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Mega Man 9: Our Thoughts By: Gavin Mooney & PoisonRamune, the Apathetic Lizardman Gavin's Account -
On September 22 20XX the blue bomber returned in Capcom’s recently released Mega Man 9 for Wii Ware. Now normally I do movie reviews but could not pass up this opportunity to review the latest game in one of my favorite video game series. The story, though not very important, is that Wily finally has given up on wreaking havoc due to his multiple failures at the hand of Mega Man but then all of the sudden Dr. Light’s robots begin to wreak havoc. Wily takes advantage of this situation to cast all the blame of the past on Light and get him thrown in jail. Our hero, Mega Man, must step up once again to kick some robot master ass and redeem the good name of Dr. Light and get to the bottom of this mystery surrounding his robots. Alright boring nonsense shit out of the way, let’s get to the nut meat of this game. Capcom has done an excellent job of providing us with yet another great Mega Man game. Not since Mega Man 3 have we had such an entertaining and challenging Mega Man game. The designers of the game decided that revamping the blue bomber was not the way to go, after the low appeal of Mega Man 7 and 8, and that the basics is what the true Mega Man fans crave and overwhelmingly enjoy. The game play is much the same as the first 3 Mega Man games with no charge shot, no power slide, and only two support, or Rush, abilities. That’s right no gay Rush adapter or Beat power up, though Beat can be purchased at the item shop but that would be pretty gay and useless. Again you have to face 8 robot bosses each with a power to help defeat the other one. The order in which to defeat the bosses is not apparent right off the bat but by the time you beat the game the first time you’ll definitely have the order down (That’s right, the first time!). One thing that this Mega Man has that no other before it had is incredibly high replay value. Of my favorite Mega Man games, the first three, only Mega Man 2 had enough replay value in my eyes to be played over, and over, and over, and over again. The game was fun, the music kicked ass!, and I could play it in an hour and half; so if I needed to waste time waiting for a show to start or a friend to pick me up, BOOM play some Mega Man to pass the time. Mega Man 9 has made sure that even if qualities like I found in Mega Man 2 are not there you will still play this game over, and over, and over again. One such aspect is a challenges list that has a variety of things to be accomplished while playing through the game. They range from beat the game to beat the game without getting hit once. A pretty monumental task I know but as I think back to my Mega Man 2 days and I realize that if I had put my mind to it I probably could have eventually done that soon so just gotta wait and be patient with 9. Another great feature is two additional difficulties so if the game wasn’t hard enough the first time well then prepared to get your ass handed to you. Also there is a time attack mode where you attempt to play the levels as fast as humanly possible and then some and an additional level with another robot boss. This proved to a monumental pain in the ass since the time attack levels only give you one life and the ninth robot master can only be played in time attack mode. Finally the last two things to add this games replay value is one, another stage that is a never ending stage. A player is ranked and judged on how many screens they can complete before they die or get bored. Funny enough after playing the bonus level I think it is more often the sooner rather than the latter. Finally I have saved what I think is the best feature for last; you can play as Proto Man. Funny enough a lot of my friends I tell this two always ask the same thing, “Can you use his sword?” No it’s Proto Man not Zero from Mega Man X. The Proto Man challenge is another good and hard challenge because as Proto Man you get power slide, his shield (only when you jump), and a charged buster. The drawback is that Proto Man takes twice as much damage and is knocked back twice as far when hit. As much as I have been jerking this game off there are a few drawbacks. One of them is the music. Of all the stages there are only maybe two or three stages with Mega Man 2 caliber music in them. Another drawback is that you have to purchase all the additional content for the game. Now that might be cool for anyone who just wants to buy and beat the game just so they can say they did it but unless other downloadable content is going to be added, and I highly doubt that, Capcom could have just upped the price and sold me the whole game in one big bundle. I still would have paid it and I wouldn’t have to hassle with having to wait even longer while I download the rest of the game. Or Capcom could have made the additional content unlockables hidden through the game at which point Capcom would have again added to the game’s replay value. Other than that and a few personal complaints about the game completely unrelated to how it’s designed or structured or even how it works, this Mega Man has managed to come out of the woodwork with very few if any drawbacks. Players may be off put by the retro style of the game but once you play it, and if you go back and play your old Mega Man games, you’ll realize that if ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Capcom did an excellent job on this game and made yet another very enjoyable Mega Man. Go Play it!
Rob's Account - I like Mega Man 9; it’s a very good game. However, part of me is still uncertain about why I like it. While it’s a very well produced Mega Man game, I can’t help but feel that it’s just more of the same. This going back to the games roots by keeping an 8-bit styled interface and simple Mega Man formula works well, but I sometimes feel that I like the game solely because of this forced nostalgia. I mean, we all seemed to hate 7 and 8 because they were “updated.” Because Mega Man 9 is so much like its previous versions, it’s really hard for me to give this game a fair review. Looking at 9 as a stand alone game, I’d say it’s phenomenal. However, looking at Mega Man 9 as part of the classic Mega Man series makes the game seem like the same old song and dance. This isn’t a bad thing per se; however, I’m sure the only reason Mega Man 9 will stand out in my mind is the fact that it came out 10 years after the main series died out. Oddly enough, as much as I harp the game for being the same as its predecessors, it’s this classic formula that actually makes the game work best. Mega Man is not some emo boy chosen to be Mega Man like some ever incarnating hero of time, he’s not in some annoying action RPG, or some wacky 3-D game character in this one. He’s just Mega Man, the plucky blue robot with a gun for a hand and for that we thank him. Graphically the game follows a classic NES 8-bit interface. However, I’m led to believe that this is not a true NES color palette, as there are way too many colors in certain areas (ie: certain background patterns in some levels and Wily’s airship/blimp). Even though the game is made to look like a classic NES cart, there’s still some pretty modern graphics tricks used in this game. For example, in Tornado Man’s stage you’re to make your way along a battery of rolling batteries. As you stand waiting on your rolling platform, Mega Man’s sprite will shrink down and reappear on the other side to show that he’s rotating with the platform. The levels are all well designed. Not only do they look great, but they play even better. They’re challenging and really keep you on your toes through the whole game. The enemies and bosses are also amazing, proving once again that Capcom still has it when making 16x16 pixel art. While many people have said that Mega Man 9’s weakest point is the music, I’d have to adamantly disagree. The music is superb and a huge treat for jazz/R & B fans. The songs are catchy and are very well produced to the point where I might actually pick up the soundtrack CD for this game. The only song that I don’t like is the boss fight music. It’s annoying in a generic video game song sort of way, and really pisses me off that I have to hear it 20 times in the game. While the game play is truly classic Mega Man, right down to the tight controls. The game also has quite a bit of new stuff going on with it, such as Xbox360 style achievements known as challenges. The challenges range from the standard stuff such as beating the game within a certain amount of time to some down right unfair and ambiguous challenges like “use as little special weapon as possible.” And yes, they don’t give you a clear definition of that “as little as possible” means. Another great thing added to Mega Man 9 is the downloadable content. While some gamers see this as a company nickel and diming them, I really see DLC as quite the opposite. If we were living in 80’s or 90’s a new Mega Man game would cost us $50, no questions asked. However, in 2008 we’re given Mega Man 9 at the very fair price of $10. If you’re happy with just taking out the 8 master bots and Wily and have no desire to be Protoman or face an extra boss, you don’t have to pay for that. Just enjoy this little $10 gem as is, it’s all good. I really enjoy Mega Man 9 today; however, I’m still not sure where it will stand in my gamer heart 20 years from now (and that’s what really counts with classic games). Perhaps, it’ll be another Mega Man 2 or 3 where I love the game so much, I can even beat it while drunk. Maybe in 20 years when we’re actually getting paid to do articles here, I’ll write up how my feeling changed about this game. Until then, I’m just going to enjoy this one for what it is… While it’s still fresh, yet nostalgic.
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