Mega Man 9

One of the truest tests of a gamer is his ability to beat a Mega Man game.

My test is being administered this week, seeing as how I purchased Mega Man 9 on my Nintendo Wii this afternoon. Immediately I felt overjoyed for finally putting some of my Wii points to good use (weeks after Super Mario RPG, mind you) and I was feeling that nostalgia which comes with a game that looks as if it had been designed 15 years ago.

I love the direction the producers took with this game. Going with the retro look and feel is cool, and it leaves very little room for disappointment. Right away, fans know what they are getting into; Mega Man 9 looks, feels and plays like Mega Man 2. Simple controls literally take you back to the days of only two buttons: jump and shoot. What more do you really need?


My favorite part about the game is the soundtrack. 8-bit music never sounded so good. The tunes are catchy as hell, and throughout the deaths and pitfalls, I cannot ever get really upset because the music just raises my spirits back up.

But the one point I need to address the heaviest is the difficulty. Mega Man games have unforgiving enemies that will relentlessly repeat the same attack pattern. The ones on edges will hit you and send you backwards, resulting in a freefall to your death, whether it be onto spikes, into liquid hot magma, or to oblivion.


Playing for an hour and a half this afternoon, I only reached a boss fight twice. Twice. There are eight levels to start with, and I could only reach the end of said levels on two separate occasions. Of the two, I was only within my power to defeat one, Galaxy Man. His level was very innovatively designed and fresh, and his battle was maybe the easiest of the bosses I have faced thus far. However, it takes a lot of me to say that a Mega Man boss was easy.

What have I gotten myself into? Downloading a game the day it comes out? Spending 1000 Wii points for a game that was not made for the N64? Well, I must say I do not regret it. Mega Man 9 is truly a challenge, and not many games today are this challenging. In gaming, in order to find out where we are going, we must first look at where we have been. Mega Man 9 is a great throwback to the NES days, and I strongly recommend gamers who want to challenge themselves to download this. (It is available on Wii, PS3 and Xbox).