MEGA MAN 7

Dr. Wily always realized that his evil plots might someday come to an end at the hands of Mega Man. To prepare for such a possibility, he constructed some backup robots and sealed them away in special compartments. If six months ever passed without Dr. Wily’s input, the robots would be activated so they could search for their master.

In the closing of Mega Man 6 Dr. Wily was indeed captured by Mega Man and sentenced to jail. His attempts to escape failed, so he waited. After six months, his stored robots began to rampage the city, looking for their creator. Mega Man hurried to stop this sudden and unexpected siege. He encountered Bass and Treble along the way—a humanoid robot and his robot dog—two mysterious robots who were apparently attempting to stop Dr. Wily’s forces just as Mega Man was.

Then Mega Man found Dr. Light just in time for the two to watch Dr. Wily escape from prison. The chase was on....

Continuing the Mega Man saga, this is the first original series Mega Man adventure for the Super Nintendo. (Don’t believe the magazines; Mega Man 7 is not a sequel to Mega Man X2. It is rather a sequel to Mega Man 6, and is a continuation of the Mega Man games on the regular Nintendo.) In this aspect Capcom did a decent job; although parts of the manual and game play seem to be morphing toward their cartoon counterparts, and some of the game itself is reminiscent of the X series, most of the game is consistent with the NES series. (Except that the dialogue doesn’t always seem to match the character speaking it...) The only other thing that is disappointing, though, is the fact that a lot of the sound effects sound even cheesier than the old NES ever did.

As I’d hoped, Mega Man 7 borrowed many of the elements that made Mega Man IV and V for GameBoy so fun to play. The Item Replicator is back, although instead of Dr. Light, a new robot named Auto is operating it, and he makes things out of Bolts instead of P-Chips. Same diff. Rush, Roll, Proto Man, Beat, and Eddie (Flip-Top) are all back, although Tango is mysteriously missing. Of the ones that are present, most have new or different abilities. Rush still has his Jet and Coil transformations from 3 through 5, as well as his Rush Jet and Power formations from 6—the latter two combined into one useful package. (They call it the Super Adapter.) But the dog also has a new mode: Rush Search. Beat no longer attacks but instead saves Mega Man occasionally by catching the blue bomber out of a lethal plunge. Eddie, on the other hand, does absolutely nothing! Oh well.

The Mega Buster in this game has changed slightly. In all other Mega Man games, a fully-powered super-shot is apparently equivalent to the damage of three normal shots. In Mega Man 7, though, super-shots are practically worthless in many cases as the shots are only worth two normal ones, and it’s easier to simply rapid-fire. So don’t get too much in the habit of charging up. The only places where super-shots are useful are where the extra shot size is needed or for the few robots who are immune to normal shots but can be hit with supers. Oh, and for situations where you have the time to charge up—so why not?

Also, stepping in to fill the place—in a way—of both Zero from the X games and Proto Man from the Mega Shows, is a new robot named Bass with his robotic dog, Treble. (Groan. Looks like Dr. Wily has caught on to Dr. Light’s apparent love of music!)

• I can’t see when I enter the water in Burst Man’s stage. Can you give me any tips?
  Yes. Buy the game. Emulators notoriously choke on the translucency effects of water in certain stages. Yes, there are ways around this—which basically involve getting your emulator to either support or disable the translucent layers—but these methods vary from emulator to emulator. I cannot guide you through the process. Try looking in the help files for your emulator...or play on a SNES, which has no troubles at all with the translucent effects.
• How do you go to Auto’s shop?
  Press Select while on the stage select screen. It’s in the manual of the SNES game, unlike Mega Man IV and Mega Man V where this feature originated. However, Capcom forgot to put it in the manual for the Anniversary Collection (oops). Note that the GameCube doesn’t have a Select button, so you use Z in that case.
• Is Cut Man in Mega Man 7?
  Yes, he’s in the comic strip during the opening. Of course, this doesn’t really count. For a while, a hot debate was flying through the Mega Man crowd over whether or not you could actually find Cut Man during the game and possibly even fight him and get his weapon. At one time people were searching all over the game doing all sorts of insane things trying to get Cut Man to appear. No one succeeded. Whether Cut Man is actually in Mega Man 7 is still up in the air, but I doubt it, and so far no one has ever found him. (I suppose this is why Cut Man appears in the Saturn version of Mega Man 8.) Note that the empty slot on the weapons list is meaningless; perhaps originally they were going to put something like Beat in there, but most likely they simply didn’t have anything to put there, so they left it blank. (The developers should have written “This space intentionally left blank,” and then maybe I wouldn’t get so many e-mails about it.)

Play Control:

Still quite good, although the sheer size of the sprites (compared to the screen’s size) means you have less room to maneuver.

Graphics:

Detailed and colorful, but maybe a little too colorful. Although the actual quality of the graphics is pretty decent, I think some of the color choices could have been better.

Animation:

Most of the sprites look fine when they are still. But many of them—particularly Mega Man’s running animation—look pretty bad in motion. Also Mega Man can’t charge up in this game without sticking out his arm cannon...

Music:

The music is memorable, and several tunes are quite nice, although all of the music has an overall sort of tinny ambience.

Sound Effects:

A lot of the sounds are pretty awful; Mega Man’s arm cannon sounds more like a pea-shooter than a plasma cannon.

Plot:

The plot is an interesting one, but there are several aspects (such as Bass’s initial involvement) which aren’t made terribly clear by the game.

Difficulty: (normal)

Generally fairly normal in difficulty, although as usual of Capcom’s later games, a lot of people get tripped up by the final boss.

Replay Value:

Most items in the game can be found or built, which is a nice feature: if you like to hunt around, you can search for them, but if you just want to have the item and be done with it, you can just gather enough Bolts to build it.

Polish:

Nothing really jumps out at me, although the hidden Street Fighter mode was a cute touch (though it could have used some improvement...).

Overall: 79%

A fairly decent game that unfortunately for it, was overshadowed in the “eye-candy” department by Mega Man X1, which had been released not long before this title. Clearly, Capcom could have done a lot better with Mega Man 7’s graphics and sounds than they did.

+ Plus:

There’s a password which will take you straight to the final stage of the game.

- Minus:

Some of the sound effects (such as Mega Man’s firing) sound really cheesy.

The first four Robot Masters go in a complete loop. That means you use one robot’s weapon against the next until the last one on the list is used on the first. When a loop like this happens, you just have to jump in somewhere and beat one of them with the Mega Buster before you can start using Master Weapons. Basically, try someone and if you can’t beat him with the Mega Buster, give up and try someone else.

Although I personally suggest starting with Cloud Man, if you want to get all of the items without revisiting stages, you’ll need to start with Freeze Man. (In this case, you can get both items in Junk Man’s stage without revisiting it if you get one and then immediately kill yourself off. You will reappear in a perfect spot to go after the other one.)

• Cloud Man (Use Danger Wrap if you have it)
• Junk Man (Use Thunder Bolt)
• Freeze Man (Use Junk Shield)
• Burst Man (Use Freeze Cracker, or, later, Scorch Wheel)

• Clown (Hit the head with fully-powered Mega Buster shots and Danger Wrap bombs.)

• Slash Man (Use Freeze Cracker or Scorch Wheel)
• Spring Man (Use Slash Claw)
• Shade Man (Use Wild Coil. Use the Thunder Bolt or the Scorch Wheel to get through the darkened area of his stage. Or you can bypass the dark area altogether by destroying the outer shell of the pumpkin.)
• Turbo Man (Use Noise Crush—and bounce each shot off the wall behind you first!)

Yes, they are in this game. But they’re...pink?

One thing stolen from Mega Man X1 is the way that the fortress is done. You can leave between stages and go gather more powerups and lives and stuff—which is almost too easy. Remember this as you’re fighting bosses, for you have nearly an unlimited supply of Energy Tanks.

Bass alone:

(The real battle—in Wily’s fortress.) Use Super Adapter. Remember that though the PU fist will seek out the enemy, you still have to point it in the right direction.

Guts Man:

One way is to stay left and use the Super Adapter in order to easily clear the rocks he will slide toward you. Don’t bother charging up—except when Guts Man grabs you. At this point, charge up while he is smashing you against the ceiling, and fire off when you come back down—before Guts Man can get out of range. Or, something to try out, do what Procyon Lotor suggests and use the Slash Claw to swipe those blocks back at him!

Bass and Treble:

Mimic him and use Rush’s Super Adapter. If you get low on energy drain an Energy Tank.

Turtle:

Fire at the head with the Arm Cannon or Wire Coil, then activate the Junk Shield or use the Slash Claw to take out the miniature turtles.

Flying Skull:

Use the Noise Crush to prevent you from having to charge up. Remember that you can jump onto the missiles the skull fires.

Wily 1st time:

Charge up the Mega Buster, use rapid-fire arm cannon shots, or use the Thunder Bolt. Ignore the miniature little skull stilts; they are not worth wasting time to destroy. (Here’s a pattern I’ve noticed Wily make, though he breaks it every once in a while: if he drops down on the right side of the screen, more often then not he will proceed to simply bounce across to the other side. If he comes down on the left side, he’ll usually toss some mini skull stilts at you. Since he will come down on whatever side you are standing at the time, you can influence his actions quite a bit. I recommend the right side, since he’s easier to hit and dodge without the little skull stilts getting underfoot.)

Wily 2nd time: (Not this attack style again!)

Use the Freeze Cracker since it is directional, or, alternately, several people have suggested Wild Coil (try charging it up). (Where’s Beat when you really need him?) Since dodging Wily’s first four shots is difficult, a second best plan is to be intentionally hit by either a yellow one, which inflicts the least amount of damage with one hit, or a red one, which you can get out of if you hit the buttons rapidly (same as with ice, but fire usually takes less damage if you get out quickly enough.) Either way, you can then use your temporary invincibility to dodge the other shots.

Funny how some of the pictures used for the password numbers can be so cool-looking while others look pretty stupid. Oh well. At any rate, here are a few useful passwords. There is another—the ultimate password—but I’m not going to give it to you here (look in the Tricks section below to find out how to earn it yourself).

Note: Some of these passwords might not work in remakes such as the Anniversary Collection.

Want to really mess up the game? Try some of the outrageous passwords you can put together by using the Mega Man 7 Password Crack (or try the JavaScript Generator)!

Nearly all of the items can be obtained in two ways: by finding them or by having Auto build them. Sometimes it is to your advantage to use Bolts to build some things early instead of trying to find them. But every item below can be found, nonetheless. (Find the four letters that spell “RUSH” and you will get the Super Adapter.)

Cloud Man’s stage:

• U: Hit the second weather maker with the Freeze Cracker and it will create a blizzard. The snow will reveal the hidden ledges later in the stage. In that section, there is a ladder that leads up to a ledge with a 1-up. Jump from this ledge to the left, and eventually you will reach the Rush letter.

Burst Man’s stage:

• R: It’s in plain sight later in the stage; you can’t miss it.

Freeze Man’s stage:

• H: Use Rush Coil to get to a ladder that’s too high to reach. Climb up and you’ll have found the room with the letter.
• Rush Search: You gotta jump over a bunch of frozen platforms. Practice some and if you still can’t do it, come back later with the Super Adapter or the Rush Jet.
• Escape Unit: Dig this up with Rush Search a few blocks to the left of the gate at the end of the stage (that leads to the Robot Master room).

Junk Man’s stage:

Screenshot from Pixelboy
• S: There is a spot where lava is pouring down a wall. Hit it with the Freeze Cracker to shatter it. Head into the passage you created to find the letter.
• Rush Jet: Hit the small gray machinery (under the red AC sign) to activate the lifts. Scale the ladders to the next screen, and you should see the Rush Jet icon. Reach the ladder leading to it by either hopping onto the lifts to give yourself the height you need, or use Rush Coil.

Slash Man’s stage:

• Beat: Take Proto Man’s advice and use the Scorch Wheel to burn the trees in the forest near the end of the stage. One will reveal a ladder leading up to Beat. Use the Mega Buster to free him.

Spring Man’s stage:

• Hyper Bolt: This item is behind a gate that can be opened with the glove-in-the-box right beside it. Jump on the box to turn it around, and when the arrow points left, wait for the glove to shoot out and take care of the door.

Turbo Man’s stage:

• PU Fist: Use Rush Search on the first stoplight platform you come to (it’s in that vertical tunnel with the ladder leading up the right side).

Shade Man’s stage:

• Energy Balancer: Destroy the pumpkin mini-boss by shooting at its outer shell’s eyes, and you will create a path going right. Rush Search right below the portrait of Dr. Wily you’ll find over there. (Thanks go to Pixelboy for pointing this one out.)

General Hints

• The small gray machinery in Junk Man’s stage (first one’s under a red AC sign) can be activated with the Thunder Bolt from Cloud Man. The first one will get you to the Rush Jet.
  

  Screenshot from Pixelboy
  The second time, jump onto the junk being raised from the ground by chains, and you can leap from there through a hole in the ceiling. Once up there you can simply walk right—bypassing part of the stage. (Anyone remember Super Mario Bros.?)
• Activate the machinery in Junk Man’s stage, then jump up into the grip of the first magnet. Hang out up there and shoot the junk off the chains. Within minutes I had received about five 1-Ups this way. (Ironically enough, I didn’t get any 1-Ups if I stood on the ground.)
• Hit the second Weather Maker in Cloud Man’s stage with the Freeze Cracker to make your life easier.
• Try using Rush Search on both of the stop light ledges in the vertical tunnel in Turbo Man’s stage (the tunnel with the ladder going up the right side).
• Digging in certain locations with the Rush Search (no I’m not going to list where; look for them yourself) will produce a giant version of a common object such as an energy capsule or Bolt; these are basically the same thing as their smaller cousins except they give you more energy or Bolts than usual. (The giant Bolt is worth 100 Bolts; the giant energy capsules pretty much refill you totally.)
• You can defeat the pumpkin mini-boss in Shade Man’s stage two different ways—shoot at the purple thing in the middle, or aim at the outer shell’s eyes when the pumpkin is closed up. To get a passage going right (leading to a spot where you can use Rush Search to dig up the Energy Balancer), destroy the outer shell. To get a passage going down (which leads to Proto Man), destroy the inner shell. You’ll probably want to go both ways at least once if only to check out the unique sections of the level.
• Want lots of Bolts? Go to Cloud Man’s stage and head for the section where the invisible platforms are. Charge up your Mega Buster, then at the second platform when the first Pipi imitation shows up, let its egg hit the ground then release your shot. The super-shot will obliterate all the miniature birds from the egg and give you tons of powerups. Backtrack a little to scroll the Pipi back on the screen, and repeat.
• The thing that Rush is barking at in Dr. Wily’s fortress is an Energy Tank. You can’t see it because it’s hidden behind a pillar. It’s on a platform that’s off the bottom of the screen. Jump into the pit under the ladder while holding left, and you’ll fall onto the platform. Make sure you have the Super Adapter equipped before you leap, however, because you can’t equip it once you’re down there and you’ll need it to get back out.
• For an unexpected surprise, hold down B while selecting Shade Man’s stage. (Note: this does not work if you have already defeated this Robot Master.) Instead of the regular stage music, you will get a guest tune. (Thanks to Carlos Diaz for finding this and Procyon Lotor for bringing it to my attention.)
  

  Toasty.
• Most of the weapons have special uses or modes. Freeze Man’s Freeze Cracker is directional—it will fire in whatever direction you are pressing when you hit the fire button. It can also be used to temporarily ice lava and fire. (Just like the Ice Slasher!) Cloud Man’s Thunder Bolt can be used to fry things. Turbo Man’s Scorch Wheel will burn them, and Burst Man’s Danger Wrap encases enemies in bubbles with bombs. (Or you can place a bomb on the floor by pressing down as you fire.) Spring Man’s Wire Coil can be charged up. And try bouncing Shade Man’s Noise Crush off a wall and letting the reflected shot hit Mega Man. He will absorb it and be ready to fire a larger one—at no extra expense!
• In most Mega Man games, using a robot’s own weapon against him can be advantageous, since many Robot Masters can dish it out but not take it. In other words, they are weak against their own weapon. (Metal Man is infamous for this.) However, in Mega Man 7 the Robot Masters are all (more logically) strong against their elements, and some will do odd things if you attempt it. For instance, hit Shade Man with a Noise Crush and he will absorb it like he absorbs his own shots and fire it back at you! (Too bad you can’t do the same...) Freeze Man is the best though; he will turn and freeze (haha) the game in order to laugh at the player for trying to hurt him with ice!
• Likewise, as noted by Gamble Man and others, this game has a number of creative Robot Master reactions to certain other weapons, not just their own. Thunder Bolt will make Turbo Man invulnerable for a bit. Thunder Bolt on Spring Man will magnetize him, pulling you toward him, resulting in you being grabbed and damaged. And if you use the Super Adapter’s fist on Burst Man, Mega Man will grab a bomb and damage himself as his hand returns.
• When you beat the game you will notice a string of numbers along the bottom of the screen. As you may have guessed, they actually mean something. Try using them as a password. Or better yet, punch them into the password screen and hold the L and R buttons as you hit START!

The Proto Shield

If you do everything correctly, Proto Man will challenge you to a little duel. Win the duel and he’ll give you his shield to carry around for a while. The first thing to do is find him.

Locations of Proto Man:

You must visit all these rooms in one sitting. That means you can’t hit RESET or turn off the power in between. (The fact that you’d seen Proto Man is not stored in the passwords.) You also must do Shade Man’s stage last. (The order of the other two doesn’t matter.)

• Cloud Man’s stage: Near the end of the stage you will encounter a Sniper Joe and climb a ladder directly afterward. At the top will be a horizontal chamber that leads to Cloud Man’s room. Almost immediately is a ladder in the ceiling, and a robot is pacing underneath. Reach the ladder with Rush and climb up.
• Turbo Man’s stage: After the section of tires suspended from the ceiling, you will come to a vertical tunnel with a ladder on the right. As you climb, you will pass two stoplight ledges on the left. Climb to the top of this ladder, then let go and drop down while pressing hard to the right. You should drop through the wall.
• Shade Man’s stage: Defeat the pumpkin miniboss by shooting at the purple inner shell. This will create an opening in the floor. Drop down, defeat the Sniper Joe down there, and walk right, through the wall.

Defeating Proto Man:

The best strategy to use here is charge up and hit him only with fully-powered Mega Buster blasts. If you do this, he will be extremely repetitious, and once you master this pattern, he’ll admit defeat quickly. Try to fire only when he is firing; most other times he will deflect your shots with his shield.

Using the Shield:

Once you get the shield, you can use it in place of the Mega Buster since it is not technically a seperate weapon. You do not need to do anything fancy; just choose the shield on the subscreen, and Mega Man will be carrying it. You can charge up and fire his Mega Buster exactly like normal. The shield is just a thing he’s carting around, not an extra weapon. The nice thing about it is that it will block shots that strike it while it is in use.

There are a couple of things to be aware of however:

• Mega Man carries the shield on his back when he needs use of his hands, and it does not protect him when it’s on his back (it would guard his backside in real life, but in the game, it doesn’t). Be careful as you move around, since Mega Man has the shield on his back while doing almost anything but standing still.
• The shield makes a tinging sound effect when it blocks something. Interestingly enough, it will even ting if a robot bodily strikes it. However, although the shield will block some projectiles, it will not block robots or inflict damage on them. So a robot can still fly through the shield and hit Mega Man. If, on the other hand, the robot’s path only causes it to hit the shield, Mega Man will not be harmed (try this with steps).
• There is a slight bug with the control of Mega Man while he is carrying the shield. If you stand still and fire, you cannot start moving until Mega Man finishes firing (without the shield, this is not the case). This can throw off your timing until you get used to it. It does not occur if you fire while already running.

Street Fighter Mode

When you beat the game you get a special password that will take you straight to the final stage of Wily’s fortress with all the items. This makes a nice reward for beating the game, which is why I never posted it; but since so many people keep asking, here it is:

Screen shot courtesy of Pixelboy

As most people know by now, this password can also be used to access a Street Fighter style bonus mode. This bonus game is very simple, but it is cute and it’s two player.

To access the mode, go to the password screen and enter the password. When you are done, hold the L and R buttons as you hit START. Instead of going to the game, you will enter the bonus mode.

Special Moves:

The mode is only two player; there is no computer opponent. Players can pick from Mega Man or Bass and both can use the same character if they desire (no word on why Proto Man was not included in the lineup, since all of the necessary sprites for his motions were already included in the game). During the match, the players move around the same way Mega Man does in the normal game, except that ala Street Fighter, there are some special moves which are accomplished by pressing certain controller sequences. (Note: the following list may be missing some moves; I’ll update it as I play it again.)

• Press up-up for a faintwarp with either character. As in the normal MM games, this will grant them temporary invincibility.
• Do a fireball motion (down, down-forward, forward, fire) to have Mega Man do a Slash Claw style slash.
• Do a Dragon Punch motion (forward, down, down-forward, fire) and Bass will do a rising kick.
• Mega Man’s slide is the same as during the normal game except that you have to press down twice in rapid succession; he will damage his opponent if he slides into him.
• When Bass is in the air, press left or right twice to make him air dash (I think that’s what causes it, experiment). I believe you can also pull off this move when he is standing on the ground, by pressing back, then forward twice and fire.

Basically, Dr. Wily starts begging for mercy as usual but Mega Man points his arm cannon at him, saying that maybe he should do what he could have done years ago. Dr. Wily, naturally scared out of his wits, starts slowly easing backward. Right about then the ceiling caves in and Wily is trapped under some girders. Mega Man stands there looking at him for a good while until finally Treble shows up and teleports Wily away. Bass appears shortly thereafter, delivers his famous “He who hesitates is lost” line, and leaves. Mega Man teleports out as well as more pieces of the ceiling fall...

The next scene shows a close-up of Mega Man walking toward the screen. Behind him is the fortress. After a couple of seconds it bursts into flames (the entire thing!) and the rest of the time we see Mega Man walking with the inferno in the background. Occationally the screen flips to show pictures of Robot Masters; strangely enough Mega Man changes expressions between scenes. Half the time he has a blank face, and half the time he looks angry.

Once the credits and all are done with, Mega Man arrives at the giant Eddie. Inside (apparently) wait Dr. Light, Roll, Auto, Beat, Eddie, Rush...etc. The screen freezes and fades to orange, apparently representing an old-fashioned photograph. Weird.