Mega Man 9

Mega Man 9
Protagonist(s): Mega Man Proto Man (DLC) Genre(s): Platformer Rating(s): ESRB: E CERO: A PEGI: 7 Platform(s): Microsoft Windows Xbox 360 (XBLA) PlayStation 3 (PSN) Wii (WiiWare) PlayStation 4 Xbox One Nintendo Switch Release Date: WiiWare NA: September 22, 2008 JP: September 24, 2008 PAL: September 26, 2008 PlayStation Network NA: September 25, 2008 PAL: September 25, 2008 JP: June 24, 2009 Xbox Live Arcade NA: October 1, 2008 PAL: October 1, 2008 JP: June 24, 2009 Mobile phones JP: December 1, 2010 Developer(s): Capcom Inti Creates Publisher(s): Capcom Country: Japan Series: Mega Man Predecessor: Mega Man 8 Mega Man & Bass Successor: Mega Man 10

Mega Man 9, otherwise known as Rockman 9 in Japan, is a platform game developed by Capcom and Inti Creates, who had previously worked on the games from the Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX series together.

It is known as the tenth installment in the classic Mega Man series, after Mega Man & Bass. It was released on WiiWare originally on September 22, 2008, PlayStation Network on September 25, 2008, and Xbox Live Arcade on October 1, 2008. The game was later rereleased as part of the Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Steam in 2017.

Plot

After Dr. Wily's previous defeat, the world is at peace, when suddenly, robots start attacking. Turns out that Dr. Light's robots have gone rogue, and just then, Dr. Wily claims that, this time, he's not the one behind the attacks and pins the blame on Dr. Light, citing video evidence where Dr. Light wants to take over the world and Wily refusing to team up with him. Soon afterwards, Dr. Light is arrested. Mega Man must stop Light's 8 new Robot Masters and prove his creator's innocence.

Why It Rocks

1. The graphics are reminiscent of the 8-bit Mega Man games, which is one if the franchise's charms, and look just as good as the NES games.
2. The music in the game is also composed in 8-bit style, and sounds really good, as expected for a Mega Man game.
3. The progression goes back to the classic roots, where Mega Man can select from 8 different Robot Master stages in any order without needing to go through an intro stage.
4. Many of the stages have unique gimmicks, like teleporting portals in Galaxy Man's stage, and Plug Man's stage having dark clones of Mega Man that occasionally appear.
5. E-tanks return to the franchise after being missing from two games, along with M-tanks.
6. Similar to Mega Man 7 and Mega Man & Bass, Mega Man can collect bolts in stages, which can be spent in a shop on various items, like E-tanks, extra lives, and lessening the damage taken from enemies.
7. The plot is of the quality of the latter half of the NES games. Dr. Light ends up in jail due to his robots destroying the city, so Mega Man has to defeat all of them.
8. Proto Man is playable via DLC, and has the ability to use charge shots via the Proto Buster, slide, and deflect attacks when jumping at the cost of taking double damage.
9. There's an Endless Stage DLC, which will test the player's skills to see how many screens they can pass without dying.
10. There's a DLC which adds a Special Stage, which has the mini-bosses from the main Robot Master stages, as well as an exclusive boss, Fake Man.
11. There are two additional difficulties available as DLC: Hero Mode and Superhero Mode, which make the game much harder with changes, like adding Metools disguised as fake extra lives to fool the player.
12. The game's ending pokes fun at all of the previous times that Wily's been defeated by Mega Man showing clips from previous games where Wily begs for forgiveness after defeat.

Bad Qualities

1. Mega Man loses his slide and the ability to charge his Mega Buster from the previous games. (which was reserved for Proto Man)
2. The Wily stages are very difficult, even if at least it's not the one from Mega Man 8, the same can also be said for the final boss if you don't have at least one E-Tank.
3. Like in every other Mega Man game, if you get a game over on any Wily stage, you have to start over from the beginning of Wily Stage 1.
4. Mega Man cannot switch weapons in-game with the shoulder buttons. The player must pause the game and use the weapon menu to switch weapons, even though the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 have plenty of shoulder buttons that could've been used for switching weapons, something which was present in Mega Man 7, 8, as well as Mega Man & Bass.
5. Some of the music is recycled from Mega Man 2.
6. Unlike Mega Man, Proto Man doesn't have any exclusive storyline scenes.

Trivia

• This is the first (and currently only) game in the classic Mega Man series to have a female Robot Master, Splash Woman, and the third game to have Robot Masters created by Dr. Light as the main bosses, the first being the original Mega Man game and its PSP remake, Mega Man Powered Up, and the second being Mega Man 3, where Dr. Light and Dr. Wily created the robot masters together.

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