To say Mega Man fans have been waiting patiently for a new game starring their beloved Blue
Bomber would be quite the understatement.
After all, it’s been eight whole years since Mega Man 10 graced gaming screens back in
2010, and a lot has changed for Mega Man since then.
The person most often credited with Mega Man’s creation and proliferation, Keiji Inafune,
has long since left Capcom to pursue an independent career allowing more creative freedom.
And with someone like Inafune leaving rather large shoes to fill, it took a long time for
Mega Man to find a new internal champion at Capcom willing to step up to the challenge.
That champion ended up being Capcom producer Kazuhiro Tsuchiya, whose previous production
credits include Asura’s Wrath as well as the recent Mega Man Legacy Collection 2.
With Mega Man 11, Tsuchiya and his team have endeavored to produce another direct sequel
in the Classic series that, instead of looking backwards with another retro-styled title,
attempts to bring the Blue Bomber into the present day with all the contemporary aesthetics
and gameplay twists that implies.
The latter manifests as the Double Gear System, which is the main new gameplay addition Mega
Man 11 brings to the table — and it also happens to be the anchoring point for the
game’s story as well.
Some time after Mega Man 10, perennial series villain Dr. Wily recalls some forbidden research
he did in his youth during his time at Robot University with Dr. Light.
This research pertained to a concept called the Double Gear System that would overclock
robots, pushing their power, speed, and abilities beyond their natural limits.
However, because of the risks this posed to the robots it was used on, Wily’s work was
halted in favor of Dr. Light’s research into robots with independent thought, creating
the deep rift between the two that has characterized their relationship for the entire series.
Faced with defeat at Mega Man’s hands time and time again, Wily decides to put his old
research into practice and strike back with a new set of Double Gear-equipped Robot Masters
to take the Blue Bomber down and conquer the world.
Naturally, Mega Man elects for Dr. Light to equip him with the Double Gear System as well
so that he stands a fighting chance, and thus Mega Man’s latest fight for everlasting
peace begins.
Gameplay-wise, the Double Gear System adds an interesting layer of meter management to
Mega Man’s classic run, jump, and shoot gameplay.
With a tap of a shoulder button, you can activate either the Power Gear or Speed Gear, and each
affects Mega Man in different ways.
The Power Gear strengthens Mega Man’s default Mega Buster weapon, allowing for a double
charge shot alongside powered-up special weapons.
The Speed Gear, on the other hand, speeds up Mega Man so much that the world around
him appears to slow down, making fast-moving enemies and tricky platforming segments easier
to deal with.
Of course, Mega Man can’t use these Double Gear enhancements freely.
Whenever one is activated, a small meter appears above his head and begins filling up.
If the bar reaches maximum before you turn the Power Gear or Speed Gear back off, Mega
Man will temporarily overheat and be unable to use either Double Gear ability for a short
time.
But that’s not all.
When Mega Man is down to just a few ticks of health, both shoulder buttons can be pressed
to activate both gears at the same time, bestowing the benefits of both the Power and Speed Gears
and unlocking a last-ditch super charge shot that might turn the tables in a desperate
situation.
The downside to this is that Mega Man is left even more vulnerable after activating the
Double Gear System in this manner, with a powered-down buster that cannot be charged
for a short time.
This means the player must decide on the fly if this last-ditch mechanic is worth the risk
of activating it.
If the player remembers to, that is.
I can only speak for myself, but much like the Drop Dash during my initial playthroughs
of Sonic Mania, I have consistently found that I unintentionally overlook the Double
Gear System most of the time during normal gameplay.
It’s not because the system is badly implemented or a pain to use; on the contrary, I believe
the Double Gear System adds a fun, interesting layer of meter management to Mega Man’s
standard gameplay and is a great addition for newcomers, the less skilled, and speed
runners.
I can’t wait to see how speed runners in particular utilize the advantages offered
by the Double Gear System, as it opens up an incredible amount of opportunity for experimentation
and optimization that hasn’t necessarily existed before in Mega Man.
At the same time, players in-between those extremes, such as myself, may find themselves
mostly forgetting the Double Gear System even exists and sticking to Mega Man’s standard
abilities.
Thankfully, though, those standard abilities are back in full for the first time since
Mega Man 8.
While Mega Man 9 and 10 took away the Blue Bomber’s slide and charge shot as part of
their retro, back-to-basics approach, Mega Man has his full repertoire of abilities here
in Mega Man 11 on top of the Double Gear System, making him feel particularly versatile and
powerful in this latest title.
But that versatility and power don’t come at the expense of a challenging gameplay experience.
After I previewed Mega Man 11 earlier this year, one of the most consistent concerns
expressed to me by fans was that the Double Gear System, along with the return of the
charge shot, would make Mega Man 11 way too easy for series veterans.
Simply put, I’m happy to report this is categorically not the case.
While the Newcomer and Casual difficulties are exactly what they sound like and can be
bested without too much trouble by amateur players, the standard Normal difficulty presents
a solidly challenging experience that really ramps up in the game’s later stages, to
say nothing of the ultra-hard Superhero setting.
It’s abundantly clear that the game’s difficulty, in Normal mode at least, was designed
around Mega Man’s full repertoire of abilities, such that Mega Man never feels too overpowered
for all the enemies and challenges laid out before him — even when you take the Double
Gear System into account, which isn’t required to finish the game.
Of course, as with many other Mega Man games, the difficulty is more or less adjustable
on the fly no matter what setting you’re playing on thanks to the in-game shop, where
you can spend bolts on permanent power-up parts as well as single-use items like the
life-refilling E Tanks.
Basically, Mega Man 11 can be as hard or as easy as you want it to be, thanks to a smattering
of well-considered difficulty settings as well as the ever-present option to grind stages
for bolts and brute-force your way through the game’s tougher segments using E Tanks.
But regardless of whether you take a hard or easy road, you’re going to have a great
time.
Like many other platformers starring the Blue Bomber, Mega Man 11 has a wonderful pick up
and play quality to it.
The controls are pitch perfect, allowing you to run, jump, and shoot on a dime, comfortable
in the knowledge that if something goes wrong, it’s entirely your fault.
There is one minor exception to this.
Ladders pose a real problem for Mega Man in this game, as he’s just not as adept at
climbing them as he used to be.
His climbing animation looks good to be sure, but Mega Man’s ladder movement is so sluggish
in this game that the action feels like it slows down every time you have to climb one.
Still, this is a pretty minor quibble in the face of a game whose controls are thoroughly
on-point the rest of the time.
But Mega Man’s precise controls and pick-up-and-play quality are hardly the only reasons the series’
gameplay has endured over the years.
Charting your own course through the game’s initial set of eight stages and trying to
figure out which special weapon each Robot Master is weak to is just as fun today as
it was back when the very first Mega Man game introduced the concept in the late ‘80s.
It helps that those eight stages — and the Robot Masters who preside over them — are,
with minor exceptions, some of the series’ strongest to date.
Whether you’re blasting your way through Block Man’s pyramid fort, Bounce Man’s
indoor fitness park, or Blast Man’s action movie set, each Robot Master and their stage
feel wholly distinct from the others, ensuring that nothing ever starts feeling too samey.
Now I did just mention minor exceptions, and indeed, Mega Man 11 includes the odd sequence
that feels overly punishing and slightly cheap.
Torch Man’s stage in particular is the main offender here, with its three instant-death
sequences involving a wall of fire that is constantly closing in on you.
The bouncy floors and walls in, er, Bounce Man’s stage can also frustrate on occasion,
but in general these instances are very much the exception to the rule of Mega Man 11’s
otherwise strong level design.
More importantly, these levels stand up to repeat playthroughs.
Your tenth run through a stage is likely to be just as fun as your first, as every level
benefits from strong design and enemy placement that encourage you to figure out the best
way to utilize the special weapons at your disposal, rather than just relying on the
Mega Buster.
In fact, Mega Man 11 channels a bit of Mega Man 9 in the way its special weapons complement
one another incredibly well, with some having additional utility beyond just basic offense.
Impact Man’s Pile Driver, for example, also acts as a mid-air dash that can be used to
bypass obstacles and pits if you learn to use it correctly.
But even the basic offensive weapons complement each other well and cover areas above, below,
and around Mega Man that the Mega Buster, with its classic straight-shooting behavior,
cannot.
There’s a sense of genuine excitement every time you best a Robot Master and gain their
special weapon because each one feels valuable, to say nothing of how each weapon’s properties
change when boosted by the Power Gear.
Deserved though all this praise may be, there is a lingering, pervasive sense that Mega
Man 11 perhaps plays things a little too safe in its overall design despite the addition
of the Double Gear System.
For example, there aren’t any hidden collectibles to find or even a single alternate path to
take through any of the game’s levels; the route you take the first time is the route
you’ll be taking every time.
This feels like a missed opportunity considering Mega Man games as far back as 4 have incorporated
hidden items and alternate paths into their level designs.
On top of that, Mega Man 11 also ranks as one of the shorter Mega Man games to date,
with only ten full-length stages to blast through in the main campaign.
Yes, those levels themselves are on the longer side, but with no alternate paths to explore
and the Wily Castle portion of the game being so short this time, it feels like perhaps
there should’ve been a little more content here in general.
Mega Man 11 attempts to make up for this by including a bevy of extra challenge modes
complete with online leaderboards, but the effort falls a bit short unless you’re the
type of player who loves chasing fast times and high scores.
If, like me, you aren’t really that type of player, you aren’t likely to get much
mileage out of Mega Man 11’s challenge modes.
There are several different rulesets available like a basic time attack mode as well as more
unique challenges like Jump Saver, which challenges you to get through a stage using as few jumps
as possible, and Point Builder, which has you trying to chain enemy kills together in
order to boost your score.
But none of these extra challenge modes held my attention for very long, save for one:
Balloon Rush.
This entertaining mode strips every stage of its enemies and replaces them with blue
and red balloons.
Your goal is to destroy the former by running into or shooting them while avoiding the latter.
Every red balloon you touch hits you with a time penalty, and you’re also penalized
for missing any blue balloons.
While this mode in particular kept me coming back for more and some of the boss-related
challenges can be entertaining, Mega Man 11’s extra modes in general don’t feel like they
add a whole lot to the game unless, as I mentioned previously, you’re a certain kind of player.
Otherwise, Mega Man 11’s main story mode feels like it ends a little too quickly; I
had hoped for a slightly lengthier campaign with a good chunk of content after the eight
Robot Master stages, along the lines of what Mega Man 4, 5, and 6 offer.
And without going too far into spoiler territory, I had also hoped for certain fan-favorite
characters to show up during the course of the story, but those characters are complete
no-shows, only adding to the overall feeling that maybe Tsuchiya and his team played things
a bit safe for Mega Man’s first new game in eight years.
But even if Mega Man 11 feels a bit safe and somewhat light on content, its production
values are on-point.
Mega Man 11 is aesthetically pleasing throughout, with a clean, vibrant art style that perfectly
meshes with Mega Man’s fun, colorful, anime-like aesthetic.
Some have accused Mega Man 11 of looking plain or low-budget, but I disagree; on the contrary,
Mega Man 11’s simplistic, straightforward visual style allows the characters to really
pop in a way they might not have otherwise.
Mega Man himself has never looked better except in perhaps Mega Man 8, with an updated design
here in Mega Man 11 that strikes an ideal balance between cute and cool.
There are certain visual hiccups, such as the fact that Mega Man’s running animation
still doesn’t look right in this game.
But that’s a minor complaint in the face of an otherwise high-quality graphical presentation,
and Mega Man 11 makes up the difference in the details, such as its particularly eye-pleasing
hit, explosion, and weapon effects.
Given Mega Man’s undisputed legacy in the wider world of video game music, Mega Man
Star Force 2 composer Marika Suzuki had some big, blue shoes to fill when she signed on
to compose Mega Man 11’s soundtrack.
Thankfully, the end result proves that Suzuki was up to the task even if some tracks fall
short.
While some tunes, like Block Man’s stage, come off as somewhat limp and forgettable
compared to Mega Man’s usual standard, the soundtrack hits the mark more often than it
misses and some tracks, like Torch Man’s stage and especially the stage select theme,
really stand out as being excellent.
Mega Man 11’s voice acting leaves much the same impression, with some characters hitting
the mark while others come up a little short.
Dr. Light is probably the worst offender, but the other members of Mega Man’s family,
like Roll and Auto, sound great.
Meanwhile, Dr. Wily and the Robot Masters are probably the highlights of the English
voice track.
Unfortunately Mega Man himself suffers from sounding a lot older than the character is
supposed to, but that’s more a problem with the voice direction than the acting itself.
Thankfully, Capcom has seen fit to include the Japanese voice track at no extra cost,
and players who want to compare and contrast can switch between the two at any time.
All told, Mega Man 11 is a triumphant albeit safe return for the Blue Bomber after eight
long years and I Like it a Lot.
While I do wish there was a little more meat to it and the lack of any hidden collectibles
or alternate paths through the levels feels like a missed opportunity, there is no questioning
its excellently designed, thoroughly replayable levels and the tried-and-true, run-jump-and-shoot
gameplay that still feels pitch-perfect in 2018.
And with modernized aesthetics once again proving that classic Mega Man can look and
sound great beyond its 8-bit roots, it would be great to see this style carried forth into
the hopefully inevitable Mega Man 12.
One thing is for sure: Mega Man is in good hands with Tsuchiya and his team and for the
first time in eight years, I can’t wait to see what the future holds for the Blue
Bomber.
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