This game is as great as it is difficult. I know there are message boards full of negative comments about it being too retro and too difficult. But that’s what gaming was twenty years ago. Beating most games required some skill. So far I have tangled with and defeated Splash Woman, Concrete Man and Galaxy man. Like any good Mega Man game each stage has an interesting obstacle(s) to overcome. Splash Woman’s stage has a section where MM must ride bubbles to move vertically. It can prove troublesome at first but after the 4th or 5th try it becomes easy. The trio of elephats in Concrete Man’s stage are easily toppled if you rush the last two and take some damage in order to pound them with the Mega Buster up close. Lastly the teleportation rings and pincher robots in Galaxy Man’s stage take a little getting used to. Especially the later. The pincher robot continuously dropped me onto or slid me into spikes. All in all this game is great. If you are an old school MM fan do not hesitate to pick it up for any of the the 3 systems. I waited for the 360 version, but I did try the demo on the PS3. The 360′s d-pad is not an issue for me, but I wondered why the “select(back)” and “start” buttons are reversed.
This XBLA game was previously released on the PC. I thought it was going to be phantomware as far as XBLA goes. But it was released yesterday. The subtitle is a HUGE misnomer, there are no real tactics in this game. You move, use shields and shoot. It’s a fun romp for 800 MS points assuming it does not get abandoned like to many XBLA games. The graphics are good and it moves along quickly. The trial version for whatever reason only allowed me to play for about 30 seconds, I found that frustrating. But the full game allows up to 8 players over live and up to 15 bots. I don’t know if there are bots online, but I doubt it. It’s no Mega Man 9 but it is fun.
