Mega Man Battle & Fighters Review (Switch eShop)

the lack of effort in this is crazy at least it isnt a stupid price.

@Fizza The unlimited continues should also be a "con" for any arcade game on Switch that lets you continue by inserting credits (pressing a button), not just for this one.

As soon as I saw this was available, I decided to download it.

This is probably the most "pick-up and play" of the classic Mega Man games I've played. Granted I haven't tried the arcade games, but I eventually will.

This seems like a review for a Neo Geo arcade beat em up, but it’s actually a review for a NGPC fighter.

“Destroys the experience for the weak-willed” is the most gamer thing I’ve heard lol

I'll play anything mega man related so here I go again

I don’t see how an option to make a game more playable/beatable is a con.

Capcom was clever when they made these two games. Took Boss Rush Mode out of every Mega Man games and make a game out em then tie the story of the original to Mega Man X. Easy money. Not sure why they didn't continue this trend with the X series too. A Mega Man X Power Fighters arcade game with bosses from X1-X6 would be nice and interesting if tie that to Mega Man Zero and then rinse and repeat.

@somnambulance You can remove the boarder thankfully.

@HammerGalladeBro In a lot of those games you could turn free play off. Also not sure why having unlimited continues is a bad thing, Street Fighter or every Capcom fighting games in general has had unlimited continues even on Super NES and Sega Genesis. Only Mortal Kombat and SNK games had limited credits.

I didn't realize NintendoLife had some of the most elitist and gatekeeping writers on staff.

"Unlimited continues totally destroys the experience for the weak-willed"? Whatever happened to actually having fun in a game? Who are you to determine the experience for a player? If you were the developer behind this title to begin with, maybe it would've flown, chalking it up to something like artistic vision or what have you. But that isn't the case.

"The willpower to ignore the continue option quickly becomes the greatest challenge, and failure to do so results in the game’s design principles collapsing entirely. Can you imagine being beaten halfway through a boss fight in a regular Mega Man title, only to hit continue and easily finish them off? It wouldn’t be the same game, and neither is this. That said, with resolve, one can overcome this 'continue' debacle - and in doing so be rewarded with data bonuses to fill all thirty-six slots in the database file."

And what if someone doesn't want to deal with that? Who are you to denigrate people who want an easier experience? You could've just said something like "More granular difficulty options would have been nicer."

@farrgazer Appreciate the input. It’s my review and it’s my job to critique it, and in my opinion continuing in the middle of a fight, as often as you need, effectively destroys the way the game is designed and robs it of its fun-factor. Continues after a match - as is normal in every fighting game ever - would have been fine.

@Serpenterror No problem with unlimited continues. The problem is you can use them during the bout, not after it’s concluded.

@Krambo42 Because it actually makes it less playable. Continuing mid-fight as often as necessary quickly becomes extremely dull.

@Tom-Massey Firstly, I appreciate your willingness to engage with your audience.

I don't agree with your opinion, but that's fine. Your opinion is as valid as mine.

However, there is something to be said about wording. The way you put your stance out there makes it sound very much like it's my-way-or-the-high-way, and even exclusive. It didn't sound like an opinion, but like a prescription, a given. A one-credit-clear is definitely a source of motivation and fun for some players, but for others, it's a waste of time and a source of frustration.

Maybe I'm too sensitive with wording, and maybe I should not have gone off the rocker on a review, especially given that a review is bound to differ from person to person. But even so, when you say something like "What we don’t like is the ability to continue mid-fight," that comes across as highly presumptuous. That's what YOU want, and again, if you want that, that's just fine and dandy.

But you can't possibly speak for other players, whether you know them in person or not. Already, as of my post, there is at least one reader who looks at that as a pro than a con, and a handful more who don't understand why it's a con. Even in this very small sample size, it's clear you don't speak for them all.

@farrgazer Sure, I understand. For perspective, I’m often asked to cover retro/retro-themed titles because that’s where my skill-set is, and figuring out criticism - positive and negative - is really the whole job. Sometimes, people may not feel a criticism applies to them, but I have to stay true to my personal perceptions. Try as one might, it’s not possible to write a critique of anything that will please all, so it’s better not to try lest you contradict or invalidate your own points.

For clarity: Mega Man Battle & Fighters has been honed carefully around very specific design principles. You fight a boss, win his weaponry, head to another boss and see if it has any major effect. If yes, you’ve begun a process of elimination; if no, you go back and try a different path.

Since it doesn’t work like a regular fighting game, in that there are specific patterns that are repeated so you can learn them (rather than AI going all out with random attacks) it’s entirely possible to complete the game without taking a single hit.

This process is very rewarding: Learn a pattern, learn a skill, figure out where to use that skill, repeat until victory. If continues after a defeat had been implemented, that would have been fine, allowing the player to repeat an adversary until they figured out his specific patterns.

However, by continuing say, three, four… ten times mid-match, all of the above is nullified. You don’t need to do anything except tap fire, die, hit continue, have your energy refilled, rinse and repeat until the credits. You wouldn’t even need to touch the D-Pad. The order of bosses is no longer important, the special weaponry is voided and doesn’t need to be applied, special moves have no purpose and don’t need to be put into practice, and there’s no need to attempt to learn a single pattern. In my opinion, it honestly isn’t much fun.

Now, if you feel you can enjoy playing the game this way, all power to you. But I can’t ignore the way it fundamentally strips the experience of all its nuance, and that’s why it was highlighted so vehemently in the review. Bar this, (and the non-localisation) there wasn’t much else to say.

I hope this helps to explain somewhat.

@Tom-Massey That's fair. And I do realize again that reviews will be subjective, and I can see how you aim to remain consistent.

Whether you agree with this or not, I still do not think it is right to use subjects like "we" or to imply certain players are "weak." I think there are much better ways to get your point across in that regard.

@Tom-Massey Still it's not that bad, it'll help player improve on their time attack skills.

@farrgazer Not weak players. I didn’t say that. I said the “weak-willed” would struggle to ignore it. That’s a very different thing. And at times that weak-willed moment included me. When the option is right there in your face, it really takes resolve to attempt to play the game the way it was intended.

That said, I am very much into old-school and arcade gaming disciplines, and a great advocate of the 1CC (one-credit clear). If that doesn’t sit right with you, you may not take well to my other reviews (which would be a shame!). I don’t consider credit-feeding a rewarding gaming experience generally, although I’ll concede that there are some titles where it’s entirely necessary.

If you hunger for a new Megaman experience this is a great game especially when it comes to core of the game play, there's a fair amount of content to collect, and while it's disappointing that they didn't translated the two games the game barely has any text.

@Waluigi451 He probably just means it's too easy to just fall into credit feeding and thus killing any kind of challenge that the players could have otherwise enjoyed.

And i kind of agree unlimited insta continues for arcade games kind destroy the experience.

@Serpenterror My point was more like "If it's a con to have unlimited continues in this particular game, in the opinion of the reviewer so it should be in any arcade game that gives you the option to continue by inserting a credit (or pressing a button on the Switch versions)"

I actually don't like that unlimited continues is listed as a "con".

@farrgazer The problem is that endless credit continues for a console game vs an arcade games are completely different.
That's why he meant by "weak willed"

A console game is more likely to leave you at a checkpoint from the start of the level you where you were defeated and thus not destroying your challenge, but the arcade game is just looking for your quarters meaning if you play a home conversion of an arcade (where you are likely to recieve endless credits) you are likely combat the urge to credit feed through the game and then just continue where you fell, the end result is simply that you'll just complete the game in 25-30 min and then afterwards you likely will wonder what the big deal was with that game and why it's held so high up, when in fact the whole point of most if not all arcade games is to delve into the challenge of pattern recognition and learn the game back and forth.

Some who aren't aquinted to arcade games might wonder why wouldn't you credit feed at the arcades and its simple because you'd loose a fortune, so that's one of the reasons why you had to learn the game.

@farrgazer I agree with you, calling a segment of players “weak-willed” because they don’t want to play a game as they “should” comes off as gatekeepy.

I’ve noticed that lately a lot of retro game rereleases or collections offer a lot of options on how to play and customize the experience. The Capcom Fighting Collection, for example, allows players to make each game as easy or as hard as they want. Save states do this, rewind features, etc. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this. If you want the challenge, it’s there. If you find the game frustrating (and a lot of these old games are) and just want to see the end or get past a certain part, you can do that.

Speaking from past experience, I would’ve loved features like this as a kid. There were some games when I was younger that I never saw past a certain level. So features like easy continues opens a game up to a wider audience and I think that’s a good thing.

I could see how others would wish they could turn it off, so they weren’t tempted to continue, but I still think, overall, it’s good that retro games are making these games more accessible.

Great review. Very disappointed in the utter lack of localizations. Very lazy of developers to continue that trend and I hope it subsides. Looking forward to playing it regardless after I play the arcade versions.

"and that’s about the size things."

@Aerona Typo, thank you! I’ll have that fixed.

@HammerGalladeBro It isn’t listed as a con because of unlimited continues; It’s listed as a con because it allows you to continue in the middle of a fight as often as you need. I think I’ve explained this a fair few times now!

@Magrane Thank you for reading, much appreciated.

@Tom-Massey You might want to add "unlimited continues in the middle of the match" to the "Cons" section for the people who just read the Pros/Cons of a review. Then again, you may not want to.

Thanks for the review, very informative for me. If they ever localize the game, I will surely add it to my collection.

@LinktotheFuture One step ahead of you there, I have already requested the amendment. I write the Pros and Cons under the assumption that people have already read the review - sadly, the more I write for NLife the more I realise that’s not often the case.

Appreciate you reading and thank you for your comments.

@completo88 I can understand that stance, and I can even empathize with it to some extent. I'll admit I might credit-feed some shmups or side-scrollers, but I will take instant fails in rhythm games if/when I can't keep up.

My issue with this article is that @Tom-Massey attempts to speak for everyone. It took some back-and-forth to clarify that he has a strongly-held opinion about credit-feeding, and I have no issue with him having such an opinion, I did and still do take issue at the usage of expressions like "what we want" or "weak-willed" given the nature of this website.

Now, if he were publishing this on a retro-focused website, or a website whose audience strongly holds 1CC to dear, then it'd be a different story. Like I said in the back-and-forth, there are some gamers who consider practicing towards 1CC to be genuinely fun, and there are other gamers who find that frustrating and a waste of time.

@Acein210 amen!