Mega Man 9

Mega Man 9 has been described as an action and platform game, in which the player controls the titular character and must complete a number of 2D side-scrolling stages. The start of the game presents a select screen of eight stages from which the player can choose to complete in any order desired. Within each stage, the player advances by running, jumping, avoiding traps, shooting enemies and mini-bosses, and ultimately battling the Robot Master boss at the end. Mega Man begins with a "Mega Buster" arm-cannon weapon, but as each boss is defeated, a unique weapon is added to his arsenal.

Because each Robot Master is weak to a specific weapon, the player may strategize the order in which the stages are cleared. The player also begins the game with the option to call on Mega Man's dog Rush, who can transform into a "Coil" springboard for jumping higher or a "Jet" for traversing long distances in the air. Mega Man's health, his special weapons, and his Rush options are all limited by energy gauges that can be refilled by picking up items found throughout each level. Special screws can also be picked up and used to buy items at Auto's shop between stages.

Like previous entries in the series, the fictional events of Mega Man 9 take place during the 21st century ("20XX"). Dr. Light, the creator of the world's greatest android hero Mega Man, is blamed when several old and outdated models of "Robot Masters" he created suddenly go on a destructive rampage. Mega Man's nemesis Dr.

Wily has no apparent connection to it. After showing a news video of Light declaring planetary domination and Wily refusing to follow him as evidence, Wily announces that he needs monetary donations to his bank account to complete the robots he built to combat those of Dr. Light. Worried about the situation and suspicious of Dr.

Mega Man 9 was co-developed by Capcom and Inti Creates. The latter company had developed the Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX spin-off series and employs many former Capcom members who worked on previous Mega Man games. The first six games in the original Mega Man series were created for the NES during the late 1980s and early 1990s. A plethora of spin-off series, related games, and compilations were published by Capcom as a result of the original series' immense popularity.

The most recent entries in the main series, Mega Man 8 and Mega Man & Bass, were first released on more advanced home consoles in 1996 and 1998 respectively. Keiji Inafune, a designer, artist, and producer at Capcom, has been involved in most of franchise's development. As early as 2004, Inafune, credited as "Inafking", publicly expressed his desire to make a Mega Man 9 as a "throwback to the super old school", but that its creation would highly depend on the input of fans. According to Inafune, the simple fun of a classic Mega Man game "doesn't fit into the grandiose and expansive world that the consumer gaming industry has become, and so you have to make games that match the current expectations".

Mega Man 9 has received mostly positive reviews from gaming magazines and websites. The Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 versions of the game currently hold aggregate percentages of 83, 82, and 77 respectively on Metacritic. com gave the game a B+, praising its old-school aesthetic and challenge. 6/10, awarded it with an "Editor's Choice" award across all platforms, and praised it for "having some of the best level design in the series".

The Official Nintendo Magazine gave the game 90% noting that "it will keep you busy for hours" and "screams retro". It did mark it down because "it might be too frustrating". However, Edge gave the game a score of six out of ten. The magazine responded positively to the game's enemy design, though criticized the game for trying to fit into the "retro cool category" and being not as good as the previous games.