With the release of Megaman 9 on the Wiiware, Capcom thought it would be a good idea to release a tenth game for the series, with the same style of music, graphics and controls. Instantly, I think this is going to be some repeat of Megaman 9. That’s kinda what all the Megaman classic games were, repeats with adding gimmicks with every game. megaman III had the slide ability, and Megaman IV had the charging buster ability. However, it is always interesting seeing the Robot Masters and their abilities, and Megaman games always provide some sort of challenge. I couldn’t resist a chance for a challenge, so I downloaded this game as well and gave it a go.

The game starts up with the number of Megaman games there were and when they were released, showing Megaman 10 to be released in 2010. It makes you think, doesn’t it? Did they stop making the Megaman games for this reason? Did they delay Megaman 10 just so they could put that in their list of achievements? Or was it just a coincidence? Notice how it isn’t called Megaman X. Those avid Megaman fans out there will probably have played the Megaman X games for the SNES, a polished version of the Megaman classic games. Since that name was taken, they had to use normal numbers. It’s the NES and Game Boy version numbering all over again.

The game starts off with a cut scene with Roll returning to Dr. Light’s lab. She says she came down with a fever, and collapses to the ground. Dr. Light confirms she has Roboenza, a virus that only affects robots. Robots all over the world got infected with Roboenza and couldn’t help their humans. Humans couldn’t even do the simplest of tasks without them, and without robotic help, they were unable to effectively find a cure. After a month, the infected robots went mad and started to try and, you guessed it, take over the world.

At Dr. Light’s lab, Megaman hears someone crying help outside, and catches the Wily Capsule before it crashes. Dr. Wily comes out and states he was looking for a cure, but was unable to find it, even with his genius. So he started to make a machine that would help him find a cure, and when he completed it, one of the insane robots stole it. Dr. Light decides to help him out so they can cure the world of Roboenza.

The story is legitimately good. I mean, for once it looks like it isn’t Dr. Wily’s doing. *Looks at past three games* Well, maybe he’s changed this time. *looks at past five games* But….Maybe we haven’t given Dr. Wily enough changes to redeem himself. *looks at past seven games* Well I kinda like the idea of two rivals working together to stop a world threat.

The game has about as many options as Megaman 9 did (save for the flickering effects when there is too much stuff on the screen), as you can select time attack, the main game, download extra content (Including an attack mode, three special stages with their own unique boss and weapons, and the ability to play a Bass, no kidding) and look at the list of 100 challenges.

The challenges are split up into two groups, Challenge List A and Challenge List B. Challenge List A are challenges you can try out when ever you like, ranging greatly from getting from point a to b without getting hit, to defeating a boss without getting hit, but you have to defeat those bosses in game before you can in the Challenge List. Not only that, but you have to defeat them on their difficulty level to unlock that challenge (E=easy, N=normal, and H=hard). This does seem like they ran out of ideas and put these in to “fill in” the gaps. To play Hard mode, beat the game in normal. The boss battles on the challenge list that are H require you to defeat bosses without getting hit and use only your mega buster. That’s hard core. If you do get hit, you’ll only be awarded with half a percent to your total score in the Challenge List.

Challenge List B, however, is much shorter, and requires you to complete these challenges within the game. They are, however, much more reasonable than Megaman 9’s ones. You just have to defeat the game in under an hour, defeat the Robot Masters with your mega buster, reach the Robot Master room without getting hit, as well as a few others, including the infamous “Mr. Perfect” achievement. Now, this is a little more reasonable to get, as you can save your progress after every level, but only on easy. With this in mind, getting Mr. Perfect is easier than Megaman 9, but is still no walk in the park I for one have achieved. The fact the challenges in Megaman 9 were so demanding matched the insane difficulty of the game. Here, however, it seems to have lost that touch. The challenges just seem to be dulled somewhat and a little less creative.

The Robot Masters in this game seem more thought out than in Megaman 9. There’s Pump Man, Nitro Man, Solar Man, Chill Man, Commando Man, Strike Man (ok, maybe this one wasn’t…) Blade Man, and Sheep Man. Sheep Man and Plug Man of Megaman 9 were quite interesting, as they weren’t mainly about a sheep or plugs, but electricity. The order which would be preferably to fight them in makes a ton of sense. It just…does in this game. I was able to work out (with a bit of guess work) the order first time around playing.

Just like in Megaman 9, you can collect screws across the levels. These screws are used as money to buy things from shops. The shop layout is different depending on who you are playing as. You can buy extra lives, energy tanks and can even remove your blue helmet, for style of effectiveness. Some of the more helpful items are Eddies, which give you a bunch of random items when used for a very reasonable amount of screws, Beat-Rush, which saves you from when you fall into a pit; and, personal favourite of mine, the Shock-Guard, which protects you from instant death when you touch spikes. I have a real fear of these spikes, and hate how they instantly kill you. So if you feel the same way, you can stock up on these for those little mistakes that you make. These also don’t affect the “Mr. Perfect” achievement. Perfect! Another nice feature that’s in this game but not in the others was you could scroll through your weapons without pausing the game, using the A and B button, you know, like in Megaman X. That is so helpful.

The graphics are just like any other Megaman game you played for the NES. It’s pretty much identical to the ones in Megaman 9 to the dot. What can I say without repeating myself? The game is brightly coloured, the graphics are sharp for 8-bit, enemy and boss design is nicely thought out and it’s generally pleasing to the eye. I don’t really see how you could ever get graphics wrong with a Megaman game.

The music also fails to disappoint. It’s a great sound track. The music when you fight a boss battle is much better than the battle music in Megaman 9. It’s got a sense of swagger to it. The music for the Robot Masters is also fun to listen to, especially Solar Man’s theme. It’s so up-beat. The stage for Strike Man reminded me of music that is stereotypically played at baseball games. It is just a joy to listen to.

The difficulty isn’t as insanely hard as it was in Megaman 9, but only by a small margin. The level design and the enemies in it seem to be one step higher in complexity than in Megaman 9, without having to resort to mass spikes to make it harder (Some level, such as Jewel Man’s stage, had a stupid amount of spikes in them…). The levels seemed more fun, yet still maintained that sense of difficulty in them. Capcom did a good job of levelling the difficulty a bit. The Robot Masters are quite a bit more creative with their attacks. The game rewards those with great satisfaction with every level completion.

You can also choose between Easy, Normal and (when unlocked), Hard. Easy is easy. This might seem like a “duh” moment, but I’ve played more than one game were the easy difficulty was hard, and the normal difficulty was very unforgiving. What makes easy, well easy, is that it offers these pellets that fill up both your energy and weapon powers dotted around the game. It’s nice to see them since the first game. Instead of having less enemies and giving them less health, they made the placement different so it was just easier to get passed. Normal and Hard place enemies in harder spots. If you can complete Hard, then pat yourself on the back, it’s no easy task. I spend around a month trying to complete this game on Hard, all mainly on the final levels.

Overall, I give this game a 9.3/10   This is one of the finer Megaman games, as if this were like the new Megaman III or the Megaman IV that never was. The game seems more addicting that Megaman 9, I dunno why though. If you liked Megaman 9, you’ll love this game as well. It offers a difficulty suited to everyone if they found megaman 9 too hard, and is a ton of fun to play.

Nice review. I really enjoyed Mega man 10. It had that classic feel of graphics and gameplay. I tried Mega Man 9 and I did not care for it, Mega Man fans will enjoy both though even though.