Before Dark Souls came along and defined everything it meant to be a difficult video game (so much so that the phrase “harder than Dark Souls” has become a meme in its own right), the Mega Man franchise really deserved that distinction. It’s good old nostalgia-fuelled challenging gaming at its best.
One way to make things easier on yourself is to ensure that you’re using the most effective weapons for each situation. An unwieldy or inefficient weapon that runs out of energy almost instantly isn’t going to get you anywhere. Here are some of the worst weapons in the main series, which have earned their place on the list for a variety of reasons.
10 Super Arm (Mega Man)
Now, we’re not going to talk too much smack about the Super Arm. After all, it’s not something you want to be on the receiving end of. It allows Mega Man to lift certain blocks (a little like the Power Bracelet in The Legend Of Zelda) and heave them at foes. Needless to say, that’s going to smart in the morning.
The problem is, the Super Arm is just so limited. It only works on a specific type of block, and the original Mega Man had so few of them. Perhaps the least useful weapon overall in the whole series.
9 Danger Wrap (Mega Man 7)
The Super Situational Arm is just the beginning of the series’ more obtuse and impractical weapons. Take Burst Man’s Danger Wrap from Mega Man 7, for instance.
The creative little killing machine spawns a bubble with a bomb inside. Mega Man can trap foes inside the bubble with the bomb, dooming them to a grim explodey fate. You can also hit other enemies with the bubble, damaging them too. It’s a neat idea, but it’s a bit of a pain to fiddle around with. It’s best used to dispatch Cloud Man.
8 Top Spin (Mega Man 3)
The Top Spin has made a couple of appearances throughout the series. Top Man’s signature weapon, it’s another neat concept that just doesn’t really make a lot of sense to use in most situations.
Rather than firing a projectile, Mega Man rapidly spins his body like a top. It’s quite unreliable in terms of damage output and energy cost, and can only be used while Mega Man is in the air. It has both offensive and defensive utility, which is a plus, but it can also be quite dangerous to use.
7 Spark Shock (Mega Man 3)
Now, this might be a little controversial for some franchise fans. The Spark Shock might well be dead last for some of you, and that’s entirely valid.
Spark Man’s weapon has a unique effect: It fires a glob of electrical energy that will (usually) deal no damage but temporarily bamboozle some opponents’ components and freeze them in place (think the ever-annoying Thunder Wave attack from the Pokémon games).
That could be neat, you might think, as you could then switch weapons and deal with the incapacitated foe at your leisure. Here’s the flaw with that plan: You can’t switch weapons while an enemy is under its effects. As a result, we can give it some props for being a neat idea but that’s as far as it goes.
6 Junk Shield (Mega Man 7)
Next up, we have the Junk Shield, a weapon we’ve put slap bang in the middle of the list because it’s just so polarizing. On the one hand, a shield-based weapon is always useful to have in the Mega Man series, where horrible danger and enemies slavering for your tasty, tasty titanium brains lurk around every corner.
That’s all well and good, but the Junk Shield is quite limited. Junk Man’s weapon generates hunks of metal that rotate around Mega Man, absorbing damage for him and diminishing in size as they’re ‘used.’ These pieces can also be thrown as projectiles, but they get much weaker as they shrink and you can’t control the direction you’ll throw them in. In short, the Junk Shield isn’t “junk” but it isn’t “not junk” either.
5 Leaf Shield (Mega Man 2)
Another shield-style weapon, the Leaf Shield is probably the most iconic of its type. Even if you’re not a fan of the Mega Man series, you’ve probably had these darn leaves pelted at your head many times by the Blue Bomber in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, where it features as one of his special moves.
In Mega Man’s home series, though, it’s not as practical as you might think. While Mega Man is stationary, it’ll protect him quite well, but you’ll automatically fire it away as soon as you move. As a result, it’s more unwieldy than the Junk Shield.
4 Hyper Bomb (Mega Man)
While the franchise was still finding its feet, it’s absolutely fair that some of its weapons would be just a little on the shonky side. The original game brought us the Hyper Bomb, which looks like something Wile E. Coyote would try to blow the Roadrunner into squishy hunks of feathers with back in the day.
Bomb Man’s weapon is a big, awkward, cartoony bomb on a timer. The blast radius isn’t too bad, and it doesn’t take too long to explode, but it’s still enough of a pain that enemies who are even reasonably mobile will be tough to pinpoint with it. The Hyper Bomb is very difficult to use effectively, with even more of a random element that the Junk Shield. It’s not much more than a fun novelty.
3 Hard Knuckle (Mega Man 3)
The Hard Knuckle, like most of the weapons on this list, can be a lot of fun to use when you want to mix it up. It’s just that there are so many better choices and you’re hampering yourself a little by using it.
The Hard Knuckle is certainly not lacking in power. Hard Man’s weapon fires a sort of comedy fist as a projectile, which is quite powerful. The trouble is that it takes a while to come out, isn’t very fast, and you have very limited control over it. A forgettable weapon that doesn’t really serve a unique purpose.
2 Power Stone (Mega Man 5)
Long-time Mega Man fans have probably seen this gimmick just a little too often by now. Here we have yet another ‘something/somethings rotating around Mega Man’s body’ weapon, this time acquired by defeating Stone Man. Unsurprisingly, this one consists of two large boulders, which rotate counter-clockwise around our hero like two twin moons of pain.
That’s the idea, anyway. The reality is that it’s very awkward to use offensively, as the pattern the stones follow when fired can be completely different from the one you’d anticipated. Not to mention the fact that enemy projectiles render them totally useless. When it comes to our pick for the most disappointing weapon in the series, though, the Power Stone is just beaten out by our final pick.
1 Shadow Blade (Mega Man 3)
Don’t get us wrong. We can appreciate the Shadow Blade, we really can. In terms of its general effectiveness, ease of use, and diagonal-aiming ability, what’s not to like? It even returns to Mega Man boomerang-style when thrown.
What’s the big issue with the weapon? Well, the magnificent Metal Blade exists, that’s what. It was as though the developers realized that they’d created a weapon that was far too good, and decided to rectify that in the next game with a totally inferior version of it. The Shadow Blade can’t be spammed and has quite low range, lacking all the utility that the Metal Blade is so beloved for. What a shame.
NEXT: Mega Meh: The 10 Lamest Mega Man Bosses Of All Time
