Yet another terrible American Mega Man cover, necessitating using this sweet promotional art. 9/10 are bad (8 has an OK cover). I just don't get it!
And I finally lurch to the finish line! I first started documenting my progress through the classic Mega Man franchise in March of this year, although I foolishly used save states on 1-6 and ruined the experience, necessitating my circling back to them in the last month or so. But now I can officially say that I have finished every classic Mega Man game, depending on whether or not you consider Mega Man & Bass, the Game Boy games, and the Wily Wars to be part of the series. I don't, but will probably get to them all if I can pick up a Wily Wars repro cart (rerelease it, please, Capcom!) as I am such a big fan of the series.
So how was Mega Man 10, the last of the series (maybe ever, with how Capcom has treated Mega Man in the last few years)?
It was good! They really haven't made a bad Mega Man game in the classic series, so this is no real surprise. Even 7 and 8 have their own interesting quirks that make them fun.
The tenth game in the series operates on a very similar framework to 9, but definitely changes up the visual look a bit. While 9 looked like it reused Mega Man 2's sprites in entirety, Mega Man 10 has a new look, although it's definitely still 8 bit and retro. But it's certainly more in the vein of 2 and 9 than of 3-6.
The controls are again excellent, and the look is good, although not as good as 5 or 6, curiously. I never really understood adhering so closely to the look of 2, as that's hardly what makes the game great. Pretty much anyone will tell you that 6 looks the best, but that 2 or 3 are preferable for other reasons. I kind of wish that they had taken a few more visual risks to look more like the late NES games, or even the gorgeous 8, but 9 and 10 are operating about 25% on fanservice, so I get it.
The music is good, although not quite as good as in 2, 3, or 9. But it doesn't detract from the game at all, and there are plenty of memorable tunes, with a lot less rehashing of old songs than in 9, for example.
The great thing about 9, the creation of varied and interesting weapons that are more or less necessary to get through the stages, is largely forgotten here, and greatly reduces the need for a Mega Man 10 at all. This was the core thing that made 9 stand out so much from the other successors to the NES games, and so 10 feels much more stale than the 9th iteration.
The stage design is also not quite as interesting in 10, as it tends to rely more on BS cheap deaths rather than on the cleverly designed levels of 3 or 9. These deaths come more often than in any other game in the series, with the exception perhaps of 2. Fixing this weakness was a great service in 9, which replaced the false difficulty of 2 with really tricky and interesting platforming that required pure skill rather than memorization. 10 regresses in this regard.
The robot masters are not bad, and fighting them is actually a joy. Each has their own interesting pattern, and had no easily exploitable patterns that I could see.
I actually enjoyed the cheesy story here, and the cut scenes were clearly lovably done.
The game features two playable characters, Mega Man and Proto Man (you can also play as Bass with DLC). I only played as Mega Man, so I won't evaluate this aspect of the game, but you should be aware of it.
So Mega Man 10 to me is far more in the pantheon of 4-6 than 2 or 3. It's a fun, standard Mega Man game that shares many of the weaknesses of the games, and most of the strengths. If you like Mega Man, you'll enjoy it.
I'll give it an 8.0/10.
-TRO
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