Best Open Source Top-Down Space Shooter : Super Space Invader

Lasers, rockets, shields, health regeneration, pixels. You know. The good stuff. Just nicely packaged with levels of just the right duration and hardness, persistent upgrades, shaders, reverb...

Two buttons are enough to play, since that was one of the themes of Ludum Dare #34, in which the game came #74 among 1638 jam entries.

Super Space Invader Review

Supser Space Invader was made with LÖVE (v0.9) and thus runs on Linux, OS X, Windows.

The source is available on GitHub under zlib/libpng.

Donkey Kong 3

The Short

Pros

- Decently fun arcade shooter

- Music and sound effects are classic

- Platform idea for a shooter is clever and adds some interesting twists

- Very faithful to the original arcade game

Cons

- The original arcade game wasn't that great to begin with

- Stiff controls, which worked for the first two games, falter here in a shooter

- The bugs' patterns are maddening to try and figure out

- Like...it's a game where you shoot Donkey Kong between his legs. That's the game. Why. 

Yes, this is actually a real thing.

The Long

If your first reaction to seeing this review was "Wait, what? There's a Donkey Kong 3?" then you'd be in the majority. After the success of Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr, Nintendo decided to take the big brown ape on what would be his final arcade excursion in Donkey Kong 3: Galaga Edition. That's right, this isn't a platformer starring Mario or DK's lovable if somewhat dorky looking son, instead you're playing what is essentially a space shooter. And the enemy (aside from DK)? Bugs. Or bees, I guess, as they have hives. And little worms that block your path.

Really not swan song to end out on, guys.

DK summons pestilence from above, a sign of the oncoming ape-ocalypse.

In this game you aren't Mario, but Stanley. Stanley, as you can imagine, is very well known in that he hasn't appeared in a single game since Donkey Kong 3. Due to his purple hair and shoes I like to pretend that all the exposure to the toxins in the bugspray warped him, turning him into Waluigi, but that isn't confirmed by Miyamoto yet and he won't return my calls. So it's pretty much 100% fact. Hey, denial = proof. 

In Donkey Kong 3: To Bee or Not To Bee, you are charged with one simple task: shoot DK's...um...tender spot. His nether regions. Between his legs, so to speak. Stanley (looking straight up while firing, must be quite the view) has this big dumb monkey in his zoo or something and needs to get him out. So the logical solution is to blast him over and over until he crawls off the top of the screen. Yeah, ok, it isn't Mass Effect or anything but it gets the job done. 

DK's most embarrassing moment.

You can't reach him from ground level, as your spray has limited range. The game does, however, remedy this with it's feeble attempt at platforming. As in, there is a literal platform Stanley is standing on (and it's structure changes slightly between three variations as you play levels) and you can hop up or down it at will. Kind of different.

DK's end game (aside from reaching the bottom of the poles and murdering you viciously), is agitating nearby bees' nests. These bees are the size of a man and are way pissed off...but mostly pissed off at the flowers beneath Stanley. The bees'll try and make off with them, and Stanley has to murder the nefarious insects in order to recover the plants. Lose all the plants, you die. Get hit by a bee, you die. And, of course, DK can crush you because he's a monkey the size of Andre the Giant. 

A laff a minute in DK3

There's a few more tricks. Shoot DK enough and he might drop a spray power-up, which gives it max range and pierces multiple enemies. This also carries between levels if you still have time left on it, which is nice. There are also obnoxious caterpillars that will block your shots and are unkillable unless you have the upgraded gun. The goal is, obviously, to get a high score, as the game just cycles with more and more bees (and varying types) until you succumb to an awful, bee-infested death. 

Stanley, played by Nicholas Cage, in the film adaptation of DK3.

There are multiple problems with Donkey Kong 3 that made it far less memorable than it's predecessors. First, it isn't a platformer, and while it's a decent enough shooter the risk probably pushed most die-hard players away. Second, the bugs come off as unfair. Their patterns are only somewhat predictable, unlike most shooting games like Galaga where you can learn the patterns easily, and they're such small targets they can be hard to hit. Third, your weapon sucks, and having to constantly fight a war of attrition with an ever-lowering DK only makes this all the more evident. And lastly, the game's clunky controls don't work in it's favor at all. Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr.'s movement and platforming feel archaic compared to modern games, but it was clear the game was built and balanced around that. I got none of this in Donkey Kong 3. Most of my deaths felt cheap or unavoidable, whereas in the previous two games I knew my deaths were always my own fault.

Point being, it plays clunky, feels unfair, and isn't at all like the previous two games. And that was enough to doom it to obscurity (and essentially kill the franchise, save the Donkey Kong Game Boy game and later Donkey Kong Country games). 

Stanley's enormous eye might be my favorite part of the game.

Graphically it looks good, in both the arcades on NES. While I have very limited experience with the arcade version of Donkey Kong 3, the NES version felt just about arcade perfect, for better or for worse. Again, these machines are hard to find, so correct me if I'm way off track here, but it looks and sounds almost identical.

But it doesn't really mean much if the underlying game is just a monkey's worth of problems. While still technically mostly sound, Donkey Kong 3 feels like a chore to play and fighting for high scores just isn't as engaging. As an added bonus, the NES cart still doesn't save high scores, not that you'd be inviting all the cool kids on the block over to play some high-stakes DK3 anytime soon.

How the mighty apes have fallen, Donkey Kong 3 is a misstep in an otherwise perfect series of arcade games. Two out of five stars. 

He's the now-sterile member of the DK crew

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth Free Game Download

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The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

Release Date: 2014

Platform: PC Game

Developer: Nicalis, Inc. , Edmund McMillen

Publisher: Nicalis, Inc.

SIZE: 274MB

Language : English,Russian

Genre: Indie, Arcade



System Requirements:

Operating System: Windows XP / Windows Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8

Processor: Core 2 Duo

RAM:

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SIZE: 6.26GB

Genre: Arcade / 3D / 3rd Person 

Developer: TT Games 

Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive 



System Requirements:

Operating System: Windows XP / Windows Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8

Processor: Pentium IV 3 GHz

RAM: 1 GB

Video Card: 256 MB DirectX 9 compatible

Sound Card: DirectX

Download How To Survive Full Version Game

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Release Date: 2013

Platform: PC

Developer : EKO Software

Publisher: 505 Games

Size: 1.37GB

Language: Russian , English

Genre : Arcade (Shoot'em up) / 3D / Isometric



System requirements :

Operating system : Windows XP / Windows Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo

RAM: 2 GB

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Download Toy Story 3 The Video Game Full Version

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Toy Story 3 The Video Game
Language: English
Platform: PC
Release Date: 2010
SIZE: 1.98 GB
Genre: Arcade / 3D

System Requirements:
Operating system: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core 5200+
Memory: 2 GB
Video: 512 MB
Sound Card: Sound device compatible with DirectX 9.0

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Language: English
Platform: PC
Release Date: 2014
SIZE: 1.84 GB
Genre: Arcade (Platform) / Logic / 3D



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Metal Slug X: Super Vehicle - 001

The Short

Pros
- Basically Metal Slug 2 without any of the problems
- New enemies, weapons, and slight tweaks to the levels make this the definitive version of Metal Slug 2
- No slowdown, even on the PS1 version
- PS1 version has a level select
- One of the funnest run-n-gun games to date
- Finds a perfect balance between skill and arcade challenge

Cons
- Renders Metal Slug 2 redundant

Metal Slug: Where you kill land-boats one gun at a time

The Long

I loved Metal Slug 2, but the problems with the slowdown really killed the game's flow for me. Luckily, it seems SNK realized they screwed up, because shortly after the release of Metal Slug 2 they cleaned up the game, made a few adjustments, and released Metal Slug X. Metal Slug X was also the first Metal Slug game released in the US on the PS1, so for most people (myself included) this was the first Metal Slug game they ever played in the comfort of their own home.

And hoo, boy, is it a good one!

Suck it, Nazi Laser Death Sub!

As I stated in my Metal Slug 2 review, I consider the second installment in this series to be the absolute best one. While many can argue that Metal Slug 3 is the craziest (and the longest), it also is absurdly difficult to the point that the game can be very frustrating (not to mention the final level is way too long). While that discussion will be reserved for the Metal Slug 3 review, I will say this: Metal Slug X is the perfect balance of skill and cheap deaths, making it for a fantastic Metal Slug game and the absolute funnest. 

Power-ups are frequent and feel great. Vehicles (aka "Slugs") are also all over the place, and a skilled player will be able to keep them for long durations of time. Enemies are plentiful but never overly difficult, and even the final batch of enemies (the aliens) are a new challenge but can be mastered if you are good enough at jumping and shooting their space-blob-bullets. This is one of the few Metal Slug games were I could actually one-coin the whole game (yeah. Really. The only one) while I was in my prime on the PS1. This makes you feel like you are always in control, and the game never throws anything particularly unfair at you.

Bats with potions. I hate those guys. 

Now, in argument that means this is a "bad" arcade game, as it won't suck your quarters as much as Metal Slug 3 does. But since X is clearly intended to be the "home" version of Metal Slug 2, I think it's perfect. You don't have to continue like crazy (though if you do you have unlimited lives) and you can get a good run going and actually save prisoners at the end of the levels. 

Let's go over the brief changes between X and 2, since the majority of the game is exactly the same. There's a new weapon, the Iron Lizard (though I swear the guy says "Iron Eagle" when you pick it up) that is like an explosive remote-control car that zooms away from you on the ground when shot. There's new enemies like mummy-dogs, and the first-level boss has been moved to a mid-level boss and replaced with the standing-tank-thing from Metal Slug, which is kind of neat. They also changed a few levels in very small ways (the starting level is at night instead of during the day now for some reason), but overall this is pretty much the exact same game, just refined to an excellent shine. 

I really love this game's bosses. 

Aside from that, there really isn't much to say that hasn't been, except this is my absolute favorite Metal Slug game. It's well balanced, has fantastic setpieces, is never unfair or unjustly cruel, has a fun story with a goofy "plot twist" at the end, and is an absolute riot co-op. While it might be the easiest Metal Slug game (at least out of the early ones), that isn't to say it's a pushover. It strikes a good balance between visceral satisfaction and edge-of-your-seat stress, which is exactly what the series needed.

Metal Slug X is also a fantastic PS1 port, with all the slowdown gone and even with a stage select. This is where I spent most of my days, but it's also on the PSP, PS2, and Wii as part of the Metal Slug Anthology. I personally think that whole collection is worth it for X alone (and all other six games are a bonus), but hey...to each his own.

Regardless, you should play this game. If you have a friend who likes blasting stuff as much as you, grab him or her, sit in front of your TV, and get shootin' at those nazies, mummies, aliens, bats, and tank-boats. Metal Slug don't get better than this.

Five out of five stars. 

And yes, the mummy level song will still get stuck in your head. 

Metal Slug 2: Super Vehicle - 001/II

The Short

Pros
- Takes the original Metal Slug formula and cranks it up to 11
- More weapons, slugs (vehicles), and enemies
- Fight aliens and mummies, oh my!
- Adds two new playable characters (girls!) and lets you actually pick your character
- Can get "Fat" for more damage and more fatness.
- Some of the best bosses and locations in the series
- Strong balance of skill reward vs coin-pushing

Cons 
- Arcade version and all ports have absolutely crippling slowdown
- Overall mechanics not to different from the original Metal Slug
- Some of the levels (with the exploding Gollum-lookalikes) are a bit cheap
- Enemies don't bleed in the US versions; they "sweat." What.

Uncharted 2 train level, eat your heart out. 

The Long

Considering how successful Metal Slug was, it made sense that SNK would punch out another game. Two years later, with rocket lawnchair and heavy machine gun in hand, Metal Slug 2 hit arcades. Of all the Metal Slug games, this one has always felt to me like the one where the series really took off. It blends just the right about of nazi-slaughter along with killing weird other things (mummies, aliens, and...bats?), as well as allowed you to traverse the entire globe rather than just sort of rustic European-looking townscapes. Combined with new vehicles, characters, and weapons, this was going to be the best Metal Slug yet.

Is it? Well, almost, except for one rather massive flaw. 

This first boss is bigger than any in the original Metal Slug.

Metal Slug 2 takes everything that made the first game great and amps it up. The graphics are prettier, the enemies and bosses larger, and the locations and situations zanier. One minute you'll be fighting your way through an Egyptian village, riding a "Camel Slug" (basically just a camel with a machine gun mounted on the side), the next you'll be raiding tombs with the best of them and fighting mummies (and turning into a mummy if they manage to hit you with their toxic breath). Then you'll be fighting a land-ship-tank-thing, as well as a boss that literally throws tanks at you. After a startling plot twist that aliens are, in fact, behind all of this (spoilers?), you'll have to send E.T. home via flame shots and shotgun blasts before destroying the mothership and rescuing not-Hitler from anal probing. Oh, and did I mention one of the levels requires you to shoot a runaway train so many times it explodes? Four times?!

Metal Slug 2 is everything I love about the Metal Slug series. Tight controls, tons of great power-ups, fantastic boss battles that are just massive, and great graphics and tons of silliness. It was all set to be the best Metal Slug game yet.

But then you start paying it, and you realize something bad: this game has horrible slowdown.

Also, in the US versions of these games they "bleed" sweat. How lame is that?

And I don't just mean the home ports, which at the time were much less powerful systems than dedicated arcade cabinets. I mean, the game itself was slow in the arcades. When stuff really got crazy, which is a Metal Slug staple, things could drag to a downright crawl. While you could argue it isn't gamebreaking, it is extremely frustrating, not to mention lame. One of the staples of the first game was that tons of crazy stuff happened but the game still ran smooth. The slowdown is annoying.

Not just annoying, but it can get you killed! I can't count the number of times I couldn't react with good enough timing to dodge boss attacks or bullets because the game was just chugging along at about half-speed. It takes the wind out of the sales of many of the fantastic-looking (and designed) bosses to have the whole game barely moving half the time. Quite obnoxious.

I blame the mummies. Who live in a "Mummy" house, it seems.

All that aside, this game is gorgeous. The aforementioned huge bosses are all pixelated, glorious pillars of art and animation in a style that people, frankly, think takes too much time these days. The explosions look even better, and the new effects (like how a variety of enemies die differently when being either burned by a flame shot or literally disintegrated by the overpowered shotgun) are delightful to look at. This is really a fun looking game, slowdown be damned.

The music is, as always, catchy and great, but with certain tracks like the mummy level getting stuck in your head something fierce. The sound effects are also fantastic, with the alien and mummy death sounds being personal favorites of mine. 

It also has a great ending that directly references Independence Day, so that's hilarious as well.

I see what you did there, Metal Slug 2.

All in all, Metal Slug 2 does everything that a sequel should do. It ups the ante, jacks everything up to a new level, and looks phenomenal doing it. If it weren't for the awful slowdown, I'd argue that this is the best Metal Slug game ever made. But, to be honest, Metal Slug X (which is basically this game but better and with all the mistakes fixed) makes this game completely obsolete  But that's the topic for the next review.

Point being: Metal Slug 2 is great, and it's unfortunate the slowdown causes so many glaring problems. If you find it in an arcade, you should play it, but if you have it in a collection, play X instead.

Three out of five stars. 

Die, aliens!

Metal Slug: Super Vehicle - 001

The Short

Pros
- Crazy run 'n gun action with lots of powerups and abilities
- Drive vehicles (aka "Slugs") for more awesome carnage
- Some of the best pixel art in the business, bar none
- Six levels of not-nazi blasting carnage
- Strikes a good arcade balance between skill-based and unfair quarter-stealing
- Quite silly
- Two players
- "RAWKET LAWNCHAIR"

Cons
- Not as silly as later installments, though that might be ok
- Only two characters
- Early ports (Playstation and Saturn) were kind of garbage

Metal Slug: Actually a spiritual sequel to Prometheus? 

The Long

The "run n' gun" genre has been around for a while, but people will argue it really took off with Contra. Combining macho-men with tight control, the "one hit and you're dead" idea, and absurd powerups and tons of action, Contra was pretty kickass. Many games would attempt to emulate Contra's success, some doing great (Alien Hominid), some ok (Cybernater) and some doing not ok (Doom Troopers). But really, when you think of a game series that not only matched but completely outdid Contra, you're thinking about Metal Slug.

SNK and Neo Geo were the kings of the arcade back in the 90s. Even today, they've made games across tons of genres that are memorable, play fantastic, and are just straight awesome. But for me, my absolute favorite SNK arcade game franchise is Metal Slug. There's just something about these games that is so incredibly gratifying it's hard to not just want to sit down and play them for hours.

So...what makes the first one so good? And why should you consider it nearly twenty years later? Grab your Heavy Machine Gun and read on.

Burnin' bridges. 

There isn't much to the story, so we'll just leave it at "Nazi look-alikes." The army of green-clad, lazy soldier jerks is out to take over the world, lead by a Hilter wannabe, and it's your job to take 'em out. Take 'em all out. Be it tanks, helicopters, planes, dudes, boats, military bases, walls; whatever. Enough bullets, and it'll explode in glorious, hand-drawn shrapnel goodness. Thank you, SNK, for completely going over the top.

The gameplay of Metal Slug will be familiar to anyone who has (as stated previously) played Contra. Your character starts with a standard pistol and can shoot in four directions (unlike Contra's starting eight) and can fire as fast as you can mash the arcade button. Of course, power-ups are everywhere, most of them given to you by captured prisoners who all look exactly the same. Save them and then stand next to them for a brief second, and they'll pull out their pants and give you something good. Sometimes it's something awesome ("Shotgun!"), and sometimes it's just stupid (a bone that's worth 50 points? Gee, thanks). 

What makes this game a riot is the previously mentioned carnage. Your dude is a non-stop destruction machine, and with power-ups it only get more ludicrous. The amount of stuff on the screen at once is just staggering (not to mention gorgeous), and as you get more and more insane upgrades, the carnage just increases. And don't let me forget to talk about the tanks (or "Slugs," as they call them) which you can man and can take about 4-5 hits before exploding. These tanks are awesome and can jump, duck, and shoot tons of bullets and shells all over the place. They help give you a sense of empowerment few games can emulate. 

This is paired with incredibly tight controls for jumping, shooting, and tossing grenades. And since enemies are about as quick on the trigger as the cowboys in Sunset Riders, if you play careful you can usually get pretty far without having to put in another quarter. 

Total destruction. Also, those pixelated explosions? Gorgeous. 

That, in truth, is one of the better parts of the Metal Slug games. While it's still an arcade suck (especially on the last final levels and bosses), it's designed in such a way that if you get really good at timing jumps and shots you can last a pretty long time before seeing a Continue screen. The game pushes for your continue quarter by offering a free Heavy Machine Gun power-up on death, and every death also restocks your grenades (a cheap tactic in Free Play to get through some bosses quickly). But even though one little hit will kill you (and cause you to lose whatever powerup you have), you come right back where you left off ready to go.

That isn't to say there aren't cheap deaths. The vertical stage (stage 4 I think?) in the snow is cheap, as bad platforming jumps can cause unnecessary deaths. The later bosses fire so many bullets everywhere it seems impossible to dodge. And if you ever see a mounted gun: ignore it. It's a trap. Standing still where the computer wants you to be is a sure-fire way to get murdered, unless you have a great co-op buddy to cover your butt.

Speaking of co-op, that's by far the funnest way to play these games. While single player is nice because you can hog all the power-ups, the game drops so many that you can tell it's been designed for a co-op experience. Playing with two people can also decrease frustration with bosses and other enemies that take a lot of hits, as having a second hand makes you feel all the more powerful. Absolutely a game to be played with friends.

This has some of the best pixel art and animations in the business. 

The game looks incredible, too. Everything is hand-drawn pixel art, from the backgrounds to the bits that explode off enemies to the blood and effects; everything. The animations are amazingly smooth, the art is jaw-dropping at times, and some of the bosses (while not as totally bananas as the later games) really look impressive. This is combined with a serviceable soundtrack that just exists to get you pumped to shoot a trillion not-nazies, though the little "end level" ditty that they recycle throughout the series will be stuck in my head forever.

So what is bad about Metal Slug? Well...only a few minor nitpicks. As mentioned before, despite the game being quite silly in the amount of damage you can do, it still is pretty straight-laced this early on. While later games introduce zombies, giant hermit-crab tanks, and aliens, this one is just you shooting guys for most of it. Hardly bad, and the six stages offer plenty of scenery variety, but just not quite as memorable as others. 

The only other real issue I have is the general arcade thing of it being designed to eat quarters, especially with the later levels. While skill can take you a certain distance, after a while you're going to have to be tossing quarters in pretty frequently if you want to see the end of the game. This, of course, doesn't matter if you're playing one of the home ports with unlimited continues, though some might argue that takes away the nail-biting stress arcade games are designed to give you. I personally think the game is fun both ways, but I prefer to not have to pay every time I make a bad jump.

You're going down, not-Hitler.

Overall, however, Metal Slug is a classic for a reason. The home ports to the PS1 and Saturn were both pretty bad (the Saturn was better, though you'll need the 1 MB Ram cart), though the PS1 was where I first played this game and I survived. If you want to play it today, the Wii's Virtual Console is a pretty safe bet, though the best way is through the Metal Slug Anthology on either the PSP or PS2. Or just find it in an Arcade; it's still around.

Metal Slug is just straight up fun. Tons of blasting, explosions, bad pronunciation of powerups, and general macho badassness makes it memorable and just a straight up joy to play. I usually get frustrated at most arcade games for being unfair, but I never did with Metal Slug. If you like destruction, then grab a buddy and start blowing up everything. You can't let the not-nazies take over, can you?

Four out of five stars. 

"I eat prisoners for breakfast! Yes, literally!"

Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters

The Short

Pros
- Fight through another batch of robot masters in a boss rush mode
- Wider arrange of masters mixed up better across multiple games
- Improved HUD and UI
- Masters actually get unique stages this time around, which is appreciated
- Enemies also get more advanced movesets when you knock down their heath, increasing the challenge
- New playable character Duo.
- Lets you actually pick the order rather than some pseudo-random thing from the first game
- Still playable co-op

Cons
- While a bit harder than the first game, it's still too easy
- Duo is stupid. Just...in general.
- Again, music doesn't match the stages
- Also again, I find Capcom's taste in robot masters questionable, as is some of their 32-bit redesigns
- Can beat the whole game in under 45 minutes

Bubble Man, your redesign is awful. 

The Long

I liked Mega Man: The Power Battles, despite giving it a low score. I mean, sure, it was a really easy game and didn't properly execute on it's awesome premise, but it's still a fun co-op romp. When I heard they made a second one (which, if I remember correctly, never made it to American arcades), I was excited to see what they'd changed between games. Maybe it would have X in it? Maybe it would actually be hard? Maybe they'd pick less stupid robot masters?

Well...Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters (great title, BTW. That was sarcasm.) is certainly a sequel, and it's certainly at least a little better than the original, but to be honest it still makes all the same mistakes. 

Those are totally the SNES sprites. 

First off let's go over the differences between this and the first Power Battles. Most everything is actually the same with a few minor nuances. Duo, that space...police...guy whose name doesn't have anything to do with music is now playable. He's bigger and slower and does more damage but has less range. Basically he sucks because he's a stupid character and besides...whenever you pick Protoman it plays his little whistle theme at the start of every battle. Why would you pick anybody else?!

Another key difference is the three scenarios. Rather than segregating the games into their own clusters, they just mix 'em all together across three unique campaigns. You can search for Wily, rescue Roll (seriously? Does she do anything useful?), or...search for parts. Um...yeah. Parts, Dr. Light? When all this other stuff is going on? Ok...

I'm just saying, the first two should probably take priority. 

Anyway, it's still just Mega Man 1-7 (no 8 here) across these missions, but at least they are all mixed up. You have a lot of recycled robot masters from the first game, but they also mixed in a few new ones this time around...and most are stupid ones. Centaur Man? Gyro Man? Bubble Man? At least we finally get Air Man up in here (aka the best robot master), but still, I find their taste in robot masters lacking. At least we didn't have Hard Man, and Pharaoh Man is finally in here. 

Heat Man...where you always that short?

There are a few other minor changes. The game lets you pick the order manually this time, while in the first one it just sort of randomly shuffled them. This actually makes the game easier if you know the boss order (or can guess, based on previous Mega Man experiences) because whenever you hit somebody with their weakness in this game it does an overblown attack animation letting you know that, yep, you got the right powerup. Game's about to get easy. 

Luckily they (sort of) compensate for this by having the difficulty continue as it moves on at a more dramatic climb than the first game. Robot Masters also have "desperation" attacks, meaning when their health drops below half they get a more powerful, more obnoxious batch of attacks that you have to work with. While not accurate to the original games, it certainly is a much appreciated increase in challenge.

More like Cen-tard man. 

The game looks decent, though some of the arcade redesigns look a bit dumb. Again, they recycled a lot of content from the first game but it looked fine to begin with so I'm not complaining. The new HUD is a bit better with an actual health bar and a cleaner interface, which is appreciated, and the backgrounds tend to be more exciting, colorful, and fit the characters you are fighting better. 

The music is also recycled with a few new remixes. They still couldn't bother to actually match the robot master with his song, but whatever...I'm past that at this point. 

Heat Man still looks like a tiny Zippo. 

I'll give Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters this: it's a bit more challenging, a slight improvement over the original, and still boasts fun two-player co-op. Aside from that, it's a very minor upgrade from the first game, so much so that I have a hard time discerning screenshots. The game is still way too easy, feels a bit unbalanced (in your favor), and only has a limited roster. As a sequel that should have offered substantial improvements over the original, this one just feels like a few minor upgrades.

I guess this is where I should insert a "Capcom Fighting Games Charging $60 For Next To No Upgrades" joke, but I'm tired and since I just explained it I guess that covers it...

As it stands, Power Fighters is technically better than Power Battles, but only by a small margin. However, the improved backgrounds, a better mix of robot masters, and overall minor improvements make it the arcade Mega Man fighting game to play, if you were in the market for one to begin with.

Three out of five. The game is also available on the Mega Man Anniversary Collection along with its predecessor, which is currently the only way to play this game in the US.

Duo is still stupid, though. 

Mega Man: The Power Battles

The Short

Pros
- Fun, arcade "boss rush" across robot masters and minibosses
- Covers bosses from Mega Man to Mega Man 7
- Three different batches of masters give you three different paths
- Can be played co-op as Mega Man, Protoman, or Bass
- Uses sprites from Mega Man 7 and looks pretty good

Cons
- Extremely easy...though for an arcade game this might be a plus
- Robot masters between different scenarios don't really change much
- Remixed music is nice but doesn't match the master you are fighting
- Mega Buster can wipe nearly everybody out. No weakness required.
- What should have been a hard challenge is more of a cakewalk
- They seriously picked some of the stupidest robot masters for this.

Ice Man...robot, or dude in a parka? The world may never know...

The Long

It's no surprise that I love the Mega Man games. The NES games provide a fantastic mix of difficult platforming, challenging bosses that each require unique strategy, and great graphics and music. But easily one of the most memorable parts of the game are the robot masters. Since a staple of Mega Man is killing people and taking their powers, knowing what weapon to use against who can help make near-impossible boss fights manageable, and you get a good deal of satisfaction by taking a guy down with his weakness.

So imagine, if you will, if you made a whole game just just forgoes the actual stages and skips you straight to the boss battles, a sort of "Mega Man Boss Rush" if you will. Sounds awesome, right? Yeah, I'd think so too. That, in a nutshell, is the idea behind Mega Man: The Power Battles, an arcade game that you can unlock as a bonus on the Mega Man Anniversary Collection on Gamecube and PS2. If you see this game in an arcade, is it worth punching a few quarters into and taking it for a spin?

Well, yes, but not for the reasons you might think. Read on! 

Wood Man has never looked dorkier. 

Again, the idea of a "boss rush" Mega Man experience sounds fantastic on paper. Take all the extreme challenge of boss fights from across Mega Man 1-7 and mix and match them in a "best of" experience...sounds awesome!

The setup is also pretty cool too. From the beginning you have have three options to start with, each associated with a certain collection of games' bossses. You can pick from a Mega Man 1-2 set, a Mega Man 3-6 set, or one that's just from Mega Man 7 (no Spring Man, though, so it's ok). This adds a bit of replayability so you'll see a fresh set of faces everytime you play...at least three times. 

Add to that the ability to pick three somewhat unique characters (Mega Man, Protoman, and Bass) and you have a lot of variability here. Everything seems set up to be an awesome, challenging boss rush experience.

The problem with Mega Man: The Power Battles appears after you actually start playing.

"Wax on, wax off."

This game is really, really easy. As in shamefully so. I think there's a reason the machines didn't take off in the states: they probably didn't make any money off of them. Anyone who has played any of the NES Mega Man games will easily cakewalk through this whole game, even without knowing the robot masters' weaknesses. The Mega Buster is absurdly overpowered when fully charged, both doing massive amounts of damage and knocking enemies out of their attack cycles. And while the masters get more life and deal more damage the further along you get, anybody with a remote understanding of the "slide" ability can easily get through most without taking any hits.

It isn't all bad. Each robot master faithfully follows their moveset from their respective games, and it's kind of cool to see them all in their arcade graphics glory using their signature abilities. I do have issue with some of the robots they picked. I'm guessing either I have awful taste in robot masters or Japan (or Capcom) likes different ones. Masters like Guts Man and Wood Man are fine, but why is Plant Man or freaking DUST MAN in this game? You seriously picked Dust Man over Pharaoh Man? Come on!

Even the infamous Yellow Devil isn't very hard. 

Another issue is there really isn't that much difference between the three different sets of masters (or characters, for that matter). Wood Man gives essentially the same power as Plant Man, who gives the same power as Junk Man. Luckily they fight you in a unique fashion, but the weapons gathered are all generally the same, which makes replays done in quick succession a bit repetitive.

The entire game can be played co-op, which is absolutely the best way to play it. While it makes an already easy game laughably simple, when were you last able to play with a friend as Mega Man and Protoman, side by side? Never, that's when! It's a lot of fun, if only they'd bothered making the game an actual challenge.

Cuttin' stuff with your head. 

Graphically the game looks good. the HUD is a bit stupid...why is the health bar this unreadable circle rather than...the usual line of life? Well, at least it's easy to read the robot masters' life. Most of the sprites look really similar to Mega Man 7, though I'll say they are a bit more colorful. The backgrounds are vibrant and fantastic, though there is one small problem which I'll address as I move on to music.

The songs are remixes of the most famous songs from the series, which is fantastic. However, I have one big annoyance: the songs (and their backgrounds) don't match the robot masters. Maybe this makes me a wonder nerd to know they are playing Flash Man's song when I'm fighting Wood Man, but it really irked me, especially since they recycle backgrounds and songs between the different sets you can fight through. 

Wily's Castle only has two stops. Way to underachieve. 

As it stands, Mega Man: The Power Battles is still a fun game...in small doses. A single run will usually last you only around 30-45 minutes at most, and odds are it'll only cost you two or three quarters. Play co-op and you might not ever die. A one-time run is a fun trip down memory lane, but burn through all three scenarios back to back and you start to feel the tedium. 

But what irks me the most is the lack of challenge. I mean, if you went through all the trouble to accurately represent each robot masters' attacks, and you have a freaking arcade game (which are designed to scarf quarters), then why would you make this game a total cakewalk? Make it really hard or at least challenging rather than absurdly easy!

All that aside, I still recommend checking it out if you are a Mega Man fan. It's a cheap investment for a playthrough if you manage to find an arcade machine at your local pizza place or something, or if you own a copy of Mega Man Anniversary Collection you can play it on that (and for free). Still, I can't help but think they could have done better here.

If only they made a sequel...(stay tuned!)

Two out of five for single player, but I'd say playing with a friend greatly increase the experience, so tack a star on if you play co-op. 

You made like eighty robot masters and none of them could kill Mega Man, dude. Why do you suck so bad?