Six 8-bit Mega Man games come to mobile, and they’re terrible

The original six NES Mega Man games have been released on iOS and Android devices, and you’re better off not buying them. We’re very sorry to be a bummer about this, but it’s best you hear it from a friend.

“These lovingly-crafted adaptations will remind long-time fans and introduce newcomers to what made the Blue Bomber such a popular and iconic character,” Capcom’s Mega Man Mobile press release states. “Each game has been optimized for the mobile devices with adjustments to game speed. Each game will be available separately for $1.99.”

The idea that the games have had their speed “adjusted” is somewhat misleading, as the reality is that the framerate on these new releases is abysmal. The games themselves have also been edited a bit from the originals.

“The gameplay and difficulty have been optimized for smartphones so that certain elements will differ from the original game,” the description reads.

But the games themselves perform atrociously, even on newer devices.

“Terrible frame rate makes it extremely hard to play,” one player review on Android stated. “Can't accurately time jumps/attacks and it honestly just feels bad. I'm running Android 6.0.1 with 6GB RAM and the minimum requirements state Android 4.0 1GB RAM. I guess that's what you should expect from a $2 mobile port though.”

To be fair, the official trailer does let you know exactly what you’re getting into:

You can set the speed to “high,” which helps the issue but doesn’t fix it, and the games give you a few options to set up the virtual buttons in order to try to make them comfortable, but anyone familiar with how these games should play will be disappointed by the lackluster ports.

I tested Mega Man 2 on a Google Pixel, but our own Mike McWhertor tried to play the first Mega Man on an iPhone 6 before giving up in disgust.

Save your $2, and pick up the Mega Man Legacy Collection instead. These are games that deserve to be played with a controller, and with a smooth framerate.