Downloadable game review: Megaman 9

Hey guys, Jobocan here.

Being an old-school gamer(started gaming when i had to strength to hold a controller).   Like a lot of old-school gamers, I grew up playing Megaman and other hard games.
You can only imagine how excited I was when I saw this:

zomg!

Though it was first planned as a Wiiware title only, it was eventually announced for all current-gen home consoles. A few trailers and months later we finally got to experience the pure awesomeness that is Megaman 9.
I’m a bit late for a review, but it just came a few days ago on the PS3, so I needed to at least get to the end of the game before putting out a review… Well, here we go!

Graphics
Well let’s start with perhaps one of the most awesome parts of the game: The badass graphics. Okay, I might be going a bit far, but really, seeing those first screenshots made me feel incredibly nostalgic, and seeing it in action… Wow, this is great. I know it’s mostly the nostalgia , but they really captured the feel of an old-school NES game. Something I wasn’t exactly sure at first that they’d be able to manage that, but the graphics and animation are exactly like they were in the NES Megaman games, and for me and fans of the series this is really awesome. It’s a proven fact that anyone who doesn’t like the graphics of this game HAVE NO SOUL</going a bit far>.

Music/sound
Something else I wasn’t expecting. Well, I knew the music was gonna be 8-bit style, of course, but they really captured the feel of NES Megaman games. Fast-paced music which sounds like it’s coming straight from an NES. Each stage has incredibly fitting music. In normal Megaman fashion, the developpers managed to do fast “rock and roll” type music that’s been present in the series for all those years. The soundtrack is just plain awesome, it easily ranks near the top of megaman soundtracks.
As for the sound effects, most of them are taken straight from the old games, so Megaman fans will feel right at home… especially when they die in the multiple  levels in the game… Easily the most nostalgic sound in the whole game… sadly >_>

Gameplay
Again(really starting to repeat myself here >_>) Inti-Create have really captured the feel of old Megaman games. The jumps, the shots (including the limit of 3 of Megaman’s bullets on the screen at once), the knockback when you get hit, everything is like before. The basic gameplay is just as you’d expect: A bunch of hard jumps, enemies appearing at unexpected places to make you fall in holes, spike pits at the most unexpected place, tough mini-bosses halfway through the levels, incredibly badly placed checkpoints to piss you off and make you restart the level from the beginning nonstop… Everything is  as you’d remember it. To give a feel similar to the first Megaman game, Megaman somehow lost his Charge Shot and slide move, so that definitely adds to the challenge. But elements of “newer” Megaman games are also present. Most noticeably the shop from Megaman 7, which enables you to buy powerups, E-tanks, M-tanks and extra lives, which help a lot when it comes to going through hard levels.

And not only that, but they managed, through all the nostalgia and challenging gameplay, to add a few original elements. The teleports in the Galaxy Man stage, the seesaw-type platforms in the Jewel Man stage, the spinning platforms in the Tornado Man stage and a few more innovative elements that make Megaman 9 still quite fresh to fans of the series.

Speaking of the bosses, they are an important element in any Megaman game, and they don’t disappoint in this game either. Though a few of them are overly easy (Splash Woman in particular, and Galaxy Man is also pretty damn easy) overall they are fun to fight and beating them all with the MegaBuster is a pretty good challenge. Also *spoilers here, don’t read if you’ve never played a Megaman game, because otherwise you know it’s coming* Wily is an awesome boss, incredibly challenging until you get the timing for all his attacks right, not to mention you’ll have to fight the 8 Robot Masters before getting to him, in usual Megaman tradition*spoilers end here*

Weapons
This is Megaman we’re speaking of, so of course he HAS to absorb the powers from the Robot Masters. The weapons in this game are really interestnig. You have the usual shield weapon, a Black Hole weapon that absorbs enemy bullets, a three-way shot, a Tornado move that hits the whole screen AND makes you jump higher for a very small amount of time, a piercing attack, a homing hornet that picks up far away powerups, and the return of RUSH, in his Coil and Jet forms, which is awesome. Overall good weapons.

Challenge
Talked a bit about this already, but the game is HARD. Really hard. You’ll have to go through the levels multiple times to learn the patterns/get the timing to get to the end of a level, and then you’ll have to learn the patterns of the bosses(or their weaknesses) to be able to beat them. Sure, after going through the levels many time it won’t seem as hard, but the first time through will definitely be a big challenge. The final levels are even thougher and require proper use of quite a few of your sub-weapons to be able to get to them end.

Overall
This game is on all three current home consoles, there’s no reason whatsoever not to at least try it out. The hardcore Megaman fan will love this. Newbies to the series might like it, especially if they’re looking for a good challenge. Very few recent games attain that level of challenge, so this is a great change of pace. Otherwise, the graphics are good, the music is top-notch, some of the best the series has to offer and the gameplay is just great. It would be a waste for someone not to at least try out this game, and if you just have a Wii(which doesn’t have a demo), just get it, it’s just 10$, which is a great price for a new Megaman game.