it to do.
Mega Man 4 is a game from an era where 1 hit deaths were the norm in games. in Mega Man 4 you pretty much die in 2 or 3 hits from a boss. if you git gud & learn the boss attack patterns, you can easily block attacks with skull shield.
running in close & doing massive damage to the boss with skull shield is usually only done by skilled players. unskilled players will just get hit & die.
so I can see why people who aren't as skilled & haven't put much time into the game, don't find the skull shield useful.
12:24
There’s an E-TANK there?! 😨
Megaman 4 has long been my favorite of the NES games, and it's great to finally see it getting some love these last few years.
And yes, I tend to type it "Megaman" as one word. The logo for Megaman X4 lives rent free in my head, so that's likely a large reason why
Would it be crazy if the major reason I like MM4 alot is because of Pharoahman? I just think he has one of the coolest designs of any robot master to date, and his weapon is pretty cool.
His design is pretty cool. I agree. Too bad he's an pushover of an boss fight though. As well as Toad Man.
@@jaretco6423 Buster only Pharoahman can be tough sometimes, a bit luck based of how he moves. With Flash Stopper he's a laughing stock tho.
@@MilenAnessar True.
Even the Ruby Spears show knew Pharaoh Man was a badass.
Pharoah Man W 👏
Megaman 4 is my favorite for many reasons, it introduced the charge shot, Dr. Cossack as a third doctor which was a breath of fresh air from it just being Light and Wily, an extra gauntlet of fortress levels before the actual Wily Fortress. Many people might like the Megaman 2 Wily Castle theme but I’m one of the few who prefer the Dr. Cossack level themes.
Agreed!! Cossack from mm2 to 6 easily the best secondary boss and his fortress themes rock hard no pun intended
Mega Man 4 is my favourite out of the NES games and probably up there with my favourite classic games.
It keeps a nice balance where it controls well, has fun levels and good robot masters (although the RNG of most of them being influenced by distance can be exploited fairly easily. Toad Man is Toad Man, enough said. Ring Man and Skull Man have strict patterns.) Alongside that, I can find a fair use for most of the weapons in stages. I still love replaying the game to this day and I particularly like experimenting with the special weapons and boss order, sometimes finding new uses for them
J forgot to call out the biggest annoyance and nitpick of Megaman 4
*THE SLOW OBNOXIOUSLY LOUD BOSS HEALTH METER FILLING UP*
Oh yeah, I always mute my volume when I get to a boss in this game 😭
There are some romhacks that fix this.
Bruh for real. I used to think how does it get slower when the game is more advanced than the first 3? I think the energy filled up the fastest in the first game
I think the energy fills up slower in purpose, as though they thought it was cooler. It really does suck lol@@86twin
I personally don't mind it. I like how it goes with the boss theme's start.
Mega Man 4 is often cited as the downward spiral of classic era Mega Man games, but I don't think that's true. For all their faults, I still think the classics are consistently good. Maybe just MM8 is the only classic fans seem to have a black eye towards.
yeah they are tripping. 4 had the best soundtrack & was every bit as good as 3. people just didn't like the charge shot.
Charged shot was honestly a great feature.
MM4's implementation had some mild jank (which did make me use weapons a lot) but it elevated the megaman design further.
The problem is that it is lumped with 5 and 6 who added very little to the formula. All the games are good but a lot of people will still compare the entries.
@@Tenna5468i disagree. I find the charge shot frustrating
@@thomasffrench3639 i agree with that. 4 is too good & does not belong in the same conversation with 5 & 6.
I always liked MM4. A lot of casual gamers overlook it because, as you say, the games after 3 are less well known but it’s well worth playing
agreed
My biggest problem with Mega Man 4 is that the Mega Buster will only start charging if you initially press the B button when you're in a state where you can shoot. For instance, if you have your finger off of B, take a hit, then hit B when you're in your stun state you won't immediately start charging when you come out of stun. You'll have to let go of B and press it again when you want to charge up. It's a minor annoyance, but it happens often enough to make me pass over MM4 when I want to play a late-era NES Mega Man game and go with MM5 instead, which doesn't have that problem.
Perfect to me acconting for the Cossack brotherhood's sacrifice for their sister Kalinka.
Also, DustMan became iconic.
Fun fact: Dust Man, and Crystal Man in 5, were both designed by the artist of the One-Punch Man manga.
I have to credit Nico Evaluates for making me see this game for how polished and well-designed it is.
It's not perfect (having to do the second half in one sitting is a bit much), but "Mega Man 4" is a fantastic action affair from start to finish, nonetheless.
It is pretty well designed but there’s a bunch of cheap moments that bring it down
@@thomasffrench3639
I remember 1-3 having more cheap moments. I'll just leave it at that.
@@fictionalmediabully9830totally understandable. I think it depends what cheap moments bother you more when it comes to Mega Man games.
@@fictionalmediabully9830so what? He didn’t even say anything about Megaman 1-3. Why exactly would deciding the better game devolve into a pissing contest about who has the least amount of cheap moments? Especially for NES games I might add
@@Jackattack359
I just said I remember the previous games having more cheap moments. Why the pedantry?
4 is the magic number for both the original Blue Bomber and X, the peak of both series'. This was actually my first ever MM game, and it got me hooked despite the high difficulty. Definitely could have benefitted from having a checkpoint/password for the Wily Fortress, especially with how rough Wily stage 3 is. You pretty much need some E-tanks to survive it.
Historically, Mega Man has never allowed you to password skip the castles. Hell, even in Mega Man 9, a game with a proper save system, if you leave the castle to go shopping, you have to redo the entire Wily Castle from the start, which I personally hate, but that's because I hate that game's Wily 3
@@soapsatellite Indeed, it seems like a rather silly bit of tradition to cling to. But that's par for the course with MM9/10.
On the logo/title, I found myself in a compromise solution without thinking: Writing "MegaMan" like 1 word but capitalized like 2, since that's what I took away from the logos.
You aren't alone here, I also write MegaMan like that xd
I concur with a lot of peeps in the comments: MM 4 is my favorite of the Mega Man NES titles. It’s got everything: a well done fake out villain, great robot masters, awesome weapons and utilities and the music in this game might be my favorite of the whole classic series.
Mega Man 4 is so good
Despite being the installment that introduced the chargeable Mega Buster, Mega Man 4 has the best robot master weapon balance among the NES games. You can readily use 6 or 7 out of 8 weapons during the actual stages, not just against bosses. Dust and Ring are useful all-round projectiles, Dive missiles are good against platform hippos, Toad rain clears the screen, Skull shield is protection while jumping across chasms, Drills are powerful against minibosses, and Bright flashes freeze almost everything. Even Pharaoh fireballs have their uses, e.g. 2-shotting the ring monsters.
I just started playing this game again yesterday along with MM5. Out of the NES games my favorites are MM6 > MM4 > MM3 > MM5 > MM2 > MM1.
MM4's train ride ending is one of the best in the series. You really feel like you're returning home after a hard fought adventure.
Megaman 4 was my first ever mega man game... our neighbor bought a van and found a mm4 NES cartridge in it. He wasn't interested in video games so he gave it to us. Will always hold a special place in my heart
The term "Rock Buster" actually dates back to MM3's development, if MMLC is anything to go by
"New Mega Buster" is the actual name of the upgrade seen in MM4, but a lot of people misconstrued it it seems
I'm curious what you'll think of Megaman 5 as I've always had a soft spot for it.
THANK YOU. Some of the biggest content creators on UA-cam rank this at the bottom and only give it kudos for it peak OST. They claim the mega buster made the game too easy or they hate the boss designs so much that they soured on everything. I don't get that. I love this game so much and I appreciate you giving it it's proper due.
Im honestly surprised how fondly this game is seen today. When it fitst game out, it was met with lukewarm reception. Time really was kind to megaman 4 and 6 compared to before.
Back in the day people were eager to move on to new technology. Now we want to go back.
Sure has, especially on the net scape, people wrote off on those two before in favor of 2 and 3, and now you see more appreciation for 4 and 6. Gotta love it
Yeah time has been kind to this game. I can see that 4 games in a row with the same formula can get stale when you are buying a brand new game, but in retrospect people appreciate it for sticking to its guns instead of wildly changing the game
I think the context around the games has changed and that's allowed them to gain well-deserved appreciation
While not my favorite Mega Man game, Mega Man 4 is for sure my favorite of the six original NES games. I think the game just gets so much right, especially with the soundtrack, bosses, stage designs, weapons, etc.
Also, I use a space between Mega and Man, and tend to follow that format for every other character with that naming convention. My only exception is when I say "Rockman". Correct me if I'm wrong, but aside from the title logos' inconsistency with Mega Man's space, I believe the games follow this format too.
MegaMan 4 was the first game I bought with my own money when I was a kid.
Although I'd say I like MegaMan 2 ever so slightly more, this is a great game.
I love Mega Man 1, 2 and 3, but I am definitely in the camp that I feel 4 and onward definitely improved the foundation and gameplay mechanics for the Classic Series. And even to an extent series like X, Zero and ZX.
Eh, I like that Mega Man bosses have their weakness and that they actually show the boss suffering in some way because of it (after all, it wouldn't be a weakness if the boss wasn't hurt in some way). It is supposed to be a reward for experimenting. That it can be found online? The answers to any game can be found online, you aren't supposed to search prior to playing the game.
Yeah, if the player finds it too easy they still got the mega buster to make it a bit more challenging
I get what you're saying, but there's a lot of design space between a boss weakness doing nothing and a boss weakness completely trivializing the fight.
Flashman's weapon in Megaman 2 would take off half of Quickman's health for free. But you still had to fight him for the other half.
@@GeneralBolas *"and a boss weakness completely trivializing the fight."*
This is a problem how? Again, that's the reward for your experimentation. If you want a challenge you could simply not use the weakness, is that simple.
@@toumabyakuya Because it makes the fight trivial and thoughtless.
The first time you do it, it feels nice. But in your 20th run, it makes the fight a pathetic chore.
Halving Quickman's health definitely helps. That's your reward. But you still have to demonstrate competency to finish the fight. Thus, fighting him with his weakness is still a fight even if it is clearly easier.
There's a lot of room between hard and easy. Boss weaknesses should not make the fight go from hard to easy.
Except for Metalman, because it's funny that his weapon is so OP that he is his own weakness. Also, it makes his fight take 2 seconds, unlike many boss weaknesses which trivialize the fight but still make it 10-20 seconds even though you have the bosskiller weapon and they're no threat to you.
@@GeneralBolas *"Because it makes the fight trivial and thoughtless."*
Then you could simply just not use their weakness. Again, you have options. What this argument amounts to is to basically take away the options *for everybody* simply because *you* do not want to have said option. That's a bit self-centered, wouldn't you agree?.
*"The first time you do it, it feels nice. But in your 20th run, it makes the fight a pathetic chore."*
Then just use the buster and nothing else.
*"But you still have to demonstrate competency to finish the fight."*
That's not a good reward. A good reward is the Boss dying to their weakness.
I would love to know people who have vivid memories playing these classic Mega Man games as kids. I sure don't but I just remember constantly giving up the controller to my brother's if I lost a life.
Despite not remembering 1-7 clearly, I still feel like they honed my want for challenging games & increased my tolerance.
Enjoyed the video & have a nice day everyone! (Did you catch the joke. I did the thing)
i played 4 obsessively & its the only Mega Man I can for sure beat from start to finish. very vivid memories of this one. i've beat this game on my real youtube channel (not this one) like 20 times.
While Mega Man 4 is my least played of the NES games, it's definitely still a great time! I still remember accidentally running into the Balloon and Wire the first time and thinking the secrets were fun. Next time is my personal favorite of the six, so I'm excited to see where you land on it.
And "Mega Man" is the answer.
Megaman 4 is a great entry in the original Megaman series i would not say its my favorite in the series or anything but i still love it.
Fun fact for the Boss character contest Capcom held for this game. One of the winning robot masters of this contest Dust man was made by Yusuke Murata who later on would be known as the illustrator for the One Punch Man series.
Same guy also did crystal man as well (he's also the mangaka behind eyeshield 21)
You gotta start somewhere. The guys a perfectionist if you read his notes.
Love this game. It has probably one of my favorite assortment of weapons. The Pharoah Shot is everything the Metal Blade should've been. Fantastic review as always, J. Looking forward to see where you stand on 5 NES.
I write "Mega Man" when referring to Classic Era/Rock but "Megaman" when referring to Battle Network and Starforce/Hub and Geo. As for the actual titles...I tend to switch it up on a whim.
My favourite from nes era is definitely megaman 6 especially its music but mm4 by far has the best balance between megaman's skills and boss weapons and that is this game's biggest strength BALANCE.
MM4 was my very first MM game i ever played. Even to this day is still get skull mans theme stuck in my head love this game.
I think my only issue with MM4 is the slow health bar charging cutscene during the boss fights. I actually enjoy the Wily Castle stages a lot. The first one is the ultimate Met level (the shell enemies), and the music is one of the best of the NES era.
Mega Man 4 is my personal favorite, despite the endgame being more of a casual romp than the main eight levels were.
Having recently replayed both Legacy Collections, 4 was one of those games I enjoyed the most in the first LC. It's where I could tell they started having an actual direction for the franchise instead of just making a single game and hoping that one doesn't flop (the 1st game was lucky to be given a second chance in the first place, 2's gigantic success was unexpected and thus 3 suffered from "oh shoot we have to follow up on THAT now?!" syndrome imo). The presentation is a noticeable step up, and while the story kinda ends anticlimactically, it felt like a genuine effort to avoid the "same old" syndrome, by giving the illusion of replacing the big bad at first.
And when it came to the game itself, it was one of the ones I felt the least frustrated playing; if I lost a live it often felt moreso my fault than the game's (bar that one jump for the E-tank in Skull Man's stage), as the level design felt tough but fair. I daresay it was the Mega Man game in the classic series that I enjoyed the most, as even 5 and 6 still had their share of BS at times despite being just as solid.
I'd say it's my top favorite of the first Legacy Collection, followed by 2 and 5, and 6 not too far behind those. 1 is a game I could probably re-enjoy for the sheer novelty of old, so that leaves 3 in a... unfavorable position there.
If there’s one thing I don’t like about Mega Man 4, is the standard boss theme, good god it’s annoying
Mega Man 4 is my second favorite NES Mega Man and second most played, and I did not know about that E Tank at the start of the first Cossack stage. I look forward to your video on my favorite, Mega Man 5.
7 year old me loved the hell out of this game. It had everything from adrenaline inducing music to the hearty ones that hit you in the feels, all while traversing in an exciting journey through different environments sometimes in the deep and other times high in the sky. It was the adventure. The box and the manual promised heart thumping jumping and sliding into action with a cherry on top (Mega Buster), and it did indeed deliver. Mega Man 4 was my favourite and only title in the series but it also had a soul, and therefore will always be with me both physical and in spirit.
I never minded the weaknesses putting some bosses into a loop. They are robots after all. It makes sense to me that some of them would have their inner CPUs fried and force them to execute an action.
Mega Man 4 is probably the most forgettable in my opinion out of the NES classics, though I will say Mega Man The Sequel Wars really helped change that perception to me. It's a fangame that is recreating Mega Man 4, 5, and 6 in The Wily Wars style with updated music and added playable characters, with MM4 being out and MM5 being on the verge of release. Hope you end up checking that out at some point.
Hello adult male that still plays pokemon, how much cringe are you going to serve us today ?
5 is the most forgettable
MM5 never impressed me. It was just "meh, ok". I'll play it on The Sequel Wars, but the one I'm really looking forward to is MM6 on there. In MM4-6, it's always been MM4 and MM6 that I've liked the most.
I like how everyone just ignored the troll who replied first lol
That was the first I've seen Rush Jet used in Bright Man's stage. Genius.
4 is my favourite Mega Man game, not just the classic series, but probably the entire extended series of spinoffs as well
I've personally referred to the arm weapon as the Buster in MM1-3 and the Mega-Buster in MM4 onwards.
Mega man 4 was my first MM game so I have the nostalgia attachment when I first played it in late 92’ and also objectively I feel it’s better than the predecessors in terms of gameplay I need my slide and mega buster lol
12:24 Oh damn, did not know about that hidden E-Tank. Thanks J!
Seeing Drill Man again after such a long time made me remember alot.
I used to draw Drill Man and Crash Man together back in 2008 becaude I like their designs.
And specially because Drill Man sorta looks like he transforms. And I also remember that B-DaMan Drill Dog upgrade because I knew of them at the same time, except I still don't know the name of that Drill Dog.
I’m not certain, but I think Mega Man 4 might be the first video game I ever played. At least one of em. So it holds a very special place in my heart.
The amount of times I’ve used the Flash Stopper is uncanny. Love that weapon🙂
Weird we give 1-3 credit for "evolving" classic Mega Man, with 3 giving us a whoopie doop slide, but completely gloss over the charged shot in 4 that has become a series staple and influenced other games.
Mega Man 4 is my most favorite of the NES games.
While the 7th Entry is my most favorite of the Classic Series.
I appreciate these reviews a lot. It's nice to see my favorite game franchise to NES being reviewed by somewhat fresh eyes and gain that perspective.
Now, Mega Man 4 for me is... it actually is a bit uninspired and forgettable. I see people doing lists where they try to work out the quality of the game as something quantifiable, that if a game has "THIS and also THAT and then you add THIS then the sum of all parts is THIS MUCH" but it doesn't really work like that. I played 2, 3 and 4 back-to-back earlier this year and my impressions and complaints about Mega Man 4 are as follows:
- If you play Mega Man 4 directly after Mega Man 3, the music has zero impact. Certain stages I even found to sound annoying.
- There is no need for Wire and Balloon and they don't add anything to the game since you already have Rush Coil that takes care of movement in the vertical direction. In fact, everything I can reach with Wire I can also reach with just Rush Coil. Which is okay to a certain degree because they are optional items, but it really makes me lose interest in picking them up on future runs. Wire still looks awesome. I wish Mega Man had Wire as default item instead of Rush Coil.
- The weapons and the levels don't interact with each other that much. Mega Man 2 will always be the champion in this regard where every stage has thought this through thoroughly. In Mega Man 4 you are not gonna find immediate obvious uses for every weapon and even when you do, it doesn't change that much. I played Mega Man 4 twice because I found out about the resurgence of 4s popularity worthy of inspection and I even followed some redditors advice on how to best utilize the weapons, but it didn't change the game that much. One route suggested I would spam Bright Man weapon on Pharoah man to get across the sand faster, but it ended up with me having to take time to fill up the weapon again before the boss fight and I didn't win that much time by doing so. I think the exception of this though is Drill Man stage where you can use a lot of different weapons in so many ways to help you speed through it completely.
- About the level design in general... it's not bad at all in 4 but in 2 the levels are so thought out about weapon usage and in 3 the levels are fun cuz they really lean into both the slide and attacking the player with multitude of enemies.... explaining why 3s levels are awesome is really hard - best short explanation I can give is that they all inspire high activity from the player. Otherwise 3 is worse than 4 on the department of weapon usage for levels.
- Shadow Man stage already did the Bright Man stage gimmick. I noticed it much faster cuz I was playing the games back-to-back and I think both Shadow Man stages did it better, especially the second one cuz certain lamps you have to use Magnet Missile to reach.
- I think the weapons are really cool in Mega Man 4 - but they are all either nerfs or buffs of older weapons. This adds to 4s general felling of "meh". Again, I was playing the games back-to-back. And I can never get over how "perfect" all the weapons in 2 are...
- I remember liking Dr Cossacks stages a lot, but on replay I didn't find them as amazing as I once did in the past and it bummed me out. Cossack Stages are better themed and more interesting than the Wily levels. They should've gone all the way in with making all the last stages take place in Cossack's castle for more flavor.
- Both 3 and 4 have very lackluster Dr Wily stages tbh. But with 3 the music does some lifting to set the right tone for the final levels. In 4 the Wily Stages has a more happy sound, as if you are supposed to be happy to see your old archvillain... which maybe is what they intended. But my favorite Wily Stages are from 2. They are dark, dirty, scary and it genuinely feels like you are entering a dreadful place where mechanical nightmares live. It felt so final. In 4 the tone of the stages is like they know Wily is gonna get the Team Rocket treatment ("looks like we are blasting off AGAIN!") in all the sequels later.
- I don't think the charge shot is fun to use. It is much more fun to be pressing B like a maniac to shoot many pellets. It creates more endorphin for me. The charge shot works for me in Mega Man X, but not in 4. I think it is because often when you charge the charge shot in X you are also climbing the walls, jumping and sliding like a maniac in order to avoid stuff from big bosses. You don't move around as much in 4 as you do in X. Therefore, in 4 it feels like they took something from me rather than adding something
- Robot Master patterns and how well it meshes with their weaknesses... is a mixed bag. Like using Toad Man on Bright Man... is actually a bad idea imo. Even if it is his weakness the weapon is so slow that it leaves me open for more time freezes than if I just use the P-shooter and spam him. Drill Man has this thing where he can deflect Dive Missiles sometimes even if is weakness. Skull Barrier is a weird weakness for Dive Man cuz it is his bodyslams that deal the most damage and making you get close to him puts you at risk. There's more, but think of the bosses in Mega Man 2 and how they kinda fell in perfect line with their weakness-weapons. It doesn't just feel like you are dealing extra damage on them. It feels like you are using the best methods to hit them. Exception is ofc if you wanna try crash bomb on Quick Man (though he does run against the walls a lot, leaving him open) but you can use Flash Man on him too...
I can totally respect people liking 4 more, but at the time they are making 4 it's very clear they have found a formula. Like 2 turned out amazing because it was a passion project, 3 became a (somewhat flawed) diamond because they were under huge pressure to beat 2 and 4... feels like it was made in a lab. Like carefully tested and under supervision and like they now know what people like about Mega Man, so let's focus on those things. And then they continued this approach in 5 and 6... and that's kinda why it felt like the death by too many sequels. Because it wasn't about too many Mega Man games, it was about the staleness.
Okay, I wrote an essay and it's late. I'm going to bed. I love that you all in the comment section that love Mega Man 4 so much and don't let my opinions deter you from liking the games you like. We are all different and I just wanted to offer my 2 cents. Goodnight
I definitely like the Cossack-Wily twist. It did a good job at fooling the player that Wily wasn't the villain for once. Plus plot-wise it allowed Wily to force someone else to do his dirty work since his own attempts had failed.
Mega Man 4 is my favorite of the series and I especially like the box art. I actually printed this and have it on my wall.
MM4's pre-title intro absolutely blew my mind when it came out, I'd never seen anything like it before.
4:22 I've gotten to the point in my life where I refer to the character and mainline games as "Mega Man" but reference the spin-off series as "Megaman X", "Megaman Zero", "Megaman Z/X", "Megaman Legends", "Megaman Battle Network", and Megaman Star Force". I know that's not 100% accurate or w/e, it's just what I find most natural for me and have decided to do. At the end of the day, we all know what we're all talking about, even if we're choosing to use slightly different spellings from one another, so even if one formatting rubs some of us the wrong way, we should be able to take a deep breath and let it go, because it's all basically the same anyway.
I've always loved 4 and 5 the most, even as a kid.
4:27 I spell Megaman, because I'm following the original which is Rockman, which is written together and not separated
I’m a new mega man fan and I got into the series thanks to you. Mega man 4 is currently in my top 3 mega man games (probably number 1) along with X4 and 9 (haven’t finished the entire series).
It was the final of the nes era of games that I played and I wasn’t expecting much but I loved it. There wasn’t anything that I disliked and I loved the music especially the final boss theme.
for a newcomer to the franchise, you've got great taste. 4 & X4 are the best of both their respective series imo, but thats not a popular opinion. they have the best music too. thats also an unpopular opinion, even though its probably true. 9 is great.
You aren’t joking when you said you aren’t going to make this video any sooner! But it was worth waiting.
Street Fighter 6 had a vote for your favorite Mega Man game thing; Mega Man 4 is my favorite
The manga shows that the Cossack robots had other jobs before fighting Mega Man
I am a graphic designer and I heavily enjoyed the logo segment and it is actually quite interesting. I personally prefer the split of Mega and Man instead of the words being conjoined. By far the X series has the best logos in my opinion.
I enjoy 4 because of its difficulty, design, polish and the tools it provides you to make said difficult experience much easier. It’s also why I enjoy 9 so much. 4 and 9 have some of the best robot master weapons in the classic series yet are arguably the most difficult games (aside from 1) in the classic series. If you use the weapons the game provides it makes for a much easier experience by design.
4:27 - I prefer "Mega Man" as two words - like "Game Boy" is (but so many people mess that up when it should be so obvious)! Also, "Bomberman" is one word and "Spider-Man" is hyphenated, and I'm constantly correcting people on these.
I originally skipped this game out of frustration when I first tried to beat the og 6 games back to back many years ago, but the praises this video and the rest of the comments gave inspired me to go back and give this game another fair shot. I ended up really enjoying this game and while I thought some of the bosses were brutally unfair, the level design was a lot better than I remembered. Thanks for getting me back into classic Megaman. I've got 6 more games in the series to conquer.
I had MegaMan 1, 2, 4 and 6 as a kid. Born in 1999 and had the privilege to grow up owning an NES, N64, GameCube, and a Wii, so I got to play a *ton* of amazing games. MegaMan 2 and 6 were my favorites of the classic titles and the only ones I beat as a child. I to this day find 4 to have the hardest of the regular Robot Master stages if we disregard some of the questionable designs in Megaman 1.
Hell Yeah! Another J Reviews Mega Man video! Can't wait to see when he'll review Legends, now let's see how Megaman 4 fairs!
This is the 2nd weakest of the NES MM games for me, but it really is a fantastic looking game. Looking forward to your reviews of 5 and 6 - two games I feel are often unfairly criticized.
While 4 may not be my favorite, there are some things about it that I find that make it decent at best for me, and I can consider to be part of the good NES lineup.
A lot of my concerns with 4 were very well addressed and demonstrated already. In addition, I also have little nitpicks about it being harder to jump after a slide and a sort of “pause glitch” where you can reserve the charge of your Buster by switching weapons.
In terms of personal preferences, I like an endgame with a single set of solid castle stages that have an impact on the story while not being too time consuming at the same time. The concept of revealing Wily as the true villain in classic Mega Man is fine with me, but I feel that the twist villain reveals were best executed in games like Mega Man 10 or Unlimited.
I think the twist villain works in 4, but not the rest of the entries
@@thomasffrench3639That is a fair point. I do think that it does decent in this game, especially in the Archie comics version that would’ve built up to it! 5 is just Wily getting revenge on Protoman by framing him. Then 6 could’ve used some more polish for it to have worked.
MegaMan 4 might not be my favorite but that's only because it's my second favorite! And objectively I think it's the most polished out of the 6, even more than 6 and 5 in a sense. Like I really think this is the closest to perfection out of the nes games while also reaching some highs. Only reason why is not my favorite is because I like the soundtrack of 2, 3 and 5 more and I love how final megaman 6 feels.
Kinda wasn't excepting the longer boss health bar fill-ups not being mentioned here.
I thank Mega Man IV for introducing me to the wonderful concept of "charged attack". After playing MMIV, I always try holding the attack button on every action games to see if the character has more powerful and awesome moves.
Things were too different back then.
When I played this at 7 years old, I thought it was awesome to have two final castles.
When I played 3 at 9 years old, I thought it was awesome to have more robot masters to kill.
Back then, you really wanted to play more of something you liked because developers put those things there as a treat.
Nowadays more content means padding so developers can boast longer playtimes, more chances for us to engage in microtransactions and such.
So, that's how it was more than 30 years ago.
Longer games meant more fun.
10:38 skull man actually doesn’t do anything if you dont press any buttons. If you press left or right he will fire 3 bullets. If you press B he will jump towards you pull up his shield for a random amount of time and then run at you. He wont do the same thing 3 times in a row. Finally if you charge the buster preemptively before entering the boss door you can fire it at him for free damage since he dosent react to releasing the B button. (You can do the same thing with pharoh shot but hes immune to it)
I personally feel like Mega Man 4 was the best of the classic series. It didn't feel rushed like 3 and didn't have the design issues I wasn't fond of in 2. It also still has some bite to it, which I feel were lost in its successors.
I don't think the Mega Buster fundamentally obviated other special weapons. Case in point, I would put 4 as one of the strongest special weapons sets in the series, with the Pharaoh Shot being my choice for series best and most of the others having at least very solid use cases. But I think if there are design issues with the special weapons and gameplay, then the Mega Buster CAN be overcentralizing. I think this was a much worse problem in the X series, where I honestly feel like most of the special weapons are afterthoughts and only the first game had a solid set. But it was also a problem in Mega Man 5...I'll talk more about that later.
I'm not gonna give high praise to the story, but at least there was story IN the game this time. In fact there was more actual story in game than there was in the first three combined. It's not gripping story, but none of the NES Mega Man games have that, so whatever.
You can use wire on that second to last boss a lot of people don't seem to know that
Mega man 5 is one of my favorites I hope he likes it
5 is cool but the fact that enemies have I frames ruins the game imo
Same
I’ve always enjoyed Mega Man 4 more than I did Mega Man 3. Such a fun game where it felt like they were getting the formula down right
I always wished they did a little more with the story in MM 4-6 than Dr. Wily is totally not the bad guy this time. He could've been hinted at before reappearing in MM6. Tbf they probably didn't expect to make 3 more FC/NES entries.
MM4 had the best set of Robot Master weapons (or at least tied with MM9).
MM4 seems to have fixed a lot of issues with MM2 (particularly with weapons being unbalanced):
- Flash Stopper is a much better Time Stopper
- Pharaoh Shot is a much better Atomic Fire with enough utility from Metal Blade to make it perhaps the second best weapon in the series (it's not totally broken like Metal Blade)
- Ring Boomerang is Quick Boomerang + piercing
- Drill Bomb is better than Crash Bomber in many ways (cheaper), but doesn't seem as powerful
Skull Barrier, while being the worst weapon in MM4, does one thing better than Leaf Shield: you can actually move while it's activated. Leaf Shield is way more resilient when standing still, though.
6:27 to be fair, the screen scrolled slowly enough that you had plenty of time to react to that, unlike Mega Man 1 through 3, 5, 7 and later.
2:58 that's because everything was about "attitude" during that time. That's why sonic looks like a smartass. I guess having one eyebrow higher or lower than the other conveys attitude 😂
Fantastic review. It's really cool to see how Mega Man and Capcom improved over the years.
Side Note: The No-Intro Database made me realize how inconsistent Mega Man is with it's one word/two words name structure. One day I used GBxCart (cartridge dumper) to transfer my save file to my computer. It uses No-Intro's name scheme, so I was shocked when it changed from two words: "Mega Man Battle Network" to one word "Megaman Battle Network". It's weird because the end credits and even the official website and eShops will spell it two words: "Mega Man Battle Network", but the logo is clearly one word: "Megaman Battle Network". My guess is No-Intro went with the logo as that's the most visible and rawest of official sources: what's on the Title Screen, Cartridge Label, Boxart, etc?
Mega Man 4 was my third favorite game in the NES. Right after MM2 in second place, and the GOAT MM3 in first.
In the Mega Man games I and II on the GAme Boy, and 1 and 3 on DOS, his pre-Buster default weapon was called the "Plasma"
I loved the music in Megaman 4 so much, both the original NES music, as well as the updated version in the Rockman 4 Complete Works edition on the Japanese PS1 as well.
I can't recall if Megaman 6 or X was one of the first Megaman games I played, but have been hooked ever since. :P
4 is an absolute joy to play
by far my favorite title, it is generally not a popular opinion, but everything was there, the music, the slide, the mega buster, explosive missile weapons (my favorites) and the usual arsenal (time stopper, shield, ice ,fire, etc.... MM2 will always hold a special place in my heart cause its the very first title that I played and it was an instant classic for me, but the athmosphere and music in MM4 was definitely unique
In one of _only _*_Two_*_ Game Theory_ episodes, the important thing that happens in _Mega Man 4_ is that we see Dr. Wily achieve a new level of *growth* ;
In eps. 1, 2, and 3, Wily ASSUMES he is going to be victorious as 'the greatest robot designer in the world'. In 4, he plans a *contingency* in the event "the Metal Meddler* thwarts his 4th attempt at world domination.
What I love about the US Mega Man 4 logo is the fact that, with the text being blue, the number 4 is blue as well. And I associate number 4 with color blue so it's simply satisfying.
Note: I really dislike the color orange used on all numbers on the Japanese logo and also wonder why don't they change the color much between entries, would've helped to distinguish 'em more as the boxarts and cartridges already came in different colors anyways.
While 3 is my personal favorite, 4 I believe is the "best balanced" classic Mega Man in that thanks to the Charge Shot being good but not overtuned, all bosses are equally valid first stages to tackle and all Robot Master weapons are useful in general cases in stages and not just in boss fights (or useless in general). This is the game fan projects should look to for an example of weapons design and balance. MM5 has only two or three weapons even worth considering using SOMETIMES and MM6 has the Jet and Power adapters basically render the entire boss weapon system irrelevant.
I'm also reminded of a review of MegaMan Network Transmission. "This is only the worst parts of the Classic, X, and Network series slapped together. It's still a 7/10 game because even bad Mega Man is still a good game." No matter how much I nitpick any of my favorite Mega Mans, the series is Rockman solid.
I think this is one of the more underrated Megamans
You didn't bring up the one other issue people have with the megabuster, its sound effect being obnoxiously loud. You're encouraged to run around with a full charge all the time, but that also means the background music is drowned out by the constant WEE-WEE-WEE. The two next games would fix this and also make the megabuster two tiles high so it could hit things easier.
I like these mega man reviews as a mega man fan, also fun fact, you can glitch your way during the auto scroller sections by using the wire on a platform then wait for the screen to push you from it, and one in if you use toad man's weapon after beating the wily machine you kill wily but you'll soft lock