GAME CLEAR No. 253 -- Mega Man Powered Up
video games game clear capcom mega man psp playstationMega Man Powered Up (2006, PSP)
Remake of: Mega Man (1987, NES/FC)
Original/Remake Developer: Capcom
Original/Remake Publisher: Capcom
Clear Version: PSP
Clear Platform: PSP
Clear Date: 9/10/25
| Why should I care? |
|---|
| Mega Man Powered Up is an adorable celebration of the original Mega Man and the classic series as a whole, and it’s a great entry point for newcomers and longtime fans alike. |
Send me your strongest machines
Just a few posts ago, I praised the Game Boy Mega Man games for being solid handheld entries that I was pleased to have around as an opportunity to dive deeper into one of my very favorite series. Those are some fun and cute games, but they are less fun and way less cute than the wonderful Mega Man Powered Up. This game is a remake of the original Mega Man rather than a wholly original title, and because of that, I didn’t really prioritize it despite adding it to my collection years ago. I’m glad I finally put some time into it, as I now see that in addition to being a loving recreation of the original game, it is in many ways the most ambitious of the classic Mega Man titles.
The ways in which Powered Up is the same as its source material are pretty easy to enumerate. First, it’s the same basic story and setting from 1987. In the distant future, humanity coexists peacefully with highly-intelligent robots. Among the most advanced of these are the Robot Masters (each named [Noun] Man) designed by Dr. Light. They are specialized androids designed to help perform labor humans had to in the past. For example, Cut Man is in the logging industry, Bomb Man helps with demolitions, etc. Things take a dramatic turn for the worst when Dr. Wily, an old rival of Light’s, steals the Robot Masters and reprograms them to help him take over the world. Rock, a helper robot that lives with Light, volunteers to be converted into a battle robot to try to stop Dr. Wily. Light complies, dubs him Mega Man, and sends him off. Mega Man can choose to pursue his former friends in any order he chooses, and once he defeats them all, he must pursue Wily to his castle for the final showdown.
The action is much the same as well. With his trusty arm cannon, Mega Man must jump and shoot his way through 2D platforming stages full of nasty baddies to reach the Robot Master at the end of each stage. After defeating a Robot Master, Mega Man claims its weapon for himself. These new powers come in handy in the stages, of course, but also are each particularly effective against another Robot Master with rock-paper-scissors-style parity.
This is all very familiar. We know now that ol’ Rock would perform more or less the same song and dance another five times on the NES alone (and glad we all are of that!) and stick to a pretty reliable formula. Although I always appreciated the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach to the classic series, I can understand the criticism that they were a bit samey. Despite being a remake, Mega Man Powered Up is much less of a been-there-done-that affair than some of the proper serial entries. Indeed, in addition to expanding and improving the original game, its new features make it the most robust Mega Man package in the series.
The most immediately apparently change is the game’s presentation. It’s got a cute, 2.5D, chibi art style, fully voice-acted cutscenes, and an new soundtrack arrangement. I had some concern that the shift from pixel art might make the platforming feel less precise, but I’m happy to say I didn’t find that to be the case. It’s still the great, tight-controlling Mega Man gameplay I’ve grown to love (and is, in fact, less slippery than the original). The stages and enemies are tough but fair, the jumping and shooting feels good. It’s all there.
The voiced cutscenes are also a welcome change that move the story of the Mega Man out of the pages of its manual (where it was largely confined in 1987) and into the game proper. The acting isn’t always great, but it’s sufficient. The story scenes give the proceedings a welcome Saturday-morning cartoon feel that meshes well with the established aesthetic of the series.
Perhaps the most pleasant change to the plot is that the game acknowledges that this particular crop of Robot Masters are indeed Mega Man’s friends. They were stolen by Wily and reprogrammed. If he can avoid it, he’d rather capture them than destroy them, which is exactly what Powered Up allows you to do. There’s a clever catch, though: you must use your Mega Buster and only your Mega Buster in battle with each Robot Master in order to subdue them without killing them. “Buster only” runs have always been a classic challenge run for Mega Man titles, since it forces the player to sacrifice the substantial advantage of using a weapon the boss is weak to, but this is a brilliant way to incentivize it in normal play. It’s not just to make you feel better either — capturing a Robot Master instead of killing him will allow you to play through the whole game as that character. This is the only game in the series that allows you to do so, and it dramatically changes how you must approach every stage.
It’s worth noting that playing as the other robots is not merely tacked on. The stages of the game have been redesigned and rebalanced to include secrets and alternate routes accessible only by certain Robot Masters. What’s more, all of the dialog and voice acting is updated to reflect the alternate-universe protagonist of the game when you choose another character. When you choose that Robot Master’s stage, good ol’ Mega Man awaits you as the boss at the end, having been stolen away by Wily instead of the alternate player character. It’s a really high-effort thing they managed, and its a feature that ensures I’ll be revisiting this game for years when I want a Mega Man fix.
It also dovetails nicely with the buster-only mentality required to acquire them. You took them down with only Mega Man’s default weapon, and now you must take on the whole game with just that Robot Master’s weapon. What’s more, the main menu also features Challenge stages. Each robot (Mega Man included) has ten devious stages designed to put your skills with their particular abilities to the test. Should you manage beat the game with every character and clear all their challenges, I dare say you deserve the title of Robot Master. 👑
I’ve managed to say all of the above without also noting that Powered Up features two Robot Masters not found in the original game: Oil Man and Time Man. They bring the cast of enemy bots to 8, matching the standard established in Mega Man 2 and every subsequent entry.
Just the features above would have made this game a more-than-worthy reimagining of Mega Man’s debut. Not content to rest there, Capcom also included a level editor and online level-sharing service, essentially making this game a full-fledged Mega Man Maker, as it were. I’m equally sad and surprised to say the servers for the service shut down in 2022 (!). This means the game sat on my shelf for years while I could’ve been enjoying other players’ Mega Man creations and sharing some of my own! Frankly, it didn’t even occur to me that they’d have been up so long.
The good news here is that some madmen archived every user-made level ever, which is great. To the best of my knowledge, I can play those on my unmodded PSP no problem. Similarly, all the official Capcom DLC was archived as well. Terrific!
This means the only thing I really missed was the opportunity to publish levels of my own for strangers around the world to (potentially) enjoy. Of course, I can still make some for my personal enjoyment, and I guess I could distribute them on reddit or something, but that’s not quite the same.
I snoozed, and I lost. I guess that’s what I get for waiting to play this game until almost exactly as long after it came out as its release came after that of the original Mega Man!
Anyway, this is a small blemish on an experience that is otherwise still absolutely killer in 2025. The Mega Man formula is timeless, but this particular effort is the total package. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone curious about Mega Man that has never tried it. If this doesn’t give you an appreciation for one of gaming’s most lovable sons, I reckon nothing will.