Note: This has spoilers. If you don't like spoilers, don't read ahead.
This seems as good a place to do my thoughts on MM10 as any... I've beaten the game already but that's not a bad thing really, as the other Mega Man games are beatable in 1-2 hours usually as well.
Major things that stood out to me:
-This game IS a lot harder than Mega Man 9, especially if you play it on Difficult mode...
-...until you get boss weapons. Basically the bosses are very overpowered (i mean, they either absorb your attacks or move 5 times your speed, it's like half of them were made with sliding in mind, good one Capcom!) but if you use the special weapon they're weak to, their attack just crumbles. Having trouble with Nitro man? Freeze Man's attack freezes him and hits him for stupid damage if you use it as spikes. Pump Man's shield puts out Solar Man's flame, his attack, and does stupid damage to him.. the list goes on.
-Pump man's weapon is actually really neat and I'd love to see something like that again.. but the ball weapon is just another "shoot it in x direction" weapon that bounces off walls quickly. It's my least-used weapon. The others are so-so.. like how Nitro Man's weapon lets you climb walls, but I only really used it 2-3 times. Other weapons are OK, but not really as interesting as MM9's.
-The "robot copy" bosses in Wily Stage 1 were amazingly cool and fun. This is the kind of stuff I like.
-WILYS TEH BAD GUYZ AGAIN and it was kind of obvious but I was hoping they'd do SOMETHING different. Wily is also kind of a good guy at the end (?) leaving all the roboenza pills on his bed.. maybe a thanks to Mega Man? I really wanted a scene at the end with Wily saying something like "The virus is almost ready.. soon, Zero" or something that might connect this to MMX, but no. This seemed like a great chance to show that Wily was working on a maverick virus..
**note i have not played as proto man yet, might be different for him, will play tomorrow**
-The final boss had OK music, but it didn't really draw me in. The setting looked goofily epic for something that hadn't been hyped up by the story at all.
-I do like how they had 4 different boss themes (regular, Wily castle, skull boss, wily). The skull boss theme was OK, but the others were strange. Regular bosses sounded too slow and hopeful or happy, not crazy enough, especially since most of them are way faster than you.
-The final level intro was neat, and the upside-down level was also neat. Wily's castle looked badass.
Minor Nitpicky Things:
GRAPHICS: These were overall a lot better than Mega Man 9's. Not nearly as many "simple patterened 16x16 squares" like in MM9.. the only thing I don't like is that a lot of the backgrounds were plain black like in some MM9 levels, and in one instance it would have been easy to do some faux parallax with the mountains in the background in one level as they were near the top of the screen, but that'd seem "un-8bit" probably.
SOUND THINGS:
Some sounds don't interrupt when they should. Actually a lot. Others interrupt when they shouldn't. I'm wondering if Capcom messed up here unintentionally? Examples:
Sand in Commando Man's level makes a PFPFPFPPFPFPF sound on the noise channel, but it doesn't interrupt the drums in the music. However, it does interrupt some sound effects that aren't on the noise channel...? weird. This also happens with the Nitro Man weapon sound effect, and with a few others.
The triangle is aliased. Sort of. Like they were trying to make it sound JUST aliased enough so people like me wouldn't go HEYY ITS NOT ALIASED, but not quite enough to be noticeable if you weren't looking for it. It certainly is not as loud of an aliasing as an NES.
The BEEP BEEEP sounds in Nitro Man use 3 squares. Even if they didn't, squares from the music aren't interrupted.
Noise is still messed-up sounding, they didn't change anything from MM9 in terms of how they generate it I bet.
MUSIC: --a quick rundown of all the themes and how i feel about them?
PUMP - Arps at the beginning sound kind of neat and set the mood, but wait, this is in a Mega Man game?? The rest of the song doesn't really stick in my mind at all. Hate the gratuitous use of pitchbends. Some chords seem very drawn out, like the artist couldn't figure out what to do.
SOLAR - This sounds kinda nice and fits the level really well. I don't like the triangle tom overuse at the beginning (Inti Creates seems to think that the more triangle toms, the more Mega Man it is!) but the rest of the song sounds crazy and oppressive, which is exactly what this level looks like. I wish they hadn't used arps later on in the song, but it fits the "craziness," just not the "mega man."
BLADE - OK the chords / harmony at the beginning sounds AWFUL and the bass doesn't fit either. Worst intro to a song ever. However the rest of the song sounds blandly appropriate until 0:36 in, and it starts to pick up a bit, still some off-sounding harmonies here, but it's not too bad.
STRIKE - HATE THIS SONG SO MUCH THE ENTIRE THING IS BULLSHIT- ok maybe I overreacted, but no really I didn't. Hate the theme, hate the intro (sounds like it's trying to be something it's not?) and I hate, hate hate, hate HATE, HATE the part from :46 - :58. Honestly it'd sound better as a capella like.. dur durr dr durrrr oh you get it
NITRO - I am glad this isn't the theme song (title) because it kind of fits the level, but it's not the greatest song. It falls apart completely after the opening and just isn't interesting in any way. Nice nevermoving bass there.
COMMANDO - I'm not gonna lie, this is probably my favorite of the regular stage themes. It has a melody you can follow, and the Konamiesque POWAR CORDZ that come in actually fit the theme! They rely too much on the 12.5% square though. I really want to hear a redone version of this song done with a 25% one for the melody... hmm I'll get on that maybe.
SHEEP - I said that Nitro Man's song had the worst intro ever. This one is close. I just don't know what's going on with that. The rest of the song is pleasant to listen to but doesn't really make me remember it either.
CHILL - Another stinker intro. We need fewer of these. Anyway the rest of the song sounds disjoint at times, kind of like notes were slapped in there. :32-:44 sounds like the Mega Man 2 title theme but FLIPD ON ITS HEAD and made to sound lame. :58 - 1:04 sounds neat until the "melody" comes in, which just sounds like random notes again.
WILY stage 0.5 - The youtube video has the "rain" sound effect for this, and it's annoying as hell. If you pause the game it goes away. This is another instance of noise channel not being properly muted. Anyway, this is a neat idea in that it is just leading up to a boss.
WILY stage 1 - The beginning almost made me think I was playing, I dunno, Contra sans DPCM. Anyway this isn't a terrible song, but it doesn't make me remember it too well either. The second square (harmony) is busy LIKE A BEE in this one for a lot of it, but it sounds really plain.
WILY stage 2 - The intro is hilarious. I didn't know Wily had that much sass. Another OK song that is somewhat forgettable.
WILY stage 3 - Same as wily 2 in that it is there, it is music, and yet I don't remember a bit of it However it's well-constructed and all that. Like, from Mega Man 9, you had the song "We're the Robots!" and I remembered that one from the first time I played it... nothing here
WILY stage 4 - It's trying to be Mega Man Wily Stage 2 with those drums and chords for the intro... but then goes into something else. This is again just there and I don't really remember it. Where's my Mega Man 3 Wily 2 theme? Instantly recognizable, instantly hummable. Nothing here.
WILY stage 5 - This one is short and kind of empty sounding. I like the periodic noise sound effects here, and the triangle beep.. sounds like a spaaaccceeee stttaaatttion but I don't really remember the theme here either... sad.
BOSS THEME - The intro sounds OK, not really too menacing, but I guess they thought "hey, these are regular bosses, not Wily ones!" Anyway, after the OK intro, we get some long drawn out melody that repeats a couple times, no sense of urgency. Oh, doesn't matter that Blade Man is flying around the room at 100mph, music says to sit back and relax... that I'm Fighting For My Honor or something. Around like 30 seconds in it kind of reinforces that with the echoey section.
KILLED BOSS / SELECTED A BOSS - it's like Mega Man 2 but cooler sounding. These wouldn't be in a Mega Man game of the 90s, but they do sound pretty neat.
WILY BOSS - Intro gives the feeling of "oh shit it's a boss" that I want, but more stupid arps. After this we get another weird melody that doesn't fit like the first boss theme, then a strange section. It has a countermelody deal going on with some of the worst harmony ever behind it, then some neat power chords that totally do fit. Weird hodgepodge.
SKULL BOSS - Pretty decent stuff here. Intro says THIS IS A BIG BOSS AND IT WILL BE HARD. Even though it really wasn't. But it was pretty awesome looking, especially the lightning attack in part 2. Some more annoying arps here in this song, but it's not terrible. The best boss theme of the 4.
WILY - 2nd best boss theme. Sounds epic, but for no reason. The melody halfway through the song is great - this is where the song hits its stride. The intro is kind of strange, I don't really like it though.
As a side note it'd be neat to put my MM9.5 stuff to this game to see how well it fits? Too bad you can't disable the music.
OK I'M DONE FOR NOW. Will play again tomorrow as Proto Man.
Wily stage 4 is like in Megaman 9, where you have to clear the short stage to get to a teleporter room where you can fight any of the 8 bosses in any order you want.
Rushjet: I agree with everything, to be honest I'm not happy with this soundtrack as a whole.e
I have all the instruments and sound effects ripped in .WAV files right now, I'm about to "recreate" some of them as Famitracker instruments, but it's true. There's one sound effect that used 2 noise sounds at once.
Capcom got SERIOUSLY lazy in this sound department. This whole game feels like a fricken fan game to me. I'm so upset by it that I'm very much leaning on not doing a full-soundtrack remake because of it.
I agree with the in depth review of the music by rushjet (I have not actually played MM10). It's not that the music is bad sounding, it just does not measure up to the MM standards that these games usually bring. None of it sticks in my head, it is not catchy enough except for moments here and there. I do like Wily stage 3 & 5 somewhat. The Proto man shop theme caught my ear as well. I would be interested to see a fami soundtrack if made.
Rushjet: I agree with everything, to be honest I'm not happy with this soundtrack as a whole.e
I have all the instruments and sound effects ripped in .WAV files right now, I'm about to "recreate" some of them as Famitracker instruments, but it's true. There's one sound effect that used 2 noise sounds at once.
Capcom got SERIOUSLY lazy in this sound department. This whole game feels like a fricken fan game to me. I'm so upset by it that I'm very much leaning on not doing a full-soundtrack remake because of it.
How exactly did you rip it? I've been trying to rip the whole soundtrack via .wad ripping, and I can only seem to get the .brsar out of it.
I didn't rip it, someone I knew ripped it for me. The "drums" are pretty weak in this.. I wonder who wrote the music for this game, surely it wasn't any of the MM9 composers. I mean I hear some similarities but for the most part, most of the music is just...not Mega Man-like at all. I'm pretty bumbed out by it to be honest. I mean I would rank this soundtrack as low, or even lower than Mega Man 8. Sure there are one or two memorable themes but there aren't any that I'd be humming later in the day for no apparent reason like I did for any other Mega Man.
Should I update my Mega Man Medley to include an MM10 song?
Tssf, I don't believe there's any reason to attempt to include these songs. Most of them just sound so disjointed from the rest of the series that it would stick out. Knowing you, I'm sure you'd be able to find an excellent way to work it in, though. If you wanted to go for it I'd say try to work in Nitro Man's theme, since that theme is the one that comes to mind everytime I think of MM10.
That being said, the soundtrack reminds me of how MM6 and 8 were to me. The tracks weren't very good to me at first, but as I listened they grew on me. After I grow to accept it, none of them ever stick in my head. I try to remember how a certain theme goes and nothing comes to mind (unless it's Chill Man's god awful opening). Luckily the gameplay and difficulty makes up for most of it in my opinion. I found myself muting the TV and playing your We're the Robots cover as I played Wily Stage 2 on difficult mode. I managed to get significantly farther, mostly because the music didn't keep restarting to the intro every time I constantly died.
I'm tempted to redo a couple of these in a more mega man style, like changing timings and some melodies of songs maybe. Maybe Nitro Man, Commando Man, Solar Man.
OK so I'm a super nerd for doing this but.. after an hour or so of fun, did the attached file. I'll finish it later probably.
Volumes could be terrible and I'd never know it thanks to headphones and the horrible-quality youtube vids for source. Anyway here's kind of an idealized "not Mega Man 2 sounding" version of this song. Notice that I don't use the 12.5% wave for the melody, and that I brought down the second part by an octave.
This is the same song as above, just modified a little. Changed octaves on a few more sections. Melody is basically always an octave lower now. One of the volumes was corrected too.
Edit: ALSO I'm thinking of doing a supern106/fds/dpcm cover of the wily capsule song... it's grown on me I think.
I wonder who wrote the music for this game, surely it wasn't any of the MM9 composers. I mean I hear some similarities but for the most part, most of the music is just...not Mega Man-like at all.
You want to know who was responsible for this soundtrack? Here it goes:
Ryo Kawakami, Hiroki Isogai, Yu Shimoda... and here comes the real shocker:
Manami Matsumae(Mega Man, Mega Man 2)
Yasuaki "Bunbun" Fujita(Mega Man 3 & 4)
Minae "Ojalin" Fujii(Mega Man 4)
Mari Yamaguchi(Mega Man 5)
Yuko Takehara(Mega Man 6 & 7)
Makoto Tomozawa(Mega Man 7)
Shusaku Uchiyama(Mega Man 8 )
Akari Kaida(Mega Man & Bass)
Ippo Yamada(Mega Man 9).
This surprises me to no end. I only really like four songs out of the entire soundtrack. I'm going to guess and say that Bunbun composed the shop theme for Proto Man. It sounds a bit like Darkwing Duck and Mega Man 4. That sounded good. This soundtrack, so far, is getting mixed responses, with most of them being negative.
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Thanks for listening!
-Linker2A03
Played as protoman. Story is the same, but Protoman is a bit more badass, like wanting to leave Wily to die, etc. He also has one story cutscene where he gets the virus and Mega Man somehow has a cure for him. Mega Man got the virus too, so how is he well enough to get the cure? The only cure? that roll gave him? They left out the "Mega Man is getting sick" part, so maybe he didn't get sick? But then why did they leave in the part where wily is like "are you SURE you're not getting sick, Mega Man?" This wasn't too well thought out.
However it's well-constructed and all that. Like, from Mega Man 9, you had the song "We're the Robots!" and I remembered that one from the first time I played it... nothing here 
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