Mega Man 9

Developer: Inti Creates
Publisher: Capcom
Release Date: Oct. 1, 2008
Systems: Xbox 360 (reviewed), PS3, Wii
ESRB Rating: E
Official Web site (Japanese)

In a nutshell: Busting it old school
0:00 I've been looking forward to this one ever since I heard it was being done in the old NES style of simple gameplay and graphics. I loved Mega Man 2 and 3 decades ago, and Mega Man X and Mega Man Powered Up later. I'm not a total obsessive or anything, though.

0:01 Dr. Wily on his hands and knees, in pixilated black and white: "I'm so sorry. Please forgive me!" The year 20XX, and the world breathes "a collective sigh of relief" now that Mega Man (MM) has defeated Dr. Wily ... yet again. "But then..." The background turns red and explosions rock the city. Robots are running amok! In Dr. Light's house, MM and Light watch the news. Dr. Wily comes on TV: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is not my doing." He blames Dr. Light, who designed the robots and, Wily alleges, has had evil designs all the time. He has video of Dr. Light telling Dr. Wily that it's "time to take over the world," with Wily resisting. I don't believe anything unless I see it on YouTube...

0:03 Wily has a Swiss bank account set up to take donations to help stop Dr. Light. Light's phone is ringing off the hook with people complaining. What are we gonna do? "For starters, I'm going to do something about those robots!" says MM. "You haven't done this in a while," says Dr. Light with a sly wink to the player.

0:04 On to the title screen. I'm absolutely LOVING the retro action music. The full-screen, low-color pixel graphics look surprisingly good, even so many years after they were state-of-the-art.

0:05 Seeing messages like "Leaderboards" and "Achievements" and "Return to Xbox Live" in the decidedly 8-bit menu is a bit disconcerting.

Read the full review at Crispy Gamer