It took a while, but I finally got to play Mega Man 11, thereby completing my Mega Man marathon once and for all. After all this waiting, did it live up to my expectations? Well, let's see.
In theory, Mega Man 11 should be exactly what I wanted from a new Mega Man game. I adored MM9 but I was always firmly in the camp of Inti Creates' time with the series being a step back for removing mechanics like the slide and Charge Shot. Mega Man 11 finally brings those mechanics back, and they feel better than ever. Even more, the additions of a story and voice acting really makes MM11 feel like the true sequel to Mega Man 8 (or I guess MM&B). However, in their further attempts to modernize the Mega Man formula, Capcom also introduced a new gameplay mechanic called the Double Gear system. From the start of the game, you can activate boosts to your attack power and speed, but you have to manage those boosts to prevent Mega Man from overheating. I'm going to be blunt here, I'm not a fan of this mechanic, and rarely ever felt the motivation to use it a lot of the time. Brutally hard platformers thrive on their simplicity. Using a simple control scheme makes every challenge, no matter how hard, feel achievable. And this isn't just a Mega Man thing, it applies to the X games, to Super Meat Boy, to Celeste, to I Wanna Be The Guy, to N++, and pretty much every other platformer of this style. The Double Gear system just overcomplicates the control scheme and gives you way too many things to worry about in an already tough game. I really hope it doesn't return for a hypothetical Mega Man 12. The quality of life improvements generally fare a lot better, though. I love that the Rush abilities is tied to their own buttons now, that you can stagger shielded enemies with a Charge Shot, and that you can select an ability with the right joystick. Permanent upgrades in the shop return from Mega Man & Bass, and the addition of challenges and achievements do a way better job at giving the game replay value than pretty much every prior attempt. There are still a few archaic elements though. The lack of auto-saving is a travesty, especially in a game this hard where someone could potentially rage quit (not that it happened to me, thankfully), infinite lives being locked to the easiest difficulty setting only is disappointing, and how the hell is the knockback worse than in the other games?! I'm not even exaggerating, Capcom made the knockback worse and then gave you an upgrade to make it slightly less worse. That's Secret Rings levels of BS.
But ultimately, while I'm mixed on the gameplay itself, Mega Man 11's levels are the real stars of the show. They're pretty long this time around, and do a great job of slowly fleshing out, mixing-and-matching, and fully utilizing the gameplay mechanics that they introduce, while mostly being pretty fair. There wasn't a single Robot Master stage I disliked, and the best ones like Torch Man and Blast Man ranked as some of the series' finest. However, while I mostly like the increased stage length, it means the "Normal" difficulty setting's mere three lives and 2-3 checkpoints is way too punishing and strict even by Mega Man standards. I actually think the difficulty settings are generally better implemented than the ones in MM10, but Capcom probably should've changed the naming a bit. I've heard people call this game's Wily Fortress a bit disappointing, and... really? Like, I get the castles in MM9 and MM10 are a high bar, but most Wily and Sigma Castles have four stages, and the first two Gear Fortress stages are so long and climactic that I found it to be a perfectly solid ending to the game. And besides, given how long Wily Castles would drag on in the NES era, I'm perfectly fine with a slightly shorter one here. As for the bosses, they're mostly solid too. Every boss boasts a lot of attacks, multiple phases where they use a Double Gear, and even i-frames preventing you from stunlocking them. At their best, they're some of the most thrilling and fleshed-out fights in the series, but at their worst, you get the overwhelming chaos of Block Man and Impact Man. The weapons are really great, though. As usual, some are more effective than others, but I didn't find a single one to be a dud. Block Stopper is the definite highlight, a top-notch all-arounder, but I also liked Bounce Ball for being a better version of MM5's Crystal Eye, Tundra Storm for being easily the best screen clearer in the series, and Scramble Thunder for buffing MM9's Plug Ball to a ridiculous degree. The weapons also come with easily my favorite utilization of the Double Gear system, which is that the Power Gear comes with superpowered versions of each of the weapons. Think the charged weapons in MMX but cranked up to eleven.
As far as the general presentation goes, Mega Man 11 is kind of a mixed bag, unfortunately. It's not a bad-looking game visually, the character designs look clean, the backgrounds can look genuinely super nice (especially in Bounce Man and Blast Man's stages), and there are plenty of cute hidden details scattered around. However, when compared to the spritework of MM7 and MM8, the 3D visuals just look a bit more lifeless. The characters are less expressive, the world feels less vibrant, and the environments feel more like static platforming stages than actual locations. Look, I'm not a genwunner who thinks classic Mega Man should only be 8-bit, but there's definitely something lost in the transition to 3D and Mega Man 11 just doesn't do enough to make up for that. MM11 also brings in voice acting, as mentioned prior, and honestly, I thought it was pretty solid. It's great to finally get to hear the classic Mega Man cast with proper, fitting voices, and some of the voice actors really got to have fun with the Robot Masters. Bounce Man was a definite highlight though, his cutesy voice contrasted with the other Robot Masters in the absolute best way. As for the music, easily the most divisive aspect of Mega Man 11, I'd actually argue it's one of my favorites? Mega Man's musical styles having always been based on either rock, synth, or both. An EDM Mega Man soundtrack filled with rave music may not have the iconic 8-bit rock of MM2, but it's by no means unfitting for the series and boasts some of my favorite themes in the whole series. With the eurobeat-esque Fuse Man theme, the somber Tundra Man theme, the energetic Blast Man theme, and of course one of the best Wily Caste Themes in the series, MM11's soundtrack isn't anywhere near being one of the weaker ones to me.
Overall, I liked Mega Man 11. It has its issues with the Double Gear System, uneven visuals, and wild difficulty spikes, but it absolutely nails the level design, boss design, and weapon design in a way several other classic entries don't even come close to reaching.
4/5 Stars
If you're wondering where I'd rank Mega Man 11 compared to the other classic games, here's my list:
- Mega Man 3
- Mega Man 7
- Mega Man 9
- Mega Man 5
- Mega Man 8
- Mega Man 11
- Mega Man 6
- Mega Man 4
- Mega Man 10
- Mega Man
- Mega Man 2
- Mega Man & Bass
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