Another Mega Man, another recycling.
I'll start off with the first thing I noticed: the difficulty. While Mega Man 9 was probably one of the hardest Mega Man games, Mega Man 10 seems to have taken the opposite approach. Sure I'm not a casual gamer, but when I got to the first Dr. Wily stage with 6 lives and no spent continues I sort of noticed how fast I was breezing through the game. This might be nice to some gamers, but to others it might be a bit boring. I finished the game the first time through in a little more than an hour. Of course there is the continued use of challenges from Mega Man 9, but these seem to be either way too easy or way too hard. I mean, who would even want to attempt to beat the game without getting damaged once?
As for the story, you'd think maybe they would work hard on it since they've just focuses on the most basic of Mega Man game play and graphics, but it's almost pointless. The only real story is at the beginning where you find out a sickness is plaguing robots and driving them to wreak havoc on the city. The only cure was created by Mega Man's old nemesis Dr. Wily, but some plagued robots stole the production machine from him so he can't mass produce the cure. Mega Man has no choice and sets off to help Dr. Wily and get the machine back. That's the story. Now, I'm not saying that the old Mega Man games had ground breaking stories, but this is probably the worst one I've ever seen. It doesn't even explain why there are 8 robot bosses you're after, I only assume that after they captured the machine from Dr. Wily they broke it into pieces and each robot kept one.
As for the bosses, it's just another recycling of old powers and shells with an easier strategy. I have to say I had no trouble with any of the bosses and guessing their weaknesses was surprisingly easy. The normal enemies are the same. Same old enemies with slight variations.
The music is decent, yet forgettable. I don't really remember any of it after beating the game and I don't really even remember noticing it. All I can say is it's no Mega Man 2 or 3, but then again what is?
I think my main problem with this game is that it's new, but made worse than when the technology to make the originals was new. I mean, there's just nothing good enough to make this game worthy of a new creation. It's just similar enemies on similar levels, nothing new, which leaves me feeling a bit bored. Don' get me wrong, I love the Mega Man series, and I hate what happened to the X series when it went 3D, but there's just nothing unique here. It feels like a Mega Man 1 Rom that someone edited. I understand they wanted to take the original approach to the series by taking it back to it's NES days, but I'm also confused why Mega Man lacks the ability to charge or even slide, when these moves were present in previous games. Why does Mega Man 10 feel more like a prequel to Mega Man 1 than a sequel to 8 or even to 3? The addition to play as Proto Man is nice, and with the DLC due out in the future with the ability to play as Bass will also be interesting. Unfortunately these are the only real unique qualities.
All in all, Mega Man 10 is exactly what it looks like. Mega Man 1 with new levels. Unfortunately that's pretty much it. While it's a solid and classic feeling game, and quite fun for a play-through or two, there's just nothing special about it that really makes it feel worth even 10 bucks. I'd like to see a new 2D Mega Man similar to 7 or 8, when graphics were in their prime and game play wasn't focused on making it look insanely 3D. I mean, if you're using graphics and an engine as simple as an NES Mega Man in 2010 I'd expect something a little more than engaging in other aspects.