Megaman Is Back and More Difficult Than Ever
Sometimes I try to imagine what life is like for the kind of person who loves Megaman games. A famously arduous series, the difficulty of the beloved Capcom titles seems to waver between near-impossible and God-I-need-an-Ibuprofen-after-that-shit levels of tedium.
It's not to say they’re bad games-much the latter! And if you’re the sort of masochist who loves repeatedly dying on floor spikes, being blown onto fire grates, and getting shot in the face over and over and over and over by an anthropomorphized woodland creature that’s also a robot, then you’re in luck, because Megaman 11 is the modern update of the series that’s been decades in the making.
Available on all major consoles, the latest title in the long-running Capcom series offers retro-inspired cell-shade graphics, old-school level design, and adds some welcome new mechanics that both breathe life into the series and helps firmly establish the Blue Bomber on his rightful throne beside the heroes of the popular new indie side-scrollers that he inspired, such as Cuphead, Celeste, and Shovel Knight. And, if you’re terrible at Megaman games like me, Capcom even threw in some difficulty options for once: newcomer, casual, normal, and superhero (which presumably only true lunatics enjoy).
It seems like game studios have two major methods of reawakening old franchises: the overhaul, which sees titles like Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey taking old traditions and completely bulldozing through them in favor of comprehensive, at-times foreign-feeling contemporary new takes on the series; or the retro-chic method, like the Sonic franchise recently utilized in their critically-praised Sonic Mania reboot, taking the architecture of the old games and more-or-less simply mounting them onto our new HD screens.
Megaman 11 seems to take a little of both methods, and in this case, that’s a good thing. After seven mainstay titles on the NES and Super Nintendo, a disappointing 32-bit edition on the PS1, and then an old-school reboot with the 8-bit Megaman 8 and 9 (not to mention the X series, Mega Man Battle Network, and the zillions of other offshoots) it seems that Capcom has finally found a way to cater to the series' longtime fans while also taking a few risks.
The risk in question here is the seemingly inconsequential “Double Gear System,” which, in any other game, would probably just feel like a fun addition to an already-large constellation of mechanics, gameplay devices, and ways to overcome obstacles–but in a game like Megaman, which is so god-damned bareboned that the ability to wall-kick necessitated a completely new subset of the franchise (Megaman X), the Double Gear System is a true game-changer. Quite simply, one button makes time slow down, and the other makes Megaman more powerful. And, when Megaman’s health is at critical levels, he can utilize both “gears” to unleash a powerful energy blast from his Buster Gun.
The new mechanic brings to mind the mostly-forgotten Capcom series, Viewtiful Joe, in which the player could use “VFX Powers” to slow time, increase speed, and focus power. That game was already home to all sorts of high-octane chaos and whirlwind action, but in 11, an innovation like this makes the player think differently about how to approach one challenge to the next.
For me, I thought a game-slowing option like the Double Gear System would make Megaman a bit more easy to stomach. But lo and behold, the sadistic developers at Capcom found a way to take something potentially merciful for players, and evolved it into a whole new form of difficult gameplay, creating for even harder levels, obstacles that require precise balancing of both gears, and bosses that are equally abominable, if not worse, now that they have their own speed and power gears themselves.
All told, complex and challenging gameplay is not a bad thing at all, and in a time when most modern titles are too easy, an old-fashioned hardass Megaman actually feels rejuvenating–so yeah, it’s nice to see that Capcom found a way to bring the franchise to the modern day. I’m happy for them, but happiness isn’t going to heal the blood vessels I burst in my face trying to beat Bounce Man for the sixth time.
Megaman 11 is available now on PS4, XBox One, PC, but I recommend playing it on the Nintendo Switch, where, like the classic titles in the franchise’s legacy, it feels right at home.
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