10/18/2008 - Mega Man 9 Death Gameplay

When I first heard that Capcom was making a Mega Man 9 game based in the old 8-bit style, I thought it was some kind of April Fool's joke. But when it turned out to be real, I couldn't contain my joy. My favorite 8-bit game happens to be Mega Man 2 for the NES... it was a simple platforming sidescroller whose greatest innovation was taken from the original Mega Man: your character would gain the weapon of the enemy boss you defeat. That weapon would help you in clearing other levels and defeating other bosses. As I've said before, Mega Man 2 perfected the design with its colorful and creative environments, refined control, and the best video game soundtrack of all time (in my opinion).

Mega Man would have 5 sequels on the NES that relied on the same basic design, and 2 sequels on other systems. There were a myriad of spin-offs, however, each straying away more and more from the original (I still don't know what Battle Network is all about). The original Mega Man would have a remake on the PSP with 3-D graphics, and while it was a nice nostalgic tribute, something didn't seem right about it. Capcom was definitely on the right track, however... and old school gamers like me really rejoiced when Mega Man 9 came out last month.

Mega Man really belongs in the 8-bit world. The graphics, the sound... nothing was enhanced in Mega Man 9 and it's just as well. Everything was made in the same way, even the difficulty. Now, a lot of current-generation gamers may say Mega Man 9 is a hard game, and some of them may get too frustrated with it and not finish the game. I say they are spoiled by the current games that have multiple difficulty settings and mid-level save points. Mega Man 9 is undoubtedly difficult and will require you to go through stages multiple times, dying a lot in the process. But that's what old-school gaming is all about. Because the control scheme is so simple (move, jump, shoot), the way to make it difficult is to test your reflexes, your memory, and your patience. Except for one part of the game which I think has the hardest jump in any Mega Man game (Jewel Man stage, you'll know it well), no death is ever cheap, and most of the time it's your fault. When you first start the game, however, you wll see this a lot: