It's time for ANOTHER freeware indie game, except even less people have probably heard of this one than usual. I was going to review Nezumi Man, but I couldn't get it to work at all on modern hardware, so I was looking for something in the same vein, and found this. And I was very pleased.
Mechanic Man is a freeware PC game released in 2010 by Northern Mind, and it's one of those cryptids of gaming in terms of information. Heck, the link I had to yank from the Wayback Machine, and there is VERY little info about it anywhere else.
Naturally, as soon as I heard about it, I had to try it for myself, because I love Mega Man. And I was very pleasantly surprised.
This is the epitome of "we have Mega Man at home", but that's not a bad thing at all. Not everything in it may not be outstanding, but it has its own unique flavor that's executed very well.
Also controller support working right out of the box is a very nice bonus.
GAMEPLAY/WEAPON BALANCE:
In gameplay terms, Mechanic Man carries the Mega Man 1 ruleset. Run, jump, no slide or charge. Getting the physics right is important in any mega man-like, and this game succeed in that with flying colors- it's VERY smooth to control.
Also worth noting is that whenever you get a game over and start at the beginning of a stage, you get a free E-Tank, which is a kind gesture that came in handy more than once.
As for the weapons! A large part of whether any given entry in the Mega Man series, or games paying tribute to it, is fun depends on that delicate balance. If the weapons are fun to use, whether any of them overshadow another, or whether the buster is better than all of them like in MM5.
Thankfully, I'm happy to report that the weapons in Mechanic Man are all decent at worst, great at best. What's really interesting about them is that a lot of them function as utilities, filling in the gap of there being no Rush stand-in.
I'll get into the individual weapons over the course of this review, but suffice it to say, they're very fun to use, which is the most important thing in this kind of game.
Anyway, let's get into the stages! They may be short, but they give me a fair amount of stuff to dig into.
MUSIC:
This game has a banging original soundtrack that would fit right in with any NES-era Mega Man game, with some REALLY catchy tracks. CU Elec's theme, CU Liquid's theme, the first and third fortress stage themes, the boss rush music, and ESPECIALLY the final boss theme are my personal favorites.
Honestly, the soundtrack elevates this game quite a bit. It's worth playing the game just to hear it.
CU ELEC
CU Elec's stage is a simple electric factory level, and generally the easiest of the initial six. The purple and yellow color combo pops really nicely here.
Starting off with enemies that descend from above and fire triple shots at you. They're very fun to dodge around, and fly away to keep from getting in the way.
The first arrangement of hazards comes in this tricky little ladder segment- it trades Elec Man's enemies for the ladders themselves being electrified. The sparks travel upwards, so you can outrun them pretty easily.
The Sniper Joe lookalikes are a lot less tanky than their inspirations, which i very much appreciate- those enemies can get pretty tedious to deal with sometimes.
Once you get up top, these guys come out and fire threeways from above, the second enemy type to do that in this stage. Somehow, they're a lot easier to dodge than their brothers. Except when the little cars come in to get in your way, which you can't kill, and force you to play around them.
These Telly-types are really fast, actually. They move like Wily Capsule projectiles, stopping and starting while moving in your general direction. It's a neat twist on an enemy that's usually completely ineffectual.
CU Elec himself is actually quite tough- half of his attack pattern is imitating Crash Man's jump-when-you-shoot routine, but when he rises up and starts charging around the screen cloaked in lightning, that's hard to dodge. Good timing is required to get around him, but once you get the hang of it, it's a graceful dance of jumping and dodging.
All the CUs have a desperation phase when they reach half health, and CU Elec gets MUCH faster.
His weapon, though, is more than worth the difficulty of killing him. ELECTRIC EFFUSER is an electric dash that lets you charge through anything in your way. It can't always deal with tankier enemies, but it's very useful for zooming over annoying hazards if you have the room to use it.
CU METAL
A very interesting stage theming-wise, and not at all what I expected with a boss named that. This is an outdoor level set on a highway covered in streetlamps, with Blader lookalikes coming down to swoop onto your head.
Plus, traffic lights that shoot at you when they turn red, giant tires falling from the sky... talk about a pileup. You can't kill the traffic lights, but they do function as solid platforms.
Of course, this level has conveyor belts in it like Metal Man, though you'll have to deal with Met-likes and exploding barrels going every which way. It can get pretty hectic in here, so kill whatever you can as soon as it gets on your level.
And a unique twist on Yoku Blocks, by having them MOVE after they appear, and stop when they disappear. And in this stage at least, there's little penalty for falling beyond having to redo the rooms.
There's also interesting twist on Moles here- they're invincible, and come charging at you when you shoot them. UNLESS, you shoot the little glowing part in the center, which takes some precision. But as long as you take your time, you'll get through.
CU Metal is a tricky customer, summoning deflecting barriers flying in from all sides of the screen, and jumping up to pound the ground- if you're on the floor when he lands, you're taking a hit. It's a simple, but surprisingly hectic fight that'll trip you up if you're not reacting fast enough.
His amusingly named weapon, METALIC MUM, is a shield that blocks projectiles, that you can control how far it travels before activating by holding the button. It's... dubiously effective, especially since you can't switch to something else without getting rid of the shield, but I did manage to get some use out of it.
CU FLARE
CU Flare's stage is one of the trickier of the initial six, so coming without weapons may be a bit ill-advised.
This stage starts off with a precarious jumping sequence over pits, with fire enemies raining down projectiles on your head. Too bad Metalic Mum doesn't go vertically. At least you can use Electric Effuser to dash over a pesky Skull Joe.
This big turret midboss is one of the biggest use cases for Metalic Mum- blocking his barrage of horizontal fireballs, then switching back and shooting at him when he stops.
The next gimmick are these big ladybugs that magnetize you, dragging you across the screen horizontally- they can be really aggravating with tight jumps, of which there are a fair few. Kind of like the opposite of Fan Fiends from MM2, really.
And then, these fire launchers that function like stuff I've seen in a LOT of MM2 romhacks- the fire travels a bit down, then straight up. Not too difficult to deal with. They get combined with the magnet bugs, for some slightly twitchy results.
CU Flare has a REALLY tough attack pattern- sending out fire that spirals in a circle outward, then jumping in the air and bursting it up from the ground. It gets harder to deal with at half health, where he fires two shots of fire that spiral around- very difficult to dodge.
It can be difficult to get a handle on his attacks, but perseverance will win the day. Especially since he spends 90% of his time sitting on the ground, so you can blast him to death pretty easily as long as you don't get hit too much.
Thankfully, his weapon is worth it. FLARING FLOW is a short range flamethrower akin to Wave Burner. It's a tailor-made weakness for those shielded skull enemies, and a good way to chip off health from tankier foes besides.
CU BIO
This is a neat stage aesthetically, with the pink sky and green background. It starts off with these guys that drop acid above you, which are fairly easy to avoid- but don't let that fool you, this stage is HARD.
Because of THIS gimmick. That's right, force beams are back, but with a unique twist. They're actually platforms. The only deadly part is the pink flowers on the tips, which you'll have to outrun or dodge in various situations. It's a VERY cool twist on a tired gimmick.
And these bubbles, right out of SMW, that drop random enemies when popped... it's vaguely neat, but not terribly difficult to deal with. They're all predetermined, so no need to worry about bad RNG.
For the midboss, the daughter of Dr. Bronze teleports in and spawns a torso robot to kill you, acting like a Power Muscler from MM5 or a Bigeye from MM1. It's not terribly difficult to deal with, but these guys recur in increasingly cramped spaces.
The most annoying part of this stage are these hopping melon enemies- they're shielded and constantly hopping around, only opening up to fire eight-way bullets. Killing them is pretty annoying, but getting past them is even harder without getting smacked.
CU Bio has a bizarre attack pattern. He'll summon reticles that, if they hit you, will wrap you in vines... then drop logs on your head while you're stuck! And he'll target you FOUR TIMES, while jumping around. And they get faster when he hits half health.
You can't escape the vines at all, so getting hit by them is basically forced damage- dodging them is vital.
It's not the most fun attack pattern to fight, but i have to applaud the audacity of dropping giant logs on your head. It's a very unexpected twist when I was just expecting leaves.
His weapon, BIO BOMB, is another banger, being the Item-2 replacement of the game. It's a big log that you can ride through the air and it EXPLODES when it hits something. Very useful, even if it takes some getting used to to ride on properly. Expect a lot of use out of it for sneaking around hazards.
CU LIQUID
Not the most fun start to this stage, with Mets spawning below these faucets infinitely... yech. This bit can overwhelm you fast if you're not careful.
There are also these valves to shoot that make water geysers spout up- and if more than one is on, the water will be split between both geysers. I love this gimmick, it forces you to think a little bit. It's too bad this is the only time it appears in the entire game.
After the world's easiest spike drop, the stage transitions underwater, with these guys tossing bubbles everywhere. Water physics work the same as ever. The ceiling can be VERY low here, so watch out for those spikes!
The tri-shooters from CU Elec put in another appearance here, except now there's spikes on the ceiling. You can shoot them, but that's not wise when jumping up could mean a swift death.
Then, these cute little guys start dropping from the ceiling. They're only in this one room, and they're barely a threat, but I had to shout them out because LOOK AT THEM.
CU Liquid's attack pattern is very interesting. He starts by summoning two bubbles that zoom towards you high and low, then he'll do one of two things. He can either leap at you as a giant water droplet, in a cycle of high, medium, low. Or he'll summon a geyser under you that'll kill you if you're not in the center of the screen.
And when he hits half health, he'll do that geyser move THREE TIMES IN A ROW. Definitely the hardest boss of the initial six.
But he does give you a VERY useful weapon. LIQUID LIFT a water column that lets you jump high when you stand on it. This is basically your Rush Coil replacement, and it's also a projectile. Definitely a worthy reward.
CU SPEED
Despite what he looks like, CU Speed's stage doesn't have any force beams. Instead, you get buzzsaws streaming out from the sides of the screen continuously. They're not too difficult to get around.
And tops that bounce around the entire screen. You can run past these guys pretty easily- and you should, because trying to kill them is pretty difficult.
These guys that rise up and rocket towards you when you get close can be pretty aggravating, since you can't kill them easily- a running theme in this stage, especially with the car enemies dotted around as well. Just don't get knocked into the spikes.
This bit with the buzzsaws next to the ladder is a bit mean, since you can slip off that ladder tile WAY too easily. Especially when you get spikes thrown in the mix with them.
Thankfully, getting outside the fortress calms things down a lot- only a few cars and Crazy Cannon-esque enemies that shoot bullets in varying arcs. Just dodge around them and you'll be fine.
CU Speed is quite a bastard to fight, zipping back and forth spewing his buzzsaws, pulling a Metal Man maneuver to toss a bunch in a row, then freezing them all in place and tossing them all at once.
He's very fun to deal with when you get the pattern down- probably my favorite boss to fight out of the initial six.
His weapon, SPEED SLASH, is a Metal Blade-esque eight-way directional shot. But it doesn't pierce things, making it far more balanced. It's still great for putting down annoying foes that you can't reach with any of the other weapons.
Now, for the fortress!
BRONZE STAGE 1
Hitting you with a VERY MM2 Wily 1-esque tune right off the bat, this fortress makes a STRONG first impression. And for good reason. The stages are short, but they are VERY difficult.
Throwing in the big torso guys all over the place, along with a ton of other difficult enemies. Better use Flaring Flow to cut them down to size.
Climbing up the side of the fortress requires judicious use of your utilities, and unlike MM2's similar segment, this one has spikes. Be careful.
Electric ladders make a return from CU Elec's stage, one of many searing reprisals of the initial six levels' gimmicks. Not only are they far more dangerous now with this layout, the sparks travel DOWN now.
Even the formerly ineffectual cute dropping guys from CU Liquid are actually dangerous now, now that they have enough room to fill up the space. Use Electric Effuser to charge through them and get out.
The boss is a very unique twist on a Devil fight- the pieces come out and boomerang back, and only when they come back can you shoot them. Add that with an occasional overhead burst of electricity, and you have a frantic- but very fun- brawl.
Props for dodging the usual pitfalls of this sort of boss, by providing constant opportunity to damage it instead of having to wait an absurdly long time.
BRONZE STAGE 2
Starting off with a huge barrage of shield barriers while other enemies take potshots? Yeah. It's better to just wait them out, rather than try to shoot them- you don't have the space to dodge if they come rushing at you.
You're not out of the woods yet, with turrets spewing their projectiles everywhere, in tight spaces...
And the magnet bugs, pulling you AWAY from the way forward, with spikes all around! Killing them is mandatory, and even then the respawning Telly-likes can still knock you into certain death.
But the hardest part by far to deal with are these rooms. Carefully making your way through the devilish spike configurations requires expert use of Bio Bomb and Liquid Lift, and they can be VERY precise. And dying kicks you back a LONG way.
By comparison, the scrolling box that spews fire is MUCH easier to deal with, and a nice breather before the boss. And that boss, hoo boy.
The boss is relatively simple compared to the rest of the stage- if you've played Gradius, you know what you're dealing with. Shoot out the barriers blocking the core, dodge the spread shots and fireballs from the supporting guns, and you win.
The barriers shooting out FIVE bullets when you kill one is a bit mean, though. Basically, this boss mandates perfect reactions to its patterns, lest you get hit, lose your groove, and get hit again. Again, props for not simply rehashing CWU-01P or something related.
BRONZE STAGE 3
I love this lime green tileset, it's very distinctive. Anyway, this is the hardest stage in the game by far for one simple reason. The enemy placement is the meanest in the entire game. Starting off with the armored melons in cramped stairways, and getting worse from there.
The fact that you can't kill these tops in one hit is absolutely a problem here, unless you use Speed Slash to slice them away. Running away from them is not as much of an option in this narrow-ass hallway.
And in the underwater segment, these bubble-dropping guys gain a new trick. Their bubbles BURST when you hit the water, and you have to dodge all the poisonous pieces. Mean. Just be careful not to scroll the screen too far back, otherwise you'll have to deal with them AGAIN.
And definitely keep your wits about you in the enemy-spawning bubble segment, lest you get caught off guard, knocked into a pit, or clip a spike.
The most brutal part, though is this. This bubble appears to rotate around you, deflects your shots, and STICKS around you for a good long time. It's a pain in the ass, but a VERY clever twist on the Rounder enemy from MM5.
Of course, there's a boss rush at the end of this stage- so if you used a lot of your weapon energy so far, you might be in trouble. The boss rush has a unique theme, though, and it kicks ASS.
What's also neat is that if you beat a boss with full health, you get weapon energy instead of a health pickup.
The actual boss of the level can be really grueling- it's a clone of you that teleports around, uses your Buster and Speed/Bio's weapons against you. Thank god it doesn't use all six CU weapons.
It's pretty easy to damage race, which is good, because doing a hard boss after ALL OF THAT would be too much. And also, thank you for not giving it a random jump/walking pattern like Copy Robot.
BRONZE STAGE 4
The Calm before the storm- and also one of the shortest stages in the game. There's only a couple rooms before you get to the bad doctor himself.
Dr. Bronze's machine has some nasty attacks, firing barrages of bullets all around you twice in a row, and, most interestingly, grabbing you with its construction hook to drop you in front of a laser. That one is an instant kill.
He has the same pattern every time, so it's all about getting into a groove. Once you learn his tricks, it's a pretty easy fight.
But Bronze gets away, and you get a special machine. If you read the manual, you'd know that this is the thing Dr. Bronze stole from you... and it has a cool effect. ALL OF YOUR WEAPONS HAVE INFINITE ENERGY NOW.
It's powertrip time.
ALl the platforming and enemies left in the game BOW before your newfound abilities... for about three screens. I really wish this segment lasted longer, it could've been a hell of a rush before the final fight. But at least you get to keep this upgrade for the final boss.
Dr. Bronze's suspiciously capsule-shaped hair comes off, and lets him turn into a huge mech suit. It's go time! He functions like a Wily Capsule, but is a lot easier than any canon boss of that type. He'll fire giant lines of missiles, helix shots, and teleport around wildly- but he's open to damage a lot longer, and that's his weakness.
The music here is EXCELLENT, with it sounding like sirens are going off, warning you that this guy is no joke.
Honestly, the buster is the best thing to use here. You can hit him with it most of the time- the hard part is just dodging his attacks, they are FAST. And no, you can't block them with Metalic Mum either.
And when you beat him, Dr. Bronze is left on the floor in his undies, too exhausted to even do the traditional beg for mercy. Mission accomplished!
After the credits, you get a fun code that unlocks a sound test and enemy viewer, which is a fun little bonus for your efforts.
As for that code, it gives you a sound test and enemy viewer- a fun little bonus.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This is another one of those games that may not be particularly outstanding, but it's got enough good qualities that I would recommend it very much.
The stages are short, but are quite fun to play and full of fun gimmicks that get vicious reprisals in the fortress stages. The difficulty curve ramps up nicely, so if you're a challenge seeker, you'll get a fair bit out of this. The graphics are quite distinct from the usual cartoony artstyle of Mega Man and its ilk, and are charming in their own odd way.
And the MUSIC, good lord. Honestly, this entire game is worth playing for that, it's a fine example of chiptune sound design.
One big flaw is the story- or lack thereof. I know games like this don't typically emphasize their plots, but leaving all of it in the manual instead of even a text scroll in the game itself is a bit disappointing. But that's a minor quibble.
If you're a fan of Mega Man, give this a look, it'll be a fun hour or two. And keep that music on standby, it's AWESOME.
GAME LINK:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160115054214/http://ftp.vector.co.jp/63/19/3042/mechanicman.zip
SOUNDTRACK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DjE2fZ4E7w&list=RD4DjE2fZ4E7w&start_radio=1
(Had to get a couple of missed screengrabs from SuperMetalSonic360's playthrough of this game, which is also how I found out this game existed. Go check it out!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYjreQ6-9uA