Mega Man 10 easy mode?

Was reading this article on Joystiq about the newly announced Mega Man 10. It talks about an 'easy mode' featured in the game. Is this becoming the new trend for Wii games? Have the developers thrown up their hands in dispair [Madworld] and begun developing all of their games for six year olds (sorry Elysium)? Maybe it's pride but I seriously do pride myself, because the original Mega Man was SO hard . . . but I chipped away at it, figured out the order to take down the bosses, and cringed while making all of those impossible timed jumps! Probably my all time greatest win in console gaming was beating the NES Ghosts and Goblins. Where they put you through the grinder AGAIN after the first 'fake' ending.
I never would have completed these extremly hard games if they contained an 'easy mode'. The pride and good feelings and memories of fun exsist because it was dang hard to pull this stuff off. (I've tried now and I can't even get past that first fricking flying demon in G&G!) I know I would have used the 'easy mode' back then . . . who wouldn't after failing a challenge like 20+ times? Maybe 'easy modes' should exist as an unlockable for beating the game?
Are all (Wii) games going to be tailored like this now to suit the 50 million user base whose membership consists of 35 million prepubescent elementary schoolers?
The original Mega Man wasn't made for elementary school pupils and that's why it kicked my ass back then and I remember it so fondly; it was made for overworked Japanese businessmen who just wanted to get off work, have a smoke, some sake, and play a really hard fricking platformer.

As long as Mega Man 10 has a Normal and/or Hard mode, I don't really mind. If easy mode was the only option available, meaning the game was just dumbed down, then I'd be a little unhappy.

Making a game like MM10 more accessible to the masses could mean more sales. Not everyone enjoys the severe punishment a Mega Man game provides and I'd understand Capcom's desire to make money. What I'm disappointed about is the lack of an XBLA announcement. I bought MM9 for my 360 and I'd hate to have to buy the next installment on the Wii. :/

I agree with Violet. The difficulty of "easy" doesn't have much to do with the difficulty of "normal." It doesn't hurt me any if someone less skilled (or more skilled, for that matter) gets to beat the game, though it does take a lot of shine off the "badge of honor" that used to come from beating a difficult game.

That said, I'd rather have better-funded gaming companies making more and better games than be able to brag about a completely geeky and meaningless achievement.

The problem with "easy modes" is that difficulty is often correlated with complexity, and you will see games getting severely "dumbed down" to make it easier for "casual gamers" to understand how to play. Spore is probably the biggest and most obvious example of that. Mega Man is pretty simple at its core so I don't see that happening here.

I agree that as long as they had normal or a harder difficulty, I don't mind an easy mode.

It's not very different than any game that has multiple difficulties. Devil May Cry had an unlockable Easy Mode, but my girlfriend was still very impressed when I beat the game on the hardest difficulty. Or Metroid Prime 3 was hard enough on normal, but Hyper Mode nearly caused a physical controller-TV interaction many times. I still beat it, and did not feel any less accomplished around friends that had only beaten the normal mode.

I always liked Team Ninja's approach to easy mode. You die a bunch and you get to play in "Ninja Dog" mode, complete with a cute pink bracelet.

Stylez wrote:

I always liked Team Ninja's approach to easy mode. You die a bunch and you get to play in "Ninja Dog" mode, complete with a cute pink bracelet.

And it wasn't at all easy, just less ridiculously hard.

Yes, I think unlocking "Easy Mode" (read "Super Guide" if you are Nintendo) after dying eight times or whatever is a neat idea.

The really old school thing to do would be to have selectable difficulty modes, but you have to beat it on a harder mode to get the "true" ending. I recall that Golden Axe just cut you off before the final level or two if you played on Easy mode. Fatal Frame II (which I found harder than the first two Mega Man games) I think made me beat it multiple times on increasingly hard difficulty levels to get the "good" ending.

Come to think of it, I'm not sure I want to go back to that... I used to be pretty hardcore, but I'm too old for that now. I have enough challenge at work; I want to relax at home.

If it's anything like the Hero and Super Hero modes of Mega Man 9, it'll probably mean rearranged enemy placements, which means it'll essentially be a different game, which is cool. If that's the case, I might even give it a shot once I beat it on normal.

Mega Man 10 will be Multi-platform for the people that like struggling with the 360 d-pad

Every game should have an Easy Mode. Period.

There's no excuse for, say, shooters to not have a difficulty setting that makes the user near-invincible. You never know what non-gamer is going to look at your game and decide it's cool enough that they want to take a crack at it. Telling these people "oh, this game's too hard for you, go start with this other game and then you can come back and play the game you want" is unacceptable and dumb.

How many games have a hidden "god mode" cheat? How hard is it to turn it into near-god mode and make it available from the main menu, so that a whole swarm of potential players now have a chance at actually playing and enjoying the game?

It would be nice if, when my dad sees a game that catches his interest, I could simply hand it to him and say, "here. Pick "easy" difficulty and go play". The industry would probably have one more gamer to sell to if that were the case.

beeporama wrote:

Come to think of it, I'm not sure I want to go back to that... I used to be pretty hardcore, but I'm too old for that now. I have enough challenge at work; I want to relax at home.

This. f*ck yeah this. I say that as someone who blasted through most of the early Mega Man games as weekend rentals. I haven't picked up a Mega Man in years because I can't ignore the rest of my life for two days straight anymore.

I think what Legion is saying is a big part of why the Wii is popular. Most of their games are "pick up and play". Very small learning curves. It also counts against it with the "hardcore" crowd because they are masochists who want to be punished.

LilCodger wrote:

]I think what Legion is saying is a big part of why the Wii is popular.

Indeed, and it's why my parents are buying one for themselves this Christmas. It's not necessarily that they think cute chubby cartoon characters are awesome, but rather it's something they know they can play. I don't doubt for a second that my dad would enjoy games like a Rainbow Six far more if he could actually play them, instead of being instantly punished as soon as he touched the controller.

Challenge is good. But for non-gamers, the very act of playing the game at all is a challenge. So remove the rest of the game difficulty and just let them play.

Totally agree with Legion.

And here is the Japanese Debut Trailer (Or if you prefer, the English version) complete with an example of easy mode at the end. I can only say

That's like 2 separate levels. I had no idea that was what they were going to do.

mrtomaytohead wrote:

And here is the Japanese Debut Trailer (Or if you prefer, the English version) complete with an example of easy mode at the end. I can only say

That's like 2 separate levels. I had no idea that was what they were going to do.

I don't believe it. That is what they're going to do?

MechaSlinky wrote:

Totally agree with Legion.

Me too. I usually play normal mode but I want easy for my kids. Why should they struggle (heck why should I) to play a game? Frankly there are too many games for me to play. I don't need (nor want) to redo the same parts of a game over and over and over to finish it.

Mystic Violet wrote:
mrtomaytohead wrote:

And here is the Japanese Debut Trailer (Or if you prefer, the English version) complete with an example of easy mode at the end. I can only say

That's like 2 separate levels. I had no idea that was what they were going to do.

I don't believe it. That is what they're going to do? :lol:

That's a good solution. I didn't play much of Mega Man 9 because it was too hard for my old hands. I might give the new one a shot.

I'm not surprised. Like I said, they did the same thing with Hero and Super Hero mode on Mega Man 9. Felt like nearly brand-new games. It was like Mega Man 9 was Ocarina of Time and Hero mode was Ocarina of Time Master Quest and Super Hero mode was another, more difficult Master Quest.