Mega Man Legacy Collection review for Nintendo 3DS

The Blue Bomber finally makes his debut on the Nintendo 3DS, but rather than a brand new adventure, we have to settle for yet another collection. Back in August of 2015, Capcom released the Mega Man Legacy Collection for PS4, Xbox One, and PC (which Chris D reviewed rather thoroughly here). Now six months later we have Capcom bringing the collection over to the Nintendo 3DS. Sadly I have to report, with the exception of a few additions (I?ll get into them a bit later), there isn?t anything new worthwhile on this 3DS port. Capcom had a golden opportunity to add some REAL exclusives or additions and fix their reputation just a little, but they blew it.

When the Mega Man Legacy Collection was initially announced I expected the release to include everything from the Mega Man Anniversary Collection of 2004 and more. The Anniversary Collection included Mega Man 1-8 and some other minor features. So it was safe to assume the Legacy Collection would include at least those 8 titles and most likely the Digital only Mega Man titles 9 and 10. Unfortunately, Capcom lived up to their internet reputation and decided to only include the NES Mega Man titles. So a Mega Man Collection released over ten years after the Anniversary Collection, receives an extremely lackluster effort in quantity of titles included. It?s clear there are still great titles included. Mega Man 1-6 tend to include most peoples favorite titles (mine is actually Mega Man 8, which might be why I?m a bit more sore) but being that the games are just roms being used in an emulator, I don?t think it?s wrong to expect more.

Let me back off the beat up session and talk a bit about the additions to the 3DS version. New art has been added to the in-game museum and eleven exclusive remix challenges. The remix challenges can also be unlocked with Nintendo?s favorite new phenomenon; AMIIBO!!! You can use the Mega Man amiibo or the brand new gold Mega Man amiibo which comes with the collectors version of the Legacy Collection to unlock these exclusive challenges. No additional games or features, so it?s safe to say if you already purchased the Legacy Collection for another console, there really isn?t a reason to pick it up on the 3DS unless you’re a super fan (and if you’re a super fan I doubt you would even bother with this review).

The Mega Man titles for both the NES and the Game Boy have already been featured on the Nintendo eShop, so if you already own any of those I can?t recommend the Legacy Collection. If you don?t own any of the Mega Man titles on your 3DS and really want to take down some robot masters (I?m coming for you Dust Man) on the go, then the Legacy collection is a good buy. The games are emulated authentically (I did notice some slow down at certain points, but I assume that?s the way the game originally played) and you also have the option of save states. Why Capcom has put Mega Man in the dog house and won?t release any new titles is still extremely puzzling to me. With Mighty No. 9?s constant delays it looks like this is the only Mega Man style experience we can have thus far in 2016, unless you’re a table top player. In that case, save your cash and check out the Mega Man board game that was a recent Kickstarter success.