Another good installation for Capcom's blue bomber, though more work could have been done to make MegaMan 10 better.
This year, Capcom jumped the gun and released MegaMan 10. Needless to say, they should have done a bit more with this title. Don't get me wrong, it's still a good game. It's just that after the success of MegaMan 9, MegaMan 10 falls a bit short.
The world is in peril after an outbreak of the 'roboenza' virus (which is pretty much the robot equivalent to the common flu or swine flu viruses), infecting a lot of robots rendering them sick and MegaMan's sister Roll happens to be one of the victims. Also, Dr. Wily's own robots have apparently caught this virus and chased him out of his castle. Wily states that he created a medicine machine to help those who have been infected by the virus but can't complete it unless the final parts required to finish it, which are all guarded by the robot bosses, are brought back. With the world in trouble again and Roll in dire need of help, MegaMan sets off to find the missing pieces of the medicine machine and put an end to the 'roboenza' virus.
Like MegaMan 9, MegaMan 10 is designed from scratch with the retro style of the 8-bit era that made the blue bomber one of the most iconic figures on the NES from 1987 to 1993. Everything that you remember from the 8-bit days are there: from the colorful graphics to the items dropped by enemies being merged into the walls and floors to the respawning of enemies after you leave a particular area to, in the case of NES MegaMan games, the precise jump that you have to make to progress further in these games. In my opinion, MegaMan's best games have always been on the NES. MegaMan 7 on the SNES still stands as one of the better games out of the NES library though 8-bit is the way to go, so those who expect this game to have 'awesomely rendered Xbox 360/PS3' graphics would be highly disappointed....and you shouldn't be cause graphics do not make the game, it's gameplay.
Now in regards to gameplay, veterans of the MegaMan series will feel right at home the second you jump into your first level. For those who have never played a MegaMan game in their life, they are eight robot bosses that you have to fight at which you have the freedom to choose which one you want to topple first. It's similar to Russian Roulette: you pick a stage, if the stage is too difficult, then pick another one. If THAT one was too difficult then keep going until finally you come across a stage that you can beat as well as defeating the boss. Now after completing a level MegaMan earns a new weapon from the fallen boss, which brings me back to the Russian Roulette reference: let's say you beat Blade Man first, you go through the levels yet again to see which boss will fall quicker to his weapon. Rinse and repeat every time until all the bosses are defeated and you must tackle Dr. Wily and his deadly fortress which will test your skills and patience all the way to the final showdown between the two.
Along the way through levels as you defeat enemies, some of them may drop bolts. Be sure to grab as many as you can since they act as the currency of this game. After completing a level or getting a 'game over' you are given the option to visit the shop in order to buy any item like an extra live, an E-Tank to replenish health, shock absorbers from spikes and energy balancer to replenish the lowest weapon in your arsenal. This is really helpful especially if you get stuck in certain levels.
Identical to what they did with MegaMan 9, Capcom packed quite a lot of stuff in here to give gamers their monies worth. While going through the game you will unlock several challenges such as fighting bosses under certain conditions, tally specific routines such as mastering your jumping and shooting abilities or beating a level filled with enemies (usually without taking a hit). Yes, even after beating MegaMan 10 there is still plenty to do afterwards.
Another thing that should be noted is that MegaMan is not coming alone for this. ProtoMan, the older brother of MegaMan (who is now available to play from the start and not DLC material like he was in MegaMan 9), is joining him in order to help in ending the threat of the roboenza virus. If you've played MegaMan X4 or MegaMan and Bass, you will see where this is going. Yeah, you have to choose which one you want to beat the game with and you can't switch them once you've made your choice. In any event, both brothers share different attributes between one another. In MegaMan's case, he plays the same way he has in MegaMan 1, 2 and 9: rapid-fire and jumping from left to right to skillfully dodge hazards that get in his way. ProtoMan however plays in the same way that MegaMan did since MegaMan 4: a charged shot along with the 'slide' from MegaMan 3. Needless to say, MegaMan makes the levels a bit more difficult since he's no longer as powerful as he was while ProtoMan makes the levels easier due to his enhancements......unfortunately his rapid-fire is not as good as MegaMan's and he takes A LOT MORE damage from enemies, to make the game a bit fair and not make him feel overpowered. Also Bass makes an appearance in MegaMan 10. Too bad he's DLC material.
From the heroes of the game we move on to the villains along with the environments that they inhabit....and both MegaMan and Proto Man have a rather, unique bunch to get through. The 8 bosses of MegaMan 10 don't really have the same charm or hype behind them like the last batch (I seriously don't see Capcom outdoing Splash Woman) though they're not as bad as, let's say, Clown Man from MegaMan 8 or Toad Man from MegaMan 4. And the accurate level designs for them are quite amazing and at the same time quite frustrating. I.E: Commando Man resides in a desert complete with land mines, spikes and of course, the occasionally annoying sandstorm. Another would be Strike Man (a baseball with arms and legs no less) resides in a baseball stadium and etc.
Another treat about MegaMan is the music and once again, despite having a somewhat weak soundtrack, MegaMan 10 deliver in the music department. From Nitro Man's music all the way to the Wily fortress, you will be humming a tune from this game during the time you play, beat it and play again after beating it.
Speaking of beating the game, do not go in thinking that this is going to be a walk in the park. MegaMan 10.....is HARD. In some cases, harder than MegaMan 9 though not as cruel as MegaMan 1 was. You will spend a lot of time looking at the game over screen before there is at least some progress. To anyone who is playing a MegaMan game for the first time be prepared for one of the most frustrating yet most rewarding experiences in a long time cause there's always something that will make you want to break your controller, from the instant-kill spikes and lava pits to the precise jumps to the little enemies that fly right into your face when you're in the middle of a jump. And that's just NORMAL mode. Beating the game once unlocks HARD mode which is a whole other ball game. The level designs are the same but they are more enemies to fend off (some of them placed in the most comical and annoying areas), more instant-kill hazards to deal with and the bosses change their patterns adding some new tricks up their sleeves. But there's no need to fear: EASY mode is here. This mode is simply there for those to have a fighting chance in beating the game since a lot of the hazards will be covered for you, the enemies move a lot slower and the bosses have the most basic patterns to understand. Though if you want the best experience out of MegaMan 10 I suggest you try to beat it first on Normal mode. You get a lot of game over screens? So what? The more you die, the easier it will feel to beat the game.
Nevertheless, after the success of MegaMan 9 you'd thing that Capcom would come with something big for MegaMan 10. Instead we get a rehash of MegaMan 9 with character selection and little to no tweaks added to the gameplay. As a fan of the original series, I seriously think that Capcom should work on something fresh for MegaMan......seeing as how the series went downhill after MegaMan 5 was released and nothing really was done with the games as a whole, minus MegaMan 7.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Despite the game's short comings and Capcom's ways of not wanting to do something new for the aging blue bomber, MegaMan 10 still provides the fun, addictive, intensely difficult gameplay that has made the MegaMan franchise strong for the last 2 decades. With a brand new batch of robots to vanquish and additional content to keep you going for days, first-timers and MegaMan veterans are going to be in for a treat for days to come.....until Capcom comes out with MegaMan 11, and the cycle starts all over again.