About a bazillion years after the events of our classic Mega Man series, the Waterworld prophecy has come to pass. People are forced to live on little islands amongst a vast ocean, and explorers called Diggers hunt down Refractors in old ruins, the only power source left to sustain the planet's population. Legend also tells of a super awesome treasure called the Mother Lode that could offer an infinite amount of power.So the story isn't exactly groundbreaking or original, but it's good fun; Mega Man and his spotter (aka assistant) Roll, along with their grandpa Barrel, crash-land their airship at the beginning of our tale on Kattelox island, and from that point the exploration begins. Thankfully, Kattelox is a large island with plenty of ruins to find money and ship parts in; Mega Man's crash-landing rendered his ship more than a little damaged. The Bonnes, a group of up-to-no-good pirates will soon show up to hassle you on your journey, though it's hard to hate them to much thanks to fact that they employ a small army of Servbots to do their bidding. And you just can't hate Servbots.
Of course, in true RPG fashion, there's a bit more to the story than simply repairing your ship, but we wouldn't want to ruin the fun for you. One of the most impressive aspects of Mega Man Legends is that many of the game's cutscenes, though done in-engine and with little flourish, feature voice acting. It's not exactly great voice acting, but the voices are there nonetheless, adding a bit of personality to Mega Man and crew.
While there is no traditional level-up system in Mega Man Legends, other aspects of RPG dungeon exploration pop up. Mega Man's buster gun starts out pretty puny, but can be upgraded with parts you'll find or purchase throughout the game. Attack, Energy, Range, and Rapid can all be upgraded, making the gun considerably more powerful and versatile. Mega Man can also equip one Special weapon at a time, which are also upgradeable and can be built by Roll or found in the game world. You'll quickly obtain the Splash mine Special weapon, and by the end of the game you'll have a Shield, Vacuum, Laser, and quite a few other goodies to play around with. Each Special weapon can be upgraded, as well, for a certain amount of money, ultimately making the combat in Mega Man Legends quite flexible and easy to tailor to your particular play style.
Gameplay-wise, Mega Man Legends offers a fun, though not extremely original, romp through a large, explorable world and plenty of dungeons. There are quite a few NPCs to interact with, baddies to shoot, and items and upgrades to collect. It's fairly straightforward action-RPG fare, but the controls are what really shape the experience -- and they could certainly use some work.
