Mega Man used to be easy?

[Nimbus]

Ok, so a little back-story: A few months ago I bought Mega Man 9 via PSN. After a week or two playing on and off, and beating one, possibly two levels, I gave up. It's difficulty was far outside what my attention span could achieve. I had never played any other Mega Man game before this, and because of this bad experience I never tried another one.

That is, until today. After seeing an epic Mega Man rap mentioned in a news post (See:http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/90644-Mega-Man-Rap-Battles-the-Robot-Masters) I decided to try again. After about an hour playing Mega Man 2 and breezing through four levels, I realise what I have been missing. This game is good, and most of all, easy. This is, I assume, due to me choosing "normal" mode, rather than "difficult" at the start screen.

This begs another question: why the hell didn't Mega Man 9 come with a "normal mode"? I realise that the game was marketed toward hardcore fans of the series, but is that any reason to block out all newcomers with a learning curve like a wall? Surely having an option for beginners to the series/genre wouldn't matter to the hardcore crowd.

Anyway escapist, what are your thoughts on the matter? Should the later Mega Man games have had an easy mode option, or was it fine as-is?

Also, I do appreciate the irony of a post about a modern game being too difficult compared to a retro game when every other week we get a new thread about games becoming too easy.

 

[ScarlettRage]

i didnt really like mega man at all...
sorry to the fans.

 

[SharPhoe]

Love that video to death. I always go in that order in MM2 because of it.

I haven't had the chance to play 9 yet, but I don't know if I would say the difficulty is as bad as people make it out to be. THen again, I didn't have much trouble with Ninja Gaiden...

 

[Arkhangelsk]

Never played Mega Man much, the difficulty curve made me so angry.

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

An easy mode? Well yes and no.

Beginners shouldn't really be playing this anyway. The first two Megaman titles are available for download, and to be honest the only real draw of M9 is it's difficulty and the fact that it's a new old Megaman game. And I guess we can take into account that non fans probably wouldn't care if they were playing 9 or 2, there isn't a huge deal of difference in content IMHO.

So yes they should have put it out of principle, but if you're playing 9, it's kind of assumed you played at least one or two of the rest, like you said this is marketed to die hards, like Ninja Gaiden or Devil may Cry.

And you should try 3, that was ridiculous in comparison to 2.

 

[HotShooter]

I only played one MM game for the GameCube. It was battle network I think and I could only win by cheating, checking Youtube for plays, and luck.

 

[The Shrubbery Demander]

It could be worse. You could be play the Mega Man X series.

 

[Mstrswrd]

The thing is, except for the cheapness of Megaman 7's fight with Dr. Wily, they've never been as hard as people make them out to be (IMHO). Yeah, they're hard (especially 1 and 2, as the controls were atad loose), but they were do-able throught careful (very careful) memorization, or, lacking that, exploiting glitches.

Megaman 9, on the other hand, I actually found easier than the others, Maybe it was the inclusion of items in such easily buyable ways, maybe I've just gotten better at MM games, but I was able to beat that game in about 3 hours the first time I played it non-stop from start to finish (the only real way to play a Megaman game), and in under an hour the second.

 

[plastic_window]

The thing is, there's now a download that enables "insane mode". Turns out that Mega Man 9's original game is the easy mode.

Regardless of all that, Capcom are pretty notorious for making games that aren't easy to complete. The fanbase that wanted MM9 also wanted it to be hard, since the older ones were never really altogether easy, and MM9 wasn't designed to be a game that attracted new fans as well as old.

 

[Quadtrix]

I made it all the way to Wily's final form in Mega Man 9, but I needed a full inventory of 9 lives, 9 e tanks and an m tank, and I still was unable to beat it.

 

[Temjin]

You know, the funny thing about Mega Man 2's "Normal" mode was the fact that it was added to the US release to make it easier. The Japanese release didn't see anything like that. Yet, they only did it to that one for some reason.

To be honest, Megaman 1 was hardest because of how un-refined it was. Megaman 2 fixed some of these issues and made it more playable, while subsequent games added more and more features that (in my mind) made the game easier--sliding, charge shots, different/better rush upgrades, etc. But they were still difficult and yet still fun.

I do agree that they made Megaman 9 a bit over the top in difficulty, and I had a few troubles first playthough... but, then again, I barely used the item shop. Guess I'm just too used to the first 6 8-bit games.

 

[Whistler777]

I love MM9, but I was only able to get to Dr. Wiley's stage, and after that I just had to give up. Still proud of the fact that I made it that far, though.

 

[Brok3n Halo]

Hm, really? I always heard that MM 2 and 3 where the hardest of the core series. I played through those so many times, favorite NES games outside of Zelda. I'd say, in my opinion, the hardest one I played was MM1. That stupid Yellow Devil, had so much trouble dodging the blocks in that game. I haven't really had time to play MM9 yet, it's been sitting on my Wii since release and I really only played it a few times and only for a couple minutes at a time.

I only played one MM game for the GameCube. It was battle network I think and I could only win by cheating, checking Youtube for plays, and luck.

OMG that game was hard, I never made it past the first boss and I've never had trouble with a Mega Man game before. Always meant to get back and take another stab at the game, but never did.

It could be worse. You could be play the Mega Man X series.

Really? I didn't think most that series was that hard, 5 & 6 had their share of infuriating cheap deaths though. The Mega Man Zero series is where they really crank the difficulty. Some of those bosses I scraped by on luck.

 

[Syphonz]

i hate to tell you, Mega Man 9 has additional 2 harder difficulties.. You think its normally controller biting difficult? Super hero mode (i think thats what it is) enjoys making you twitch in frustration. Never in my life have i ever seen a game work so hard to fuck you over, wait no, there is one:

Hearts of Iron trilogy.