f13.net

Not as good as 2, about as good as 3, better than 4 or 5. The graphics are 8-bit Mega Man and on the Wii they look crisp even on a 40" HDTV - I stopped registering the 8-bitness after the first 5 minutes. The music is pleasant but so far I've yet to encounter a tune that compares to 2 or 3. The bosses are not as lame as the later 8-bit games that introduced luminaries such as Mop Man and Lint Man.

This is a hard game and flirts with borderline cheap but never crosses the line. Every level has one or two hard parts with the rest being no big deal, and levels are very short once you can get through them without dying repeatedly. Being sent back to the start or midpoint isn't bad when it's a 30 second trek back and it cultivates a strong "I'll try just one more time" feeling. And you can always grind for items to make your life easier if you fail at Mega Man games. I played for about 2 hours, beat 2 of the starting 8 and have a good handle on the 3rd after discovering his weakness to the lightning trident I earned beating the sexy songstress Splash Woman. (With the help of an energy tank - there goes my street cred)

If you think you'll like this game you will, and if you don't you won't. There is something to be said for a pure experience that strips away all the complexity, the blended animations and 3D positional sound and voiceovers and scripted events and lays the rules of the game out bare. You have a limited but precise array of moves to take on a limited and precise array of bad guys -- it's less like playing a modern event-game experience and more like playing a board game. No frills and gameplay centric.

Verdict: Buy it

My roommate got this and I watched him play it for about an hour. He said (and I agree) that the removal of the slide is what really makes this game tougher than normal. If the slide was there, the game would be significantly easier.

That said, he had a blast.

Mega Man 2 didn't have the slide and it's widely considered the best one. Hence the reason this one doesn't have it. If they're gonna play on nostalgia, they need to do it right. Now, can you take a second controller and hold down the SE diagonal and sploit?

I was one of the few who preferred 3 I guess. :/

I played the demo and discovered that old school gaming skills left me long ago. I died repeatedly less than 3 screens into Concrete Man's stage.

That's because you played too much world of fucking warcraft.

I died on the first hole in Concrete Man's stage. I found it pretty funny.