Mega Man Powered Up

"My Favourite PSP game as of now!"

Capcom released Megaman Maverick Hunter X not too long ago which was a remake of Capcom's old but great Megaman X game. It was a fun time but the game did not have a lot of remaining value when you got around to beating it. Capcom has now done another remake of a classic Megaman game for the NES, in fact, Megaman Powered Up is a remake of the first Megaman game ever created. Megaman Powered Up takes the fun experience of the first game, makes it new and refreshing, and packs it with 3 difficulty modes, plenty of unlockables,100-challenge mode, level editor, and much much more. Megaman Powered up is easily one of the most enjoyable and value-packed games to come out since the PSP launch and it's an amazing effort by Capcom.

Megaman Powered Up opens with 4 modes to play. The main game mode is the New Style mode when you want to start a new game. Also upon starting a new game, you can choose to do Old Style mode. New Style mode has new maps, new bosses, and all-new original content compared to the Old Style mode which is a simple remake of the original Megaman with all it's stages. The Old Style mode is played in a small ratio to give a NES-like playing experience. It has the original songs and level designs as well which is very nice, However, they kept the graphics for the Old Style mode the same as the New Style visuals compared to NES visuals. The Old Style mode is unfairly difficult and unfortunately, it's not a lot of fun to play. It's the kind of mode that is just added in for extra value.

The New Style mode is where you will be spending a lot of time in. The story has a boy named Mega being created by Dr.Light, who is a robot creator and scientist. One day, Dr Wily, an evil doctor who worked with Dr.Light, attacks the lab and steals Dr.Light's robots to take over the world.
Mega wants to help but he is not made for combat..fortunately, Dr.Light upgrades him for battle calling him "Megaman". From there, your off trying to defeat the 8 robot masters, getting to Wily's castle and putting him away.
The New Style mode starts off with a well-designed intro stage to make you get used to the gameplay.

Like every Megaman side-scroller, you can shoot, jump, climb ladders, and move around. The gameplay simply revolves around those elements. It may not seem like fun, but since most of the levels are designed in such a great manner, the gameplay works well and can be extremely enjoyable, not to mention refreshingly challenging. In the New Style mode, each stage has 3 different difficulty levels- easy, normal, and hard. Each difficulty is vastly different than the others making each stage on each difficuly level fun to play. From the get-go, you can only play as Megaman but as you beat New Style mode in different difficulty levels, you can unlock other playable characters including all of the robot masters. Speaking of robot masters, the New Style mode has 2 brand new robot masters exclusively for Megaman Powered Up called Oil Man and Time Man. Both of them are great additions and they lend to the game's overall value.

Once you unlock other playable characters, you can use them to beat New Style mode. With up to 14 different playable characters each playing 13 different stages on different difficulty levels, the grand total of stages in New Style mode is 468. That's a lot of stages and a ton of value in just the New Style mode itself.

Aside from the New and Old Style modes, there are 2 other great modes: Challenge mode and Construction Mode. The Challenge mode has 100 stages for you to complete. There are 10 challenges with Megaman and 10 with each of the Robot Masters as well as 10 Boss Trial challenges. Each challenge is extremely well-designed and fun to play. This mode is perfect for Megaman veterans complaining of easy difficulty. Challenge mode is addictive as hell and you will be playing it for quite some time. After all, there IS a reward for all the hard work on completing it.

Last but not least, we have the Construction mode. Construction mode has you creating the Megaman levels of your dreams which is almost too good to be true...but it is true. You start of the mode by choosing scenery and enemy packs for your created levels. You start off with some packs already but the rest of them you need to find in the New Style mode. Once you have your packs set, you go into the block set mode. From here, you have a grid and each grid square counts as a screen in your level. You can place enemies, tiles, platforms, ladders, spikes, and anything else in each screen. To avoid slowdown issues, there is a meter which determines how many enemies can be put in one grid square. After making your level, you can test it to see if it works out well and finally, you have to set the rules of your stage. The rules determine what characters are playable for your stage and what character the boss of your stage is, and how much health you and the boss have for the stage.

Once you have saved your level, you can play it whenever you want. One thing great about Megaman Powered Up is it's online areas. You can put your created levels online using the PSP's Infrastructure mode. People can download your levels and rate them. As well as uploading and downloading levels online, you can also download special content such as retro scenery packs and playable characters. The online works wonders and adds a lot more value to this already value-packed game.

Of course, Megaman Powered Up is not without a few flaws...most of the flaws come from the wishing ability to do certain things with the Construction mode such as a bigger grid, more scenery and enemy packs, and extra rule settings. Aside from those minor flaws which will hopefully be added in the next Powered Up game, the only other issue is the framerate. Megaman Powered Up tends to slowdown a lot more than you would like it to. Even with the meter in Construction mode, slowdown happens a lot. This proves very frustrating in the Constuction mode when you cant make your level a certain way because of how bad the framerate is. Big enimies and lots special effects on-screen are the main culprit for the bad framerate. Besides the framerate, Megaman Powered Up is as fun as a side-scroller can be and there are not a lot of flaws to contend with.

The visuals are going to be the first thing you notice when you look at Megaman Powered Up. The game uses a Chibi art syle which makes every character have a big head and cartoony details. The environments are colorful as are the interface and character models. The game may put people off because of the kiddie and cartoony art style but I'd say that it lends to the game greatly. The presentation is overly cute and happy and supposively this is what Megaman's creator wanted it to be like before Megaman was even a series. While the visuals are pretty, the aforementiond framerate is a problem with the graphics. The slowdown is frustrating almost all the time and it's odd how there can even be framerate problems when the graphics are this simple. The textures are fairly bland too making the overall visual quality to the game a bit weak, not to mention that some people are just going to HATE this graphical style.ui

Megaman Powered Up's audio is just as happy and cute as the game's visuals. The music in New style mode is all remixed and each tune is memorable and fun to listen to. The soundtrack stylings are very kiddie but they lend to the game's chibi art style. Each character in Megaman Powered Up has their own voice. Whenever you encounter a boss, a voice-acted chat occurs. There are plenty of voice chats in the game between different characters. The voice acting itself is alright. The voices are hyperactive and the dialogue is cute and funny in a "does not make sense" kind of way. All of the sound effects in the game are basic but sound good and there is also a great variety of sound effects. The sounds characters make when they jump can get repetitive though.

If there is one thing that Megaman Powered Up has, it's value. Between the Old Style mode, 468 stages in New Style mode, unlockable goodies, construction mode, challenge mode, voice-acted chats, and Infrastructure mode, Megaman Powered Up could easily last you until the next Powered Up game coes out. The only things that I would have liked to see added to Megaman Powered Up would be some sort of multi-player mode or the ability to send your created levels through Ad-hoc mode.

Megaman Powered Up has got to be my favourite game for the PSP as of now. The gameplay is enjoyable, the visuals are pleasing, the audio is memorable, the constuction mode is a blast, the challenge mode is addictive, and the game has tons and tons of value. Megaman fans will love the game and it's a great choice for beginners to the series as well. Even if the visuals and audio scare you, I advise you to purchase this game. Capcom should get a huge thank-you for bringing this amazing game to the PSP.

Total Score= 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/30/06