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1Oct2008 Filed under: Electronics & Gaming Author: Charles Guthrie
“Mega Man 9″ was recently release by Capcom for the Wii as part of their “WiiWare” program, a download system for small games. The game is a tribute to the old 8-bit NES versions of Mega Man in all its pixelated glory. Even the music and sounds seem to be coming from a genuine 8-bit system; they even put in some code to bring back the “sprite flicker” you got when too many sprites got on the screen at once.
The end result is a genuine blast from the past and is still quite a bit of fun. They do throw in some modern game elements, like a save/load feature instead of the “dot-matrix” system they used before, plus there are now achievements and downloadable content, something no game seems to be without these days.
Also, this game features a new step in breaking the glass ceiling. Maga Man 9 features the first female “Robot Master” in a Mega Man game: “Splash Woman”. Hillary becomes the first female presidential candidate for a major political party, Palin becomes the first female Veep ( well, first Republican one ), and now we have proven once and for all that women can be evil robots bent on enslaving humanity too.
My only gripes about MM9 is that some of the elements introduced into the later games in the series are gone, like the ability to slide and the ability to charge up your main weapon before firing.
Still, it’s good retro fun and I’d encourage any fans of the original series who owns a Wii to try it out. MM9 is supposedly going to be coming out for the xBox as well. 
RØB
October 1st, 2008 at 4:37 pm
The slide I could do without, since obviously if you don’t have the slide, you aren’t going to have any need to use it at any point. However, that charge-up on the weaponry is ALWAYS handy! How could they do away with that? Pretty weak. I feel like MOST of my MegaMan experience came with a charge-up-able weapon. I mean, that started with MegaMan 3, right? 3, for crying out loud!
RØB
October 1st, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Also, there’s an inherent flaw in that Penny Arcade strip, insofar as any kid playing a MegaMan game would NEVER give up the controller, especially unsolicited. Can we agree on that?
Charles
October 1st, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Don’t need the slide? Already after playing only two levels I can think of at least a dozen times when it would have been awesome to be able to slide under a bullet or a low-flying enemy. I thought it was a good gameplay mechanic.
I guess they are trying to go for as much of an early feel as possible with it, but then they include Rush the robotic dog and several other more recent additions, like Protoman.
As far as giving up the controller, I actually found watching someone play a game almost as much as fun as playing it sometimes. I remember when I was a kid I thought there should be a TV channel where you could watch a video game as someone else plays it. [:coffee:]
RØB
October 2nd, 2008 at 10:57 am
Good point about the slide, I was thinking of it more in terms of something you used to get into a tight spot that you couldn’t fit into standing up. I guess that’s mostly where I found myself using it, but indeed it does have those other uses as well.
Rush the dog I think was in MM3 as well. That is weird that they aren’t keeping consistent.
I grew up with four siblings and we all did our fair share of video gaming on the ol’ 8-Bit NES (for half an hour at a time, on particularly desirable days), so I’m plenty used to, and fond of, watching someone play, but I’m sayin’, when the controller’s in yer hand, it can be hard to give up.