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by Capcom

4-01.jpg (4681 bytes)When I look back at my childhood I can only see my own deficiencies. I was a gangly uncoordinated youth with a massive overbite. But I feel the most shame when I think of all of the video games that I never beat. I always blamed my low scores on lack of coordination or low intelligence. Never once did it occur to me that the game was just too darn hard. It was always something wrong with me—it was never the game. Just recently though I got a different perspective on things. Maybe it wasn’t me. Perhaps, just perhaps, some of those original NES games were just a little too darn hard for their own good. If Mega Man Xtreme for the Game Boy Color is any indication, maybe I really wasn’t all that bad. After all I did beat Donkey Kong Jr. on my own.

6-01.jpg (4216 bytes)Before we had gotten our copy of Mega Man Xtreme I had read some of the reviews that complained about the game’s difficulty. I was flabbergasted. How could being hard be a bad thing? I find that I’m almost always complaining about how easy games are on the system. If I can’t get more than a couple of hours out of a game I feel unsatisfied. And here were people talking about it being too darn hard for its own good. Now that I’ve played for a while I have to admit that it is difficult, but I find myself celebrating its difficulty rather than criticizing it. I simply have had too much fun playing this game to fault it for being a bit of a pain.

7-01.jpg (4511 bytes)The plot of the game is just an excuse to revisit classic Mega Man bad guys. That’s not a bad thing. Like all of the best games on the GBC (also playable on the original Game Boy) I enjoy a certain feeling of nostalgia as I worked with the little guy once again. Fans of the franchise won’t be let down by Mega Man on this outing.

9-01.jpg (4602 bytes)From the moment that I turned the game on I knew that I was in for a treat. This is one great looking title. On top of the nice graphics, it has some of the nicest controls that I’ve used as well. The levels themselves are fairly easy to progress through. It’s the bosses that cause all of the trouble. The health meters on the villains are so high that they seem to border on invincible. As you defeat bosses you get power ups that help you later on. The attacks are varied enough to keep you on your toes. You cannot let your guard down in this game.

In all honesty I can’t find any other fault with the game other than its difficulty (and for some people even that isn’t really a fault). The graphics are really quite nice. It’s one of the best looking games I’ve played on the system. When I first started playing I thought this would definitely be a 5 star game. But on the 15th try of the first major boss I was beginning to have doubts in my own gaming abilities. If you’re looking for a challenge and your ego can handle a beating, then this game will not let you down.

P.S. If you by chance beat this game in a matter of minutes, please don’t email me. I don’t think that I could suffer the trauma of knowing that it really was my lack of skill that kept me from beating Kung Fu.

Jason Frank

Snapshot

Ups: Great, old-school sidescrolling action; really nice visuals; perfect control.

Downs: Really freakin' hard.

System Reqs:
Game Boy Color or Game Boy

 

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