The History of Mega Man 4

Keiji Inafune has said the team had very few problems making this one, a relief after Mega Man 3. He designed Dr. Cossack himself, originally named Dr. Vice and first considered with American traits before Inafune settled on Russian influences, and made him younger than Light and Wily. Cossack's daughter Kalinka was created because the cast had so many male characters already; Inafune did not intend her as a counterpart to Roll, whatever players assumed. The support robot Eddie, who hands Mega Man a random item like a lottery, was an idea left over from Mega Man 2.

The fan design contest swelled again, past 70,000 submissions. The team was so taken with Skull Man's winning design that they scrapped an entire level already in progress and rebuilt it around him. Each of the eight winning contestants received a golden cartridge edition of the game; only eight exist, and they fetch a large collector's price today. Hayato Kaji, joining the series here, designed the game's defining mechanic, and Minae Fujii composed the score.

Hold the fire button and the Mega Buster gathers a blast far stronger than a normal shot. Kaji built the chargeable Mega Buster, and Inafune's comment shows the team knew the stakes: adding a two or three level charge would change the whole flavor of the game in some respects, and they were very mindful of that. Later critics made the same point from the other side, arguing the charged shot made the stolen Master Weapons feel optional.

The story also finds the series' durable trick. Cossack is no villain at all: Wily kidnapped Kalinka and blackmailed her father into building the army, and it is Proto Man who breaks the plot open, teleporting in with the girl mid boss fight. Two castles, Cossack's and then Wily's, became the series' standard length from here through Mega Man 6.

Retrospect is where Mega Man 4 divides. Lucas M. Thomas of IGN called it, as a standalone title, one of the best experiences in the NES library, and praised the second castle for extending the game. But Thomas, Jeremy Parish, and GameSpot's Nutt and Speer all name this game as the turning point where the series began to deteriorate, against the backdrop of the new Super NES: Parish called the Wily fake out silly and the charge shot a game breaking innovation. Both verdicts are on this page because both are the record.