With a few hours of Mega Man 9 under my belt I’ve got to admit, this game is FREAKING HARD. I’ve played many games since the original Mega Man series was released on the NES and later on the SNES and nothing compares to Mega Man 9 in terms of sheer difficulty. This new franchise title looks and acts like the original with all the glitches, colors, bleeps and effects of the original games.
This game is much like chasing your kids around the yard, you forget how “old you are.” Mega Man 9 challenges reflexes, hand-eye coordination, patience and persistence. You are constantly awarded with death upon death and level restarts. Just when you think you’re getting close to a leader you’re actually just encountering a harder portion of the stage.
Between the start of a stage and the final boss you’ll encounter larger single-screen microbosses who challenge your patience and skills. As it turns out, I’ve got very little of both attributes. Upon defeating a little boss I am handed another like boss which is a little tougher. Upon defeating this slightly tougher boss (after many level restarts) I’m rewarded with yet another more difficult microboss.
Mega Man traditionally allows you to wonder all of the selectable stages out of the gate but each one gets easier as you build your characters weaponry. The trick is finding that “easy” level to get you to a boss, defeat said boss and acquire a weapon of mass awesomeness. Alas, I’ve done none of these.
You can find online video walk-throughs on the Internet which can give you tips for getting around the stages but the end result is the same: patience, persistence and accuracy. Mega Man 9 teaches you that nobody is a game master without consistent practice.
The first time through a stage is a destructive mess of failure. As you restart the stage over and over you’ll learn some of the tricks to getting you through the initial enemies without taking damage. You’ll build up your arsenal of tricks for hitting enemies before they’re on the screen and mashing the fire button to freedom… until you hit your first spike.
Spikes are the bane of the Mega Man character. Mega Man isn’t a fan of little pointy objects which result in instant death. You can hit the jump button quickly for shorter jumps and longer for bigger jumps; jumping technique is required to move you through spike infested levels.
You learn quickly to never turn your back on an enemy. Turn around, ever so slightly, and walk back on the side-scrolling screen and forward again will result in the rebirth of all enemies you’ve killed. This includes bomb wielding birds, rock tossing baddies and hells fury in the form of red and green cannons.
If you’re looking to discover all the ways you can possibly lose in a game, feel your inner child emotionally crushed under the weight of 8-bit bad asses, Mega Man 9 is the game for you. The achievements will make you laugh and the difficulty will invoke that old controller tossing nostalgia.
Mega Man 9 is a challenge. If you wish to take on this challenge and prove your 8-bit weight in the world of high resolution graphic fairy tales this may be the title for you!
This year many gamers will open new consoles for the holidays and many of those same gamers are going bring their console “live” on Xbox Live the same day. Traditionally we’ve found Xbox Live falls under the weight of the holiday rush much like Apple’s iTunes. Will we repeat history again?
@Ubisoft polling gamers for next Assassin’s Creed setting: I would love it if they used multiple settings for Assassin’s Creed 3.
@Newell: Piracy is “almost always a service problem” and not price, DRM agitates: I agree with him completely, even though I think game prices are a little bit steep for me at my age.
@Christwire makes mock petition asking Pres. Obama ban Skyrim: Trolls will be trolls. This is just silly and it’s sad that it even got any attention.
@Microsoft refunds victims of Marketplace phishing scam: I’m really pleased that they seem to be taking the Valve route, to be nice to the customers instead of treating them like insignificant numbers.
@QOTW: I won’t buy holiday gifts for anyone. Period.
@”Badass”: Are you kidding me? This looks to me like a broken forum filter. And why oh why do they still use a single database for forum band AND account bans?
@Piracy is “almost always a service problem”:
Yes and no. Yes, a bad service will lead to higher piracy rate. Still, 60 USD is too high for Romania , so price-point triggered piracy still exists, at least in my country.
And Newel is not entirely honest there: when launching in Russia, besides doing it at the same time with the rest of the world, they also reduce the price of the games: around 20 USD versus 60 USD in the rest of the world.
@mock petition asking Pres. Obama ban Skyrim:
Paul, they made you read this because the petition is funny.
And the truth is that politicians don’t really give a crap.
@Holiday shopping madness:
Woohaa !! 🙂 Wait … doesn’t this qualify as an assault? Normally she should be charged …
This is pretty sick … you can get discounts at other times, no really need crowd up the shops during one day.
@Microsoft refunds victims of Marketplace phishing scam:
Microsoft went above what was required from them. I mean you cannot blame Microsoft from whatever clicks you made.
@QOTW: … yes. I guess it says a lot about myself 😛