Mega Man is one of gamings oldest and most prolific of franchises with a slew of games for generations of varying consoles and handhelds. Over the course of the 20+ years Mega Man has been in the business, he has surely shared his triumphs as well as his tribulations. Mega Man had a glorious run on the NES for six classic titles. He had a new revamped look on the SNES and made a string of successful games there, and has sort of transformed over the years with various spinoffs until it finally returned to the basics (and its best) of forms in a decade with Mega Man 9 and Mega Man 10. With the original 8-bit Mega Man and the awesome retroness of Mega Man 10 bookending the franchise (for now), there was and still is an entire 3D era of gaming so prevelent in the industry. There was indeed a few 3D games in the Mega Man franchise, and like I said - this series had its ups and downs - and Mega Man 64, was a downer.

     It was basically a port of the Playstation game Mega Man Legends, but Mega Man 64 was released in 2001, a whole three years after Legends for PS1. It just seems odd that Nintendo would release this game, not only so late in the life cycle of the N64, but in the midst of the new era of the Playstation 2 and the newer, cutting edge systems. With the release of such a archaic game like Mega Man 64, it certainly made the N64 seem stodgy - until Paper Mario came out a month later in 2001, becoming of the systems last games, but also one of its best, but I digress.

     Mega Man 64 apparently, from what I've read, has some better visuals than Mega Man Legends, so with that being said, I would not want to see what Legends looks like, as the graphics in Mega Man 64 are blurry at best. Screenshots of this game make it look enticing, but the reality is this game looks bad, and its more shameful considering how late in the N64 life cycle this was released.

     For many games out there, you can overcome some poor visuals if the gameplay itself is strong, and that is another disappointing area. The gameplay is simply unforgettable and boring, and the controls are weak. What's worse is the pacing of the game - it's slow and sluggish. It boasts some RPG elements and dialogue sequences, but they drag down the experience greatly, making the game more of a chore to play than it is. I think if these parts of the games were either shortened or dropped all together, you might have a passable, mediocre, and even playable game here; ultimately though, the game suffers from its terrible pacing. I feel like when I was playing this game, I invested so much time to get from what seemed to be Point A to Point B, but it felt as if nothing was accomplished! I kept thinking, "what's the hold up!" I wanted the game to move along, and it just took what felt like forever.

     If you can look past many of the broken elements of this game, you might actually enjoy it - somewhat. It's not the worst game in the world, but it is pretty forgettable. Mega Man 64 is in one word - disappointment. The Mega Man franchise deserved a better treatment when it came to the Nintendo 64, or for any 3D system at the time for that matter. This game did not provide the fun and wholly enjoyable experience its 2D predecessors had provided for so many years prior. The best way to solve your Mega Man 64 woes are to go back and play some of the classic NES and SNES Mega Man games.

-Kurt L.

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