Meltdown

Game Title: Mega Man 9 (Rockman in Japan)
Developer: Capcom
Genre: Action, Platforming
Rating E
Release date: September 25th 2008(Western)
Platform: Wii, Xbox 360, Playstation 3.






Game Overview: After Mega Man had defeated Dr.Wily, the evil scientist begs the world to forgive him, and they comply. But shortly after, robots start attacking all over the world. The people turn to Dr.Wily who says he has nothing to do with it, and that the robots were made by Dr.Light, Mega Mans father. Dr.Light gets taken to prison and
Mega Man sets out to defeat the robot masters, stop Dr.Wily and prove Dr.Light is innocent.

You're probably reading that and saying "That is the most cliche and uninspired story ever". And you know the best part? It was intentional. Mega Man 9 is THE greatest display on fan service and appreciation. A long time ago Capcom had started the Mega Man series on the NES, and was one of the best platforming action series of that time. They had brought it on to the SNES, playstation, etc. But the NES version had ended at 8. And after the third game (The best of the NES Mega Man games, IMO) The series had started to die out. And now, with our fancy next gen graphics, realisitc renderings and Havok and Unreal Engine whoring, what does Capcom do? Pull of, in my opinion, a great example for devolpers of yesteryear, listen to their fans.

EVERYTHING, and I do mean everything. Has been done to make this game look like an NES game. Pull up a screen shot of mega man 3, and mega man 9. They look incredibly similar. The games sound effects and music is just like it's old famicom relatives. Capcom has gone out of their way to cater to the retro gamer, and to the people that played Mega Man as a kid. And in a way, a rather polite way of saying...Fuck you and you're realistic renderings, you don't need to have pretty graphics to make a fantastic game.

Alright, down to the actual review. Gameplay is as simple as can be. There isn't any exploring, there isn't a huge quest with plot twists, interesting characters and innovative gameplay. It's just you, a bunch of power ups, and a whole lot of evil robots. You run, jump and shoot your way from start to finish. And it feels great. You move with the D-pad and use 1 to jump and 2 to fire. (Wii Controls, more on this later) The controls feel comfertable, they are incredibly responsive and if you are playing it on the wii, it feels just like an NES controller. Honestly, if you do decide to buy this game. Get it on the Wii. I can't imagine trying to play this game with the Xbox 360 D-pad. The PS3 D-Pad would be a lot better then the 360. But the 360 is a lot more of a comfertable controller. It's really all up to preference, but I like the Wii's simply because it felt like I was playing with an NES controller. In all it's 2 button glory.


The graphics are in a way, what made the game. Instead of going the Bionic Commando route and making Mega Man 9 an HD rendition of Mega Man. They decided that the best way would be to go 8 bit. And it works. I don't know the frame rate, but I guess it would well be under 20. Capcom gave Mega Man 9 more of a retro feeling with it's "Legacy Mode" in the options menu. Normally, the game runs incredibly smoothly, but with Legacy Mode, the game starts to have sprite pop in, dissapearing pixels and best of all..lag.
Yes, capcom added a feature which makes the game have frustrating graphic issues, and lag, and just like the rest of the game. All intentional.


I'm just going to touch on base with something..this IS a retro game through and through. Which brings up a sale breaker for many people. Difficulty. 8 bits games were and still are, hard as fucking nails. And Mega Man 9 is no different, I can't count how many times I've yelled at my TV, swore or thrown my controller. I even punched my knee so hard, I have a small bruise. But it's hard to determine WHAT makes it so difficult. But when you think about the rest of the game, it makes sense. Games back then had shitty level design, but not on purpose. Capcom KNEW what they were doing in this game. Enemies knock you backward, which can result in you falling into holes, or spikes, or more enemies. Death traps are placed in areas with really clever enemy placement. The bosses are pretty hard, but it just takes finding their patern and remembering traps and enemy placement.. Another issue is, you can't just wing this game and and glow with the flow. You will die. Again, and again, and again. But you'll soon adapt to each level and in the end finally beat it, and thats the best part of how hard it is, satisfaction.

I gotta confess, I have yet to beat the game. After you beat the master robots, the last four stags are just insane. It's like they are poking that bit of your brain that controls your rage. And then jabbing a hot poker in it...and I love it.

Here is a sample from the game, the theme is from Galaxy Man. (Embeds are being funny, jesse can you try to fix that soon? )
So here is a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdDbbzuq1vY


1.Audio: 8
The sound is just awesome, some menu songs from old games are back (the main menu theme is from the password screen in the old games) and a lot of the level themes are just so badass. I noticed that the sound would cut out in the main menu, letting in a new sound when I selected an option. It's the little touches that make the world go round.

2.Graphics: 10
I had to think about that one, IGN had given it under a 5 because it looked like an NES game. I gave it a 10 because it was SUPPOSED to look like one. It even has Mega Mans old movements, O face when he jumps, curled arm when shooting. And funny left eye.
A thing I noticed, the ps3 and xbox 360 versions feature HD, but the Wii is just raw 8 bit. So if you're a retro gamer (like myself) or your 360 is dead (like me) and if you have a Wii (...) buy it for that.

3.Controls:8
Jump, move, shoot. About as responsive as responsive gets. You can't blame the controls for dying. Unless you're using the 360 D-pad, then I don't blame you.

4. Content:9 The achievments in this game are the hardest I've EVER seen in a freakin' game. You wont get points on the Wii, but I don't care, I got satisfaction. I beat a level without firing a weapon. I beat a level without stoping for one second. Stop saying you got a hard achievment in Call of Duty 4, or Halo 3. Those aren't achievment.
The game also comes with a time attack feature and leaderboards. Which means that the speed runs you see are not tool assisted at all. (Which a lot are)
It has another feature, but I don't know what is it yet, have yet to unlock it. Here are the achievements http://www.xbox360achievements.org/game ... ievements/

5.Replayability:5
You have to start at the beginning, there is a hard mode..I think, gotta check again. And there is always always achievements.

6.Multiplayer:0
There isn't any..wait, did you think there was going to be a co op? Fun? No. It wouldn't be. But a battle mode would be kinda fun..

7.Story:7
The story is so retarded, thats it's funny. It's so dumb, that it's great. Self parody and it's finest. There are no cutscenes either, it's just pictures and words at the bottom. Sometimes sentences get cut off mid word even. And you have to wait for it to scroll the rest of it. Little touches..

8. Innovation:10
8 bit. Lets just leave it there, I'm beaten that thing to the ground.


9.Getting into it:6
This is a toughie, you are either going to hate it or love it. The difficulty will throw you off, but it's almost taunting you to come back and try again. This is a game you need to make a commitment to.

10.Game Length.10
Get used to that game over screen.

OVERALL: 7.3

Closing Comments:
Mega Man 9 just feels so..fresh. It's a great departure from all the same shit we see now, and reminds there us of the times when we didn't need to use Unreal Engine for every game we make.

Capcom, I salute you.

Also..god damn this rating system.

Is it on the arcade or can I buy it a gamestop?

"The game is currently available for download on WiiWare and PlayStation Network and is scheduled to be released on Xbox Live Arcade."

- Wikipedia

Woh, good review. Sounds like a lot of fun, I gotta pick this up.

And I gotta tweak the review system cuz I forgot that a lot of good games dont have multiplayer.

E-FUCKING-XACTLY.

I agree, for fucks sake. I want to rate it higher but I can't due to rating system./

I would have given it a 9.3.

I played the Trial with only the Concrete Man stage.. FUUUUUCK it was hard, I didn't even get past the second screen / stage or whatever you wanna call it.
I'm not much of a platform gamer, so that's probably the only reason I didn't like this game. It has a very good classic feel though.
You can use either the left stick or the arrow buttons to walk left and right, X is your jump button and Circle or Square (both can be used) are your shoot buttons.
X / O and Square can be changed.

The only hard part on Concrete Man IMHO was the elephants....ugh.

Whats MIdol anyway?

Midol is a medication that women can take while on their period to relax their pains, get rid of their bloating, and pretty mutch tone down their bitchy mood swings.

So once again, ANOTHER period joke?


If that's the case, I'm going to menstrate into a balloon and throw it at you.

That sounds genuinely unpleasant for both parties involved.

omg megaman! FUNGASM