Mega Man 11 (Switch)
It would be inaccurate to say a game series ever truly dies when any franchise can be revived unexpectedly some time in the future, but for quite a while it certainly seemed like Capcom had lost interest in Mega Man. Mega Man 10 was released back in 2010, and for years the series went dormant, Mega Man producer Keiji Inafune even leaving to make a similar game elsewhere. However, for the 30th anniversary of the series, Mega Man made his return, slipping right back into his comfortable run and gun platforming series as if no time had passed, although Mega Man 11 does attempt to elevate its gameplay outside of the basic structure it has followed since the first few titles.
Mega Man 11’s set up is immediately familiar though. The evil Dr. Wily has corrupted eight robots to do his bidding, twisting their allegiance away from the public good and setting them and his own dastardly robots out to ruin the places where these machines once worked peacefully alongside humans. Dr. Light sends his creation, a robot called Mega Man, out to stop them, but this time around Dr. Wily has implemented a recently remembered invention of his into the robots to give them an edge in battle. The Double Gear system gives robots the ability to power up their abilities or move at incredible speeds, meaning that not even Mega Man would be able to handle them… unless he uses the Double Gear system as well. With the new device added to his systems, Mega Man sets out to take down the eight Robot Masters as well as Dr. Wily himself. The plot here isn’t really too ambitious, and the tone of it is quite lighthearted as well, so a focus on fun seems to be the angle of Mega Man 11, something that is also expressed by its smooth and cartoony 3D visuals and the game offering a few different difficulty levels so new players can easily experience this iteration of a traditionally difficult series.
Mega Man’s got quite the skillset to help him run and shoot through the levels of Mega Man 11. At his most basic he has his Mega Buster, a gun that can shoot small pellets as well as a charge shot, but he also comes with Rush Coil, an easy access springboard that helps him make high jumps. Most level designs only really ask the player to ever use their basic jumps and default weapon, but enhancements can make them easier or open up new ways to interact with the design, such as more interesting starting skill: the new Double Gear mechanic. Through the Double Gear system, the player can enhance one of two abilities for a set period of time. Speed is certainly the more useful of the two and the one more heavily embraced in the game’s design. Time will slow down while the Speed Gear is active, and many enemy and level designs account for this mechanic. Enemies with small windows of vulnerability or incredibly quick attacks can be slowed down and easily handled, and level hazards will pressure the player to act quickly… or turn on their gear and handle it at a more manageable pace. Speed Gear is so incredibly useful just in general, allowing the player to get the lay of an area or an edge in even the simplest robot encounters, allowing it to slips in incredibly naturally as a new and valuable skill with its need to cool down after use keeping it from being overpowered. Overuse of it will overheat the skill and make it unable to be used for an unexpectedly long time, the game maybe punishing the player a little too hard for embracing this mechanic that it also actively encourages frequent use of. Power Gear is the second of the Double Gears and a bit more situational than Speed. One issue with it is it heats up the Double Gear all the same, meaning you have to choose between them and Speed often wins that contest, but Power Gear does find its legs once you start acquiring new weapons. The new weapons all have a second, more powerful mode unlocked with the Power Gear, and these modes are incredibly useful in miniboss and boss battles. In fact, some minibosses can be destroyed before they’ve really had the time to get going if you use Power Gear with the right weapon, so for the more difficult battles, it does at least earn its presence somewhat.
Speaking of the new weapons, Mega Man’s trademark ability of taking the powers of robots he defeat is of course still present and rather well done this time around. Each of the eight Robot Masters hold a special weapon with a unique trait and almost all of them having something over the default buster to justify their use. The Block Dropper has bricks fall in from above, making it good for attacking enemies ahead that are higher up than you. Tundra Storm makes a cold cyclone hit any enemies above or below you. Acid Barrier will protect you from incoming shots, and the Bounce Ball will fill the screen with so many damaging balls that it’s great for clearing an area filled with Dr. Wily’s robots. Chain Blast is sort of the odd one out of the group. Most of the abilities are about covering areas a straight shot won’t hit or giving Mega Man some special ability like Pile Driver being a powerful dash great for clearing gaps, but Chain Blast sends little sticky bombs forward to latch onto enemies for a late detonation. Most of the other skills work well because levels are designed with plenty of spots where it’s smart to utilize them, but Chain Blast never really finds its time to shine outside of the weakness system. Regular enemies and bosses alike have weaknesses to certain weapons, some of them easy to read like a fire robot being weak to the ice skill and others requiring some experimentation to suss out. While your new weapons run on an energy system that depletes with use, most of them won’t exhaust their reserves too quickly, allowing you to see what a Robot Master’s weakness is so you can defeat them more quickly and without worrying about wasting your energy while trying to find their Achilles’ heel. Accessing the weapons is a breeze as well, with Mega Man 11 giving the player a few options for how they wish to switch between them. You can pause to switch them out for each other if you need to do so calmly, but you can also cycle through them in the heat of battle with ZR and ZL or use the right control stick to quickly snap it to any of your weapons on a small wheel, pressing it in to switch back to the Mega Buster. If you want to swap between weapons, you have more than enough options to pull it off however you like.
Being free to experiment with them does not mean you’ll never run out of weapon energy though, especially if you settle into using them a lot. However, the game does offer a store where you can purchase upgrades and items with bolts you find in levels by defeating enemies or accessing certain areas. This can prove to be incredibly helpful in easing some of the difficulty. Mega Man has quite a bit of health, but each stage he tackles with only a set amount of lives, needing to restart if he loses them all. To make sure he sticks around though, you can buy extra lives, health refills you can use in the field, and protection from instant death spikes and drops down bottomless pits. The bolts also can be used to purchase some quality of life upgrades, such as a device that will put any energy collected from defeated enemies into a weapon that needs it rather than wasting it on a full weapon that’s currently equipped. If you don’t want to slip on ice or want to move more quickly with your Speed Gear, the store gradually gets more gizmos you can purchase, and after a Game Over in a level, you can access the store quickly to build up your reserves for another attempt. Losing all your lives is a lot less disheartening when you can go in the shop and come back prepared for the next go-around.
The levels in Mega Man 11 are straight shots that can be a bit long, but they do have some pretty distinct identities. Torch Man’s campsite will go from dark to scorching hot as the burning forest rages behind you, Impact Man’s level is teeming with dangerous digging equipment, and Bounce Man’s amusement park is all about bouncing off balls to get around. Every Robot Master’s stage has something relating to their gimmick, such as the chemical filled facility Acid Man resides in or Tundra Man’s icy level, but not all of them are executed expertly. Bounce Man’s level can slow down quite a bit as you try to set up the proper bounces and Impact Man’s stage can boil down to areas where you constantly slip into Speed Gear to avoid increasingly familiar attacks. Most of the designs are interesting and challenging though, which can be said about the more important battles as well. Regular enemies are positioned as nuisances you need to blast to get past, but the bigger baddies like the minibosses have patterns to figure out if you don’t want to use your Power Gear. The Power Gear does unfortunately break open these fights a bit though, the same able to be said for the Robot Master fights a bit when it comes to the weapon weaknesses. You will have to fight at least one of them without their weakness though, and all of them have a few tricks to try and keep them from being obliterated out the gate. Each Robot Master will use one of the gears in their fight, usually once they’ve hit low health. For some like Block Man, this changes the fight immensely as he becomes a giant golem with Power Gear, and for guys like Fuse Man, he’ll use Speed Gear regularly to try and swiftly shock you unless you use your gear as well. Some of the late game bosses are bit more about slow and proper gear use than dynamic battles though, so the gear system does come with that small downside.
The main game of Mega Man 11 is a short but solid affair, but for players looking to get a little more out of it, there are is a challenge mode that can add a bit of longevity to the experience. Admittedly, most of these challenges are lightly altered forms of the levels and fights you face in the regular game, making them a bit less appealing than the few wholly unique challenges the game offers. There are two little minigames involving special enemy types, but the real highlight here is Dr. Light’s Trial Challenges, a sequence of special rooms that aim to really test the player’s skill with all the extra lives and special devices taken away save the gears and special weapons. It’s not a huge addition to the game, but it’s a decent enough supplement for someone interested in playing with the Double Gear system a bit more.
THE VERDICT: Mega Man 11 only makes some minor changes to the series formula, but they are felt quite strongly. The Double Gear system may skew towards Speed, but the Speed Gear opens up a new layer of challenge from Mega Man’s enemies and levels, requiring careful use but also serving as a sort of difficulty management system for harder fights. Sometimes the game leans a little hard into its use, but it doesn’t forget to challenge the player’s platforming skill and ability to fight smart. Almost all of the weapons Mega Man acquires can prove to be useful in regular play, and with some solidly designed stages to back them up, Mega Man 11 manages to keep shifting how you approach new obstacles and enemies while also giving you a generous store to avoid the frustrations of failure.
And so, I give Mega Man 11 for the Nintendo Switch…
A GREAT rating. Mega Man 11 brings back what people love about the series while adding in a new idea to give it a distinct identity, leading to a well rounded new entry in a series that went missing for a bit too long. Some of its simpler but less well-executed ideas like Bounce Man’s bouncy stage and a few bosses in the later levels could have used more thought in their design, but for the most part, the Speed Gear adds a lot to the design of even the simplest enemies and stage hazards. Power Gear gets less time to shine because of having fewer obvious uses, but it does at least offer another element to experiment with. The smart design of the enemy weapons and the helpfulness of the store are two big boons to the gameplay though, allowing even the longer levels to not lose their energy because you won’t have to run through them too many times due to how much you can have working in your favor.
Mega Man 11 isn’t just a revival of the series, but one that aims to clearly draw in new players, with many improvements made to allow players of various skill levels enjoy the Mega Man experience. There’s challenge present for those who want it and plenty of protection for those who need it, making it a great jumping on point as well as introducing a new mechanic to play with for series veterans. While Mega Man 11 could have been tightened up in some areas, it’s certainly a successful way to bring the Blue Bomber back after an unfortunately long absence.