Truly, the best part of the game, despite having nothing to do with it.
With the success of Mega Man 9 cult fan service to the 8-bit homage of the NES era, Capcom decided it was worth pursuing yet a 10th installment to this classic series. Sadly though, it got nowhere near the amount of hype or anticipation as 9 did; because honestly, the nostalgia goggles can only work so many times.
Once again you find yourself in the world of robots in some preposterous danger, namely a robenza which conveniently affects only robots. To some mild surprise the series antagonist Dr. Wily comes to you for help in stopping the robots that stole his mystical magical miracle medicinal making machine that was to cure the robot populace.
The game is exactly like any of the other 8-bit variants with its own set of rule changes: such as the ability to play as someone other than Mega Man, or using the bolt system for buying items, but the lack of a slide function, as that is Protoman’s sole job to do because sliding is such a complicated task. One large difference is the addition of the infamous Easy Mode, which simply halves the amount of enemies, reduces their attack patterns and damage, and covers up many of the annoying spike death piths with overly convenient flying platforms that only you can use. Many people seem to despise the game for having that feature, but my response to that is: just don’t play easy mode then.
As you can see, he is impending inevitable death by spikes.
That snowman is there to make sure you get in that spike pit and laugh while watching.
Before getting my hands on the game I saw the famous ad of Mega Man 10 in a Nintendo Power magazine which included this frame pictured above. Notice, his impossible escape as he plummets towards spikes narrowly avoiding more spikes with an enemy placed at the absolute only point of rescue. Even more amusing is the caption by Capcom. Though it reinforces my point of Easy mode not affecting the regular mode it shows us an inside look in the minds of Capcom: “more than enough lethal spikes.” I don’t think we fans are screaming loud enough that spikes don’t make games good. Or maybe they mishear us, because spikes are actually an endorsed selling point here. Oh joy.
Meet the person who introduced to us spikes as we know and love so dearly today.
Actually starting the game I look at the 8 robot masters and as usual see similarities, such as the fire element one and the ice element one; so though it feels redundant, it also feels cozy and recognizable. The level designs for a large part were average but there were interesting enemies such as a mouse cursor that drew boxes to throw at you, or an entire sports themed level including a soccer goalie mid-boss. Even so, the actual game play was no different, the only method of dying I found was death by overused spikes, death pits, and cheaply placed enemies whose sole purpose was to suicide ram you into one of the mentioned modes of death. Not once did I even bother with my health bar as I was either alive, or exploding in death. On one level there is even a highway that has buses with spikes mounted on their grills that try to intentionally run you over. Thankfully those spikes aren’t instant death, but probably the most damaging single attack in the entire game as the bus then explodes on impact.
I guess robots really hate pedestrians.
Past the levels I found the bosses to have a few appealing quirks, such as Solar Man who absorbed your attacks and used them against you, though not original, it added some depth to the battlefield unlike Pump Man who simply had a pump on his head and pumped water at you repeatedly with no variation. Their powers were less than amazing, but a few were remarkable. For example Pump Man’s power was yet another beaten out clone of Wood Man, Star Man, Junk Man, Freeze Man, and etcetera, and Chill Man’s power was absolutely useless for save the boss that was weak against it; but Nitro Man’s power of wheel blades was interesting since you could use them to scale walls though as a side scrolling platformer I rarely saw any chance to use that ability.
Moving on through the game you realize to satirical surprise Dr. Wily created the robenza and the cure in order to enslave the robot populace while killing you by biological warfare as our hero has also contracted the disease. Roll comes in and saves the day by giving you the only known prototype of the virus she was supposed to have taken so that you may go on to save the world; how sweet.
Wily’s Castle was like any other monstrosity of a skull mounted fortress, but this was where the best part of the game play came in. Guarding the entrance was three rooms of three floating box things that each could respectively replicate a power used in a previous Mega Man game, nine boxes for the nine previous games. Besides that, the castle was actually one of the easier castle levels in all the series, lacking the scaling walls over bottomless pits and the spike coved halls and floors. Don’t get me wrong there were spikes and pits, but I actually didn’t have any trouble going through.
Notice I said this castle lacks the amount of spikes and pits from previous games.
Wily again appears in a skull plated flying submarine jet that is actually quite easy again. We’d think the same formula for a game would make him learn by now but this time he was just giving us a lax time I suppose. I did find it amusing when he escapes to the real final level (which was painfully obvious as the game has been following the exact same Mega Man formula since its creation, right down to the teleporter room of the 8 boss re-fights) because he quite literally escapes in an elevator to space in his space fortress castle.
Defeating Wily and saving the world for the 10th, or possibly 37th time, proves to be quite easy and commonplace: he get’s captured with a similar sickness, but then again escapes but ethically leaves all his medicine in a giant pile on his hospital bed.
Upon viewing the credits, I felt like I replayed Mega Man 6 but with different words. The same shameless guise of Dr. Wily, the same overall bland game play and level design, and the same tired, horse beaten resolution to the plot. It truly felt like they made the game to simply give its die-hard fans something to do so they won’t attack Capcom headquarters asking where is the next one.
My face upon finishing.
Truly (as a friend once said) a “Meh-ga Man game” with its instantly recognizable, if not out-right cloned game play and plot, with its bland unmentionable quirks.
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Unless you walk around with a yellow scarf whistling along to The Protomen every day, it just doesn’t spike above 0 out of 1.
See you all in Mega Man 11.
