Mega Man 10
I finished Mega Man 10. I sure took my sweet time! I downloaded it over a week ago and didn’t get finishing it until today, whereas I’m pretty sure I finished Mega Man 9 fairly quickly.
It’s not bad. It’s a classic series Mega Man game, so it’d have to try pretty darn hard to even register as sub-par in my books (the X series seems more blatant in its good-to-crap ratio), but while I personally found Mega Man 9 to be a reinvigorating breath of fresh air, Mega Man 10 just came across as very average. The kind of Mega Man average where there’s decent level design, moderate challenge and nice graphics and music, mind you. Average average is something else entirely.
I think Mega Man 9 was appealing was because it really pushed the standards without necessarily breaking them – the weapons are almost universally useful, offering all kinds of support during levels and there’s a memorable variety of levels and bosses. 10, meanwhile, just seems to have lost its imagination. Yes, some of the bosses are quirky, but a lot of the weapons I struggled to find decent uses for them. It also didn’t help that it almost seemed like it was trying its hardest to adhere to the traditional Robot Master weapons – Nitro Man has a totally kickass motorcycle, and just when it looks like the game can homage the vehicle sequences from Mega Man 5… you get a screw-shaped Search Snake. Disappointing.
I repeat, it’s not a bad game, but there’s not the same “wow” factor I got from 9. Maybe playing it again with Proto Man and Bass will rectify that (I still think the Bass sprite is terrible. Sorry, but what was wrong with the ones from Power Battle & Fighters? It’s kind of sad when I have to say that the sprites in an official game look like they belong in a wonky fangame).