Dr. K's Waiting Room

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January celebrates two notable dates in science-fiction history: “National Science Fiction Day” on January 2 to coincide with the birth of world renowned sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov, and 12 January being when Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000 was created. Accordingly, I dedicate January to celebrating sci-fi in all its forms.

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Quick Facts:
Mega Man struggled to make a mark in the 32-bit era, with the likes of Mega Man 8 (Capcom, 1996) and Mega Man 64 (Capcom Production Studio 2, 2001) proving frustrating and disappointing releases. After almost ten years without a mainline entry, Mega Man returned to his celebrated 8-bit roots for this throwback title. Keiji Inafune closely mimicked the graphics and mechanics of yesteryear, including options to emulate the poor performance of 8-bit hardware, and designed the first female Robot Master, Splash Woman. Mega Man 9 was widely praised for its old-school aesthetics and challenge, though its difficulty curve and poor stage design was questioned. Bolstered by additional downloadable content (DLC), Mega Man 9 was followed by a similar, equally praised sequel two years later and eventually made widely available as part of the Blue Bomber’s second Legacy Collection.

The Review:
Mega Man 9 is a throwback to the Blue Bomber’s glory days on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), perfectly mirroring the controls, abilities, and presentation from that era. Accordingly, the plot is as basic as you could ask for (Doctor Thomas Light has been set up by the devious Doctor Albert Wily, whose new Robot Masters are causing chaos) and everything is exactly like the NES days. This means you can freely choose from eight initial stages, blast enemies with Mega Man’s “Mega Buster”, and defeat Robot Masters to gain new “Special Weapons”. These occasionally aid you in traversing stages and will make battling Robot Masters easier, since each is weak to a special weapon. As with every game in Mega Man: Legacy Collection 2, players can enable an armour mode to reduce the damage they take, apply borders and filters, listen to the game’s soundtrack, and check out some concept art. Inputting a code or beating the game unlocks three extra modes: two harder difficulties and one where you play as Mega Man’s “brother”, Proto Man, which snags you another Achievement. While you can save your game after clearing each stage and the game features checkpoints, this version doesn’t include rewind functionality. The “save state” feature is a joke, too, simply saving any collectibles you’ve found but returning you to the last checkpoint, making Mega Man 9 an extremely challenging experience without the convenience of being able to undo stupid mistakes. Players can enable a rapid-fire mode but must equip Special Weapons or summon Mega Man’s robotic canine, Rush, from the in-game menu. This is also where you use helpful items like Energy-Tanks, Beat (who saves you from pits), and Eddie (who drops items). These are purchased from Mega Man’s “sister”, Roll, by spending bolts at Dr. Light’s lab, though some are single-use items.

By default, Mega Man fires his currently equipped weapon with X and jumps with A or Y, but his armour upgrades are missing. Proto Man has the slide and weapon charge, and enemies respawn the moment you edge offscreen. As ever, Mega Man’s new Special Weapons are a mixed bag, with their functionality mirroring previous Special Weapons. The Jewel Satellite is a reskinned Leaf Shield, for example, and the Plug Ball is just a more versatile Search Snake since it travels across surfaces. While the Concrete Shot creates temporary blocks, I found them pretty unreliable (especially if you buy the Shock Guard to resist insta-death spikes). The Laser Trident destroys special blocks to access shortcuts, goodies, and navigate Dr. Wily’s hazardous fortress, and the Hornet Chaser snags faraway items. The Tornado Blow whisks away all onscreen enemies and activates special propeller platforms, but its energy drains very quickly so you’ll want to use it sparingly to have ammo for the Magma Dragons and Magma Man. Magma Bazooka fires a three-way spread and the Black Hole Bomb creates a vortex that pulls in enemies and projectiles, but it’s best to save Special Weapons for the bosses as there’s rarely a need to expend them in stages. You whip out Rush Coil and Rush Jet a fair bit, especially to bypass tricky platforming with the latter and reach goodies like 1-ups and extra health with the former. Rush has no special underwater form this time, unfortunately, or any autoscrolling sections. In fact, I didn’t encounter any autoscrolling sections in my playthrough, just the usual hazards like insta-death pits and various spikes, a floaty jump when underwater, and having to quickly (and I mean quickly) bypass molten metal hazards. You can further increase Mega Man’s defences with the Guard Power Up item (or dramatically decrease it for an additional challenge with the Book of Hairstyles) and ensure that whichever Special Weapon is at its lowest ammo gets replenished with the Energy Balancer. You don’t need to worry about collecting letters or other items here, just snagging screws to buy stuff if you need them.

Visually, Mega Man 9 really scratches that itch if you’ve been missing the 8-bit aesthetic of the classic games. The story is told using large, partially animated, anime-like sprite art, text, and in-game sprites, with Mega Man again changing colour with each Special Weapon and simply blinking when idle. The presentation mirrors an NES title, though sprite flickering and slowdown have been eliminated (unless you activate them), and the music is perhaps the best since Mega Man 2 (Capcom, 1988). Mirroring the NES visuals means mirroring the gameplay style, meaning Mega Man is as clunky and limited as he was back in the day, which makes platforming difficult as it’s easy to slip off platforms (even when they’re not frozen) or drop down pits because you fell just short on your jump. Rush Jet helps and is usually a better option as those damn disappearing/reappearing platforms are back and Tornado Man’s stage tosses in moving platforms that spin you around, screwing up your jumps if you’re timing’s off. This stage also features ice, a rainstorm (complete with a minor wind effect), and storm clouds as additional platforms. Dr. Wily’s second stage sees Illusians creating fake blocks to trick you, Splash Woman’s stage has you hopping to fast-moving platforms that fly out of the walls, Magma Man’s stage is full of insta-kill lava, Galaxy Man’s stage debuts teleports that fling you about. Jewel Man’s stage was probably the most visually impressive as it’s set in a sparkling diamond mine, but I liked Galaxy Man’s space station setting and that Plug Man’s stage is a power plant with dials in the background and electrical hazards on platforms. This stage also plunges into darkness near the end and sees fake doubles of Mega Man spawn from television screens, Hornet Man’s stage is largely set in a lush rose garden full of unique flower-based enemies, and Splash Woman’s stage recycles the bubble gimmick from Mega Man 5 (Capcom, 1992).

Similarly, many of Mega Man’s usual enemies also return, including Metall, a new Sniper Joe variant with a machine gun, and that Shield Attacker. The Green and Yellow Devil live on in eye-like globs that split when shot, little propeller robots fly around roasting you with their flames, robotic octopi stain you with ink projectiles, sentient coal rolls around in minecarts, and pincer-like robots fly you into spikes if you’re not careful. Four stages include large mini bosses, such as the aforementioned Fire Dragon and a robotic elephant. Three of these are fought in quick succession, with each tossing a giant ball in different ways and suck it (and you) in to repeat their attack. The Hanabiran can be tricky as the robotic flower sprouts from different platforms to fire its petals at you while a rotating flower bar keeps you on the move and a spike pit spells certain doom if you slip. The Stone Head caught me off-guard in Jewel Man’s stage, but you can predict where it will drop if you watch the boulders overhead, so you just need to avoid them when they fall and not get stunned when it crashes down. Mega Man 9 will be harder if you tackle the stages in the wrong order so it’s best to start with Splash Woman. While the trident projectiles she fires can be as tricky to dodge as her downward thrust, she’s easy to beat with the Mega Buster and her Laser Trident is very effective against Concrete Man, whose biggest danger is stunning you with his big ground pound. His otherwise useless Concrete Shot crushes Galaxy Man, whose Black Hole Bomb is enough to stay away from and easily makes short work of Jewel Man, who simply flings his gems while hopping about. The Jewel Satellite makes mincemeat of Tornado Man, whose Tornado Blow is easy enough to either avoid or tank (especially as the overheard spikes are no threat) and will cut through Magma Man in no time (he was probably the easiest of the Robot Masters!) The Magma Bazooka can then take care of Hornet Man, who just fires swarms of hornets and is barely a threat.

Once all eight Robot Masters are defeated, Mega Man proves that Dr. Wily is behind everything (…shocker…) and four new stages become available. As ever, Dr. Wily’s mechanical obstacle courses remix enemies, gimmicks, and even mini bosses from previous stages alongside new ones, like those propeller platforms. Each is also guarded by a unique boss, with these four Spike Pushers waiting in the first stage. You must quickly blast their spiked balls back at them, avoiding their projectiles, before they can instantly kill you, which is more aggravating than challenging. Sadly, my run ended at the second Dr. Wily stage. While it was taxing enough to quickly spawn Rush Coil and get past the insta-kill molten metal hazards in the first stage, the tight hallways, floaty underwater mechanics, and tricky jumps ended me in a very specific, spike-filled room. It would probably be much easier if I had the Shock Guard, but you must buy this before entering the stage as exiting it means replaying the first Dr. Wily stage, which is just despicable. Looking ahead, there’s a giant mechanical, shark-like submarine, two “Devil” like globs, and the standard gauntlet against the previous Robot Masters. Dr. Wily also pilots a pretty awesome-looking dinosaur mech in the endgame before again resorting to his capsule, teleporting around, and firing electrical projectiles. Had the developers allowed players to create real save states, at least, or respawn in the same area after being killed, this difficulty curve would be much more tolerable. Instead, you’re sent back to or must reload your last checkpoint, getting more frustrated each time (or potentially getting better, that happened to me in a couple of sections) and slowly realising that you entered the stage underequipped since you had no idea that you’d need E-Tanks or special items. The “Hero” and “Superhero” modes only increase the challenge and, while Proto Man boasts a shield and unique abilities, he also receives double damage and greater knockback. Legacy Collection 2 also offers a handful of extra challenges, both based on your gameplay and from the main menu, where you can tackle remixed gimmicks and stages, time trials, and boss rushes for additional Achievements.

Final Thoughts:
I have to admit, a big ol’ goofy smile came to my face when I booted up Mega Man 9. I had no idea how much I missed the classic 8-bit art style and NES chip tunes until I started this game, which brilliantly recreates the visuals, gameplay, and challenge of the Blue Bomber’s glory days on the NES. Each level is beautifully basic, featuring simplistic backgrounds that nonetheless pop with colour and have a lot of variety while also being very familiar for long-time franchise fans. While it’s a shame that Mega Man is missing some of his later abilities, such as the charge shot and slide, it’s fun returning to that limited, somewhat awkward gameplay style. Mega Man’s new Special Weapons may lack originality or be somewhat forgettable, but I found myself using them a bit more than in the previous games and it remained as satisfying as ever to whittle down a Robot Master. I really liked seeing new enemies mixed in with some familiar faces, alongside new mini bosses and unique Robot Masters. The siren-like Splash Woman and bizarre UFO-like Galaxy Man were two standouts, as was the Fire Dragon (whose skeleton is revealed as you deal damage!) Sadly, as great as the game looks and sounds, Mega Man 9 is handicapped by the same issues that dogged the NES games. Namely, tricky platforming, unforgiving level design, annoying enemy placement, and insta-death traps galore. Unlike in the remasters of the NES games, there’s no rewind function to save you here and the “save state” system is a cruel joke working in conjunction with a fastidiously old-school difficulty that was sadly too much for me to overcome. It feels unfair to knock the game’s rating down for this, but it did impact my enjoyment of Mega Man 9, which strips back your options and abilities to artificially augment the already steep difficulty curve. Had the game been a little more lenient with its lives and checkpoints (especially considering the two even harder DLC modes!), this would be a solid recommendation. However, as it is, you’re better off picking up the remastered versions of the original games and playing those. They give you everything this game has, and more, and are much more satisfying as a result.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

What did you think to this throwback to Mega Man’s glory days? Did you find it jarring to go back to this visual style and challenge or did you welcome it? Which of the new Special Weapons and Robot Masters was your favourite? Were you shocked to learn Dr. Wily was behind everything? Did you ever beat the game (and, if so…how?!)? How are you celebrating sci-fi genre this month? Let me know what you think about Mega Man 9 in the comment, check out my other Mega Man reviews, and donate to my Ko-Fi to suggest more Mega Man content.