Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Mega Man 9: Two complaints

Mega Man 9 review most likely coming your way on Wednesday. For now, listen to me whine for a minute or two.


So far, I'm enjoying Mega Man 9. Sure, it's brutally difficult and I've yet to even get close to one of Wily's eight robot masters, but it's still a great game. In fact, I've got nothing against the game itself. However, I do object to two little aspects of how Capcom decided to handle the title.

First, the in-game manual is hardly existent. Sure, you can hit the Home button and view a button summary, but in order to see the whole thing, you have to go to the Wii Shop Channel. What the heck, Capcom? Would it have been so hard to include the manual with the download? The title only take up 66 blocks of memory, so there's plenty of space to fit in a more comprehensive digital booklet. I wouldn't have minded waiting two seconds more to finish the download if it meant not having to jump through a bunch of hoops to read the manual.

Second, I'm pretty upset with how Capcom is handling downloadable content (Or DLC) for this game. Okay, I can understand having a new character as DLC. It would have worked well as an unlockable, sure, but that's kind of reaching outside the limitations of the NES. Then again, so is DLC, but whatever. Bottom line is, Proto Man being DLC is A-OK with me.

What I'm not alright with, though, is all the other DLC for Mega Man 9. Two of them, Hero Mode and Superhero Mode, are just additional difficulty levels. Personally, I think that's bullcrap. Does anyone else here remember NES games having selectable difficulty levels? I do. These should have been included with the game, for the same base price of 1000 Wii Points.

Another download, Endless Mode is a new way to play, with players competing to get as far as possible without dying. Uh, isn't that what the rest of the game is about, too? You know, fighting towards the end and all? Maybe I'm missing something here...

The final download is the Special Stage, and it actually sounds decent. Basically, it's a whole new level in a Time Attack format. Get through it as fast as possible, and compete to set records. Along with Proto Man Mode, this is one of two worth-your-money downloads as far as I'm concerned. The rest of it should have just been in the game to start with. Gouging consumers for additional difficulty levels is ridiculous, and the Endless Mode just sounds like more of the same.

While Mega Man 9 is a great game, Capcom made some mistakes in distributing it. I'll probably just do the smart thing and vote with my wallet here. Unless you're a hardcore Mega Man fan that absolutely must play the game in every way possible, I suggest you do the same.

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2 comments:

JDW said...

Hey, JDW of VFH here, just wanted to mention, the in-game manual for all WiiWare titles has the limited one in the Home menu, but the full requires you to go to the channel. Whether is Final Fantasy, Major League Eating, and even Mega Man 9, all require you to visit the Shop in order to see the manual.

It bothers me too because if VC titles can have a full menu, then why cant WiiWare titles? At the same time it is nice that theyre in theshop because you can view the full manual w/o having to purchase the titles. But I do feel that both should be available.

What I'm just trying to say is that the Manual is not a fault of Capcom, instead fingers should be pointed at Nintendo.

Kyle said...

OK, while I agree with article, I can get you for one thing: some NES games did have different difficulties... remember Mega Man 2?

Anyways, totally agree with you on the difficulties, that should definitely have been included with the game. So I'll probably be buying Proto Man, the extra stage, and maybe Endless Attack (or whatever it's called).