Mega Man 9

"Like a phoenix, retro gaming has rosen from the ashes."

Mega Man 9 was announced way back on July 15, 2007. Does it deliver? Well if you read the score and topic title, I'm sure you assuming it did. And you're damn right, it did. This is the first Mega Man main series game since 1996's Mega Man 8 on the Play station. Unless you're living under a rock, I'm sure you already know this game returns the series back to it's NES roots. That's right, this game is designed like an NES game, but goes so much farther than that.

STORY

Platformers usually never have deep and involved stories... so I don't know why you'd think this one would. The plot is simple, the game takes place after the events of the previous games, and Dr. Willy, the series's main antagonist, is at it again. This time, however, Dr. Light's robots (Mega Man's creator) are doing the damage. It is up to Mega Man to discover the truth and put an end to this.

As I said, you shouldn't expect Final Fantasy-like stories in platformers. The story isn't that bad I suppose.

GAME PLAY

The thing that's most important in this game. Mega Man 9 is a sidescroller-platformer, with shooting elements. Well there's a lot of shooting. The game play is difficult to the point where you can throw the controller at the T.V. . This isn't a bad thing however, as it increases the game's overall length, as the game itself isn't that long.

There are eight stages, and you can choose whatever order you can complete them in. Each stage contains a robot master, which is a boss you fight at the end. When you defeat this boss, you gain a new weapon, however all weapons use up ammo. The only weapon that doesn't use ammo, is your standard Mega Buster.

Enemies vary in stages, and so do the stages themselves. Each stage has it's own distinct theme. For example there might be a space themed stage, then a water themed one. You're never doing the same thing again.

SOUND

Music: The music in this game, as most other Mega Man games, is brilliant. Although it's technically in 8-bit, the songs are very detailed. The music always fits the stage and it's theme as well.

Effects: All of your favorite retro sound effects are here. Destroying enemies, shooting, jumping, it's all here. In glorious 8-bit as well.

GRAPHICS

From a modern view: Really I shouldn't be doing this. I guess I have to. Really you shouldn't be expecting good graphics from a game that's designed to look like an NES game. Well to get it over with, they're bad by today's standards. This doesn't take much, if any, points though. There was never a huge hope for graphics.

From an NES view: Excellent. Feels and looks like an NES game. The developers put in little tricks to even make it look like an NES game. For example, sprites flicker occasionally

OVERALL

Story: 7/10 points
Game Play: 10/10 points
Sound: 10/10 points
-Music 5/5
-Effects 5/5
Graphics: 5/5 points
-Modern View 0/0
-NES view: 5/5

Total points: 32/35 points

Overall:9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/25/08

Game Release: Mega Man 9 (US, 09/22/08)