This amazing fan project is essentially the sonic mania of mega man games. RRthiel and his band of merry men have truly been able to capture the spirit of all the great mega man games into a project seeping with passion.
Firstly, the visual design, god this is a pretty game, the 16/8 bit look of mega man looks superb, harkening back to Mega Man 7's visual design(which I really like). Everything is so vibrate, expression and detailed, clearly a lot of work went into this games visual design. And that animation...god it's so smooth, like butter smooth you know?
Secondly, the level design and gameplay feel, at first I was skeptical as to how the visual design would affect the gameplay, as I thought the screen crutch would make the game feel cramped and more stiff like in Mega Man 7, and I was also worried that it would make some of the same design mistakes as well. Like for example, remember in turbo man's stage how there were these moving tires that moved you when you bumped into them, well the screen crutch wouldn't allow you to accurately predict when they were going to come, and as a result you would get some pretty unfair deaths from your inability to properly time the jumps. Luckily this demo never made such a mistake, and it's visual design works in perfect harmony with the gameplay, with each obstacle and enemy made with mega man's new size in mind.
Mega Man and Roll feel so good to control, with the tight but flexible movement Mega Man has always been known for. The level design is... alright, a little basic, and even underwhelming at times, but for a tutorial level it works just fine, I just hope the later levels will pick up the slack and introduce us to some new and exciting gimmicks that give us the tight platforming Mega Man has always been loved for. Also, Roll is a little broken, but her character inclusion was an amazing choice, as it incentivizes replayability, a key stable of the Mega Man series. However unlike Mega Man 10 with its sloppy inclusion of Protoman and Bass as playable characters Perfect Blue changes the entire level design to be suited for Roll's abilities, something Capcom should've learned to do a decade ago. Also Roll attacks with a broom, so you know it worth to play as her. Finally the bosses, they have some great attack patterns that make it super satisfying for the player to maneuver around, and with some generally pretty cool designs. All in all fairly solid design and control.
Thirdly, sound design, ok do I really need to talk about the music? I mean... it's pretty obvious that it's amazing. Ok well to be fair the music isn't exactly representative of the Mega Man series and its music, and I wouldn't call it Mega Man music because of it, but it fits perfectly into the levels so its not bothering me at all. The sound effects sound good with the charged buster sounding perfect as always, with the jump and slide following suit. The enemy deaths sound okay, but the boss death sound effects I thought to be underwhelming, like you are about to deal the final blow to the final boss on the tutorial level and when you kill it instead of a hearing an expected large sounding KABOOM, you get a series of little farts for explosions and a lack luster victory tune. But I'm the development team can fix that.
Conclusion, this game has such huge potential to be a smash hit, and I am excited to see what RRthiel and his friends will be serving us in the full version of the game. I am glad to see that this development team is so passionate for the project as they truly put all of their heart and soul into the game I can just feel it. It has one or two flaws, but those are only nitpicks, I am sure that the development team will fix exactly what I complained about by the time the full version comes out. I can only hope the best of success for these talented and creative people, as based off of what I played from this demo, I sure this game will be amazing. Good luck you guys! :)
By Luca S
I loved your points on the aesthetic and custom setting options
I definitely agree with the vaporwave aesthetic, wished I had mentioned it in my own review.
And the settings do bring customization previously unheard of in Mega Man games.
Your review makes me jelly of my own :)