Mega Man 11 is the latest in the Mega Man series, which the long time reader of this blog will know is one of my personal favorites. It's quite different in form from Mega Man 9 and 10, which both went back to an NES-style presentation. This one looks more similar to Mega Man 8 in it's 2.5d style.
The look itself is actually really nice. They gave some great detail to all of the characters, and despite the facelift, it still looks noticeably like a Mega Man game. They used the opportunities afforded to them with greater technology to improve some of the visuals significantly. My favorite of these changes is the new and distinct looks that Mega Man will get when he swaps Robot Master powers. These are no longer simple palette swaps that change his colors and nothing else. The Blue Bomber can now have crazy head gear and alterations to his cannon with each form, and some of these are really great. Fuse Man's power is my personal favorite...
Anyway, the game controls and plays really nicely. It feels like a Mega Man game in its controls, and that's all anyone was asking for. They've included a new system in the game called the Double Gear, controlled with the shoulder buttons. Mega Man now has a meter that gradually recharges over time and which allows him to either slow down time (I used this one way more frequently than the other one) or power up his attacks considerably. This power was very easy to forget about, save for in really tough situations in which it became apparent it was needed. It felt like it was available a bit too often to be balanced, so a player could easily be spamming the power throughout the level if they weren't used to a more traditional Mega Man experience like myself. The best parts of the Double Gear system were the level design choices that clearly expected you to utilize this power, but those are largely few and far between. This is mostly window dressing on an existing formula, rather than a drastic sea change.
The level design here is very good, and feels like an authentic Mega Man experience. It never quite gets to the point of the true classics (2, 3, X), but it's really good. The levels, though, feel pretty thin, especially in comparison to some of the newer Mega Man games. There are literally 0 secrets within the levels, which is one of the best new innovations to come to the series. So, without secrets, how does Mega Man develop (aside from gaining new Robot Master powers)?
There's an in-game shop present that allows you to buy E-tanks, extra lives, weapon energy tanks, and upgrades for Mega Man. Unfortunately, the economy for these upgrades is all kinds of screwed up. You can get hundreds of the currency every level, and each upgrade is super cheap. The upgrades are very impactful, too, which makes your progression feel cheaper than it ought to. What's more, there are certain days in which items go "on sale", making them even cheaper than normal. It feels like this happens every other day, too, although I can't confirm that for sure. As a result, the difficulty of the game is abnormally reduced by the presence of all of the lives and E-tanks you could ever want, and the game never really feels difficult as a result.
I didn't really notice the music at all, to be honest. Mega Man's sounds, and the sounds of his enemies, are much higher in the mix than any of the music, so most of it drones on in the background. This is really disappointing, as the music in the Mega Man games is really what separates them from some of their competitors.
The pace of the game is really good, and I'm very grateful that they didn't try to pack in a bunch of extra content for the sake of content. It's about the length you'd expect from a Mega Man game, so a skilled player can easily complete it in under an hour and a half without rushing. My first run probably took me 3 hours or so. They do include a lot of fun content in the extras, with some speedrunning and boss rush challenges that are very fun.
On the whole, this is a quality Mega Man experience, continuing a line of quality that has been unbroken in the classic Mega Man line (I have never reviewed a classic Mega Man game lower than an 8.0/10). It's very fun, despite a disappointing soundtrack and a broken economy. I'd definitely recommend it to any fans of the Blue Bomber, and hope Capcom can continue to give us solid Mega Man titles for years to come. I'll give it an 8.1/10.
Up next is a title that has been in the queue for years, so I'll be very glad to add it to the "completed" column in my spreadsheet. Check back in a week or so for a reTROview!
-TRO
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