Game Reviews: Mega Man 9
Ok, here we go again with another video game review.
A few months back I downloaded Mega Man 9 for the Nintendo Wii. It was like $10 bucks to download and a few extra bucks for harder game settings and stuff. As soon as I heard this game was coming out I wanted to download it, and as soon as I downloaded it I couldn’t wait to start playing it. But one thing had me more hyped than anything else, this game went old-school and had 8-bit style graphics! I’ve always loved Mega Man games because they’re fun, they have some sweet music and they have pretty good replay value. And Mega Man 9 is no exception, it’s got all the above.
So, the game starts off with a familiar scene. It’s the year 20XX and all is well until…..robots start going crazy and attacking the city! That’s right, Dr. Wily is back to his old tricks again. This time he’s taken Dr. Light’s robots, manipulated them to do his evil bidding and he’s trying to blame it all on the innocent Dr. Light. (What a dick). Now civilization’s salvation rests in the hands of the legendary blue bomber, Mega Man! And he’s rarin’ and ready to go kick some evil-robot ass!
"I'm a total dick!"
Alright, first things first, let’s talk about the look and feel of the game. For Mega Man 9 the guys at Capcom decided to go retro and make the game look like it came out of the 80’s. Now I’ve heard different opinions, for and against this decision, but I gotta say that I liked it. Some people were like “Man, they’re just trying to make it look old too cash in on how popular old games are now” or “They should’ve just made it a side scroller with updated graphics, this looks dumb.” And to that I just shake my head in disapproval. (You should just be happy that another Mega Man game is around for you to play). I think they made the game 8-bit style as like a fan-service to fans of the old Mega Man games. And personally, it did give me the feeling that I was playing an NES game. They even have a “legacy” option that will make the screen flicker like the old games did.
...just like back in the day
It wasn’t just classic looks they were going for either, the difficulty was like days past as well. Some people claim this game is too hard but I must respectfully disagree. I’ll admit that it’s tuff when you first start. I myself died several times and it took me forever to beat Magma Man with just the mega buster. (I didn’t know/didn’t have the tornado weapon he’s weak against). But what game isn’t hard the first time you try it out? I can’t help but think about when I was young and playing Mega Man 2. I thought I’d never beat it, let alone get past that damn giant robot dragon, but I did. Now I can smoke that game no problem. It’s the same with Mega Man 9. You just gotta play and play and play. Remember, through trial & error and memorizing the patterns you can beat this game.
Remember this pain in the ass?
In this game our hero performs like he did in Mega Man 1 and 2. He runs, he jumps, he shoots, and that’s about it. Of course, when a robot boss is defeated you can use a new weapon based on their power. You can’t slide and you can’t use the charge shot. (Well, you can do those things but I’ll explain that later). But he does have his trusty robot dog Rush again with whom he can use the Rush coil and Rush jet. Your little buddies Eddie and Beat make a return appearance as well, but you have to buy them at the store. There’s a store you can access in between levels. You pay with screws that you pick up in the game to buy things like extra lives, energy containers, and other handy items. 
There’s extra content you can download for the game. And since I wanted to play everything possible I downloaded it on the spot. There’s hero mode (a harder version of the game), superhero mode (an even harder version of the game), and proto mode where you play as Protoman (this version is quite hard, too). In Proto mode you can slide, use the charge shot and use Protoman’s shield for defense. But, being Protoman comes at a price. You can only shoot two bullets at a time rather than 3, you take twice the damage from a hit, get knocked back twice as far from a hit, and you can’t use the shop to buy stuff. (Damn, that’s brutal.) 
There’s also a special stage you can play with another robot boss, Fake Man. (Hilarious). And the endless mode where you just fight and fight till you can’t fight no mo’. Plus, if you’re a perfectionist, they have some personal challenges that range from the reasonable (beat a boss using only the Mega Buster or defeat 100 enemies in the game) to the just plain ri-damn-diculous (beat the game without taking any damage at all, WTF!)
Let’s talk about the music. Holy shit the music was awesome! It fits the 8-bit style perfectly. Before I got the game I thought “I hope the music is at least decent” and it blew me away. Again, opinions vary, but I think this was some of the best Mega Man music since Mega Man 2 & 3. (I especially like Concrete Man’s and Galaxy Man’s music.) The developers probably knew that they had to step it up and make some good music and they totally did.
Once again CAPCOM worked with one of their more famous, if not their MOST famous, franchises and gave us a great game. So, as if it wasn’t already clear, I really liked this game. Yeah, it was hard but it’s supposed to be hard. They wanted to give you a game that was tough and I enjoyed the challenge. After I beat this game I actually played it a few more times because I enjoyed it so much. The music rocked, the visuals were nostalgic and you got it all for less than $20 with all the other added content. Excellent work CAPCOM, please keep it up.
Tags: capcom, Mega Man, video games