Mega Man 6
Encyclopedia
Mega Man 6, known in Japan as , is a video game developed by Capcom
for the Nintendo Entertainment System
(NES). It is the sixth installment in the original Mega Man series and was originally released in Japan
on October 5, 1993 and in North America
the following March. It was included in the Mega Man Anniversary Collection
released in 2004. As of 2011, it has never been released in the PAL region
.
The story of Mega Man 6 opens during a competitive robot fighting tournament with entrants from all around the globe. A villainous figure known as "Mr. X" announces he has reprogrammed the eight powerful contestants with intent to use them for taking over the world. The game's robotic protagonist Mega Man
, who was sent to oversee the tournament, springs into action to foil X's plot. A standard action-platformer, Mega Man 6 plays nearly identically to its five predecessors with a few added features such as stages with alternate pathways and new Rush adaptors.
Mega Man 6 is the first game in the series to receive character design input from fans outside of Japan. This late-era game was also the last in the series released on Nintendo's 8-bit console. Due to the declining support of the NES and the growing presence of the newer and more powerful Super Nintendo Entertainment System
(SNES), Capcom decided not to publish Mega Man 6 in North America. The North American version of Mega Man 6 was released by Nintendo of America
instead. Critical reviews favored the game's comparable presentation and use of the established gameplay model from preceding chapters in the series, though nearly all judged it a redundant sequel.
. The first annual "Robot Masters Tournament" is held in order to test the designing capabilities of the world's greatest robotics engineers. The tournament is hosted by a man known only as "Mr. X" and many strong Robot Masters participate. Dr. Light, a pacifist
, decides not to enter the competition, but sends the robotic hero Mega Man
to supervise it. Near the end of the event, Mr. X announces that he has reprogrammed the eight finalist robots to do his bidding in taking over the world: Blizzard Man, Wind Man, Flame Man, Plant Man, Tomahawk Man, Yamato Man, Knight Man, and Centaur Man. Dr. Light immediately orders Mega Man to put an end to Mr. X's plan. Mega Man destroys the eight Robot Masters, then makes his way to Mr. X's fortress. The villain is beaten and quickly removes his disguise, revealing himself as none other than Dr. Wily, Mega Man's arch nemesis. The evil scientist flees to a new fortress stronghold where Mega Man pursues and defeats him again. The game ends with Dr. Wily finally brought to justice and sent to prison
.
platform
stages littered with smaller robot enemies and occasional larger mini-bosses. The player's primary method of attack is the "Mega Buster" cannon, which can be charged for more powerful shots. At the end of each of the initial eight stages is a boss battle, where the player inherits that Robot Master's unique "Master Weapon" if successful. These eight levels can be completed in any order, although all Robot Masters are weak to a specific Master Weapon, adding an element of strategy to the order chosen by the player. The player's health is represented by a gauge that can be refilled by picking up energy pellets. Extra lives, reserve energy tanks, and pellets that refill Master Weapon power can also be found throughout each level. Mega Man 6 introduces the "Energy Balancer", which automatically refills the weapon with the lowest energy when picking up Master Weapon power.
Previous Mega Man games typically allowed the player to call on the transformable dog Rush or use other support items in order to traverse difficult or otherwise inaccessible parts of a stage. Mega Man 6 instead features a pair of "Rush Adaptors" that fuse Mega Man and Rush into special forms. The first, "Jet Mega Man", lets the player fly upward or hover for a brief period of time, but prevents the use of charge shots. The second, "Power Mega Man", utilizes a powerful, short-range punch attack for destroying large blocks. The player cannot slide when using either adapter. Mega Man 6 also presents less linear ways to complete the stages than in previous entries in the series. There are two pathways in many of the stages that lead to boss rooms, but the player is often required to use one of the Rush adaptors to begin an alternate route. Although either one will clear the stage, only one of them will give the player a letter circuit board for assembling the helper bird Beat. Collecting all four parts will allow the player to call on Beat to attack enemies.
for Nintendo's newer console, the SNES
. Series artist Keiji Inafune
stated that having a video game franchise with six titles is very rare, and one of the advantages to this is that players expect certain aspects of each game to be repeated in the next. After having implemented so many different mechanics to the gameplay of past entries, Inafune thought that Rush adaptor assembly was inevitable. The artist struggled with the adaptor designs and ultimately found them to be unrealistic. According to Inafune, "If you think about it, they shouldn't be able to combine like this. It would be awkward if parts of Rush like his neck were left over after they combined, so what was I supposed to do?"
The Robot Masters featured in some of the previous Mega Man games were the result of design contests held in Japan, in which fans of the series would submit their character ideas to Capcom. Keeping with the tradition, Japan held a design contest for Mega Man 6. After the release of Mega Man 5, the magazine Nintendo Power
held a similar contest in North America. Only eight out of the more than 200,000 worldwide character submissions for Mega Man 6 were accepted for the game. Six of the Robot Masters were designed by Japanese fans, while the remaining two (Knight Man and Wind Man) were designed by North American fans who entered the Nintendo Power contest. Inafune admitted that it was stressful when the last characters being designed for the game were not meeting with the development team's schedule. He concluded, "For having hit a lot of roadblocks, I feel like we got a lot done for 6. The theme for our designs was 'The world is our stage,' and I really enjoyed bringing what I felt was the unique flavor of different countries into the game." Yuko Takehara composed the musical score for Mega Man 6. Takehara collaborated with several other composers for the follow-up Mega Man 7
in 1995.
Mega Man 6 is the last title in the franchise to be released on the 8-bit NES. A few months after the publication of Mega Man 5, Capcom announced the sixth installment in the original series, as well as Mega Man Soccer
and Mega Man X for the SNES. Capcom chose not to publish the game outside Japan. Instead, Nintendo of America published it in March 1994. Such a late release on the aging NES ensured its relative commercial obscurity among concurrent releases. Before the NES era in North America was about to end, Nintendo of America made a plan to help sell it along with Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II
and the NES version of Wario's Woods
, which were also published by Nintendo in North America during the same time. Their plan was to release the top-loading NES-101 for a retail price of $49.99 to attract consumers to buying the updated version of the original NES along with one or more new titles for the console, including Mega Man 6.The game was also showcased alongside Mega Man X at the 1994 Winter Consumer Electronics Show
in Las Vegas
. Mega Man 6 was re-released for the PlayStation in 1999 as part of the Rockman Complete Works
series exclusive to Japan. This version of the game features a number of extras including remixed music, artwork galleries, and a "navi mode" to help guide players. A port
of the Complete Works edition was released on the North American-exclusive Mega Man Anniversary Collection
for the PlayStation 2
and Nintendo GameCube
in 2004 and Xbox
in 2005. Mega Man 6 was released on Japanese mobile phone
s via the i-mode
service in 2007.
was impressed with some of the newer enemies and larger mid-stage bosses, but was displeased with the game's recycling of Master Weapons seen in previous Mega Man games. Overall, the magazine described the graphics, audio, and level design in Mega Man 6 as standard fare for the franchise and called the game a "rock of reliable NES fun" in a series that is as "predictable as the tide". Destructoid
editor Tony Ponce considered Mega Man 6 the best game in the entire series. He argued that the game "was retro
before retro was cool" due to Capcom's decision to develop it as a higher profile game on the NES during the era of fourth generation consoles
. He also expressed appreciation for its music, introductions for each Robot Master, and the use of branching pathways in each level, among many other reasons. Nintendo Power listed Mega Man 6 as the best NES game of 1993, stating, "His sixth NES adventure, in which he uses two new, Special Power-Ups, might just be his best". Kaes Delgrego of Joystiq
called Mega Man 6 the fourth-best game in the franchise because of its implementation of the Rush adaptors, the Energy Balancer, multiple pathways, and the challenge present in the final levels. Craig Skistimas of ScrewAttack
also appreciated these innovations and regretted missing out on the game when it was first released.
Mega Man 6 was nearly universally criticized for lacking originality, particularly with regard to its plot. GameSpot
editors Christian Nutt and Justin Speer labeled Mega Man 6 the "cheesiest" among the NES titles: "If you're looking for mega-laughs, you might want to try this one out." 1UP.com
contributors likewise found that the game's "inane" storyline and villains both insult fans of the series and outweigh the game's good soundtrack and interesting power-ups. The four members of the Electronic Gaming Monthly
review panel all voiced similar opinions regarding the game's familiar 8-bit presentation and its addition to the already repetitive nature of the series. One reviewer commented, "OK, Mega Man was fun and original back in the days when the letters 'N E S' meant something. Now the game is just getting redundant. Oh sure, Mega Man may learn a few new tricks here and there but this series has to end soon."
Capcom
is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...
for the Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
(NES). It is the sixth installment in the original Mega Man series and was originally released in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
on October 5, 1993 and in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
the following March. It was included in the Mega Man Anniversary Collection
Mega Man Anniversary Collection
Mega Man Anniversary Collection a compilation of video games developed by Atomic Planet Entertainment and published by Capcom. It was released exclusively in North America on June 23, 2004 for the Nintendo GameCube and Sony PlayStation 2 and on March 15, 2005 for the Microsoft Xbox...
released in 2004. As of 2011, it has never been released in the PAL region
PAL region
The PAL region is a television publication territory which covers most of Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and most of Western Europe...
.
The story of Mega Man 6 opens during a competitive robot fighting tournament with entrants from all around the globe. A villainous figure known as "Mr. X" announces he has reprogrammed the eight powerful contestants with intent to use them for taking over the world. The game's robotic protagonist Mega Man
Mega Man (character)
Mega Man, known as in Japan, is a cybernetic video game character, and the main protagonist of what has been referred to as the original Mega Man series developed by Capcom since 1987. The pixel art for the character was created by the designer of the original game in the series, credited under...
, who was sent to oversee the tournament, springs into action to foil X's plot. A standard action-platformer, Mega Man 6 plays nearly identically to its five predecessors with a few added features such as stages with alternate pathways and new Rush adaptors.
Mega Man 6 is the first game in the series to receive character design input from fans outside of Japan. This late-era game was also the last in the series released on Nintendo's 8-bit console. Due to the declining support of the NES and the growing presence of the newer and more powerful Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
(SNES), Capcom decided not to publish Mega Man 6 in North America. The North American version of Mega Man 6 was released by Nintendo of America
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
instead. Critical reviews favored the game's comparable presentation and use of the established gameplay model from preceding chapters in the series, though nearly all judged it a redundant sequel.
Plot
Mega Man 6s story takes place after the events of Mega Man 5Mega Man 5
Mega Man 5, known as in Japan, is a video game developed by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System . It is the fifth game in the original Mega Man series and was originally released in Japan on December 4, 1992. It saw a release during the same month in North America and in 1993 in...
. The first annual "Robot Masters Tournament" is held in order to test the designing capabilities of the world's greatest robotics engineers. The tournament is hosted by a man known only as "Mr. X" and many strong Robot Masters participate. Dr. Light, a pacifist
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
, decides not to enter the competition, but sends the robotic hero Mega Man
Mega Man (character)
Mega Man, known as in Japan, is a cybernetic video game character, and the main protagonist of what has been referred to as the original Mega Man series developed by Capcom since 1987. The pixel art for the character was created by the designer of the original game in the series, credited under...
to supervise it. Near the end of the event, Mr. X announces that he has reprogrammed the eight finalist robots to do his bidding in taking over the world: Blizzard Man, Wind Man, Flame Man, Plant Man, Tomahawk Man, Yamato Man, Knight Man, and Centaur Man. Dr. Light immediately orders Mega Man to put an end to Mr. X's plan. Mega Man destroys the eight Robot Masters, then makes his way to Mr. X's fortress. The villain is beaten and quickly removes his disguise, revealing himself as none other than Dr. Wily, Mega Man's arch nemesis. The evil scientist flees to a new fortress stronghold where Mega Man pursues and defeats him again. The game ends with Dr. Wily finally brought to justice and sent to prison
Incarceration
Incarceration is the detention of a person in prison, typically as punishment for a crime .People are most commonly incarcerated upon suspicion or conviction of committing a crime, and different jurisdictions have differing laws governing the function of incarceration within a larger system of...
.
Gameplay
The gameplay in Mega Man 6 is largely similar to its five NES counterparts. The player takes control of Mega Man to complete a series of side-scrollingSide-scrolling video game
A side-scrolling game or side-scroller is a video game in which the gameplay action is viewed from a side-view camera angle, and the onscreen characters generally move from the left side of the screen to the right. These games make use of scrolling computer display technology...
platform
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
stages littered with smaller robot enemies and occasional larger mini-bosses. The player's primary method of attack is the "Mega Buster" cannon, which can be charged for more powerful shots. At the end of each of the initial eight stages is a boss battle, where the player inherits that Robot Master's unique "Master Weapon" if successful. These eight levels can be completed in any order, although all Robot Masters are weak to a specific Master Weapon, adding an element of strategy to the order chosen by the player. The player's health is represented by a gauge that can be refilled by picking up energy pellets. Extra lives, reserve energy tanks, and pellets that refill Master Weapon power can also be found throughout each level. Mega Man 6 introduces the "Energy Balancer", which automatically refills the weapon with the lowest energy when picking up Master Weapon power.
Previous Mega Man games typically allowed the player to call on the transformable dog Rush or use other support items in order to traverse difficult or otherwise inaccessible parts of a stage. Mega Man 6 instead features a pair of "Rush Adaptors" that fuse Mega Man and Rush into special forms. The first, "Jet Mega Man", lets the player fly upward or hover for a brief period of time, but prevents the use of charge shots. The second, "Power Mega Man", utilizes a powerful, short-range punch attack for destroying large blocks. The player cannot slide when using either adapter. Mega Man 6 also presents less linear ways to complete the stages than in previous entries in the series. There are two pathways in many of the stages that lead to boss rooms, but the player is often required to use one of the Rush adaptors to begin an alternate route. Although either one will clear the stage, only one of them will give the player a letter circuit board for assembling the helper bird Beat. Collecting all four parts will allow the player to call on Beat to attack enemies.
Development
Mega Man 6 was developed at the same time as the franchise's first spin-off, Mega Man XMega Man X (video game)
Mega Man X, known in Japan as , is a video game developed by Capcom for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System . It is the first Mega Man game for the 16-bit console and the first game in the Mega Man X series, a spin-off of the original Mega Man series that began on the SNES's predecessor, the...
for Nintendo's newer console, the SNES
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
. Series artist Keiji Inafune
Keiji Inafune
is a video game producer and illustrator. He was the former head of Research & Development and Online Business and Global Head of Production at Capcom, best known as the illustrator and co-designer of the character Mega Man, as well as the producer of the Onimusha and Dead Rising video game series...
stated that having a video game franchise with six titles is very rare, and one of the advantages to this is that players expect certain aspects of each game to be repeated in the next. After having implemented so many different mechanics to the gameplay of past entries, Inafune thought that Rush adaptor assembly was inevitable. The artist struggled with the adaptor designs and ultimately found them to be unrealistic. According to Inafune, "If you think about it, they shouldn't be able to combine like this. It would be awkward if parts of Rush like his neck were left over after they combined, so what was I supposed to do?"
The Robot Masters featured in some of the previous Mega Man games were the result of design contests held in Japan, in which fans of the series would submit their character ideas to Capcom. Keeping with the tradition, Japan held a design contest for Mega Man 6. After the release of Mega Man 5, the magazine Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...
held a similar contest in North America. Only eight out of the more than 200,000 worldwide character submissions for Mega Man 6 were accepted for the game. Six of the Robot Masters were designed by Japanese fans, while the remaining two (Knight Man and Wind Man) were designed by North American fans who entered the Nintendo Power contest. Inafune admitted that it was stressful when the last characters being designed for the game were not meeting with the development team's schedule. He concluded, "For having hit a lot of roadblocks, I feel like we got a lot done for 6. The theme for our designs was 'The world is our stage,' and I really enjoyed bringing what I felt was the unique flavor of different countries into the game." Yuko Takehara composed the musical score for Mega Man 6. Takehara collaborated with several other composers for the follow-up Mega Man 7
Mega Man 7
Mega Man 7, known as in Japan, is a video game developed by Capcom for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System . It is the seventh game in the original Mega Man series and the first and only title in the main series to be featured on the 16-bit console...
in 1995.
Mega Man 6 is the last title in the franchise to be released on the 8-bit NES. A few months after the publication of Mega Man 5, Capcom announced the sixth installment in the original series, as well as Mega Man Soccer
Mega Man Soccer
Mega Man Soccer, known in Japan as , is a soccer video game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System . The game is based on the original Mega Man series of action-platform games...
and Mega Man X for the SNES. Capcom chose not to publish the game outside Japan. Instead, Nintendo of America published it in March 1994. Such a late release on the aging NES ensured its relative commercial obscurity among concurrent releases. Before the NES era in North America was about to end, Nintendo of America made a plan to help sell it along with Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II
Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II
Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II is a video game released only in North America in 1994. It was developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System as the sequel to the 1990 game, StarTropics. It is the second to last licensed game released on the NES, Wario's Woods being the...
and the NES version of Wario's Woods
Wario's Woods
is a puzzle game, developed and published by Nintendo, for both the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The NES version was released in Japan on February 19, 1994, and both versions were released simultaneously in North America on December 10, 1994...
, which were also published by Nintendo in North America during the same time. Their plan was to release the top-loading NES-101 for a retail price of $49.99 to attract consumers to buying the updated version of the original NES along with one or more new titles for the console, including Mega Man 6.The game was also showcased alongside Mega Man X at the 1994 Winter Consumer Electronics Show
Consumer Electronics Show
The International Consumer Electronics Show is a major technology-related trade show held each January in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Not open to the public, the Consumer Electronics Association-sponsored show typically hosts previews of products and new...
in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
. Mega Man 6 was re-released for the PlayStation in 1999 as part of the Rockman Complete Works
Rockman Complete Works
Rockman Complete Works is a lineup of video game remakes released for the PlayStation in Japan of the first six games in the original Rockman series by Capcom...
series exclusive to Japan. This version of the game features a number of extras including remixed music, artwork galleries, and a "navi mode" to help guide players. A port
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
of the Complete Works edition was released on the North American-exclusive Mega Man Anniversary Collection
Mega Man Anniversary Collection
Mega Man Anniversary Collection a compilation of video games developed by Atomic Planet Entertainment and published by Capcom. It was released exclusively in North America on June 23, 2004 for the Nintendo GameCube and Sony PlayStation 2 and on March 15, 2005 for the Microsoft Xbox...
for the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
and Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
in 2004 and Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
in 2005. Mega Man 6 was released on Japanese mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
s via the i-mode
I-mode
NTT DoCoMo's i-mode is a mobile internet service popular in Japan. Unlike Wireless Application Protocol, i-mode encompasses a wider variety of internet standards, including web access, e-mail and the packet-switched network that delivers the data...
service in 2007.
Reception and legacy
Mega Man 6 has enjoyed a favorable to mixed reception from gaming publications and websites. The graphics, play control, challenge level, and added power-ups were generally praised. GameProGamePro
GamePro Media was a United States gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console , a computer, and/or a mobile device . GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and...
was impressed with some of the newer enemies and larger mid-stage bosses, but was displeased with the game's recycling of Master Weapons seen in previous Mega Man games. Overall, the magazine described the graphics, audio, and level design in Mega Man 6 as standard fare for the franchise and called the game a "rock of reliable NES fun" in a series that is as "predictable as the tide". Destructoid
Destructoid
Destructoid is an independent video game-focused blog based in San Francisco, California that was founded in March 2006. It has since grown into one of the most widely read video game sites on the Internet, reaching more than 3 million unique visitors per month...
editor Tony Ponce considered Mega Man 6 the best game in the entire series. He argued that the game "was retro
Retrogaming
Retrogaming, also known as old-school gaming, is the hobby of playing and collecting older computer, video, and arcade games. These games are played either on the original hardware, on modern hardware via emulation, or on modern hardware via ports or compilations...
before retro was cool" due to Capcom's decision to develop it as a higher profile game on the NES during the era of fourth generation consoles
History of video game consoles (fourth generation)
In the history of computer and video games, the fourth generation began on October 30, 1987 with the Japanese release of Nippon Electric Company's PC Engine...
. He also expressed appreciation for its music, introductions for each Robot Master, and the use of branching pathways in each level, among many other reasons. Nintendo Power listed Mega Man 6 as the best NES game of 1993, stating, "His sixth NES adventure, in which he uses two new, Special Power-Ups, might just be his best". Kaes Delgrego of Joystiq
Joystiq
Joystiq is a video gaming blog founded in June 2004 that has since become one of the most successful sites within the Weblogs, Inc. family of weblogs. It is the centerpiece of WIN's own network of video gaming blogs, which also includes a blog dealing specifically with the popular MMORPG World of...
called Mega Man 6 the fourth-best game in the franchise because of its implementation of the Rush adaptors, the Energy Balancer, multiple pathways, and the challenge present in the final levels. Craig Skistimas of ScrewAttack
ScrewAttack
ScrewAttack . is a video game-related website that showcases original entertainment for an audience of video game enthusiasts. Its content is also shown on GameTrailers and IGN...
also appreciated these innovations and regretted missing out on the game when it was first released.
Mega Man 6 was nearly universally criticized for lacking originality, particularly with regard to its plot. GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
editors Christian Nutt and Justin Speer labeled Mega Man 6 the "cheesiest" among the NES titles: "If you're looking for mega-laughs, you might want to try this one out." 1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
contributors likewise found that the game's "inane" storyline and villains both insult fans of the series and outweigh the game's good soundtrack and interesting power-ups. The four members of the Electronic Gaming Monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly is a bimonthly American video game magazine. It has been published by EGM Media, LLC. since relaunching in April of 2010. Its previous run, which ended in January 2009, was published by Ziff Davis...
review panel all voiced similar opinions regarding the game's familiar 8-bit presentation and its addition to the already repetitive nature of the series. One reviewer commented, "OK, Mega Man was fun and original back in the days when the letters 'N E S' meant something. Now the game is just getting redundant. Oh sure, Mega Man may learn a few new tricks here and there but this series has to end soon."