Arcade

The recent cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3 has gotten me thinking about all the wonderful gaming memories I've had with the blue bomber. As opposed to a long-winded blog post, I decided to share some of these experiences with the general Internet population. Thus, I present for the enjoyment of the masses, a let's play of Mega Man X, starring yours truly.

Puttin' a Bow on it

HIGH Captures the insanity that made the first game so great.

LOW Checkpoints are generally too far apart.

WTF That's a "curse"? More like a blessing if you ask me...

Obviously, Mario was destined for bigger things. That meant a more desirable damsel in distress—why did Donkey Kong want Pauline anyway? But who knew their break-up was so bitter.

You Got Your Bullet Hell in My Platformer

HIGH Stellar visual style.

LOW The prologue is far, far too long.

WTF Why is this not a side-scrolling platformer?

As nice as this trailer looks, it only reminds me that Sega still doesn't know what to do with Sonic the Hedgehog. Sega wants so badly to fit Sonic into a large 3D world that it has forced him into games with hover boards, wolf transformation, giant swords and even guns. Fans on the other hand just seem to be begging for more of what they grew up on—2D platforming levels.

Evolving into Irrelevance

HIGH Starting the first stage and being greeted by a screen full of faceless baddies and an earful of cheesy, pulse-pounding electronic music.

LOW The hour-long final stage.

WTF Do we really need to see the same unskippable cut-scene every time a spell is cast?

The most difficult part of reviewing a game is reviewing the difficulty. A few games—Super Meat Boy, I Wanna be the Guy—can uncontroversially be called hard, but the essential question is actually whether they are too hard. Since that level of difficulty depends not only on the individual player's skills and experience, but also on his values, it can be difficult to state what goes over the line. It is even harder to accurately say whether a game is too easy, primarily because most reviewers are skilled and experienced gamers, many of them drawn to the hobby during its early days when challenge was practically all a game could offer in terms of fun.

Recently it has felt like Sega has been trying to rekindle the love of its fans every year. Every year there has been a Sonic remake or a Sonic collection or a Sonic reboot or combination of the three thrown onto store shelves. Despite its failures, Sega just keeps on trying and this year, just in time for that 20th anniversary, Sega has come up with Sonic Generations. Not a lot is known about the game, but the teaser video making the rounds has sparked some discussion.

I was a Cyborg Ninja Assassin

HIGH: Finally beating a particularly nasty wave of bad guys in the second-to-last level.

LOW: Realizing that the strategy for every single enemy is "warp behind them, then attack."

WTF: The text RPG boss.

Deep-Fried (?) 8-bit Goodness

HIGH Getting a huge Tempura combo...

LOW ...and losing it by falling down a pit at the end of the level.

WTF Is up with the Tempura reference? I thought that was to do with deep-frying.