Mega Man is a franchise with a pretty dodgy history. Not the Wizards & Warriors kind of dodgy where they existed, died out and was never talked about again. No, a completely different kind of dodgy. Capcom started out releasing six (you heard me, SIX) games on the NES that ranged from decent to jaw-dropping awesome-ness (the first one was released in 1987 and the last one in 1993, in case you wanna know)! Then, for the SNES, there was Mega Man X and since all the previous games in the series had been numbered with roman numerals, people assumed that it was the tenth game... but soon after that came Mega Man X2, Mega Man 7 and Mega Man X3. As you would expect, quite a lot of confusion errupted from that. All of a sudden, there was TWO ongoing Mega Man-series! After that, people basically stopped caring because most Mega Man-games were a cavalcade of mediocrity! However, Capcom aren't idiots! They had noticed that the peak of the franchise's popularity was during the 8-bit era, so they did something that nobody else would dare: Make a game that looks like it was made 15-20 years ago! I must say that they succeeded at doing just that, the game really feels like the old NES-games! Everything from the graphics to the music and sound to the controls, they're made perfect!

If you're unfamiliar to the Mega Man-games, here's the gist of the gameplay: You're a blue humanoid robot whose one hand is a gun. You start out by choosing one of eight (or six in the first game) bosses. You then get to play a well-designed level leading to that boss, beat the boss and then you get his weapon which you can use later in the game!
It's simple and fun... oh, and all the Mega Man-games has pretty damn sweet music too. In fact, almost ALL Capcom-games for the NES has great music!

Now, I won't review the cover here because... well, there's no cover to review! Mega Man 9 is a downloadable title, and not a game you can pick up in stores! There were some concept art released, made to kinda mock the awful-ness of the old Mega Man covers, but I won't talk about it!

The game starts out with a cutscene (and I use that term lightly since it's just still pictures with text beneath) that tells you that after Dr. Wily (the main villain of the game) had been defeated for the [insert high number here]th time, he seem to have switch side. Mega Man and friends see on the television how some of Dr Light's (creator of Mega Man and numerous other robots) robots are wreaking havoc. Wily says that Dr. Light has turned evil and is using these robots to take over the world! Mega Man sets out and promises to clean his creator's name!
The story is no Final Fantasy, and it is irrelevant to the gameplay but I personally like the premise here! If you don't, just pretend it's not there!

Gameplay-wise, it plays out VERY much like the first two Mega Man-games (except that you have Rush the dog, who didn't appear until Mega Man 3). There really are only three things that differs this from the NES-games!
1. A save-feature. This was a good addition, since passwords are quite dated!
2. A shop where you can buy stuff from Roll, Mega Man's "sister".
3. Challenges/Achievements. While I like this addition as well, some of the challenges just get ridiculous. Would you ever "beat the game three times in one day" or "defeat every boss with only one pixel of health left"? No! No you won't!

Another thing this game has in common with the older Mega Man-games is that it's very hard! Luckily, it is hard for the RIGHT REASON! The control is solid, the levels are well-designed and the bosses are challenging!


As a kid, I grew up playing Mega Man 2. While 9 isn't quite as good as 2, it still is a very fun game! If you haven't already, get it! It's a great and simple blast from the past, and it is very cheap!

I will say this, however: I would've been perfectly fine with a Mega Man 9 with top tier graphics... but this was a VERY good way to catch my attention!

Good job, Capcom! Now I really should hunt down the old Mega Man-games, since they were all great as well!





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