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I’ve Fallen, And I Can’t Get Up

  • Addit
  • 04/03/2015 06:57 AM
  • 5178 views


A Game Made By: Darkflamewolf & jman2050
Created Using: Game Maker
It's A: ACTION PLATFORMER Game
That Roughly Takes Around: 14 - 20 Hours To Complete
And It's A...COMPLETED GAME!!!


The last couple of years haven’t actually really been too kind too our little blue robot boy that hails from the farest Eastern part of the world as of late… And everything was going sooooo well for him, too! He was on the potential rebound with two brand new releases in the classic Mega Man series at the time in Mega Man 9, the first new game released in almost ten whole years (jesus), and Mega Man 10, which also was a pretty good solid game in its own right. Then the news of a potential 3rd entry into the Mega Man: Legends series was also on the horizon – and people nearly lost their shit…!

…So much so that Capcom, now better known now as “Crapcom,” decided to cancel the game, blame all of its fans for all its recent struggles – in the same time screwing itself over for years - and the creator of the series decided to walk out over creative difference with the company and go on to new and better things.



*sigh*


And with that started a whole wide arrange of depressing – almost slightly comical – downward, spiraling events that have not only led to not only just one, not just two – no, you’re pretty close, it’s not quite three – but four, count ‘em four Mega Man games that have been canned in the last couple of years. And some of these looked really, really good, too! Why Capcom – why??? The only somewhat real release of a recent Mega Man game lately happened to be “Street Fighter X Megaman” – and those lazy ba*tards didn’t even make the god damn game in the first place; a bunch of kids made it on their spare time and they just decided to slap their stupid logo on it like they were proud of it, or something. For shame.

I never thought I would ever see the day, but, it looks likes Mega Man’s finally hit rock bottom…dropped into that far away, endless pit for the last time…

…And then, this managed to happen:



- HOLY SHIIIIIIIITTTT!!!


And with that, Mega Man was back. Well…not really back, per say, just…um…”mattered” again.

But with Mega Man now kicking some ass, and taking down some names – what about his own games? Well, although Capcom doesn’t seem to care about him that much nowadays, his fans certainly do. And that’s exactly what authors Darkflamewolf and jman2050 decided to do by making their own classic Mega Man fangame entitled “Mega Man – Revenge Of The Fallen” and stick it to the man! I mean, if we can’t get Capcom to make a new Mega Man game - might as well have someone else do it that’s just as good.

This game actually has had quite a long history behind it, as it’s been in development for almost up to four years before it ended up getting released just last year. The game’s actually had quite a fair bit of success outside the RMN community – and it even got a Featured Game spot back in January! That’s quite the accomplishment.

So, in honor of the little blue robot that just won’t stay down, I dedicate my 40th review to this lovable blue ba*tard by playing a Chinese, knock-off version of the real thing. TIME TO GET EQUIPPED…!!!

…With a USB Controller, that is.

(…What? I’m not playing this with just using a keyboard. What are you, nuts?)

The Story


Mega Man: “Oh, hey, Knight Man! How are things?
Knight Man: Oh, same old, same old... I’m afraid that Wily’s gone senile again…
Mega Man: - You don’t say???


It looks like ol’, Dr. Wily is getting a little bit desperate this time around! Instead of his usual half-baked schemes of building another eight Robot Masters and elaborating a long winded plan to throw Mega Man off guard while he steals something in the process before the inevitable final showdown and getting his ass handed to him again, it looks like his funds and his very own creativity levels might be a little low this time around this year... (Darn.)

But not to fear, as Dr. Wily has always had a backup plan for these sorts of things. Instead of just conjuring up some new robots for Mega Man to destroy, he’s decided to resort to rebuilding some of his old failures creations in an attempt to not only use an viable excuse to reuse and recycle, but to also save himself some much needed cash! And the first Robot Master he decided to bring back: Knightman.

(Knightman? Wha…???)

(Actually, that’s actually not a bad choice. At least it’s not Guts Man.)

Using Knightman as a distraction for Mega Man to go after in the meantime, Dr. Wily decides to ransack the ol’ Robot Master Museum and not only steal the blueprints to build eight of his former Robot Masters back, but decides to go even more crrrrazzzzier by building another two to bring the grand total to a record-setting ten!

Ten Robot Masters? (Wily’s really stepping up his game.)

But not only that, but he’s also managed to rebuild three of Mega Man’s biggest rivals from the ol’ monochrome days in the form of Enker, Punk and Ballade. All three them have learned from their past mistakes, and are looking for a little “revenge”…

Actually, it seems like everybody’s got a personal little beef with our little blue robot boy. Seems like he’s p*ssed a lot of these old robots off over the years.

This may all sound and seem rather familiar on the surface of things, but this time Mega Man’s in for a whole new world of surprises! Can he triumph over these fallen soldiers once more again? Or has Dr. Wily finally brought Mega Man to the breaking point?

The Gameplay


Spikes.
Spikes everywhere.


Mega Man: Revenge Of The Fallen pretty much plays like your standard, classic Mega Man affair where you jump and shoot past stages, destroy whatever the hell is in your way while taking down the Robot Masters at the end of each stage that’s been causing all this havoc and defeat them once again and then take their weapons and then use those said weapons on the next one. It’s that easy!

Wellll…if you’re playing on the Easy Mode, that is.

This game is certainly not for the faint of heart. This game will utterly DESTROY whatever confidence you have left in you and flush your manly (or girly) tears straight down the drain. If you don’t happen to bring your A-game to the table and have a lot – and I mean, a LOT – of patience with you, then this game will probably be one of the worst experiences you will ever have with a video game. And even so on Easy Mode – YOU WILL DIE OVER…AND OVER…AND OVER…AND OVER again and will be sick of looking at Dr. Wily shaking his old money-maker at you.

So why is this game so hard, you ask? Well, Mega Man games have always been difficult in the past, but they’re usually pretty fair, with most of the deaths really being just your own fault and your own carelessness. The problem with this game is not necessarily your fault as it’s more due to the dickish level design, long levels with sporadic checkpoints all the over the place, and some questionable design choices that will leave you screaming more likely than groaning in pain.

The problem mostly stems from the fact that a lot of levels are just way too long in scope and are full of tricky jumps, spikes EVERYWHERE, and some enemies just come out of nowhere to blindside you with you having no real chance on your first try to try and avoid them. It’s like a freakin’ gongshow with some of the shit that goes on here. And what’s worse is that you start the game off with no Rush Coil or any significant upgrades until much later in the game! That’s horse shit! I know that you can’t use Rush because of some stupid, retarded plot device, but, for god sakes man – Rush’s has always been usable in pretty much most of the Mega Man games! Why can’t he be available off the bat? It would definitely help with some of the tricky jumps.

Oh, but you haven’t truly experienced hell until you at least go to Star Man’s level with the f*cked up gravity mechanic. Oh my god…!

Not only are they’re a ton of tricky jumps and spikes in all of the wrong places, but you’ll find that whenever Mega Man jumps up in the air when he’s outside in space that he shoots up like a rocket but slooowly descends back down to Earth with the speed that only a snail could love. This may not sound all that bad in theory, but, trust me, it is. Because your falling speed is so slow, it’s almost impossible to dodge enemy and enemy fire while coming down. And when you do – somehow – managed to get to Star Man, the same mechanic applies to you but not to him, meaning he can move at whatever speed he wants but you don’t! So…good luck on that.

Star Man isn’t the only stage that will have you pulling your hair out; Magnet Man, Tornado Man (god damn, this level…!) and Yamato Man will all punish you in good time. These levels are quite challenging because of very specific level gimmicks – and Tornado Man’s level can go straight outright f**k itself!

But not all the levels are bad. I did quite enjoy Spark Man’s and Pharaoh Man’s stage. Magma Man’s was probably my favorite level out of the bunch, as it had the right mix of not being too hard but just being hard enough. And probably the strangest, and perhaps easiest level to finish was Centaur Man’s level. This level is actually pretty straightforward without any major upgrades and you can probably finish it in under 10 minutes or so with you maybe dying a couple of times, which is what I want to see more of. Even the boss fight is pretty fun! If you have to pick one level to start your adventure off with, you should pick Centaur Man’s level first.

Speaking of boss fights (besides Star Man), perhaps the best part of this game is probably the boss fights against the old Robot Masters. Some of them, like Toad Man, may have been a total pushover before, but they sure aren’t the same Robot Masters that you fought before – oh no! These guys have been given some brand new fighting tactics and will really put you to the test! The great thing is that some of them do start off by using their old tactics against you, but once the fight starts going down some more, you’ll be in for a nasty surprise. These fights are actually a lot of fun! Their patterns do take a while to get to use to, but they can be beat with just using the regular old Mega Buster, and you can probably even beat them without taking a single hit if you practice long and hard enough. Now that’s how good Mega Man bosses are designed!

Unfortunately, my biggest only pet peeve with the bosses are with the ones when you’re facing off against Enker, Punk and Ballade mid-stage. You see, every single couple of Robot Masters that you destroy, you’ll eventually come face-to-face with these guys, similar to the mid-level bosses or the X Hunter bosses in Mega Man X2 and X3. Now, the fights themselves with them aren’t too bad…but if you happen to die and lose all your lives, instead of just starting a step behind the boss’ chamber, you’ll go back even further, sometimes even to the beginning of the stage again. (Now there’s that dickish level design again.)

Now the levels themselves can be a bit easier with the addition of upgrades that you can find in stages, such as E Tanks, Rush, the weapons that you receive, and among others, such as one item that allows you to step on spikes once without getting killed. These items do make the journey a lot easier, but some of them do require some of the other upgrades and various weapons in order to collect them. And some of them are hidden in quite some dangerous spots, so, yeah, the whole dickish level design might test you a little on that.

I like the idea of adding these types of upgrades in these stages, as it’s not really required to beat the game but it’s also a nice incentive to look out for them if you’re having trouble with a particular stage or boss. The only problem is that since the levels are waaaay too long and are already full of ridiculous things that finding some of them might drive you up a wall yourself. (Luckily, the authors were kind enough to include a handy spoiler map section in the game’s contents folder if you’re having some trouble locating some of these items.)

As for some of the weapons that you’ll be acquiring, at first glance, when I found out what exact Robot Masters were going to be in this game and what weapons you were going to be getting, I died a little inside. However, to my absolute surprise, some of these weapons have been given some pretty big upgrades over their original counterparts. For example, do any of you remember how incredibly lame the Star Crash was in Mega Man 5? Yeah, that piece of shit shield was only ever useful in that one part in Crystal Man’s stage, and maybe fighting Gravity Man. Well, in this game, the shield doesn’t disappear when it touches smaller enemies and is pretty powerful when firing it at incoming opponents in front of you. Now that’s awesome; it’s almost as good as the Jewel Satellite from Mega Man 9! Not only that, but the Yamato Spear, from Yamato Man, if you fire the weapon at a wall, will act as a little platform for additional support, kind of like the Super Arrow from Mega Man 5. That’s so badass – and extremely helpful! Even Toad Man’s Rain Flush weapon has an amazing, helpful effect in Magma Man’s stage that might help you out quite a bit.

Control wise though, this game actually controls rather flawlessly and is pretty faithful to the classic Mega Man games that we all know and love. Jumping and shooting seems pretty precise; the walking animation, although a little bit stiff, looks pretty good – and, ooooo, it even has the slide and the charge shot from Mega Man 3 and 4! Yes! You can even alter the controls in the options menu and, if you have a USB controller handy, you can even use that as well. That’s awesome!

This is also probably one of the longest Mega Man games to complete, as it took me almost around 18 hours to complete all the Robot Master stages, grab most of the upgrades, baring a few that I missed, and finish all the eight (oh boy) Dr. Wily stages, which is another world record setter.

You know, I always thought in the back of my mind and kinda wondered what a Mega Man game would be like if it were longer to finish and didn’t take more than just a single sitting or two to complete, but after playing this game and seeing how long it took me to finally finish it on my first try, I kinda like to take back that initial thought. You see, combined with everything that I’ve gone through, this game just seemed to drag on too long and started losing some of its shine along the way and really beat me down. If this game was a lot shorter, which helps a bit slightly if you play the game on the Easy Mode, and only took around maybe 4 – 8 hours to finish, then I would have been cool with that. But this game is just a grindfest to the end. I appreciate the effort that these two wanted to go for and add a lot more content to the package, but I kinda feel that they overdid it quite a bit.

The Soundtrack


- Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!


Probably one of the most disappointing things that you’ll find when you first turn the game on is that none of the game’s music uses traditional, high quality versions of the songs that you know and love from the series. Instead, Mega Man: Revenge Of The Fallen uses MIDI tracks for its music with some pretty questionable results. In some cases, they work pretty good and do its job, and on others it can get pretty degrading. For example, Yamato Man’s theme doesn’t seem to have the kick that it does with the regular version and it has this annoying tone to it in the notes that doesn’t sound quite right. Also, since Yamato Man’s stage is very long and very frustrating, you’re going to hear that song repeat over-and-over again and you’ll start hearing what I mean. Similar case happens with Magma Man, as there’s also this strange, higher pitch tone in the song that sounds kind of off. It’s just a shame that the authors couldn’t use the MP3 versions of the songs and really deliver that old sense of charm.

Sound effects are a bit of an interesting story in regards to the charge shot. You see, when you’re charging your Mega Buster in the actual games, the noise used is quite loud and can be actually pretty annoying and sometimes even cut in with the music, but it is pretty iconic. This game doesn’t use the traditional charge shot as it uses another type of sound effect that’s a lot more quieter in sound and is actually a very nice alterative. It sounds a bit off when you first to listen to it if you’ve played the classic Mega Man games, but it grows on you after a while and I actually like it.

Jumping and shooting and enemy sounds are all lifted straight out of the source material, so that’s a good thing. It’s just a shame that all the badass music couldn’t go along with it.

The Aesthetics


“Um…little help?”


Graphically speaking, this game, even though it uses various rips throughout, uses the whole classic graphical style quite well and really not only looks great but also fits with the whole nostalgic setting. Enemy animations and bosses move extremely fluid. And, although Mega Man’s iconic walking animation looks a bit stiff here, even he himself looks and acts just like the classic games. I even love the fact that the some of the areas of the stages even match the original parts and patterns of the original Robot Master stages, which is also a very nice touch. Oh, and there’s even some animated backdrops used, like the gears twisting and moving in Spark Man’s stage, for example, which also looks incredibly great when you come across them. I think the only real thing that I can complain about is Magnet Man’s stage, particularly the basement portions, all have this ugly ass brown color palette which seems to blend in with a lot of things and some of the stage hazards and really doesn’t look that appealing. But, then again, this is the exact same color palette used for his stage in Mega Man 3, so…meh.

The End Result


“’Cause I’m awesome.”


Playing Mega Man: Revenge Of The Fallen was like riding a rollercoaster full of various different degrees of sharp turns, little highs, huge lows, and that little secret camera thing that likes to take people’s pictures on the way down after the ride is over just to see how unbelievably stupid you looked coming down that last drop. Clearly, this game left me filled with all kinds of different emotions. This game WILL kick your ass! And not only once, but almost 1100 different times. You will take an unbelievable beating before your day is done here – and that’s just the normal mode.

But, just like one of my earlier reviews with another tough as nails game to beat, Castles – Masterpiece Set, this game IS doable and beatable with the right level of patience, precision, and a whole hell of a lot of extra lives. So it’s not completely impossible, but it is hard.

It’s a real shame that the level design is the way that it is though, because if it wasn’t for the levels being a real pain in the ass with its love of spikes, bottomless pits, leaps of faith jumps, bad enemy placements and checkpoints that just seem to spawn you in weird places at times, not to mention each level maybe taking you almost around an hour to complete on your first try, then this game would be a much more enjoyable experience. And although there is a difficultly option available to lessen a bit of that blow, you’ll still face quite a lot of shit. The game truly doesn’t get better until you start acquiring some of the upgrades and some of Robot Master weapons that this game does get a bit more entertaining around then, but for some people, it might be a bit too late.

Still, Mega Man: Revenge Of The Fallen is a good game, and a well done Mega Man fangame for sure, but it’s far from being a great game. If you’re a fan of Mega Man, especially the classic series, or you’re one of those people looking for a challenging platformer to play, then definitely give this a try. More casual fans, I would recommend probably skipping this in favor of something a little bit more easier until you’ve gotten enough experience to handle this beast.



Continue to rock on, good buddy.

OVERALL GRADE:
3 / 5 - C ~ Just Makes The Cut.

Posts

Pages: 1
Darkflamewolf
2178
04/04/2015 03:42 AM
I can understand your complaints about the spikes. It seems to be a common one. But I made sure most of it was fair and not cheap. Not sure which version you reviewed, but I knew ver 1.4.1 removed quite a few unfair spots and ver 1.3 before that revamped a ton of spike spots so that it was far more balanced for platforming. Regardless, this is your opinion and you are entitled to it. I agree the robot master stages can get a little long in the tooth but I noticed you mentioned very little of the final 8 Wily stages, which I've read in many other reviews or comments, as being a very strong point to the game. Like a great reward for slogging through the RM stages.
Good review regardless.
Addit
6394
04/07/2015 07:47 AM
Yeah, I didn’t really mention much about the Dr. Wily stages because at the time that I started writing this review (which was, if you could believe it, back in early March) I was on the 3rd Dr. Wily stage and I thought I would just write a little ways in and come back to it and update it once I completed the game. Because I didn’t get a chance to officially finish it until around 3 weeks later because of my busy schedule as of late, I just decided to quickly proofread and edit a few things here and there and just throw it out there so I could finally move on, since this game has been on the backburner for me for almost around three months.

Overall, the Dr. Wily stages weren’t quite as long as the regular Robot Masters stages – but, man, were they harrrrrd!!! (I really seriously should have played this on the Easy Mode…) Some of the boss battles, especially that last one, took me quite a while to beat and I almost pulled my freakin’ hair out that I was dying so freakin’ much! The two energy tanks that I collected earlier helped, but man that was still tough...! I didn’t mind a couple of the Dr. Wily stage boss fights, like that turtle boss from Mega Man 7, but those last two stages were pretty hard.

Also, how come you placed additional upgrades, like Mini E-Tanks, in the Dr. Wily stages? Usually the final stages don’t have any upgrades to collect. But it’s not so much of a big deal, since I managed to collect most of the upgrades that I needed from the Robot Master stages earlier.

I’m sorry about the overall score and I hope that you’re not super offended by it. I did like the game, really, I did! It just really wasn’t for me. Perhaps it’s just because I’m getting a bit older now and all my reflexes aren’t quite as good as they used to be, or probably it was because I was just so sparingly playing this game because of my busy schedule as of late that the whole game felt a lot longer than it should.

Either way, you guys should be really proud of yourselves. I actually was REEEEEALLLLLY close on giving this a 3.5, but something in my head last minute said “No,” and I left it the way it was.

Thanks for responding back, though. :)
Isrieri
"My father told me this would happen."
6155
04/07/2015 08:01 AM
author=Addit
Oh, but you haven’t truly experienced hell until you at least go to Star Man’s level with the f*cked up gravity mechanic. Oh my god…!

Have you watched the LP I did of this Addit because I AM THERE WITH YOU BRO. I FEEL THAT PAIN. The delicious pain.

And yes. Very good review.
Addit
6394
04/07/2015 08:13 AM
I think I watched a little bit of that when you were doing Toad Man’s level, but I don’t think I saw the Star Man one.

- I think I’m actually going to go watch that part right now, actually, lol.

EDIT:


@ 7:34 – 7:40

CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
04/07/2015 09:50 AM
Oh my gosh haha you're very charismatic Isrieri. Also... that noise you make at 7:48. LOL xD
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32367
04/07/2015 10:12 AM
Good grief, those spikes are ridiculous.
Darkflamewolf
2178
04/07/2015 01:09 PM
Those actually have been toned down in later versions. Its not four spikes but now two there. The outer two were removed. He played on a rather old version. So its nowhere near as bad as it looks.
And why would I be mad at your review? Its constructive, its complete and it wasn't trolling. So I respect your honest opinion.
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