Title: _Megaman 8_
System: Playstation 
Genre: Platform shooter
Price: $45.00 (Tronix)

	Ah, it's good to see that even today's jaded developers can remember 
their roots. Sure, those newfangled 3-D tri-linear-mip-map-anti-interpolative-
Z-buffered-aliased-blast-processed-with-a-side-order-of-Mode 7 graphics are
funky and all, bust sometimes, just sometimes, you get that old school feemin'
for a classic 2D side-scroller like _Castlevania 3_, _Megaman 2_, _Contra_,
or one of a host of NES blast-n-run twitchfests. And every time you dust off
the ol' NES, jimmy the cartidge for about 15 minutes to make the game actually
RUN, and ultimately have a riotous time bruising your hands with the oh-so-
-less-than-ergonomic NES gamepad, you think to yourself, "Well, darn, this
game would be truly spankworthy with 32-bit graphics and effects." Since 
these games were megasellers on the NES, they noisily creep into release
lists only to unfold as nothing but magazine hype or icky mutant derivations
like _Contra: Legacy of War_, which leave you bitter and angst-ridden and
make you want to take a clam shovel to the head of whatever misanthropic
marketting goblin decided to break what was ALREADY WORKING QUITE NICELY
THANK YOU.
	Then along come games like _Megaman 8_ and _Castlevania X_, and
the hills are alive with 2-D rejoicing.
	_Megaman 8_, thank heaven, is all about old school NES game play.
It has a very attractive high-color exterior, but retains all of the old
play elements that made the previous, er, Mega Men so popular. And, most
thankfully, they've ditched the stupid animal-based boss robots from the
_X_ series and have returned to the Blast/Spark/Bubble/Wood/Star/Etc Man
approach to bossdom. I want Mega Man to be MEGA MAN ('specially Mega Man 2),
and that includes Dr. Light, Rush, and, of, course, bad ol' Dr. Wily. 
	Anyhow, this isn't to say that Mega Man has lept into 32-bit
gaming unchanged (_Mega Man X^3_ doesn't count: it was a straight conversion of
the SNES title): he now sports more vibrant colors than ever, as well as 
anime cut scenes. THe cut scenes are nicely animated, but the American dub job
could really use some work. Har - like THAT hasn't been said before. Mega
Man sounds like a 4-year old girl discovering SHE'S the one with cooties -
his voice could shatter wine glasses and cause your dog to bury its ears
under your bean bag. Of course, the Japanese version had a similarly
pitched larynx - I suppose it has do with some deviant breed of "Astro Boy"
versimilitude or something. I dunno. Dr. Light, despite his markedly
Germanic beard, talks like a Chinese Elmer Fudd, and Roll is just WAAAAAAY
too enthusiastic about everything. Bass is OK, but Duo needs the volume cranked
- in one scene, you have to really strain to hear his voice. This is all
just extraneous nitpicking, however; you can skip these scenes entirely if
you so choose.
	The game itself is pure, unadulterated Mega Man. You progress through
an initial level, where you find evil ol' Dr. Wily fleeing the scene with a
meteor that just fell to earth. In the impact crater, you find Duo, an
ancient and powerful force of justice. From there, you roam the globe
battling 8 new minions spawned by Dr. Wily using the "Evil Energy" he's
recovered: the sadomasochistic Grenade Man, the markedly large-dimensioned
Frost Man (who has an entire ice box in his body), the arrogant Tengu Man,
the gibbering kook Clown Man, the aristocratic Sword Man, the fearful
Astro Man, the schizophrenic Search Man, and the cocky Aqua Man. If you're
wondering why I bothered to give all the modifiers to the boss names, well,
there's a reason: those blessed folk at Capcom have deigned to grace each
boss robot with more personilty than ever through use of voice clips and
animation. Expect to be taunted and endure posing from the bosses during your
battles, these bosses give you feedback as to what works and what doesn't.
Clown Man screams "Mommy!" when you wax him with the Tornado Hold, and
Sword Man nods "Excellent" when you slide under his Flame Strike. 
Or, if you prefer, Grenade Man's orgasmic "That felt good!" as you nuke
his cheap silicon arse into oblivion. Altogether,this adds quite an ambience
to these fights, difficult as they may get at times. Capcom deserves mega-kudos
for this hip new addition.
	Graphics as a whole are clean, very clean. 3 or 4 levels of parallax
are present in many places, although some areas have none. There isn't
an abundance of scaling/rotation/3D effects - apparently Capcom felt these
were unnecessary, and I didn't find myself missing them, as the animation
more than makes up for it. Which brings me to my major compliment towards
this game: the animation is outstanding. The game seems to come alive around
you, as birds swarm out of robotic palm trees, bats flock out of ancient caves,
and enemies pose, waddle, scamper, caper, and explode like never before. The
use of color is rich and cartoony - there are no complex patterns, just clean 
lines and profound primary color variants the likes of which are not available
in anything less than a 16-bit palette (65,536 colors for those who think I'm
referring to processing power). There is no slowdown or flickering, and the
frame rate remains glassy smooth, even during high-speed jetboarding or
shoot-em-up sequences.
	Sound is also quite good, with upbeat tunes evocative of previous
Mega Man titles. The ol' boss introduction music is thankfully retained,
and the rest is well-orchestrated battle musak. It isn't anything superlative,
but it IS appropriate. As mentioned above, the voice samples and effects
really add to the collective atmosphere of the game and are a welcome addition.
	As far as play mechanics go, it's pretty much straight _Mega Man_.
One button to shoot, one button to jump, hold down the gun button to charge
a bigger blast, and down + jump to slide. New additions are the collection
of secret "Bolts" which allow you to purchase upgrades from Dr. Light,
including Mega Buster charge variants which fire an exploding shot or a 
piercing laser. Through these additions, as well as others such as a shield
which keeps you from being knocked back when hit and a rapid fire mega buster,
you can customize Mega Man into an enhanced version of himself. Also retained
is, of course, the ability to use the bosses' powers after their defeat, and
the ubiquitous Rush, who can now turn into a funky motorcycle which
improves jumping range (remember that). Added into the usual cornucopia
of level variants are shoot-em-up segments in which you fly on Rush and
can collect various friends such as a bomb-dropping Flip Top Eddie or
the "crime-fighting" robobird Beat, and jetboarding segments where you
race down inclines at high-speed while being verbally prompted to "jump"
or "slide" as the situation mandates. These can be a bit frustrating, but are,
for the most part, hugely entertaining. 
	On a more somber note, the game isn't nearlt as difficult as, say
_Mega Man 2_ or _3_. In two hours I breezed through the first four levels,
nad made quite a bit of headway into the next four. Over the three days
I've owned it, I've completed 11 of the 14 levels, which is at significant
variance with my _Mega Man 2_ experience (heh) which took me well into a
month to complete. Perhaps my skills have been honed over the years, but I
doubt it; popping _Mega Man 3_ into my Gameboy provides irrefutable
evidence has to how hard the original Mega Men really were. Perhaps playtesters
these days are used to a lower caliber of experience then folks back in the
NES days, or perhaps Capcom simply concentrated more on play experience than
difficulty, but the fact remains that _Mega Man 8_ is NOT notably difficult.
And I, for one, feel a little twang of disappointment in my fevered vid-dork
breast at this acknowledgment.
	Overall, however, Capcom delivers. Sure, _Next Generation_ will diss
this game because it isn't "original" or "3-D," but we all know
they'd give a porcupine up the ass five stars if you could prove it was
Phong-shaded and perspective-corrected. I'm glad to see Capcom hasn't tried
to fix WHAT ISN'T BROKEN.

	Overall: (note: scores are NOT to be compared to over-inflated magazine
-style ratings)

	Graphics: Technical: 5 
		  Aesthetic: 8
		  Animation: 7.5
	Sound:    Composition: 6.5
		  Delivery: 7
	Control:  Response: 9
		  Technique: 8
	Play:     Experience: 8
		  Difficulty: 5

Overall: -7- 

		 
The Bottom Line: If you love Mega Man or old-school NES gameplay, albeit 
slightly watered down in difficulty, get _Mega Man 8_. If you're unhappy
with games that don't interpolate and antialias you into frothing, ecstatic
submission, well, forget it. 


---
Douglas L. Erickson             |  Curiosity killed the cat/
douglas@mailhost.ecn.ou.edu     |  Loathsome rituals brought it back.
Visit my Anime Art Gallery at:  |                          - Revelation X
http://www.ecn.ou.edu/~douglas  | {My opinions remain unsponsored by ECN}