Mega Man 10

Date Acquired: 9.05.2010

Date Completed: 12.30.2010

Thoughts: Two years ago, Capcom surprised people by releasing a brand new 8 bit Mega Man game. The game was a throwback in all ways, complete with controller-smashing difficulty and critical praise. Two years later, Capcom surprises nobody by repeating themselves. This time around the biggest buzz is the fact that one of the 8 robot bosses is named sheep man, a baffling decision considering the character's power is electricity and he basically already looks like a big cloud.

I never played Mega Man 9. Well, I played the demo and couldn't beat the demo level. Also the game has NEVER gone on sale since the day it released. MM10 on the other hand has had 2 price drops this year alone. The Mega Man games aren't something you need to play in order to appreciate them, so I jumped right into 10. The only thing out of the status quo is that Dr Wiley is now a respected member of society, helping mankind. A plot device that obviously doesn't make it through the opening credits. Wiley releases a virus that only affects robots (such as Mega Man) called robofluenza and the plot only goes downhill from there. Fortunately nobody plays Mega Man games for the plot. They play them, well, nowadays they play them for nostalgia and/or masochism. I fall on the nostalgia side. The masochism is a bonus.

Pros: I believe I already mentioned the nostalgia? Mega Man was one of my absolute favorite games on the NES, with MM 3 being my all time favorite even today.

The Easy mode has to rate as a pro as well. It's a good option for people who get frustrated with the game and want to dial it down a bit and relax. Am I speaking from personal experience?

The level design was creative. I enjoyed both the nods to older games, and the new ideas.

Cons: Why did they take away the slide? I loved that thing. Mastery of that move made it easier to miss certain attacks but was tricky enough to reinforce the game's hard core pedigree.

The plot was silly and the bosses fairly uninspired, minor quibbles of course.

Conclusion: Nothing can compete with Nostalgia. It doesn't really matter how good this game is, I can't go back to my childhood and compare it to Megaman 1-3. I don't really believe this game is as good as the original Mega Mans, but I acknowledge that my opinion is biased. It's a fun game still, and mercilessly difficult, but it's best value is as a novelty to older gamers who occasionally miss times gone by.