Mega Man 9 [Review]
So Capcom’s been doing a lot of this kinda thing, right? They’ve become one of the few videogame publishers to realize that when you bring an arcade classic to a current-gen console, you should probably go totally crazy and update it a little. This Summer’s Bionic Commando: Rearmed (get it? ’cause he’s got a bionic arm? re-ARMED?!) refreshed an 8-bit classic from my childhood and helped to usher in a new concept for remakes: actually RE-MAKING them. Not just graphics that have been shiny’d up, but fully redrawn; additional levels, new weapons, improved game mechanics — this stuff makes a big difference.
In this regard, Mega Man 9 nails it. Though character control has changed little since Mega Man 2 for the NES, MM9 was meant for the fans. An unofficial sequel to the first two “blue bomber” titles, MM9 immediately tugs all your nostalgia strings with traditional enemies, nine new bosses (each with their own weapon to unlock and use, of course) and a convoluted (though completely par for the course) story woven throughout. They haven’t remade what the game was, just updated it’s core mechanics enough to make it feel fresh.
“Back in my day, you had to walk uphill both ways in the snow to fight a single boss! And then you died in one hit!”
Something I’ve been struggling with though, since BC:R was released a few months ago, is the difficulty level. Not struggling with it as in “the game’s really tough” (which it is) but struggling with it’s difficulty level as a gamer whose expectations about challenge have changed since I last blew into an old NES cartridge and got ready for punishment.
That being said, before Geekadelphia received our review code for Mega Man 9, I sunk my teeth into the demo available on Xbox Live — Concrete Man’s level. In less than three minutes, I was furiously pummeling my couch and telling anyone who’d listen how the game had “cheated”. Mega Man 9 does not cheat, but I most certainly felt like a kid all over again, and not in the good way (as portrayed by Penny Arcade).
The problem with Mega Man 9 is that it relies on dated mechanics to be challenging. Yes, yes, we’ve all heard the purists argument: “If you’ve played any Mega Man before, you should know to expect certain game mechanics.” And I have. Mega Man 1 & 2 for NES are sitting less than 10 feet from me while I type these words, filled with frustrating and unfair gameplay that gets washed over time and time again during nostalgia-laced conversations about “the good old days.” Say what you will: in this day and age, you should not have to lose a life more than halfway through a level (severely hampering your chances at actually completing that level) in order to simply complete a level. Purists be damned — if you want that level of challenge, at very least allow for the “weak” among us to play on an “Easy” difficulty setting.
Massive difficulty curve aside, I thoroughly enjoy the time I spend with the game. It’s rewarding in that very “Guitar Hero on expert” kind of way — completely infuriating until you’re so good at every little thing that you’ve mastered the game… and inadvertently spent way too much time programming your hands to achieve specific movements. It brought me back to the days of childhood when I had hours to squander in my living room playing and replaying and replaying the same nine levels over and over. These days, I don’t have that kind of time unfortunately. But for those of you that do, you’re in for a memorable ride.
And who knows what we’ll get next from Capcom’s remake squad — a real remake of Final Fight? We’ll just have to wait and see.
Other Stuff You Might Wanna Know:
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Release Date: 09/22/08 (WiiWare), 09/25/08 (PSN), 10/01/08 (XBLA)
Available for: Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3, Xbox 360 (version reviewed)
Price: 1000 Wii Points ($10), $9.99 for PSN, 800 Spacebucks ($10)
Rating: (Buy It, Don’t Buy It, *Demo It): Buy It
