Finally, we arrive at the end of the NES portion of the Classic Mega Man series, and thankfully, I actually have a bit to say about this game, since it actually tries to do some new things, rather than rehash a lot of things compared to Mega Man 5.

This time around, Mega Man finds himself entering a robot tournament run by the mysterious Mr. X, who suddenly reveals he was using the tourney as a means to get a army of robot masters from all across the world in order to take over the planet, and now, it's up to Mega Man to take the robot masters down, reveal that Mr. X is obviously Wily in disguise, and bring him to justice once and for all!

Yeah, it doesn't sound very different from previous outings with the Blue Bomber, but there's actually more to this than meets the eye.

First things first, it needs to be said that the visuals of the game is just absolutely excellent for the time period. This is one of the latest releases for the NES, releasing the exact same year as Kirby's Adventure, and it absolutely shows. The game is easily the best looking of the entire classic series up until this point, with some fantastic sprite work, colours, and even the presentation in general with cutscenes and even the robot master splash screens getting a huge visual overhaul, with the robot masters in particular even getting stats, and a official level name for their area and everything.

I also like how the story actually has a effect on the robot masters this time as well - all of them have a theme of being from different countries around the world due to the premise of it being a world tournament which helps give the game a bit more world building and making the themes of the levels feel a bit more coherent. I think this does a pretty good job giving the Robot Masters in this game a pretty good air of memorability compared to other games. 

Even with the story, I appreciate that they basically make it obvious from the start that it's Wily. Making the twist so obvious while having the world tourney angle to the framing device does a decent enough job of making the game stand-out to the other plots of the series.

I even like how it seems to have aspects of Mega Man X, which would release pretty soon following 6, such as having multiple diverting paths where Mega Man can find Beat by picking certain paths and fighting the robot master via that pathway. There's also the Rush Armour, which replaces the robotic dog's usual modes with instead a fused form with Mega Man, allowing Rock to either use a jet mode for flight, or a power mode for charged punches that can destroy certain blocks and walls. 

Even the robot master weapons this time around I'd say is still a bit more useful compared to Mega Man 5, even if I don't think it's on par with say Mega Man 2 or 3. But still, it's a decent selection of weapons this go around, with stuff like Freeze Man's weapon and Knight Crusher. 

Overall, that's really all I can say about Mega Man 6. It's in my opinion a underrated entry, which really does seem to take everything up a notch. I really love how it was known this was going to be the final NES title, so they decided to take everything up to the most polished level it could in terms of music, visuals, and story. This game in particular makes such a big difference in the end where Mega Man actually captures Wily, and he gets imprisoned for his actions, with a 'To Be Continued' added to the end of the game, teasing the seventh entry of the game that would release on SNES. Mega Man 6 really does feel like a polished end of a era game, which would be fitting given how close Mega Man X would release to 6. 

And what better way to finish this era off than the final box art: 

Mega Man actually looks pretty decent in the Jet Armour, they got Beat's design down pretty well, the castle is actually a stage in the game, and we've got some of the robot masters properly represented. It took awhile to get there, but right on the last chance - we got a good US box art for Mega Man. Can't get anymore end of an era than that.