As a loud and proud Megaman 2 disliker, taking more than a few steps back to the slide and charge shot-less days of the first two games made me really skeptical that I'd like a game deliberately trying to invoke nostalgia for those games. But of course, leave it to the same chefs behind the stellar Zero series to once more cook some gourmet shit with this franchise.
Despite the nerfed moveset, Megaman 9 manages to avoid falling into the same failures of 2 by properly balancing the levels around Rock's capabilities while still making things challenging. Gone are bullet sponge enemies that take eons to defeat with your puny buster disguising how the levels are actually kind of a nothing sandwich; MM9 makes good use of its stage gimmicks, enemies and bosses to test your mettle while still remaining a fair challenge, with some highlights of mine being Hornet Man, Tornado Man, and Jewel Man's stages. MM9 also probably has the best boss roster this side of MM7; every one is fun to fight and even a good, fun challenge to do so buster-only, which is more than I can say for any boss roster in the NES era of Megaman.
Only real problem I have here is that come the Wily Castle the game starts to get a bit too mean with some of its challenges. Nowhere near the same level of sadism as Gate's Lab from X6, but there are some "Fuck You, First Time Player" traps and weirdly designed moments that bring it down. And then the Twin Devil just sucks ass and takes 5,000 years off of my lifespan, although I did appreciate the MMZ reference. That was totally a proto-Rainbow Devil, I see you Inti.
Regardless of the steps back it takes mechanically and some snags near the end, 9 encompasses many lessons learned from its 8-bit brothers to design a tough but fair challenge, and is one of the best classic Megaman games out there, rivaling even MM7 and Bass. High recommend from me.
Despite the nerfed moveset, Megaman 9 manages to avoid falling into the same failures of 2 by properly balancing the levels around Rock's capabilities while still making things challenging. Gone are bullet sponge enemies that take eons to defeat with your puny buster disguising how the levels are actually kind of a nothing sandwich; MM9 makes good use of its stage gimmicks, enemies and bosses to test your mettle while still remaining a fair challenge, with some highlights of mine being Hornet Man, Tornado Man, and Jewel Man's stages. MM9 also probably has the best boss roster this side of MM7; every one is fun to fight and even a good, fun challenge to do so buster-only, which is more than I can say for any boss roster in the NES era of Megaman.
Only real problem I have here is that come the Wily Castle the game starts to get a bit too mean with some of its challenges. Nowhere near the same level of sadism as Gate's Lab from X6, but there are some "Fuck You, First Time Player" traps and weirdly designed moments that bring it down. And then the Twin Devil just sucks ass and takes 5,000 years off of my lifespan, although I did appreciate the MMZ reference. That was totally a proto-Rainbow Devil, I see you Inti.
Regardless of the steps back it takes mechanically and some snags near the end, 9 encompasses many lessons learned from its 8-bit brothers to design a tough but fair challenge, and is one of the best classic Megaman games out there, rivaling even MM7 and Bass. High recommend from me.