Andrenn's Game Shelf: Megaman 9 review

Megaman 9 is a game that has been both anticipated by fans, and hated on by the HD obsessed gramers of the gaming world. But what do I think? It’s a fairly 2 sided argument, you either love Megaman 9 for its return to its classic roots and simple gameplay, or hate it for the exact same reasons.

To be fair, as I mentioned a while back in the first ever edition of Andrenn’s Game Shelf, I am a long time fan of the Megaman franchise. So I will no doubt be more biased to it, but I will try to be more professional about this then some fans have been.

First off is the gameplay. The gameplay is solid left/right/jump mechanics with your only weapon as a little blue bullet you can shoot at enemies from your arm canon. It’s the same old same old…but after it being so long since Megaman was last this simple, it’s oddly refreshing.

Despite how simple the game is, this is quite possibly one of the hardest games I’ve ever played. Though it’s not the “Ugh that was so stupid” hard. The “Wow this is actually a challenge and something I have to pay attention to beat” hard. Games like Halo have rather desensitized the idea of a challenge and made it all about going in guns a blazing and you’ll be fine. Megaman 9 brings a real challenge and forces the player to pay attention to where you’re going and what may pop up.

Though the usual “Damnit!” hard moments are still here. The moments that are out of nowhere and kill you on the cheapest of moments. Though it’s not too bad where it ruins the game, its lead to some sessions of therapy for many gamers.

Boss Battles are great. It’s been awhile since we’ve had some truly memorable fights. The bosses in the ZX series have all been bad jokes really and outside of the Neo Arcadia guys in the Zero series, the bosses there where poor too.

Here, it’s a simple strategy. Watch them; see their pattern, then exploit that power with their weakness. Simple, but still hard as ever.

The power ups are very nice, black-hole bomb being my personal favorite. Though the gauge on them does get annoying at times, with so many low level enemies to obliterate constantly, that won’t be a problem.

Now that’s about it for the actual gameplay, no quickly the story.

The story is typical simple Megaman greatness, though the little mystery unraveling and ending are all great. I also liked the happy ending, where all the robot masters are given new lives despite being used by Wiley. Very nice.

While the story and gameplay are both great, what of the graphics? That seems to be one of the bigger focuses that people have on this game. How 9 digresses all the way back to the NES style of 8-bit graphics.

I’ve already said how I don’t care about how good a game looks really or find graphics at all important to the overall presentation of the video game itself. But I have to admit, for 8-bit, Megaman 9 is a bit of an 8-bit masterpiece as far as some of the imagery here. Galaxy Man and Tornado Man’s stages are incredibly well designed, though Magmaman and Splashwoman’s stages are all right. Though really, every level, despite how much they tend to differ, is fun and enjoyable in its own way.

The look of the bosses is simplified as well, but still nice, even Hornet man which is 3 honeycombs with a head and appendages, is a cool boss.

The music in Megaman 9 is some of the best of the series, and the Tornado Man theme is incredible. I figured we’d get some all right music, but really, Megaman 9’s music is just insanely good and makes me compare it to the legendary track from Megaman 2. The music can get the blood pumping and always fits the tone of what level you are in.

Now about the downloadable content. I figure this was a bit of a settling on Capcom’s part, so it’s not totally like an NES game. Now I’ve only downloaded Proto Man and the Special Stage, but from that experience, I really like the downloadable content and find it helps add a lot to the game.

So that’s just about it for the Megaman 9 review. To conclude, I found Megaman 9 to be an incredible experience that was more then worth the 10 dollar price tag. If anyone is looking to actually have some fun, with their video games, go online and download Megaman 9. It’s incredible.

10 out of 10