'Mega Man 11' taught me it's OK to play on easy

After playing the Block Man stage of Mega Man 11for a few hours, I wrote the sentence "Mega Man games are bullshit."

But then I went against everything I've ever stood for and lowered the difficulty setting of the game from Normal to Newcomer, the easiest of the game's four starting difficulties. Because, frankly, I've never been able to beat a single Mega Manstage, and Mega Man 11's Normal difficulty was going to make me pop a blood vessel out of rage.

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It turns out that Mega Man 11is actually great. After I put aside my pride, I was able to see how attractive the game is, how fun the platforming and boss fights are, and how interesting the different mechanics and weapons are.

On Newcomer, things started to connect for me. I was able get past all the things that were making me so angry and killing me over and over and over. Thanks to my increased health, infinite lives, decreased number of enemies, and checkpoints on every screen, I did it. I beat the Block Man stage.

It felt pretty good to finally beat a Mega Man stage, so I completed a couple more stages in Newcomer and moved up to Casual. Still not where I wanted to be, but hey, I was moving up.

I beat the Block Man, Fuse Man, and Bounce Man stages with relative ease on Casual and then moved onto Normal.

I beat the Block Man stage on my first attempt. And then I beat the Fuse Man stage on my first attempt.

The Fuse Man stage is all about avoiding painful shocks.Credit: mashable / capcom

I finally beat a Normal Mega Man stage thanks to Mega Man 11's helpful difficulties that made a previously unapproachable series much, muchmore approachable. And even beatable.

Mega Man blues

I remember the first time I played a Mega Mangame. It was the first one, which originally came out in 1987 but was later released on the Wii Virtual Console in 2008, which is where I experienced it.

I booted it up with my glossy, white, Wii Classic Controller in hand and jumped into my first stage, selecting Cut Man because his portrait was in the top left.

I attempted the stage over and over for hours, getting increasingly frustrated at the platforming and enemies that I just couldn't seem to get past. I tried other stages. All of them eluded me.

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I became so angry I threw the controller down. The controller stopped working. Mega Man still stands as the only game that has made me so angry that I broke something. I avoided Mega Manafter that.

Mega Man 11, to me, was a chance to redeem myself. I've played tons of notoriously difficult games since I first played Mega Manand figured I was at a place in my life where I could beat at least one stage of Mega Man.

The Block Man stage was extremely difficult without any experience.Credit: mashable / capcom

My problem with Mega Man 11was that I thought I had to play it on Normal difficulty, because it's called Normal and seems like the difficulty I should have started on. Isn't that usually how it works? But for someone who doesn't have much experience with Mega Man, it was basically insurmountable.

After dozens of attempts I made it to the Block Man boss fight of Mega Man 11but died almost immediately. I was out of lives and had to start all over. I shut off the console.

To me, it felt like a game that was stuck in the past, like the developers learned nothing from the decades of amazing platformers that had come after it.

My problem was, they actually did learn something, implementing the Newcomer difficulty for the first time in the game's 31-year history. I just refused to recognize it.

The vibe of Torch Man's stage is pretty unique and chill. Until the wall of fire comes.Credit: mashable / capcom

Enjoying Mega Man 11

I confess that I have not beaten nor played every stage of Mega Man 11, probably because it's an incredibly challenging game and I get very tense when I play it so I have to take breaks or else my hands will start hurting.

But I've played a good chunk of most of them, and I plan on playing through all of them until I've completed it on Normal.

Each stage has a unique feel to it, not just because of the level designs like the run-down theme park look of Blast Man's stage or the outdoorsy, campy setting of Torch Man's stage, but because of the unique enemies and different ways the stages challenge the player.

Tundra Man's stage features slippery platforms and strong winds.Credit: mashable / capcom

The stages, while difficult, are laid out expertly. Challenges are brought on gradually and enemies are presented in increasingly difficult positions and numbers. It's a tough mix of memorization, well-placed jumps, and precise shots.

The new gear system mechanic is very helpful in tough situations -- being able to make weapons more powerful or slowing down time is incredibly useful.

Oh, and the music is incredible.

Mega Man 11made Mega Manapproachable to me, which is probably one of the best aspects of it. I am going to try to beat some of the other stages on Normal without playing them on easier difficulties first but I am prepared to drop down into Casual again if I need to tackle it in a less stressful scenario.

Using alternate weapons from the various bosses is very helpful in a pinch.Credit: mashable / capcom

I think I finally get why people like Mega Man.

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