Mega Man 8 - Thoughts
Released in December 1996 in Japan and early 1997 in North America and Europe, Mega Man 8 marked the classic series’ long-awaited debut on 32-bit hardware, launching on both the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Arriving during gaming’s transition to 3D worlds and cinematic storytelling, Capcom instead chose to double down on the franchise’s 2D roots, delivering a vibrant, hand-drawn adventure that pushed sprite animation to its most colorful, expressive heights. With new characters like the mysterious Duo, an expanded voice-acted storyline, and a polished soundtrack, Mega Man 8 aimed to modernize the formula while keeping the Blue Bomber’s tight, stage-based gameplay intact.
At release, the game received generally positive reviews, though reactions varied depending on expectations. Critics praised the game’s gorgeous animation, vivid art direction, and refined controls, noting that it felt like the most visually ambitious entry in the classic series. Some reviewers, however, criticized its lower difficulty, slower movement, and tonal whiplash from its now-infamous English voice acting. In particular Dr. Light’s “we musth stop Dr. Waawee!” and the infamous Jump! Jump! Slide! Slide! segments. Still, most agreed it was a charming and technically impressive continuation of the Mega Man formula.
Commercially, Mega Man 8 sold respectably but not spectacularly, with lifetime sales estimated at around 300,000–350,000 units worldwide which is noticeably lower than the best-performing NES entries and overshadowed by Capcom’s flashier 32-bit franchises like Resident Evil and Mega Man X4. Over the years, however, the game has found a more appreciative audience. Many fans now view it as one of the most visually striking and experimental entries in the classic timeline, remembered as much for its bold animation and quirky personality as for its traditional action-platforming roots.
What I Liked 😃
Always in For Anime
Mega Man 8 is where we get our first taste of anime cutscenes in a Mega Man game and it is great. The idea of cross media content like Japanese anime and video games has always been an appealing idea to me. Games on CD and more powerful console hardware made this possible. The intro sequence is inspired heavily from a 90s anime OVA. Is the voice acting terrible? Yeah, it is. But that’s part of the charm. Listening to Dr. Light speak always brings a smile to my face. The anime itself is very engaging and seems well done in my opinion. The cutscenes add more narrative flare to the game and act as a connective tissue between stages. Unfortunately, having played other Mega Man games along with the Mega Man X series, anime cutscenes eventually went away presumably due to budgetary reasons. This makes me sad.
I Found a Bolt
In-game currency makes a return from Mega Man 7 with the bolt. Once again, Mega Man can pick up bolts in the level that can be used to upgrade his load out. And, once again, this gives each stage a lot more replay-ability to try and find all the bolts. This time, instead of Auto the robot, Roll is behind the counter explaining all of the powerups to Mega Man. Upgrades include extra lives, an Exit device, an Energy Balancer and more.
The other difference is that in Mega Man 7, bolts dropped randomly from enemies but in Mega Man 8, bolts are found in specific spots and do not drop from enemies. Previously I called them currency, but really they are collectibles that have an associated value more than anything.
Best Looking Mega Man Yet
This is certainly the best looking game in the mainline Mega Man series up to this point. The game isn’t necessarily pushing the PlayStation to its limits by any means, but because of the added power and speed, Capcom could add more animations and more detail. Mega Man’s run animation has been updated, there are more enemy animations, there’s more background detail and particle effects. Frost Man’s stage has a sprawling frozen city in the background and snow is falling. Frost Man himself is massive and is fantastically animated, looking like something you’d see in an arcade game. Tengu Man’s stage also has a huge background of a grassland area. Leaves are flying by from the windy conditions. At points in the stage, Mega Man has to float in a bubble that gleams in the sunlight. Humongous whale robots are being transported via the air. These are just a tiny fraction of the sprite based spectacles on display.
The only disappointing graphical implementation are the actual use of 3D when Mega Man gets a new power up. Mega Man looks awkward and the animation is stiff and lifeless. I’m not sure why they chose 3D for this one tiny part. Maybe someone was like, “hey man we’re programming this game for the PlayStation, we have to have SOMETHING that is 3D”
A Shmup in Mega Man?
Speaking of Tengu Man’s stage, I was taken a back by a fully implemented horizontal scrolling shoot em up within the game. Mega Man hops on his trusty robo dog Rush and Mega Man uses his buster shot to dispatch enemies. But that’s not all! Mega Man can also pick up powerup that give him added fire power. There’s one that summons Auto who shoots a large bazooka at enemies. There is another that summons the ever helpful bird companion Beat. There is even a mini boss at the end just like one would expect from a shmup.
I was impressed with how much fun this little section was and how well it was done. Through the rest of the game, however, we never see another instance of this which is a shame.
What I Didn’t Like ☹️
Uninspired Music
I did not think the music in Mega Man 8 was very good. Yes, the base music quality was great due to the CD-ROM format. But the composition of the tracks themselves sounded more like elevator music than a Mega Man theme. Compared to the great musical heights of Mega Man 2 or 3, the music here sounded out of place. There was no fast paced hard hitting tracks like the Title theme of Mega Man 2. No ear worm tracks like Metal Man’s stage. No catchy tunes like Hard Man or Spark Man’s stage from Mega Man 3. It is unfortunate because even straight clones of those above tracks in CD quality would have been amazing. Instead we get stuff that sounds like royalty free tracks you’d buy off the internet.
Jump, Jump, Slide, SLIDE!!!
Frost Man’s stage has a section where Mega Man is snowboarding. He has to jump across pits and slide under obstacles in order to make progress. Instead of doing this on his own, he has some robotic voice helper instructing him what to do. The robotic voice exclaims JUMP JUMP when Mega Man needs to jump and SLIDE SLIDE if Mega Man needs to slide under something. The section is fast, challenging and annoying because you will be doing this part over and over and hearing that voice over and over again. There are even moments where the Jump and Slide voice talks over itself due to the pacing.
I think Capcom put the voice in there because the section gets pretty fast especially at the end. They were probably trying to be helpful. But what is something that should be helpful gets annoying really quickly.
Overall Thoughts 🤔
Mega Man 8, in many ways, is a step up for Mega Man. We get CD quality audio, fully animated Japanese anime cutscenes with voice acting, improved in-game graphics and animation as well as the ability to go back through the stages to collect bolts.
On the other hand, the music tracks are not very creative in my opinion, the voice acting is pretty cheesy and may turn some people off and some of the gameplay sections like the snowboarding section can get annoying.
But, I think taken as a whole, Mega Man 8 is a game worth playing especially if whomever is reading this is a Mega Man fan.
Where Can I Play This? 🕹️
As with all the previous Mega Man titles, Mega Man 8 is best played via the Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 on all modern consoles. Aside from that, you’ll either be buying the original PlayStation copy or emulating on PC.
I played Mega Man 8 physically on the PlayStation 1. I got several of the upgrades and defeated Wily once again.
Up Next 📅
Up next, I’ll be talking about the third game in the Metroid Prime series, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for the Nintendo Wii!