Mega Man 7 - Reception and Legacy

Reception and Legacy

Critically, Mega Man 7 has received a consistently average reception in both past reviews and more contemporary retrospectives. A large amount of criticism arose from the game's alleged failure to bring anything new to an already aging series, with some considering it inferior to Mega Man X, which Capcom had released on the SNES more than a year prior. Tony Mott of Super Play found the game to lack improvement over its 8-bit counterparts in gameplay, stating that the level layouts are "muted and appear regular when compared to the X series". 1UP.com editor Jeremy Parish labeled Mega Man 7 a "disaster" because it borrows the pacing, animation, and level design of Mega Man X without taking its better attributes such as armor and power-building. Brett Elston of GamesRadar similarly noted Mega Man 7 as feeling far too similar to the earlier games and that it pales in comparison to the SNES's more relevant and inventive Mega Man X. GamePro simply called it "a nice holdover" for fans waiting for the next game in the X series.

The game has enjoyed some positive remarks for its colorful presentation, play control, and challenge. GameSpot contributors Christian Nutt and Justin Speer praised it even compared to the prequels: "Finally, a real upgrade to the original series on the SNES, after so many years on the moribund NES crippled the series. Unfortunately, it was a bit late to recover the massive popularity that the series had once enjoyed, but this was definitely a solid game." IGN's Levi Buchanan found the game to be one of the weaker installments in the franchise despite its attempt to add new gimmicks, some of which simply fall flat. "It's still worth a play to see the 16-bit jump," Buchanan summarized. "But expectations should be appropriately curtailed."

Lucas M. Thomas of IGN described the introduction of Mega Man's rival Bass as the seventh installment's most important contribution to the franchise. In spite of Mega Man 7 technologically moving the series from its NES roots to the next generation of consoles, it would eventually transition back to an NES visual and audio style similar to the first six titles many years later. Mega Man 7 has been officially re-released two separate times since its 1995 debut, first on the Nintendo Power cartridge service in Japan and second on the Mega Man Anniversary Collection in North America for the PlayStation 2 and GameCube in 2004 and the Xbox in 2005.