Mega man 10: Played, Beaten Mega Man's side, will do Protoman in a bit...which I know is the same thing, just different character, but hush!
Anyway, quick run down cause, well, its Mega Man, you know the basics!
-Robot Masters are a little on the easy side barring one or two exceptions. They aren't laughable jokes, mind, but felt they were easier to figure out and get a hang on than the previous game. To give you an idea? I bustered all the Robot Masters with no E Tanks (though I had to try Solar Man at least like 6 times!) this playthrough already. Mind you, I nailed them with weaknesses on the Boss Rush (Mega Man? A BOSS RUSH!? OMG SPOILARS!!), but that was partially cause I was in a hurry (Mandy wanted on), and bustering Boss Rushes can get frustrating.
-Stage design is still cool stuff; its not quite MM9 level, but that's asking for a lot, so I'm pleased with what we did get, as there's still creativity and generally well handled. One stage I can say I openly did not like was Wily Stage 2; just filled with annoying death traps, and its kind of bland, with 2 Mini Bosses, etc. Its not the worst stage ever, but I still wasn't fond of it.
-Wily Stage 1 is made of infinite win. I'm not gonna spoil why, but if you get there, you'll figure out pretty quickly.
-The Teleporting Wily ship (...come on, they've used this since Mega Man 4, and have failed to not bring it back, YOU KNEW IT WAS GOING TO BE THERE) was cool for a number of reasons. First off, there was an obvious MM2 nod (actually, a few but lets not get into that) in the way it was presented. Secondly, an obvious MM3 nod as well. Lastly, THEY DID SOMETHING ORIGINAL with it, rather than the usual "He teleports, DODGE HIS MOVE AND ATTACK HIM WHEN HE APPEAR!" thing (they did, at least, try to come up with creative attacks in previous games, but here, it was the same spirit with a unique twist that made the fight cool.)
-Addition of being able to select the Shop between game overs without going to the Boss Select Screen was a nice convenience, on that note
-Weapons...are hard to judge. They feel almost entirely niche based, though I didn't use them a lot. They felt closer to, say, MMX4/8 style Weapons which were more Compliments to the Buster than stand alone weapons. Though, again, I didn't play around with them a lot, so take this with a grain of salt.
--I will grant that the Water Shield was cool stuff. A nice In-Between of the ludicrous shit like Jewel Barrier and the meh stuff like Plant Shield. Its like Junk Shield, only a bit easier to work with and better at stopping projectiles, etc (also has the luxury of being in a better game <.<)
-Plot is back to the old Mega Man Formula! "Wily isn't responsible for the shit going on...OH WAIT YES HE IS ACT SHOCKED!!!" At least MM9 tried something creative, MM10 was basically just rehashing MM3's plot...then again, MEGA MAN PLOT!!!!
-Ending is a bit disappointing. No, I don't expect an EPIC ENDING, but Mega Man 9's was just really cute in what they did, and would have liked to see something similar.
-Music is...eh, disappointing, I guess. Its not bad, but the themes aren't memorable, which is subpar for a Mega Man game. TO ITS CREDIT, the Victory Theme, and the Boss Intro Theme, while the classic songs, have their own redone 8 Bit style in MM10, rather than just ripping directly from MM2 like MM9 did, so it was a nice touch. To branch from that, the "Get Weapon!" song was a lot better than what MM9 used too (using MM2's Weapon Get Theme? Seriously, what were they thinking!?!?)
Overall? A decent enough entry. Its not as good as MM9 if you ask me, which was absolutely brilliant, but its a decent enough follow up; asking it to be as good as MM9 is really a tall order if you ask me, so I'm content with what we got. A new entry to Mega Man series that's fairly good, that's really all I ask for, and that's what MM10 is, to say the least.
Its similar to DMC4 in that regard, where a similar "Its no DMC3, but its still pretty darn good on its own merits" thing kicked in.
