History YMMV / MegaMan4

* UnderusedGameplayMechanic: The secret Wire and Balloon adapters make some areas easier but aren't required for much beyond accessing a secret path in Cossack's Citadel and some otherwise inaccessible power ups; the Wire is also usable against Wily Machine 4. The idea of secret adapters that open optional hidden areas is a concept that could have been explored to boost replay value to the game by allowing alternate routes through more stages.

* UnderusedGameplayMechanic: The secret Wire and Balloon adapters make some areas easier but aren't required for much beyond accessing a secret path in Cossack's Citadel and some otherwise inaccessible power ups. The idea of secret adapters that open optional hidden areas is a concept that could have been explored to boost replay value to the game by allowing alternate routes through more stages.

** Dust Man is also relatively easy, so long as you know to jump straight up to avoid the imminent impact of his Dust Crusher and slide away from his vacuum move that draws you towards him.

** Because his stage is a giant junkyard full of discarded machines and broken parts, Dust Man's "modified robot sanitation worker" backstory for ''4'' is typically discarded and replaced with a variation of "robot grim reaper".

* MemeticLoser: Toad Man somehow manages to be both this and an EnsembleDarkhorse at the same time. Despite having a cool (or amusing) design and a great weapon, his actual boss fight is [[ZeroEffortBoss laughably easy]]. Much like Spark Mandrill in ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX1 X1]]'', one can very easily get him into a stun-lock pattern for the whole fight[[labelnote:*]]Toad Man almost always jumps over you when he takes a hit from the buster, letting you run underneath him to do it again. Even if he actually tries to Rain Flush you, hitting him again will cancel it and put him back in the pattern[[/labelnote]]. Even the minibosses in Toad Man's stage are more threatening than he is.

* FanonDiscontinuity: Some hardcore fans like to consider ''VideoGame/MegaMan3'' the true final game of the classic Mega Man series, preferring to assume Dr. Wily died at the end of ''3'' and ignoring everything from ''4'' onwards. Some less hardcore fans like to consider the same of ''VideoGame/MegaMan6'', and ignore everything from ''VideoGame/MegaMan7'' onwards, while still others ignore only ''7'', ''8'', and ''& Bass'', considering only the classic NES style games (1-6, and 9 and 10) to be canon.

** Ring Man's stage can be very difficult due to having numerous instant-death hazards, troubling enemy placement, and ''four'' {{Mini Boss}}es. It's even worse if you're trying to clear it without taking damage and limiting yourself to just the Mega Buster, as LetsPlay/RoahmMythril has done (with an effect on his sanity). Ring Man himself is no pushover either.

** Then there's the erratic Ring Man, who can cause huge collision damage and counterattack if you shoot him on the ground. Even with his weakness, you can still die easily if you don't know how to handle his movements.

* WhatAnIdiot: Kalinka Cossack has been kidnapped by Wily. Does her father turn his robots versus Wily? Nope! He targets [[MisplacedRetribution everyone else]] instead! Fortunately, she is rescued before Mikhail can do any more damage. [[BigDamnHeroes Thanks, Blues.]]

** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3B85DIMNUc final boss theme]] is very intense and catchy for a ten-second loop.

* DisappointingLastLevel: While not quite as easy as the one from ''Mega Man 3'', this game's fortress stages usually contain at least one E-Tank each, and are quite barren of enemies later on. This game also marked the start of having shorter Wily Castles to fit in the mid-game stages, with this one only having two full stages, a short level leading up to the boss refights and Wily Machine, and a BossOnlyLevel with the Wily Capsule.

** This game's charged Mega Buster has widely been accused of being overpowered, for doing nearly as much damage to a boss as their weakness. While this was likely done in response to the previous game, where taking on a Robot Master without their weakness tended to become a brutal slog where you had to chip away each and every one of their hitpoints while they could easily kill you with about 4 or 5 hits, half of the fanbase didn't actually have a problem with that, and the other half thought this game's solution went too far in the opposite direction. Aside from the Game Boy ''VideoGame/MegaManIII'', this version of the Mega Buster would never appear again in the series and would be relegated to Proto Man's buster in ''VideoGame/MegaMan9''. Largely averted in terms of the special weapons, though, with most of them being seen as at least somewhat useful and none being seen as outright overpowered.

** Pharaoh Man if you don't have his weakness (if you do, [[ZeroEffortBoss he's a pushover]]), as he's really fast and jumpy, throws many fast projectiles while he jumps, and can fire a high-damage wave that crosses the whole screen.

* ToyShip: [[RoboShip Mega Man x Kalinka]] seems to be pretty popular. It helps that ''Mega Man Complete Works'' includes artwork of Kalinka giving Mega Man a kiss.

* {{Fanon}}: Fans love taking Dr. Cossack's GloriousMotherRussia aspects and cranking them UpToEleven. The fact that his SupervillainLair resembles features of the Saint Basil's Cathedral doesn't help.

** Toad Man is a special kind of pathetic; he can be looped into an infinite pattern where he does nothing but jump. Alternatively, one can wait and shoot him once his [[MercyInvincibility invincibility frames]] wear off. He'll be locked into a vicious cycle where he just stands still and futilely tries to activate his Rain Flush, only to be interrupted each time.

** Toad Man is a special kind of pathetic; he can be looped into an infinite pattern where he does nothing but jump. Alternatively, one can wait and shoot him once his InvincibilityFrames wear off. He'll be locked into a vicious cycle where he just stands still and futilely tries to activate his Rain Flush, only to be interrupted each time.

** Aside from the unavoidable attack, Bright Man is not all that hard provided you are careful with his body. It becomes easier if the player knows what health levels Bright Man uses Flash Stopper on and deals extra damage to skip them.

** Toad Man, since he can be looped into an infinite where he does nothing but jump.

** Dive Man, mostly due to being a ''Mega Man 3''-type boss whose main strategy is to use his obscene amounts of collision damage to finish you off quickly. This might not have been so bad if not for the fact that his weakness is the Skull Barrier, which requires you to get extremely close to him.

* ContestedSequel: While few call ''4'' a bad game, it can't help but fall into this territory when its predecessors are considered the best games in the series (and often the best games on the NES). Some consider this game the last great NES classic rather than ''3'' because this game introduced the charged Mega Buster shots and had the best weapon-balancing (in ''2'' and ''3'', half of the weapons could impact each Robot Master, but this game polishes the mechanic to give more focus to the ElementalRockPaperScissors).

* ContestedSequel: While few call ''Mega Man 4'' a bad game, it can't help but fall into this territory when its predecessors are considered the best games in the series (and often the best games on the NES). Some consider this game the last great NES ''Mega Man'' rather than ''Mega Man 3'' because this game introduced the charged Mega Buster shots and had the best weapon-balancing (in ''2'' and ''3'', half of the weapons could impact each Robot Master, but this game polishes the mechanic to give more focus to the ElementalRockPaperScissors).

* RetroactiveRecognition: Dust Man was designed by Creator/YusukeMurata, who would later be known for the art of ''Manga/Eyeshield21'' and the manga version of ''WebComic/OnePunchMan.''

** While limited by energy, the Pharaoh Shot notably combines the ChargedAttack mechanic of the Mega Buster and can give you two shots for the price of one; a sun-like orb is generated above Mega Man and enemies colliding with it may deplete it, but you can still fire off a sun orb like a projectile for major damage. Like the Metal Blade, you can even aim the shots in multiple directions, similar to the Metal Blade, except for upward.

* GameBreaker: This game's charged Mega Buster has widely been accused of being overpowered, for doing nearly as much damage to a boss as their weakness. While this was likely done in response to the previous game, where taking on a Robot Master without their weakness tended to become a brutal slog where you had to chip away each and every one of their hitpoints while they could easily kill you with about 4 or 5 hits, half of the fanbase didn't actually have a problem with that, and the other half thought this game's solution went too far in the opposite direction. Aside from the Game Boy ''VideoGame/MegaManIII'', this version of the Mega Buster would never appear again in the series and would be relegated to Proto Man's buster in ''VideoGame/MegaMan9''. Largely averted in terms of the special weapons, though, with most of them being seen as at least somewhat useful and none being seen as outright overpowered.

** Ring Man's stage can be very difficult due to having numerous instant-death hazards, troubling enemy placement, and ''four'' {{Mini Boss}}es. It's even worse if you're trying to clear it without taking damage and limiting yourself to just the Mega Buster, as LetsPlay/RoahmMythril has done (with an effect on his sanity).

* RetroactiveRecognition: Dust Man was designed by Yusuke Murata, who would later be known for the art of ''Manga/Eyeshield21'' and the manga version of ''WebComic/OnePunchMan.''

* ContestedSequel: While few will call ''Mega Man 4'' a bad game, it can't help but fall into this territory when its predecessors are considered the best games in the series (and often the best games on the NES). Some consider this game the last great NES ''Mega Man'' rather than ''Mega Man 3'' because this game introduced the charged Mega Buster shots and had the best weapon-balancing (in ''2'' and ''3'', half of the weapons could impact each Robot Master, but this game polishes the mechanic to give more focus to the ElementalRockPaperScissors).

* LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt: While a lot of players genuinely did believe on their first play-through that Dr. Cossack had replaced Dr. Wily as the BigBad, a lot of them worked out when they got to the battle with Cossack without any Robot Master refights that he wasn't really the main villain.

* ScrappyWeapon: While the other Special Weapons are all useful in some manner, the Skull Barrier is pretty much worthless, since it vanishes after being shot/striking an enemy once, making it useless as a shield. Even worse, Dive Man, the Robot Master who is weak to this weapon, requires you to be close to him in order to hit him with it. He also has an attack that lets him move really fast. And touching him knocks off a large chunk of your health. Both the Dust Crusher and Mega Buster are slightly less damaging but do a better job of eliminating the [[HomingProjectile Dive Missiles]]. In other words, the Skull Barrier's more trouble to use than it's worth. If nothing else, it's very energy-efficient compared to the other shields, so while it only blocks one shot, it can block one shot a lot.
** The one practical use it ostensibly gets is in Drill Man's stage, to protect Mega Man from falling rocks. Even then, the Pharaoh Shot does a better job, as the projectile forms overhead and remains there until Mega Man fires, all while it protects against all damage from above without disappearing.

* MostAnnoyingSound: The sound of a health bar filling up is the loudest it's ever been in the series, to the point that it drowns out the music more or less entirely. This naturally makes the usual BossRush near the end of the game a '''lot''' more obnoxious in the audio department than in the other games. It doesn't help that it takes longer for the health bar to fill up than in the past games as well.

** Toad Man because, despite his exploitable pattern, he possesses one of the most dangerous attacks in the game, and an intimidating design [[{{Cephalothorax}} similar to]] [[VideoGame/MegaMan2 Air Man]]. In-universe, he's perhaps one of the most dangerous robots due to his [[HollywoodAcid Rain Flush]] alone. The Rain Flush Mega Man gains from him is also a powerful [[SmartBomb screen-clearing attack]].\\
\\
It's also possible that someone can find his design so amusing (a toad-based robot!) as to be memorable.

It's also possible that someone can find his design so amusing (a Toad-based robot!) as to be memorable.