Mega Man 10 (XBLA, PSN, WIIWARE) Review

A month after it's initial release on the Wii, Mega Man 10 is officially available on all three major home platforms. But was it worth the wait for you non-Wii users?

Much like Mega Man 9 before it, MM10 is a throwback to the Blue Bomber's 8-bit golden age on the NES, excluding the visual/audio overhauls that were made for Mega Man 7 and 8. Though some may disagree, the blocky graphics and digitized sound effects and music are actually a good thing, they make it feel like what it had set out to be: A Classic Mega Man title.

The game starts with Mega Man's sister, Roll catching to "Roboenza" virus, which is having dangerous effects on any of the infected Robots. Eventually, the infected machines go berserk and destroy anything in their path (Maverick anybody?) Doctor Wily, the series long-time villain is thrown in with the good guys after his flying saucer is shot down by one of the rampaging machines and his Roboenza-cure is stolen by 8 evil Robot Masters. It's your job as either Mega Man or Proto Man (Or Bass,Mega Man's rival who will appear in upcoming DLC) to fight the Robot Masters and take back the machine to cure the ailment.

Aw yeah... Shit is getting serious.

Gameplay is what you expect from a Mega Man title and is just as solid as the NES originals. You have to defeat 8 evil robot masters, collect their powers to use against each other and you eventually reach a series of end levels and fight the evil end boss. This tried-and-true formula has been reused since the very first Mega Man title, but it works. When you mix it with solid platforming and challenging stages (Inti Creates is behind this game. They made the ass-rapingly hard Mega Man Zero and ZX games, so it's pretty challenging,) the experience is still fresh and fun.

It's becoming clearer and clearer with each new game that Capcom is starting to run out of ideas for Robot Masters, but as silly as some of them may be (Sheep Man, who's a sheep and Strike Man, who's shaped like a Baseball.) they're all still pretty damn cool.

I wasn't kidding, He's a baseball.

Speaking of pretty damn cool, the music is the same way. The last time music was this catchy was Mega Man 2 and that's saying a lot. Mega Man 2 has some of the catchiest 8-bit tunes that ever emanated from a television set. Apart from the music, there's a lot of Gameplay similarities with MM2. It keeps the gameplay simple, no charge shots, no sliding, no bullshit. Awesome.

Oldschool. Love it.

To summarize, if you liked MM9... Or any other of the classic 8-bit Mega Man games, then you'll love this. Retro remakes are what's hip these days and Capcom seems to be on top of the pack.




- Kyle K.