#PLAY MEGA MAN 9 ONLINE SERIES#

It shed all the insecurity of previous eras and owned its retro identity, and it was a pretty darn good game to boot.īy contrast, Mega Man 11 feels like its intent on looking forward rather than backward.

#PLAY MEGA MAN 9 ONLINE SERIES#

Inti Creates' opus was a celebration that successfully brought the series back to its roots. Mega RefreshĪnyway, this all brings me back to my original point, which is that Mega Man 11 is the opposite of Mega Man 9. And that's exactly what Mega Man 11 sets out to do. The flipside of innovation is that it forces you out of your comfort zone. Absent a few new power-ups here or there, Mega Man has been largely the same since the early '90s, making it a comfort for retro enthusiasts. The truth is that evolution is painful and messy sometimes. There were times when the new abilities felt less helpful than mandatory, railroading me into a style of play that I didn't like to negotiate unbalanced levels.Īt least, that's what the 'It's different so I hate it' part of my brain is saying. Decades of playing Mega Man have honed my sense of timing, and Mega Man 11 unwinds that a bit. The hardest thing for me has been adjusting to the start-and-stop nature of the Speed Gear.

Fuse Man, as I mentioned earlier, will activate his Speed Gear and zap around the stage on a trail of lightning, which is best countered with a Speed Gear of your own. After taking a few hits, for instance, Block Man will activate his Power Gear and become absolutely enormous, forcing you to dodge a new set of attacks as he slams the ground and swipes debris at you. You still have to deftly dodge attacks, such as Block Man's rain of stone from above, but you also have to deal with multiple forms and super attacks. The difference is most apparent in the aforementioned boss battles. It's possible to get through Mega Man 11 without using gears at all, but well, it's very hard. Bulky enemies like a robot wielding a large hammer demand the Power Gear to be quickly dispatched. Accordingly, your best bet is to use the Speed Gear to slow time long enough to figure out where the pieces will end up.Īt other points, tricky platforming spots practically beg you to activate the Speed Gear to negotiate the tight jumping windows. In Block Man's stage, for instance, you'll fight a robot consisting of a stack of discs that break apart and lands in different patterns, affording you precious little time to dodge and find an opening. Outside of the boss battles, the levels are plainly, ahem, geared toward the new system. I'm honestly not sure how I feel about the art style-the backgrounds in particular feel a bit plain-but I won't deny that the effects when, say, Fuse Man activates his Speed Gear look cool. When you fight them, they activate their own gears, forcing you to adjust your strategy accordingly. Wily in his college days-yep, he's back-and dug up to 'overclock' his new line of robot masters, which includes Block Man and the newly-revealed Fuse Man. Levels in Mega Man 11 are clearly balanced around the Speed Gear. If you're damaged enough, you can combine them into one powerful attack, though you will subsequently be hampered by a lengthy cooldown and a slower shot rate.

Called the Speed Gear and Power Gear, it allows Mega Man to either get a short burst of powered shots or what amounts to bullet time. Indeed, it's apparent that Mega Man 11 is out to reinvent the 30-year-old formula that has served the series so well.Ĭentral to this new approach is the fresh system that was hinted at in the announcement trailer, and is now being shown for the first time. Where Mega Man 9 hews as closely as possible to the original mechanics, Mega Man 11 dramatically expands them. Where Mega Man 9 deliberately uses 8-bit sprites, Mega Man 11 has a new cel-shaded look. Mega Man 11, which is billed in part as a celebration of the franchise's 30th anniversary, is basically the opposite of all that.

It successfully brought back the series to its roots, reawakening fond memories of Mega Man 2. It was a decade ago that Capcom shocked and delighted retro purisists with Mega Man 9-a brand new adventure in the 8-bit style.

Play mega man 9 online