Mega Man 11 is a continuation of Capcom's iconic side-scrolling platformer franchise and it retains many of the series' classic elements.
In terms of gameplay, Mega Man 11 introduces the impressive speed- and power-boosting Double Gear system, which offers new ways to avoid obstacles or dispatch enemies.
There are a handful of hazards strewn throughout this action game that feel a touch unfair, and some stages drag on for much too long.
Nonetheless, Mega Man 11 delivers a wonderfully fun challenge that's splashed with a fresh coat of paint.
The Blue Bomber
The mainline Mega Man games are side-scrolling platforming titles with a strong focus on action.
You run through eight themed stages as Mega Man, a robot boy with a penchant for jumping and blasting robotic enemies with his potent Mega Buster arm cannon.
Stages are littered with death pits, murderous spikes, and dozens of obnoxious foes that do their best to rush you, shoot you, or simply get in your way.
If you haven't played a Mega Man game, but want to catch up on its historical importance, check out Mega Man Legacy Collection .
Each stage culminates in a boss fight, which bombards you with attacks and tests your ability to recognize patterns and telegraphs.
Upon their defeat, you earn a new weapon that you can then use in other stages.
The new weapons counter specific bosses much more effectively than your standard Mega Buster.
That's the old; now, let's explore the new.
Double Trouble
Mega Man 11 does not deviate much from the classic formula, but Capcom introduced the Double Gear boost system to freshen the experience. This new feature consists of Power Gear (a boost that improves your damage output for a few seconds) and Speed Gear (a boost that momentarily increases your speed).
These abilities mitigate some of the game's difficulty; Speed Gear, in particular, makes it easier to evade obstacles or projectiles and line up jumps.
The Power Gear gives Mega Man a massive damage boost and is especially useful during boss fights.
Your Power Gear-enhanced shots become huge, highly damaging missiles that make short work of virtually anything in the game when used effectively.
That said, the Gear enhancements are not end-all abilities; good timing is required to get the most mileage from them.
When activated, you have about four seconds to use the boost before the gear overheats and prevents you from using them again for a brief amount of time.
Players must deliberately activate and deactivate the boosts to maximize their usage without entering the overheat penalty, which makes for some very dynamic gameplay.
Upon replaying the game, I found myself constantly cycling between Gears to get through trickier platform sections or obnoxious enemies, and the system ultimately became second nature to use.
School of Hard Knocks
Mega Man 11 is a challenging game, despite the potential offered by the Double Gear system.
The length of the game's stages heavily affects the difficulty.
Mega Man 11's stages are surprisingly long, and checkpoints are few and far between.
With such long, hazard-filled stages, you are more likely to make mistakes and die from enemy damage, missed jumps, or simple carelessness.
Mega Man 11 uses older games' life system, so dying drops you back at the nearest checkpoint.
Running out of lives boots you out of the stage and back onto the stage select screen, which forces you to retry the level from the very beginning.
Mega Man 11 is decidedly retro in this regard and doesn't hold your hand when it comes to lives and retries.
Not all stages drag on, mind you.
I found Fuse Man's stage, for example, to be extremely easy and straightforward, and I plowed through it on a single life.
Acid Man's stage, on the other hand, chewed through eight of my lives before I could beat it, due to a combination of strategically placed spikes, and damage accumulated from attempt to attempt.
Mega Man 11 also has a few obnoxious hazards that feel a bit unfair when encountered the first time through.
In general, Mega Man games introduce you to stage hazards and gimmicks in a safe area first, before testing your reflexes and understanding in subsequent rooms.
This is still the case in Mega Man 11, but some zones occasionally push your reaction abilities a bit too hard.
For example, Impact Man's stage bombards you with hazards and projectiles, forcing you to think fast and avoid crap spewed at you from various angles, rather than teaching you about a unique gimmick and expecting you to master it.
Acid Man's stage makes excessive use of spikes and awkward water mobility, and some stage transitions drop you directly onto spikes if you don't maneuver Mega Man out of the way.
Worse still, enemies respawn when you walk a certain distance from their original location, so if you happen to be in a large room with several shooting enemies, you can very easily get hit by one that you dispatched earlier if you move back too far.
This is not commonplace, mind you, and most stages keep things pretty fair.
Blast Man's stage, for example, starts you off in a screen with a single, fire-spewing robot perched on a platform.
The robot doesn't attack unless you move into its proximity, but when it does, the robot ignites the red blocks you are standing on, causing them to explode and damage you.
Once the robot's destroyed, the fuel tank on its back blasts towards you, exploding when it collides with anything, and igniting the floor should the blast come into contact with it.
You learn several crucial combat elements about the stage from this single screen, so when the game starts throwing more explosive floors and fire-spewing robots at you, you feel prepared and understand what to expect.
Thankfully, most stages follow this helpful formula.
Upgrades and Options
Overall, Mega Man 11 never curveballs you so hard as to feel offensive; every threat you encounter can be overcome with Mega Man's basic moves and the Double Gear system.
My only gripe is that some threats are difficult to avoid your first time through, because the game doesn't always make it clear what to expect.
Other times the game simply throws a lot at you at once.
Death is a devastating setback, especially if you lose your lives close to the finish line.
It takes a certain amount of discipline to not rage should this inevitably happen, but at the same time, I appreciate Mega Man's attitude towards challenge.
Rather than hold your hand, Mega Man 11 lets you buy upgrades or power ups to make your run through stages easier, should you need them.
You can use currency collected from defeated enemies or hidden throughout stages to buy more lives, or extra energy tanks for mid-level healing.
Additional perks let you power up shots more easily, or let you cool down your gears more quickly, allowing for easier and more active usage.
Each perk gives you a small buff, but none are overpowering.
In fact, they make you feel like you're developing Mega Man as you progress through the game.
Mega Man 11 offers a handful of optional game modes to enjoy beyond the standard stage select, such as Time Attack, which has you race through stages for the best time, or Balloon Mode, which has you shoot down balloons in enemy-free-levels for points.
None of the optional modes deviates significantly from the established formula, but they are neat distractions.
Computer Love
Mega Man 11 takes good use of cel-shaded visuals and simple 3D character models, which gives the game a great two-dimensional look.
The 2.5D aesthetic is very faithful to the series' anime-style art and sprite-based roots.
These visuals are hardly taxing, so the game runs perfectly fine on my Nvidia GeForce GTX 970-powered rig.
I saw a steady 60 frames per second.
Accourding to Mega Man 11's Steam page, your gaming PC must match these minimum specs: a 3.2GHz Intel Core i5-3470 CPU, Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 GPU, 4GB of RAM, and the 64-bit version of Windows 7, 8.1, or 10.
Mega Man 11 supports Steam Cloud, Steam Trading Cards, Steam Leaderboards, and 50 Steam Achievements.
Capcom wraps the game in Denuvo Anti-tamper, third-party anti-bootlegging software that has a controversial history.
Triumphant Return
Mega Man 11 is a short game, but it's packed with classic side-scrolling gameplay that will appeal to fans and new players alike.
The visuals, while simplistic at first glance, are chock full of wonderful details.
The controls are tight and snappy, and the Double Gear system is fun to use and well incorporated into the game's overall challenge.
If you're looking for an old-school game to spend some time with, look no further than Mega Man 11.
The Bottom Line
Mega Man 11 is about as retro as a game can get nowadays, with tight action and great charm.
It can be a touch too difficult at times, but overall it's a fantastic side-scroller that's worth checking out.
