3.5/5 ★ – Jrdotan's review of Mega Man 4.

Megaman 4 marked the moment when the main focus shifted to making the gameplay loop work for the series, rather than pushing for sheer innovation. This becomes clear the moment you press start to begin your journey. Yes, the visuals are beautiful, the menus are polished, it looks good, it mostly has a soundtrack that slaps, and it's lots of fun like any other Mega Man game. However, the main difference I feel is in how they tried to make the non-linear progression more interesting than simply "who do I beat first so I won’t struggle with X boss?" For the first time, the weapon arsenal is actually good. Not just decent or half-baked, but properly polished and useful during stages. It truly took a look at what the original MegaMan tried to do and worked hard to replicate that feeling while improving upon the idea. This time, the game starts extremely hard but gets much easier the more tools you acquire. For once, I recommend new players to start with Toad Man and then move to Bright Man. This way, you can begin with both a screen nuke and a powerful time stopper that works far better than Mega Man 2's attempt. The weapons are the highlight of the game, but they also tried other things to shake up the formula a bit. One of these is the introduction of optional items hidden in stages, which will help you move through scenarios more efficiently. Then, of course, there's also the charged buster. The one staple of the series that many people now take for granted, but was very controversial at the time. Complaints were often directed at how its introduction undermines the usage of weapons, while the defense would claim that people simply never experimented enough with the weapons to see how great they are. There is truth to both points, at least in this particular case. The weapons are indeed great, but the charged buster does overshadow their usage, as most players will simply keep charging and shooting instead of utilizing their tools. This is something you couldn’t do without the charged buster. In order for the buster to work as intended, it really needs to be severely nerfed so players won’t keep charging constantly. Sadly, this is not the point at which the charged buster was implemented to perfection. Stage design in this game is mostly okay, although it never impresses like Megaman 3. It plays more safely, and the enemy designs are not up to par. Funnily enough, when it comes to level design, the game doesn’t peak in the Robot Master stages but rather in the fortress stages. a somewhat rare sight for this era of Megaman. They really committed to the fortress stages, as each one has a proper theme and feels more polished and finished compared to their previous attempts. In contrast, the bosses are all pretty lackluster and often just walk from left to right. Toad Man is notorious for having a pathetically easy pattern, so if you enjoy boss fights, this may not be the game for you. With a more polished gameplay loop, great weapons, mostly solid stage design, a quite good endgame, good music, and fast pacing, Mega Man 4 is a solid sequel to Mega Man 3. It never truly impresses nor reaches its predecessor's high highs but remains consistently good throughout the entire game. I can easily recommend this as a good example of how the Mega Man gameplay loop is supposed to look, and it’s a great case study in game design. Rank- 7/10