Finally. I tried to emulate Mega Man 9 (MM9) on Dolphin once and didn’t even get over a single digit FPS. I remember being angry that despite it probably being easy to get to work on any hardware it got no PC version, let alone a Steam version which is a more ideal market for this sort of game than any home console during the time it was released.

There are a lot of strange decisions surrounding MM9, and I remember one that made me really upset was them backpedaling a lot of progress on a numbered game. I probably wouldn’t have minded the throwback as much were it “technically” a spinoff title like Mega Man & Bass. You don’t see it that much anymore, but Mega Man used to be treated like the Sonic series with people criticizing the wrong areas of the recent games or not doing so at all.

This ends up with people making general superficial statements like “the Sonic games are bad because there’s too many characters” or “the newer Mega Man games weren’t as good,” and “newer” specifically carries the stigma of hardware advances, as if the Mega Man games lost something simply because they went off the NES.

You can find likeminded, baffling opinions like the original trilogy being the best entries, despite the first Mega Man practically being a prototype for the greatness that’d come. I’ve even seen people do the “Devil May Cry 2 doesn’t exist” thing for Mega Man X games after X3, which means someone not only doesn’t think X4 is good but likes it over X3, which really rustles my jimmies. The beginning (and probably most) of this review is going to talk about reasons why a retro style could be good, and why it might not be.

Because sometimes this word of mouth actually does reach the developers up in their towers, and it’s lead to embarrassing results (but hopefully eye-opening for some) like Sonic the Hedgehog 4. When it comes to Mega Man going back to NES “hardware” though, there is some actual reasoning for it.

One could be that it’s just a cute one-off gimmick, but some aspects of what Mega Man 9 chooses to not bring from the newer games show that’s clearly not where Capcom’s head is, and even if it were it didn’t turn out to be a one-off and 6/9 of the previous games were on NES so we’re hardly distant from that aesthetic.

The second, more substantial reason is that hardware of the time brought with it some unique mechanics. For example, Mega Man’s shots stay on the screen a different amount of time and “screen wiping” and working around enemy spawns becomes an actual part of strategy. However, for the former this isn’t very impacting and can be addressed partly with different enemy placement and having shots that come close enough to the screen border reset the amount of shots that can be fired off. Surprisingly, Mega Man 9 seems to deliberately imply that you should use screen wiping in certain places and lure enemies into holes and other such tricks. While this is a cute throwback, it’s always been to me a technique that’s felt every bit as satisfying as it is lame to do.

The real flaws of the post-NES Mega Man games though have nothing to do with any of this. Mega Man didn’t get worse because it got better hardware. On the contrary, Mega Man 8 and & Bass feature some of the best sprite work of any platformer ever. At a time where 2D platformers were rare and most of the ones that did exist used 3D models for varying results, Mega Man 8‘s (MM8) developers realized that the hardware advancements weren’t a simple scale of SNES graphics or 3D models, but could instead be used to create more detailed animation with an increased number of frames, and more detailed sprites with a higher resolution and greater amount of colors and graphical effects.

The result was a game that somehow gets passed over when people (rightfully) talk about how amazing Symphony of the Night‘s (SotN) sprites are. Granted, SotN is more ambitious in its sprites at times like the shuffling of Alucard’s clothes, but this also led to a few choppy frames because emphasizing ripples on small black clothing demands a lot of attention. Mega Man 8 doesn’t even have any such problems from this transition or any awkward halfway meeting with 3D models, it’s just pure beauty.

It’s unfortunate Mega Man’s sprite itself is overshadows by that of the enemies when it comes to showing personality with movement (for example, the slow walking miniature robots in Clown Man’s stage, and robots that actually move like robots or charming wind-up toys). The greater graphical detail allowed for Mega Man games to finally look like what the original art intended, and it’s very bright, colorful, and infectiously joyous. The whole screen pops out at you at all times, and stages carry very strong personalities separate from level design gimmicks.

The classic Mega Man games have always had some of the best character and general art design of any game series, and its vibrancy has only really been allowed to come across in two or sort of three games. When you consider the result is one of the best looking, best aesthetically designed 2D games ever made this can only be called disappointing.

Even taking into account what the minimum of what the hardware required for market standards, MM8 far succeeded that and blew away its contemporaries. It relatively had more work put into its art design than any previous game, and this paid off not only in the context of highlights in the series, but highlights for the whole platformer genre.

The NES games looked quite nice for their system as well, but never relatively blew away the competition as much, and there’s nothing to save from going back to this old graphical style that’s very limited in expression other than money and the attention of people only arbitrary affixed on specific qualities.

Finally, one of the most appealing things about classic Mega Man is not only its tight platforming and simple yet varied and awarding stages, but how infectiously lighthearted the whole experience is in tone. Mega Man is not just a series that feels good to play because its stages are well-designed, it’s because those bright colors and adorable characters create a friendly, happy environment that juxtaposes nicely with the challenge but never too seriously.

It’s a series that isn’t just fun, but one that makes you happy, and Mega Man 8 exudes this particular happiness more than any other Mega Man game. By contrast, even comparing Mega Man 9 with the NES games it relies a lot more on dark indoor colors, often using a lot of black, which covers up some of the personality.

Having talked about the graphics enough for an entire review, another hardware imitation is going back to chiptune-styled music. I don’t particularly like or dislike chiptune music and if you prefer it that’s fine, because I’m putting aside my personal preference to say that compositionally Mega Man 9 may have the most consistent soundtrack out of any classic series game.

There’s practically not a single song in the game that didn’t demand my attention at certain parts, and while after finishing I have trouble recalling melodies I’m like that for pretty much any chiptune soundtrack and what matters is I can remember frequently enjoying it as opposed to tuning out the few “just okay” songs that find their way on any other Mega Man OST.

While the end result is me being disappointed because I prefer a more modern electronic sound palette, they did an awesome job for what they chose to stick to, and unlike the graphics which are in line with what we’ve seen before, they reached a standard with the music not really seen.

If I have a genuine complaint here at all, it’s only a theory that with a bigger sound palette it was “easier” for the composers to make music that sounds more suitable for the specific stage’s environment. Chiptune is a lot more limited, and with it you couldn’t get that chilly opening synthesized brass in Frost Man’s theme, while also being able to replicate the childish xylophone sound used in the same game in Clown Man’s theme.

Of course, the music’s impact on the atmosphere is only magnified when it’s also working in conjunction with more detailed backgrounds that demand greater attention and create a more distinctive environment whose less repetitive visuals won’t eventually be tuned out to focus solely on the action. With all that said, Mega Man 9 also does a better job at attaching matching theme music and visuals than previous NES styled games.

Mega Man games generally did attempt a lot of questionable things as they aged despite a fair number of improvements. The main reasons the series began to decline in quality after Mega Man 4 varies between specific games, but can generally be attributed to unbalanced difficulty (not a lack thereof, as 2 and 3 were fairly easy overall as well), simplistic boss patterns, a reliance on level gimmicks that halted pacing rather than being a complement to the normal platforming progression, and an increased focus on combat which only highlighted poor enemy attack patterns and “bullet sponge” enemies that took way too many hits and couldn’t easily be avoided (ideally, a player wouldn’t want to anyway).

Mega Man 9, for the first time, has none of the above problems. It’s a game that seemingly recognizes the most appealing moments of Mega Man‘s level design and focuses intensely on them, filling entire levels with fun gimmicks that pay more attention to platforming than dodging enemy fire yet encourage you to go at whatever speed you like or a quick speed depending on what other obstacles the game throws at you. Dull moments in Mega Man 9 are very, very rare, with its platforming traps making you pay attention almost all of the time.

There’s also a decent focus on designing enemies that suit the Robot Master’s theme, which too many of the games have been slacking on. The best example of this to me is Hornet Man’s stage, with its inexplicably sentient flying hedge clippers among other things. The easy weakest stage in the game is Jewel Man’s consisting mostly of very long horizontal segments of just blasting through enemies and platforming challenges being limited to the chain swings which never felt used to their full potential. For example, nearly every other level has a gimmick that gets increasingly chaotic like Tornado Man’s spinning batteries, but Jewel Man’s swings just give you some tough jumps around spikes that you can take your time with. Hardly very dynamic stuff.

Mega Man 9 also possesses the best weapon spread I’ve ever seen in a Mega Man game. It’s not the only game where most of the weapons have a practical purpose, but it’s the only one where most of them have a unique purpose. The Black Hole Bomb can draw enemy fire or enemies themselves, Hornets can grab items and track enemies, the Concrete Shot can create temporary platforms, and the shield is a shield but distinct nonetheless, and less exemplary weapons still fire and move in different ways for situations to arise where they may be useful.

I’ve never felt inclined perhaps as much as I should to use these weapons to solve situations that my Mega Buster couldn’t, but just knowing my arsenal has functions other than to kill an enemy faster is very satisfying and lends a utility belt feel to your weapons that the Mega Man games should make a point out of from now on. Though it’s difficult to do with the stage selection, I’d like to eventually see parts of some stages built around using specific enemy weapons. The Wily Fortress is a key opportunity for this but you only see minor applications in Mega Man 9‘s.

Going back to the retro appeal yet again, this decision also somehow lead Capcom to some absolutely baffling conclusions and decisions not related to visual or sound design. The most startling things are removed gameplay aspects.

One of these is the slide, which was only a net gain for the series as it allowed for faster, more intense feeling action while also giving players a dodge move that relied more on reflexes than memorizing boss patterns so you avoid moments where you can’t jump over them, and in the quieter moments it gave you something to do while also letting you move to the good shit faster. Slide is not something that should ever be removed, if anything it’s something that should be made increasingly important for more dynamic enemy and obstacle design.

The second most baffling removal is quick weapon switching with the L and R buttons. Seriously, what the fuck? I can imagine some old game designer being unconfident enough to simply remove slide because it wasn’t in the most popular Mega Man game, but fucking weapon switching? Someone thought about this feature and thought, “you know, weapon switching might be what’s making Mega Man worse.”

On that note, on screen live display and a total number of weapon uses should have been brought back too and rendered in NES style rather than that ugly Navi Mode bullshit in some of the rereleases. In addition to that, an all new method to bring up a weapon wheel mid-gameplay and use the second analog stick to select a weapon even faster would be a way to improve weapon switching even further, but instead we get fuck all anyway.

Charge is gone, but since the series has never properly balanced it in comparison to your regular shots, I don’t mind that much. It’s still pretty lazy as it can feel very satisfying to use, and the opportunity to balance it does exist and is much better than simply doing away with it, but it means that the game isn’t much worse than previous Mega Man games for losing the charge shot.

The shop is back, and while very little of what you can buy is permanent and that isn’t as satisfying, it works well in giving the player a helping hand but not in any game-breaking way. This also gives the game an excuse to be much more challenging in general than previous Mega Man games.

On that note, it’s pretty stupid how lives still don’t default when you finish a stage with less than two encouraging you to waste time and suicide whenever you start a new stage. Optimally, if you died before the first checkpoint with two lives you wouldn’t lose any either since that’s an extension of the same issue, but it’s a much more meta solution. I would much sooner expect the former but it doesn’t exist. With how consciously well done the level design it it’s surprising how misunderstood several aspects surrounding it are. Hell, it’s a miracle they didn’t revert to using password saves, considering.

The bonus content is quite nice overall and mostly mindful of its audience, with a time attack for the speedrunner-types and achievements to add replay value and challenges to get more out of the game. However, many achievements are disappointing in that they aren’t skill related and reward you for inevitable milestones or even doing badly, like having a battle go on for 10 fucking minutes which is completely absurd. A separate records section would be fun and free of space for some more interesting challenges. I wish some bonus content ideas from Mega Man: Powered Up! were carried over in spirit, like perhaps a mode that locks you to one special weapon, but that’s an obscure point of reference so I don’t hold it against Capcom.

Though I feel many of Mega Man 9‘s initial design decisions were misaligned with what actually needed to be addressed while ignoring the things the series did address since Mega Man 3, there’s still little hesitation in me to call it the best of all the NES style games. And why not? If you take away aesthetics from the newer games their level design isn’t as tight, and Mega Man 9 ignores the sorest spots of previous games to fit in more of what’s actually fun and capitalizes on the innate mechanics that have carried fans through a formulaic series just because jumping and shooting will always feel so good.

But when it comes to making a game enjoyable absolutely every area that can be imagined counts, and I’ll always insist that if it were possible to somehow numerically measure individual qualities of a videogame then what modern Mega Man games such as 8 lost in level design they more than made up for numerically with the leaps and bounds they took in some other areas.

These areas too play a varying but always large part in what makes anything “fun” to even actively play, and the last one we saw before 9 made improvements so large that we ended up with qualities that weren’t just “good for a Mega Man game,” but excellent by both the standards of contemporaries and games on a much larger scale.

The latter is why Mega Man 8 has left a stronger impression on me than any other classic Mega Man. There are parts of it you can’t simply describe “like [this], but just better.” There isn’t really much like it anywhere. But the bottom line is that it’s the 21st century and jumping and shooting’s appeal hasn’t waned in the slightest, and is instead now reminding us why it felt good to begin with. Long live Mega Man, death after death after death.