Its hard to believe that its been 30 years since Mega Man 8 was released on the PS1 back in 1996. Mega Man 8 was the sequel to Mega Man 7 which appeared on the SNES console back in 1995. Mega Man 8 was a game that many fans of the franchise are divided on mainly because how different it was from the rest of the series. Mega Man 7 from ’95 was a game that many people either criticized because it felt boring compared to the Mega Man X series which started in 1993. The Mega Man X trilogy from ’93-’95 was fast-paced and had a far more compelling story with Sigma as the main villain. Even though, the main Mega Man series had been going on since ’87 there were many people who were starting to lose interest in it by the mid 90’s. Also, Mega Man 8 felt way to cartoony in comparison to other entries that came before it. While the graphics and stage designs in Mega Man 8 looked better than ever the gameplay felt slower than what most fans of the series were generally used to.

Capcom’s reason for putting Mega Man 8 on the PS1 was mainly because a large audience of gamers were beginning to lose interest in the 16-bit SNES console by 1996. However, there was far more competition on the PlayStation console during the mid 90’s and despite that Mega Man 8 reportedly sold more than one million copies worldwide. Mega Man 8 had fourteen levels which followed an anime intro with poor voice acting along with the cutscenes that were considered cheesy. While people praise Capcom for putting in effort to make Mega Man 8 a more enjoyable game; Mega Man 8 felt subpar compared to that of the MMX series. The Mega Man X games felt darker and the older entries in the main series felt more challenging during the NES era. Mega Man 8 may have received a significant deal of criticism over the past couple of decades but the game does have it share of redeeming qualities.

The soundtrack in Mega Man 8 was decent especially the stage select theme which felt mesmerizing. Being able to go to Dr. Light’s Lab and exchanging bolts for accessories was also a nice feature in Mega Man 8. The inclusion of a save system made Mega Man 8 more convenient for newcomers opposed to older games which forced players to use passwords to pick up where they left off. Overall, Mega Man 8 felt like an easier entry to the main series compared to almost anything else and that may of been Capcom’s goal the whole time. Between Mega Man 7 & 8 it felt like Capcom made attempts to make the main series more interesting. However, by the mid 90’s the main series started to lose its appeal and never quite recovered in reaching late 80’s level of popularity since then.