VixiChrome
2018
Man, they really did just release a Mega Man that's peak visual style, peak level design, peak boss design, and peak weapon variety that could've acted as the template for a Mega Man 12 and beyond but just didn't.
This one has such cool theming and an awesome set of robot masters, and again with a lot of cool robot master weapons. And the speed and power gears are cool but simple addition befitting of something like a modernized Classic-Series Mega Man. And it does the Mega Man 8 thing where it has the perfect median of allowing the Robot Masters voice lines to express their personality without holding repetitive conversations with Mega Man himself that end up just slowing down the pace.
I just wish the Wily Stages were a bit more fulfilled, because the two that feel like fully realized levels are some of the best Mega Man platforming challenges in the whole franchise.
This one has such cool theming and an awesome set of robot masters, and again with a lot of cool robot master weapons. And the speed and power gears are cool but simple addition befitting of something like a modernized Classic-Series Mega Man. And it does the Mega Man 8 thing where it has the perfect median of allowing the Robot Masters voice lines to express their personality without holding repetitive conversations with Mega Man himself that end up just slowing down the pace.
I just wish the Wily Stages were a bit more fulfilled, because the two that feel like fully realized levels are some of the best Mega Man platforming challenges in the whole franchise.
2010
This is the most fun set of Robot Masters I feel, even if they have a pretty static weakness wheel. It's classic-themed but it comes with some modernization like having weapon switching on the L and R buttons, and an easy mode for accessibility's sake. Its one real problem is some of the Robot Master weapons are really lame or extremely situational. Just a bit like they're trying a bit too hard to be clever, so Triple Blade just ends up being the best shred-enemies implement.
I remember Bass being a lot of fun to use too.
I remember Bass being a lot of fun to use too.
2008
God that cover art reminds me of how hilarious they thought Bad Boxart Mega Man was as a joke, yeesh.
Aside from that, this one kicks a lot of ass! All the stages are fun and have a lot of satisfying movement, even if they took the slide out. One of the strongest lineup of Robot Masters, and the Wily Stages are actually just as much of a blast as the normal levels!
Aside from that, this one kicks a lot of ass! All the stages are fun and have a lot of satisfying movement, even if they took the slide out. One of the strongest lineup of Robot Masters, and the Wily Stages are actually just as much of a blast as the normal levels!
1996
What was with Capcom games in particular and having the corniest voice acting for a while.
There's a lot of cool improvements with this game, like the level design feeling less cramped than 7 and being able to shoot Mega Buster while still having a Robot Master weapon equipped. And I think it's neat that this time around that the latter four RM stages feel designed with the idea that you have the first four's weapons in mind. Just the Wily stages are an absolute blur.
There's a lot of cool improvements with this game, like the level design feeling less cramped than 7 and being able to shoot Mega Buster while still having a Robot Master weapon equipped. And I think it's neat that this time around that the latter four RM stages feel designed with the idea that you have the first four's weapons in mind. Just the Wily stages are an absolute blur.
1995
They call it Mega Man 7 because it's a Mega Man 7/10
This might just be the coolest set of Robot Masters yet, and the stages have a lot of cool theming to them, and it's awesome how dynamic the stages are with loads of secrets in them. And even if you don't like the 4 Robot Masters at a time method, there's a cheat input to have all 8 at once! Neat!
My one real problem is it feels like Mega Man himself takes up too much space on screen, so it feels a little claustrophobic.
This might just be the coolest set of Robot Masters yet, and the stages have a lot of cool theming to them, and it's awesome how dynamic the stages are with loads of secrets in them. And even if you don't like the 4 Robot Masters at a time method, there's a cheat input to have all 8 at once! Neat!
My one real problem is it feels like Mega Man himself takes up too much space on screen, so it feels a little claustrophobic.
1993
Mega Man but with 20% more racism!
Again, it's fine because the movement gets a little more refined with each of these, I just don't remember a ton about the stages and Wily's Scheme in this one feels the most like they gave up, and it's funny that they arrest him in the end just in case this was gonna be the last one lol.
Again, it's fine because the movement gets a little more refined with each of these, I just don't remember a ton about the stages and Wily's Scheme in this one feels the most like they gave up, and it's funny that they arrest him in the end just in case this was gonna be the last one lol.
1992
I remember this one the least out of the classic series. It's Post-MM4 so it's still alright, but it definitely shows that these were coming out once a year with how the stages are long but boring and most of the main 8 bosses are jokes.
1991
This is the best NES Mega Man I think, awesome set of themed stages, some of the best music in the classic series, and I think this is the best portrayal of Wily in the series where he feels a bit more than just a cartoonish goon that pulls slight variants on the schemes.
1990
I think this is when Mega Man really starts to find its footing as a series. Fun Robot Masters, tones down the difficulty a smidge to where it's still fun and satisfying to figure out but isn't cartoonishly punishing. And the post-Robot Master stages are fun! Waow! That's possible. The only annoying thing is when they require Rush Jet for certain parts and your only way to regain some energy for it if you die is farming enemies.
1989
This game is such a marked improvement over MM1 up until the Wily Castle where I sure hope you can a beat boss in one go because Crash Bomb is required to beat it and your dumb ass is NOT getting refills after death.
I kinda love how much of a mess this game's boss weakness diagram is, with absolute nonsense like Metal Blade being strong against four of the bosses, including himself where it instantly KO's him. And even then, it's an effective upgrade over the Mega Buster against pretty much anything. There's still a lot of jankiness to it and a smidge too hard for something with limited lives, but almost all the stages are really short anyways. Just gotta do the NES thing of really practice at it.
Just if there's ever a Mega Man where you're better off acting like beating the 8 robot masters is "beating the game" and disregarding Wily Castle, it's this one.
I kinda love how much of a mess this game's boss weakness diagram is, with absolute nonsense like Metal Blade being strong against four of the bosses, including himself where it instantly KO's him. And even then, it's an effective upgrade over the Mega Buster against pretty much anything. There's still a lot of jankiness to it and a smidge too hard for something with limited lives, but almost all the stages are really short anyways. Just gotta do the NES thing of really practice at it.
Just if there's ever a Mega Man where you're better off acting like beating the 8 robot masters is "beating the game" and disregarding Wily Castle, it's this one.
1987
It feels like this sets the precedent of most Capcom firsts in a series having the sentiment "This is alright I guess, but boy I hope a sequel fixes the [gestures at everything]"
I love Steam sometimes. Like it's so neat that so many of these old games are just up for sale and I get to experience some HE games that I somehow missed out on when I was a child.
This is a strangely cozy setting for something called The Land of Darkness. It has all the usuals with HE, a simple point and click adventure for children that has a lot of silly animations and is actually kinda funny a few times. Cute and wholesome!
This is a strangely cozy setting for something called The Land of Darkness. It has all the usuals with HE, a simple point and click adventure for children that has a lot of silly animations and is actually kinda funny a few times. Cute and wholesome!
2014
Gonna be real, can't really get gripped by this one. Maybe I didn't get far enough but it's not really tense or scary, and I got bored to the point of dozing off while doing laps around the mansion trying to figure out what detail I missed in a puzzle. It's firmly in "might try it again one day" territory, but until then, eh.
I want to love this game so bad, because it IS fun and I see all of the neat momentum shmovement you can pull off with it. And I don't even mind that the controls are weird and jank. Because this game overall has the energy and vibes of a slightly obscure early PS2 platformer with how it's trying something completely weird and different with the analog sticks and does a lot different like the platformers of old that did stuff before platformers had a lot of their conventions set in stone.
The first half or so of this game is a lot of fun, especially gratifying to get your speed up and blitz through levels. And there's a high skill ceiling to the game too, so it's probably gonna be a lot of fun to see speedruns of it. Just sadly I feel like the last third or so of the game starts to get too precise for how loosey-goosey the controls are and how easy it is the overshoot jumps. Also maybe just me but I have never had such an abysmal time with depth perception in a game before.
The bosses were interesting at first - I liked how the first two were platforming challenges more than they were just straight up fights, but then they go back to just doing regular fights and all the bosses got incredibly boring after that.
And boy howdy did I find my fair share of glitches. I've gotten trapped on geometry where Penny's just stuck in a perpetual falling state so I had to reset to the last checkpoint. I've had Penny pull herself into a block, causing the camera to launch itself into the void and taking a full minute to catch back up to me. I barely graze the deathplane water in world 2 and it counted as dying even though Penny was visibly walking on land. I've gotten stuck inside the horn tunnels in the final world. The Puppet Penny race apparently has a checkpoint over a pit so I got dropped into it until I ran out of lives. I died during the phase transition cutscene of the Judge Rufus fight more than once. And I kept straight up falling through the loop-de-loop in the final boss. Jeez.
I don't want to give this game a 5/10 cause I see what it's got and it's good. Just good lord it's given me a ton of grief.
The first half or so of this game is a lot of fun, especially gratifying to get your speed up and blitz through levels. And there's a high skill ceiling to the game too, so it's probably gonna be a lot of fun to see speedruns of it. Just sadly I feel like the last third or so of the game starts to get too precise for how loosey-goosey the controls are and how easy it is the overshoot jumps. Also maybe just me but I have never had such an abysmal time with depth perception in a game before.
The bosses were interesting at first - I liked how the first two were platforming challenges more than they were just straight up fights, but then they go back to just doing regular fights and all the bosses got incredibly boring after that.
And boy howdy did I find my fair share of glitches. I've gotten trapped on geometry where Penny's just stuck in a perpetual falling state so I had to reset to the last checkpoint. I've had Penny pull herself into a block, causing the camera to launch itself into the void and taking a full minute to catch back up to me. I barely graze the deathplane water in world 2 and it counted as dying even though Penny was visibly walking on land. I've gotten stuck inside the horn tunnels in the final world. The Puppet Penny race apparently has a checkpoint over a pit so I got dropped into it until I ran out of lives. I died during the phase transition cutscene of the Judge Rufus fight more than once. And I kept straight up falling through the loop-de-loop in the final boss. Jeez.
I don't want to give this game a 5/10 cause I see what it's got and it's good. Just good lord it's given me a ton of grief.
2023
To go into great detail to describe this game feels like a bit of a disservice to it, but even when I didn't go in 100% blind I still got a lot out of it.
I can see it being very mileage-may-vary, but I feel very seen by this game. One as someone that's struggled to cope with mortality and as someone who is plural. It handles the subjects with a lot of tact and feels different from a lot of "your choices matter" type games that feels like they're trying to be armchair psychologist when Slay the Princess is more a game about having an existential conversation. It doesn't come off as condescending or demeaning, aside from maybe too many dialogue options that are fluff or seem like they just restate the obvious.
It has a lot of clever writing, in terms of interactions and even some of the humor. For whatever it's worth, the final choice I had was probably the longest I've lingered on a dialogue option ever. Simply due to how I have to take apart my brain chemistry and put it back together again. Just a lot of it also comes in the form of prose, which is inevitably going to come off as white noise to some. Which is fine, of course! It's just not a writing style for everyone.
It's so tempting to go back and see what the other options would've been, but again, that feels like a disservice to the game. It feels like it's made to have one playthrough that is definitively "yours" and then leave it, so I might leave it for a while before trying to play it again.
I can see it being very mileage-may-vary, but I feel very seen by this game. One as someone that's struggled to cope with mortality and as someone who is plural. It handles the subjects with a lot of tact and feels different from a lot of "your choices matter" type games that feels like they're trying to be armchair psychologist when Slay the Princess is more a game about having an existential conversation. It doesn't come off as condescending or demeaning, aside from maybe too many dialogue options that are fluff or seem like they just restate the obvious.
It has a lot of clever writing, in terms of interactions and even some of the humor. For whatever it's worth, the final choice I had was probably the longest I've lingered on a dialogue option ever. Simply due to how I have to take apart my brain chemistry and put it back together again. Just a lot of it also comes in the form of prose, which is inevitably going to come off as white noise to some. Which is fine, of course! It's just not a writing style for everyone.
It's so tempting to go back and see what the other options would've been, but again, that feels like a disservice to the game. It feels like it's made to have one playthrough that is definitively "yours" and then leave it, so I might leave it for a while before trying to play it again.