I beat this game on Casual and then Normal (note: the difficulty names were changed in localization).
It’s a good Mega Man game.
The gears are a fun system to use.
The speed gear is fun to use, but never really necessary. In one sense, it feels like using the select glitch in MM1, giving you the ability to pump a lot of pellets into things in a short time. In another sense, it feels like an excuse for the game to throw in challenges with tighter timing windows and shorter tells, which I rather appreciate. As a result, I found myself using it less often in my second playthrough having gotten more used to those timings/tells.
In contrast, I found myself using the power gear much more in my second playthrough. It’s kind of cumbersome to use with the default Mega Buster, since it resets your charge and gives your charge shots some recoil (it’s still very dangerous in the right hands). With special weapons, however, it really shines. Every enemy and miniboss in the game has a weakness (or multiple). With the right weapon and the power gear, every miniboss can be killed in one to three hits. The special weapons in this game are already quite good, and the power gear just makes them monstrous.
The level design is pretty good, although the levels are pretty long. The checkpoints feel sparse in normal mode and almost comically dense in casual mode.
I’m fine with how the game looks, but I understand that I’m in the minority here.
The music generally feels like undercooked EDM. Most of the songs feel like they could be really good if only they had better mixing and instrumentation, but as it stands there are only a couple of standout songs. wordswordswords This paragraph is an excuse to post this remix:
Other notes:
- Every boss either uses the speed gear or power gear for the second phase of the fight. Block Man (the demo’s boss) is however the only boss with a transformation with an extra life bar.
- Every one of the 8 main stages has a miniboss. Thankfully, none of them are as tiresome as MM4’s minibosses, and all of them have weaknesses that trivialize them.
- Charge shots can cause shielded enemies to stagger and become vulnerable for a couple seconds.
- Don’t bother using the L/R buttons for switching weapons. Using the shortcut on the right stick is much more convenient, and you’ll wish that it had always been a thing.
- Sliding has a dedicated button you can map, if you so desire.
- Mega Man has an animation for exiting the slide like in Mega Man 8. Caveat emptor.
- Don’t quote me on this, but I’m pretty sure bosses have secondary weaknesses in this game. (Just speaking anecdotally. I haven’t seen a comprehensive damage chart yet.)
In conclusion, I’d say this is almost as good as Mega Man 9.
(Did I mention I spent the last month and a half plugging away at the previous 10 numbered games in anticipation? I have a lot more Mega Man takes I can offer if you’re interested.)