It really is HARD. I think...

Sometimes it's hard to tell how much of that is just because we don't play a lot of challenging 2D platformers.

One thing's for sure: I will be super proud when I finally beat it.

eponym

Allow me to play the part of the extreeeemely annoying fanboy right now, and yell:

"WHY U PUT MEGAMAN X IN NEWS PICTURE WHEN IT'S CLEEEEEEEARLY ABOUT MEGAMAN THE ORIGINAL SERIES?"

Ashurahori

@Vau: Th thing is, it's not really difficult, you only have a couple of actions the MM can do. It's just more complex. There's a certain way you have to get past certain parts. It's not as run n' gun like today's gamers are used to.

You Are My Friend!

That's a Mega Man X picture btw... One series that's not being showed any love lately =(

Zeag

Just downloaded it earlier today, so far I love it, yep it's not as easy as today's games, but that's kinda the point, I love it because it doesn't feel like it's being cheap. Best 10 bucks I've wasted in a while. I'm glad it's selling well.

chemical_eng_mx

@Vau: Loved it BECAUSE of the difficulty. Strange, I finished it in a single day easily, yet I can't pass level 5 of Ninja Gaiden.

Ashurahori

I'd LOVE to get into this Megaman release.... But with every other I've tried to play, I just end up relentlessly pissed off after every playthrough and a "broken" controller inside my wall. The games always look so fun to play and awesome, but I just suck at it....

Tehman

@ModernGamer:

Saw a youtube vid of a speed run of all things and went, "Nope, never even tempting a download." Christ, people are masochists sometimes.

Vau

@Vau: Play "I Wanna be the Guy", then we'll talk retarded.

ModernGamer

@Vau: i took it as a challenge. ;)

bialia

"...VGChartz seems to be the source..."

^Says it all.

Highbrace

Anyone else put off by it's retarded difficulty? My eyes have not held to a game this arcade hard for a long time.

Vau

I love this game. That said, the game is really hard, harder than Mega Man 2 on difficult and 3 put together.

I hope more people rise to the challenge and buy this game, because that just means more awesome downloadable games from capcom, like Bionic Commando ReArmed.

Did anyone look at that list of challenges? They're ridiculous! Fight a boss for ten minutes? Beat the game without taking damage? WTF?

banana_ridah

I thought it was a pretty crappy demo, I like old games being remade and made to feel like the old games, but this thing feels like it's been sitting on a shelf for 15 years. terrible.

Murdoc

I was considering getting it but I got Sin and Punishment instead.

ZinkO: preferred the old theme AND comment system

@Ueziel:

I think people aren't used to the simple patterns anymore. Especially now since enemy AI is a lot better than it was in 1988.

akumaserge

@ToodlesDC: You don't actually get to fight him in the demo.

daizyujin

@akumaserge: I'm not really sure what it is about the elephants that kills people so quickly. Maybe it's just my experience of having played all of the MM games as they came out but it was really obvious to me that you just hang on the ladder and shoot the first one, stand close so the ball from the second one bounces over you and then you jump it as it comes back and then the third one, you just stand on the middle platform, jump the ball as it comes at you and fire, walk against the suction, jump the ball and repeat.

Ueziel

@Vau:

It really isn't that hard at all. You just gotta play it for a little to get used to where all the platforms/traps/enemies etc are.

jello44

@ToodlesDC:
Those elephants huh?

akumaserge

I'll end up buying it....once I actually beat Cement on the demo. I haven't even GOTTEN to the end of the demo yet, so its safe to say MM9 is kicking my tail.

ToodlesDC

I think Jeff Gerstmann's video of him playing Megaman 9 says it all for me;
[www.giantbomb.com]

DukeOfPwn

People actually go by VGChartz figures?

beem

Why a picture of X for a story about original Megaman? Silly Kotaku.

Sam Smith

@Ueziel: If you don't mind taking a little damage, you can just bum rush the second and third elephant and shoot it like crazy.

Wolfers

It's certainly tougher than any Mega Man game I've ever played, but it's no different than a lot of old platformers. Hard at first, but once you've got the levels down, it's like clockwork.

Wolfers

@Ueziel:

I just run and charge them and shoot like crazy and they die.

Firemane

@ZinkO: preferred the old theme AND comment system: Same thing ;)

Ganji

To show my Capcom love I bought the game on XBLA and PSN..they better reward me with more games like this.

parad0x360

@mrantimatter:

Megaman 7 was my favorite!

That being said, where the hell is Forte?

Mact

@Liraco:

That makes no sense. Why downplay it?

They've already said that if this sells well, they'd love to make a sequel. They said that before it was released.

By the way, if the 'X' stands for '10', why was the sequel 'X2'? Wouldn't that be 12?

Mact

I still would have liked to see it with old school gameplay, but higher ez sprites. Like MM7, except even cleaner and more detailed.

Making it look NES like doesn't add anything, it just appeals to nostalgia.

I mean, just look at BC:rearmed. Plays oldschool, but looks newschool.

mrantimatter

@Zeag:

I loved the first two games of the X series. The third was the Mega Man 5 of that series to me, which meant that I found it ridiculously difficult for some reason.

All digressing aside, Mega Man X deserves to not be shown love.

The only reason that series existed is to allow the fans to gradually accept Zero, who was supposed to be the main character anyway, so that he could get his own series. Since Zero was playable in the third game, this was clearly accomplished, so the series had served its purpose. BUT IT DIDN'T DIE!

So, yes. The middle child of the franchise deserves to be neglected.

Mact

The sales figure is incorrect, it actually came closer to...

*places pinky to lip*

...one miillion downloads.

In all seriousness, I'm sure they just want to downplay this so as to not generate expectation for a sequel and see if its success is short-lived or endures.

What would they call it though, Megaman 10? I thought that's what the X stood for, right Square?

Liraco

I tried the demo. It was okay, definately retro megaman and all. I got a chuckle as the game threw cheapshot stuff at me and it was like the old NES days all over again.

Except i really wasnt interested in playing some old mm9 game with the cheapshot enemy placement and all. It was kinda like "haha, thats my megaman! But no way in hell am i paying for this"

To be fair, it wasnt just the challange factor. Honestly I like the X series character better and i was kinda turned off by how blurry the screen was. I mean okay yeah, its supposed to be 8bit. But that dosnt mean you cant have 8bit and not have clarity at the same time. No need to make it look like its stretched out on some NES emu upscaler.

Murrytmds

@eelmonger: Exactly, its hard, but in a good way. This isn't a game that you can blow through perfectly without dying. You WILL die. Maybe some people just can't handle that. One thing that makes it much easier is that you can stockpile E-tanks and screws as you go, even if you lose all your men on one stage (damn you Plug Man!)

StrikerGold

Maybe it's just cause I grew up playing Mega Man games, but I don't really find it that hard. Basically, you play each stage, using up all your lives, 2-3 times, getting further and learning the patterns and strategies and then you can breeze through without losing a life. It's not like it takes forever either, even with all my deaths my first play through was at around 2 hours.

eelmonger

Yeah, I was kinda hyped for getting my hands on MM9 before. Then I heard they making it hard as the originals, so I actually sat down and tried playing a few of the old NES Mega Men (Mans?) and my desire to buy this game dropped like a rock. Things didn't get better once I played the MM9 trial via Arcade. It's the kind of game you have to be ready to devote some time and patience to, and regrettably these days I have little of either.

I may still end up buying MM9 because I love Capcom so much, and the game is pretty cheap. Maybe I'll have the strength of will to finish it before the end of the decade.

On the bright side though, I have started replaying the Mega Man X series from the start, which is still hard but not "I think I will cry myself to sleep tonight" hard.

Mohrdikai

@Ashurahori: Exactly what I was thinking.

At least they didnt put up some ZX crap.

Altima NEO

@Vau:

I completely agree with you, Vau.

[grumpfactory.wordpress.com]

JohnMora

@Murrytmds: To be fair, if you're playing either the 360 or PS3 version (which if you tried the demo, you did), the graphics are actually smoothed out a bit. Apparently that was the extent of "prettying up" the game. The Wii version actually looks much sharper with its NES style jaggy outlines.

And really, none of the games ever had cheapshot enemies. They had patterns that could be easily figured out just by looking at the situation. Usually when someone calls the older MM games cheapshot, they just didn't have the reflexes to deal with something if they jumped into it without thinking.

Really though, I'd say it's your loss.

Ueziel

@Highbrace: Yeah, you'd think they'd learn their lesson after the CAG debacle

Spoit

@Ganji: Wait, no. You got what you deserved. That's more like it.

Ganji

@Mact: Zero was originally intended to be X, if I recall. They didn't like the radical design change so much, so we got the X we got now.

Even MOREso, Zero was supposed to not even show up in ANYTHING past X1, but severe fan demand lead to him coming back for more. Even when Inafune said "No more after X5", they kept running it into the ground.

Lyrai

VGChartz .. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...

KSPRAYDAD

@Ueziel: Oh, there's totally cheapshot enemies! Stupid extra lives shooting at me. :(

NinjaMarion

@Altima NEO: ...I was being sarcastic...

Ashurahori

@beem: Some people unfortunately do - I still see them regularly quoted both here and in other public forums.

Which is ridiculous, considering the guy who runs the site has admitted flat-out that he basically pulls his numbers out of his ass. They're "estimates" until he gets harder numbers. "Estimates" = guesses. He says his "estimates" are based on "years of experience" and "samples" of similar past games in similar situations, but they are no more accurate than any number you or me could throw out there.

badasscat

@Murrytmds: Actually, there's really only one cheapshot moment that I remember, and that's in the semifinal Wily level. There's an enemy there that's unavoidable the first time unless you're lucky, and is pretty much instant-death. Once you know it's there, it's still tough to avoid.

The rest of the game, good reflexes and forward-thinking WILL actually see you through all the levels. Trust me: It worked for me.

MrPerson

@Vau: I'm really not into "hard" games nowadays. Once in a while I'll pop in a Ninja Gaiden or whatever, but usually I'm turned off by difficult games. That being said: MM9 is one of the best games I've played this year so far.

It's hard. It's damn hard. But it's not frustratingly hard. As long as you don't expect to get through a level on your first try, anyway. And some of the ludicrously unfair traps in these levels will just make you laugh out loud. It's just such a great game.

dowingba

"For the record, VGChartz seems to be the source of the 140,000 figure, which it says would make Mega Man 9 No. 3 for lifetime sales and revenue on WiiWare."

I always just assumed that if you sorted the WiiWare list by popularity, the highest selling game would be at the top. Mega Man 9 was already up there when I bought it, so I assumed it had just outsold all others already. I must be wrong.

Correct me!

NeoStarr

@dowingba: "And some of the ludicrously unfair traps in these levels will just make you laugh out loud."

So full of truth. Finally tried the demo today and it's amazing.

"There's a certain way you have to get past certain parts. It's not as run n' gun like today's gamers are used to."

And for that, it's the first Mega Man I'd ever truly enjoyed (was too young for them during the NES era; during my teens I hated MM because my friends loved the cheesy music).

90sKid

@Mohrdikai: You know, there was a lot of hullabaloo about the difficulty, but I'm not finding it that hard. I got it when it shipped, I've had maybe 3 or 4 play sessions ranging from 30 min to an hour or two, and I've beat all 8 robot masters.

The robot masters difficulty is subsumed by the relative ease in which you can stock up on energy tanks. At that point it just makes it a matter of getting past the level puzzles. Three or four of the levels thus far have had mini bosses or jump puzzles which frustrated me for awhile, but nothing obscenely harder than anything in Megaman. I think Megaman X5 or 6 was probably a bit harder, to be honest.

ColdFury

Why must you mock us with a Mega Man X picture when this article is about Mega Man 9?

For a split second there, I was thinking they'd announced X9 or MHX2.

So cruel, Kotaku. So cruel T___T

Akisazame

There's an odd dichotomy with the modern gamer. He's used to beating whores with baseball bats and yet somehow he's too emotionally fragile to take on Splash Woman without getting his feelings hurt.

futurebiblehero

I was a fan since the first one, but I am just not in to playing this one. I tried the demo, and I am just tired of the game play. I got boared really fast playing MM:Powered up as well.

lunarcore

@Murrytmds: I'm playing the 360 version and it... looks like an 8-bit nintendo game.

I think this proves that for every game, there will be a person bitching about the graphics. Even a purely retro 8-bit fest like Mega Man 9.

ColdFury

I had a Master System as a kid, so I never got to play the MM games until I was a teenager, and I've played some of them again now that I'm an adult. And while I've tried to like them, I just can't. The ludicrous difficulty is just extremely rage-inducing, and it makes me want to do violent things to my controller >:(

Combichristoffersen

@Vau: I personally think Mega Man 9 is much more difficult than the other NES games with the exception of the first one. I've played Mega Man for years and I play the Anniversary Collection probably once a month just for fun.

MM9 is just not fun. To pinpoint a single reason, I believe it is because the level designers of MM9 seemed to treat most stages like Wily Castles. I say "most" because the stages are very unbalanced. Concrete Man and Splash Woman were pretty simple, but Tornado Man is off the charts. Even when I figure out a stage, I still can't faithfully reproduce my actions the next time. When I make it through, it feels more like luck than skill. That's the fundamental problem with this installment. I don't feel any sense of accomplishment when I get through a challenge here, I feel lucky that the moon and the stars aligned properly and allowed me to pass.

Somewhere along the line, Inti Creates became obsessed with the difficulty of the game and it was to its detriment, I feel. The same disastrous obsession is what gave us X6 and X7 and while MM9 never gets to that level, the thought has crossed my mind that if it were released in 1995, we'd treat it as the odd man out.

Kyouryuu

I won't buy a game that makes hard levels DLC.

arstal

This game brings out the sadomasochist in me. It's been a very, VERY long time since I've enjoyed being frustrated by a game. It doesn't help that I've never really played Megaman games until recently.

paulrenzo

I enjoy MM9 a lot so far. I haven't beaten it yet. All the bosses are gone.. I'm just afraid of going after the end and failing. That and you can't save during the Wily stages and my girlfriend always seems to come home or want to do something right then.

serotoninzero

@Vau: I agree. This game's like, Super Metroid hard...

they don't make 'em like they used to, eh?

oh, wait. perhaps they do.

MasterYong

@Vau: I'm going to play Devil's Advocate here...

This game isn't that hard. Sure, it's sometimes difficult and there are certainly some dick moves (there's a really big one in one of the Wily stages that had me cursing for about 30 minutes), but seriously...go play either of the first two Megaman games. They're MUCH harder.

Sensai

What the heck is wrong with people? This game is too hard? And I saw someone up there say Super Metroid was hard, I hope that was sarcasm...

Seriously, this game is no more difficult than some of the hard-to-pull-off maneuvers of Super Mario 64, you just aren't used to challenge in 2D games, maybe. Give it more than 2 play-throughs of a level and maybe you'll get the hang of it.

MasaMuneCyrus

@ColdFury: Yep. Its not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. N+, in some ways, is a much harder game.

Not to toot my own horn. I just think many gamers just don't actually want challenging games, or forgot how tricky the originals were.

Tubatic

@90sKid: Cheesy music?? Yarrrr. I'm going to go cry myself to sleep now.

Petezah

I bought it the first day. It's still awesome.

supercrap

@MasaMuneCyrus:

Meh, we just live in a time where games cater to people with TINY attention spans. Hell, I went through Force Unleashed on the highest difficulty and didn't die once, yet I've died a few times on MM9.

Megaman 9 isn't too hard. Games today are TOO EASY.

Raidei

@undefined:
You're right though, it's not Rockman, it's X. Two Completely different characters.

juma

Personally I thought it was horrible. Fired up the demo, died almost immediately within seconds in a shitty cheap not-fun kind of way, repeated twice, and was booted out to the dashboard. Top work convincing me to part with 800 MP guys!

I like the X series on PSP better, if I'm being honest. But I've always found the Mega Man games to be over-rated and far too difficult. I guess gamers in the US had more of a love affair with the NES / SNES than we did on this side of the Atlantic.

kiigan

It felt like a parody. No charge shot, no slide? It played like an obstacle course, not a Megaman game.

justhesh

I find it quite amusing that people who constantly whine about casual games don't seem to be able to handle a hardcore challenge. Sure the game is quite hard, but it was never cheap. Quickmans stage in MM2 is cheap; but in megaman 9 you always have time to react or take it slow and plan ahead. That being said it was certaibly a challenge; a lot harder than megaman 2 which seems retardedly simple after playing megaman 9.

My first playthrough was probably around seven hours and it took several attempts to complete every stage, but those seven hours were a lot more fun the 6-8 hour handholding marathon that is most modern games

beril

@justhesh: First two had no charge shot or slide. Are those parodies? And the third only had slide and the fourth if I remember correctly still had only slide.

Pattypie

I played one and two, but even compared to those nine is fucking ridiculous when it comes to difficulty.

Thorax

I just beat the 8 robots. The game is pretty challenging.

I hope if Capcom decides to make another sequel that they understand that the reason MM9 got as many downloads as it did was because of the nostalgia factor. And they can't keep relying on that. They'll need to update the graphics and add moves like slide and such.

I really wish Capcom would make a MegaMan Legends game for the 360/PS3.

kojirodensetsu

@kojirodensetsu:

Or maybe people like Mega Man in general? I'm pretty sure Capcom knows MM well enough to know what sells and what doesn't. Updating it just makes another X series and adding more moves takes it further away from the reason people love the series so much.

Thunder-1

I agree that it seems oddly hard.. Either I'm not use to 2d side scrolling anymore or they upped the skill level a lot!

If they had more checkpoints I would be happy but playing for a while then getting hit by one of the many one hit death things in the game that pop out just as you come up to them or jump over them and having to start wayyy back in the level will drive you nuts..

And I liked the other MM games.

Dr.H

/reads comments...

Bah, kids today.

eboku

@Kyouryuu: Funny stuff there. I just started playing the levels one by one just to see them and when I got a few tries with the Concrete Man level I said - fuck this elephant, next! On the other hand Tornado Man level and the boss itseld was really easy for me. It was the first robot boss I took out.

kori23

I played the demo at a friends house with a bunch of people and we all unanimously declared it awesome. Since I don't own any currentgen systems of my own yet, I've downloaded a bunch of mega man roms to tie me over :)

h-town

@kiigan:
Yes, for some reason, the NES and SNES never were as popular here in Europe as they were in the US (in fact the Master System and the Mega Drive outsold the NES and the SNES respectively here IIRC).

Combichristoffersen

Four robot masters down in about 3 hours of game time. Taking it slow and enjoying this.

It would be great if it did get such great sales numbers, but I'm not holding my breath. If I were to rate this one, it would be smack in the middle of the others. Is it a good game? Yes. Is it the best out of the original series? Nope. The reason is because of the same cookie cutter number of stages, limited options compared to some of the others and downright cheap deaths. No wonder it took this long for another sequel: it's not innovative enough.

Don't get me wrong though, MM is one of my favorite game series. If they wanted to make one for the fans, however, they should have gotten a lot more input from them. As it stands, it's just another retro game with a new coat of paint.

(btw, I've beaten all of the original series, X, Zero and ZX games, and I love them. some of the best platforming games they are)

Furysetzer

@Dr.H: You're supposed to memorize the things that pop up out of chasms. And spikes and lava are a one-hit death in pretty much every platformer from before Mario 64.

dowingba

I bought it and love it. It is difficult as hell but it's one of the reasons I love it, will replay it for as many achievements as I can muster and am still as of today working on defeating Wily. Here's to hoping more people actually buy the game...

rocairs

@daizyujin: Oh, I was soo pissed. Finally figured out how to get past the last 2 elephants and they take you back, total bs.

Its pretty cool how you're playing Dr. Lights bosses and has a DrL sign before you hit the boss. That was pretty sweet.

Youthinized

Well, I hope sales are good enough for them to want to do another Megaman X game, but going back to the SNES type build. I spent a whole lot more time with X than with Megaman, and the more recent entries in the series were kind of lackluster.

Telecinision

@Spoit: What's CAG? That Ctrl+Alt+Gel webcomic?

90sKid

@Thunder-1: Lol wut. So you're saying MegaMan has to be in 8-bit to be successful? Lol. I'm just saying that MegaMan 9 for a lot of people makes them say "Ah yeah I remember those times." And if they keep making more MegaMan games like 9 people will stop saying that and it'll get less sells. If I had never played MegaMan before and had to pick between buying MegaMan 9 and Bionic Commando: Rearmed I'd pick Bionic Commando: Rearmed.

And I, anyways, loved the X series.

kojirodensetsu

Damn its a good game, and like Bionic Commando its a success....who'd a thunk it!

excel_excel

@Vau: I can't believe all these people complaining about Megaman 9's difficulty. Especially considering these are mainly "hardcore gamers" who have played the older games.
They must have all turned to pussies. Just because some parts won't let you suceed the first time and you can't save anywhere doesn't mean the game is "hard".

I had to hold back and stop myself from buying all the extra lives and energy tanks you can get from the store to avoid completely removing all challange from the game.

Kotakufan777

@justhesh: That's the whole idea of getting back to the series roots. Just how they decided for NES graphics although MM8 was a high resolution PS game with FMVs.

Kotakufan777

@badasscat: Actually, all services that take in sales numbers make estimates, even NPD, Famitsu, and Media Create. Hell, even the Nelson Ratings are just estimates.

samaine

@badasscat: That's distorting the facts a bit.
First of all, it is important to understand that the methods used by vgchartz are the same as agencies like NPD. Yet because NPD charges for it's data, and they certainly don't tell you anything about the amount of guesswork and "informed estimation" involved, people take it as an absolute authoritive fact.
Yes, NPD do have contacts with major publishers and for that reason they are probably a more reliable source.

Maybe if you're an investor you might want to have access to the most accurate sources out there, but at the end of the day, if the results are within 10-15% of the NPD numbers, that is enough for most discussions.

The funny thing is that the exact same thing happened for the Wii version of Okami. Capcom said they're way too high, but for them "way to high" was 10% more than the NPD figures that were released a few weeks later, and that's certainly not bad for a total of about 100000.

Kotakufan777

@Pattypie: I know they didn't always have them. But this is supposed to be Megaman 9, remember? Not Megaman 1.2. These are basic, and even iconic features of Megaman games (charge shot), and this game doesn't have them. It's ridiculous.

justhesh

@ Vau - I beat it... add to that you WATCHED a speed run on youtube which SHOWS you exactly how to beat the game, and you STILL think it's too difficult? - such wusses. you guys might as well be casuals...

reasoncali

@ModernGamer: Coincidentally I mused with my roommates that the developers of MM9 were taking lessons from that game.

emorottie

Anyone from the industry out there have any clue how much NES-era games like MM9 cost to make these days?

ProdigalMoon

@kojirodensetsu: You're probably right, but I'd much rather continue playing retro games like MM9 than most 3D games today. Something about 3D modeling just makes games seem so soulless to me. And since they usually involve way too much holding forward on the joystick while you run around a world, they never seem to be as engaging in a constant action game like MM9.

ProdigalMoon

@eelmonger: That's just how it was for me. After a few run-throughs to get the patterns down, it doesn't strike me as overly hard at all. And like StrikerGold mentioned, the E-tanks more or less remove all difficulty once you get a few stockpiled. Some of these people must not have grown up playing Ninja Gaiden...

ProdigalMoon

Bahhh.. Stupid 20 comments a page limit! ANYWAYS if anyone ever gets to my coment and reads it I think the game was easy once you get the hang of it. Lots of fun.. Thanks Capcom. Picked up X Collection for 14 dollars today also looking forward to trying it never played the X Series.

xpnet

@Lyrai:

That's exactly what I said. Zero was originally supposed to be the main protagonist of the X series. It's not that the designers didn't like the radical change, they feared that the fans wouldn't.

Fans ended up liking him though, so Mr. Inafune ended up getting what he wanted in the first place.

Mact

@Zeag: Megaman Volnutt would like a friggin' word with you.

ryoshi

@undefined: Megaman Volnutt would like a friggin' word with you.

ryoshi

I beat it the day I downloaded it.

discoron77

@discoron77: Wow, thats a crapload of free time!! Cheers!

Señor Cagon

@undefined: From just playing the demo (Concrete Man lvl), I have to agree that this is the most difficult game I've played in years.

Contrary to "Kotakufan777"'s beliefs, I'm not complaining, and haven't "turned into a pussy."

avconsumer2

@Youthinized: The thing is this level is so hard at first but once you beat a boss and get his shield weapon it makes the first part of this stage rediculously easy.

daizyujin

@bialia: amen to that

alby13

DOWNLOAD THIS GAME PEOPLE D:

Shaoko