3 Things I Love about Mega Man 9

Welcome to Mega Man Month! Every weekday in January I’ll be listing three things I love about the original Mega Man series. Let’s go!

The retro throwback was a course correction

While I don’t necessarily think this retro throwback idea was the best in the world, there’s no denying that at the time I thought it was brilliant, and regardless of how it reshaped Mega Man’s legacy since, it gave the series a much needed course correction following he lackluster Mega Man 8. 8 was the most modern Mega Man at the time, but it started to veer into some rather cumbersome territory. Mega Man at its core should always be about jumping and shooting first and foremost. If you start adding other elements like level exploration, it has to be done in service to the core mechanics, and Mega Man 8 for all its ambition, failed at that. Also, Mega Man can’t just casually swim now. Stop that. Mega Man 9 was a completely back to basics approach, and regardless of where things went from there, it was and still is a brilliant game.

New 8-bit Mega Man music

New official 8-bit Mega Man tunes? Sign me the heck up. Would I have loved to hear new Mega Man tunes done in a modern style? Sure. But I’m not turning my nose up at this stuff. Especially when it’s this good.

Dr. Wily’s failures on video

This bit right after you beat Wily gave me chills. Rush shows up and Mega Man projects every one of Wily’s losses, including Mega Man & Bass, right up there for Wily to see. They even had Mega Man in the right colors for the weapons used to defeat Wily. I love it. I love it so darn much.

And that’s it for Mega Man 9. Come back tomorrow for the penultimate entry as I talk about the joys of Mega Man 10.

Kris Randazzo

Kris is the Content Supervisor of Geekade. As an avid consumer of all things video game, Kris spent his formative years collecting cartridges, CDs, discs, and assorted paraphernalia in an effort to amass a video game collection large enough to kill an elephant. He works with Stone Age Gamer, writing for their blog and hosting the Stone Age Gamer Podcast right here at Geekade. He's also the host of the WaveBack Podcast, co-host of This Week's Episode, and can occasionally be found in the pages of Nintendo Force Magazine.

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