TMMN Review of Mega Man 10

When Mega Man 9 came out, it caused quite a stir. As games continually strove to push the boundaries of graphics, story and budget, Mega Man 9 had the nerve to be a simple action game with a retro presentation. It was the first milestone in what we now consider console retro revivals, including New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Konami’s ReBirth series, Blaster Master Overdrive, the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 4 and more. After Mega Man 9 released, we could debate its merits and flaws to no end, putting aside its 8-bit appeal. But one thing was certain: if there were ever a Mega Man 10, it wouldn’t get the same advantage. The whole “retro shock” angle would be used up, and Mega Man 10 would have to rely on more.

I can say with some certainty now that Mega Man 10 is a game that equals, if not surpasses, Mega Man 9. With Mega Man 9, producers Keiji Inafune and Hironobu Takeshita looked back on what gave Mega Man 2 its popularity and longevity in order to make a Mega Man game that could surpass it. While this was a good idea for research, it’s difficult to surpass a game that you’re trying to mimic. While I can’t argue that all of Mega Man 10 is completely original, it really does feel like a fresher game; that at the very least the developers didn’t limit themselves to one game to gain inspiration from. In Mega Man 10, there is definitely a greater attempt to “wow” players, and sometimes it works very well.

    

 

In Mega Man 10, a mysterious virus dubbed Roboenza has plagued robots around the world, leaving humans helpless, who had relied on robots so much. Things only get worse when the infected robots go berserk and start attacking humanity. In a twist, Dr. Wily himself pledges his support to Mega Man and company, claiming to have been working on a machine to discover Roboenza’s cure before being attacked by the robots. Mega Man is also joined by his enigmatic sibling Proto Man in order to stop the wild robots and get back the parts to Wily’s machine. It’s your typical Mega Man story, albeit with a couple small twists thrown in. It also has one of the most tender moments I’ve seen in a Mega Man game for a pretty long time, but compared to game stories it’s still pretty basic. Like Mega Man 9, however, this game has quite a few story scenes for what’s supposed to be a retro remake, and the game’s introduction is easily the longest ever for a Mega Man title. For as simple a story as it is, I get the impression that Inti Creates can’t help but lavish with the character scenes.

The gameplay, of course, is your typical Mega Man fare. You get to select the stages in whatever order you please, run and gun your way through them, beat the boss at the end and get his weapon. This time around, however, there are two major new additions: Proto Man and Easy Mode. While Proto Man was available as downloadable content in Mega Man 9, he is now included with the main game and you can play as him right from the get go. Proto Man still has his same abilities: he can charge his buster for a more powerful shot, he can slide, and he can use his shield while jumping. Conversely, he takes more damage and recoil than Mega Man does, and can’t have as many shots on the screen. I do think they scaled down the amount of damage and recoil he takes compared to Mega Man 9, which made him nearly unplayable in my opinion. Despite this, I still don’t find Proto Man much “better,” since I’m so used to playing as Mega Man I hardly remember to charge and slide. But to those who are used to the later Mega Man games, he may be more enjoyable to use.

For those who feel too daunted by the difficulty levels of Mega Man (especially the kind of difficulty Mega Man 9 often pushed), there is now Easy Mode. This mode makes the enemies and bosses a bit tamer, has Mega Man take less damage, and adds support platforms to water down some of the trickier jumps. While I know a good deal of my fellow Mega Man fans have lauded Easy Mode as ridiculous and insulting, I’m really glad they included it, as I think as many people as possible should be able to enjoy and beat the game. As a test to determine if Easy Mode really “worked,” I had a good friend try it out who hasn’t played a Mega Man game in well over a decade, and pretty much only plays FPS games and Rock Band now. Despite some difficulties, he did manage to beat all eight of the Robot Master stages, and I could even tell he was starting to pick up some skill near the end of his play. I can’t exactly say he enjoyed the game, but it definitely proved that Easy Mode works in making the game more accessible to gamers unfamiliar with Mega Man.

    

 

Truth be told, though, even Mega Man 10’s Normal Mode feels a little more forgiving than Mega Man 9. While there are many awful obstacles, like sand storms that cover the entire screen, huge truck robots that will run at you at wild speeds, and lots and lots of the trademark spikes, it doesn’t feel like Mega Man 10 has so many cheap deaths. In fact, so far as I can recall, Strike Man’s stage has no instant death traps whatsoever. Conversely, beating the game unlocks Hard Mode, so if you feel even Normal Mode isn’t offering enough challenge, Hard Mode will definitely test your mettle. Unlike Mega Man 9’s downloadable Hero and Superhero Modes that just made enemy placement even more cheap, Mega Man 10’s Hard Mode makes the enemies a lot more aggressive and lets the bosses perform new attacks. So far I’ve only been able to beat Chill Man!

Another significant change up is Mega Man 10’s challenges. In Mega Man 9, there were 50 challenges that could be completed by clearing certain conditions in the main game. Mega Man 10 only has 12 of such challenges, but 88 more that are actual challenges of skill. The first 37 of these are mini-stages, which typically involve getting to the end or destroying all the targets. The other 50 are boss battle challenges. Many of them require you to clear them with no damage to perfectly complete the challenge (i.e. get a gold rank instead of a silver). One of the great things I found about the boss challenges is that they doubled as a means to practice boss battles, letting you get better without having to go through the stages again and again. However, I do wish there were more than just 37 of the mini-stage challenges. Those are a lot of fun.

One of my larger complaints about Mega Man 10 is the weapons. The biggest problem is that they consume so much energy, and not allowing you to get good use out of them. In fact, only three of the weapons just use one unit of energy per shot. Furthermore, while a lot of the weapons are pretty creative, I don’t think they’re as useful as similar weapons from previous games. Take Water Shield, for example, which is this game’s barrier weapon. While a little more unique for the barriers, the shield doesn’t deflect shots and it gets broken up as it takes hits. Compare this to Mega Man 9’s Jewel Satellite, which deflected shots, never wore out, and used just as much energy. Chill Spike reminds me a little of Mega Man 9’s Concrete Shot, except it freezes enemies instead of making platforms. Not entirely useless, but it would have been nice to be able to walk on frozen enemies.

Additionally, three of the weapons need to be used “indirectly” so to speak. The projectiles for Chill Spike, Commando Bomb and Thunder Wool hardly damage enemies, but it’s their resulting actions that do (Chill Spike creates a bed of spikes when it touches the floor or wall, Commando Bomb has a wave-like explosion, and Thunder Wool sends a bolt of electricity straight down). If you end up hitting the enemy with the projectile instead, you’re pretty much wasting the weapon – and this is rather difficult with Commando Bomb, which will move twice with commands from the directional pad. Better make sure you don’t have to move when you use it. But there are still some great weapons, like Wheel Cutter which follows along the floor and walls, and lets you climb up walls speedy fast, and Triple Blade, which has a wide range and hits enemies multiple times up close. Rebound Striker is pretty nice too, but using two units of energy per shot you have to use it a little conservatively. It may seem like I’m being a bit hard, but the weapons in a Mega Man game are one of the most important features, and I do think that Mega Man 9 had better weapons overall.

    

 

Next let’s take a look at the game’s sound and music. Mega Man games generate a lot of high expectations for music, and Mega Man 10 has spawned many diverse reactions to its soundtrack. I’ve seen comments from people who love it and those who think it’s grossly inferior (at least compared to the recent Mega Man 9). But I’ve been most surprised to see a lot of people share the same sentiment I do: they’re a little put off by it, but they find it grows on them. And like its reviews, Mega Man 10’s own music is indeed all over the place. Some have even said some songs sound like they belong in other games altogether. This actually isn’t so surprising when you take a look at the people who composed for the game. Manami Matsumae (Mega Man, Mega Man 2), Yasuaki “BUNBUN” Fujita (Mega Man 3, Mega Man 4), Minae “OJALIN” Fujii (Mega Man 4), Mari Yamaguchi (Mega Man 5), Yuko Takehara (Mega Man 6, Mega Man 7), Makoto Tomozawa (Mega Man 7), Shusaku Uchiyama (Mega Man 8), Akari Kaida (Mega Man & Bass) and Inti Creates sound team who worked on Mega Man 9 before: Ippo Yamada, Ryo Kawakami, Hiroki Isogai and Yu Shimoda. Pretty much someone from all of the main series games.

With this many people, it’s no surprise that the game’s soundtrack is so diverse, and I do think it’s a bit over-ambitious. Maybe they wanted to make sure that the game’s music would represent everyone’s favorite game in some regard. But I feel like it’s hard to justify thirteen composers for a game like this. It creates a huge canyon of inconsistency, and for the people who aren’t grabbed by the music, I think what’s really troubling them is how all the themes don’t really fit together. Most if not all of Mega Man 10’s music is skillfully compose and a pleasure to listen to, but the gulf of disparity is a little jarring when you actually play.

Some final other touches I really enjoyed include the stage layouts, which I think are better than Mega Man 9’s, although I didn’t take much issue with Mega Man 9’s stage designs. A lot of this is due to less cheap stage design, granted, but there are some other cool things, like a few stages which have branching paths that give the game a little more replay value. I also found some of the stages thematically more interesting than 9’s. Two that really stand out are the first fortress stage, which has a somber entrance but kicks it up very fast, and the final fortress stage, which is just so weird. I don’t think I’ve felt such a sense of trepidation since Mega Man 2’s final stage, where you begin by falling down a huge cavern. I also like that they added the ability to create and send in video replays of your time attack ranks. Admittedly I’m not good enough to be in any of the top lists, but watching other peoples’ incredible playing is a lot of fun. However, like Mega Man 9, the online rankings still often time out when you try to load them. I can look at the rankings for maybe one or two stages, and then I constantly get the “connection has timed out” message. This gets pretty frustrating, and I don’t know what makes loading a mere list of names and times so demanding on the system.

    

 

All in all, I think Mega Man 10 achieves what it sets out to do. While Mega Man 9 was trying to be a literal reproduction of an NES game, Mega Man 10 doesn’t even bother with imitating things like sprite clipping and sound channel limitations. Mega Man 10 is not an imitation NES game, but just a game that uses NES-like presentation. It’s as fun as Mega Man 9 if not more, a little more forgiving, a bit more interesting and a lot more value up front. It’s troubled by an inconsistent soundtrack, weapons that are good but use a little too much energy and are tricky to use, and fairly long (albeit skippable) story scenes that don’t contribute much to the game’s finale. Fans of Mega Man 9 and action platformers/retro games in general ought to enjoy Mega Man 10 a lot. People who aren’t into classic Mega Man games so much will definitely find it accessible with the Easy Mode, but being able to progress in it doesn’t necessarily mean being able to enjoy it. By no means perfect, but without argument a strong followup to Mega Man 9, and the series in general.

Game reviewed based on WiiWare version of Mega Man 10. Played game for roughly eight hours over the course of a week and a half.

Mega Man Megamix Vol. 1 in Review

The first of many Mega Man manga brought to you by UDON – Mega Man Megamix Vol. 1 – has released in comic book stores and should be hitting other book stores soon if not already. Chances are if you read this site, you’re probably not sitting on the fence about getting a copy. But who knows, maybe you need a little insight. Well AWD! who runs Starfield Creations (and is a close pal of mine) has such a review that may entice you. Aside from going over the comic in a general stance, AWD! also makes comparisons of the book to previous editions that sold in Japan. Here’s a little snippet to give you the bottom-line:

What can I say? The book is a fantastic take on the series as a whole. At first, All I could really think to myself was: finally! We “non-linguist” types can appreciate the story along with the pretty pictures. The story is given a much darker and action-packed take, as we are more akin to the younger audience target featured in the games. But let’s face it, we WANTED it to be taken more seriously, and Ariga certainly delivered.

Mega Man Megamix is sounding pretty cool. If not available in your local book store, you can always try Amazon.

Review: Rockman EXE Operate Shooting Star – The Case for Content

Rockman EXE Operate Shooting Star, Capcom’s “plus alpha” remake of MegaMan Battle Network for the Nintendo DS, was released in Japan last week. Having had the chance to play the game and try out its new features, I’m here to give you my impression of this title. I must warn, this review contains a fair bit of spoilerish information concerning the game. I’m normally not this candid about a game that has yet to release in North America, but considering the kind of game Operate Shooting Star is, it’s hard to get around. Regardless, if you don’t want to be spoiled you should not read on.

Now, there’s something I want to make clear right away about my impression of Operate Shooting Star. It is not a remake of MegaMan Battle Network. It IS MegaMan Battle Network, with some additional features thrown in. If you have played MegaMan Battle Network before, you have essentially played this game already. “Plus alpha” is a Japanese expression that roughly means “a little something extra,” and in Operate Shooting Star’s case the emphasis is on “a little.” I can’t say this is a bad game though, because I do like the original MegaMan Battle Network. But I cannot understand why this game needed to be made. It is truly disappointing just how little new content was put in this game when you consider the whole package.

Since the game essentially is MegaMan Battle Network, I’ll only bother to discuss the game’s new elements. The largest new addition, of course, is what gives the game the subtitle of “Operate Shooting Star.” Capcom has made a lot of effort to hype the game as a crossover with MegaMan Star Force, a “dream collaboration” between both MegaMans. Star Force MegaMan, aka Geo Stelar, even makes a large, mysterious looking presence on the game’s box design.

In actuality, though, the Star Force connection this game has is incredibly weak. It amounts to little more than a side story about Geo needing to go back in time 200 years to stop ClockMan, an out-of-control experimental Net Navi who has kidnapped Harp Note. You first get the gist of this story in the game’s prologue, which curiously is separate from the game itself – you can only watch it from the title screen, and return to the title screen when it’s finished. Aside from that, this involvement only plays into a single additional scenario, where Geo finally does arrive in the past to stop ClockMan, who has taken Roll as well. The event itself is pretty fun and feels fresh, though it’s fairly short. The banter between Lan, Geo and Omega-Xis is very entertaining. What’s truly surprising, however, is that the event doesn’t take place until after the ElecMan scenario, which is well three fourths into the game. By this point you’ve probably forgotten that this game had any connection to Star Force, especially since the previous scenarios are exactly the same. What’s more, once the Star Force scenario is done, it’s back to Battle Network as usual. The event makes no impact on the rest of the game’s story.

Of course, after this event you can choose whether you want to play as BN MegaMan or SF MegaMan in battle. SF MegaMan generally has all his abilities from his own series. He charges automatically and rapid fires when you hold down the B button. Pressing Y generates his shield, and pressing X enters his lock-on mode, which lets him warp in front of enemies to perform chip attacks. This is way better than BN MegaMan, who doesn’t have such an easy time with short ranged attacks, although using X to lock on is a little cumbersome. SF MegaMan’s demerits are that he cannot use Program Advances, and if he’s hurt in the middle of a lock-on attack he’ll become paralyzed for a few crucial seconds. As much fun as he is to battle with, the game is nearly over by the time you get him.

The other major new feature is the Star Colosseum minigame. This is also available from the title screen, and can be played with up to six people wirelessly using just one copy of the game. The main competitive mode of this minigame plays out in the style of the game’s overworld view. Players, who can use either BN MegaMan, ProtoMan or SF MegaMan, compete to gain the most stars in either a free-for-all match or a team match. Stars appear on the overworld to be collected, but you can also steal stars from opponents by attacking them. The catch is, every player has a rock-paper-scissors attribute, and your attribute has to best theirs (i.e. if you have rock, you can only steal stars from people who have scissors). Aside from stars, other items appear on the field that can be activated with the B button. You can only carry one at a time, and there are items that can change your attribute, give you a temporary advantage, or set traps for other players.

Additionally, there is also a Vs. Bass cooperate mode. Instead of collecting stars, all players must work together to defeat Bass by using bombs on him. Bass is capable of knocking players out in one hit, though knocked-out players can be revived if another player comes to touch them. The game is over if Bass is defeated or if all players are defeated, but Bass is definitely challenging, as he continuously hunts players down, and becomes faster as his HP decreases.

I was only able to try the Star Colosseum mode with one other friend, but we both had a bit of fun playing it. We definitely enjoyed the Vs. Bass mode the most, and though we tried about seven or eight times we couldn’t defeat him. The star capturing competitive modes are a little more complex but just as frantic. I don’t think my friend got into as much, especially since he couldn’t read Japanese, so he wasn’t sure what was happening all the time. But it was still fun, and I imagine it can get extremely exciting and chaotic with six people. The matches are short but sweet, lasting roughly three to five minutes.

There are other additional features in the main game of Operate Shooting Star. The internet areas now have maps in the lower screen which can be helpful, though personally I think it would have been more helpful to make different areas of the internet have a different visual style, as all the successive Battle Network titles did. The game’s battle system takes a few elements from Battle Network 2, such as the inclusion of * coded wildcard chips, limitations to the amount of same chips in your folder, and the amount of chips you can gain with the add button. There are also a few new chips, a couple new program advances, and slight graphical updates here and there (mostly some new character mugshots).

All in all, though, Rockman EXE Operate Shooting Star is largely identical to MegaMan Battle Network of the Gameboy Advance, and I can’t really feel that its new features justify the game’s existence enough. The story is the same, the graphics are the same, the music is the same and unarranged, aside from the title theme (the Star Force event and Star Colosseum use music directly from the Star Force games as well). All this sameness makes for a rather tepid attempt at an exciting new game.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s not a big issue that what they did use from Battle Network isn’t updated at all. I can accept the same graphics and same music. Some believe they make the game feel dated, but I don’t think this is a major concern. What is a concern to me is, since Capcom did just port over so much of Battle Network’s content, why did they not very much new content? Why couldn’t they throw in more new scenarios, or switch up the game’s events a bit? Why couldn’t they add more new Navis and new enemies? As I’ve mentioned before, enemy characters are one of the biggest draws to Mega Man games, and having more new Navis would have made this game much more appreciated. As it stands, the only new Navi really is ClockMan. And I’ll give it to OSS that ClockMan is a pretty cool new character, if not very unique at the least (his personality is quite eccentric). But if you knew that Operate Shooting Star were to only include a single new Navi, would ClockMan really be your first choice? I didn’t think so.

There has been some comparison of this game to Ace Attorney on the DS. After all, it’s the same game as the Gameboy Advance version, with the same characters, same graphics and same music, with a single new scenario and other minor new features. However, this argument is rather flawed. First of all, just because Ace Attorney does it doesn’t necessarily make it a fine practice. But more importantly, before its DS porting, Ace Attorney was only available in Japan. While the new features in the DS port were to test features they intended to include in the series’ fourth installment, it was also to see how well the game would sell in North America and Europe. Of course, the game was eagerly enjoyed in those regions, which prompted the more hasty porting of the second and third titles for the DS as well. Still, I cannot imagine Japanese consumers had much reason to purchase these ports (although the original port did have a new scenario, and an additional secenario in a game like Ace Attorney amounts to much more new content than does an additional scenario in a game like Battle Network). Since MegaMan Battle Network has already been released worldwide, it will not enjoy this same advantage the Ace Attorney games had.

Additionally, people have also argued that this is a typical Capcom “cash-in;” that it’s a simply made game to maximize profits. However, I disagree with this argument as well. While I can’t imagine this game did take a whole lot of effort to make in a year’s time, I also can’t see it being that profitable since I think most Mega Man fans will realize there’s not much new going on here. Imagine this. Capcom could have instead made a brand new entry in the Battle Network series, with new characters and events, and still had a Star Force crossover and the Star Colosseum minigame. They could have still used many assets from the previous games, such as character and environment graphics, combat systems and other engines, and so on. But the game would be much more attractive for having actual new content. Such a game would not take too much more effort to create, but would easily be much more profitable because people ultimately buy (and don’t buy) games for their content.

So I cannot honestly understand the purpose this game was made. It’s hardly original. It’s a poor excuse for a cash-in. And I don’t feel Capcom had a need to make a game just to gauge how much people are still interested in Battle Network. The strong worldwide sales of Battle Network 6 should alone prove that. The only conclusion I can draw is that Capcom just needed to buy time as they work on the direction they really want to go for Mega Man’s future. I can only hope whatever they’re working on is worth it for this disappointing excuse of a remake. With the excitement that Mega Man 9 created in 2008, 2009 will look pretty pitiful in comparison with this being Capcom’s only offering for Mega Man.

In the end I can only recommend Operate Shooting Star to people who have never played the original MegaMan Battle Network, or to fans who are just really excited over Geo and other Star Force characters entering the game, however briefly it may be. And again, it’s not like Operate Shooting Star is a BAD game. It’s just hardly a new game, and I don’t think it lives up to the hype Capcom of Japan drove up for it. I just want to make sure you understand what kind of game you’re getting if you do decide to purchase it once it comes out in the western regions.

Chip Tuned Rockman: A Review, Samples and… Pontification

When Chip Tuned Rockman was first announced by Inti Creates, I was pretty amazed. It’s by far the most unique Rockman album that Inti Creates has come up with yet, and being a lover of 80s and early 90s video game music, I was excited about the style it was going for. Having been able to sample the album now myself, I must say it lives up to the excitement I held. But it might put off those who aren’t as interested in the old NES music sound.

Chip Tuned Rockman, if you need reminding, is a collection of 20 tracks by 20 artists from various classic Mega Man titles past and present; original Mega Man to Mega Man 9, and a lot in between, which are arranged using the same chip sets used to originally produce music on the NES. It even gets to some of the less appreciated Mega Man music on the series’ Game Boy, Sega Genesis and PlayStation Portable outings. While I’m sure a lot of peoples’ favorite tracks don’t show up amongst what’s available, the album has a very strong feeling of completeness.

What’s most impressive is how much variety there is in each of the songs. No one song keeps doing the same thing throughout – it’s always mixing things up, going into different styles and beats, and building up the embellishments and other stylistic nuances. A lot of songs use actual Mega Man sound effects in the melodies or beat, and it works out quite well. In the samples I present below, I try to capture a portion of the song’s main melody, but it really doesn’t capture just how much the artists lovingly play around with the songs.

If there’s one thing I can fault the album for, it’s that a few songs seem to focus more on being technically impressive. When you consider how the artists are using vintage sound equipment with only so many channels and wave forms to work with, you can appreciate how much detail and effort each song has. But this might go above the average game music fan, who just wants to hear the main melody and not so much of the embellishments. Also, I know Mega Man’s demise sound effect is one of the most well known sounds from the series, but maybe the artists should have worked on an agreement of who gets to use it. I feel like it’s in at least a third of the songs.

All in all though it’s a fantastic soundtrack, especially if you love vintage sounding game music. Having been able to sample the CD myself I will definitely be picking up a copy when it goes on sale October 15th, and if you’re interested in it I encourage you to do the same. Hopefully Play-Asia or the like will pick it up. In the meantime, please enjoy these samples.

02.　Tornadoman Stage (Integer Spin mix) from Rockman 9 – by Virt
06.　Groundman Stage (Unlimited Overdub mix) from Rockman & Forte – by Hiroki Isogai
08.　Slashman Stage (Dot Matrix Dinosaur mix) from Rockman 7 – by K->
13.　Brightman Stage (Portable mix) from Rockman 4 – by Saskrotch
15.　Shadowman Stage (Big Boot mix) from Rockman 3 – by Shioda Nobuyuki
18.　Woodman Stage, Wily Stage 1 (Respect2dabeat Mix) from Rockman 2 – by USK

Now, while you’re enjoying these samples, maybe you’d help me consider a related issue. As you know, we at The Mega Man Network enjoy serving your musical needs, among other content, and wish to continue to do so. However, I also can’t help but recognize the continued effort and uniqueness Inti Creates has been putting into their Rockman albums. Some people have likened downloading music from these albums without buying them to stealing. However, these albums typically do not go on sale outside of Japan, and I feel like people downloading outside of Japan can’t be considered lost profits when there was no effort made to market the product to them. But as we are not affiliated with Capcom officially, we are on an honor system with our music hosting, and we will willingly remove any material they don’t want us to provide.

Because of this, and because of the guilt I’m starting to feel about it, we will probably not be providing a direct download of Chip Tuned Rockman in the near future. We may consider other routes, such as YouTube, but no sooner than the album has officially released on October 15th. And honestly, it’s a good likelihood someone else will have it up by then. I still want to provide you all with the content you desire, that’s why I do this everyday. But I also want to be respectful to Capcom’s rights, as well as the rights to all the artists who work on these albums. For the first time, I’ve made some efforts to contact people connected to the album to see how they feel about it. But I realize that the feelings of you, the viewers, are important as well. That’s why I bring this up to you.

Ultimately I’d love to create some kind of infrastructure where new Mega Man music can be delivered to a fans via means that Capcom can feel comfortable with, even if it’s not a part of The Mega Man Network. Maybe iTunes or a similar service, I’m not sure what all the options are at this point. But I think there is a strong market for Mega Man and other game music worldwide, and I’d like to help serve this market by any means possible. So please share your thoughts with us. Maybe we can get something done.

An 11-year-old’s take on Mega Man 2

Mega Man, a franchise that’s been running for more than 20 years, has its roots in simplistic, arcade style action gameplay. And yet there are many young Mega Man fans today that may have not had a taste of this kind of gameplay. They may hear the praise for Mega Man 9 and not understand what’s so great about it, with its ancient graphics, sound and gameplay.

This is where Project D comes in, testing out the games of old on an 11-year-old subject named Dylan. Overall, Dylan seemed to enjoy Mega Man 2 a lot, discussing the things he liked and didn’t like en route. Some of the things he says may sound silly to you, but I think this point of view on Mega Man 2 is very critical. It demonstrates how much of an evergreen title a game like Mega Man 2 is, that it can still be enjoyed by gamers who are growing up outside of the arcade era.

‘Course, he doesn’t care too much for the music, but it takes more years to develop that level of class and taste (ok, now I’m obviously showing my bias).

News Credit: Fetus (seriously?)