Mega Man 10, 'Sheep Man' and lazy game writing

I always get the header pictures for this blog by typing the title or part of the subject into Google image search. Usually one or two come up that I think are funny, but this time there were loads of great ones! My favourite is above, but I'm going to use another every time I'm angry at Capcom.

I just started playing the new Mega Man game - available for download to consoles. I'm not much of a Mega Man aficionado, but I really enjoyed Capcom's all-new, deliberately retro-styled 'Mega Man 9' last year. It was a success so now there is Mega Man 10 - which is very similar, but it's hard to hold that against it.Some Mega Man background: Every game is traditionally the same. It's a shooting, side-scrolling platformer. You play a heroic robot who must assassinate 8 Robot Masters in the order of your choice (but choose carefully) before taking on the arch villain Dr Wily, who looks like Einstein because that's what scientists look like, particularly the evil ones. Each master has a special attack which represents his identity and each master has a stage before him which also carries on the theme. Every time you beat a Robot Master, you win his special move, which will aid you in the other 7 levels, and specifically against one of the other Masters.


As I say, my Mega Man knowledge is pretty limited, but as I understand it, they used up most of the good boss names in the first few installments: Air Man, Bomb Man, Fire Man, Magnet Man. There are only so many themes you can use for these Nintendo game levels.

Mega Man 9 stretched it pretty thin with 'Concrete Man', 'Jewel Man' and 'Plug Man' and even went to such extreme lengths as including 'Splash Woman' - the only female Robot Master so far.
Almost certainly as a sexist insinuation, she is easily the weakest boss in the game.


Anyway, the brand new Mega Man 10 gives us Blade Man, Solar Man, Chill Man (chill, man), Commando Man, Nitro Man, Strike Man, Pump Man....

and Sheep Man.

I guess this character concept is supposed to be funny - a little in-joke. Capcom even went as far as to include Sheep Man on the (also intentionally silly) poster art. And that poster is wonderful, but this 'Sheep Man' thing just seems so lazy. Mega Man 9 had bad Robot Masters too - but damnit, it tried its best. Its plot was terrible, too - something about Dr Wily turning the good robots evil by tricking them - but it triiiiied.
Here's the plot of Mega Man 10: One day Mega Man's robot sister Roll (like most female characters in Japanese videogames she is some sort of assistant / damsel) is sick. How does a robot get sick, you ask? Well, she has Roboenza.

Roboenza.

This is a very dangerous disease, but as Mega Man's creator / owner Dr Light explains, it only effects robots. The name is a clue, frankly, but evidently Dr Light has a very thin estimation of Mega Man's intelligence.

So Dr Wily shows up claiming he's been attacked by a crazy Roboenza sufferer, and that the mad robots are taking over the world. So of course, not realizing that Wily is clearly behind everything (as he has been 9 times previously), Mega Man volunteers to go and save the day.
Which is all fine, except for the Roboenza part. In their effort to retain the spirit of the original NES games and make us feel nostalgic for that era of gaming, Capcom have done a lot of work to recreate that style for both the new games - pixel by pixel. And it's wonderful.
But with Sheep Man and roboenza, I can't help feeling that Capcom just couldn't be bothered writing an actual plot / character, so they figured they'd just parody themselves instead.
'Ah, jeez, I can't think of an eigth robot...' *looks over at a picture of a sheep* 'We ougtta just call it Sheep Man... hur hur, yeah let's put that in.'


I don't exactly mind the series making fun of itself, but it seems awfully late to do so. Mega Man 9 was such a loving, expertly-crafted homage to the great games of our childhoods. This is the same brilliant gameplay and with nice new elements..... but at the same time, it feels awfully lazy.



As if, last time the people at Capcom really wanted to make something special, but this time they just wanted more money from it.

'Why is he fighting 8 robots again? God, I dunno... they all have... fucking... Roboenza, so they went crazy.'



Maybe I'm spoiled by all the Bioware RPGs I prefer to play, now that I'm grown up (so grown up that I post funny sheep pictures on my Saturday.) I never complained about 'A plumber has to rescue a princess from a turtle king who "practices black magic".'

But for some reason this Sheep Man thing annoys me.

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Maybe it's because his stage and powers HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH SHEEP! I just played through the level and his stage has a sort of computer / technology theme (complete with seizure-inducing Matrix code on the walls) and his power?
He turns his wooly body into a cloud, and shoots lightning from above. Just like a sheep. In fairness, he does make an electronic 'baa' sound when he charges his electricity. But seriously! Electro Man, Lightning Man, Tech Man, Matrix Man?! Or leave him as a sheep - Ram Man? But at the very least give him a sheep-themed level. Like a farm level, or something.




Or something, I said.