Lets hear both sides of the arguement then you can make up your own mind.
Firstly there is the opinion that Mega Man 11 is a masterpiece by John from Digital Foundry. His video explaining his opinions is here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykHJrGT_riU
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Secondly there is my opinion into which I go into detail saying Mega Man 11 is a not that good of a game and not at all a masterpiece.
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I've played Mega Man 11 quite a bit now - Switch port. I believe the game is NOT a masterpiece at all. Taking the graphics out of the equation as the Switch port does a few of the jaggies, as expected. I'll explain in point form why I think MM11 is not a master piece.
I am saying John has a different opinion to me on this. Differing opinions are ok though, nothing wrong with that. I just want to share where his and my opinions differ.
1. Level design
The game is teach by showing and not telling as John correctly says. However this takes the Battletoads NES and MM1 aproach and not the later MM games approach. By this I mean sure the levels get progressively harder and slowly more and more complex, however the punishment for making a mistake is most often instant death. Apart from the end stage boss robots, I found none of the game difficulties any different. A mistake equals instant death. Taking damage doesn't matter in itself in the main parts of the stage. The huge knockback from each hit often results in instant death.
This is not a me sucking at the game problem, I've beaten it now a few times. The issue is not once ever did I even come close to dying in a stage due to lack of health. Of cause the harder difficulty boss robots kicked my ass till I got good at them, but the stages themselves yeah. This ends up with the player just zerging the levels, getting as far as they can. Dying and then using the new information to get a little farther. Games like MM2, MM3 and MMX 1-4 did this but the puhishment was often just you lost level progress by being knocked off a ledge or just accumulating too much damage in the level so you died. I feel that's a better way to do it.
The level design in MM11 is a good concept that is poorly executed.
2. Enemy design
Many of the enemies here feel like they are ripped straight out MM1. Just given a paint job but functionally the same. The whole idea of less enemies on screen but getting hit by them or their projectiles often leads you into spikes or a pit is there. Sure this was good for the 1980's and MM1. But we're in 2018 now surely Capcom can do better. Heck, even MM2 did this better. The early MMX games did this really well also. Hits cost you level progress not death and too many hit killed you. So you did not lose a life between every attempt at a part of the stage.
3. The dual weapon system
The whole super power or super slow mode thing. For the casual player it feels many of the segments in the stages are designed with the super slow in mind. Sub bosses that create tiny gaps to stand in, in random places that you need heaps of practice to beat or just cheese with super slow. I do feel the better solution there is to widen the gaps a little, not use the super slow so you push the player to get better and better at the sub bosses. This does mean I am saying the super slow is compensating for poor sub boss design.
For the main boss robots I think the same is true, it's better to get the player to learn the boss patterns through lower difficulties and move up when the player gets better. The only difference would be higher difficulties equals more dagame taken. Essentially giving the player less hits before they die each time.
The super power on the other hand is good in theory but a simple sharging of the special weapons accomplishes the same thing and adds in a better and easier to manage risk/reward system. Want a powered up shot? You have to charge it and thus lose the ability to shoot while it's charging. Simple and works every time. Having to remember to turn on super power for the charged up shots is just annoying. Sure it's doable, just not as elegant. It makes the boss battles flow a litttle less well as you're looking for a point where you can spam a few powered up shots or just ignore it all together and just use standard shots.
Overall the dual weapon system is not needed at all in the game and hold the game back from better enemy design choices.
4. Level Aesthetics
The whole theme of each stage is all over the shop. The enemies, stage itself and music don't match up into one choesive unit. I believe this also involves the level design to an extent. It feels Capcom here just tried to make stages that fit the set on enemies they ahd already created instead of making unitque enemies that fit the theme of the stage.
Some examples of level aesthetics done well?
Bubble Man - MM2. You have a boss all about bubbles, ie water. The stage is fulled with waterfalls and a water section. Also all the enemies are appropriately themed. Frogs, prawns, jellyfish, hermit crabs etc etc. Even the music feels slighty like something assiciated with water. It's amazing how well that was done considering the poor soundchip tech the NES had.
5. Music
The music here is average at best. It does not go well with the aesthetic each stage is trying to portray. Secondly, they are way too complicated. FInally they don't have the verse and chorus sturcture that the better older MM tracks had. The older better tracks had a main part fo the track as well as hook or chorus, a little but that gave excitment while playing and prevented the track from sounding too repetative. None of this exists in MM11.
I will say this issue is not unique to MM9. The MM music on the whole had been getting worse as the years have gone by. It seems that once the limits on sound chip technology were gone Capcom just did what they wanted. Back in the day you had to prioritise good musical composition over sound tech because better sound tech didn't exist. Now the sound tech exists to make all sorts of wacky compositions. This does not mean you chould make them for MM games. The tracks should be simple, catchy, fit the theme of the stage and just be really fun to listen too. This was achieved on the NES, SNES and PS1 (to an extent). Capcom clearly didn't use the older games for musical inspiration. I think they should have.
My Overall Conclusions
MM11 to me feels like it's MM1.5 with a paint job and HD textures/models. I am refering to the NES game here. Many of the design issues that first game had are present in MM11. What Capcom should have done was look to MM2 and MM3 and made MM11 similar to those. I don't know what the fascination with MM1 is. MM1 is a game of it's time. Ok for the 1980's but that's it. MM2 improved the whole concept in so many ways. Most of what classic MM is, is based on things that originated in MM2.
MM11 is not a bad game at all. it's good, worth getting. It's just that, good. Not in anyway a masterpiece, apart from getting every port to be a smooth 60fps. That is improessive.
I just hope MM12 is more like MM2 MM3 and MM4 and nothing like MM1.
Firstly there is the opinion that Mega Man 11 is a masterpiece by John from Digital Foundry. His video explaining his opinions is here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykHJrGT_riU
****
Secondly there is my opinion into which I go into detail saying Mega Man 11 is a not that good of a game and not at all a masterpiece.
****
I've played Mega Man 11 quite a bit now - Switch port. I believe the game is NOT a masterpiece at all. Taking the graphics out of the equation as the Switch port does a few of the jaggies, as expected. I'll explain in point form why I think MM11 is not a master piece.
I am saying John has a different opinion to me on this. Differing opinions are ok though, nothing wrong with that. I just want to share where his and my opinions differ.
1. Level design
The game is teach by showing and not telling as John correctly says. However this takes the Battletoads NES and MM1 aproach and not the later MM games approach. By this I mean sure the levels get progressively harder and slowly more and more complex, however the punishment for making a mistake is most often instant death. Apart from the end stage boss robots, I found none of the game difficulties any different. A mistake equals instant death. Taking damage doesn't matter in itself in the main parts of the stage. The huge knockback from each hit often results in instant death.
This is not a me sucking at the game problem, I've beaten it now a few times. The issue is not once ever did I even come close to dying in a stage due to lack of health. Of cause the harder difficulty boss robots kicked my ass till I got good at them, but the stages themselves yeah. This ends up with the player just zerging the levels, getting as far as they can. Dying and then using the new information to get a little farther. Games like MM2, MM3 and MMX 1-4 did this but the puhishment was often just you lost level progress by being knocked off a ledge or just accumulating too much damage in the level so you died. I feel that's a better way to do it.
The level design in MM11 is a good concept that is poorly executed.
2. Enemy design
Many of the enemies here feel like they are ripped straight out MM1. Just given a paint job but functionally the same. The whole idea of less enemies on screen but getting hit by them or their projectiles often leads you into spikes or a pit is there. Sure this was good for the 1980's and MM1. But we're in 2018 now surely Capcom can do better. Heck, even MM2 did this better. The early MMX games did this really well also. Hits cost you level progress not death and too many hit killed you. So you did not lose a life between every attempt at a part of the stage.
3. The dual weapon system
The whole super power or super slow mode thing. For the casual player it feels many of the segments in the stages are designed with the super slow in mind. Sub bosses that create tiny gaps to stand in, in random places that you need heaps of practice to beat or just cheese with super slow. I do feel the better solution there is to widen the gaps a little, not use the super slow so you push the player to get better and better at the sub bosses. This does mean I am saying the super slow is compensating for poor sub boss design.
For the main boss robots I think the same is true, it's better to get the player to learn the boss patterns through lower difficulties and move up when the player gets better. The only difference would be higher difficulties equals more dagame taken. Essentially giving the player less hits before they die each time.
The super power on the other hand is good in theory but a simple sharging of the special weapons accomplishes the same thing and adds in a better and easier to manage risk/reward system. Want a powered up shot? You have to charge it and thus lose the ability to shoot while it's charging. Simple and works every time. Having to remember to turn on super power for the charged up shots is just annoying. Sure it's doable, just not as elegant. It makes the boss battles flow a litttle less well as you're looking for a point where you can spam a few powered up shots or just ignore it all together and just use standard shots.
Overall the dual weapon system is not needed at all in the game and hold the game back from better enemy design choices.
4. Level Aesthetics
The whole theme of each stage is all over the shop. The enemies, stage itself and music don't match up into one choesive unit. I believe this also involves the level design to an extent. It feels Capcom here just tried to make stages that fit the set on enemies they ahd already created instead of making unitque enemies that fit the theme of the stage.
Some examples of level aesthetics done well?
Bubble Man - MM2. You have a boss all about bubbles, ie water. The stage is fulled with waterfalls and a water section. Also all the enemies are appropriately themed. Frogs, prawns, jellyfish, hermit crabs etc etc. Even the music feels slighty like something assiciated with water. It's amazing how well that was done considering the poor soundchip tech the NES had.
5. Music
The music here is average at best. It does not go well with the aesthetic each stage is trying to portray. Secondly, they are way too complicated. FInally they don't have the verse and chorus sturcture that the better older MM tracks had. The older better tracks had a main part fo the track as well as hook or chorus, a little but that gave excitment while playing and prevented the track from sounding too repetative. None of this exists in MM11.
I will say this issue is not unique to MM9. The MM music on the whole had been getting worse as the years have gone by. It seems that once the limits on sound chip technology were gone Capcom just did what they wanted. Back in the day you had to prioritise good musical composition over sound tech because better sound tech didn't exist. Now the sound tech exists to make all sorts of wacky compositions. This does not mean you chould make them for MM games. The tracks should be simple, catchy, fit the theme of the stage and just be really fun to listen too. This was achieved on the NES, SNES and PS1 (to an extent). Capcom clearly didn't use the older games for musical inspiration. I think they should have.
My Overall Conclusions
MM11 to me feels like it's MM1.5 with a paint job and HD textures/models. I am refering to the NES game here. Many of the design issues that first game had are present in MM11. What Capcom should have done was look to MM2 and MM3 and made MM11 similar to those. I don't know what the fascination with MM1 is. MM1 is a game of it's time. Ok for the 1980's but that's it. MM2 improved the whole concept in so many ways. Most of what classic MM is, is based on things that originated in MM2.
MM11 is not a bad game at all. it's good, worth getting. It's just that, good. Not in anyway a masterpiece, apart from getting every port to be a smooth 60fps. That is improessive.
I just hope MM12 is more like MM2 MM3 and MM4 and nothing like MM1.
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