Mega Man 9

"The Blue Bomber is back with a blast!"

Finally, the next in line of the classic series Megaman games. It may not be THE Megaman 9 we were hoping for in that it would link the Classic and X series together; however, it's still a great installment to the Classic series. One quick note: this review will only take into account that it's a game. Meaning, even though Capcom wanted to make this game to feel like Megaman 2, I will be reviewing it as though it wasn't meant to do that.

Gameplay 9.7/10

The gameplay is exactly how it was back in the 8-bit era. Challenging, full of surprises, and fun even though you die a lot within the game. Now, the reason why gameplay is only a 9.7 instead of a perfect ten is because it's lacking three things: slide, charge, and the ability to save and continue from any Wily stage. Whereas this game was made to not have the slide or charge functions, the fact that they were in previous installments and then taken away just because Capcom felt like it is definitely a negative to the gameplay (albeit a rather miniscule negative score). The fact that even though you save right before the last Wily stage but still have to restart from the beginning of the Wily stages always bugged me. It's not because it made it more challenging, but rather it was just annoying. Megaman 9 gets a -0.1 for this since if you have to go to school, go to bed, do homework, or go to work before you can finish the last Wily stage, you're forced to revisit all the previous 3 stages, which is unfair for the player. Despite these flaws of mine, the gameplay is very good to bring it near the brink of perfection. Also, the controls work wonderfully with the game: nothing bad about them.

Story 10/10

Haha, Megaman needing a good story...Well, he still gets a perfect score for this since the story that is in the game is tied well into the gameplay. The story fits well into the concept of a Megaman game in general.

Graphics 6/10

The graphics score isn't determined by how well they utilized the 8-bit engine by itself. Basically, for every console backwards from the Wii that Capcom programmed for, I took off one point, equally a total of 4 points taken off (before the Wii was the Gamecube, and before that was the Nintendo 64, which came after the Super Nintendo and Nintendo). So, that means the maximum score that the graphics could get would be a 6. However, they did do an amazing job with the 8-bit engine and made it look great for what 8-bit could do. So, no more points will be lost from here.

Music 10/10

Awesome BGM, Capcom! Each song tied in well with each stage. The songs were generated really well even for a newer game. Even though it was 8-bit, it more than rivals most of the songs in today's modern games.

Replay Value 10/10

This is definitely a game you'll want to play over and over again. The in-game achievements only helps with doing so. Each time you play the game, you'll want to try a different way of going about it to obtain all 50 achievements.

Conclusion: despite being made only for retro junkies, this game is well done. This is a must play game for anyone. For my actual score, here is how I'll come up with it:

Gameplay and replay value takes up 3 of 10 points each for the final score; story is worth 2 points each; and graphics and music are worth 1 point each. So, that means:

[3(9.7 + 10) + 2*10 + 6 + 10 ]/10 = [59.1 + 20 + 16]/10 = [95.1]/10 = 9.51 out of 10 overall. I didn't select 10/10 for the score because I don't believe Megaman 9 is THE perfect game, but rather close to it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/06/08

Game Release: Mega Man 9 (US, 09/25/08)