"Hell yeah, baby. THIS is what everyone was waiting for regarding the Mega Man franchise. Mega Man 9, being my first WiiWare game, is a grand revival of perhaps the greatest NES series out there.
It has all the things I wished for. 8 typical Robot Masters, high difficulty, great 8 bit music, flawless gameplay and a fun challenge mode plus another silly storyline! Mega Man 9 might not be my favorite Classic game, but it will inspire many developers out there for sure.
It's nonetheless an excellent soft reboot of most of all Mega Man 2's formula, and it's seriously addictive.
Rating: 8.7"
"It's the year 20XX, Robots go wild, a virus is unleashed and Mega Man rushes in to save everyone once again. That's all you need to know. But what virus you ask? Apparently Dr.Wily's first developed virus, Roboenza, before the Maverick virus is made.
No more Harpuia and Leviathan look a likes from Inti Creates. This time, the wave is refreshing yet familiar with older waves, including original ones such as Strike Man and Nitro Man, a mix of Turbo Man and Wheel Gator, but also core bosses such as Chill Man and Solar Man.
In overall the 8 Robot Masters are a strong lineup once again but there are stronger ones out there, but also weaker ones. Some of them took time at first to accept though, when talking about Blade Man and Strike Man, I cannot wonder but ask Capcom where Robot Masters such as Water Man, Thunder Man and Poison Man are.
Too obvious to use in MM10? But look at Blade Man then! Oh well, I'm content with all 8 of them now.
"Real time weapon change"(Look at Sony's E3 2006 press conference for the joke) has been restored once again, something which was missing in Mega Man 9. It helps and saves time. The difficulty, and speaking of normal mode now, is about the same as Mega Man 9(The most recent one almost all of us played), but I think that 9 is harder on a whole.
Some tricky parts are in Commando Man's stage where patience is the key to proceed, but also Strike Man's annoying mini boss. E tanks are scattered throughout the stages, another thing absent during MM 9, so that should help. But of course any Classic Mega Man game I play should atleast be beaten once without using any of the tanks.
But that was strictly speaking about Normal Mode. I am now progressing through Hard Mode, and it is deliciously hard. It's also hard to make a guess now, but I think it's even harder than MM9's Hard Mode.
Besides more enemies and different placements, some of them move quicker. And best of all, all of the 8 Robot Masters get 1 more attack, a tradition Inti Creates also used in the Zero and ZX series. By the way, I am fighting them using only the Mega Buster, but as for the stages themselves, I agreed on using the RM weapons because first, I needed more time to test them out and second, the stages are hard as hell, even for a veteran like me.
It's always enjoyable to guess the Robot Master's weakness order. But this time, at first when looking at the boss select screen, instead of going for the weakest looking Robot Master as usual, I went for the toughest one, which in my opinion was Nitro Man.
But he turned out to be okay, not too hard and not too easy. But then again, looking at the other Robot Masters, he was probably the hardest to fight at first, but I should not forget that this was just my first run through Mega Man 10 and it's obvious I haven't seen everything yet.
On a side note, did anyone else notice how the mugshots of the Robot Masters's colors look different and resemble the old Mega Man 1 and 3 PC games? They look kind of lesser "quality" than other Mega Man games. (Pst, on Hard Mode, Nitro Man is a beast with godly speed)
Some of the music will take some time to become great, such is the case with any new Mega Man music. Solar Man, Pump Man and Sheep Man are instantly amazing to hear already though, and others will need more time.
Dr.Wily has made the most awesome fortress yet judging by its size, and early on at Wily stage 1, fan service ensues right away. And oh my god, Capcom put Ring Man in to represent Mega Man 4! It's a very faithful Dr.Wily fortress with quality music and difficulty as usual.
Some other improvements which we have seen in other titles already beside Mega Man 9 is that the weakness system of the Robot Masters is slightly more interesting because as most of us will soon find out, Commando Bomb starts to really hurt for Blade Man once that second attack kicks in.
Chill Spike also deals more damage when the spikes are formed. Also, different routes are available for some of the stages in Mega Man 10, granting for us more replayability(As if it wasn't enough already with Proto Man and Bass) and for the speed runners a choice.
Last of all, I present pros and cons for Mega Man 10:
Positive notes:
+Capcom delivers with fan service for us anno 2010, and still gets it done right. Thank you so much for all those blue bombing moments.
+Difficulty and (on a longer period of time) music(For some songs atleast) are still great and faithful. Thanks to the mediocre weapons, the difficulty is even higher.
+Extra content is nice to have, and previous DLC is already available.
Negative notes:
-Those mugshots feel less likable than older mugshots.
-Robot Master weapons are less spectacular after the great Mega Man 9 weapons.
Rating 8.8"
C'mon Capcom, after Street Fighter V and Resident Evil 7, isn't it about time to return to the Blue Bomber!?
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