Review for Mega Man 10

Before I begin, I encourage those who don't want to read but are big fans of Mega Man to jump straight to the end. Here I rank Mega Man 10 in several categories relative to the other Mega Man games. Also, this is your chance to disagree with me and send me threatening comments!

Over the last couple of years I've become pretty crotchety when it comes to video games. Though I used to love games, my passions are changing and I simply don't have much time for it anymore. In fact, my most commonly muttered phrase these days seems to be "I can't believe this piece of crap got good reviews."

On that note, I couldn't have possibly been more excited for Mega Man 10. I am as big a Mega Man fan as there is in the world, at least when it comes to the classic series. I loved Mega Man 9, and I knew I was going to enjoy 10. Hell, the game came out today and I'm already writing a complete review for it, start to finish. There was no way I wasn't completing this game on the day of release.

So biased as I am, I've decided to review this game not compared to everything else that's out there right now, but compared to other Mega Man games.

To those who don't know, Mega Man 10 is designed to look, play, and sound exactly like a game from the 8-bit NES era. In simpler terms it looks like it's about 20 years old.

With those obvious limitations in mind, I was actually impressed with the graphics. While Mega Man 9, designed in the same style, opted for bland backgrounds often composed of a single color, Mega Man 10 does a good job of giving each area a unique and clever visual flavor. For example, Sheep Man's electrically themed level features backgrounds composed of computer coding, wires, and circuit boards. It's a little abstract of course, but Mega Man levels always are. They rarely resemble realistic locations, but that's part of the charm.

The music in this game is a little difficult to analyze. Music is so highly subjective that I personally find reviews of it to border on silly, but just for the record, I found this music to be a step up from Mega Man 9. The Mega Man 9 soundtrack was okay, but it was forgettable. There are several songs in Mega Man 10 that I actively like. It isn't on the level of Mega Man 2 or 3, but that would be asking a lot.

That said, the music, for whatever reason, does not always sound like Mega Man music. Even though it's one of my favorite songs, the Chill Man theme for example sounds like it would fit much more appropriately in a Metroid game. And the Solar Man music might work better for Double Dragon or Final Fight. It's just kind of a weird mix.

One of the trademark elements of any Mega Man game are the Robot Masters. These are the 8 bosses that you have to fight along the way, and you can choose to go after them in any order. After defeat, each one gives you their signature weapon, and that weapon happens to be the weakness of another robot master. It's kind of like a complex game of rock-paper-scissors. MINOR SPOILER ALERT UNTIL THE NEXT PARAGRAPH: I was interested to discover that the boss order in this game is actually extremely predictable if you just use a little logic. I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing though. Part of the fun in Mega Man is replaying levels and learning what works against who. In this game, once I figured out who to fight first, I was able to carve a straight path all the way to the end without a single second guess.

The Robot Masters in this game are probably on par with those from Mega Man 9 and a clear step up from anything previously unless you go all the way back to 2 or 3. Some may consider Sheep Man to be an exception, but I have to believe that his inclusion was a deliberate nod to some of the subpar Robot Masters of the past. (See Dust Man, Centaur Man, and Spring Man.)

Though I enjoyed Mega Man 10 immensely, it is clearly inferior to Mega Man 9 in one important way. The weapons. The weapons in Mega Man 10 are pretty bad. Most of them are difficult to wield and of extremely limited use. I probably used the game's obligatory shielding weapon more than any other, but obviously there's nothing new or creative about another shielding weapon. (See Wood Man, Skull Man, Star Man, Plant Man, Junk Man, and Jewel Man.)

Another thing that people like to talk about when it comes to Mega Man games is the difficulty level. This one is pretty hard, even by Mega Man standards. The Robot Master levels ALL have their painful moments, but for whatever reason the Wily stages are actually much easier than usual. The floating anti-gravity room in Mega Man 9 is probably harder than anything in all of Wily's castle this time around. As is that room with all the forcebeams. And the underwater part with all the death-spikes and precision jumps.

Anyway... the robot master levels are still quite difficult. It's kind of a strange contrast.

As a whole, Mega Man 10 is a fun game, but probably not up to the level of Mega Man 9, or the early classics such as 2 and 3. It's highly subjective of course, and I think fans of the series will embrace it, but they can't all be the best.

BEST OVERALL GAME
Mega Man 3
Mega Man 9
Mega Man 2
Mega Man 10
Mega Man 4
Mega Man 6
Mega Man
Mega Man 7
Mega Man 5
Mega Man 8

BEST MUSIC
Mega Man 2
Mega Man 3
Mega Man 10
Mega Man 4
Mega Man 6
Mega Man
Mega Man 9
Mega Man 7
Mega Man 5
Mega Man 8

BEST WEAPONS
Mega Man 9
Mega Man 3
Mega Man 4
Mega Man 2
Mega Man 7
Mega Man 8
Mega Man
Mega Man 10
Mega Man 5
Mega Man 6

BEST ROBOT MASTERS
Mega Man 2
Mega Man
Mega Man 3
Mega Man 9
Mega Man 10
Mega Man 4
Mega Man 7
Mega Man 8
Mega Man 5
Mega Man 6

BEST LEVEL DESIGN
Mega Man 9
Mega Man 10
Mega Man 4
Mega Man 3
Mega Man 2
Mega Man 7
Mega Man 6
Mega Man
Mega Man 5
Mega Man 8

HIGHEST DIFFICULTY
Mega Man
Mega Man 2
Mega Man 10
Mega Man 9
Mega Man 7
Mega Man 4
Mega Man 3
Mega Man 6
Mega Man 8
Mega Man 5

If you can't tell, I hate Mega Man 5 and 8...