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Mega Man 9: A Gaming Grandpa's Perspective

Sep. 24 2:50 PM by Sardius

Mega Man 9 didn't win me over right away.

I was really looking forward to it, too. I read the interviews. I looked at the screenshots. I frothed with suitable anticipation when Capcom cited Mega Man 2 -- one of my favorite games of all time -- as the design template for Mega Man 9.

After all that buildup, I guess I was expecting a direct follow-up to Mega Man 2. This is definitely not the case. Mega Man 9 struggles to live up to the high standards set by Mega Man 2, and its level of difficulty vastly overshoots previous entries in the series. Mega Man 9 does, however, provide an entirely enjoyable experience throughout, and most importantly, it excels at duplicating the essential heart and ingenuity that is so often missing from the majority of retro-styled remakes and sequels.

I've got problems with Mega Man 9. There's nitpicky stuff (The NES couldn't do screen fadeouts! The intro is too long and would waste too much cartridge memory! You damned kids can't do anything right!), and then there's things that matter. Difficulty progression, for one. Or rather, the lack of it.

See, in my mind, the NES Mega Man games were defined by their tough but fair difficulty curves. Difficulty progression of any sort was especially appreciated back in the NES days, when any given action game could potentially range from unfair and rote memorization-based (Ninja Gaiden, Battletoads) to being hard enough to be practically incomprehensible (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Deadly Towers).

Mega Man 2 represented one of the best examples of difficulty progression in its era. Each level was a challenge to get through, but few moments felt unfair. The game could be completed by a novice with some effort, while series veterans could eventually achieve speedrun-quality levels of mastery.

Mega Man 9, on the other hand, prefers to dole out unfair difficulty even in its early levels via sudden drops into spikes, enemy/chasm placement that recalls Ninja Gaiden's swarms of ninja-hating eagles, and one particular disappearing block moment seemingly lifted straight from Asshole Mario ("Hey, it's safe to jump here! Seriously, do it! HAHA DEAD").

Mega Man 9 is, by many estimations, the hardest game in the original Mega Man series, and I agree. This isn't a bad thing in and of itself -- I like challenging games, personally -- but Mega Man 9's fetish-like love of spikes and bottomless pits goes way beyond its prequels, and WiiWare's casual-oriented audience may find it to be a huge turnoff.

Me, though? I love the damned thing.

I didn't so much love it at first, though. With no weapon upgrades or energy tanks, the first few stages were a tough grind. It took a few tries before I could even beat Splash Woman. Once I had her weapon, though, the other levels got much easier. As my arsenal increased, my progress went smoother and faster, and I began to feel stronger and smarter as I dodged and destroyed the traps and enemies that had killed me before.

This, really, is the essence of Mega Man, and the developers at Inti Creates totally nailed it with Mega Man 9. It's fun, it's satisfying, and it hints at a very exciting future direction for retro remakes and sequels.

So hey Capcom, about Ducktales...

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