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 : )

Reviewed on Mar 19, 2024


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