This is the section for my various ramblings. Entries here get added and removed at whim. Note: If I nitpick something, it doesn’t mean I hate it. Nothing is perfect, after all, so I may point out flaws in something I otherwise like. So naturally, take everything you read here with a grain of salt.

See below for archives and other commentaries.

Note on linking: If you would like to link to a particular Musing article, don’t link to this page; link to the Musing’s individual page found in the list below. This particular page will change with each new article, but the individual Musing pages will remain static.

		MEGAMASTER MUSINGS

April 28, 2010

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about classic 8-bit game play. Capcom has made Mega Man 9 and Mega Man 10 as nostalgic games. But both of these games fall slightly short of the bar of a truly enjoyable classic gaming experience. Aside from those things that are already being done in these two games, what could Capcom add to create a truly awesome “retro” game? I have a few suggestions.

Where’s my slide, darn it!

• Give Mega Man his slide back. Sliding not only allows for additional stage design (1-block passages to slide through) but also enables the player to dodge enemies and enemy attacks much more effectively, thus making him feel more in control of his own successes and failures. (Mega Man 10 in particular falls victim of this, where they borrowed enemies and ideas from later games that assume that Mega Man has a slide. Without the slide, these foes are hideously frustrating to dodge. This is a perfect example of why you cannot just arbitrarily rip out a game mechanic that a particular enemy was designed around and then import that enemy willy-nilly into the game without making any adjustments to it to take into account the missing slide.)

  Yes, I know Proto Man can slide, but that is not sufficient reason to force Mega Man to have to take hits when faced with enemies that were designed around the slide.

• Give Mega Man his Mega Buster back. Being able to fire charged shots adds lots of additional aspects to the game play, opening up more options for the player—including the option of not using it in those situations where rapid-fire happens to be more effective.
• Make the Mega Buster more useful. All of the things I mention below have been done in other 8-bit titles, so this shouldn’t be asking for too much. This would involve:
  • Make the fully-charged shots bigger. If charged shots are barely larger than Mega Man’s normal arm cannon shots, half of the point of using them is gone.
  • Don’t lose charge when hit.
  • Don’t lose shot when taking a hit while releasing charged shot.
  • Don’t lose charge when opening the subscreen/menu. This one is just basic. Seriously, why should Mega Man have to start charging up all over again just because we took a peek at our weapon energy levels?
  • Allow charging during boss demos (while the boss’s energy meter is filling). In some games the player can get around this limitation by charging up before going through the gate, but this doesn’t usually work with teleporting hatches. Let us prepare a shot while the enemy is busy showing off!
  • When charging the Mega Buster during a boss demo, some games allow the player to release the fire button after he’s fully charged, but before the battle starts. In this case Mega Man holds his shot until the moment that the player gains control, then he fires it off instantly. A nice way to get a first hit in. This one isn’t really that critical; it’s just one of those cute ways of taking advantage of the game mechanics, similar to jumping through gates.
• Allow opening the subscreen menu during boss demos. This allows the player to see what boss he’s facing (particularly applicable with teleporting hatches) and then select and prepare an appropriate weapon before the battle actually starts.

  Look out below!

• Weapon shots should not disappear when the subscreen/menu is opened. When a menu is opened while a shot is on the screen, if the player closes the menu with that shot’s weapon still equipped, the shot should continue on where it left off. For example, if I am using Rush Jet and I open the menu, I should be able to close the menu with Rush Jet still selected as my active weapon and Rush should remain on the screen and continue flying as if nothing happened. Another example: If I have a shield-type weapon active, the shield should not disappear just because I open my menu, unless I switch weapons while on the menu.
• Active weapons (e.g. shields) should stay active when switching to a new screen (scrolling). It’s rather irritating that my Jewel Satellite vanishes and I have to waste weapon energy on another one every time I climb up a ladder or scroll the screen horizontally or drop down into a vertical tunnel or something.
• Enemies should scroll off the screen as easily as they scroll on. In Mega Man 10 in particular, it really feels like it’s much easier to scroll enemies on the screen than to scroll them off. It gets so bad that in many places you scroll an enemy back onto the screen just while in the process of trying to dodge its shots. The justice scale platforms in Blade Man’s stage are a prime example of a place where this aspect rears its ugly head. Sometimes you end up fighting the exact same enemy 3-4 times because you keep scrolling it back on while just trying to jump onto the scale platforms—and if you spend too much time shooting at the ever-reappearing enemies, the platforms will wander away out from underneath you!
• Make the buttons consistent. For the Xbox versions, for example, Start should always open the subscreen and select stages; Back should always open the system menu. (Or reverse this if you insist but be consistent!) Also, why do we have to press Start to bypass the opening to the game, but we have to press A on the title screen? It is especially important that an action game be consistent about its button presses because the player gets conditioned into quickly hitting a particular button when he wants a certain outcome and these motions end up becoming reflexive since they typically have to happen within the span of time of a split second. I haven’t yet died because I opened the system menu instead of the subscreen when I needed to use an Energy Tank...but there have been times when it’s been very, very close.
• And finally... More weapon options! If I can fill out the Damage Data grid by entering all 1s (or even worse—zeros) and then just altering a few numbers here and there, where’s the fun in that?

Some might suggest that many of these things contribute to making the game easier. That may be the case, but that’s not my intent with suggesting them. The purpose here is to make the game fun. Never mind right now the stage design or the plot or the graphics. Simple tweaks such as these to the overall basic game play can have a big impact on how fun it is to navigate stages—which is, of course, the main point of the game to begin with.

- The MegaMaster

		COMMENTARIES

The Mega Shows
A few comments on how they’re so inconsistent...

N-Team VS Freedom Fighters
Ever notice how much the Sonic Freedom Fighters resemble the N-Team? I did one day and was surprised...

Who’s X?
Some comments about the origins of Mega Man X.

Mega Man in Decline
Is Capcom ruining their own series?

Privacy
This is a little comment on what a sad state the Internet is in when companies have to post privacy statements...

		MUSINGS ARCHIVES

May 1, 2010 “Retro” games and non-frustrating game play December 22, 2009 “Retro” games and nostalgia December 2, 2008 Destroying the bridge to the 22nd century October 12, 2008 Plot Ramblings (Mega Man 9) September 25, 2008 Other Games (Again) May 2, 2008 Game Counter April 19, 2008 Rockin’ Remixes November 23, 2007 Other Games September 20, 2007 The Rockman Name August 4, 2007 Zero’s Deaths (Again) June 21, 2007 Multiplayer Games May 12, 2007 Vile Name Changes March 1, 2007 Cheat Codes November 1, 2006 Originality in Mega Man ZX September 27, 2006 Energy Balancing August 23, 2006 Name Confusion July 13, 2006 Multiple Versions June 6, 2006 Zero’s Deaths May 8, 2006 Network Mesh April 7, 2006 Good Plot Points March 16, 2006 Continuity? What’s that? January 17, 2006 Moronic Stage Design December 18, 2005 Difficulty Levels October 19, 2005 Ramblings on the Zero series August 5, 2005 Connections July 6, 2005 Graphics June 2, 2005 Hosting ROMs April 26, 2005 File Swapping March 23, 2005 Time and Capsules February 14, 2005 Anatomy of a Rumor Part 2 February 1, 2005 Too Smart By Half

January 5, 2005 Mega Man X8 Blunders December 8, 2004 Command Mission Strategies November 22, 2004 Mega Man Zero 3 October 18, 2004 Command Mission September 21, 2004 Free Wills August 20, 2004 Laws of Robotics July 28, 2004 Net Operators July 9, 2004 Humans or Robots? June 10, 2004 Reploids May 20, 2004 And Then You Will Die May 12, 2004 All Flash, All Flair April 21, 2004 E-Mail Forwards March 25, 2004 Dr. Light’s Name February 24, 2004 Mega Man X6 Cut Scene Ed. February 3, 2004 The Meaning of Fun January 14, 2004 Mega Man X7 Blunders November 24, 2003 So You Want To Be A Game Developer? October 23, 2003 Warning: satire September 8, 2003 The MegaMaster interviews the MegaMaster August 5, 2003 Anatomy of a Rumor May 18, 2003 Mega Man NT Warrior? March 5, 2003 To sequel or not to sequel January 25, 2003 Six new games cause anime falls December 18, 2002 Inside MMHP November 7, 2002 Be careful what you wish for... October 10, 2002 What’s in a name? September 16, 2002 Initial impressions of Mega Man Zero August 20, 2002 Death of a Legends series? August 2, 2002 Cat chases bird, dog chases cat, and I chase all three of them!