Where is Mega Man 11?

2008 saw the release of Mega Man 9, possibly the greatest installment in the entire classic Mega Man saga. Shortly after, Capcom followed up with Mega Man 10, which smoothed the formula even more.

Endless Attack modes in each provided an awesome new mode of platforming that has significant potential. You can already find about a dozen "endless attack" romhacks online. Proto Man and Bass provided the variety and challenge necessary for keeping the interest of the hardcore players. I still rank beating Mega Man 9 and 10 on hard with Protoman as some of my greatest gaming achievements.

Years later, however, I'm left wondering: where is Mega Man 11? Maybe the Wii is just coming to a close, or maybe Capcom is hesitant to continue the classic series without Inafune. Maybe that's it for Mega Man.

I recently purchased Mega Man X7 on a whim, but I've never really considered the MMX series all that great when compared with the classic NES and Wii 8-Bit adventures. 

I'm sure Starship Mega Man 55 or whatever else Capcom is putting out is equally good, but I just can't get motivated to play the other games in the series. The platforming always felt sloppy and the game always felt like it was marketed to younger kids or people seriously into techno and mohawks. Only with classic Mega Man does one need to be badass mother fucker to achieve victory, without the artificial dark and gritty "edge."

The edge comes from the game itself, and if you don't have serious nuts you might as well go cry at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

Nintendo switches downloads to Thursday, starts it off with a retro bang

Nintendo recently switched their download day from Monday to Thursday. Why? I have no idea and to be quite honest I don't really care. Lately Nintendo has been updating the VC every OTHER week (as opposed to the previous weekly updates) when they aren't busy releasing ancient tablet something-somethings.

Still, the downloads today are impressive enough for me to post about them.

First up is the Game Boy Donkey Kong for the 3DS, so finally owners of said system have something to play.

Next, Mega Man 5 hit the store today as well. Mega Man 5 is, without hesitation, my least favorite NES Mega Man. That's not an insult to Mega Man 5, that's just life.

Finally, BIT.TRIP FLUX, the final chapter in the epic BIT.TRIP saga; this WiiWare title is clearly the highlight of this week. The BIT.TRIP series is known for atari and 8-Bit aesthetics and making each entry in the series a totally different genre.

Thus far, BIT.TRIP Runner (the platformer), has proven to be an epic, instant classic. I've also played BEAT and VOID, and other entries, FATE and CORE, also exist (all together 6 games). The first entry, BIT.TRIP Beat, launched soon after I moved to New Orleans, and it's nice and symmetrical that the last part of this launched right before I move away.

Flux combines the gameplay from all other games, and hopefully finishes Commander Beat's story well. It's been nice watching all the BIT.TRIP game release, playing the ones that interested me (I just haven't had time for FATE), and watching critics appreciate and recognize good, innovative games.

BIT.TRIP probably did more for the Wii than people realize.

The entire saga is set to be released as a 3DS cart. Individual entries can also be purchased on Steam.

Start with Runner; it deserves a place in the plat-former hall of fame (as well as being the only music-based platformer I've ever played).

Commander Video's story is at an end, and with it: the Wii.

The Legend of Video Games

I was driving home, thinking about something Miyamoto said about Zelda. He said that his goal was to create a garden that people could keep in their dresser drawer. That resonated, because I saw Zelda from a different perspective, and it applied very well.

There are trees in the game, to be sure, but most of the local fauna are perfectly trimmed shrubs. The rocks are all neatly aligned. The lakes and rivers have been squared off... obviously because the programmers made it so. But is that no less a garden? It has all of the characteristics, except it is a digital construction.

Part of the world's interest in video games stems from the digital nature of video games. The ability to completely define rules to a smaller universe. It is life simulation in some cases, but in others it is purely abstract. They are the natural evolution from games played outside, or games played on a wooden board. The contradiction is understanding video games, and really understanding why they interest us so much. Some of the gaming universes are bigger than others, and it's weird to think that all of the place exist, in so many different consoles and computers, at different times.



This train of though has been completely derailed. I played Mega Man: Powered Up tonight (after dying on Proto Man's castle in Mega Man 5, what the fuck is up with the first boss, his strategy is to literally stand on top of you, and he moves about as fast, if not faster, than Mega Man) and it was pretty amazing. Along with Crisis Core, Dracula X, Valkyrie Profile, Lumines, Ghost and Goblins, Gradius... why don't I have a PSP? I'll always love climbing Elecman's tower and kicking his ass. One of the hardest stages in Mega Man, but oh so satisfying. Waltzing up this crazy Electric Wizard's tower and exploding him, and the best part is the music. But I didn't realize that MM:PU has two games, the original, and a remix. The remixed Elecman's stage was a mild letdown. To much horizontal, not enough vertical. I beat Elecman with the buster, and thus spared his life.

I noticed you could then fight Mega Man if you stared an Elecman game, but I didn't get a chance to see who the real boss was (the game displays his name as "Mega Man?")... Proto Man? Quint? a Doc Robot? Bass? Who knows? Not me.



On a final note, I've been playing Proto Man game in MM9, and it was great fun... up until Wily 4. I'll get it eventually, but let me say: fuck. Proto Man is not for the faint of heart or weak-willed warriors. Ironic that I'm having trouble both playing as and against Proto Man.

I managed to beat my Endless Level score as well... 137, which is pretty terrible considering the 3000+ score on the Wii leaderboard. I'll be satisfied if I can break 1000.