Mega Man Anniversary Collection

This is a compilation of the following games:

• Mega Man (1)
• Mega Man 2
• Mega Man 3
• Mega Man 4
• Mega Man 5
• Mega Man 6
• Mega Man 7
• Mega Man 8
• Mega Man: The Power Battle (not initially selectable)
• Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters (not initially selectable)

For the most part, the games appear to be pretty intact to their originals, so you can check the Game Hints pages (links above) for the originals for information on how to play and beat each of the games. This page will only make a few notes about the differences.

General Notes

I am highly amused. If you want to know why, see the Strategies page.
• For the NES games, this has many features similar to the Complete Works, including the updated energy meter graphics and subscreens, and the “Navi” mode. (You must activate the Navi mode via the main Options screen to get these enhancements. Otherwise, you get the classic, unaltered games.)
• Some of the music is remixed in Navi mode like in the Complete Works, although for MM1-3, only some of the tunes are different, and most of those are just musics taken from the arcade games.
• The difficulty setting (in the Options) affects all of the games (except for 8 and the arcades), but it does so in slightly different ways, depending on the game. Note that for Mega Man 2, the game acts as if it is in “Difficult” mode all the time. This means no one-hit kills, sorry. (On the other hand, in Mega Man 7 just look at how much damage your weapon shots do to Robot Masters in easy mode—yeesh!) If you are playing in easy mode, the damage data listed on the various Data Base pages will not apply. However, it should be accurate for the normal setting, although I haven’t tested this. Just remember that Mega Man 2 is on difficult mode, so halve all of the Mega Man 2 values.
• As with most remakes, most of the “tricks” in the various games (like the Mega Man 3 “controller two” tricks) no longer work. Sorry. However, a few of the more intentional ones were retained, including the Mega Man 7 secret password mode (hold slide+fire for it, rather than /).
• There have been some minor alterations in the various games, such as fixing typos and so forth. (“MEGAMAN” has been turned into “MEGA MAN” a lot too, curiously enough.) There are also a couple of major alterations that everyone will mention, such as Mega Man 7’s credits (they removed the sequence of Mega Man walking along with the castle blowing up in the background).
• This collection appears to contain the PSX version of Mega Man 8, so no Cut Man and Wood Man, sorry.

Control Notes

• Each game system assigns the buttons differently, but in virtually all of the games, the fire button (that shoots your arm cannon) is the “choose” button, and the jump button is the “cancel” button. (Look in your manual to find out which buttons are which.)
• In Mega Man 7, input passwords using the and buttons. Press the fire button to submit the password, and the jump button to cancel.
• To get to Auto’s shop in Mega Man 7, you’d normally press the button while on the stage select screen. For the GameCube version, use .
• GameCube version: If the swapping of the and buttons frustrates you, try using to jump instead in Mega Man 8.

Arcade Games

If you just want to unlock the arcade games without playing through the other games, here’s a way to do it. See the note in the FAQ if these methods don’t work.

• Power Battle: Start a new game of Mega Man 3. On the title screen, select the password option and use the password on the right. Enter any available stage and die (jump into a pit or on spikes or something—Shadow Man’s stage is good for this) until you lose all your lives and get the continue screen. Let the game save. At this point, you can reset the game, or choose “Continue” then use the start menu to return to the game select room.
  
• Power Fighters: Start a new game of Mega Man 7. Punch in the password shown on the right (use the and buttons to change numbers). Enter any stage around the outside of the stage select screen (not the Wily one in the center), then open your subscreen and select the “Exit” item (it’s on the second page, so use the “NEXT” button to get there). Click past the password screen and let the game save. Reset, or enter a stage again and use the select button menu to return to the game select room.

• Which version of the game should I buy?
  This is currently tough for me to say as I haven’t had a chance to play the Xbox version yet. Rumor has it though that the Xbox version contains all of the extras that were divided between the other two versions. Also, I hear you can change your button configuration in the Xbox version. If both of these are true, then the Xbox is probably your best bet. Otherwise, just between the PS2 and GCN versions, I would normally say the GCN version, as the interview is arguably more special than a cartoon show episode. However, if you’ve ever played a Mega Man game before in the past, you will probably be better off with the PS2 version, because in the GameCube version, the jump and fire buttons are swapped, meaning you jump when you want to fire, and fire when you want to jump, and it’s extremely hard—at least for me—to recondition myself after 15 years of playing Mega Man games. This makes playing the GCN version difficult, so if you have the same problem, the PS2 or Xbox version might be a better buy.
  
• Can I play this on an Xbox 360?
  Possibly not. David reports graphical glitches when playing the Xbox verison on an Xbox 360. This may vary depending on what game in the collection you are playing (Case Aiken says it affects only Mega Man 8) and maybe even the version of your console. You may want to rent to try it first before committing to a purchase if all you have is an Xbox 360.
• Why can’t I unlock the Power Battle or Power Fighters?
  You’ve done everything as mentioned on this site and you still can’t play the arcades? I’ve received a report from Pedro that the arcades don’t show up on the menu screen—even when unlocked—until you unlock at least one other secret (the pictures, music, credits, interview, etc.). I haven’t tested this, but if you are having troubles, try using the list below to unlock something else in addition to the arcades and see if that helps.
• My game is broken! I can’t see my extra lives and the music is weird. What gives?
  This is a setting in the game play options. You’re currently playing in what is essentially “classic” mode. You need to turn the “Navi” mode on. That will fix everything.

The game saves automatically when you clear stages. This has a few consequences; for one, you can’t choose to keep saves at certain points in the games (although you can use passwords for this purpose in most of them). For another, the game won’t unlock secrets until it saves (kind of makes sense, when you think about it), so even after you do the correct thing, you still have to wait for it to save before your efforts will be rewarded.

If you want to load a saved game, you use the “Load Game” door on the title screen, rather than the “New Game” door. If you want use a password, use either door, then select the desired game, then when you get to the title screen within the game itself, choose the “Password” option. Remember that Mega Man 1 and Mega Man 8 do not support passwords. You have to use saved games in that case.

Here is a list of what you must do to unlock everything. Right now this list was mostly tested on the PS2 version, but as far as I know right now, it is accurate for the others as well.

Note that you don’t actually have to “do” most of these; if you punch in a password that has the net effect, then allow the game to save (clear a stage, or whatever), the game will “notice” that the prerequisites are in place and unlock the appropriate item(s). Naturally, though, this doesn’t apply to Mega Man 1 or Mega Man 8, which don’t have passwords, or any item that you have to beat the game to unlock.

• Elec Man defeated (MM1) - Atomic Planet Entertainment Credits
• Metal Man defeated (MM2) - Picture Set 1
• Crash Man defeated (MM2) - “Homage to Mega Man” (music - remix of several tunes, including the title screen from Mega Man I (GB))
• Needle Man defeated (MM3) - Unlock Power Battle
• Skull Man defeated (MM4) - Picture Set 2
• Drill Man defeated (MM4) - “Wily vs. Bass” (music - loose remix of Bass’s theme)
• Cossack’s fortress completed (MM4) - “Protoman” (music - remix of Mega Man 3’s ending)
• Plant Man defeated (MM6) - “Plant Man” (music - remix of Plant Man’s stage in Mega Man 6)
• Junk Man defeated (MM7) - Unlock Power Fighters
• Slash Man defeated (MM7) - “Select Jungle” (music - remix of Mega Man 8’s stage select tune)
• Clown Man defeated (MM8) - “Mega Man’s Drum and Bass” (music - remix of Mega Man 3’s opening)
• Astro Man defeated (MM8) - “The Beginning” Mega Show episode (PS2); Interview with Keiji Inafune (GCN); MegaMan NT Warrior show episode (Xbox - unconfirmed)
• Complete Mega Man 2 - “Wily’s Revenge” (music)
• Complete Mega Man 5 - Interview with Keiji Inafune (Xbox - unconfirmed)
• Complete Mega Man 7 - “Mega Man Radio Cut” (music - remix of Mega Man 7 Fortress Station 2)
• Complete Mega Man 8 - Picture Set 3