Mega Man 11

Mega Man 11
Rock em, sock em
Review
After an eight year absence, I am happy to report that Mega Man 11 succeeds, but there are a few caveats. Let's be honest: it wouldn't take much for Mega Man 11 to not succeed in the eyes of the fans when you are springboarding off 2003's lacklustre, dead-in-it's tracks Mega Man X7 (which tried to transition the series into 3D with disastrous results), which only ended up taking the franchise to new levels of low that nearly saw the blue bomber tumble into notoriety with fans himself. The follow-up, Mega Man X8, didn't do much to elevate the franchise out of the muck within which it had found itself, with X8 never rising above mediocre. Many of us fans thought Mega Man was on his way to the retirement village to be sunsetted by Capcom after the throwback Mega Man 10 was released in 2010 feeling like a cash-in. The years long radio silence after that only further made it seem like Capcom had no clear path forward for the blue bomber and fans started to wonder whether the franchise was finally on life support.
I will admit, as a huge fan of the late eighties originals of which Mega Man 2 is the high point, the return announcement in 2017 did catch me off guard. With creator Keiji Inafune now having moved on from Capcom, how could Capcom ever do without Inafune guiding the series back to life? Although we would soon all learn that Inafune's best days were probably behind him too after Mighty No. 9 failed to emerge successfully from under the shackles of the Mega Man franchise, ending up an inferior product in almost every conceivable way from from mascot, to robot bosses, to world, and finally extended to the villain. The next question was with Inafune gone, could Capcom ever make the blue bomber relevant again?
Sadly, no as it seems like the days of Mega Man's relevance have long passed and are now assigned to history for keeping. When we first met him in 1987, platformers were the rock star's of gaming. They sold systems by virtue of the mascot alone  Now you would be lucky to find a big publisher willing to fund one outside of Nintendo. While the genre did have a bit of a resurgence in the early noughties when they went 3D and became gobbledegook collectathons, its mostly fallen to indie studios to keep the genre alive and quite frankly they have been doing a sterling job. Just look at some of the crazy and wonderful things with the genre they have been doing (Super Meat Boy and Celeste are classic examples of this).
In many ways it kind of feels like the game succeeds by virtue of simply existing, especially for us fans starved of his presence but Capcom does a fairly good job of taking the series and modernising some of its mechanics but that is where it stops because the rest of the formula remains untouched from the original game - a blueprint that has been subsequently adhered to rigidly throughout the long running series. This legacy design that the series keeps on insisting including is now starting to feel more than a little archaic, ensuring there are very little to no surprises with each new release. It's at the point now where its become the franchises Achilles heel. You won't find any platforming moments of brilliance here, like the kinds of stuff on display in Celeste or Hollow Knight. It plays it very safe and is clearly made for long standing fans of the series, as if Capcom knew it was treading on thin ice with them.
If you were never much of a fan of the series, then Mega Man 11 is going to do little, if anything, to turn that around. Another thing I must mention is that it is also insanely hard, and that is probably going to drive a lot of people away. I had to drop it from normal difficulty (which is advised for mainstays of the series which I consider myself) to easy mode and I still struggled like mad to make headway with it. The first three Mega Man games are considered to be amongst the hardest games ever created, yet I could clear Mega Man 1/2 and Mega Man 3 in a single sitting back in the day while typing text messages to my dentist and doing tax calculations for my tax return. Yet here I couldn't even get through a single level of repeated trying in the five or so hours I banged my head against the normal difficulty before resigning myself to the fact that I must now officially be an old fart who has to play on baby settings.
As a fan I appreciate that Capcom has brought Mega Man back from the dead and I appreciate the graphical update to modern HD graphics. Mega Man has never looked more clearer although I would love to see the series return back to its pixel roots, BUT when I say pixel, I am speaking along the lines of the gorgeous indie platform Kings and Queens of our current era (Celeste, Blasphemous or even better yet Children of Morta which has these incredibly highly detailed pixel counts that look utterly gorgeous) and not the 8-bit revival of Mega Man 10. 
The reality here is that Mega Man 11 is not the return to form sequel many would have you believe. It's enjoyable but it's also not enjoyable to play in equal measure and is not one of his better adventures. I also found the eight Dr. Wily robots you need to defeat a little underwhelming from a mechanics and design standpoint. If Capcom is to continue Mega Man's adventures into the future, then I certainly hope they look into the history of the most celebrated and beloved platformers of our modern era that have all, almost exclusively, sprung from the indie scene because that is where Mega Man's true innovation and salvation lies. There is no point in trying to revive his best days. Let history keep record of those.
One word or phrase to sum up the experience
For the fans
Performance/Bug related incidents
None, should run easily on most hardware as the game is not demanding on CPU or GPU.
Similar to games
Mega Man 2, Celeste, Might No. 9
Rating ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

The best entry in the MM franchise in decades. This is what a modern Mega Man should look/feel/play like.

Mega Man 11
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After defeating 2 bosses. I can say this is Mega Man.
its the sequel we waited years for. And its fantastic.
Mega Man is back, and i hope he is here to stay again.
To let us rage and make dumb mistakes or cheer when we finish the level.
There are challenges, leaderboards. All the good stuff.
If you like the Mega Man series then dont wait to get this.
Its a fantastic new entry.
Enjoy the game !

Mega Man 11 is an amazing love letter to the Classic series' past.
I highly recommend that you play all 11 of the previous mainline games before this one (including Mega Man and Bass) because there are so many old mechanics and enemies that return. It preserves the same stage progression, weapon system and high-challenge platforming that the series is known for. Stages will feel long at first compared to earlier entries, but it eventually makes sense and each stage is very rewarding. Mega Man 11 has some of the best and most useful special weapons in the entire Classic series, and I found myself using them all constantly instead of just the Mega Buster.
The only thing it doesn't preserve is all of the Classic series side characters. Proto Man, Bass, Treble, Reggae and Tango are all absent here. Capcom wanted to introduce this series to a new audience after so many years without a sequel, so they kept the character list limited to the Dr. Light family. I honestly applaud them for at least titling the game Mega Man 11 instead of ditching the numbering sytem entirely.
Whether or not we see another 8+ year gap in between this game and Mega Man 12 remains to be seen. This game sold well for Mega Man standards and is currently the third best selling game in the entire series, including spin-offs. What we do know is that this game is a perfect foundation for another modern Mega Man game, and I would love to see one just like this. I know that the industry has changed and pumping out sequels that are very similar to each other wouldn't work anymore. Mega Man 11 through Mega Man 16 in the same vein as Mega Man 1 through 6, all being based on the same foundation with incredibly similar structure, is never going to happen. And that honestly makes me sad. The Double Gear System mechanic in this game could easily be replaced by a similar gimmick in Mega Man 12 and that would make the game different enough for me to purchase it. My favorite part about these games is the robot masters and the Wily Castle bosses. These characters give each of the Classic Mega Man games it's identity. Even though they all follow that same structure, they all feel different to me because of the characters and boss characters.
Capcom doesn't have to reinvent the wheel for Mega Man 12. This game is proof of that. Let's hope they don't turn it into a gacha game for your phone like they did with Mega Man X.

Easily my favorite entry in the franchise and to me it's the best one so far and the most fair in terms of challenge

i'm just in love

This review isn't boosted by the hype related to Mega Man's comeback.
I usually review games and focus more on the price point, which is in our case 30€, so what do we get for that ? :
A story mode containing the classic line of going through 8 bosses and then a wily castle, new gameplay mechanics, the ability to switch between english and japanese VA, new visuals and soundtracks which I really loved and digged, and finally an extra mode that contains a gallery and a challenge mode filled with 5 (blind) hours of content it's sad that the story feels a bit independent from the past games, or the future canon games, as it references pretty much nothing from these.
For a first blind playthrough, it took me 7 hours to finish the game, it should take you less or more, but the level design is super that it made me love every single stage, the soundtracks are matching, the difficulty from the old games does carry over : you still get these hard enemy placements and frustrating platforming which does add to the beauty of the game, i would say the game only got modernized aesthetically which is a big plus in my book, speaking of modernized, you're not forced into this situation as you can pick one of the offered difficulty modes, in contrast to how other games from other franchises made their comebacks with a setting that makes casuals feel welcomed but also forces it so old players would hate it.
I liked how they made the weapons useful for various situations, unlike the weapons in some of the old games. still, on a first playthrough i had the feeling that this game also suffered from the same weapons balance problem that came from Mega Man 8, where every or most of the weapons deal some crazy damage that makes the platforming even easier, i can't confirm this as i don't have a source.
the new gameplay mechanic is not that gimmicky in my opinion and i barely used it, with power gear i could speedrun bosses swiftly, the speed gear however is intended to be used for platforming, story wise it should make you move faster, right ? well it actually doesn't, as by default and unless upgraded, the speed gear makes everything slow, including you. I liked however how they made them an element that cannot be abused much and gave them a cooldown, but still, i could just toggle the power gear off and on everytime i wanted to shoot since most of the time i just kept dodging so i would put this as a grey opinion.
The Challenge mode, as said before, is filled with about 5 hours of content, as you progress in the story mode, you will also gain the special weapons and be able to use them in the challenge mode, this makes almost 70% of the challenges easy to go through, although i haven't unlocked everything, i really wished they added a second version of the challenges where you're locked out of the weapons, especially against the bosses. Still, it's a fun mode.
Design-wise this game is far superior than the rest of the franchise when it comes to the additions of quality of life options, such as the ability of loading your save file in the middle of a progress, which is super useful if you are going for a no death run achievement, and the new ability to select special weapons from the right stick is super RAD!
The soundtrack is memorable, for the most part. one thing i hated is that the wily castle had only one soundtrack as i got used to playing the level from the old games with a different soundtrack in each 1 or 2 levels.
Finally, do i recommend this game ? absolutely yes to everyone, but the full price doesn't justify the amount of content that you get. i bought it for the sale price so i'm okay with it. 10/10