Mega Man 9

[JonPorobil]

I never thought it would happen again, but they went ahead and made another Mega Man game that looks, sounds, and feels exactly like the first six! Eight-bit graphics, eight-bit sound and all. I'm only one boss in so far, but really digging it.

Any other Mega Man fans out there?

[Reist]

Yeah, it looks and feels exactly like old school Mega Man, but man ... it's a lot harder than the old ones. It's like they decided, "hey, this game is old-school, so it has to have bottomless pits and death spikes on every screen". I can beat Mega Man 2 with little trouble, but numba 9's going to take some effort, I think.

[JonPorobil]

Suck it up, kid. Easy games ain't worth playing.

[Reist]

Then I guess I'll have to trash all the old mega man games. And mario bros.

[JonPorobil]

Are those games easy, or do they just feel easy because you're on your tenth replay of most of them? Trying to judge objectively, I'd have to say that if Mega Man 9 is harder than, say, Mega Man 2, it's only by a little. It's not like the early MM games didn't have spikes on the walls and stuff. My main gripe so far is that I really miss being able to slide.

[Reist]

Are those games easy, or do they just feel easy because you're on your tenth replay of most of them? Trying to judge objectively, I'd have to say that if Mega Man 9 is harder than, say, Mega Man 2, it's only by a little. It's not like the early MM games didn't have spikes on the walls and stuff. My main gripe so far is that I really miss being able to slide.

Well, I guess the 10th replay factor might have something to do with it.

I'm starting to find that my biggest gripe with MM9 is that the weapons you win from the robot masters don't really help in fighting the other robots. Most of them do no damage at all.

But with all that whining, I've beaten all but 3, so it must not be that hard.

[ujnhunter]

I'm getting my butt kicked in this game... have only tried 4 stages so far... but have yet to see a robot master!
Man, I must suck... I can beat Ninja Gaiden with my eyes closed but this MM9 is destroying me!
I really like it tho... considering the orig. Mega Man and Mega Man 2 were my favorite NES games... 3 and onward I never played...

[fluffy]

I picked up the PS3 version tonight. This is frustratingly hard but in a hilarious way. It's sort of like Mega Man doing a parody of Mega Man almost. A mainstream version of I Wanna Be The Guy. I don't remember the old games being THIS hard!

I also love all the little nice touches where they don't just make it like an old NES game but they blatantly reference old NES stuff. Little things like how the screen has a border around it because of the overscan area, and how when there's a lot of enemies it flickers and slows down, and how sound effects make music channels drop. They obviously had a lot of fun with this.

[JonPorobil]

I'd have to say that if Mega Man 9 is harder than, say, Mega Man 2, it's only by a little.

I'd like to amend that statement to include: "...except for Jewel Man's stage and Tornado Man's stage." Those little spinny things keep getting the better of me. I got all the way to Tornado Man's lair without using Rush Jet, but only once, and I haven't been able to repeat that success. Wow.

Still, even at its toughest, this is a true joy to play. If it's enough of a success, maybe we'll start seeing 8-bit revivals of other games. I wouldn't mind a little more 2-D Mario action, or maybe another Donkey Kong Country game.

[fluffy]

So far I haven't even gotten to any of the bosses. But then again my hair is like 10% gray at this point.

[JonPorobil]

I don't know whether you've tried them all yet, Fluff, but I think Magma Man's is probably the easiest stage to get through, followed by Splash Woman and Galaxy Man. Magma Man is pretty much impossible to beat with just the Mega Buster, though, so you probably want to start with Galaxy Man or Splash Woman. The others get easier once you gain some familiarity with them.

And for the others... Well, there's always the Spike Shield and the Beat Call.

[fluffy]

Splash Woman was fun but I kept on getting my ass kicked shortly after the insane rising-bubble jumping stuff.

[JonPorobil]

So now I'm reading some of the reviews, and I'm having a very difficult time believing that I'm better at platforming than a whole team of GamePro editors. According to the review: "Several GamePro editors sat down one day, intent on beating the game; hours later, we walked away without having even beaten one stage." Come on, now. People who play and review games for a living couldn't beat even one level? In a matter of hours? I had Galaxy Man beat before an hour passed, easy.

Okay, maybe not "easy," but certainly not several hours' worth of gameplay. I think I've logged maybe four hours so far, and I've gotten up to the first Wily level. 'Course, now I'm actually stuck. Agh. Will report back later.

[Reist]

Okay, maybe not "easy," but certainly not several hours' worth of gameplay. I think I've logged maybe four hours so far, and I've gotten up to the first Wily level. 'Course, now I'm actually stuck. Agh. Will report back later.

I've gotten to the final wily level, beaten all the previous bosses in a row, and got beat down by the final boss. It's tough. But for sure, this game grows on you. I just haven't had much time to play it.

[fluffy]

Oh yeah, recently I was reminded of this parody video.

Also, the intro to MM9 is a lot better if you think of the voice actors in MM8.

[john m]

I'M CLOWN MAN !!!

[fluffy]

I FINALLY BEAT A LEVEL

Galaxy Man yeah. Actually that's the one I made the most headway in previously (I forgot about it) and thankfully I was able to actually make it through the level without dying after, er, several continues, and then could use all my lives on Galaxy Man himself. Took a while to figure out the best way to attack him, obviously.

Magma Man's level is a bitch. I got to the dragon though.

[ujnhunter]

I've beaten Splash Woman so far... beat her with one tiny little bar of life left... and have made it to Concrete Man but he kills me... Can't get past the Dragon or Boulder mid-bosses yet... maybe I'll try Galaxy Man tonight... thank god for the Save feature. This is the 2nd best Wii game I own tho... what systems did everyone get it for? I got it for Wii because of the NES style gamepad... old school and all... ya know.

[fluffy]

I got it for PS3, so I could have the absolute best digital fidelity on the pixelated graphics and 8-bit synthesized sound. Also I like the PS3's d-pad (and store system) way better than the Wii's.

[No Horse Town]

I've been *trying* to get it for the PS3, but it seems to think my card/account is not valid.. weird, because I bought the remake of Bionic Commando the same way, like, a few weeks ago. My bank, er, credit union, has been notorious for hijinks lately, so I guess I'm not surprised. Dammit. I really wanna check this out.

[No Horse Town]

heh, my card/account/whatever started working again, and yeah, this game is pretty sweet. IMO it's not really any harder than the old games.. I thought mega man 1 was insanely difficult (and altogether not that much fun). This game is just hard enough, and I think it's got some of the best level design in the series. I'm currently stuck on the first Wily's Castle level. Well, not stuck per se, I haven't had too much time so I've only made a couple of attempts at it so far. Anyway, this game rocks. I hope they make nine more.

@ujnhunter: use Splash Woman's weapon on those minibosses. It depletes relatively slowly, and it's like twice as strong as the mega-buster.

[Reist]

IMO it's not really any harder than the old games.

I'm starting to think that too. I can get to the end pretty easy now. (though I haven't beaten the final bosses yet)

Did anybody else buy the protoman add-on? It makes the game even tougher, by far.