Mega Man 11 Review – Graduated old school

When Mega Man jumped onto the scene in 1987, it was like nothing else. Players could determine the order in which they took down all of Dr. Wily’s evil robot masters and then steal their powers. After 30 years, that formula no longer feels novel, but Mega Man 11 proves that the classics are classic for a reason. Capcom has given the Blue Bomber a new coat of paint and a few new tricks, but Mega Man’s core gameplay remains challenging and rewarding.

Among the things that never change is Dr. Wily’s mad desire for power. Once again, he’s kidnapped eight of Dr. Light’s robots and reprogrammed them for evil. Robot masters are a highlight in any Mega Man game, and that remains true here; every boss has a unique gimmick that sets them apart stylistically, but their cute design is betrayed by their fearsome skills in battle. Every time I went toe-to-toe with one of these killer machines, it felt like an epic throw down. My heart raced as Block Man transformed into a two-story monstrosity who threw car-sized bricks, and my palms sweated as Acid Man sent waves of toxic sludge my way. Paying attention to your enemies’ tells and mastering their attack patterns is half the fun, and taking each robot master down for the first time is an absolute thrill.

The creative design of each robot carries through in their stages. Bounce Man’s level is my favorite, with bounce pads that send you ping-ponging around. I also loved falling across several screens before landing on a massive trampoline that shot me back into the sky. Other stages present memorable moments too, like outrunning a massive forest fire and bounding over icy platforms in the middle of a snowstorm. I never knew what to expect from each level, and their themes never overstayed their welcome.

The special weapons and abilities you earn are instrumental in overcoming each level’s challenges. For example, Acid Man’s acid barrier saved my skin more than once, and Impact Man’s pile driver is a dash attack that is invaluable during certain platforming sequences. You can swap between all of these abilities using the right analog stick, which is incredibly slick and minimizes the time you spend in menus. By the end of the game, I felt like a powerhouse as I quickly cycled through my abilities, overcoming every challenge.  

Even with all of these new toys, Mega Man’s most powerful skill is available from the start. The gear system allows you to slow down time or amplify your gun for a short period. This is the biggest change to Mega Man’s core gameplay in over 30 years, but it’s a welcome addition. These new tools turned what could have been frustrating challenges into death-defying stunts. Nothing is more satisfying than using the slow-mo gear to bound through tricky obstacles, then sidling up to enemies to unload a few overpowered shots into their weak spots. Overusing the gear system makes Mega Man overheat, so balancing these powers takes skill – but that only ratchets up the tension as the action intensifies.

 

Mega Man’s new tricks are even more important because Capcom didn’t pull any punches in terms of difficulty, but old-school challenge feels like a fair fight thanks to precise controls. Four different difficulty modes allow everyone to find a comfortable playthrough, but I had the most fun on the normal setting. The shop system also lets you tune your experience. You get to keep all the bolts you earn when you die, and these are used to purchase extra lives, energy refills, and permanent upgrades like larger buster shots and better traction on ice. So even when I crashed and burned during a boss fight, I never felt like all was lost.

Mega Man 9 and 10 were both loving throwbacks to the franchise’s NES roots, but Mega Man 11 is the first entry in ages that offers something new without sacrificing everything fans love. The new gear system is a cool mechanic, and Capcom’s level design feels classic in all the right ways. Mega Man 11 taps into the series’ past, but also serves as a solid foundation for the Blue Bomber’s next 30 years.

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Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise Review – The Classic Manga Gets A Decent Adaptation

Originally published in the mid-‘80s, Fist of the North Star is a successful, post-apocalyptic manga that follows a martial artist named Kenshiro who has the power to make heads explode with a single punch. Lost Paradise tells a new story in the Fist of the North Star mythos but borrows known characters and story elements from the source material and structures the experience to play like the developer’s other game series, Yakuza. In some ways, this weird amalgamation of franchises works, but it’s not without shortcomings.

In a world ravaged by nuclear destruction, Kenshiro is a master of the Hokuto Shinken style of martial arts, which focuses on attacking pressure points on his opponents’ bodies. When done correctly, this causes them to explode in violent displays. This makes him a very powerful person in the apocalyptic world, but he has a heart of gold and cares only about finding his fiancée. He tries to avoid violence as best he can, but sometimes the only way to do that is to punch people so hard that their bodies burst like over-inflated balloons. In that strange paradox, Lost Paradise builds up an interesting, melodramatic, and sometimes humorous story. Kenshiro explores a large city full of quest-givers and minigames, beats up groups of thugs, and sometimes takes a car out into the nearby wasteland to find materials and explore other, smaller towns.

The narrative is built around soap-opera-style twists from severely serious characters who like to keep secrets. People you think are dead rarely are, and if they wear a mask, you better believe they’re hiding a revelation under there. The surprises drive engagement but are doled out at a snail’s pace. Walking from one story revelation to the next always involves getting sidetracked against your will, and a number of annoying missions force you to travel great distances to figure out what you need just so you can turn back around and get it.

Between (and during) the story and side missions, you drive around a large open wasteland and fight thousands of bad guys. The clumsy driving suffers from awkward physics, but as a way to diversify the mission structure, I appreciate its presence. You can upgrade your car with new materials, but they mostly offer underwhelmingly minor changes.

Creativity is not Kenshiro’s strong suit, and it shows in his fighting style. Plenty of unlockable combat upgrades are available, but few changed the way I approached combat. This makes health and power upgrades the most useful options. Though the upgrade system left me wanting more, I enjoyed the fighting despite the occasional difficulty spikes and repetition.

 

Fist of the North Star is an old property, and that age is reflected in how the world of Lost Paradise is rendered. The main female characters are underdressed, and the male characters are walking muscle towers who deliver one-liners like, “Villains don’t need graves.” Plus, the violence is glorified in a way that would make the original Mortal Kombat proud. Yes, this is faithful to the original manga, but that didn’t keep me from feeling embarrassed about playing it in front of others.

The melodrama of the main story is fun, but Lost Paradise shines brightest when it doesn’t take itself seriously. You can tackle minigames like one on a baseball field where thugs on motorcycles drive toward you and you knock them back with a giant piece of rebar. Another has you donning a lab coat and playing a rhythm game where you beat up bad guys trying to steal medicine from a clinic. These minigames and side missions (like one where you have to track down the “shoulder pad killer”) are a highlight, and it is always a treat to see the super serious Kenshiro participate in some bizarre frivolity.

The narrative moves slowly and side missions eagerly pull you away from the main story whether you want them to or not, but I was engaged throughout. I wanted to see what would happen next and was happy to beat up bad guys in order to do so. Shortcomings in the pacing and the lack of diversity in the combat pull down the experience, but I liked the time I spent with Kenshiro. The Fist of the North Star franchise feels dated in many ways, but you would be hard-pressed to find a better representation of its strange and violent world in a video game.

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Assassin's Creed Odyssey Review – Fighting For Glory

Many mythological traditions involve some form of demigod, an exceptional individual born from the union of a human and a deity. These heroes accomplish astounding things thanks to their divine heritage, but their mortal sides keep them from joining the ranks of true gods. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey exists in the same place between two realms. With vast improvements to combat and progression, no other Assassin’s Creed had made players feel this capable and powerful. However, Odyssey struggles to find appropriate ways to exercise that power, presenting a vision of Ancient Greece that relies more on familiar routine than legendary feats.

Though it won’t be the subject of any epic poems, I still appreciate Odyssey’s incredible ambition. The team at Ubisoft Quebec built an immense open world full of towering statues and gorgeous landscapes that serve as a vivid backdrop for your quest. After choosing either Kassandra or Alexios as your protagonist (I prefer Kassandra’s voice performer), you set out on a journey that pits you against nations, cultists, and monsters. The new hero has a likeable confidence, and I enjoyed making choices and watching the consequences unfold, but the pacing is infuriating. Despite doing plenty of side quests, I often had to grind or complete a series of barely related tasks to advance the story. That drip-feed pattern over 50-plus hours puts a serious damper on the momentum.

Odyssey’s setting is new, but the gameplay builds on the foundation laid by Assassin’s Creed Origins last year, expanding the RPG systems and adding several new features. Melee combat is the most rewarding distillation of that process; encounters are a ballet of attacks and abilities punctuated by dodges and parries. As you fight, you build adrenaline to expend on a wide array of powers. Set your blades on fire, then slow time and attack multiple soldiers to engulf them in flames. Send a lieutenant in to distract a bandit while you take aim with a poison arrow. These abilities and more convey a dynamic and godlike sense of power, with a blend of action and reaction that creates my favorite combat system in the series.

Naval gameplay returns in Odyssey in its most full-featured incarnation since Black Flag and Rogue. You can upgrade your ship, find sunken ruins, and hunt down pirates. It all works well and provides simple fun, but Odyssey doesn’t give you much incentive to go sailing. The naval encounters aren’t complex enough to be gratifying, and the rewards aren’t good enough to be enticing. Though I enjoyed the lovely views from my ship and the occasional exchange of fiery arrows, the naval component ends up feeling inconsequential beyond its function as transportation.

One of Odyssey’s signature features is mercenaries – roaming warriors who present more challenge than average soldiers. They are like the Phylakes from Origins, but infinite in number, and you climb their ranks as you defeat them. Seeking these encounters pays off, because you get rewards (like decreased weapon enchantment cost) for killing mercenaries who rank higher than you – but that doesn’t always happen on your terms. Mercenaries hunt you down after you commit crimes, which can lead to improvised encounters that make great water-cooler moments. But the system creates just as many annoying scenarios, like an angry mercenary standing right next to the person you need for a quest. Attracting many mercenaries’ attention when you’re trying to do something delicate is also a pain, and getting them off your back is a hassle.

 

The volatility of the mercenary system is a symptom of a bigger problem: the rarity of deliberately crafted gameplay. The game doesn’t have a shortage of content; Ancient Greece is filled with activities like clearing camps, infiltrating forts, and waging war. I enjoyed those objectives, but I was hungry for more scenarios that felt less random and more carefully designed. Instead, Odyssey feels like an ecosystem set up and left to run on its own with little authorial interference. Too many quests send you sneaking around cookie-cutter compounds to contend with a standard assortment of patrolling guards as you loot chests, burn war supplies, or kill specific targets. With some notable exceptions, even the main story missions and key assassinations rely on these tasks, so your actions during major beats often don’t feel distinct or special compared to the rest of the experience. While those activities may be fun, their repetition and predictability drain some glory from your tale.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey aims high in its attempts to blend innovative additions with returning features. The execution might be uneven, but Ubisoft Quebec ultimately strikes a successful balance among the many parts. The story is compelling, both as a hero’s journey and in the way it ties into the series’ wider lore. Exploring the world is fun, combat is empowering, and getting epic loot is a thrill. That solid core formula carries Odyssey a long way, but like Icarus and his wax wings, it’s not enough to reach the bright star on the horizon.

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