This review was published on 06/23/2013.

Mega Man 4 is a side-scrolling platform game released by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System in the early '90s. It's the fourth game in the classic series, obviously. A special contest was held in Japan for Mega Man 4, in which children would submit artwork of Robot Masters to Capcom. Eight of the submissions would then be picked and placed into the game as real boss characters. The winners also got a special golden copy of Mega Man 4. Those gold carts now go for ridiculously high prices on eBay. The game was critically acclaimed when it was first released, with many reviewers praising the cinematic introduction sequence that was fairly advanced for the NES. These days, fan reaction is mixed. Despite the cool promotional contest, the game itself wasn't quite as good as the last three Mega Man titles. Mega Man 4 was a turning point for the series, because it was here that Mega Man started to slip into mediocrity.

Mega Man, created by the good scientist Dr. Light, is a blue robot that fights for justice. An evil scientist by the name of Dr. Wily tried to take over the world three times over with his army of bad robots, but Mega Man was there to stop him every time. Wily was presumed dead after his third defeat, so all should be well, right? Wrong. A whole year after the events of Mega Man 3, a new troubling threat arose out of nowhere. The twist is that it's supposedly not the doing of Wily this time. Instead, a mysterious Russian scientist named Dr. Cossack is behind the malicious deeds. Cossack follows Wily's modus operandi to a tee by creating eight boss robots referred to as Robot Masters to terrorize civilization. And so, Mega Man must put a stop to another mad scientist.

Just like before, Mega Man has eight stages to choose from with eight Robot Masters waiting at the end of each stage. The motley crew now consists of Skull Man, Dive Man, Drill Man, Toad Man, Bright Man, Pharaoh Man, Ring Man, and Dust Man. None of these guys are as cool as the Robot Masters from previous games, except for maybe Skull Man. Even that guy is kind of lame, though. The blue bomber absorbs the weapon of whatever Robot Master he defeats, allowing him to make use of it for the entire duration of his adventure. As always, Special Weapons have limited ammunition that can be refilled via pickups. Each Robot Master is weak to a weapon from one of its friends, so Mega Man has to figure out what the ideal order is to take them down. The stages are all themed after their masters, adding the variety you come to expect from the Mega Man series. And the stages are still pretty well designed, which is another hallmark of the series. The music kind of takes a nosedive, though. It's still above average, but it's far less memorable than previous entries in the series. Unlike the last few games, there are some special items hidden in the stages that Mega Man may add to his arsenal, in addition to the weapons he gets from bosses. These items are totally optional, but they are helpful later in the game if you decide to pick them up. It's a nice feature that adds a tiny bit of replay value to the game.

Rush returns in this game to help Mega Man with a few support abilities. Mega Man's canine companion can use a spring to boost jumps, transform into a submarine for underwater action, and become a jet to soar through the skies. These functions all use up energy that needs to be replenished with the same items that refill weapon energy. Sadly, Rush did receive a downgrade: his jet ability is far less useful than it was in Mega Man 3. You can no longer use it to fly in all directions; it only flies horizontally while slowly moving upwards or downwards. Mega Man does have one new companion in this game. His name is Eddie. Eddie is found in a few stages, and all he really does is act as a random item dispenser. You'll either get something extraordinarily good from him, like an extra life, or something disappointing, like Weapon Energy when all your weapons are full. The guy's kind of a jerk, but he sometimes saves your life by giving you health right when you need it. Mega Man 4 downgrades Rush and adds a nearly useless companion, so this is a step down from Mega Man 3.

Mega Man 3 introduced the slide that allows Mega Man to stylishly avoid attacks, and Mega Man 4 introduces the famous Mega Buster. Mega Man's normal gun normally shoots a bunch of normal pellets, but now holding the button down for a few seconds charges up a more powerful blast. That means you have to choose between rapidly firing small shots or charging up a big one, so there's more strategy to the act of shooting. The charged shot is primarily meant for bosses, because it does nearly as much damage as a boss' weakness. There is still reason to use Special Weapons for exploiting weaknesses, though, as the Mega Buster takes a long time to charge up, and getting hit neutralizes the charge. Some hardcore fans don't approve of the Mega Buster, since they feel that it makes the game too easy, but none can deny that this adds a considerable amount of sophistication to the series.

Defeating all eight Robot Masters reveals Cossack's Castle, opening up a new set of treacherous stages for Mega Man to take on. These are four stages in a row that will put Mega Man's abilities to the test with tough enemies and bosses, and his weapons don't automatically refill between these stages. Functionally, these stages are exactly the same as Wily's various castles and fortresses from past games. There is a twist, though. After blasting through Cossack's icy fortress, Mega Man discovers that Cossack wasn't the true villain. In actuality, Wily is the mastermind behind everything. I bet you didn't see that coming. In any case, this revelation means that Mega Man has an additional castle to go through. This is sort of like the Doc Robot stages from Mega Man 3, only not as long and hard. Each castle has four levels, so with two castles, that's eight levels in a row. That almost doubles the game's content. The problem with the double layer of castles is that it feels like you're doing the same strenuous task twice. By the time you finish Cossack's frozen fort, exhaustion starts to set in.

Mega Man 4 is kind of a disappointment if you came off the greats that are Mega Man 2 and 3. It polishes a lot of things while also improving the graphics, and the addition of the awesome Mega Buster adds a tremendous amount of depth to the experience. However, the music, boss designs, and stage designs aren't quite as good or memorable as they were in the last two games. This game gets rid of the annoying Doc Robot stages from Mega Man 3, but in its place, it has way too many castle levels. You could tell that by this point, the development team was starting to get burned out. Mega Man 4 is still one of the better games on the NES, but it lacks the flair of its predecessors.

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