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Post by RadicalRex on Oct 24, 2021 2:40:50 GMT
RadicalRex When you mention Bloodstained I assume you mean Curse of the Moon rather than Ritual of the Night? No, when I say Bloodstained, I mean the "main game", i.e. Ritual. I've tried Curse but honestly even as someone with an 8-bit affinity I couldn't be arsed to go past somewhere around the halfway mark. Curse uses oldschool super-stiff jump physics, it does the same that the NES Castlevanias did. I hated that back then and I hate it in Curse. When we're talking about "modern" jump physics, in most cases like Hollow Knight, Axiom Verge etc. you have great control over jump height and direction. That is what I mean with Mega Man style controls, because MM did that back in the days when it was unusual. MM physics allow you to dodge 3 different projectiles coming at you during a single jump, and beginning with MM3, you had such control over jump height that you could literally jump just one pixel high if you could tap the button shortly enough. Most modern 2D platformers follow the MM formula. Whenever I try a new 2D platformer, I first examine jump physics to understand what I can do and what I can't, and in the case of HK, Axiom Verge, Phoenotopia, Bloodstained Ritual they mostly follow the MM rules. Ender Lilies is similar in horizontal movement but you can't control jump height (at least not early on, no idea if this changes later). And there's nothing wrong with the physics of any of these games. What I was trying to say is that I've become unhealthily picky about them. When I first played HK, I approved of the MM-style physics, but now I'm unsatisfied with them because they're not as close to perfect as MM and Bloodstained Ritual in my perception. The differences are very minor, but I don't get the feeling of "this is perfect" in HK that I get in MM and Bloodstained, that feeling that makes me enjoy these games simply for how jumping feels. As for the horizontal attack thing, personally I love it. I love to combine movement and attack to hit the enemy. I believe I see a connection to how I loved the railgun in Q3A. The combination of jump, movement and timely placement of the horizontal buster shot in MM is one of my favourite game experiences. I love that I don't have any vertical aiming and need to move to "aim" instead. |
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Post by Aunt Alison on Oct 24, 2021 10:00:20 GMT
I'm pretty adaptive to be honest. Having a fixed jump or having control are fine as long as the game is designed well around it. Same with directional attacks. It's not something I really think about after initially moving about a bit at the start to see what's up. As long as it feels good to play. Same with the effects when you get hit in HK, it feels good to me. Nice feedback
Wouldn't Mario have had air control before MM though?
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Post by RadicalRex on Oct 25, 2021 18:29:21 GMT
Wouldn't Mario have had air control before MM though? Yes, but not the same. Like most old games that added any mid-air controls, Mario had momentum--and I love Mario's momentum in SMB1 and 3, that has such a unique feel and works so well in these games, especially since you have to jump on enemies. No momentum like in MM or in most modern platformers would make these games much less joyful in my opinion. Contrast SMW, which still has momentum but it's reduced a lot, and that may be the main reason why I enjoy it a little less than SMB3. Now MM has no momentum whatsoever, while you're pressing left or right he moves at 100% speed in that direction, while you're not there's no horizontal movement at all, and for MM that works very well. No acceleration or deceleration (which also means there's no running jump, it makes no difference if you're jumping from standstill), just like in HK, Bloodstained, Axiom Verge etc. Most Capcom NES games did this (MM, Ducktales, Chip'n'Dale, Darkwing Duck...) in contrast to most other NES games, so I sometimes call this Capcom-style. On top of that, tight jump height control, but to be fair SMB had that too. I think that's a major reason MM1-6 don't feel as old as, say, Castlevania 1-3. Those have no mid-jump controls whatsoever, and if you're coming from e.g. HK, that feels very stiff and old. But any MM game feels super tight, like what you're used to from HK, and I believe that's one of the major reasons why they have (in my opinion) aged better than most NES games. Sidenote: Super Castlevania 4 added some sideways control with a little momentum but still no jump height control, Symphony of the Night just ditched classic CV controls entirely and went with MM-style controls, and Bloodstained pushes this further by having instand jump height control similar to MM3+. Personally I find there's something really satisfying about these immediate controls. It also allows micro-movement during jumps with a fast thumb on the d-pad. MM11 makes great use of this, e.g. you're on a small moving platform above an abyss with different types of projectiles coming from left, right and top at the same time, and these controls allow you to dodge around between them in a single jump while hitting the homing missile with a well-timed buster shot. I find that highly satisfying. And what I was trying to say was that after hundreds of hours of getting used to these immediate controls, I find it increasingly hard to settle for anything else. This goes so far that I'm annoyed by the just slightly floatier feel of MM1/2 which had just a little upwards momentum (moving upwards for another few frames/pixels after letting go of the button), and enjoy them less than MM3+ just because of that. And it makes it harder for me to enjoy other platformers as much as I should because my preferences have become very narrow. |
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Post by Aunt Alison on Oct 25, 2021 19:33:47 GMT
Have you considered writing a MM book?
Your posts genuinely make me want to go and play the games you talk about
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Post by RadicalRex on Oct 25, 2021 19:44:00 GMT
No, and what's frightening is that I know maybe 10% as much about these games as someone I saw on the MM discord. All I can say for now is that if you want to play the NES MM that's closest to MM9, it's probably 4.
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Post by RadicalRex on Oct 30, 2021 1:02:02 GMT
In the current Steam Halloween sale (until Nov 1), there are a lot of platformers on sale, including almost all I had on my wishlist for a future sale. Most of them I turned out to not like (surprise!), but I'm mentioning them anyway, not least because there might be some games you guys are interested in that you're unaware are on sale.
Dead Cells - 40% off
From the gameplay I'd seen, I wasn't expecting to like it, but because of the raving reviews I wanted to give it a try anyway. Turns out that it's exactly as I expected, it seems very well made but it's totally not the type of game I enjoy. Played less than an hour and was very disinterested, I'm going to refund it.
Azure Striker Gunvolt - 50% off
Had little idea if I would like it, but it's another game with raging reviews and it's made by my darlings Inti Creates, so I had to try it. Controls are super tight which I always like, but the platforming is very rudimentary, it seems to be mostly about spamming whatever is in your way with bullets and special powers. It also seems to be one of those combo/score heavy games which I don't care about at all. What's more, it's heavily narrative/story-focussed to the point that during gameplay people are talking to you all the time, and I mean literally all the fucking time. Wouldn't be so bad if I gave a damn about anime stories. You can turn that off but it seems to be a core part of the game and they tell you what you need to do and explain game mechanics as you go.
On top of that, it's clearly a 3DS port which means a lot of screen crunch. Really don't like that either, I like to see what's going on around me further than 3-4 metres or so. Only finished the first level and I'll try a little more, but I greatly sense a refund coming on this one too.
Mighty Gunvolt - 80% off (€1!)
8-bit accompaniment for Azure Striker Gunvolt, I actually bought this first for €5 one day before the sale, and before playing Azure. An 8-bit Mega Man-alike from the makers of MM9? Had to get it! for €5 I wasn't expecting it to be on the level of Inti's MM and Bloodstained games, but even so I was very disappointed. It's extremely short (5 levels, some 20 minutes), level design/platforming/enemy design are extremely basic, it feels like a mediocre web browser fan game. There are 4 bonus levels but they're hardly different enough to be interesting. The soundtrack is bad too, generally it feels like there was little effort put into anything.
Unusually for Inti, it feels like a hack job. There's not even an option to return to the main menu through the pause menu, the only thing you can do is press Esc which terminates the game without asking for confirmation. There's input/display lag that I strongly suspect is caused by vsync, but you can't turn that off, so it doesn't even feel as good as it should.
I later learned this was originally a freebie bonus for Azure, and that way it makes a lot of sense. Reviewers said you probably have to have played Azure before to appreciate it. But as a standalone game sold even for as little as €5, I felt ripped off. Normally I wouldn't refund a €5 game, but it's bad value even for that.
Can't go wrong for €1 though, so give it a try if you're even the tiniest bit interested.
Spelunky 2 - 10% off
Well 10% off doesn't mean anything but I was going to buy it anyway. People raved about Spelunky 1 and I loved the concept and what I saw in gameplay videos, but playing the demo myself I felt just so utterly indifferent and bored. People raved about 2 even more, saying it's even better so I gave it a try knowing I can get a refund if I don't like it. And I felt just as indifferent and bored as with 1, I don't know why.
Blaster Master Zero - 50% off
Now finally something I like. Again made by Inti Creates, this is a loving re-imagining of the NES classic. It adds widescreen support and some graphics that feel 16-bit-ish (similar to Shovel Knight), but stays admirably faithful to the original game's aesthetics. It also adds welcome quality of life improvements like a map and a dedicated strafe button.
I didn't know about BM back in the days, so I don't have any direct nostalgia--however that jumping tank thing is and looks so rad, 6 yo. me would have thought this is literally the best thing ever. So there may be some nostalgia involved about what I wanted to have as a kid, even if I didn't know it existed. Tried BM much later on an emulator but it felt a little archaic to me and level layouts confused me so I abandoned it. BMZ still feels kind of old, but less archaic so I can enjoy it today.
During most of the game, it was really easy and I thought it's still mostly a nostalgia romp, but when it later tries to increase the difficulty a little, it feels surprisingly entertaining and up to date. It's also surprisingly long, I'm about 80% through after some 4-5 hours.
BMZ 2 is said to take more liberties and ramp up the difficulty, so I bought that already and am really looking forward to it. Both are 50% off for €5, and at least with BMZ1 I can safely say it's worth it.
Also on sale:
Hollow Knight (-50%)
Ori and the Will of the Wisps (-67%)
Celeste (-75%)
Carrion (-40%)
Bloodstained: Ritual and Bloodstained: Curse (-50%)
Axiom Verge (-60%)
Terraria (-50%)
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Post by dangerousdave on Oct 30, 2021 9:01:44 GMT
Dead Cells was great fun, but I came less interested as the weapon pool expanded. Some of the weapons were way more fun to use than others. I managed to complete it on the first two difficulties, but after that I couldn't wrap my head around how to approach a run as there were too many variables.
Still got a good 40 - 50 hours out of it.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Oct 30, 2021 9:58:18 GMT
I enjoyed Dead Cells at first until I'd died and replayed it enough times that it started to feel like a rogue lite. I find the randomisation of these games more of a detraction than anything else. I don't mind repeating something if I can race through it, but doing the same early levels but different for the sake of building up your abilities is just boring
Gunvolt was OK once you work out you can sort of disable all the chatter by changing the language option (at least on the first game) but it it felt like Mega Man but different and not as good. Agree attacking felt spammy and don't like the chellenge stuff either. I did finish the first one though
BMZ is a game I've seen pop up a lot and always been in the fence about
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Post by dangerousdave on Oct 30, 2021 11:16:04 GMT
That's a fair point. I don't mind the repetition myself, but the end goal is a big achievement when you finally reach it. It's a good feeling. Like completing a Mega Mqn or Castlevania game.
It helps that the controls and combat were generally great. I think I was boderline untouchable on the standard difficulty. Completing stages without taking damage was a nice personal challenge.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Oct 30, 2021 14:02:16 GMT
That's a fair point. I don't mind the repetition myself, but the end goal is a big achievement when you finally reach it. It's a good feeling. Like completing a Mega Mqn or Castlevania game. It helps that the controls and combat were generally great. I think I was boderline untouchable on the standard difficulty. Completing stages without taking damage was a nice personal challenge. I got as far as what I think was the last boss but he absolutely murdered me and I didn't fancy going through everything before that again just for another attempt. That's the other issue with the repetition for me. In MM, the levels are short and you get a few shots at the boss before having to replay a whole level so it's fine but 40+ minutes to try and get past a bit you died on again is too much for me
That's no so much a criticism of Dead Cells, more the genre. My experience with Hades was the same - fun to play to a point, until the repetition starts to kick in
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Post by RadicalRex on Oct 30, 2021 22:10:54 GMT
Finished Blaster Master Zero. Lovely game, but its biggest downfall is that it's too easy. Especially the top-down sections don't offer even a slight hint of a challenge. It wasn't terrible, but it leaves you wanting more. In the late game, a few times the platforming sections become frantic and challenging, and suddenly it shines. There are also multiple ways to approach certain sections, and it's rewarding to observe your surroundings and think about how you could make good use of your wall-climb ability, which is really fun. If the whole game was like this, I'd give it a 9/10. Sadly, from that point on it's over much too soon.
I'm also afraid there's very little replay value, mostly thanks to the super-easy top-down sections. They're ok for one playthrough, but I imagine they're going to be super boring and annoying in any future one.
But despite these issues, it was a fun experience and I give it 8/10.
2 hours into BMZ2, I'm very disappointed so far. It is more challenging alright, but not in any good way--for example, by making enemies in the top-down sections move around erratically at 2-3x the speed of your bullets. I hate it when games do that, I call that bullshit difficulty. It's still not very hard actually, just annoying as fuck.
I hoped it would take the best moments of the first game and expand on that, make some changes here and there but stay true to what was great. But it changes things a lot in countless ways, and to be honest I can't recall a single change right now that wasn't for the worse. It's super gimmicky and it even adds wall jump, and soon enough you get your wall-jump towers with alternating spikes left and right. I mean come on, the best that you can think of is to make it the same as every other game? And that's not to mention that you now often grab walls when you absolutely don't want to.
And the soundtrack is worse. But if I started to list all the things that are worse than in BMZ1, I wouldn't be able to finish so I'll stop now.
I'll finish it but so far it's 6/10 territory.
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Post by RadicalRex on Nov 6, 2021 1:04:26 GMT
Finished Blaster Master Zero 2. And yes, the only positive change in theory would be its higher difficulty. Sadly, that is achieved almost exclusively through cheapness, so even that ends up being worse than the original. 6/10.
Abandoned BMZ 3 two hours in. It doubles down on all of 2's deprovements and makes everything worse again. It's awful.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Nov 14, 2021 23:59:30 GMT
Just started Mega Man 11 and man, it's hard
Took me an hour just to finish a stage and beat a boss (Bounce Man I think- wouldn't shut up)
It looks quite nice. Nothing special but fine. The voice acting though, jeez
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Post by RadicalRex on Nov 15, 2021 1:44:36 GMT
In the sound menu, you can turn off voices. That also disables voice acting in cutscenes and shop, but whatever, it's great to have not only the bosses but also Mega Man himself shut up.
As for difficulty, yeah I think I needed 6 hours or so on my first playthrough. But like any good Mega Man game, it just keeps getting more fun the better you get. I found the stages pretty long first, but after getting better I find them pretty much ideal. Great game, shame about the soundtrack though.
A word of caution, Torch Man (both stage and boss) is rough if you don't use the intended weapon.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Nov 16, 2021 18:06:41 GMT
Good thing you mentioned turning the voices off, I'd just set them to Japanese
The music is fine, like the visuals. Inoffensive
This is way harder than 9 though. Only beat 3 bosses so far- some stages I haven't even been able to finish yet. I don't like how extra lives can only be collected once, even if you restart the level. Makes them a bit pointless
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Post by Deleted on Nov 16, 2021 18:12:44 GMT
I couldn't imagine turning off the voices in a MegaMan game. Bad acting is half the charm.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Nov 16, 2021 18:16:42 GMT
It's mainly that the bosses won't shut up while you're fighting them in MM11. I've never gone past MMX4
Oh it's MM8 - haven't played that one but I have got it. That voice acting is rather good, enjoyable
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Post by RadicalRex on Nov 16, 2021 20:35:42 GMT
In cutscenes it's fine, and the voice acting in MM8's cutscenes is probably the best part of the game (muhaha), but I really don't like when bosses just don't stop talking and "taunting". And when people like the protagonist constantly announce their actions--like MM shouting "power shot!" whenever he does a charge buster shot. That gets annoying pretty quickly as far as I'm concerned.
As for MM11 music, sure it's inoffensive, but it's offensively inoffensive imo. It's like elevator music. I mean, the 8-bit MM's all had the same two square channels, one triangle channel and one noise channel. Yet they managed to make so many great, distinct, memorable tunes with those. MM11 music had no limits whatsoever, but it turned out all the same, to the point that MM11's instrumentation feels more limited than that of the 8-bit games.
Like, when hearing the soundtrack of an 8-bit MM game, in most cases I could tell you what game and what stage that's from. MM11 is my most-played MM game after 9, but if you played any music other than Bounce Man or the boss theme, I couldn't tell what stage it's from. It's just all the same forgettable background noise.
I like to think of 8-bit MM OST as foreground music. MM11 OST is very backgroundy background music, and I think that's a shame because music is such a prominent part of any previous game in the series.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Nov 17, 2021 14:51:14 GMT
Are the parts in MM11 permanent upgrades or can you switch them on and off? Only just discovered them but don't want permanent aids Only got two stages left now (Explosion Man and whatever this game's version of Heat Man is)
The second fight against the mini boss on Block Man's stage was such a pain
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Post by RadicalRex on Nov 17, 2021 16:03:29 GMT
As far as I'm aware you can switch all of them off except for 3: the mystery chip and the ones that increase e-tank limit and bird uses. In case of doubt, of course you can always try it out and load your previous save if you don't like it. edit: the mystery chip is not that relevant because all it does is you get extra screws for finishing a stage quickly. It's no actual gameplay advantage aside from being able to buy upgrades faster. |
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Post by Aunt Alison on Nov 18, 2021 9:17:14 GMT
In the sound menu, you can turn off voices. That also disables voice acting in cutscenes and shop, but whatever, it's great to have not only the bosses but also Mega Man himself shut up. As for difficulty, yeah I think I needed 6 hours or so on my first playthrough. But like any good Mega Man game, it just keeps getting more fun the better you get. I found the stages pretty long first, but after getting better I find them pretty much ideal. Great game, shame about the soundtrack though. A word of caution, Torch Man (both stage and boss) is rough if you don't use the intended weapon. Torch Man was great. Didn't use any special weapons for any of the first 8 stages (done now). Did use the slow time gear for the third flame chase sequence on Torch Man's stage because it's pretty dicey
I quite liked Torch Man's stage music as well. The intro part is pretty catchy!
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Post by RadicalRex on Nov 30, 2021 7:47:13 GMT
In the current Steam sale up till tomorrow, I bought Mighty No. 9 (-75%) and the Castlevania Advance Collection (-25%).
Not enjoying Mighty No. 9. My biggest gripe is the dash to finish enemies mechanic, I hate it. The more I play to try to get used to it, the more I hate it. Now that's the defining mechanic of the game, so I doubt we're ever going to be friends. Not a fan of what I've seen so far from stage and enemy design either, it feels kind of bland.
Another thing I really don't like is that Mega Man now Mighty has some airborne momentum. It's just that in quick-reaction situations that I would have dodged with MM's immediate controls, the slight movement delay in MN9 makes me get hit. I don't know if I'm being unfair, but I think this game is pitched as a MM replacement in all but name, and that's probably what most supporters backed it for, and thus I always look at it through this lens. And at least for my taste, it's not looking good for MN9 in this comparison.
Oh, and I really don't like people blathering at you during gameplay all the time. It's not quite as intrusive as in Gunvolt, but still, I find it annoying in a game like this, especially if it's just empty chatter that doesn't add anything whatsoever. Just... why?
Anyway, Castlevania Advance collection. I slept on it for a long time, gameplay footage I've seen never truly convinced me, it always kind of looked like a stripped down SotN to me. And even if that may be kind of true, at least for the first one I'm playing now, it's pretty good, tight fun. I really like it so far.
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Post by RadicalRex on Nov 30, 2021 8:24:10 GMT
Meanwhile, I must've played through Bloodstained for the 20th time or so. This time I was playing kick only again and heavily used a technique I was hardly even aware of, as you can strike down and bounce off enemies Chun Li-style with kick weapons. It's a lot of fun. What amazes me most about this game is how using different weapons and shards makes for a very different gameplay experience.
I love games with replay value, and in that regard Bloodstained is insane. Even outside of the different experiences, still everytime I play it, my skills get better, long after I'd have hit a ceiling in most other games. It's so satisfying.
I like to think of Super Metroid as that never-surpassed benchmark for the genre, but playing these two games back to back I'm tempted to give Bloodstained the crown.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Nov 30, 2021 9:05:31 GMT
Playing MN9 was brave. I don't think I've ever heard a good thing said about it.
Every time someone mentions the Castlevania Advance collection I think they mean the DS Castlevanias and get excited, then disappointed
As for Metroid and Bloodstained, despite the Metroidviana thing, they're pretty different games to me. The RPG elements set them apart enough that I wouldn't really pit them against each other. The scruffy look of it would probably stop me putting it above SoTN at any rate. I know graphics aren't the be all end all but I just couldn't really love a game I didn't like the look of. It's an audio visual medium, so I want to spend my time with it enjoying what I'm looking at
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Post by erekose on Nov 30, 2021 12:45:27 GMT
Was very tempted to pick up Plok when I saw it in my local shop today but actually it’s cheaper on EBay so now glad I didn’t.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Nov 30, 2021 13:47:54 GMT
People should pick up their own plok. It's bad enough in the street but in shops? Some people shouldn't have pets
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Post by RadicalRex on Nov 30, 2021 16:44:52 GMT
As for Metroid and Bloodstained, despite the Metroidviana thing, they're pretty different games to me. The RPG elements set them apart enough that I wouldn't really pit them against each other. The scruffy look of it would probably stop me putting it above SoTN at any rate. I know graphics aren't the be all end all but I just couldn't really love a game I didn't like the look of. It's an audio visual medium, so I want to spend my time with it enjoying what I'm looking at You're right, and calling it "genre" was a little inaccurate, but we've had that discussion before. I guess it's like saying "open world games" to include games like GTA, Far Cry and Asscreed. They can technically be different genres but share some core characteristics that can make you consider them a related experience, depending on your mileage. I also like to compare how these games play the strengths--and deal with the pitfalls--of the metroidvania type game. Anyway, no I can't really give one the edge over the other. I've sunk hundreds of hours in both. As for Bloodstained's graphics, yeah that's a shame, although the looks don't bother me that much. My main gripe is how the 2.5D (if done sloppily like here) negatively affects gameplay. To me gameplay is always above all else, and even with the 2.5D issues, Bloodstained just plays better than SotN in my opinion, and therefore gets my top pick. On the aural side, thankfully all three of these games are top notch. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2021 16:52:28 GMT
I liked the little bit of Mighty No. 9 I played, but like 99% of my library, I didn't keep up with it past the first stage. I should go back to it. I actually liked the dash mechanic. It felt to me like classic MegaMan, with a err, dash of X sprinkled in.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Nov 30, 2021 17:25:19 GMT
As for Metroid and Bloodstained, despite the Metroidviana thing, they're pretty different games to me. The RPG elements set them apart enough that I wouldn't really pit them against each other. The scruffy look of it would probably stop me putting it above SoTN at any rate. I know graphics aren't the be all end all but I just couldn't really love a game I didn't like the look of. It's an audio visual medium, so I want to spend my time with it enjoying what I'm looking at You're right, and calling it "genre" was a little inaccurate, but we've had that discussion before. I guess it's like saying "open world games" to include games like GTA, Far Cry and Asscreed. They can technically be different genres but share some core characteristics that can make you consider them a related experience, depending on your mileage. I also like to compare how these games play the strengths--and deal with the pitfalls--of the metroidvania type game. Anyway, no I can't really give one the edge over the other. I've sunk hundreds of hours in both. As for Bloodstained's graphics, yeah that's a shame, although the looks don't bother me that much. My main gripe is how the 2.5D (if done sloppily like here) negatively affects gameplay. To me gameplay is always above all else, and even with the 2.5D issues, Bloodstained just plays better than SotN in my opinion, and therefore gets my top pick. On the aural side, thankfully all three of these games are top notch. No, I totally get the comparison, I just meant I wouldn't try and say one is overall better than the other because ultimately they give very different experiences
I know you haven't got a Switch but Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze did an excellent job with the 2.5D graphics, so did Metroid Dread. Both games were elevated because of it for me. I'd recommend checking them out if you ever get the opportunity, or just look at some gameplay on YouTube to admire at your leisure
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Post by RadicalRex on Nov 30, 2021 19:45:00 GMT
Gameplay footage of both doesn't convince me to be honest. Tropical Freeze doesn't do anything for me to be honest, it may be great but it just doesn't look like the type of game I'm interested in (I'm no fan of the SNES DKC's either). As for Metroid Dread, I must say movement looks very snappy, my single one gripe with Super Metroid is its somewhat janky movement. Everything else though doesn't convince me, and I find Super Metroid is just much more audiovisually pleasing.
In both cases the 2.5D annoys me a lot, how the perspective of the environment is constantly changing while moving, how things close to the edges of the screen can be at least partially obscured by geometry etc. I may be radically minimalist, but I love the clarity of classic pixellated 2D especially for precision platforming/action. Mega Man 11 thankfully uses its 2.5D with great restraint, in a way that I find tolerable, yet still I'd take MM1's visuals (and audials) over MM11's any day. If I could have it my way, 2.5D needs to die.
Hell, I even dislike how e.g. the MM franchise went from vertical slice 2D to that kind of perspective thing with tilted floors when it jumped to PS1 (MM8/X4-X6). For example, if it's a close call if you can reach a higher platform, that makes it more of a guessing game than in the previous games where you could see the exact pixel of the platform's height as clear as day. Ban this modern filth.
And the classic vertical slice perspective is hardly outdated, Hollow Knight and Shovel Knight use it, that's one thing I greatly appreciate in these games.
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