Mega Man Robot Master Ratings.

Hey y'all.  I'm sure I've mentioned before that there's a perfect runner on youtube named Roahm Mythril.  In my last music review, I said that I did averages of all the ratings he did for the robot masters and their coinciding level.  Just FYI, here is that list.  Roahm rated each robot master on their difficulty to perfect run and gave them a rating between one and ten.  Here are the averages from highest to lowest.
#1 is a tie between Mega Man and Bass and Mega Man 4 with an average rating of 5.375.

#3 is MM3 with 5.25

#4 is MM2 with a rating of 4.625. And people say it's the hardest game...

#5 is MM9 with a flat average of 4.

#6 is a tie between MM5 and 7 with 3.875.

#8 is MM1 with the average 3.66.

#9 tags right along with 3.625, MM8.

#10 is MM10 at 3.375.

#11 is unsurprisingly MM6 at 3.25.

So, any surprises?

Mega Man Music -- Mega Man 8

AAAARRGGGH!!!! I wrote so much and the push of one button it all disappeared!  I've been writing for the past hour!!!!  Stupid auto save function!!!!

Okay, calm down, get it together...write it all out again..

*cries*

Hey, y'all.  I'm really frustrated right now because I worked really hard and was more than halfway complete with this post when it all went blank.  It's okay though, because I think I can write this out in a more coherent manner now.  You know how it is with first drafts and such.

Okay, so Mega Man 8.  While it was a good game, it had its problems.  The main deal with it was that it came out on the PS1 and the Sega Saturn, meaning that even right after MM7, it's first non-8 bit game, it had to go right back and figure itself out on completely different consoles.  That meant unnecessary changes from what MM7 established.

You know, I'm suspicious that the fan backlash against MM7 is what did this to MM8.  Honestly, MM7 got a lot of unfair accusations back in the day.  These were essentially unavoidable in one sense, because MM7 had a lot of expectations for the first 16 bit Mega Man game.  Except for in music and too much cheese, I feel that MM7 really rose to the challenge and created a new formula by which other higher resolution Mega Man Classic games could go by and adjust as they went along.

MM8, however, scrapped it.  They decided to go back to square one and make everything like a huge Mega Man party.  To me, the game feels like a Japanese stereotype.  Mostly in two areas: plot and graphics.  Now because I'm American, a stereotype from Japan is more interesting than one from over here, but still, come on Capcom.

First of all, you have this alien Duo from outer space who seeks to destroy all of this evil energy stuff, which is a moderately common concept.  It's even in the Japanese version of the Power Puff Girls, PPGZ.  It's not too bad a plot item, though.  Naturally Wily finds this evil energy and starts using it to enhance his forces.

Thing is, Mega Man 8 is an easy game.  RoahmMythril, a perfect runner on youtube, did perfect runs of the robot masters for all MM games.  Using his ratings, I determined that out of all the games 1-10 and Mega Man and Bass, MM8 ranks only at number nine.  If this evil energy translated into harder bosses, or maybe you encounter a good guy that goes bad, or maybe you fight Bass without it and then next time he uses it, then this game would be better and more dramatic.  I mean, if you're going to break the normal formula of a Mega Man game, then why not?

There are other things that make it a Japanese stereotype.  You have the robot masters saying little catchphrases as they enter, shoot attacks, and die.  I wouldn't mind the first and third so much if the voice acting wasn't terrible.  I mean, the bad voice acting is hilarious in the anime cutscenes, but it's sort of hard to understand the robot masters when they're doing it.  Admittedly, some are really funny and hilariously creepy, but still.

Also, having them name their attacks when they do them really makes this game unnecessarily easy when you fight them.  That alone probably makes this game less hard.  The key to any Mega Man game is learning how exactly to fight the robot masters, and it's just cheap if they call it out.  Sheesh, why can't they make a dang Famicom version of this game?  This is the one that deserves it more.

Another stereotype is the color scheming of this game.  It's so crazy...every little bit of every little robot or machine or platform in most levels is colored these brilliant neon tones so that you're going through this crazy world of color and eye burning brightness.  They also have birds flying in the intro level, shrapnel going everywhere when you shoot a bad guy, toys falling from nowhere in Clown Man's level, and even a techno club color pattern going on in the stage select screen.  I honestly don't think I could play this game for too long at a time, and I really like shiny stuff.  Search Man's color scheme in his level makes me feel nauseous for some reason.

Bah, enough bashing.  This game really is fun.  It's sillier than it needs to be, but the gameplay adds interesting elements, like getting rid of E tanks in favor of party balls.  I like the E tanks better, but it's still interesting for party balls to be there.  They float in the air, and if you don't shoot them they hurt you if you run into them.  If you shoot them, they drop an item for you.  It's different, and that's cool.

Honestly, they really could have figured out how to make the games work on a non-8 bit format if they kept trying.  I believe it.  So anyway, let's get to the music.

MM8 had the opposite problem as MM7 when it came to music.  While I personally don't enjoy MM7's track as much as other games, I do feel that its music was more in the feel of Mega Man: weird and good times.  Now, in a pure sense of general music, MM8's had some better and more unique tracks.  On the downside, it lost its Mega Man feel.  It became less of a Mega Man game and more of just a generic video game.  Now, it's not as bad as how generic the JJ Abrams Star Trek was compared to real Star Trek, but all the same it lost some of its uniqueness.  It lost that slight darkness that makes Mega Man what it is.

However, like I said about MM7, it's actually fun for one game.  I want to criticize this game, but I watched a playthrough again, and you know what?  I forgive this game's flaws.  I really like it.  It's not as good as games 1-5, but it's fun, so play it.

I think most of this game's cheesiness (as well as MM7's) comes from an overly dark Mega Man X series.  They wanted the original series to balance it out.  I really don't like this, but for one game it's good to just have fun and even be a little silly.  Honestly, they really should have given Bass more plot, but whatever.

So anyway, indeed, whether or not you like MM7 music or 8 music better, one for its more Mega Man feel and the other for its better quality, they do have similar flaws.  I talked about this during my MM6 review, but honestly, these two games have it worse.  In their cases, Capcom seemed to be trying too hard to make the robot master themes sound thematically alike, rather than giving each robot master a more unique sound.  MM8 isn't quite as indistinct as MM7's music between masters, but still, its songs don't really reflect the characteristics of the masters they try to portray.  I mean, you could start playing random songs from Mega Mans 1-5 (and possibly 6) and about ninety-five percent of the time I can guess what robot master they're from.  These?  Not so much.

But as cheesy 80s pop as MM8 sounds, it's still pretty enjoyable.  It's too cheese to really compare to other games that well, but it's good that the music didn't suck.  It's not as unique and weird as I prefer my Mega Man, but whatever.  Speaking of which, on to it!

So this game has two different intros, depending on the country the game was released.  The western theme is a very nice piece that's sort of mellow rock, both dramatic and relaxing at the same time.  Meditative, even.  It makes me feel nostalgic even though I never played this game as a child.  Really though, the Japanese song does fit better with the anime intro scene, which shows Mega Man fighting baddies from all the previous games.  It's cheesier than cheese, but dang is it fun!  It makes me want to learn Japanese.

Next up is the title screen song, a nice song that accomplishes its purpose I suppose.  It feels like a track you'd play at a fashion boutique or exercise video, but I like it.   Now the intro stage is where it's at.  I love this song!  Very hyper and appropriate.  The music they play underground during the intro stage, while kinda cool, reminds me of a fashion show, one of those really wonky ones that are unnecessarily gimmicky.  Like making all the models walk through a spray of glow in the dark paint.

The mid boss song is okay.  Very hyperactive and pulsing.  It kind of annoys me though, because it's a bit too repetitive for having to fight an enemy for a significant period of time.  The stage select screen song, however, is very good.  I quite like it.  It's what a stage select screen should be, except a bit more noticable than most of the stage select screens tend to be.  Fitting with the disco shiny panels on screen.

Okay, just a warning, there are nine robot master themes this time.  For some reason Tengu Man has a completely different theme on the Saturn version, so I'll be rating both songs like I would normally.  Naturally, I won't be playing favorites, but rating each song on its own merit and how it represents the robot master.  Let's go!

#9 Does everything about Search Man's level have to make me sick?  What is up with this song?  The squealing, squelching tones are like getting stabbed in the ear.  Like listening to modern crap pop.  Like listening to Nathan Fillion pretend he's from out west (you are officially disallowed from every saying "ain't" or "y'all" ever again, Mr. Fillion).  This doesn't relate to being a sniper military attack robot at all.  What were they thinking?  This is my nominee for the worst Mega Man song ever.

#8 ....Are you kidding me?  I know Clown Man is a clown, but how about not making his theme sound like any clown's song?  You could literally play this song while clowns are performing at a circus and it wouldn't make a difference.  Perfect for like one of those toys where you crank the handle and a clown pops out.  Well, at least it's cute.

#7 What?  What is this mess?  Okay, so in Japan tengus are these bird-demon mountain monster things, and so Capcom calls a robot master after one.  Where in the mess do you get such a chirpy theme for a dang kami from?  It's a dang kami.  Fail, Playstation version.  Well, it's at least a happy song, very windy sounding.  Honestly though, it's a lot like the color scheming of this game: too much, too hyper, too sugar.  Especially at the part where they dump a bunch of mets on you in the level.  I really don't want to listen to annoying music at that part.

#6 As silly and annoying as Aqua Man the robot master is, his theme is pretty peaceful.  Do, do, do.  Not that unique or special, but nice in its own way.  Perfect for an elevator or an insane asylum.

#5 Honestly, everything in this game soundtrack reminds me of either exercise videos or fashion shows.  It's definitely the former when it comes to Astro Man's level.  Truth be told, I kinda like this song.  It just makes absolutely no sense for Astro Man's level.  Neither does the level itself.  Endless mazes are really gimmicky, especially, when you expect that robot master lairs are either civilian made or Wily made.  Oh wait, we're talking about music now.  Um...yeah.  Okay song.  Not great.

#4 Grenade Man's theme is decent.  Pretty fun, actually.  I like it's sense of drama and tension.  As much as I really like this song, I don't really feel it's very grenade-ish.  Way too peaceful.  Actually, this song is quickly becoming a favorite of mine as I just listen to it some more.  I think I could listen to this just on my ipod without playing the game. *hums happily along*

#3 Sword Man's theme is actually kind of fun.  While it still reminds me of overly melodramatic runway shows, it actually makes the attempt to be like Sword Man's level, which entails going through ancient relics.  While I feel the level's gameplay was gimmicky and just generic video game, this song certainly isn't. I dig it!

#2 I really love Tengu Man's song on the Saturn version.  It's a great rollicking song that's fun, passionate, and actually sounds like a Mega Man song from what the series should be.  It inspires you to keep going in the level, and it's really cool.  Shoot the dang kami-bot, Mega Man!

#1 Much like Shade Man's theme from the previous game, the song from Frost Man's stage was instantly recognisable and even stuck in my head after only one watching of RoahmMythril's Frost Man perfect run.  It's a more mellow song, which is definitely necessary when you're following a crazy voice around going "JUMP, JUMP! SLIDE, SLIDE!"  Easily a memorable and well written song, best of the bunch.

There's a lot of extra songs to go over in this one.  First of all, you can go to Dr. Light's lab to buy some stuff for the game to make it easier on ya.  Mellow, repetitive, not that great, but you don't want to stab your own ears when you listen to it.  Duo has his own theme, and this plays during the midstage after four of the robot masters.  It's a great theme.  I really like it.  Very passionate and driving, really pumping you up.  Pity the midstage is so lame gameplaywise.  A song like this deserves a hard level.

Cut Man returns in the midstage if you're playing the Sega Saturn version, and they remix his song all special like.  Thing is, have you ever heard those professional DJs that really aren't as good as they think they are?  That's what this song sounds reminds me of.  I really don't think the MM8 sound really works for Cut Man.  Either that or they were just trying too hard.

Wood Man returns in Search Man's stage in the Saturn game, and his mix is a lot better than Cut Man's, mostly because it was a far less wonky song to have to remix in the first place (some songs are just easier to mix than others).  Honestly, this song is a dang lot of fun.

Okay, so the boss battle song.  About time I actually got to this.  In MM8, there's a short intro to this song.  It's unnecessary, but it's cool.  The boss battle song itself is dang awesome.  Good layering and excitement.  Maybe too intense for such an easy game, but whatevs.  The get weapon song is okay.  Not really anything that interesting or special.  It's trying too hard to be exciting, really.

I don't usually comment on the Wily stage intro for the games, but this one's was so unnecessarily pompous that I just have to wonder what Capcom was thinking.

Wily stage one is so weird.  It's sort of deep and weird sounding, like an older, intense computer movie where  somebody's trying to figure out what's going on. Or like a really melodramatic fashion show.  Jokes aside, it's a really fun and well layered song.  I really like it.  Not sure how Wily it is, but eh.

Wily 2 doesn't really compare.  It's just okay.  Like the first, it sort of reminds me of Frost Man's level, except this one part where it gets all whistle-ish.  Not the greatest ever.  You're bound to forget this track.  If only the song was more like the ending of the track and less like the beginning, and given to Search Man instead of his annoying theme.

I don't mind Wily 3.  Sounds almost like a haunted house.  Not that unique.  Could be for basically any game.

Wily stage four is a remix of the battle theme introduction, and since you're replaying the robot master themes, it makes sense.  I just wish that the Wily level themes didn't all sound so....icy.

Unlike in MM7, Bass' theme actually sort of matches the rest of the game.  I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.  In any case, his theme is still awesome, and Bass is still radical.  Or he would be if the evil energy actually made him difficult to fight.

After a short introduction where Duo stops you from dying (okay theme at this point) it goes into the Wily battle.  I have very high expectations for the music during Wily fights, and honestly...I'm not sure about this one.  It's okay.  It's just trying too hard.  I mean, if your game is full of cheese, then your big boss theme should reflect the tone of your game, like in MM7.

After you defeat his first form, Wily switches over to the skull capsule, and I must say, it's a dang creepy intro as he does this.  Creepy awesome.  The final Wily fight theme is also creepy, very computerish and intense.  I like.  Really weird and awesome.

So yay!  You beat the game!  Duo saves Mega Man again and then disappears off into space, leaving the defense of earth to the blue bomber and company.  And again, there are two different endings.  Maybe the Japanese one is more fitting, but my heart belongs to the western one.  I suppose Japan's version is more like a reprise of the intro, very cheesy and fun.  I just wish I understood it.  Fun and happy, and it makes you happy you won.

Honestly, I still love the western one more.  It makes me feel really reminiscent of all of the Mega Man games.  Just listening to it almost makes me want to cry.  I don't know what it is with this song, but something about it reminds me of being a kid and the more innocent music theory we had going on in the nineties (did I mention modern pop is crap?).  This along with the ending picture just makes me feel fondly about Mega Man and happy about life in general, reminding me about all things good in life.  Especially since it was the last Mega Man classic game for a long time.

Well, overall MM8's music was not up to standard.  I'm going to tell you not to skip this game because it was good, but at the end of the day, I have to call it right here.  While I'm willing to let your opinion decide the best  soundtrack of the series, I'm calling this one as the worst.  It had its good songs, but after some bad or just plain not unique robot master tunes and mediocre Wily level songs, it just can't muster up the great times that all the other games of the series can.

So if these songs were the soundtrack to a movie, it'd be one of those cheesy old movies that's not as cool as it thinks it is (and you love the movie for it).  Not unlike the first Mortal Kombat movie, except not quite as good.  The hero has to deal with computer hackers, and his girlfriend is a fitness instructor.  He makes her pretend to be a model so that he can sneak into the really melodramatic runway show.  The villain is overly dark and the ending is dang happy.  Yeah.  I seriously need to write that movie.

Couple of questions might pop into your head.  First of all, am I going to review the Mega Man and Bass soundtrack?  The answer is probably not.  I mean, I kind of like the game and how it sort of fixed everything that was wrong with MM8's burn your eye out graphics (it was based on the same sprite models), but the music also was in line with MM8.  The sound type of the game just wasn't good for Mega Man as a whole, and I don't really enjoy it.  That being said, MM&B does sound more like a Mega Man game.  I might reconsider, but for now I'm not sure.

Heck, I'm actually not that mad I had to rewrite this.  I think this version is more coherent than what I put before accidentally deleting my first draft.

As for reviewing MM9, I'm going to listen to its soundtrack and MM10 more before I continue with these reviews.  I feel like I want to get more of a sense of these soundtracks before I go on about them.  See you then!

Mega Man Music --- MM7

Hey y'all.  Let's move on to the next game in the Mega Man series, MM7.  This is the first one to be on the Super Nintendo, and honestly the SNES was good for Mega Man.  The formula was getting tired, and Capcom was having trouble being more creative with Mega Man on the original Nintendo.  It was time for a facelift, and SNES is exactly what the doctor ordered.

The graphics were a bit cheesy, but who cares?  They were great graphics, and with new graphic abilities you can do cool things like burn back trees and freeze lava to discover hidden paths.  Enemies could do new things, and with the L and R buttons on the SNES controller you could switch powers without hitting the pause menu.

Just like the graphics the gameplay is awesome, and they create great new enemies that are interesting to fight.  You'd be surprised how interesting fighting robot cockroaches is.  Also, they add an intro stage and a mid-stage.  I have a problem with how easy the both of these are, but they are very useful for the plot.

Honestly, I think MM7 has the best plot out of any Mega Man Classic game.  It's good, doesn't interfere with the gameplay, and is a good level of complex.  You have Dr. Wily breaking out of jail to fight the world again, and then Bass, my second favorite character ever (under Crystal Man), appears.  He appears to be Mega Man's friend, and in the first plot twist worthy of a spoiler alert, he's not.  He wants nothing more than to beat Mega Man, and he ends up almost destroying Dr. Light's lab.  But of course Mega Man saves the day, and everything is happy, other than Dr. Wily escaping to terrorize the world again.  Throughout all this you get to see a good dose of Roll, Light's new robot Auto, and Dr. Light himself, who tells you about how the weapons you gain work when you get them.

They make the game to where you can't play all eight levels in whatever order.  Only four of the robots show up, and after you beat them you get the next four.  This is fine, and actually it helps the plot.  The gameplay too makes the limited options still interesting enough for you to not have a too similar game every time.  You have Rush plates, Beat, and Proto Man to find, making this a very interesting game.  You get to go to Auto's shop and buy things in this game, and there's an item you can find to make everything half-price and access different new items.  However, most of these items can be found for free during the game.  I like this, because if you can't find it you can just buy it.

The Rush adaptor is there, but it works more like a double jump than as broken as MM6's adaptor.  Still very useful, just balanced.

So the plot, gameplay, and graphics are all excellent.  This game was a step in the right direction for the series on the SNES, and it's quality.  However, some people threw a hissy fit because it wasn't 8bit, and that's honestly cold.  Mega Man can't just stay the same all the time.  That they would talk crap about such a good and well made game is just frustrating to me.  Sure, it was weird for me at first, but crap, MM7 did so many things right that you can't hate it just for being 16 bit.  Those people that made an 8 bit Famicom version of it really need to apologize to Capcom.

You will now note that I didn't mention music as one of the game's good points.  Because honestly, it's not.  There are a lot of people who like it, and that's cool.  It's not like the music sucks, other than the remix of the Proto Man whistle (guh).  The trouble with it is that it's just so tinny and dated.  It's ridiculously corny, and it depends on how willing a person you are for corny music as to whether or not you'll like it.  When you compare it to the music of the games before, it comes off as too silly.

Now, you might complain that me, an 8 bit fan, shouldn't call this soundtrack dated when 8-bit is too.  That's a somewhat fair accusation.   Thing is, MM7's music is cheesy through and through, because it's a type of style.  The MIDI formatting that makes 8 bit music is more like an instrument: one item that can make a variety of sounds and styles.  Like a violin, MIDI can be dramatic, serious, frolicking, happy, hyper, slow, or whatever else it wants to be.

MM7's music can't really be anything but silly, happy, and fun.  And that's the plus side of the music.  There's really nothing wrong with silly, happy, and fun, so for this one game it works.  Still, I could take any of the games MM1-5 (I don't know about 6) and just listen to them alone on my ipod.  Especially MM5, which is a really great roadtrip soundtrack.  MM7, however, has music you can really only listen to when you play the game.  It's not that enjoyable on its own.

Oh, and by the way, daddies are the coolest ever.  My dad told me to say that, so I thought I'd listen for once.  Yeah, Dad's pretty cheesy himself.

Speaking of cheesy, let me talk about something I mentioned in the MM6 review.  Now, MM games 1-5 all had a more or less serious tone, without going more cheesy than the 8 bit format required them to.  Capcom obviously made efforts to make this a more serious series at that half of Mega Man's life, but it seems that once the Mega Man X series arrived and became the melodramatic stuff that it was, they for some reason made deliberate efforts to make the series cheesy.  Thus, Mega Man 6 had a plot with an obvious plot by Dr. Wily and an extra boss castle to go through for essentially no reason. 

In this sense, MM7 is far worse.  The dialogue between several characters is hilariously corny, the password screen is so dorky I can't stand it, and the graphics are generally chirpy and silly.  I can forgive the graphics, because they only real problem with them is that Mega Man looks sort of mean.  I despise the password screen (goofy screenshots of people's faces? Come on...), and I actually don't mind the dialogue.  The trouble is the precedent this creates.

Let me explain with the game series Space Quest, which follows the adventures of a janitor, Roger Wilco, that has to save the universe repeatedly.  The reason why the first game was so awesome was because the threat was real.  The game itself had very goofy and funny moments, but the bad guys were actually serious and the plot was based on serious intergalatic politics.  The only goofy thing about it was the fact that a lazy janitor had to be the hero in the end.  That was what made the game.

Now, SQ2 was more or less in the same vein, though the plot wasn't to use a star generator to destroy planets, it was now subjecting all of the universe to insurance salesmen.  Yeah.  The third game was silly too, with the villain having servants with jello-shooting guns and you have to fight the boss in a giant robot based on a toy.  Those games were still good, as the elements of the game make them fun.

SQ4 is better, because the villain Sludge Vohaul took over time, ended up conquering Roger's planet, and even kidnapped his son.  Now that's a serious threat.  Even with the cheesy voiceovers, it was a great game and very awesome.  You could feel the threat of the bad guy. 

Space Quest 5 was the beginning of the end.  While it was a very fun game in its own right, it did a lot of things wrong.  It threw in too many parodies, made Roger fart every time he sat down (once is enough!  We got it!  Thank you!), and the whole universe was essentially a rip off of Star Trek.  This game is worth playing, but the end was near.

That was SQ6.  Nothing about this game was original.  The structure of the game was awesome, with lots of options and a different feel to the gameplay.  That was the only good part.  The plot was stupid (it didn't match up with the ending of SQ5), nothing that happened wasn't a parody of something, Roger turns whiny, an old villain from 3 is recycled, and the ending actually preaches about eating right.  Nothing new or distinctly Space Quest even happened in the game.

Now, why did I got on that big rant?  Because I want to make the point that when you take a game in a series and make it too cheesy from what it was meant to be, you hurt the quality of the series as a whole.  Honestly, I love Mega Man 7, and if I had to compare it to a Space Quest game, it would be 3: cheesy, but fun and great the way it is.  I just don't want this to be a sign that Mega Man as a whole is forgetting its more serious origins.

I'm pretty sure that this is the point Keiji Inafune started having less influence and his crew having more.  Then again, it might be a good thing in some cases.  Inafune always seemed to want to go darker than those around him, and it helped the Zero series not be as melodramatic when the crew essentially forced him to not make Mega Man X the villain of that series.

In any case, I just don't want the Mega Man series to be complete cheese.  Being funny is cool, but hey, even little Rockman has to save the world.  You can't forget how intense that is.

Bah!  I"ve been ranting too long!  Music time!

Okay, so the cheese begins with the intro track.   It's a silly intro, but it conveys what it needs to convey: Mega Man finally arrested Dr. Wily.  Then it gets dark to let you know that Wily built robots to let himself out.  People seem to like the title screen song, and it is really peppy and fun for being so short.  To me it's not that great, but it's good.

Ah, the intro stage music is awesome!  It's fun, intense music that would sound really great on an electric guitar (I'm pretty sure you could find that on youtube somewhere).  I just wish that the intro stage were harder or longer so that it matched the awesomeness of the song.

The stage select tune is pretty good.  It does what a stage select track should, namely to get you to choose a robot master.  The best stage select tunes are like that.

Now for the robot masters.  Notedly, this is the part where I think the composer really messed up.  None of the robot master tracks are horrible, but I have a problem with how non-unique most of them are.  In the earlier games, it's easy to hear a track and be like "oh, that's Wood Man" or "that must be Magnet Man".  Honestly, you have to pay more attention to keep track of these themes in this game.  MM6 had trouble with that, but nowhere near this bad.  Lots of the tracks are just peppy and don't relate as well as they could to the robot master of the level.  They sound too much like each other.

Well, I better rate 'em.  Remember, I'm putting these in order of quality of song, not my personal favorite or even fan favorites, though I have to regard fan favorites somewhat if I'm going to be completely fair.  My aim is for which song is of the best quality, not so much which is favorite.

#8 Spring Man.  You are a questionable robot master.  Seriously, a slinky-bot?  Dr. Wily really is a mad scientist.  I kinda don't blame them for really not having a matching theme with this guy.  His music is fun and cute, and that's about all you can say.

#7 Cloud Man's stage theme is just weird.  It's happy, and it does convey a sense of the sky, but it's like somebody turned the cheesy dial way up.  It reminds me of old kid's show tunes.  Heck, that's probably why some people like it so much.

#6 Turbo Man's theme does make me think of roads and racing.  They did do a good job there.  Trouble is, the theme kind of annoys me.  The tinny sound is forgivable on other tracks, but it really hurts Turbo Man's.

#5 Freeze Man's theme is so videogame.  It reminds me of every ice level theme I've ever heard.  It's got great layering, and it feels sort of carnival-ish.  Freeze Man is captain of the cheese cruise.

#4 Okay, so Burst Man's theme is pretty good.  The song doesn't remind me of bombs or bubbles, but it's a fun theme that's happy, and it makes me happy.  Doo doo doo doo-doo-doo-doo.....

#3 Junk Man's theme is like Burst Man's.  Not very distinct, but very happy.  Does this seriously remind anyone of a junkyard?  Hardly.  I don't think anyone really cares, because it makes them happy.  Me too.

#2 I like Slash Man's theme because it actually conveys a sense of the robot master and his level.  It conveys jungle, adventure, dinosaurs...everything about the stage.  It fits really well.  I'm not going to be rating the Famicom music, but I have to say that this song even sounds awesome in 8 bit.

#1 Now this is it!  Shade Man is what they should have done for every robot master theme: convey the actual robot master!  It's so evident that the creators of this game liked Shade Man the best.  You have to replay his level twice to get all the items, there's a secret way to get Ghosts and Goblins music for his level, and the theme is so kickin'!  The first time I heard this song I was watching Roahmmythril's perfect runs, and even though his commentary sort of blocks out the music, I found Shade Man's theme running around in my head later on.  I wasn't even thinking about Mega Man.  I can't say that about any other robot master theme from this game.

I'm not including it on the ratings list, but yes, the Ghost and Goblins song is on there if you hold A when you're selecting Shade Man (and you haven't defeated him yet).  It's a cute song, and it sounds pretty good as an MM7 tune.

Now, in the middle of the robot master themes, they have a time where you go to the robot master museum and you hear a remix of the Snake Man, Guts Man, and Heat Man themes.  I really like this song, up until the point where you get to Heat Man.  It's actually kinda frightening at that point.  They really should have gone with a different robot master there.  It's wonky, but you might like it.  The Snake and Guts Man parts are awesome.

Normally Capcom always did very good on the boss battle songs, but I don't know what the crap happened with this one.  I'll admit that some people really do like it, but I'm puzzled at why: this is just too darn squeaky, and listening to it for long gives me a headache.  If they just cut out those darn high notes it wouldn't be so bad, but crap is it headache inducing.  Normally I post a link to this guy who put up a youtube video with all the songs from the game, but he forgot to put the boss battle theme in his soundtrack.  I'll go ahead and post the link here.

Boss battle theme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpHUYUN7H7c

I'm not really a fan of the password theme song. It's okay, but it's so dang cheesy and silly.  Kind of lame.  It's harmless, though.  Actually, I really hate how the password screen uses corny shots of characters' faces as password combinations, but that's not music so we'll move on.

Now THIS is where MM7 music gets good.  The Wily stage themes are pwnsome.  In the earlier games, I never considered Mega Man as a series to be cheesy, but Wily himself?  Sure.  He's a demented creepo bent on conquering/destroying the world.  He built Spring Man.  How is that not cheesy?  Also, this is the first game in the series to bring us a new theme for each and every Wily level.  Pwn!

Wily level one is very good, very sneaky sounding.  It's like Mega Man is finding the way inside Wily's fortress and has to be very careful.  Level 2 sounds extra dorky, but dorky in a really good way.  It's very fun, like a really cheesy horror flick.  Level 3's music is also fun, almost inspirational in a way.  Not unlike a cartoon opening theme.  4 sounds almost like a continuation of 3's, just in a different pitch.  The best of these is the first, but all of them are a good time.

For some reason, Bass' theme really stands out to me.  Unlike the other MM7 songs, it has no cheese.  It doesn't sound overly tinny or like just another generic theme.  This is really good, distinctive stuff.  It's like your reaction to Bass himself.  You're not really sure what to think about him at first, you just know he's awesome.

The Wily fight music has parts, one for each stage.  The first is okay.  It's exciting, dramatic, and electro fun.  The second one is the one that's completely crazy.  I love it so much I made lyrics for it.

Pew, pew-pew, pew, pew..
Fighting with laser guns
Fighting with laser guns
Fighting with laser guns
Fighting with laser guns

Pew, pew-pew, pew, pew..

Fighting with laser guns

Fighting with laser guns

Fighting with laser guns

Fighting with laser guns

You think you'll beat me

You will not beat me

You think you'll shoot me

But then I will go-

Pew, pew-pew, pew, pew....

And so on and so forth.  Hey, it's a cheesy song, what to you expect?  So anyway, there's other music I didn't mention.  Auto has a shop in this game, and his theme...is repetitive and annoying.  It's like carnival clown hell or something.  So not the way to go, Capcom.   The get weapon music is okay.  Nothing great, but not horrible.  A second weapon tune plays when Dr. Light is telling you what the weapon does, and this theme is pretty good.  Kind of refreshing sounding and cute.

The ending theme is alright, but it feels a little weird.  It's too dramatic for an end theme...the excited kind of dramatic.  It would work a lot better for a robot master stage or something.  All in all, I do like the song.  Out of all the songs, I think I like this one and Shade Man's best out of the game.  It's really fun and exciting, just not really ending-like.  Whatever, you're not going to hate it.

Heck, listen for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbzMX94qtCk

Summary: Mega Man 7 is a great game, but the music wasn't as good as the rest of it.  The cheese was too much.  Honestly though, as long as no one ever makes another tinny sounding soundtrack for Mega Man, MM7 will remain unique and different.  The music here is second place to the game, and not really that great to listen to if you're not actually playing. 

So if this were the soundtrack to a movie, it would be to a cheesy horror film with weird special effects and goofy protagonists.  Probably involving a haunted house.   It'd be the kind of movie that's like a Halloween classic.  More funny than scary, but still scary in a way.  The kind of film where you mention it around Halloween and your friends are all like, "Yeah, let's watch it again!"