The Mega Man 11 demo released on the Nintendo Switch yesterday and while it mostly feels like old-school Mega Man, a tiny change to how doors work somehow makes it feel like not-Mega Man.
If you’ve ever played a Mega Man game, you’ve probably jumped into a boss door at one point either on purpose or by accident. Even since 1987’s Mega Man, doors have worked strangely. They’re basically trigger points that start a transition to the next screen when you touch them. Hit the door and the screen scrolls to the right and into the next room. The scrolling also carries Mega Man across the screen, no matter where he’s at. This meant that you could jump at a door and get dragged mid-air into the boss room.
It looked a little silly, but if you’re like me, you probably did it a lot. In fact, let’s be honest, it’s the only way to go through boss doors.
But if you jump into the boss door leading to the fight with Block Man in the Mega Man 11 demo, you’re in for a disappointment. Instead of getting yoinked into the room, Mega Man drops to the ground and walks through the open door. Where’s the fun in that? Door shenanigans are a staple of the series, lasting through the Mega Man X games as well. Even when the hallways got smaller and there was hardly any room to jump, you could still manage to pull off the strange door trick.
It’s funny how something so small can make things feel less “Mega Man.” Leaping into doors like a dope and getting pulled magically through the air is part of the series at this point. If I don’t have that, and just have a game with buster pellets and robot masters, how do I really know it’s a Mega Man game?
Since Mega Man 11 is still in development, let’s hope this is fixed before it comes out on October 2nd.
Comments
9 responses to “Mega Man 11’s Doors Are Screwed Up And I Don’t Know What’s Real Anymore”
I’m not a Mega Man expert, I’ve briefly played some of the X and Zero games. But I totally second this.
What!? Jumping through a door is my sacred ritual for guaranteeing a good boss fight. It’s like they want me to lose now…
What is this blasphemy?!
Its official MM11 is ruined! RUINED!
I literally did a double-take. Is like seeing a dog quack… just wrong.
I’ve seen a goat bark like a dog (our neighbour raised him with 3 doggo’s, he even played fetch!), but I’d pay good money to see a dog go quack!
O_O -_- O_O
WOW. Thats actually visually annoying…
100% agree with this article… it defines what mega man/rock man is.
Can’t believe i took it for granted all this time. Now that it’s gone… god… i just can’t…. [breaks down cyring].
Agreed, the door thing is dumb. Also the jumping and the getting-hit animation just feels wrong. I’m all for updated graphics, but how hard would it be to ensure that the main character’s movement and controls are consistent with the rest of the series? This demo has made me go from excited to cautious.
But chest bumping my door-bro is second my favourite thing after farming that one bat in Mega Man X!
Animations look rad though!..