In 1987, a little side scrolling run and gun platformer was released on the Nintendo Entertainment System by a little company known as Capcom. At the time Capcom was mainly known for a fighting game named Street Fighter, but they needed a new franchise that would help them compete in the new generation of home consoles. They gathered a small team of up to six individuals who were new to the company and tasked them to create a new IP. Having a team of six developers seems kinda small for a big task, but luckily they were able to do it. One of the members on the team was Keji Inafune, an artist who helped design some of the characters for Street Fighter. Inafune drafted a small boy in a blue suit with a cannon for an arm and that’s when the team came up with the idea for Mega Man. The team would spend day and night programming the game, wanting it to be as perfect as they could skulpt it. Eventually Mega Man was born, being released exclusively in Japan for the NES.
Reception for Mega Man was pretty good and Capcom seemed to enjoy the idea the team of six created. To help stretch the amount of success Mega Man had, Capcom published the game over in the United States. Mega Man became a hit in the USA, it’s blend of expansive levels and chaotic fights provided one of the most challenging yet rewarding experiences back then. Mega Man was hitting the world hard and Capcom decided to follow the success up one year later with Mega Man 2. Making a sequel within a year seems a bit rushed, but the team managed to improve upon all the problems the first Mega Man had. Mega Man 2 was bigger, better, and more accessible than the first game, selling over 1.5 million copies worldwide.
Capcom then made Mega Man 3, Mega Man 4, and so much more. What was originally a simple concept made by a man named Keiji Inafune would soon become one of Capcom’s most iconic franchises. Around Mega Man 3, Keji Inafune would actually begin to help develop each game creating the iconic design we now know and love. After Mega Man 6 and a couple of Gameboy releases the series began to grow stale, but this didn’t mean Mega Man was over. Nintendo released the Super Nintendo, and it was a good opportunity for Inafune and his team to expand their ideas. They then created Mega Man X which was a more modern Mega Man and it was praised like hot cakes. It continued the design the original games were praised for while expanding the characters and world Inafune created. This spinoff is what also helped create future Mega Man spinoffs. Legends, Battle Network, Zero, ZX Starforce, and even some bad ones we aren’t going to mention. Mega Man was Capcom’s money sucker, but all things have to come to an end. Around the early 2010s many major developers began to leave the company and some of Capcom’s flagships franchises were slowly being driven towards the dirt. This left a good chunk of their series untouched for years, which included Mega Man. Keji Inafune left Capcom and decided to go fund his own independent projects. (We all saw how that turned out)
The Mega Man series has been left in the dust ever since then, with a community of die hard fans growing desperate over time, waiting for the next sequel to this amazing series. Then a miracle happened in 2017. Capcom hired new developers to make Resident Evil 7 and it became a smashing hit. Capcom found a way to redeem themselves and decided that now would be a good time to revive some of those franchises they were known for. Later in 2017, Capcom announced a team of new lead designers came to work on what would become the next revolutionary title in their forgotten franchise, Mega Man 11. Fans became pumped for this new entry, finally getting the Mega Man game they’ve waited years for. Mega Man 11 came out in late 2018 and did pretty decent with the public, keeping that hard core game design the series had while adding new twists.
Personally I have been a Mega Man fan ever since middle school. I grew up in a modern generation of consoles and gamers, but I was interested in the classics. My sister one day showed me some mangas named Mega Man Megamix written by Hitoshi Ariga and that’s how I fell in love with the Mega Man series. It’s weird how I got into Mega Man through books rather than the games. Legacy Collection came out in 2015, and I bought it for the Nintendo 3DS. My love for Mega Man grew even bigger as I replayed each of the six games several times. Over and over, I think I had a hundred hours clocked into the collection. Legacy Collection 2 came out, I played that, and eventually Mega Man 11 was announced. I was so hyped for this game and luckily I got it the day it came out for the Nintendo Switch. All my expectations came true, may not be the best game in the world but it’s a perfect bowl of nostalgia noodles that I ate up. Today we’ll be talking about why I love Mega Man 11 and why it deserves your attention. So power up that Mega Buster, see the eight foes you’ll be fighting against this time, and prepare to defeat Dr. Wily once again.
Story
Our story begins several months after the events of Mega Man 10. After countless failures and ruined attempts to take over the world, Dr. Albert Wily heads towards his bed for a good night's rest to relieve his stress. He has spent years coming up with master plans, but each time he was defeated by the Blue Bomber, Mega Man. He tried sabotaging Dr. Light’s robots to use them as his own, created his own killer robots to take down Mega Man, Dr. Cossack’s daughter was held hostage and forced him to fight Mega Man, used ancient technology from the far reaches of space, and even created a virus that almost wiped out every robot on earth. He has tried everything, but he always fails due to his poor planning. He remembers the good old days when Light and him were in college, studying robotics and working together as a team. They came up with brilliant ideas, but Dr. Light was favored more by the college board.
After reminiscing about his past again, Dr. Wily then remembers some old research he had during college years. His research contained a rejected device known as the Double Gear System, a device that can push a robot far beyond their usual limits, becoming unstoppable. Using this past research, he then constructs a new updated version of the Double Gear System and heads straight towards Light Labs with devious plans in his mind. Meanwhile at Light Labs, Dr. Light is busy checking up on eight local robots that needed repairs. Specialized robots known as Robot Masters, capable of helping humanity perform the toughest of tasks. He is the one who created the idea for Robot Masters, but that doesn't mean other people have tried making them as well. After creating his own line-up of Robot Masters, he spends most of his days repairing broken machinery. He has two little helpers bots, Rock and Roll.
Roll is a simple cleaning robot, but Rock is special because he is the house bot that eventually was converted into the fighting machine known as Mega Man. (Rockman if you're in Japan) Dr. Wily busts into Light Labs to show off his new version of the Double Gear System. The eight Robot Masters that Light was repairing try to fight Wily, but he then kidnaps the eight robots within the lab and plans to use them to take over the world. (As if that would work since most of the Robot Masters from the past were taken down by one guy) Seeing the chaos around him, again, Mega Man suits up to take down Dr. Wily and his new eight Robot Masters, again. But to defeat them he’ll have to use a prototype gear system that Light stored away from his years at the academy. Looks like some things can’t be forgotten.
Gameplay
Just like any ordinary Mega Man game you navigate through each stage jumping over pits, avoiding obstacles, and shooting anything that shoots at you. You start at a stage select screen containing the eight Robot Masters mentioned earlier, and you can play each stage in any order. Helps provide choice, because if a player is struggling with one stage they can come back later when they are more powerful. You have a limited amount of lives and if you run out it’s game over and you start at the beginning of whatever stage you were on. Mega Man mainly dies in two ways, either he takes too much damage and his health runs out or he falls into an instant kill hazard.
Luckily you have your trusty Mega Buster which can be used to take down enemies. It fires three shots in quick recession and can be charged up to fire a powerful Charge Shot. Mega Man has a good jump height allowing him to navigate around most problems, but if he can’t reach certain areas he can use Rush. Rush is a transforming robot dog that Mega Man can summon at any time. Rush can use his Spring Coil to launch Mega Man high into the air, and later you unlock a jet that allows you to fly long distances. What’s new this time around is the previously mentioned Double-Gear System, which allows Mega Man to power up his attacks and slow down time to dodge speedy attacks much easier. There is a gauge which dictates how long you can use the Double-Gear Systems, and when it’s full it overheats meaning you can’t use it until it cools down. Don’t let this happen, especially since there are sections in the game that will require you to use the slow down mechanic of the gear system.
At the end of each stage there is a boss which will have multiple attacks and tests the player’s reflexes. They are challenging, deal a good amount of damage, and with the new Gear System they can activate powerful attacks. When these powerful attacks are activated you want to counter them using the gear system of your own, because this would be a good time to either deal more damage or dodge much easier. When you beat the boss you gain a new weapon. Mega Man has a special power known as Copy Ability, which allows him to recreate one of the moves a boss has. These abilities will either make fighting foes much easier or allow platforming to be less stressful.
For example Impact Man gives you the Pile Driver, a thrust that lunges you across long distances and pierces through waves of enemies. Block Man has Block Dropper which summons four brick blocks that will fall onto enemies. Combine these weapons with the Double Gear System and you can get some screen clearing attacks. Use Double Gear with Block Dropper and you have a storm of bricks that will wipe out anything in front of you. With careful planning you can even breeze through the eight stages if you tackle them in the right order since bosses have weaknesses. For example if you beat Bounce Man you obtain the Bounce Ball, and if you use it against Fuse Man you can defeat him much quicker. (Some of these weaknesses make sense, while others don’t)
Enemies will drop bolts and they can be used to buy items from Roll at the shop. These include E-Tanks which replenish your health, extra lives, or equipment that make the game much easier. Besides that there really isn’t anything else to say. The game is fair most of the time and feels rewarding when you overcome a challenge. With your new powers you should be able to stop Dr. Wily once again.
Thoughts
While some would argue that Mega Man 11 is a short, tedious, and unfair game, I personally think it's an amazing comeback for the series. I thought the graphics were fantastic. Most previous Mega Man games were pixelated, but Mega Man 11 decides to add 3D models into 2D environments. 2.5 is what it’s known as. The addition of the Double-Gear System is a welcome mechanic to the series as it helps expand level creativity. The levels themselves are bigger and longer than previous games possibly being the size of Mega Man X’s levels. It has the old school design of the original games where they introduced to you one mechanic, the other, and then they build off of one another to form some pretty creative platforming challenges.
The bosses were really cool and were probably the most fair in the series. Actually Mega Man 11 might just be the most accessible game in the franchise. Sure it has some cheap moments, but it is the most forgiving and offers you the Double-Gear System which makes the game a lot easier. The soundtrack is banger like always. There are alot of games with better soundtracks than Mega Man, but the Mega Man series continues to have some catchy tracks. The game has a ton of replay value, as the eight Robot Masters can be approached in any order which means future playthroughs can be different. There are even loads of modes to unlock after you beat the game, giving you loads of things to do. Mega Man 11 is so awesome!
While it’s not a perfect video game and it’s not for everyone, I can definitely confirm that I had a good time with it. It mimics the old school design of back then and reminds us what games should be. Challenging and fun. Engage the player and make sure they get back up after every fall for more. It’s why I adore games like Hollow Knight, Bloodborne, and the old school inspired platformer Shovel Knight. It’s because they don’t drag you by the hand, they want you to earn the experience. My only downside with Mega Man 11 is that the game is relatively short. It only lasts about three hours long, two if you're a veteran player like me. Yet the game was made to be played over and over again and it doesn't overstay its welcome. Overall, Mega Man 11 is great and is a good starting point for anyone wanting to get into the series. Great job Capcom, Mega Man is back! Just gonna cross my fingers and hope nothing goes wrong. That’s why I give Mega Man 11 a 9/10 for excellence at best.
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