With Azure Striker GUNVOLT coming out tomorrow and Mighty No. 9 on the horizon, I figured that I would put together a list of my top 5 Mega Man clones.
The criteria is that they must be 2D side-scrolling semi-linear shooters with some resemblance to one of the Mega Man series.
And also games that I've played. Here goes!
Number 5: Power Rangers Samurai.
Power Rangers Samurai is sort of a hybrid of the old Power Rangers Beat-em-ups from the SNES and Genesis and Mega Man X or Zero. Unfortunately it leans far too much towards crappy generic beat-em-ups rather than Mega Man, despite having a lot of similarities to its immediate predecessor, Super Legends. Samurai also has far too many collision detection issues, which is why it made number 5.
Number 4:
Mighty GUNVOLT.
Mighty GUNVOLT is probably the one game on this list I spent the least amount of time with, because it reminded me too much of the NES, ironically. You see, despite having owned one and played on it a lot, I don't really like older NES games because most of them are either broken, boring or bad.
Not that the Mega Man games this is trying to emulate were bad, it's just that they would have benefited at no end from the kind of save/continue system that Mega Man Zero or any of the Metroidvania games have. And that's my problem with this. Limited lives and no checkpoints.
Number 3: Power Rangers: Super Legends.
Like Samurai, Power Rangers: Super Legends on the DS is like a hybrid of Mega Man Zero and the old Power Rangers games from the fifth generation of consoles, except that it leans more towards Mega Man Zero. And like Mega Man Zero, you have a sword to slash with and a gun to fire with. You can also punch enemies if you really feel like it. I was surprised at how good the DS version was, considering how bad licensed handheld games usually are.
Number 2: Cave Story.
Cave Story is probably the single most famous game on this list. Almost everyone I've ever talked to has heard of, or played it at some time in their lives. While some might consider it more Metroidvania than Mega Man, I consider it a hybrid of the two styles personally.
Number 1:
Azure Striker GUNVOLT.
Gee, this game sure sounds familiar. It's almost as if I wrote two whole articles about it!
Azure Striker GUNVOLT is one of the two games on this list I had the most fun with, which is why it made number 1. It's also the only one I felt really compelled to finish, although that was partially due to the deadline I was under to get my review out.
Deadline aside, Gunvolt is the game on this list I most feel deserves the number one spot for several reasons. First off, it does a good job of resurrecting the 3DS eShop as a platform for legitimate gamer games (Virtual console notwithstanding) and it shows that Inti Creates haven't lost their touch for making good action-shooter-platformers
I can agree with you on with the top 3 (even though Cave Story isn't a MegaMan clone, and is actually inspired from Metroid). From what I little I can remember of Power Rangers: Super Legends, it seemed great and I'll have to see if I can get a copy for my R4 cartridge.
ReplyDeleteCave Story is also pretty great though, and I've joined it's modding community (https://www.cavestory.org/forums/) I was inspired by a Cave Story mod I played called Lunar Shadow (I was considering asking you to review it in the future) which is a Castlevania inspired mod created by Kim Tyranto.
As for Azure Striker Gunvolt, I've got to agree with you there. It's a very solid game with great mechanics, cool music and wonderful sprite work. It's sequel Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 is even better, and it also allows you to play as Copen. (It also helps that the post-game levels are far better designed as well).
Lastly, if you're looking for MegaMan clones to play, I would personally recommend The Legend of Dark Witch series. It's like a mix of Touhou and MegaMan with the weapons system from Gradius. The pixel art is great, and the music is definitely what convinced me to try out the first game; it also helps that the sequels also improve on the first game's issues (i.e the bosses being mostly stationary).