Start ordering some extra controllers...
(Full Disclosure: This review was written by somebody with no previous experience playing any old school Mega Man games and so perhaps my skills were not up to scratch)
Picture the scene. There you are, sitting on the stage select screen of Mega Man 10, pondering over who of Dr Wiley's latest batch ridiculous looking henchman to tackle first. Their portraits all glaring back at you with very annoyed expressions on their faces, as though they were quickly discarded Christmas presents seeking revenge. Should you go for PUMP MAN or STRIKE MAN or maybe SHEEP MAN (yes Sheep Man!), the choice is just too ridiculous to make. You shut your eyes before quickly rotating the Left thumb stick in every direction and slamming the A button on your 360 controller. You picked BLADE MAN. He jumps into the middle of the screen looking like a tube of lipstick with arms and legs, swiping his little blades like he's got something to prove. Your confidence grows. Your like "okay BLADE MAN come get some!".
Ten minutes later and with no real progress towards firing a well placed blaster shot right between his little pink eyes your patience has begun to wear thin. The menagerie of enemies each robot master has under it's command seem solely designed with one purpose in mind, to make your life a living hell. Axes with eyes seem hell bent on following you around, smashing every single ounce of willpower out of your little blue hero. Stupid yellow spiders descend from the ceiling and land on you with incredible precision before continuing to pounce with an amazing ability to predict your movements, slowly corralling you into a row of gleaming yellow spikes. Tiny little pink boxes, which at first appear inanimate and docile, pop up up like springs when shot, deflecting your bullets. I don't want to belabour this point to much but the enemy designs in Mega Man 10 do seem to be designed pretty sadistically. As you cautiously make your way through each of the 8 robot stages and then beyond, the chips always feel stacked against you. The fact that the majority of the enemies have cute little eyes that stare back at you just seemed to heighten my impulse to take a large bite out of my 360 controller whenever they killed me. Because of this you never really feel mega but more like a frightened little schoolchild who has accidentally opened the wrong door and fallen into some kind of robot infested labyrinth. Perhaps this is how Mega Man is meant to be but it did not make for a very enjoyable experience on the Normal difficulty mode.
Luckily for novices like me Capcom, after much backlash over the difficulty of Mega Man 9, has added in an easy difficulty mode into Mega Man 10. This newly integrated easy mode not only makes the bad guys easier to kill but it actually changes the levels. These changes are not hugely drastic in terms of the geometry of the levels, instead adding extra platforms to cover those god-damn metal spikes. This addition proved absolutely vital for a series novice like myself. Not only did it allow me actually get a bit more of my moneys worth by allowing me to finish the game without having too many bite marks in my 360 controller, it also significantly improved my Mega Man skills, making me more confident to take on the higher difficulty levels (albeit with limited success at the moment, but I'm getting better). Because of this easy mode I actually ended up having a rather enjoyable time going through Mega Man 10.
Mega Man 10 is a game for people who hate other people. The kind of person that would willingly lock themselves away in a dark room and run through this game over and over again in the quickest time possible, the kind of person who would learn the movement patterns of enemies, the kind of person who would legitimately think to themselves "Hey I could get the 'Mr Perfect' achievement", an achievement which requires the player to complete the entire game without getting hit. This is why I both love it and hate it. On one hand the game is built in such a way, even with the introduction of an easier difficulty level, that makes me want to walk out onto the street and curse Capcom's name to the heavens. But on the other hand, as a time piece, it is absolutely fascinating to see the remnants of a bygone era. That is exactly what Mega Man 10 is. They don't make games like this any more, probably for good reason, but I still think it's great that Capcom put it out. Just to remind us that gamers today have come to take things like checkpoints and fairness for granted. I salute you old Mega Man players and the fact that you are still alive.