Capcom’s Megaman 9 is the latest game in the long running Megaman/Rockman series which originally made its debut on the NES all the way back in 1987. Considered as the follow-up to Megaman 8 released nearly twelve years ago (excluding its numerous spin-offs), the game’s engine has been built from the ground up to recreate an authentic experience fitting of the 8-bit machines of the past. Background music throughout is appropriately MIDI sounding with its sound range limited to the five channels of Nintendo’s original hardware. Graphical restrictions are also in place with a limited colour palette and even a faithful recreation of sprite flicker, widely prevalent in other titles you would play around this era of video gaming.
If you are a newcomer to the Megaman series, or if you’re too young to remember any of the classic 2D platformers from the genre’s hey-day, then prepare yourself for a shock. This game certainly won’t provide you the comfort zones of similar titles such as Super Mario Brothers or Sonic the Hedgehog. Indeed, calling the game “hard” would be a gigantic understatement.
Megaman 9’s story has you set against a plethora of rampaging robots which have mysteriously been let loose to rampage across the world. It’s down to you as protagonist Megaman to destroy these monstrous machines and at the same time to prove the innocence of your incarcerated friend Dr. Light.
There are a total of 8 Robot Masters in the game of which you need to destroy, each one compromising of a themed stage before the actual boss fight itself. Which order you decide to fight these Robot Masters in is left entirely down to you and is easily selectable from the main screen. Managing to defeat a Robot Master will award you with that particular guardian’s special weapon which one other Robot Master will be especially weak against. This throws up an element of strategy in your game progression or alternatively can provide you an extra level of challenge if you want to try to complete the game with just Megaman’s default blaster.
This may all sound straight forward enough and with each stage clocking in at only a theoretical five minutes to finish, you could indeed be mistaken for thinking this game is nothing than an hour long cakewalk. Unfortunately for you in Megaman 9 you will die.., you will die a great deal.
Making it past a single screen can be a horrific trial and error process sapping hours of your time to just arrive at the Robot Master’s lair. This isn’t to suggest that the level design is bad, just that the game doesn’t afford you to make any lazy mistakes in your timing or mid-air recalculations in your platforming. Landing or even briefly touching a bed of spikes means an instant death, there is also no double jump or post-jump float meaning a misjudged leap will lead to nothing than a grizzly demise and prompt level restart. Throughout the levels you are given the opportunity to pick up bolts (the game’s currency) which post stage completion can be used to buy extra lives and energy packs. This is all fair and well if you can actually finish a stage, until that point you’re stuck with what little you have at the commencement of the adventure.
Outside the core game, Capcom have added thirty or so additional achievements to obtain at your leisure. These achievements range from trifling challenges such as killing 500 enemies to the devishly impossible “complete the game without taking any damage” which only the hardest of the hardcore could ever have any remote possibility of obtaining. If you’re considering purchasing this game purely for gamerscore points then you’d be well advised to focus your attention elsewhere. Another additional feature of Megaman 9 is the speed run option. At the main menu you’re offered the option to perform a timed speed run on any stage of your choosing, all weapons unlocked and readily available. The resulting time (providing you don’t get killed) is then uploaded to the XBL leaderboard, here you can compare just how inferior you are at this game in contrast to everybody else worldwide and to compete against your friend’s times.
Megaman 9 is a game which will be equally loathed and loved by the 360 community. It is far too difficult for most gamers weaned on the Ubisoft philosophy of “everyone should be able to finish” to stick with, even as far as completing just a single level. On the other hand, those who relinquish a gaming challenge will diligently work away at a complex section, ultimately walking away with the satisfaction that they managed to complete one of the toughest games this side of Ninja Gaiden.
The very fact an original game of this kind was able to be released at all stands as a testament to XBL’s ability to distribute online content in an affordable and profitable manner for the development studios. We can only hope that other long-abandoned franchises of the past are soon revisited in a similar fashion. Until that time, providing you can stomach a challenge, Megaman 9 is a fantastic 2D platformer. Exquisite presentation and a multitude of extra features make it a must have arcade purchase alongside Castle Crashers & Braid released this Autumn.
Paw Rating: 4/5
Good: Challenging, worthy addition to existing series, plenty of replay.
Bad: Unwelcoming for beginners, controls don't map well to analogue stick.
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