Box Art
Game: Megaman 7
First Released: March 24, 1995, Super Famicom
Developers: Capcom
Platforms: SNES, Gamecube, Playstation 2, Xbox
Rated: E, for Cartoon Violence
First Released: March 24, 1995, Super Famicom
Developers: Capcom
Platforms: SNES, Gamecube, Playstation 2, Xbox
Rated: E, for Cartoon Violence
How I Came To Play This Game
Freezeman Stage
A long time ago I bought the Megaman Anniversary Collection for the Gamecube which included the first eight Megaman games and two arcade games.
Story
Six months after Dr. Wily's imprisonment, four robots that had been hidden away in his lab activated and broke him out of prison and began to wreak havoc in the city. Mega Man went to investigate and, upon his arrival, met up with the mysterious Bass and Treble, a robot and his dog who appeared to be after Wily as well. After defeating the four Robot Masters, Mega Man returned to Light Labs, only to find that Wily attacked the Robot Master Museum and stole a copy of Guts Man. Then, four more Robot Masters attacked. In the attack, Bass was damaged (by Shade Man), so Mega Man sent him to Dr. Light for repairs. However, when he returned to the lab, it was badly damaged, and Dr. Wily appeared on the screen to mock them and announce that Bass and Treble were his creations. Mega Man set out for Wily's lab to get his revenge.In the end, he defeated Bass and Treble and crushed Wily, but when Wily begged once again, Mega Man debated internally whether or not he should kill Wily. Wily reminded Mega Man that robots must never harm humans, as it is against one of The Laws of Robotics. Before he could decide, however, Bass and Treble came and rescued Wily, with Bass quoting Joseph Addison: "He who hesitates is lost." Mega Man then leaves Wily's Castle and walks away as it explodes. Meanwhile, a shooting star streaks across the sky.
Robot Masters
Freezeman, Burstman, Cloudman, Junkman, Springman, Shademan, Turboman, Slashman.
Review
Megaman 7 was the first in the classic series to have a graphical update. Being released for the Super Nintendo, the graphic capabilities were much higher. Now, the game actually looks like a real cartoon with a full color pallet. The charactere even have dialogue that appears in speech bubbles. This is also the first game to include an intro stage that you play through before even going to the stage select screen. One thing that is different about this game, is that you don't have access to all of the robot masters from the start. After you beat the first four robot masters, you play through a midway stage. After you beat that, the other four stages appear. This game added some very nice features, such as a shop called the Big Eddie Store. As you might think from the name, the store is shaped like Eddie. A new character is introduced named Auto, who is Dr. Light's best robot student. Auto is the one that makes Megaman items in the shop in return for screws. Screws are the currency in the game and can be found lying around in stages or dropped from enemies. You can even find a Hyper Bolt for Auto, which allows him to work more efficiently and half the price of the items in the store. Eddie can be seen standing next to Auto. Is this place where Eddie would get his items? Anyway, the item collecting part of the game is even bigger than Megaman 6. The Energy Balancer from Megaman 6 returns, and a new item called the Escape Unit. This will allow you to exit a stage whenever you want as long as you've already beaten the boss of that stage. Instead of BEAT plates, there are RUSH plates. Collecting all of these will give you the Super Adaptor, which is a combination of the Jet and Power Adaptors from Megaman 6. You can even buy a homing upgrade from the Big Eddie Store once you've returned Auto's Hyper Bolt. Beat, instead must be rescued from a cage in a stage and comes to save Megaman whenevwer he falls into a pit, as long as Megaman has whistles to call him. The Rush Coil and Rush Jet functions return and can either be found in stages or bought from the store. A new function of Rush called Rush Search can be used to get items for free by digging them up at certain spots in stages, that way you don't have to buy them from the store. E-Tanks and W-Tanks return, with the addition of an S-Tank which combines the two together. there is only one castle, a Wily Castle, to go through in this game. At the end, of course, there is a Wily Machine and a Wily Capsule. The Wily Machine No.7 isn't too hard if you use it's weakness, but the Wily Capsule is way to hard. Even with all of the upgrades, his orbs he fires at you never miss, unless you're extremely lucky. The orbs have different elemental properties. The red one catches you on fire for like five seconds, the yellow ones just shock you, and the blue ones freeze you for a short time. After firing the orbs, Wily fires a spark at the ground which splits and goes in both directions along the floor. So if you're hit by the ice orb, you will automatically be hit again by the ground sparks. Also, there is the same problem as the other Wily Capsules where you have to wait for him to come down in order to hit him, so you'll have to take a non-profitable hit if he is to high up to attack him. The only way I was able to beat him, was to have all four E-Tanks, all four W-Tanks, the S-Tank, and a combination of using the Super Adaptor to hit him with the homing attack when he was to high and his weakness, the Wild Coil. In the playthrough I did for this review, I had to continue three times. One cool thing is all of the secret things in the game. One of those things being Protoman. You can find Protoman in three locations, and fight him on the third meeting, earning the Proto shield. There is also a Versus Mode you can get to by putting in a certain password and holding down the shoulder buttons. Also, if you hold a button while starting Shademan's stage, it will play music from the game Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts.
Releases
Megaman 7 was first released for the SNES in 1995. A compilation, the Megaman Anniversery Collection, included the game and was released for the Gamecube and Playstation 2 in 2004, with an Xbox version released in 2005.
My Rating
I give this game a 9/10. This game was the best out of the classic series all the way up until the final boss, which was too hard. I think they must have made a mistake making it that difficult.