Topic: 2010/04: Mega Man 10 (WiiWare) - Revned

[JonLeung]

Mega Man 10

For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to Revned's Mega Man 10 (WiiWare) maps.

When Roll is afflicted with Roboenza, a disease that affects robots, Dr. Light and Dr. Wily work together to find a cure, to stop the chaos caused by sick robots that are out of control.  Mega Man, as well as Proto Man, set out to defeat eight Robot Masters that hold the key to this cure; this time around, they're Blade Man, Chill Man, Commando Man, Nitro Man, Pump Man, Sheep Man, Solar Man, and Strike Man.

In this game, a couple of the stages have branching paths.  Also, the first castle stage has multiple routes.  But Mega Man games have always been popular on VGMaps.com regardless of the complexity of them, and whatever charm the series has is maintained in its 10th main installment (11th if you count Mega Man & Bass).

Revned, responsible for so many Mega Man maps, including all of the NES ones, is unsurprisingly the one who took on Mega Man 10.  Finishing Sheep Man's stage before the game was even out for half a day, having the entire game done in less than a month almost seems late, considering - but still faster than most would expect from anyone else.  By now it's available for all three major consoles' download services in all regions, so get it while it's hot, and hit up Revned's maps if you want to know what's around the corner.

So to recognize the effort put into making these maps, only a month after its release, Revned's Mega Man 10 maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for April 2010.  No joke!

[TerraEsperZ]

This is well deserved, especially since Revned also made the game's accurate emulation possible in the first place if I remember correctly!

[JonLeung]

Perhaps I should mention that Revned mapped Mega Man 9 as well.

And then there was TenguMan's effort, mapping Mega Man 9 by recreating the game's tiles by hand.  He even mapped Concrete Man and Jewel Man's stages, even before the game's release, by recreating the tiles while watching demo videos.  Now that's hardcore!

Still, though, I think Mega Man 10 is a bit better than 9.  Note the use of more actual backgrounds, instead of the too-common black space seen in Mega Man 9.  There were a lot of places where 9 was just bland.  And the difficult areas were almost gimmicky.  I did not find Mega Man 10 anywhere near as hard (well, I played on Normal difficulty).

And, quite simply, I couldn't NOT put this as MotM, it's rare for us to have maps of a new game this quickly.

And before anyone asks about April Fools', sorry, I didn't have time this year, and it was difficult to justify making time for it considering the little recognition past efforts got.  Sure, the last two were nice, but how could I possibly top Metroid Dread?

[Revned]

Thanks! You even ignored the fact that this is an incomplete map set

[Will]

I believe Mega Man 10 does make this April extra special in the absence of an april fool. I'm pretty impressed by the level designs and the new robot masters. I would so like to see Mega Man 9 and 10 with Sega Genesis Wily Wars style graphics one of these days.

Here is my little April Fools joke. See if you can answer that:

What did the eskimo's wife say to him when he destroyed the their igloo?

[TerraEsperZ]

Thanks! You even ignored the fact that this is an incomplete map set

Are you referring to the upcoming Endless Attack Mode map as well as the three Special Stages? I know there are also the Challenge maps but most of those are both boring and useless. I figure that even incomplete, this map set (and Mega Man 9's by association) still deserves the award.

[Revned]

Yes. Jon has in the past expressed hesitance in giving MotM to incomplete map sets. Heck, he even said that about SotN (even though the front-page feature is essentially Map of the Year).

[Will]

What did the eskimo's wife say to him when he destroyed the their igloo?

The answer to this joke would be: "You great big Inuit!"

[JonLeung]

Yes. Jon has in the past expressed hesitance in giving MotM to incomplete map sets. Heck, he even said that about SotN (even though the front-page feature is essentially Map of the Year).

Hooray, it seems like I can access VGMaps.com at work again!  For now...

I know Mega Man 10 is technically incomplete, however, the "main" game is fully mapped.  It would be nice to see Endless Mode and it wouldn't hurt to have the Challenges, either.  But their absence right now doesn't take away from MotM eligibility.

Now while I recall it is possible to get a bad ending in Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night and never see the upside-down castle, for the best ending it is still required to do so, so that is why I do not consider the map of only the first castle to be a "complete" map of SotN.  And if I did give it MotM status with only the first castle, what happens if the second castle gets mapped - especially if it's mapped by someone else?  (Not that I couldn't honour two people, I guess.)  But in any case it's hard to deny the technical achievement of even mapping "only" the first castle, which is why I made it a random front-page feature for the past several months - probably giving it more exposure now than if it had been a MotM.

I hope no one is disappointed in the lack of an April Fools' joke this year.  I had some ideas, but as i said above, none of them could have compared to last year's Metroid Dread, even if I had time to put them together.  I don't know if this is going to be a one- or two-year break, or if the April Fools' jokes here are gone forever, but for now, enjoy Revned's Mega Man 10.

Hope no one considers the thumbnail image to be a spoiler...

[marioman]

Hope no one considers the thumbnail image to be a spoiler...

Crossed my mind, but I guess it's OK.

Anyways, congrats to Revned.

[Wario Bros]

This April's Maps of the Month doesn't make since.  I mean, every April before this, it's been maps of a non existing game.  It's not that Mega Man 10 doesn't need attention but why the change?  I was REEEAAALLLY hoping for a gag map today.

[JonLeung]

I'm pretty sure I explained it above...

In case you didn't know, I have a life apart from VGMaps.com, with a job, responsibilities, and other diversions.  And even if I did have time, I'm not sure the time and effort involved is worth it considering the trade-off.  I want more visitors that stay around in the long run, not a small spike that lasts for a day or a few - and that isn't worth giving up my free time for months.  I'm disappointed too.

Not to say I won't do some kind of joke in the future, but don't expect it.

[Wario Bros]

I'm pretty sure I explained it above...

In case you didn't know, I have a life apart from VGMaps.com, with a job, responsibilities, and other diversions.  And even if I did have time, I'm not sure the time and effort involved is worth it considering the trade-off.  I want more visitors that stay around in the long run, not a small spike that lasts for a day or a few - and that isn't worth giving up my free time for months.  I'm disappointed too.

Not to say I won't do some kind of joke in the future, but don't expect it.

Oh, okay.  Sorry if I sounded too rough to you.  I guess I wasn't thinking deeply when I posted that.  I do have to agree that big images made purely from small sprites can be a big pain, especially if it's a collection of maps.  I also thought these joke maps were group projects, not just one person.  So now I understand.  (Once again, sorry)