In my crazy huge (probably too much) article on Mega Man in the Casual Articles Division, I told the story of playing Mega Man for the first time. I confessed that I died countless times and, if I was resticted to only one stage, would have said, “Developers don’t know how to make a game,” and then chose another game. However, the stage select had me keep going around in different stages until I finally got the hang of the gameplay and became addicted. If I got bored with one stage, there was another. And I kept dying over and over until I eventually, accidently, beat Bomb Man. Then the others eventually fell in line.
Mega Man 9 presented an identical experience to me as was playing Mega Man 1 for the first time. I kept dying and dying until I got tired of that stage, switched to another, died some more, and generally rotated around until, eventually, I began to beat some Robot Masters. It is no shame dying constantly at first in a Mega Man game. It is absolutely impossible for a player to make it through a stage like Plug Man for the first time.
Many people say Mega Man 9 is hard. It really isn’t. It is just unfamiliar. It is easy to breeze through Mega Man 2 and 3 when you’ve beaten it a thousand times. But people died all the time, just as they do now, with Mega Man 2 and 3… at first. I actually think Mega Man 9 is easier on fighting since there is practically infinite energy tanks which Mega Man can hold in double digit numbers. In the beginning, I was astonished how I could literally force my way through robot masters by being Energy Tank Man. You couldn’t get away with that in the early Mega Man games. Prior to 4, energy tanks were finite and Mega Man could only hold four (and a megatank in later games). The Wily final boss in Mega Man 7 took every energy tank you had, and you would still be lucky to beat him. Mega Man 1 didn’t even have energy tanks. THAT was the reason why the Yellow Devil fight was so atrocious.
Overall, I am very pleased with how Mega Man 9 came out. I was most suprised by how well done the weapons were. While Jewel Man’s weapon is a repeat, it is done better than their predecessors. Hornet Man’s weapon is very innovative and is one of the best weapons since the metal blade. The Plug Ball perfects the Snake Man weapons (which was an improvement on Bubble Man’s). (Ironically, Plug Ball is used in the same way as bubbles in detecting invisible floors). Many of the weapons are not energy gulpers thankfully. While the music is excellent, I think it is being overrated currently. (BTW, the boss music is poor.) Tornado Man’s theme is the only song that really reaches that legendary status. I’m a fan of Splash Woman’s song, but it appears I’m the only one.
When replaying the stages again and again (trying to see how we will look back at the game many years from now), there are two major problems I see. It seems that Capcom decided to pretend Mega Man 9 was the REAL Mega Man 3 (why Inafune hates Mega Man 3 is something we need to figure out) so they blazenly have stuck parts of Mega Man 4, 5, 6 into a blender and used different parts. For example, the music, currently over-praised, sounds like previous games.
Here is Magma Man.
Here is Drill Man.
I was wondering why Magma Man’s music, while sounding good, sounded somewhat stale.
This one will be more obvious. Plug Man’s music is very similiar to Bright Man’s music. And to vary it up with Plug Man’s music, it seems another megaman song was mixed in like a Wily castle song from Mega Man 2 or 3.
Bright Man
Plug Man
The pattern of Mega Man 9 music appears to be mixing and matching a song from an early Mega Man game (4 seems popular) and some Wily stages from those games. This explains why the music has you *wanting* to like it, it is quality since the previous songs it ripped were quality, but the song doesn’t really flow, does it? As the song goes on, it just gets lost in lots of notes where the listener doesn’t really follow. It lacks the structural whole of songs of the early Mega Man games (since MEga Man 9 music appears to be a frankenstien piece by piece creations from disembodied previous Mega Man songs.)
To illustrate the frankenstien nature of the Mega Man 9 songs, look at Concrete Man’s stage. The beginning is obviously Wood Man’s music.
Wood Man
Concrete Man
“But Malstrom! Only the beginning has Wood Man theme! Not the rest of the song!” You’re right. It is because the rest of the song sounds like a rip from a NES Wily stage with another song mixed in (Is that Skull Man that appears right in the middle?). This is why the Mega Man 9 music doesn’t really ‘flow’ as a whole unlike the earlier Mega Man games. People instantly recognize the Wood Man music at the beginning of Concrete Man’s stage but mistake it as a nod to the classic. They aren’t hearing the rest of the song are bits and parts from other songs as well. This might be because Mega Man 4, whose music is grossly underrated, isn’t as recognizable since the game wasn’t as intense as the earlier three but also the charged mega buster covered up many of the details. Songs like Tornado Man sound so ‘whole’ and great because it isn’t a frankenstein song. I suspect the music from the Gameboy Mega Mans were also mixed into the Mega Man 9 music.
Now listening to the music of the early Mega Mans, I find 9 to be totally outclassed. Maybe it is because all I hear in 9 is constant frankenstiens. 9 even uplifts some songs entirely like the options music from Mega Man 2. Why should we be surprised that music has been sliced and diced and stringed together to make Mega Man 9 music?
So the music is one of my big problems. It sounds good at first, but over repeated listening… ugghhh.
The other major problem is the instant kill stages. This sort of stuff is reserved more for the Wily stages. I wondered if the earlier Mega Man games did this.
Let’s find out!
Concrete Man – Instant Hole Death
Jewel Man – Instant Spike Death
Hornet Man – Instant Spike Death
Tornado Man – Instant Hole Death
Plug Man – Instant Hole Death
Galaxy Man – Instant Spike Death (even though it is pretty easy)
Magma Man – Instant Lava Death
Splash Woman – Instant Spike Death
Hmm, could there be a pattern here? Every stage is filled with instant death except for Concrete Man which has elephants (but those things that jump out of the holes create instant hole deaths). And that is something else I noticed. In earlier Mega Man games, you fought enemies more. In 9, there are tons of instant deaths like all the robot masters have bizarro Wily stages. There was like no real enemies to shoot in Tornado Man. To cover this, there are ‘mini-bosses’ which make their appearance in areas full of instant kills such as Magma Man (dragon), Jewel Man (rock thingy), and Hornet Man (clock flower). It feels as if these mini-bosses were ways to cover for the lack of enemies to fight in various stages. And WTF is with those elephants in Concrete Man’s stage?
I have all these cool weapons but very little enemies to fire them on! The few enemies that do appear are to knock you off into the instant kill areas.
Here is how it was for Mega Man 2:
Bubble Man – Instant Spike Death
Wood Man – None
Air Man – Instant Hole Death
Flash Man – None
Quick Man – Instant Laser Death
Metal Man – None (conveyer belt jumps were only a very small part)
Heat Man – Instant Lava Death
Crash Man – None
Ironically, the stages players complain about the most of Mega Man 2 were those that had instant kill stages.
Let’s look at Mega Man 3
Spark Man – Instant Spike and Hole Death
Magnet Man – Instant Hole Death
Hard Man – None
Gemini Man – None
Snake Man – Instant Hole Death (at the end)
Needle Man – None (only two jumps)
Top Man – Instant Spike and Hole Death
Shadow Man – Instant Hole Death
What about Mega Man 1?
Cut Man – None (one room with spikes doesn’t count)
Guts Man – Instant Kill Holes and Spikes
Bombs Man – Iffy (only one place where it tries to hit the player into spikes)
Ice Man – Instant Kill Holes
Fire Man – Instant Kill Lava
Elec Man – None
And the areas of instant kills didn’t rely on cheapness as Mega Man 9 heavily does (such as intentionally placing enemies to knock the player back onto spikes. The appearing and disapearing blocks occurred over solid land in Mega Man 1. In Mega Man 2, the appearing and disapearing blocks appeared in Heat Man’s stage, and they were reasonably simple. The instant spike and hole death of the older games really came in the Wily stages (where they belonged obviously).
“zOMG, Malstrom can’t handle the difficulty of Mega Man 9! LOLLERSKATES!” might be the reaction to someone questioning the decision for consistent instant kills across the entire game. But I’ve already finished the game, and I’ve been replaying it. While setting up a stage where one can only make it with a jump at the precise moment and precise angle might be fun the first time. But over repeated plays, it gets tiresome and annoying. Take Plug Man’s stage. Repeated replays are annoying because if you are off a quarter second, bammo! Death to you!
Is this good design?
“Yes, Malstrom! It is teh Hardcore! LOL!” some might say. But the reason why I think we can conclude it is bad design is because of the total lack of enemies. Mega Man has a health bar for a reason. Many older stages were designed around no holes or spikes at all. The player would just be destroyed by all the enemies in that stage. But there is none of that in Mega Man 9. There are mini-bosses that cause absurd damage but that illustrates the problem, not solving it. When one can have infinite energy tanks, there can be no difficulty in making stages around enemies. So, instead, they designed stages around instant death.
I would like at least one stage that didn’t have instant hole death or instant spike death. Just one. The early Mega Man games gave us several. But Mega Man 9 couldn’t even make one. I consider it a red flag.
Comparing Mega Man 9 to Mega Man 2 or 3 is unfair as 2 and 3 are some of the best NES games of all time. Mega Man 9 is good. It just will never be up to those two due mostly to the wild inconsistency in the difficulty and the over-reliance of instant kills.
What is most disapointing, to me, about Mega Man 9 are the Wily stages. They are easier than the robot master stages. The music is a far let down (and Wily 2 music isn’t as good as people think compared to the classics).
But let me ask you this: are there ANY memorable bosses in Wily’s castle? In Mega Man 1, you had Yellow Devil (and the clone, or did the clone come in a later Mega Man game?). In Mega Man 2, you had the giant mechanical dragon that scared the #$^$%&$ out of you. In Mega Man 3, you had the Gutsmobile. Even the final boss fights were interesting. Mega Man 2 had the ‘alien’. Mega Man 3 had Gamma who tried to grab you with giant hands that came from off screen.
The final boss of Mega Man 9 is very much like the final boss of Mega Man 7 including the weapon projectiles. People have shouted in ‘horror’ and ‘glee’ about the Wily 3 boss of the blobby Yellow Devils, but are blobs really that memorable? The boss was more annoying than anything. Yellow Devil was actually fun. Wily 2 boss was just a pain with the three parts. I liked the final part of that battle, but the boss was entirely forgetable. The Wily 1 boss was one of the worst Wily bosses I can think of (ok, that Mega Man 8 ‘super ball’ Wily boss was worse). None of the bosses are memorable. And none of the boss fights are fun.
This points to me that Mega Man 9 developers couldn’t really get the arcade elements all correct. However the loop began, I do not know:
Solution: Shop (spike shoes, energy tanks, etc.) was created to fix the inherent problems in the gameplay -> Problem: Players could run around with infinite energy tanks -> Solution: Instant kill stages -> Problem: Stages feel empty and require more than one shot enemies whose purpose is to knock player into hole/spikes -> Solution: Few enemies with extroardinary power, including minibosses -> Problem: Without the right weapon or perfect playing, it is practically impossible to get through such enemies. -> Solution: Shop where people can buy infinite energy tanks -> And so on and on as it loops.
On a more humerous note, has anyone noticed the odd weapon names? Granted, I may have sick thoughts, but the Mega Man 9 weapons sound like sexual devices:
Black Hole Bomb (which is fitting how well it works on Jewel Man)
Plug Ball (obvious what you would use a plug ball for)
Tornado Blow (with a weapon like that, no wonder Tornado Man is weak to plugs)
Hornet Chaser (horny chaser?)
Jewel Satellite (family jewels?)
Concrete Shot
Magma Bazooka
Laser Trident
I can’t come up with anything crazy for the last three. But knowing how strange game developers are and how they tend to do things like this, I do wonder if they were deliberately being naughty with those weapon names. They may not, but they do sound funny.
Inafune hoped Mega Man 9 would ‘beat’ the early Mega Man games. I think it has done the opposite. It will make the early Mega Man games, even Mega Man 4 and 5, appear much better since their music is whole and isn’t sliced and diced and not every stage is packed with instant death elements. The earlier games were more about fun. Mega Man 9 is fun. But it is fun in a different way. It is the fun of a shmup. I like shmup type memorization and all so Mega Man 9 fits fine in that to me. But it is alarming that Capcom went that direction.
And I miss the slide.
Malstrom's Articles News 