MegaMan 9

[Double]

Intro: I don't need to tell you people about this game, you know about it and just want to hear about it, that's why you're in this thread. This also is not taking into account any future DLC to be released in the future. For clarification the Wii version of the game was the one used to rate.

Gameplay: First thing to get out of the way, MegaMan 9 wants to be MegaMan 2, even the developers have admitted that. To that end the ability to charge shot and slide is not present in the game (future DLC, ProtoMan is said to have both abilities). That aside the game plays pretty much like MegaMan 1 and 2 did, but instead tried to have more difficult stage designs (more about that in the difficulty section).

The shop from MegaMan 7 returns, and it works in much the same way. However, some of the items are kind of pointless. Roll's Costume cost 200 bolts and only changes her costume to her MegaMan 8 one. The Hairstyle book lets you go without your helmet, but you get it back as soon as you die and take double damage. Beat Whistles from MegaMan 7 return, as does the Spike Guard from MegaMan & Bass. The Energy Balancer is the only permanent item you can buy there, and even this isn't that good of a deal at 100 bolts. Despite this... the prices seem a bit inflated because Bolts aren't that common really. It seems to be the only real way to get Energy Tanks though, unless you want to farm Plug Man's stage.

MegaMan 9 includes a Time Attack mode that has Rankings for it, I guess if you're into that sort of thing its good. The game also has a list of 50 challenges for you to attempt that vary from beating the game to, beating the game WITHOUT GETTING HIT ONCE. Needless to say some of them are quite hard, so much so as to discourage most gamers from even bothering in the first place. At the time of this writing, with two play throughs without really trying I have 32 % of the achievements, so some of them are however reasonable. The game however for all of its NES design philosophy was very quick to jump onto this generations model of DLC, announcing a months worth in the games instruction manual that totals eight dollars. Now I don't know about you, but charging money for a harder difficulty seems a bit absurd. Capcom stated that they had a years worth in mind, but we'll have to wait and see I guess.

None of the weapons are really "useless", they all have their uses now and the only drawbacks are energy consumption. However even with this you'll find yourself using Laser Trident quite frequently; it has great energy consumption, can pierce guard and is stronger than the Mega Buster. Concrete Man's weapon is also quite effective at getting through difficult jumps before you get the Rush Jet, such as the ones in Jewel Man's stage.
17 out of 20

Music: It's not bad, but nothing has really "stuck" yet. The boss music is funky but in a good way I guess. Nothing I've really hated either.
15 out of 15

Translation: Being MegaMan 9 wishes to be an NES game, it uses text to portray all of the various dialogue in the game. I have thus far encountered no "My plan for world domination has faild!" type lines. However it should be noted that "bolts" have magically become "screws". Also.
10 out of 10

Length: The game only has one fortress so it is quite short compared to the latter NES titles. The game tries to weasel out of this by the aforementioned list of challenges, whether or not those are successful for a particular gamer will vary depending on the player. Even the single fortress is a bit on the short side when contrasted to the ones from MegaMan 2 and 3.
13 out of 15

Rehash Factor: There really is no way around this, the game is using material from the NES era. In addition to all the expected rehashing that comes with this (Sprites and sound effects) the game out right ripped a few pieces of music from MegaMan 2. Finally there are the weapons, the usual fair, a shield, a full screen attack and a ground chasing weapon all make their obligatory appearance. Alongside them are a modified version of Bee Bomb from Xtreme 2 and Buckfires default attack from ZX Advent, you don't believe me look it up they're functionally the same attacks.
7 out of 15

Plot: I'd take off points for the whole "OMG WILY DID IT", but the games characters flat out accuse Wily throughout the game, so even Capcom knew it was stupid. The sub plot about robot expiration dates is interesting enough though, as it suggests a possible alternate ending to the series besides the now debunked "ZERO KILLED EVERYONE LAWL!!!!111!!!!1!1111one!!!!!!1!111". People have been lamenting the lack of Bass, but really I don't see any reason he'd want to take part of this, the only reason he gave Wily shit in the past (MegaMan & Bass, Power Battles, Power Fighters) was because he was building other robots, the robots in this game are Lights. Also I imagine after MegaMan & Bass the two aren't on good speaking terms so he wouldn't help Wily either. Sure he  could show up to try and own MegaMan, but he could do that when there isn't a robot rebellion in progress.
7 out of 10

Difficulty: MegaMan 9... could be scorned for having the easy bosses but douche-tastic stages model. The only really "hard" stages of the Robot Master stages are Hornet Man's and Tornado Man's. After playing Tornado Man's stage enough you'll eventually get the timing down, and the only part likely to kill you is the rain section... which you can bypass with Rush Jet. Hornet Man's instead just requires you to not stop during the section where you have to shoot the platforms; as long as you keep holding right you will be fine. Despite that there are two sections in the game I did find a bit abnormally hard, the final pendulum in Jewel Man's stage, and the magma pillar section in the first fortress stage. Now I'm willing to admit I've played too many MegaMan games, and maybe playing MegaMari inadvertently made me awesome at this, but I really think people are over stating how hard this game is. Further, most of the games difficulty stems from the designers douching you over randomly with something you didn't expect (the descending spike section fake out in Splash Woman's stage is a good example of this, the fake 1-Ups are as well). Upon subsequent play throughs of the game these hazards will be far less deadly. I know some will argue that the same could be said for any video game, but it seems so much more so to be the case in MegaMan 9.

In addition as mentioned above, the games bosses seem to suffer from... well being easy. Most of the bosses can easily be taken down with the simple Mega Buster and it's just a matter of learning there patterns. No Shadow Man, Elec Man, Ring Man or Quick Man here, as long as you know what you're doing you'll walk away fine (Tornado Man does get an honorable mention for reviving the Bubble Man spiked ceiling you can jump into). The only boss I thought was hard, the games obligatory Devil Boss, eventually turned out to be pathetically easy as in addition to always using the same pattern,  it (they?) and take a lot of damage from the weapon it (they?) are weak too.

13 out of 15

Total: 82 out of 100 = 82 %

Despite its flaws, its rehashedness, its somewhat douche-tastic stage design, its bosses that you could sneeze on and they'd die, its debated DLC costs, and a shop that seems to have inflated prices, MegaMan 9 is still not a bad game. For ten dollars it's not a bad deal, and is certainly a better bargain than that ZX or Star Force crap Capcom has been shitting out for 3-4 times that amount.

Positive: Black Hole bomb is ****ing hilarious. You can aim and suck up all types of enemies, I recommend doing so on the Shield Attackers in Tornado Man's stage. Probably my favorite weapon of the game, and maybe even the series, shame it uses a lot of energy.

Negative: JewelMan's AI, I thought we over SkullMan syndrome!