Mega Man: Powered Up (PSP) Review

Here's the first of two Mega Man reviews. Why not? We just covered them in games I'd like sequels to. It's Mega Man: Powered Up for Sony's PSP. This is one of the first reviews along with the next that I ever wrote.

Mega Man got..... Good Score!

Mega Man returns to his roots with Mega Man: Powered Up, a remake of the original NES Mega Man game, complete with new characters, options, music, and attitude. Those who played the original NES cartridge or purchased Mega Man Anniversary Collection (PS2, GCN, Xbox) know how it wasn't for casual gamers. There was some pretty nice difficulty for us full-fledged gamers. Nowhere near a Super Ghosts 'N' Goblins difficulty, but a difficulty nonetheless. This remains intact with this remake as do a lot of things.

The graphics are colorful and pleasing to the eye.

Firstly for changes, if you play the new style mode you'll realize that there's an edition of an opening stage as well as two new robot masters, Time Man and Oil Man. These duo of bots come with their own respective stages to master on top of the original six's levels. If you dislike the new style gameplay or changes, you can always go back to old style which is the game on a smaller screen with the opening stages, Time Man, and Oil Man excluded. Graphically the game has changed to a more chibi-inspired approach. Some may dislike it, but I personally enjoyed the colorful characters and levels. Voice work has been included which is a nice touch also. None of the voices made me cringe which is a first for quite a while. Music has been upgraded as well featuring returning themes with more modern sound and instruments-- an additional treat for audiophiles such as myself. Furthermore once you beat a boss using only Mega Man's Mega Buster, you can select to play as them in new style mode which is an added treat.

Get bored of playing as Mega? Play as another character instead.

If you become bored with either new or old style modes, you can play Challenge mode. This mode features level designs encompassing different goals. My favorite addition would have to be the Construction mode which allows for aspiring designers to craft their own levels in a variety of themed locales and settings. Each room you create is its own grid, and you can place a set number of enemies in each grid. You're able to set platforms easily, drop in enemies, and add a boss all within minutes, or if you desire, take all the time you need to create one masterful level. The possibilities with the level creator are limitless allowing an infinite number of replay value. What's better yet is that you can share your levels to anyone over Capcom's own server.

Construction Mode allows unlimited replay value.

Mega Man Powered Up is a fantastic remake of a classic game that launched the life of a gaming icon. If only Capcom would take Mega back to its roots or continue to unleash great Mega Man games such as this would Mega's career stop becoming so tarnished. Sadly, the likelihood of a follow up to this remake are not likely at all thanks for worldwide sales. Regardless, pick up this future classic if you can.

Story: Dr. Wily has betrayed Dr. Light and has taken their robots to try to rule the world!

Graphics: Colorful chibi-inspired design that may not be for everyone admittedly.

Sound: Great remixed tracks and voice work to add an extra dimension to the original Mega Man.

Gameplay: Jumping, shooting, platforming, and a pretty steep difficulty later on are what you get in this gaming gift.

Replay Value: Collecting power-ups and construction kits for created levels, playing as the various robot masters, constructing new levels, and playing through challenge mode make a myriad ways to play Powered Up.

[SuperPhillip Says: 9.0/10]
A must for any Mega Man fan unless you dislike the art style for some reason. My first PSP game and the last PSP game I've played recently after ten other games in my PSP. That should tell you something about how much I keep coming back to it.