Capcom Announces 8-Bit Mega Man 9 for WiiWare

Jul. 1 3:06 PM by Alicia Ashby

Courtesy Games Radar and Capcom, I guess.

This can only be considered an unparalleled triumph of retrogaming (or slavish nostalgia, if you want to be cynical). Capcom has announced Mega Man 9, a new 8-Bit entry in the "classic" Mega Man series devoid of wacky RPG robots, angsty pretty robots, or newfangled anime bullcrap. No, this is going to be 8-bit Mega Man hopping his way through a game with eight Robot Masters to defeat and Dr. Wily's castle waiting at the end. And one of the Robot Masters is a woman! Retro and progressive.

Right now Mega Man 9 appears to be a WiiWare exclusive. Rumors of a 360/PS3 release were fueled by E3 announcements, but have since been debunked by Capcom.

I'd love to have a real Mega Man 9 screen to post up, but those jerks at Nintendo Power have all the screens locked up for an exclusive article in the August issue. It's a good piece, too, so this issue is worth your time to track down. For now, settle for some stolen pixel art.

Naturally, the MM9 announcement has gotten a lot of retro game writers online into a nostalgic mood. GameRadar has a frighteningly enthusiastic and exhaustive retrospective of the 8-Bit Mega Man games up (with one hilarious page devoted to everything else). 61 Frames Per Second has a list feature covering the ten best classic Mega Man levels that is mostly spot-on, although Top Man's stage is way too lame to be on the list. I would've gone with Flash Man or Quick Man instead, myself.

Comments

This is the first Mega Man I've been excited about since...well, since Mega Man 3, really. This is unusually gutsy on Capcom's part, and I hope it pays off.