Mega Man 11: E-Tanks

So that's happening. This, Bubsy and Metroid are three things I did not expect to make any sort of comeback. I figured the people who own each of those properties were done(wait, who evens owns Bubsy?). But here we are.

I'm not sold on the look just yet. I think I just don't like 2D games done with 3D graphics. A lot of visual clarity and detail is lost when you move away from pixel art but still keep everything so zoomed out.

This is also something that bothered me about Mighty No. 9. Up close, I don't mind the character designs, but most of the action is viewed far away. The only way I can think of to reconcile this would be to use a super-deformed art-style with giant heads and expressive faces. This is why I kind of wish Mega Man Powered Up on the PSP had sold a few more copies.

Hopefully this turns out better than Mighty No. 9. I don't want to pile on it like the entire rest of the internet has, but that was not a pleasant experience. Hell, 90% of what makes it so frustrating and unrewarding is how they handled their... I don't know what to call them. "Healing items"? "Potions"?

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Basically, in a lot of Mega Man games there are items that you can use to restore your health. The catch is they might be rare, finite or expensive to replace. MN9 made it so that if you die(which can happen instantaneously), you lose everything.


So you're fighting a tough boss. You die. You spawn back in the room right before them. A player who's having trouble at this part would likely need that E-Tank thing to help them out. But because they died, they no longer have access to it. For no good reason.


The only way to get that item in the first place is to kill a bunch of enemies in the stage. But they don't respawn after you die. You can't buy this item from an in-game shop, or find them at specific, hidden locations in the levels.

Meanwhile, if you became so good at this game that you never die, you'll still have one of these "Axcel Recovers" that you'll never need.


It's a system that punishes everyone it's supposed to protect, and is totally pointless for everyone else. This problem is worse than everything else in the game, including having to run headfirst into enemies to defeat them(in a game where contact hurts you).


Keiji, I get that a lot of MN9's problems were from biting off more than you could chew. But this problem was solved by the 16-bit era. You saw it get fixed. How do you break something that you fixed decades ago?


I don't know what Mega Man 11 will be like. I know there won't be any more lady robot masters like Splash Woman, a decision I'm still sore about. There's a gameplay reason: you get costumes from each boss now, and I guess Capcom doesn't want Mega Man to dress like a girl. Even though Mario and Link can both do that in their newest games, and people overwhelmingly loved that.

But I'll live with that if it's at least not a hot mess.

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~A.H.