You’ll be hard pressed to find a game I’ve given more chances to than Mega Man 9. I first played the demo for this game way back in October of last year…and even though I knew the game was gonna be too hard for me at that point, I still [stupidly] bought the game in early November. Since then, over the past six months, I have attempted to play Mega Man 9 and beat it if possible. While I didn’t play the game constantly in that time, I did find myself trying at least once a month to clear more of the game.
After six months of game playing time, what did it get me? Two stages beaten.
You read that right. TWO stages. Out of the initial eight. And that’s not even factoring in the “end-game” stages which I’m guessing is two or three more past that amount.
To put it simply, Mega Man 9 is too hard. It’s not that it’s too “old-school” or “hardcore” for me, it’s that it’s simply too hard. The level design is unforgivingly difficult and far more challenging than Mega Man ever was back in the day. As far as I can tell there is only one way (or a very limited number of ways) to proceed through the game because certain stage sections can only be beaten or survived by using the special weapons bosses leave behind. If that weren’t bad enough these linear-path game completion obstacles are vague at best and you won’t even know what to do until you just try out something stupid knowing 99% of the time you’ll die in the process.
For example, there’s a part on the Magma/Fire/Lava man stage where this giant dragon comes out and has fireballs for a body. For the longest time I couldn’t get past that area. Nothing worked. Then, about a month or so ago I got the Gravity gun weapon and tried using it there (once I figured out how it worked) only to find out it didn’t do anything but suck the fireballs into one area. I didn’t get hit, but I ran out of ammo and the dragon eventually killed me. Then, earlier tonight (after not playing the game since early April), I played the same stage again and tried the same tactic (just out of curiosity) only to have the dragon die! What was the difference? I don’t know. But without the Gravity gun, that area would have been impossible. Suprisingly, after that, the rest of the stage was a ridiculously simple….but alas, I was useless against the boss and died quickly. All that for nothing.
It also doesn’t help that Mega Man can no longer charge up his weapon or slide like he does in so many Mega Man games. Even on the old NES titles he could do these simple things…yet in Mega Man 9 (which is chronologically supposed to occur AFTER the NES’s last MM title, Mega Man 6) he can’t do any of it!!! Killing enemies that require multiple shots seems to take forever (their weak spots are almost always just above normal standing height and below full jumping height…ughh…) and avoiding enemies or obstacles is a never-ending duel with taking damage or instant deaths (duels which you will almost always lose). It’s as if Capcom wanted to punish Mega Man fans for some sick, ”unknown to you and me” inside-joke reason.
My point is, Mega Man 9 will not be enjoyed by most gamers out there. In fact, I’ll go one step further and say most gamers who bought this game probably ended up regretting it soon after. I’m personally very confused as to who the audience is for this game. It’s too annoying and frustrating to be played for long stretches…yet the game will only be beaten by people who invest large amounts of time into playing the same stages over and over and trying slightly different tactics each time. So to me, that means that in a few years I’d probably be able to beat Mega Man 9 if I continued playing at the same rate I have been. However, if I try to play MM9 for even a few hours in a row this week I’ll put a shotgun in my mouth and pull the trigger to end the pain faster.
Stay away from this game. It’s an unworthy addition to the Mega Man series and ultimately adds nothing to the gaming world except more frustration. From a pure game design standpoint, Mega Man 9 is a terribly flawed execution of a ridiculously simple concept: Make a cheap-to-produce downloadable game that resembles an old-school, 8-bit title so that lots of people will be overcome with nostalgia and enjoy Mega Man in its simplest form once again.
How did Capcom screw that up so badly??? By making it too $#%@!* hard!
Graphics: 5 | Sound: 5 | Play Control: 3 | Fun Factor: 3 | Final Score: 37%
