The American art here is finally close to decent...but the Japanese is still way better.
Mega Man 6...the last in a noble line of NES Mega Man titles, and honestly not a bad one. Again, it follows the formula fairly closely, but like its two predecessors, the sixth game attempts to make some minor alterations to the formula, and mostly fails to improve.
The biggest changes here are the structure of the levels, and the two new powerups to Mega Man, which replace Rush. These powerups involve you merging with Rush to take one of two separate new forms, Jet Mega Man and Power Mega Man. Jet Mega Man can fly for a limited distance by holding the jump button, and Power Mega Man can charge up his attacks to blast through blocks to reveal secret locations. These secret locations play a large role in the other big change, the layout of the levels. These changes make for good fun, but mess up the balance of the game a bit. Unlike past uses of Rush to navigate around difficult locations, the Jet powerup doesn't have a finite supply of energy, in that it will automatically recharge once you hit the ground. This makes it so that the Jet powerup can be used over and over again to dodge difficult areas, with little to no downside, other than that Mega Man can't fight as well in the Jet suit. One major irritation of the powerups is that each time you use one, it shows a cut scene of Rush merging with Mega Man. While this was cool once, it would have been nice for it to be turned off for future transformations, or to be skippable earlier. As it stands, you'll need to wait a few seconds to skip it, which is annoying when you're transforming 5 times per level.
In several of the levels, branching paths can be found, usually using the Power or Jet powerups. Following these secret paths leads you on an easier path to the boss, and rewards you with a letter B, E, A, or T. Finding all of these letters unlocks Beat, your old friend from Mega Man 5, who can help you on your journey. This was a great idea, but is pretty poorly executed. For one thing, the "secret" paths are not difficult to find, nor are they difficult to get to. This makes each path kind of cheap, rather than the reward you might expect for finding secrets, like you'd find in a Mega Man 7 or Mega Man X. But it was a good idea at least, and laid the foundation for later releases.
The general strengths of the series remain strong. The soundtrack is again excellent, the controls are perfect, the visuals are the best ever on the NES (for any game), and the slowdown is really cut down here. The levels are fun and varied, and live up to the Mega Man reputation.
The Robot Masters are fairly boring here. Almost all of the bosses are extremely easy, and have very few variations in their patters, making beating them a breeze. Their designs are also somewhat lacking, requiring a fresh approach as shown in Mega Man X.
The plot is so tiresome that it's embarrassing. Using the same plot twist three games in a row...weak. And this one is the most thinly guised one of the lot, which makes it even more abysmal. Bad on you, Capcom.
So Mega Man 6 is another Mega Man game. It often gets criticized for not standing out from the crowd, and that's true. But it tries, and has some good ideas that it plays poorly. And the formula it's built on is enough to carry it to "good status". I'll give it an 8.2/10.
-TRO
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