Mega Man: A Legacy Worth Investing In?

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Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 was recently released very much to my delight. Beyond just loving me some classic Mega Man this has been the first opportunity to own Mega Man 9 and Mega Man 10 on a physical format. That for me was reason enough to pick it up right away. The first Mega Man Legacy Collection was a fantastic compilation where the passion of the team involved was plainly evident, so I had no hesitation picking up Legacy 2 after that experience. Turns out I should have maybe been a bit more skeptical.....

If you're not familiar the original collection, Mega Man Legacy Collection featured Mega Man 1-6 on it. It was stuffed to the brim with music and artwork for fans to explore and enjoy too. My favorite feature by far were the challenges included. There was a massive number of cool little trials meant to both challenge and captivate its players. There were remixed stages where players had to battle their way through specific sections of one of the games. There were challenges that saw players battling their way through mashed up stages across multiple games. There were vanishing block challenges, rush challenges , multi-game wily challenges, and multi-game master robot challenges. These were a blast to do, they were interesting and unique, and pure fan service to those of us who have played through these games so many times and wanted a fun new way to enjoy the Blue Bomber.

The only expectation I had for Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 was a hope for more of the same. I just wanted 7-10 to have the same care they put into 1-6. Turns out that was too much to hope for. While they still have all the artwork and music available to peruse, they dropped the ball HARD on the challenges this time around. There isn't a single mash up and only a measly two remix stages per game that feels very phoned in by comparison. There are no rush challenges or vanishing block trials. What you are given is very basic "beat these bosses", "ok now beat them with just buster", "ok now do those two things again, but with Protoman this time." It's quite sad and uninspired. Even the original challenges on Mega Man 9 and 10 that were included with the game, are in an annoying second menu that you have to leave each game and open a separate area to view, are not included as part of the challenge mode or even the trophy support. Speaking of trophy support, in the first game you have to gold medal every challenge in the game to get trophies, a sign of a true Mega Man Master if you ask me (something which I proudly achieved). In Legacy 2, you merely have to Gold Medal just over half of the sad selection of challenges to obtain all the trophies available.

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Mega Man Legacy Collection is the home to 6 amazing games. It really didn't need to go beyond that with the extra content, but it did anyway. It is a prime example of how to remaster/re-release/fan-service a classic series. Legacy 2 is home to two amazing games and two mediocre games; as great as Mega Man 9 and 10 are, 7 and 8 are easily the weakest entries in the series by quite a far margin. Overall, Legacy 2 has far less content than the first collection. If ever there was a time to step up and put in some extra elbow grease to prove to fans this is worth the purchase (especially after people being confused as to why 7-10 weren't included in the original Legacy Collection in the first place) this was that time, and Capcom missed that mark big time.

I'm very grateful to finally have a physical way to play Mega Man 9 and 10 and the fact that the original challenges for each of those games is included (even if it is in a clunky way) has me satisfied with my purchase. Unfortunately, I'm still left with that "this could have been so much more" feeling.