Mega Man 9 Review
- Posted October 11th, 2008 at 20:01 EDT by
- 19 Comments
Review Score
- PSU Review Score
- 8.0
- Avg. user review score:
- 4.9
Summary
Mega Man 9 is a great game with a huge amount of old-school appeal. Unfortunately, it is unlikely to resonate with everyone, primarily due to its excruciating difficulty.
We like
- Excellent level design
- Classic gameplay
- Old-school music and graphics
We dislike
- Excruciating difficulty may turn some off
- Main game is fairly short
See PSU's review on Metacritic & GameRankings
(continued from previous page) ...levels in a number of years. The difficulty, however, is excruciating in some places the first time round, and you will be cursing deities from both real and fictional cultures for that placement of a certain construction hat robot thing. The game is not impossible, but requires the old school 'learn the patterns' staple, and said patterns are mostly straightforward.
The weapons aren't bad, although, like in any game of this nature, you will gravitate towards certain weapons. Any situation in the first levels can be handled with just the Mega Buster, but there is usually a best weapon for each situation. For example, the Jewel Satellite will protect you from one hit enemies indefinitely, while the Laser Trident can go through shields. Also, the Robot Masters have the same weakness system as in past titles, although some of them are difficult to figure out (finding Galaxy Man's weakness is particularly infuriating).
Speaking of which, Capcom seems to be running out of robot names. Hornet Man? Concrete Man? Plug Man?! And on the subject of what's wrong with the game, why the lack of a switch weapon button? It's supposed to be true to the original, but it really breaks the flow of the game having to pause and change weapon every four seconds when there are several buttons that are unmapped.
The problem with Mega Man 9 is that it is trying to be too faithful. The difficulty is ramped up to extreme levels, and the control scheme feels completely outdated. Capcom did include a save system, though, which gets rid of the old password system. To be honest, if they were going to update anything, it would have to be that.
The longevity of the game questionable, and depends primarily on the player. The devious difficulty will result in a first playthrough taking a fair time, while subsequent playthroughs will probably see you complete it in an hour. The time attack challenges are great, and getting a satisfactory time will definitely last you a while, but time attack is not for everyone. There is the downloadable content, though, including the endless level which is measured in screens completed, complete with bits from old Mega Man games. Another level, a "bonus stage," is planned, and another Robot Master is on it's way as well. Maybe the extra slot in the weapon list will get inhabited by his power.
All this extra content obviously costs more money, and not everyone will want run through time attacks or endless levels. Luckily, the game -- without any fancy add-ons -- is pretty cheap. At $10 USD/£7 GBP, you can't go too far wrong.
So there you have it. It is a great game that's sure to provide a fanciful trip down Nostalgia Street. But due to the some of the problems outlined above, it won't appeal to everyone.
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Comments
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Atreides
- 8:13pm BST - October 11th, 2008
- 1
I played the demo, the controls were just as horrible as they were back in the day, and not taking advatage of the other buttons on the controler, just because you are trying to be retro, is just stupid.
I would buy a Megaman X sequel in a heart beat, but I wont even consider this one. Nostalgia can only take you so far.
I do give Capcom props for doing something different though, its an interesting change of pace, but with so many great modern games being released this month, my money is best spent elsewhere.
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Twilight93
- 8:38pm BST - October 11th, 2008
- 3
When I first started the demo, I loved the game. 2 seconds later, I realized it was hard. Really hard. I eventually got tired of dying so I stopped playing. Still fun though...
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svtschmidt
- 8:52pm BST - October 11th, 2008
- 4
It has been quite a while since I played any of the mega man games, but when I played this one it wasn't fun. I used to really like the mega man games. This just felt different to me, and not in a good way. I'm punting.
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Odium_Generis_Humani
- 10:47pm BST - October 11th, 2008
- 7
It's crazy how far nostalgia will go towards a review. Wasn't Super Stardust an 8.0? Wasn't Madden and Tiger Woods an 8? I'd rather play those. This game is nostalgic yes, but it's not an 8. Maybe as gamers we should start using a different scale for downloadable games. Like this is a "Downloadable 8" or "D-8".
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ruismael
- 11:09pm BST - October 11th, 2008
- 8
I haven't played a Megaman game in my life, so I really don't care about this game, what I REALLY admire is what Capcom did with this game by using an 8bit engine instead of using a nex-gen one. Look what happened to Sonic, they tried so hard bringing him to the nex-gen consoles and still those games don't even mach the originals. So I really hope that more developers follow this example and make more sequels for their original games, I would LOVE to see a brand new Sonic game in all his 16 bit glory!!
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Armageddon867 |
Armageddon867- 12:05am BST - October 12th, 2008
- 9
capcom should all the Megaman X collection. i always wanted to have the whole collection but sadly the only Megaman X game i got is Megaman X4.
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HeartAttackSilv3rback |
- 1:21am BST - October 12th, 2008
- 10
@ 7
agreed bro,def agreed on the fact that i think they should ALSO,creat some sort of different rating system for the downloadable games.
its like giving the same rating of a game on the ps3 as the wii.. just not ok (shakes head).
other then that,i think the game was funtasticly horrible.. yep thats right,it was fuuuuuuuuu-untill i died,then it sucked anuz.
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chomperbull
- 2:25am BST - October 12th, 2008
- 11
the game is so hard its bad i was only able 2 beat 1 boss the add on character is even harder than playing as megaman if capcom thought it was a joke 2 make a hard fn game harder their dumb as$e$
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DeadOnArrival06 |
DeadOnArrival06- 12:41pm BST - October 12th, 2008
- 14
What Capcom should do is make a Megaman MEGA Collection for PS3 with all the megaman games (9 included) and all the Megaman x games (X7 & X8 included) I'm sure they can pull that off fairly easy what with Sony's Blu-Ray monster and all. If they wanna make a quick nickle & dime profit, That's the way to go!
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TheWorldEndsWithMe |
DonovanTheICEMAN- 3:33pm BST - October 12th, 2008
- 17
It seems some of us are forgetting just how hard NES games were, they were often more difficult than splitting the atom. Megaman ranks pretty high in that category. I remember the bragging rights, "Oh yeah well I just beat so-and-soman" Unfortunately that sort of gaming is over, I'd recommend this only for nostalgia and maybe a high time with friends. I agree that you can't really give it a number rating that has anything to do with todays game quality or enjoyment factor, it is just too far removed from what we are all used to now.
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supamariobrotha |
supamariobrotha- 5:34am GMT - November 5th, 2008
- 18
fun game but its too damn hard i really gotta focus when playing this
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SixEightSix18 |
SixEightSix18- 4:17am BST - April 5th, 2009
- 19
Reading this review, or at least the Dislikes for this review I was stupified. "Excruciating difficulty may turn some off" and "Main game is fairly short". Anyone who was born during the NES times or have ever played an origan Mega Man knows its difficult. Also this game is no smaller than any of the orignals. I just thought that idiocy was worth commenting on. Personally I thought this was the eaisest Mega Man yet. Mabey it because im better at vido games or mabey its just because I am good at Mega Man. They added the first EVER women "Splash Women". While im not sexist, I think it kinda ruined the whole Mega Man flow. Overall the game I think deserves an 8/10. If you where a fan of the Mega Man series you will like this. For $9.99 its well worth it.
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