Mega Man: Revenge of the Fallen

Disclaimer: This review may contain spoilers as to stage design, weapons, hidden things, bosses and possibly their weaknesses.

A few years ago Mega Man Unlimited was released to the Mega Man fan community. I felt that Unlimited became the gold standard for what fan made Mega Man games should be, and Unlimited was so good at what it did I was afraid nothing could hold a candle to it... and then came Revenge of the Fallen.

Controls:

The first thing I want to address is the controls of Revenge of the Fallen (RotF for short). Mega Man fan games are often riddled with poor or frustrating controls, or just controls that don't match up to the mainstream Mega Man games. Often, fan games have issues like not being able to control the height of your jumps, falling too fast, moving slightly too fast or slow or difficulty inching your way to the edge of a platform. The controls in Unlimited made it feel like I was playing a mainstream Mega Man game, and the controls in RotF are just as good. How I visualize and plan for Mega Man moving in my head, I can do in the game, because the controls mirror the mainstream Mega Man games so well.

The underwater physics seem fine, but the outer space physics will feel really wonky at first. I can understand the purpose of wanting Star Man's stage to play differently than water stages, but I couldn't help but laugh the first time I jumped in Star Man's stage. It's not bad, but it does take a little getting used to, and I actually like the different physics here.

Music:

Generally speaking, 99% of the time I don't like remixed or remade music. I don't know what it is, but I always seem to like the original version far better than remixed tunes. I'm not a huge nostalgia goggles type of person either. I don't think the first thing is the best simply because it's first (ex. I don't think Pokemon Red/Blue are the best Pokemon games). But when it comes to music I just generally don't like remixed versions of other tunes.

With that said, the remixed music in RotF is AMAZING. I never thought I would like so much remixed music, and like them better than the original tunes. Centaur Man, Yamato Man, Magma Man, and Knight Man are just some of stage themes that I just can't stop enjoying. And the boss battle theme? I love it more than most boss fight themes of any Mega Man games. It's so catchy and leaves a lasting memory for me, and I enjoy it about as much as the Mega Man ZX Advent boss theme. Tornado Man's theme, however, I did not enjoy. Sorry, but I don't think I'll ever find a remixed version that I like better than the original.

Difficulty:

I think difficulty is a huge factor in fan made Mega Man games. Mega Man veterans like myself will probably find the mainstream games pretty easy after playing them the billionth time. What I look for in a fan game is something that is challenging but fair. There's difficulty in the sense that I'm not going to get through this on my first try, and there's difficulty in the sense that the challenges in the game are so difficult and there's so much sections that require pinpoint jumping or enemies placed in ways that you're almost guaranteed to take damage, and no amount of practice will make it easier. Revenge of the Fallen fits somewhere in the middle. Stages feel difficult, and some parts feel insane, but at the end of the day I can't say that any of it was overbearing. There are a few things that I thought were a little over the top, such as the battle against Punk, but after replaying the game again, it didn't feel as difficult as the first time. To me, that's the sign of good difficulty and design.

I'm not going to complain about the game being too difficult (unless I felt it was difficult for the wrong reasons), but rather, I would be more upset about a Mega Man game that I thought was too easy. Take Mega Man X Street Fighter for instance. I tried it once and never had the desire to pick it up again or even finish the game. Why? I beat the first 3 stages I went to without even getting a game over or finding the appropriate special weapons for the bosses. It was too easy for me, and I lost all desire to play a Mega Man game that couldn't present me with a challenge after 3 stages. My real issue here is that Capcom endorsed Mega Man X Street Fighter when they really should be endorsing Revenge of the Fallen and Unlimited.

Stage Design:

The first thing you'll notice is that these stages are LONG. I would be mentioning this as a design flaw and how it makes the game difficult for wrong reasons. However, if you get a game over and select continue, you will start at the half way point or the boss room of the stage you were just at. In my opinion, this balances the lengthy stages and makes them much more manageable.

Looking at things from a design perspective (as I often do when reviewing a game), the lengthy stages are somewhat necessary to accommodate the alternate paths in every stages. Every stage has alternate routes where you can pick up special upgrades. A lot of times it takes certain weapons or utilities to get through these alternate paths. While this does cause a lot of backtracking through lengthy stages, I love it. It adds a lot of replayability to the Mega Man formula which already presents good replayability on its own.

Bosses and Weapons:

The robot masters in this game are ones from past Mega Man games, so nothing new here, or so it seems. The attack patterns of all the robot masters has been redone, giving each of them new twists on their old attacks and giving them new techniques entirely. I think the balance here is perfect. The robot masters have enough attacks to make them interesting and fun to battle, but no so many where you feel overloaded on trying to figure out how to dodge bosses that have way too many attacks.

The weapons have also been remade a bit, some of them providing different utility features as well (ex. the Yamato Spear acts like Super Arrow from Mega Man 5). The alternate uses to the weapons is a great twist. What I don't like about the weapons is the overall selection we have. Three of the weapons you get (Rain Flush, Tornadow Blow, and Centaur Flash) are all screen wiping weapons. Yes, you get three screen wiping weapons in this game. Alternate functions aside, that's too many screen wiping weapons. The utility purposes are nice, but having a lot of weapons (and it's not just those three) that serve too many overlapping purposes for combat just makes for a mediocre set of weapons. I would have liked to have seen a little more variety in the weapon uses for combat, as most of the weapons shoot something straight forward or are a screen wiping weapon. Star Crash, the main barrier weapon, is really nice (and borderline too powerful), but power stone functions almost like a weaker barrier weapon. There's other similarities, but I think you get the idea.

Wily Stages:

After going through 11 wonderfully designed robot master stages (I'm counting Knight Man too), I felt a bit of a let down by the Wily Stages, for a few reasons. First, alternate paths, they're back, and the alternate routes contain E-tank, W-tank, and M-tank upgrades. I don't like this, at all. To me, you should be collecting these upgrades in the robot masters stages and be fully powered up going into the final fortress stages of a Mega Man game. Here, you're collecting more mini-E tanks which increase the number of E-tanks you have access to after you get a game over. The E-tanks and such work a bit differently in this game, which I like. Collect 4 mini-E tanks and you will have an E-tank to use everytime you have to continue from a game over. No need to revisit stages to stock up on E-tanks or buy them from a shop. This is a great design as it keeps you focused on the main action parts of Mega Man rather than farming for stuff. This is also why I don't like the mini E-tanks and such in the Wily Stages, but maybe it's just me.

Also, I found most of the Wily stages somewhat bland in design compared to the robot master stages. There are some neat ideas, but those feel like they're few and far betweeen, and rather than focusing on the "OMG I'm traversing through the tough, final stages, working towards the final showdown with Wily" aspect, instead, I find myself concerned about alternate paths and collectibles. The first 2 bosses in the Wily Stages also felt much harder the other bosses. I feel the boss order should be a bit different, because the rest of the Wily stage bosses felt like a let down (in terms of difficulty) compared to the first two. And without going into too much detail, I thought a couple of the attacks of the first 2 bosses were too difficult to dodge properly on a consistent basis, especially for the ramming attack of the 2nd stage boss. I know what I have to do to dodge it (slide back and forth quickly), the problem is that you have to execute that too quickly and rapidly. It's not that it can't be dodged, it's that it seems too difficult to dodge properly on a consistent basis, and that's something I'd consider bad design.

Conclusion:

Revenge of the Fallen is a wonderful fan game with tons of fun and unique stage design, enjoyable remixed music, and great redesigned robot masters. It presents a great balance of fun, challenge, and replayability for veteran Mega Man players looking for more Mega Man adventures. This is the type of stuff Capcom should be making, or at the very least, endorsing it and putting it on consoles. Much applause to DarkFlameWolf and everyone involving in the making of Revenge of the Fallen. There were a few minor things I didn't like about the game regarding the weapons and Wily stages. As such, I give this game a very solid 4.5/5.0, and I can be happy knowing that Mega Man Unlimited is no longer the lone king of Mega Man fan games.