I'm a self-professed old-school Mega Man fan. I loved the series, every single game that I got my hands on was fun to play. I just acquired the latest installment, Mega Man 9...
And DAMN, I can't realize how much I've missed this. Mega Man 9 has been done in a retro style: the whole game is a monumental dedication to the past games. And you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way. I've had the good fortune to play the Zero/Battle Network series for the Game Boy Advance, but while they were fun, they're more within their own universe, and have their own mentality. They are their own games: one can wonder at times as to why the Blue Bomber is even a part of them. Thankfully, 9 embraces everything that was a part of the old Mega Man games, and then some.
Prepare for a massive nostalgia bomb when playing this game.
The controls are an excellent example of this. The team that made this installment stripped it down to the core gameplay. There are three things you'll use the whole game: the shoot button, the jump button, and the directional pad. Anything that could complicate the game was removed: you can't even slide or charge blasts. You could hand this to a person who had never played a video game before in his life, and he'd figure it out in two seconds: an admirale feat. Games these days are insanely complicated, and that's driven off some of the earliest generation. I should know: my dad constantly complains about how he won't play new games anymore due to them being too hard to learn. When I told him about this, he looked like he was actually somewhat interested in playing it... and you can trust me when I say that's an accomplishment in and of itself.
The formula of the game is standard Mega Man fare. There's 8 robot masters run amok: you run through a stage filled with traps and enemies to get to them. When you do, you fight them to the death, and if you win, you get their power to use as your own. Each master is weak against a specific weapon, sort of like a mechanical version of rock-paper-scissors, so if you want to make things easy on yourself you'll go in a specific order. Each stage is well-done, and filled with lots of surprises. Bottomless pits and one-hit-death spikes are back with a vengeance too: the name of the game is caution here, and you can't just blaze through the levels if you expect to survive. After you clear a stage, you can also buy things off of your companions (like extra lives and energy tanks) with screws that enemies will drop when you kill them. These extra items aren't really necessary to beat the game: you can make do without them, but they certainly do a lot to make some stages easier.
A amusing depiction of how each boss has a weapon that beats another.
The story behind Mega Man 9 is interesting: Dr. Wily, your nemesis from the earlier games, seems to have given up his evil ways when these new robot masters strike. Problem is, they're not Wily's bots: they're the creations of your maker/father figure Dr. Light. Wily gets people to start donating to a fund of his so that he can build some bots of his own to fight the new threat: and Mega Man smells a rat. Light gets locked up, and Mega Man is thrust back into action after lord-knows-how long to take down the renegade robos. It's even thrown in as a joke for the fans that there hasn't been a game in the series for quite some time, as one of the characters says: "Be careful out there: you haven't done this in awhile!" The plot works, but I wish that there were more of it. Granted, Mega Man never really needed a whole load of plot, but you can't tell me that they couldn't have tried to bring a little more story into the game.
The stages and robot masters are all wonderfully unique, and have good music accompanying them. The AI's for each of the masters are varied: some are insanely aggressive (Plug/Magma Man), while others are fairly formulaic and require timing more than skill to beat (Galaxy/Concrete Man). Some of the designs for the masters are a bit bizarre: Galaxy Man especially, and the stages are a classic example of Malevolent Architecture, [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MalevolentArchitecture] but I was easily able to suspend disbelief about the whole thing and just enjoy playing. It's wonderfully unrealistic, and after spending all my time the last few weeks on grittier, more realistic games like inFamous and Red Faction: Guerilla, I had fun basking in the simple innocence that Mega Man 9 exudes.
I want to hug him for some reason... and then blow him up.
There's also extra challenges that function as in-game achievements. Some of these are a fun reason to play through the game again, but others are frankly ridiculous. Beating the game without missing a single shot? You have to be kidding me, right? Anyway, most of them are a nice addition and will have folks having some more fun once they've managed to beat the game itself. Which will take a while.
You see, this game is hard with a capital H. You will scream at your TV, you will throw controllers around, and you will tear your hair out. But you never do this feeling that the game is fundamentally unfair: odds are that you'll feel it was your mistake that got you killed, and you'll pick up the controller again. That's the beauty of the old-school games, and it works wonderfully here at turning any man into a gaming masochist. Sure, the game will beat you up, take your lunch money, and sleep with your girlfriend, but you'll crawl back to it: you're trapped the second you lay hands on the controller in a brutal relationship with an entity that will show you no mercy, but you'll love it regardless of how evil it is to you.
All in all, I'd say that Mega Man 9 is a must-buy for any fans of the 8-bit era, or anyone looking to experiment with the older style games out there. Instead of a concluding paragraph though, I offer you this video I found when roaming Youtube for some gameplay footage. Enjoy!
[HEADING=3]Editor's Notes:[/HEADING]
I had a lot of fun writing this. I know that it isn't Jade Empire, but this one wrote itself for some reason in about 15 minutes. Jade Empire will be next: thankfully people shut up about Left 4 Dead, so I'll be able to (AT FREAKING LAST) wrap up that JE review. And then there's all sorts of goodies lined up to write about: I beat inFamous (as a good guy) and got most of the way through a friend's copy of Red Faction: Guerilla, so those will be done soon.
I'll also be doing reviews more frequently than I have. I've recently been absorbed with a freaking awesome RP [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/362.115702?page=1], so do forgive me for not being as quick as I was before with pumping these things out.
Also, do leave something behind after you've read this review: a "nice job" or some constructive criticism really brightens up my day, and makes me feel like people actually read this as opposed to just stumbling in here by accident.
And DAMN, I can't realize how much I've missed this. Mega Man 9 has been done in a retro style: the whole game is a monumental dedication to the past games. And you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way. I've had the good fortune to play the Zero/Battle Network series for the Game Boy Advance, but while they were fun, they're more within their own universe, and have their own mentality. They are their own games: one can wonder at times as to why the Blue Bomber is even a part of them. Thankfully, 9 embraces everything that was a part of the old Mega Man games, and then some.
Prepare for a massive nostalgia bomb when playing this game.
The controls are an excellent example of this. The team that made this installment stripped it down to the core gameplay. There are three things you'll use the whole game: the shoot button, the jump button, and the directional pad. Anything that could complicate the game was removed: you can't even slide or charge blasts. You could hand this to a person who had never played a video game before in his life, and he'd figure it out in two seconds: an admirale feat. Games these days are insanely complicated, and that's driven off some of the earliest generation. I should know: my dad constantly complains about how he won't play new games anymore due to them being too hard to learn. When I told him about this, he looked like he was actually somewhat interested in playing it... and you can trust me when I say that's an accomplishment in and of itself.
The formula of the game is standard Mega Man fare. There's 8 robot masters run amok: you run through a stage filled with traps and enemies to get to them. When you do, you fight them to the death, and if you win, you get their power to use as your own. Each master is weak against a specific weapon, sort of like a mechanical version of rock-paper-scissors, so if you want to make things easy on yourself you'll go in a specific order. Each stage is well-done, and filled with lots of surprises. Bottomless pits and one-hit-death spikes are back with a vengeance too: the name of the game is caution here, and you can't just blaze through the levels if you expect to survive. After you clear a stage, you can also buy things off of your companions (like extra lives and energy tanks) with screws that enemies will drop when you kill them. These extra items aren't really necessary to beat the game: you can make do without them, but they certainly do a lot to make some stages easier.
A amusing depiction of how each boss has a weapon that beats another.
The story behind Mega Man 9 is interesting: Dr. Wily, your nemesis from the earlier games, seems to have given up his evil ways when these new robot masters strike. Problem is, they're not Wily's bots: they're the creations of your maker/father figure Dr. Light. Wily gets people to start donating to a fund of his so that he can build some bots of his own to fight the new threat: and Mega Man smells a rat. Light gets locked up, and Mega Man is thrust back into action after lord-knows-how long to take down the renegade robos. It's even thrown in as a joke for the fans that there hasn't been a game in the series for quite some time, as one of the characters says: "Be careful out there: you haven't done this in awhile!" The plot works, but I wish that there were more of it. Granted, Mega Man never really needed a whole load of plot, but you can't tell me that they couldn't have tried to bring a little more story into the game.
The stages and robot masters are all wonderfully unique, and have good music accompanying them. The AI's for each of the masters are varied: some are insanely aggressive (Plug/Magma Man), while others are fairly formulaic and require timing more than skill to beat (Galaxy/Concrete Man). Some of the designs for the masters are a bit bizarre: Galaxy Man especially, and the stages are a classic example of Malevolent Architecture, [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MalevolentArchitecture] but I was easily able to suspend disbelief about the whole thing and just enjoy playing. It's wonderfully unrealistic, and after spending all my time the last few weeks on grittier, more realistic games like inFamous and Red Faction: Guerilla, I had fun basking in the simple innocence that Mega Man 9 exudes.
I want to hug him for some reason... and then blow him up.
There's also extra challenges that function as in-game achievements. Some of these are a fun reason to play through the game again, but others are frankly ridiculous. Beating the game without missing a single shot? You have to be kidding me, right? Anyway, most of them are a nice addition and will have folks having some more fun once they've managed to beat the game itself. Which will take a while.
You see, this game is hard with a capital H. You will scream at your TV, you will throw controllers around, and you will tear your hair out. But you never do this feeling that the game is fundamentally unfair: odds are that you'll feel it was your mistake that got you killed, and you'll pick up the controller again. That's the beauty of the old-school games, and it works wonderfully here at turning any man into a gaming masochist. Sure, the game will beat you up, take your lunch money, and sleep with your girlfriend, but you'll crawl back to it: you're trapped the second you lay hands on the controller in a brutal relationship with an entity that will show you no mercy, but you'll love it regardless of how evil it is to you.
All in all, I'd say that Mega Man 9 is a must-buy for any fans of the 8-bit era, or anyone looking to experiment with the older style games out there. Instead of a concluding paragraph though, I offer you this video I found when roaming Youtube for some gameplay footage. Enjoy!
[HEADING=3]Editor's Notes:[/HEADING]
I had a lot of fun writing this. I know that it isn't Jade Empire, but this one wrote itself for some reason in about 15 minutes. Jade Empire will be next: thankfully people shut up about Left 4 Dead, so I'll be able to (AT FREAKING LAST) wrap up that JE review. And then there's all sorts of goodies lined up to write about: I beat inFamous (as a good guy) and got most of the way through a friend's copy of Red Faction: Guerilla, so those will be done soon.
I'll also be doing reviews more frequently than I have. I've recently been absorbed with a freaking awesome RP [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/362.115702?page=1], so do forgive me for not being as quick as I was before with pumping these things out.
Also, do leave something behind after you've read this review: a "nice job" or some constructive criticism really brightens up my day, and makes me feel like people actually read this as opposed to just stumbling in here by accident.
Deja Vu [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.117801]
Hooray For the New Blood: An Unofficial Article. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.117338]
Manga Mashup #2: Prepared to be Schooled. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.115803]
Manga Mashup #1: Attack of the A's [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.111313]
Braid [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.110777]
Max Payne [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.110027#1897580]
Indigo Prophecy [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.108202#1817369]
WarCraft 3 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.107685]
Fallout 3 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.105151#1683250]
Mirror's Edge [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.102291#1586312]
Hooray For the New Blood: An Unofficial Article. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.117338]
Manga Mashup #2: Prepared to be Schooled. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.115803]
Manga Mashup #1: Attack of the A's [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.111313]
Braid [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.110777]
Max Payne [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.110027#1897580]
Indigo Prophecy [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.108202#1817369]
WarCraft 3 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.107685]
Fallout 3 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.105151#1683250]
Mirror's Edge [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.102291#1586312]