Mega-Man-9

Despite Ian’s claims that I’m insane for doing so, Final Fantasy XIII lays almost untouched on my coffee table each night as I’ve been spending the past week playing Mega Man 9, 10, and Yakuza. Here are a few more words on the Mega Man games and a few on Yakuza: Mega Man 9 & 10 I still stand by my assertion that Mega Man 10 is just too easy compared to 9. It makes me seem like a masochist to claim that I had less fun with it because it was easier, but that’s part of the fun of Mega Man. There were definitely some frustrating moments in 10, but I never got angry like I did with 9. It was much simpler to beat. I’ll have to play it some more so that I can beat my friend Lee to more trophies. ...

After a year and a half of not-so-dedicated Mega Man 9 playing, I finally defeated Wily last night and moved on to the recently released Mega Man 10. Maybe it’s because I’m still in the groove from 9, but it seems a lot easier, even on Normal. I’ve killed six of the eight robot masters, most of them with the Mega Buster instead of their weakness. I can only attribute this to the overabundance of E-Tanks throughout the normal levels. Rockman 9 had one tank in its standard levels and one in Wily’s Castle. I’m pretty sure I’ve located around three in the normal levels. Beyond that, it feels like screws are way more abundant than before, which makes it easier to buy even more tanks. It just seems like Capcom heard people say that the game was too hard so they toned it down…a lot. ...

The ESRB has been making a spectacle of itself in recent months. Aside from the usual rating controversies, they have accidentally been spoiling the announcement of a bunch of games by posting ESRB ratings for games that are still in development. It’s all come to a frustrated head as of yesterday as the ESRB site, despite promising to stop doing this, managed to spoil three unannounced titles to be published by Atlus. ...

Deep from the trenches, it’s time for your Monday video feature: Embedded Reporter. Why this? I can’t resist Rockman music! Enjoy.

Deep from the trenches, it’s time for your Monday video feature: Embedded Reporter. Mega Man 9 is HARD. People say, “That’s the idea. It’s supposed to be Retro like the days when games were tough.” Let me tell you a secret about the old Mega Man games: they were NOT this hard. Aside from Quick Man (the magma plumes were mad cheap), I could more or less reliably kill almost all of the Mega Man 2 bosses. At this point, I’ve still only killed Galaxy Man and Concrete Man. Funny thing about that is that both of those Robot Masters are more or less the easiest in the game. As hard as maybe this video looks, this is an easy stage. ...

Insert another credit, because it’s time for your weekly video game news and you’ve just hit the Game Overview screen. I’ve talked about how dedicated Capcom is to the old-school aesthetic of Mega Man 9, but just how dedicated are they? Below is the “boxart” for the DLC game: See More Mega Man 9 Box Art at IGN.com If you remember back to my 8-Bit All-Stars post, you might remember me talking about the Mega Man 2 boxart as being nonsensical for the anime-cutesy style of the game. This is such a return to the old school that it makes me kind of pumped for this game. ...

If you read my 8-bit All-Stars feature you know I love me some Mega Man 2. There was just something sublimely perfect about that game with its polished level design and great boss battles. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a real sequel to a Mega Man game. The last canonical MM game was MM 8 for the PSX in 1997, with the X series taking over with about eight installments that have also stopped coming out. ...