Recommended Soundtracks: Mega Man 7

Recommended Soundtracks is a feature where we, uh, recommend soundtracks. Some of us are bound to come across soundtracks that likely no one aside from a lucky few have heard. But we're not a selfish bunch. We intend to bestow that knowledge of its existence to anyone reading, in the hopes that more listeners bask in its apparent quality compositions.

You can always expect a Mega Man/Rockman game to have some great music, barring some exceptions. Even though it's a venerable franchise, it still has installments that tend to go unnoticed by the majority of gamers; that's including fans of the series, too. Mega Man 7...well, kind of fits this criteria. It was the first game whose style represented a big departure from the first titles in the main series, and the first made for the Super Nintendo. This meant that the colors were much more vibrant, and the sound and music were upgraded to 16-bit standards.

It also meant an underwhelming game. The change in style represented the unfortunate departure of the pixel-perfect mechanics found in the NES games. With Mega Man 7, everything felt off a little, especially shooting and jumping. The level designs also weren't up to the standards of the best NES games. The robot designs also didn't show the ingenuity of its predecessors -- though Junk Man's design is pretty great due to how bizarre it is, but some of the others couldn't be more unoriginal. But there were also already Mega Man games on SNES: the Mega Man X games. Those were, essentially, what the evolution of Mega Man should be on a new console. But Capcom was intent on continuing the original franchise, which made MM7 feel like a dated experience compared to X.

While I can't defend the game in comparison to its pedigree, I will defend its excellent soundtrack. MM7 has a track that fits the mood of every stage, with music so catchy that it made cruising through the stages that much more tolerable. Perhaps the best and most fitting track is Shade Man's stage music, which consists of the perfect amalgam of Mega Man-style vibrant and haunting.


Not only do I like Junk Man due to how different he is from every other robot master the franchise -- which is also why a lot of fans don't like him -- and I also happen to be a big fan of his stage music. Surprisingly, it's not junk...or something.


Burst Man's stage is also incredibly fitting, sounding like the right track to make you go and search a mysterious Science lab. It's also one of the tougher stages in the game.


All of MM7's tracks are upbeat, fitting them in with the overall jovial tone of the game -- that's compared to the more gritty X titles. Also, just because I said the game is underwhelming doesn't mean it's necessarily bad. It's a good game; it's just that it's below the standard set by Mega Man's 2 & 3 and feels like a regression after getting a handle on X. Also, be sure to check out the fan-created NES version for an iteration of the game without the sluggish controls. But hey, enjoy the soundtrack!