Manufacturer: Jasco Games
Year: 2015
Personal History:
I love video games and am simultaneously very bad at many of them, particularly if they require any kind of timing or dexterity. As such, while I've played various Mega Man games many times over the years, I'm horrible at them.
That has not stopped me from loving the visual style of Mega Man though. When this game first appeared on Kickstarter I was excited about it, but when they started releasing significant stretch goals that require a one hundred forty dollar pledge to obtain, I backed away. My love of board game adaptations of video games has a limit.
That limit turned out to be seventy five dollars. I had been watching auctions of used copies on Ebay for a while, and saw this one pop up. With a "flash sale" coupon, after shipping this set cost me seventy five dollars. It was purchased with money made while selling some other stuff on Ebay too, so I did my little "expensive thing justification dance" and pulled the trigger.
Condition:
Everything was complete and in pretty close to new shape with the exception of a signed art print which originally came with the game at this pledge level. The original owner didn't have it, and I didn't care, so all was well.
Gameplay:
(Note: I will be discussing the game as though I had and used none of the extra Kickstarter or expansion items. Those will be discussed later in the review)
To begin, each player places his Mega Man pawn on the start space of one of the six Robot Master boards. Like in the original video games players must clear a level and defeat the Robot Master boss before moving to the next one.
Each level is comprised of a series of challenges. Challenges are described on "Challenge Cards", and give the player a series of requirements they must complete to move to the next space in the level. These cards indicate how many minions are present, what special actions might occur during the battle or upon losing, and which dice must be rolled in order to complete the mission.
On his turn the player flips the next card in the challenge deck for the level he's currently on. A symbol at the top indicates how many of which minion to add to the challenge (minions have their own cards and will be discussed below). Another large panel on the card indicates what modifiers to this particular challenge exist. On the bottom, three panels indicate which die faces will be needed to roll to complete the challenge.
The "Threat" number on each player's character card indicates how many dice a player is able to use on his turn. The player will choose a number of dice for the current challenge and roll those die, applying dice to the challenge requirements when possible, and activating any other actions that the card might indicate. If all of the challenge requirements have been met then the player has passed the challenge and discards that card, moving forward one space on the level. The player may then select another challenge card and, if he has enough unused dice, attempt to pass this challenge too.
While the above is the basic way a challenge is defeated, it's rarely that simple. Each player has a had of cards which may be applied to the challenge. The player will of course play cards which help them complete the challenge's objective, however the opposing players will be able to play cards which make the active player's job harder. The active player alone and the opposing players as a group are limited in the cards they can play by a cost value printed on the upper right of each card. They may only play a total value of cards up to the value printed on the same area of the challenge card.
Minion cards also make completing a challenge more difficult. A player must roll a starbust image on one of his dice in order to destroy the minion, otherwise the minion deals damage to the player. Opponents may also play cards which activate a minion's special power, resulting in additional damage or limitations for the active player. To help, the active player my spend "Weapon Energy" cubes to reroll as many dice as he'd like in the hopes of getting a more favorable result.
When a player completes enough challenge cards to make his way to the final space on the level he must compete in a Boss Battle against the Robot Master that rules that level. Each Robot Master has its own special attacks which are rolled by opponents. Boss Battles have slightly different rules for playing cards, and players may also use special attacks gained from previously defeated Robot Masters. Once a Robot Master is defeated the player gains his card, his plastic figure if it's the first time it's been defeated, and then moves to the starting space of a different level.
Each player uses a series of tokens and a cardboard dial to keep track of energy, weapon energy, and lives. Energy is lost through attacks from minions and card effects, and lives are lost by losing challenges and boss battles. When a player has lost all of his lives he removes his figure from the board and restarts it the next turn at the beginning of a level with full lives and energy.
Once a player has defeated at least two Robot Masters he may enter Dr. Wiley's Castle in an attempt to defeat Dr. Wiley. Dr. Wiley's castle works generally like a normal level except for two differences. First, players may choose to fight any Boss Battle instead of a regular challenge in the hope of winning and collecting that boss's special attack. Second, Dr. Wiley must be defeated twice in order to win the game.
So How Is It?:
So the popularity of this game is very squarely centered on the mini figures that come with it. I mentioned the stretch goals at the beginning of this review, and most of those stretch goals were for additional miniatures. The retail base game comes with Dr. Wiley and his six Robot Masters, as well as six identical Mega Man pawns. The Kickstarter campaign and various add-ons also added several Mega Man pawns in new positions, gold versions of several of the figures, Dr. Light, Roll, Proto Man, Rush, two more Robot Masters (Time Man and Oil Man from a PSP game), the large Yellow Devil boss and sculpted versions of all of the minions. It is indeed a big collection of cute little toys, however I have to say they're much cheaper looking and feeling in hand than I had expected. A bit of a let down but they are still neat.
Still, it's a much more visually fun game than it otherwise could have been because of the extras. The most unfortunate part is that this game take forever to play. For-ev-er. If you have several people playing at once a level can take forty five minutes or more to get through, and while the actual gaming needed to get through a level is fine, it's really only fine for a game that's about that long in total. By the time one player is finally able to beat one level I can pretty much guarantee that everyone is sick of playing this game and ready to move on to something else.
This is a shame of course because there's a TON of other evil robots that could have been added to an enjoyable Mega Man game. As it is, the Time Man & Oil Man expansion is likely to be the only one, and all it does is possibly make a game that's too long even longer. That expansion also allows the game to be played with as many as eight players, and I can't even begin to imagine how long an eight player game of Mega Man would take.
I can't help but think that just a little bit of careful editing could have made this game some much more fun. A few less things to consider when completing a challenge card perhaps. As we played we almost always rolled all of the available dice because after opponents cards, Dr. Wiley penalties, attached minions and just generally unhelpful rolls there was almost zero times where anyone felt confident enough to attempt a second challenge card on his turn. The need to complete five challenges just to attempt one of the "at least" two boss battles you must complete in order to then go and complete ANOTHER level, while endlessly waiting for your opponents to do the same, is just so repetitive and draggy that any amusement you felt in the initial rounds is quickly ground down to a tired determinism to just have SOMEONE finish the game before you die.
I'm being a little sarcastic, but only a little. Really one should treat this game as a big box of collectibles with a boring game attached. And that's really unfortunate.
Final Verdict:
There will likely never be a Mega Man board game more lovingly designed than this one, which is a pity since the game here is so long and dull. If you love Mega Man and just want something to put on a shelf then this is an instant win for you. If you're hoping for a good game experience though look elsewhere. It scores an "Average" 3/5 mostly because it's hard to divorce how nice it looks from how tedious it is.
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