We used Concrete Man and Splash Woman's powers constantly to blast through generic enemies with ease, but if you're looking to speed run the game, or collect everything in each stage, it'll take a mastery of all the different weapons and uses. Some of the weaponry in the game can be a bit repetitive, since you've got Jewel Man's attack that is nearly identical to Mega Man 2's Wood Man, and the trident shot and magma bazooka are just classic forward-firing and three-shot spread designs, but they all work well together, too. It could take players hours to beat the game on the first run, but master the enemy spawns, and you'll be speed running it in 45 minutes or less consistently. The levels are diverse and innovative even when looking at everything the Blue Bomber has done in his first eight titles, the master robots are well crafted and balanced well, and the learning curve is again very high. And while a trip down memory lane is a nice little nod to the fans, what hardcore gamers really wanted with Mega Man 9 was a true return of that tough-as-nails traditional play we got from games like Mega Man 2.

Enemy animations are a few frames at best, jump and fall physics are emulated perfectly from older titles, and spawns will reset when off stage. Should you have the classic options turned on (default from the beginning), things like sprite pop-in will still show up, but more than that it's the return to classic tech limitations that makes Mega Man feel truly 'retro' in both look and feel. There's a classically done intro, complete with ridiculous pixel art to tell the story, text that wraps incorrectly from screen to screen, and an interface that's mainly made up of two colors and really simple lists of options and modes. On the presentation side of things, you're going to get exactly what you expected with Mega Man 9. Mega Man 9 will send you on a trip down memory lane, but it's also one of the best of the traditional set, rivaling Mega Man 2 in many respects.

The development team went all out in making Mega Man 9 look, act, and truly feel like a classic game, adding in extras like downloadable content, a ranking system for time trials, and achievement-like challenges into the mix. Rather than taking the route of something like Bionic Commando: Rearmed, Capcom's Blue Bomber is making his return in the same way he kicked things off back on NES: 2D, and hard as hell.

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