The Mega Man 11 demo released on the Nintendo Switch yesterday and while it mostly feels like old-school Mega Man, a tiny change to how doors work somehow makes it feel like not-Mega Man.
If youâve ever played a Mega Man game, youâve probably jumped into a boss door at one point either on purpose or by accident. Even since 1987âs Mega Man, doors have worked strangely. Theyâre basically trigger points that start a transition to the next screen when you touch them. Hit the door and the screen scrolls to the right and into the next room. The scrolling also carries Mega Man across the screen, no matter where heâs at. This meant that you could jump at a door and get dragged mid-air into the boss room. It looked a little silly, but if youâre like me, you probably did it a lot. In fact, letâs be honest, itâs the only way to go through boss doors.
But if you jump into the boss door leading to the fight with Block Man in the Mega Man 11 demo, youâre in for a disappointment. Instead of getting yoinked into the room, Mega Man drops to the ground and walks through the open door. Whereâs the fun in that? Door shenanigans are a staple of the series, lasting through the Mega Man X games as well. Even when the hallways got smaller and there was hardly any room to jump, you could still manage to pull off the strange door trick.
Itâs funny how something so small can make things feel less âMega Man.â Leaping into doors like a dope and getting pulled magically through the air is part of the series at this point. If I donât have that, and just have a game with buster pellets and robot masters, how do I really know itâs a Mega Man game? Since Mega Man 11 is still in development, letâs hope this is fixed before it comes out on October 2nd.