Mega Man 9

[Scorch]

I'm sure everyone's familar with this game. It was released back in September 2008, and was meant to get Mega Man back to his roots by using an 8-bit engine that was supposed to replicate the one that was used in Mega Man 2. I'm sure it needs no introduction, so I'm just going to get to the point.

The Good: For the most part, I love this game. I really do. It did a pretty good job in getting Mega Man back to his roots, like they originally intended. Especially since I was getting pretty sick of all the other series they kept making (I consider any Mega Man series after X to be garbage). The game had good graphics (as in successfully imitating the graphical style of the NES games), sound, music, storyline (even if it was a simple one), and most importantly, the gameplay. These qualities made it truly feel like an NES game, especially while playing this game on the Wii (since the Wii Remote has a similar layout to an NES controller). I also like how the game has replay value, such as challenges, Time Attack, Endless Attack, etc., which no other Mega Man game has done.

The Bad: The thing that pisses me off about this game isn't the difficulty (as I actually find it to be pretty easy, aside from Super Hero Mode). It's the fact that they only paid attention to what the Mega Man 2 fanatics wanted. You know, the people who act as if it's the greatest thing since sliced bread? The people who act as if Mega Man 2 is the only game in the series that matters, and the others shouldn't exist? Yeah, those people. Capcom seemed to care very little about what other Mega Man fans wanted. For example, they removed Mega Man's Charge Beam and Slide Kick (which he's had for over TEN YEARS STRAIGHT), claiming that it's "unnecessary", and didn't even bother coming up with a story-related explanation as to why he couldn't use those techniques anymore. Instead, they flat-out acted as if he's never had them. They did give those abilities to Proto Man, I'll give them credit for that, but the Charge Beam wasn't quite the same as it was in Mega Man 5 and every game afterwards (besides 9, of course). I also hate how they didn't include Bass and Treble in the game, and pretty much showed a blatant disregard for those characters by slapping Bass' blueprints in the ending. Why they decided not to include him in the game, despite how huge his fanbase is, I'll never know. And for those who would like to pull the "storyline" excuse, saying that Bass had no relevance to it, then don't, because the same thing could be said about Proto Man. He didn't even HAVE a story, despite being a playable character. It also pissed me off how they got peoples' hopes up, making people think that Bass would appear in the Special Stage, but instead, we got that piece of crap police robot, Fake Man. Honestly, what does HE over Bass? All he has is an average Buster-Shot ability, nothing more. The only thing good about him his character design. Another small gripe I have is the lack of an intro stage and an intermission stage (which usually takes place after the fourth Robot Master is beaten in the previous two games, minus Mega Man & Bass).

Edited March 6, 2009 by Scorch

[Diogenes]

When I was a kid, all I had of Megaman was 5 and 6. I grew up with the charge shot and slide, and I never even considered Megaman not having them.

MM9 works just fine without them, and I think complaining about it is silly.

[JezMM]

Yeah, I didn't miss the slide or charge since Mega Man II is all I had played prior to 9. In all fairness I think it was a pretty decent model to work from... I moved on to Mega Man III afterwards when that came out on Wii and found it really boring and lacking the spark of the other two somehow.

I'll never be a -huge- Mega Man fan anyway though. I loved Mega Man 9, I really did, but now I've beaten it I'm satisfied. The game is so damn hard and I'm proud that I finished it. I would however like to shell out a few more points for Endless Attack though, even though I'm yet to beat the Special Stage which would be more fun if I had more than one life to beat it... lol.

[Scorch]

When I was a kid, all I had of Megaman was 5 and 6. I grew up with the charge shot and slide, and I never even considered Megaman not having them.

MM9 works just fine without them, and I think complaining about it is silly.

Maybe, but that would be just like Sega/Sonic Team coming up with a Sonic the Hedgehog 4, and removing Sonic's Spin Dash, Tails' ability to fly (manually, like in Sonic 3/Sonic 3 & Knuckles), and Knuckles' gliding and climbing abilities.

Yeah, I didn't miss the slide or charge since Mega Man II is all I had played prior to 9. In all fairness I think it was a pretty decent model to work from... I moved on to Mega Man III afterwards when that came out on Wii and found it really boring and lacking the spark of the other two somehow.

For me, it's the other way around. I think Mega Man 2 is overrated. Don't get me wrong, though. I don't hate the game. Not at all. In fact, that (along with Mega Man 7) was my favorite Mega Man game at one point, and that was only because it was one of the only Mega Man games I didn't suck at, at the time. Sure, it was a major improvement over the first game, but that seems to cause many people to overlook the good things that the other games brought to the series. And as a result, that has influenced Capcom's judgement when creating Mega Man 9 (and possibly any other game in the future), mostly taking into consideration what Mega Man 2 fanatics wanted. It just flat-out annoys me whenever people go on and on about Mega Man 2, acting as if it's the best thing since sliced bread (as I said in my above post), and whenever people describe Mega Man 9 as the "true successor to Mega Man 2", when that's EXACTLY what Mega Man 3 was. And in my opinion, Mega Man 3 was better than Mega Man 2 in pretty much every way.

[Diogenes]

Maybe, but that would be just like Sega/Sonic Team coming up with a Sonic the Hedgehog 4, and removing Sonic's Spin Dash, Tails' ability to fly (manually, like in Sonic 3/Sonic 3 & Knuckles), and Knuckles' gliding and climbing abilities.

To an extent, but it's not as if Megaman is left with nothing. The weapons you earn from the robot masters more than make up for the lack of a charge shot (plus they managed to break me out of my energy-hoarding habit, where I'd never use the weapons for fear that I'd run out and then need them later).

The slide, it's kind of a shame not to have, but it doesn't change the gameplay much. You move a bit slower, there are no low tunnels to slide through, and you're not quite as good at dodging. I don't see why they decided to cut it, but it's not of much consequence either way.

[ssssssd]

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[Scorch]

I'm surprised as to how fast this topic is dying (as it was already on the second page prior to this post), so I'm going to revive it with this:

http://gonintendo.com/?p=61089

One of the Capcom staff members claims that there's an "undiscovered secret" in the game somewhere. The only hint we've been given so far is that it isn't a hidden weapon (despite the fact that there's an empty weapon slot, as well as unused throwing sprites for both Mega Man and Proto Man that were found within the game). It's also not the hidden E-Tank at Tornado Man's stage, either. My guess is that it's the explanation as to why Bass' blueprints were spotted in the background during the ending sequence (which they most likely came up with at the last minute).

[Mollfie]

I might give this a go sometime...but after watching JezMM play and get very annoyed with it, and seeing how often you die, I will have to make sure I play it when I'm in the best mood ever so I won't get angry with it...too much.