If Mega Man 9 had been released fifteen years ago we'd have probably called it more of the same, another lifeless iteration with more bosses and weapons and nothing pushing the series forward. But fifteen years can do things to people. Since Mega Man 6, we've seen the annoying 7 and 8 come along and try to do new things, we've seen the Mega Man X series go from hardcore evolution to bastardized 3D, and we've seen the relatively new Mega Man Zero start promising and become muddled in RPG trappings (which is not to mention the disappointing ZX and slightly more well-received ZX Advent).
How can what we'd have called boring back then be a near-revelation today? Backpedaling in action! The fact of the matter is that while Mega Man 9 does nothing new for the world of Mega Mannery, it succeeds by that precise virtue: sometimes you gotta stick with what works. To that end, the Inti Creates team, composed of one-time Capcom staff, went to painstaking lengths to replicate the experience of an olde-tyme NES game, complete with sprite flicker and near-mathematically arranged tunes that will whip even those gaming vets with mightily demure demeanors into rabid frenzies of synthstasyâ„¢.
It is this frenzy that in no small part drives the very game's soul: tiny tips of the hat exist around every turn, whether it's Mega Man's eyes moving around as you select a Robot Master to destroy, the little eyebrows angling up and down on Dr. Wily's wrinkled forehead, or even the narrative introduction to the game in which a companion remarks to the Blue Bomber: "you haven't done this in a while."
We haven't either, and that's why it feels good: Mega Man 9 looks, feels, and plays like Mega Man 2—not an unenviable comparison by any twisted stretch of the mind. Very much unlike riding a bike, however, the skills have most certainly been lost or forgotten along the way (even if you exacted horrifying torture on your own composition by struggling through July's Bionic Commando Rearmed). Mega Man 9 is like so many of the other games a lesson in pattern memorization and persistence, not just reflex, and even on the easier levels you will be confronted with obstacles far enough into the gauntlet that to die on them (and you are going to die) will lead to untold frustration. But then, the sweet light: success rarely feels as good as it does when you reach the boss, heart pounding, and snake through their myriad projectiles popping off Buster shots in threes.
Modern trappings do abound in convenient, tucked-away formats: the "challenges" menu provides a grossly upsetting series of menial goals to accomplish for those of you who can only afford one game this year, while Mega Man 7's screws-as-bucks currency system returns to allow you to purchase extra lives and energy tanks between levels. Eight delightful save slots have also been added, to the dismay of tattered password-bearing notebooks everywhere. Extra control options make the game playable on the supremely crafted Classic Controller, while peculiar omissions like the inability to change weapons without pausing lend an air of authenticity to the game, but seem a trifle strange in this modern area of user-friendliness. In addition, Capcom has seen it fit to offer you the Internet-age convenience of eating your space bucks in exchange for a variety of downloadable content the casual player will never have any reason to purchase—I believe you when you tell me the new expert level "triples the level of difficulty," guys, but maybe you could allow me to suffer without having to pay for it too?
At fifty or sixty dollars back in the day reviewers would have had something to complain about but still called it a Mega Man game; at ten bucks today there is virtually no reason why anyone with even a passing interest in cut-from-the-classic-cloth pea-shooting action should take a pass. Your analog-comfy thumbs might hate you, but the rest of you is gonna love it.
How can what we'd have called boring back then be a near-revelation today? Backpedaling in action! The fact of the matter is that while Mega Man 9 does nothing new for the world of Mega Mannery, it succeeds by that precise virtue: sometimes you gotta stick with what works. To that end, the Inti Creates team, composed of one-time Capcom staff, went to painstaking lengths to replicate the experience of an olde-tyme NES game, complete with sprite flicker and near-mathematically arranged tunes that will whip even those gaming vets with mightily demure demeanors into rabid frenzies of synthstasyâ„¢.
It is this frenzy that in no small part drives the very game's soul: tiny tips of the hat exist around every turn, whether it's Mega Man's eyes moving around as you select a Robot Master to destroy, the little eyebrows angling up and down on Dr. Wily's wrinkled forehead, or even the narrative introduction to the game in which a companion remarks to the Blue Bomber: "you haven't done this in a while."
We haven't either, and that's why it feels good: Mega Man 9 looks, feels, and plays like Mega Man 2—not an unenviable comparison by any twisted stretch of the mind. Very much unlike riding a bike, however, the skills have most certainly been lost or forgotten along the way (even if you exacted horrifying torture on your own composition by struggling through July's Bionic Commando Rearmed). Mega Man 9 is like so many of the other games a lesson in pattern memorization and persistence, not just reflex, and even on the easier levels you will be confronted with obstacles far enough into the gauntlet that to die on them (and you are going to die) will lead to untold frustration. But then, the sweet light: success rarely feels as good as it does when you reach the boss, heart pounding, and snake through their myriad projectiles popping off Buster shots in threes.
Modern trappings do abound in convenient, tucked-away formats: the "challenges" menu provides a grossly upsetting series of menial goals to accomplish for those of you who can only afford one game this year, while Mega Man 7's screws-as-bucks currency system returns to allow you to purchase extra lives and energy tanks between levels. Eight delightful save slots have also been added, to the dismay of tattered password-bearing notebooks everywhere. Extra control options make the game playable on the supremely crafted Classic Controller, while peculiar omissions like the inability to change weapons without pausing lend an air of authenticity to the game, but seem a trifle strange in this modern area of user-friendliness. In addition, Capcom has seen it fit to offer you the Internet-age convenience of eating your space bucks in exchange for a variety of downloadable content the casual player will never have any reason to purchase—I believe you when you tell me the new expert level "triples the level of difficulty," guys, but maybe you could allow me to suffer without having to pay for it too?
At fifty or sixty dollars back in the day reviewers would have had something to complain about but still called it a Mega Man game; at ten bucks today there is virtually no reason why anyone with even a passing interest in cut-from-the-classic-cloth pea-shooting action should take a pass. Your analog-comfy thumbs might hate you, but the rest of you is gonna love it.