Sore thumbs, stiff hands and two sharp corners dented into your palms.
These are, always and forever, the mark of the Nintendo Entertainment System.
And if you were lucky enough to grow up with that product, you almost certainly grew up
with Mega Man, as well...or at least, a certain period of Mega Man.
Reminisce with even devout fans of the Blue Bomber, and if you ask about this one, chances
are the NES gushing stops and the conversation comes to an abrupt halt.
“Wait, there were six of them?”
Mega Man 6 is a gaming paradox.
Few NES games are as interesting as this—Mega Man’s last appearance on his system of origin—and
yet Mega Man 6 is also one of the console’s least interesting releases.
It’s a d-pad controlled contradiction that split fans and divided critics, but more importantly,
it brought the golden era of Mega Man to a close.
Released almost three years after the launch of the Super Nintendo, Mega Man 6 is a game
that almost didn’t make it to the States.
With the 16-bit generation well underway, Capcom had no desire to publish the game outside
of Japan.
But fortunately, someone else stepped in.
Mega Man 6 was released in 1994, for the NES...by Nintendo.
However, the circumstances surrounding Mega Man 6 are a lot more interesting than the
game itself.
By this point, Capcom’s inspiration for these games—which had once seemed endless—was
starting to run dry.
It’s just not as creative as 2 or 3.
It’s not as refined as 4 or 5.
In Mega Man 6, Dr. Light’s sleeves are running out of tricks.
And yet, just another Mega Man game is still good enough to be an NES game worth owning.
It’s true this game has some of the series’ least interesting bosses, and in fact, some
of their attacks are even recycled from prior titles.
But Mega Man 6 still delivers outstanding platforming, awesome action and even a few
new additions.
But it was 1994.
It was the year of Donkey Kong Country.
It was the year of Super Metroid.
More importantly, it was the year of Mega Man X.
In fact, Mega Man 6 was released after Capcom’s 16-bit Mega Man reinvention, a time when the
mark of the NES—those numb thumbs and sore palms—was already a memory.
But you know, the magic is still there.
Mega Man 6 isn’t Mega Man 2.
In fact, it isn’t even Mega Man 5.
But it is retro, old-school, 8-bit Mega Man.
And in video games, it doesn’t get much better than that.