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Enemies also stop dropping items that refill your health and ammo. Bosses have new augmented abilities and patterns that make them tougher, and items like E-Tanks (which refill your health) and extra lives that usually litter stages are gone. Superhero mode, meanwhile, is great for someone like me who wants an extra challenge after beating the normal difficulty. Yes, it’s easier, but it won’t make you feel like the game is grabbing your hand and dragging you to victory. Newcomer and casual provide the same game as the normal experience, but you take less damage per hit, and stages have more checkpoints. But I’m glad Capcom has given newer or lapsed players a way to play through the adventure. I’m pretty familiar with the series, so I was comfortable starting with normal mode. Mega Man 11 has four difficulty options: newcomer, casual, normal, and superhero.
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It’s familiar, but it works and comes together to deliver that special brand of 2D action that the franchise excels at. This stuff is like comfort food for the Mega Man fan’s soul. He can turn into a spring that can help you reach high places (and, after you beat the first four bosses, he can turn into a jet that lets you fly for a short while). You also have your robot dog, Rush, available to help out. Each boss gives you a new weapon, and every one of these foes has at least one weakness that you can exploit for easier kills. You can choose to fight the first eight levels and bosses in any order you want. It also has a lot of the other elements fans love about the franchise. Retaining those basic controls goes a long way toward making Mega Man 11 feel as good the series’ best games. Sometimes, a single pixel is the difference between safety and death. But Mega Man also has a lot of shooting and dodging, so it’s important that you can move your hero quickly and precisely. Not that there’s anything wrong with that system, and it serves the 2D Mario formula (which focuses on pure platforming).
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He doesn’t build up momentum or need time to come to a full stop, like Mario does. Despite the new look, Mega Man has the same precision you’d expect from the series.
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