Almost equal parts improvement and regression when compared to Mega Man 9. It feels better to control and the levels are less rotten with spikes. Deaths feel more earned, which was probably my biggest issue with 9. At the same time, the game just doesn't leave much of a lasting impact. Mega Man 9's robot masters are all pretty memorable, and their weapons generally feel pretty good to use. If you asked me to name any of the bosses or weapons in this game I'm pretty sure I'd just stammer a bunch of nonsense like I'm having a stroke.

But by the end of the day, it's more 8-bit Mega Man, and I like those. Even the ones that aren't that good. I really wish they took one more shot at these instead of releasing 11 the way they did. I think 10 and 9 are both more pleasing to look at by a mile. Pushing more in this direction but experimenting with the gameplay limitations of 8-bit Mega Man and pushing beyond them would've been interesting, but I think reception to 10 was more lukewarm than Capcom was expecting. Couple this with... other things, and well, no more 8-bit Mega Mans. Bummer.

In the end, I think Mega Man 10 is a perfectly fine game that falls shy of being the swan song the 8-bit games deserved. Not the best in the series but not the worst either. It's inoffensive and worth a casual play if you can find it for cheap.

I started to get really frustrated with this game at first because I chose to play as Blues. Once I started getting enough screws to buy useful items from the shop and beat my first Robot Master, I had a much better time getting through the rest of the game. It's fun! But I think I played for 2 hours before I made any meaningful progress, resetting my playthrough at least twice because I wanted to see if playing as Rock would feel better, before I decided to go back to playing as Blues.

Rock feels EXTREMELY limited compared to Blues. In a similar way to how it feels like a lose:lose situation playing as Forte and Rock in RM&F, Blues gets better tools at the expense of taking double damage and double knockback, and vice versa for Rock. It feels rewarding dodging enemies and their attacks efficiently by forcing yourself to learn patterns rather than just boosting through everything, but I wish that double damage was just a Hard mode option rather than locking the Charge Shot and Slide behind the Hard mode character.

Blues taking double damage was a fair tradeoff in 9 because he was DLC. You were sticking new, powerful mechanics into a game not designed for it, so the tradeoff is that they expect you to be a master at the game if you want to abuse these mechanics. But why not just design this new game around the Charge Shot and Slide? Let Rock use them, and give Blues something else aside from his Shield move to differentiate him. I was thinking it'd be cool if they implemented Break Man as a "glass cannon" option into a playable iteration of Blues. You go Break Man to deal twice as much damage, while also receiving twice as much. Though considering that 10 doesn't dare risk or innovate much in the same way 9 didn't, I feel like that would be far too complicated an idea to put in this game.

My friend suggested I should try playing the Legacy Collection version with Extra Armor enabled. That way, Blues' double damage quirk cancels out and you only take as much damage as Rock. At this point, I've made too much progress to start over a fourth time, but I just wanted to include that in my review in case anyone happens to feel the same way as I do.

It's still unnecessarily antiquated and ignores all the progress that happened from Mega Man 5 to Mega Man 8, but at least it's a much less unfair game and also does have functional menus, L-R function for weapons, and overall better flow than MM9. It also doesn't have the unnecessarily slow shop like in 9. That said, these two games were overall a disaster for Mega Man's natural evolution, but I would be much more forgiving with 10 if it had come out after 4.

Releasing it after 8 is like trying to use candles instead of light bulbs. Looking at it this way, it almost seems like a miracle that 11 turned out as good as it did.

Still hate the idea of Mega Man being an NES game in 2010 instead of evolving, but this is a lot better than MM9. First off, the insane amount of bullshittery has been toned down significantly. Obvious "gotcha"-moments are few and far between instead of littered throughout every stage. Additionally, the level- and boss concepts of MM10 are creative and well-executed. Sheep Man, for example, is a lot more interesting as a typical electricity themed robot master than, i don't know, a fucking plug. Unfortunately, instead of being frustrating and unfair like MM9, 10 is just kinda...not fun? In every one of my play sessions I remember at least one moment where I thought to myself: "Damn...I wish I was doing literally anything else.", and I'm not exactly sure why. It might have something to do with the fact that I already beat seven other Mega Man games that play very similar to this. It might also be the fact that I can't charge or slide, both mechanics that served only to make prior games more fun and are still missing here. What I do know is that in the end, Mega Man 10 is juuuust short of being enjoyable, but doesn't quite get there.

The Best One.

Difficulty on normal feels just about right, though most of the robot masters go down too easy when you're using their weakness, something that is admittedly prevalent through most of the series. 10 relies far less on ambush traps. It's very much still "Nintendo Hard" but I can't think of a single situation where something felt cheap. Mean, perhaps, but not cheap. Protoman is playable from the start which is great, though have fun taking double damage if you want to be the cool guy.

The weapons are mediocre, but frankly, if it were up to me I'd probably just remove weapons as a concept from this entire series, so I couldn't care less. The same flaw did not dampen my appreciation for 5, and I don't count it against 10 either.

To be honest with you, I knew within the first minute that I was going to like 10 more than 9 just because you can save from the level select screen. The levels have meaningfully branching paths in them! Bass is really fun to play as! They don't make you fight three Wily forms in a row without any sort of checkpoint! Try to catch me giving a shit that there's some unoriginality in the weapons that I don't like using anyway.

While "Mega Man 10" improves on "Mega Man 9" in almost every aspect, we ponder why Capcom chose to reduce its mascot into an itch.io fan game for release on the virtual consoles of its time.
While the game was enjoyable, we can't help but cringe at its attempt to replicate faux 8-bit to cash in on our collective nostalgia. Agreeably, the game used a 4:3 aspect ratio and can be played on CRT for an amateurish illusion of "old-school", yet only at 480i, bummer.

Luckily, the game's excessive amount of features, such as having 3 playable characters, 3 special stages featuring the Mega Man Killers, and its unique "Endless Stage" allows it to stand above some of its NES peers but remains a parody perverted by a long-gone era. To give due credit, both have what we would call the best Mega Man soundtracks of all time.

"Mega Man 10" had the most disappointing set of weapons, with the exception of "Triple Blade", so use that.
Comparatively, "Mega Man 9" had quite a good array of weapons,
including the overly powerful "Black Hole Bomb"

The tenth time around, it’s still more of Mega Man, rather than more from Mega Man. I like Mega Man, so that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

If Mega Man 9 was a cautious return to form, then Mega Man 10 is a comfortable product made to capitalize on the positive reception to its careful predecessor. It’s a slightly more enjoyable time, despite including the hang ups I had for the previous one.

There’s less annoying mini bosses eating your attempts on your way to each Robot Master. The new Bolt economy lets the shop be useful earlier on. Bosses have shorter i-frame duration, making Mega Man’s lack of a charge shot not seem so bad.

They still coulda given my man Mega Man that slide and charged shot though. Proto Man coulda been the Hard Mode.

They also coulda given us a real movement-enhancing weapon like the Mega Ball or even the Concrete Shot but all we got is the wall-climbing Wheel Cutter. Its usefulness isn’t in as nearly as many instances as the Concrete Shot or god forbid the Mega Ball.

The Bass DLC is a fun addition that rounds out the character variety, but I feel like his dash could have just been a separate button instead of the down+jump combo we’ve been using for the slide for years now. Bass moves too fast for it to be comfortable to do it with that combo input. Classic Mega Man by and large completely ignores any steps forward that the X series took, but this is one time they should have paid attention to it. Just give Bass a dash button.

I have beaten Mega Man 10 twice and it’s pretty alright. It’s tricky at times, and I would have liked a more unique presentation, but it’s a fun enough experience that Mega Man Enjoyers can snack on.

I like that you can finally swap weapons with the shoulder buttons again : )

Unlike MM9, this game has an easy mode, which means I can actually play it.

But really, everything that I liked in 9 is back in this game, with great levels, really fun weapons, and some nice spritework and music. And on top of that, a lot of the level design, plus the aforementioned easy mode, make it more palatable for a filthy casual Zoomer like me. It does suck that there was on-disk DLC in the original release, but I played the Legacy Collection which includes all the DLC anyway so none of that really matters to me.

Pros: Still classic NES-like MM experience. You can play Promo Man AND Bass (yay?)

Cons: Felt VERY rushed/undercooked/cash in compared to 9, which actually felt like a labor of love. This isn't a BAD game, but it pales in comparison to 9. Pretty much everything, the level designs, the bosses, the powers, the music, all feel underwhelming by comparison. 9 felt at least moderately inspired. 10 just felt like a "by the numbers" cash in, because 9 did well.

I still enjoyed playing it, for the most part. I DO love classic MM (outside of 7 and 8). But it's one of my least favorites.