10 Awful Versions Of Iconic Video Games You Didn't Know Existed
8. Mega Man - MS DOS
Just when you think the Blue Bomber has been through enough over his 35 years, you discover another blemish on the track record of poor Mega Man.
In 1990, as the franchise was at its peak on the NES, Capcom USA gave the licence to Hi-Tech Expressions to craft an entry in the series for Microsoft’s DOS system. From the off it’s pretty clear that the version is limited as, instead of the six Robot Masters from the original, Rockman can only rock up on three boring (albeit totally original) bad guys.
But that’s even if you get to the stage selection screen, as the game features a single room intro stage that is simply baffling. The player is immediately attacked by a powerful robotic dog which will continuously respawn if killed and moves faster than Mega Man can, meaning the game always starts with the player panicking and fleeing for safety.
Mega Man is all about challenging difficulty but that just seems cheap and unfair.
It doesn’t really get any better from there, with slippery controls and frankly insultingly bad visuals. At least, like other Mega Man games of the era, it has a fantastic soundtrack, right? No, actually. The game doesn’t feature a single note of music and is instead just 15 minutes of bleeping and blooping until it’s beaten or abandoned by the player.