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Mega Man Overdrive

General Information

Overview Mega Man Overdrive aims to mix classic Mega Man gameplay with modern platformer design philosophy and art, to create a fresh new take on the Mega Man Classic series.
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Story
This early demo features one of the eight robot Masters stages - Thaw Man. Deep in the peaks of Mt. Frostbite, a famous mountain and landmark, a devious plan of Dr. Wily's was unfolding. A once good robot named Thaw Man, created by Dr. Light and Cossack had been commanded by Dr. Wily to excavate the large mountain, with the stolen robot being given several 'enhancements' to aid him in this journey to the frozen caves. Frostbite was rumoured to have several rare metals and fossils from long ago, with them being excellent for being turned into robots in Wily's eyes. The blue bomber himself, Mega Man has been sent to deal with the destruction of the mountain, and take out Thaw Man before further damage can be done.
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Disclaimer This early demonstration of the game was put together so we could have something to show in time for SAGE. Because of this, everything is subject to change and is not final. We know that the demo isn't perfect, but we hope you get some enjoyment out of it.

Latest reviews

Had solid fundamentals and good aesthetics, but the level is long-winded for a Megaman level and the gimmicks overstay their welcome.
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I wanted to like this demo but the further I got into Thaw Man's stage, the more fed up I got.
My rating isn't me saying it's poorly made, as the graphics, music and controls are all pretty good, my problems come in when I look at the level itself.

The level design itself is pretty solid for a Mega Man game with a decent variety of enemies and stage gimmicks, and there being enough room for you to react to what's coming ahead, but then the stage keeps going, and going, and going. Wherever you might think the boss door is coming up, it ends up just being another checkpoint room that leads to another huge chunk of the level that's practically the length of an average Mega Man level.
The stage does introduce elements like minecart segments and an avalanche into the mix as you go further, but that won't stop you from getting bored with the level after a while. I kept track of when I extracted the game to when I just reached the robot master door, and it totalled to roughly 20 - 25 minutes of in-game playtime. In that amount of time, you could have defeated most (if not all) of the robot masters in any of the official Mega Man games.
I think if the stage has to go for as long as it is currently, the game could split up the sections into smaller, act based stages ala the 2D Sonic games. That way it will allow moments where players can take a breather in-between those big chunks of level, and if someone is playing on limited lives, it won't make Game Overs nearly as devastating as I fear they could be in the full game.

The boss at the end didn't really make the journey worth it. I like Thaw Man's character design but the boss itself suffers from its attack pattern being completely random with not much telegraphs (mainly with the jumping). I've had multiple moments where I got backed into a corner with some of these attacks, and there was little I could do to escape from my demise.
The boss could be redeemed if the jumping was timed to Mega Man jumping or shooting (kind of like Crash Man or Jewel Man respectively), and have some added cool down (pun not intended) time between the attacks so that way it allows room for the player to dodge and get ready for his next attack.

I really want this game to succeed after seeing the excellent level art be accompanied by some pretty good music, but the level pacing needs some tweaking if the devs want to prevent this game from becoming monotonous to play. It's worth a look for fans of Mega Man, but if you get bored at a certain point in the demo, and you think you've seen everything you want to see for now, don't be afraid to close the game down.
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Comments

Don't get me wrong, this game excels at almost every single field, be it in terms of graphics and music.

They are both pretty great, however... I feel the level design could be better, the stage drags on and on and on, checkpoints are put well but even then, the stage is so long it becomes boring to be in the same place as it feels as no progress is being made. Some screens could be removed and I wouldn't notice, stages could definitely be shorter, wouldn't be willing to play a game with all the stages being like that :/

Thaw Man's boss fight has issues, especially on the damage input. It's way too big, and be it for the game not having infinite lives, a game over would have been certain. But aside from that, it's a pretty okay game and when it shines it does so nicely.
 
Let's start with the good.
- Graphics
Pretty top notch. Mega's redesign, the level tiles, the enemies and Thaw Man looked wonderful. Colors chosen for this stage are also pretty good.

- Music
Sounds like your standard Megaman track for an ice stage and it's stuck in my head so good job.

Now let's talk about the not so great.
- Level Design
This is going to be broken down a bit, from length, to tile usage and finally to mechanics within the stage

-- Length
There are a lot of rooms in this stage, a lot of rooms. I'd have to wager over 75 in total. I feel a lot of this could be cut down or out. You have long sections much like the ski lift corridor, we'll call it, before the 2nd avalanche section that can be done away with.

The level took me maybe ... 20 minutes? I didn't time it or pay attention to when I started. I don't know what the plans are for the game as a whole, but this feels too long for a Mega Man level. 20-25 minutes is sometimes the length it takes to take down 5-7 robot masters. I don't know

-- Tile Usage
This is a bit of a nitpick, the only part that bugged me was the conveyor belts that had no end piece. These were usually the [>] direction belts. It just has one cap at the start. I don't know if the intention is to mimic say the belts from Metal Man's stage where even the capper moves you but it doesn't look great in the grand scheme.

-- The Mechanics
The ski lifts are nice, however the is one section where you need to stay on the lift so that it lands on some spikes in the screen below so you can even clear that room. If you're not standing on it when it goes through the screen transition, it disappears and you die when you go into the next screen since the entire floor is spikes save for the one ice block you have to jump on to break.

The next I'll talk about are the minecart sections. Much like the other bits of the stage, I feel these are also too long. The minecart controls a little weird, especially since you can "slide" while in it. There's no real section in which you would need to slide to gain the speed needed to clear a jump, they can all be made. Much like the transition issue that the ski lift platform has, the minecart has it too. I jumped during the screen transition to where you fight that Ice Bat mini-boss. I just kept sliding the moment I saw it in the background. It wasn't until the third loop that I realized that section looped. I also realized I needed the cart after I destroyed the ice bat only to come to a section where I could not make the jump because I lacked the needed momentum.

-- Enemy Placement
The only one that is really odd is that Seal-igloo enemy. the other screens it's in are fine because it's the only enemy, but you then run into one while in one of the long screens. I don't remember if it's during the avalanche or not but it caught me off guard and it felt weird to have in that one section.

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The demo is very solid, it's just the length of the stage needs to be looked at and adjusted. I can't wait to see the rest of it.
 

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