A fun retro throwback to Mega Man 2, which is the best Mega Man (or so everyone says...) Like Mega Man 2, you are restricted to running, jumping, and shooting. There's no charge shot and none of that slide nonsense. In some ways it feels like a regression, especially for the 9th in the series and a game that follows a pretty good PS1 installment, but then that's sort of the point.

Really it's surprising how MM9 doesn't feel like it's out of step with the earlier entries. Sure there's some bits here and there that spoil how modern it is, but it feels so genuine to the originals that you'd be forgiven for thinking it was based on some long lost beta. Boss designs and theming were really being stretched thin by Mega Man 8, but they feel fresh again here while retaining that aforementioned authenticity.

That's also where I come down a bit harshly on this game, though. It's faithful to a fault. There's some incredibly frustrating stretches of levels and a few spots where cheap deaths are plenty, and a bizarre affinity for spikes (which cause instant death.) Mega Man was one of those trial-and-error type games, designed in such a way as to make it longer than it ought to be, but as a cheaper digital release it doesn't need to justify its price tag through length.

Still a very fun game though, and an important one for proving the worth of retro revivals. Without this we might not have games like Sonic Mania or Bloodstained.