Portable gaming systems no longer play like those "Game&Watch" devices from your parents’ or grandparents’ time (well back in the 1980s in fact).
Their level of depth and complexity – coupled with polished graphics and sound – are the norm nowadays which you can expect from almost all handheld games.
On the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP), the games are a mix of 2D and 3D titles. One of the more memorable ones I’ve play-tested was Rockman Rockman, a remake of an old 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) game that was popular in the 80s.
Rockman Rockman is the Japanese version; the English one is named Mega Man: Powered Up.
Instead of a direct port of the NES version onto the PSP with only updated music and sound effects, publisher Capcom brought the game back to the drawing board and rehashed the whole thing. It was a good move on their part – the reworked game now boasted excellent 3D visuals that took advantage of the PSP’s capabilities and screen size. What’s more, all the main characters were given an overly-cutesy design: big heads and small bodies (imagine SD Gundam and you’ll get the picture). Even their new voice-overs don’t help much but to make them even more adorable. For the ‘oldies-goldies’ zealots, there’s an ‘Old Version’ gameplay selectable where the music is the ol’ 8-bit composition and the screen narrows to resemble the classic game (all still in 3D, of course).
I heard some of you Rockman/Mega Man fans gasping at the last statement, but rest assured that the graphics fit very well with the overall design.
For the most part, Rockman Rockman still played faithfully like the old version – although the graphics are in 3D, you run, jump and shoot on a 2D platform. If you feel Rockman Rockman is a tad challenging, you can always select the "Easy" difficulty whenever you select a stage. Bear in mind that you have to stick to one difficulty setting all the way in order to complete the game.
Instead of six Robot Masters (Cut Man, Guts Man, Bomb Man, Fire Man, Ice Man and Elec Man), Capcom took the liberty to create two additional RMs – Time Man and Oil Man – to ‘accommodate’ the tradition of having eight Robot Masters in later Rockman/ Mega Man games. The two new Robot Masters are only available in the "New Version" gameplay. A storyline has been included in the ‘New Version’, detailing on the very beginning of Dr Wily’s evil ambition of world conquest and Rock’s transformation into Rockman/Mega Man.
An intro stage was presented, much like how Rockman/Mega Man 7 and 8 games had been. After completion of the said stage, you will be brought to a Stage Select screen. The Robot Masters’ stages selectable in any order – each one requires you to run/jump/shoot your way through before facing a boss fight at the end of the stage against the Robot Master you’ve selected. A dialogue between Rockman/Mega Man and the said Robot Master will ensue, some of which resulted in being quite comical. This is not confined only to Rockman/Mega Man ßà Robot Masters but other ways round too (Cut Man to Yellow Devil: "Uhh, Buumo-mo buu-momo buu-mo-mo?"). Classic.
Depending on how you defeated the Robot Masters, you will be able to select them later for playthrough. Each comes with its own storyline with alternative scenarios of ‘what would happen’ when they weren’t the ones who got kidnapped and reprogrammed by Dr Wily. In my opinion, this gives Rockman Rockman a very high replay value.
There are other features which contribute to the game’s replay value as well, one of which is the ‘Construction’ mode. In here, you get to build your own stages from the Construction Packs you had collected during your playthrough in the "New Version" (Normal/Hard) mode. You can then upload the completed stage to Capcom’s online server (via the PSP’s WiFi connection) to share with the rest of the Rockman Rockman and Mega Man: Powered Up community.
Aaron Gray