First Thirty: Mega High! Mega Man 9 (WiiWare, PSN)

By Stephen Munn | October 5, 2008

As a total Mega Man junkie, I practically peed myself at the news that Mega Man 9 was coming. Looking back at that news, it was nothing compared to the revelation that Mega Man 9 would be designed to look and feel as though it were running on an NES, so it wouldn’t look out of place when lined up with the first six games in the series. I never had any misgivings over this, as all my best Mega memories are of the eight-bit variety.

Let’s have a look at where the franchise has been lately. There are dozens of Mega Man games now covering just about every genre from sports to RPG, but most of these are trash. Here’s how to know whether the Mega Man game you’ve got is a good one. If it’s in the original series, that is to say Mega Man through Mega Man 8, it will range from fantastic to pretty good… in fact, it will pretty much range that way in order. If it’s a Mega Man X game, those allegedy topped out at about X4, after which the quality plummeted, but that didn’t stop me from buying them. The Mega Man Zero games numbered four, those were all fantastic. I’ve heard good things about Mega Man Legends, which has gone by different names on different platforms, but everything else should simply be ignored.

Clockwise from top left, Tornado Man, Splash Woman, Leviathan, Harpuia. Images: Creative Uncut

Getting back to 2008, Capcom’s listened to years of begging for a Mega Man 9. They placed the Inti Creates team, who developed the Mega Man Zero series, at the controls, and it shows. In what can only be interpreted as a nod to the original Zero game, there is for the first time ever for the original Mega Man a “female” robot master… a robot mistress, if you will, named Splash Woman. Those who played Zero will recall one of the four masters in that game was also female, and she was also a water boss, named Leviathan. Another nod in that direction is Tornado Man, who looks like Harpuia, the green wind-based boss from Zero.

While the Mega Man games gradually became easier, particularly to those who played the first three, Mega Man 9 returns to the cruel challenge level of the originals. It has that unique feel that old games like this have: it’s so damn hard when you first play it that you’ll wonder why you’re doing this to yourself, but when you master a level enough to reach the boss, you’ve created muscle memory for the stage, and it suddenly becomes a breeze. Ten years from now you could come back to the game and blow through it in an hour.

Fortunately for those of us who have begun to create that muscle memory, mastering the game is only the first part. Capcom’s team has packed so much bonus content into the game that it’s sure to keep you occupied far longer than any of the first eight Mega Man games. There are achievement-style “challenges” to accomplish, some of which you’ll hit very quickly and others you’ll only dream of. There’s even downloadable content, accessible from directly within the game (even on the WiiWare version!) for just a few dollars per piece. Among these you’ll find harder difficulty levels, a new challenge mode, and even the ability to play as Proto Man, Mega Man’s red-clad whistle-blowing brother, complete with his shield. A shield in a Mega Man game? Go play Zero.

Having played the game now on WiiWare and PS3, I have more to report on the differences than I’ve seen in other outlets. While the visuals are different (the WiiWare version fills the screen better and looks a little bit sharper because it’s not upscaled) the real difference is the controller. The DualShock 3 is a more comfortable controller to use to play this game. Holding the Wii Remote sideways like an NES controller is appealing, but it’s simply too fat to accurately simulate that feel. If you’ve got one of those Gamecube to NES controller adapters, this may be the time to break that out. Also, the larger, shallower buttons on the Dualshock 3 just feel more responsive when pushed.

I’ll be back with more impressions of these games as I progress through the game.