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| Source // MobyGames |
Mega Man. You'd have thought that at least one of his six NES games would have made it to the 1001 list, but no, apparently not. It must be tougher to get into this highly acclaimed selection of games than we initially believed.
Mega Man 7 on the SNES wasn't good enough to make it. Mega Man 8 on the PlayStation wasn't good enough. It took until Mega Man 9 on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii before a main game in the series was deemed good enough to make it to this 1001 list.
Why? As you can tell, it wasn't because of the graphical power (two of) these consoles had. No, it made it to the list because of nostalgia for the Mega Man games that didn't make it to the list. Let's explain that a little more.
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| Source // MobyGames |
Fun Times
Mega Man 9 is as 8-bit as you can get without actually being 8-bit. Imagine it as an HD remake of sorts, or a very late port of an NES game. Glance at it and it looks like it's been ripped straight out of the 80s, and for a great many players, that's good enough.
Dr. Wily, clearly an evil scientist, is crowdfunding his attempts to stop Dr. Light, clearly the good guy. Apparently, some robots have been doing bad things, Dr. Light created those robots, and robots can't be reprogrammed for nefarious purposes or anything, right? So clearly, Dr. Light is the bad guy, says actual bad guy Dr. Wily.
Got it? Don't worry, it's a silly plot because back in the 80s, all plots - if you even had one - were like that.
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| Source // MobyGames |
You then select which boss you're going to go up against first. Unlike any other game of the time, Mega Man games allowed players to pick and choose which level to tackle first, the final boss giving them a themed weapon for you to use to take down another boss, where you get another weapon, and can pick a third boss, and so on.
It's an interesting way of doing things, and Mega Man 9 includes a female boss for the first time in the series. They're all robots, so gender is all in the name, but there we go, Splash Woman making a splash in the world of Mega Man.
I played the PS3 version of Mega Man 9, but I forget who I elected to challenge first. I probably went for Concrete Man, being in the top left, but I can't remember the details. I can, however, recall the emotions...
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| Source // MobyGames |
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| Source // MobyGames |
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| Source // MobyGames |
Frustrations
In searching for something to revitalise Mega Man, Capcom took him back to his roots. If players like the early games from the NES, why not take them back to their childhoods and give them more of what they're looking for, rather than trying to get them to like whatever art style or type of game we're churning out to little fanfare?
And so, with eyes firmly set in the late 80s, Mega Man 9 says "Let's be an old game, in the old style, with the old challenges, for brand new consoles", and it was. To a fault. Of which there are many.
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| Source // MobyGames |
Old games were difficult. Brutal, some of them, and Mega Man was one of those titles. Enemies would come out of nowhere. Levels had to be memorised if you wanted to get through them. Reaction times would have to be off the charts. You would have to commit to finishing one of his games.
All of that is present in Mega Man 9, but instead of icing on the cake, there are spikes. Hundreds of spikes. Spikes above your head, spikes hidden off the screen. Spikes below your feet. You know what happens when you hit a spike? You don't want to hit spikes, let's just say that.
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| Source // MobyGames |
As well as spikes, some levels feature jumping puzzles, which isn't too much of an oddity in a 2D platformer, but these blocks will disappear after a short time, and previous invisible ones will appear, and you bet you're going to be pulling off some leaps of faith to navigate this section. Good job there are only spikes on the floor...
For newcomers to Mega Man, this is a damn tricky introduction. You'd have thought that the controls would feel like they come from 2008, but they don't. They, too, are so rooted in the past that you've got a jump button and a shoot button, and your movement doesn't feel nice at all.
Seasoned Mega Man veterans will probably adapt. Many players will simply suffer, and I was one of them.
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| Source // MobyGames |
I've played the tiniest amount of a Mega Man game or two before now. You kinda have to at least give one a go, I mean, it is Mega Man. But don't start with Mega Man 9 thinking it's the best of the modern age mixed with the best of the olden days. It might have some modern conventions, but they don't help you in the game. Get good, or don't bother.
Final Word
So I didn't bother, because I don't care about Mega Man. Sure, iconic character, but sometimes the past belongs where it is, and we should be inspired by it, not devoted to it.
You might say that Mega Man 9 serves as the perfect example of bringing a game of the past into the present, but it is so perfect that it brings all the bad with the good, and makes the bad stand out so much that you just end up alienating newcomers.
It is, to some extent, impressive that a title like this exists, one that shows new players where we've come from. It's just a little ironic that in showing off the past you're putting off players in the present. I don't recall a great resurgence in Mega Man after this game. Granted, I have never been interested enough to keep an eye out for it, though.
The 1001 write up calls it a love letter, but I'm not so sure I'd agree with that. You want to share your love, you don't want to expose it, warts and all. What a disgusting way to phrase that. You're welcome.
If you're up for bullshit deaths that aren't your fault, character controls that are stuck in the past, a plot that is bonkers and graphics that remind you of your childhood, then Mega Man 9 might be worth a look at.
For the rest of us who know that everything is better in our memories and imaginations, it's probably best to leave this one alone.
Fun Facts
In a nice touch, there is a graphical mode where you can play the game with simulated sprite flicker, as though too much is happening on-screen at once.
Mega Man 9, developed by Capcom, Inti Creates, first released in 2008.
Version played: PlayStation 3, 2008.