@Nobodyman:
I'm curious; what platform did you guys play the game on? Playstation? Xbox? PC? Because I somehow doubt it was the Wii U version.
I’ve played the PS3 version; theres been some occasional frame-skipping when transitioning between screens, but otherwise I’ve reached the final stage without any performance/technical trouble. Reggarding level design, difficulty, movement mechanics and such, its all subjective and I can’t attest to your gaming experience, but I didn’t mind it at all.@Nobodyman:
There are way too many instant death traps in this game. And yes, I know instant death pits are a part of the Mega Man formula, but in previous games they always felt more fair about it. In this game you can't go one stage without running into some insane instant death trap that requires incredibly precise movement and/or luck. And then when you restart the last check point, almost as if to spite you, you'll eventually get some stupid support robot that'll give you an attack, defense, and/or health boost, which of course does nothing for the fact that you keep dying to an instant death trap.
The game does seem to have a ton of spike traps, but the only really bad ones I can think of were in Calls stage and the robot factory. The one in the power plant didn’t bother me; I’d crouch dashed before, and my version of the game actually warned me before the trap. Playing with the classic 2 lives of Mega Man I got lucky quite often with extra lives from the support bots, but still had to replay the Robot Factory several times, and I will say that the stages seemed longer than normal, making repeated playthroughs a bit more taxing…but even then, its still only a few minutes. Theres stuff in Shovel Knight I spent much longer at.@Nobodyman:
Selecting Your Powers: Wow! It's almost the game designers don't want you to use the boss powers. So first you have to select which power you want to use from a menu using L and ZL, and then you have to actually change into that form by pressing X. I mean, really? Can't I just cycle through the forms instantaneously with just one button? Keep in mind, you have to do this in the heat of action. You can't even pause the game and select the power from the pause menu
I agree. This is a real annoyance, but assigning quick-select forms helps a lot. Near the end I got into a bit of a groove, and would swap between Commando Man (this games metal blade), Cut Man and Gyro Man on the fly. I liked that there were small segments where you had to use your powers to proceed (MM doesn’t always do that) but the game could’ve used a lot more@Nobodyman:
And I'm not sure the game designers really knew at what pace this game should be played. They give you this cool dash mechanic that lets you go faster, but then the game seems to punish you for using it by leading you into instant death traps that you could never see coming (kind of like playing a Sonic game).
As someone who doesn’t care for Sonics brand of platforming at all, I don’t think the comparison is fair. In MN9 the dash mechanic works in short bursts, and only at your command. You have total control, and the levels aren’t designed with a requirement of relentless speed. But, like Robby said, once you’ve familiarized yourself with the stage layout, its perfect for speedrunning. In contrast in Sonic, merely moving will build up speed, and theres slopes, boost pads and loop de loops to get you to MOVE FASTER and FUCKING HELL THE BOOST PAD SHOT ME INTO AN ENEMY THAT I COULDN’T REACT TO, GODDAMN. MN9 is like Crash Bandicoot time trials: you can push yourself to go fast, if you want. Sonic is poking you with a stick, when its not actively shoving you forward.@Nobodyman:
What really bugged me was just how frustratingly difficult and unfair the game was. And maybe it's just a case of "git good", but frankly I don't really want to "git good" at it. Sure, I guess if I fought Mighty No. 1 enough times, I could figure out his patterns and determine when he's going to use that stupidly unfair instant death attack (and when I get a game over I'll inevitably have to do his stupid level over again). But, honestly, all I was thinking about while fighting was how I just wanted to beat and finally be done with him and his stupid level forever.
There were a few times where I was cursing madly at the game; Fire Man, Gyro Man, and Robot factory death spikes. But no worse than I’ve yelled at older MM games (nothing in MN9 compares to MM7’s final boss, for instance), and like old MM games, the same thing happened: suddenly I figured out the tells for Fire Mans 3 attacks, I could respond to them, I beat him handily, and it felt good. Suddenly I figured out how to angle my sniper shots at Gyro Man, and beat him handily. And when I finally get through the robot factory after 30 minutes of attempts, I do feel triumphant. MM to me has always been about learning the stages and bosses until you whoop their asses, and since the stages are so short, it works. I’m the type of nutjob that f I beat a MM boss on my first attempt, without using his weakness, I’m almost disappointed.Another thing I like is the games approach to fighting the Robot Masters; I really dig that you’re actually saving your corrupted friends, instead of just exploding them. I know MM9 and 10 show the robot masters as alive during the credits, but aside from Powered Up this does a far better job of selling Mega Man as supposedly pacifist. And then the Mighty Numbers help you out afterwards! Its superficial, I know, but I still liked the whole sentiment of it. It makes it feel like you’re a family, that saving them mattered. Their designs were hardly original, but their fights were decently executed; Brandish’ super move is bullshit and I never understood how to remove Dynas barrier without using her weakness (I don’t think you can?), but Seismic is a ton more interesting to fight than either Guts, Drill or Ground man.