A new piece of DLC has been released today for Mega Man 9 called “Superhero Mode”. It only costs 80 MSP ($US1), and will make the game a lot harder to finish, as it ups the number of enemies you’ll face on-screen at any one time. For those keeping score, this isn’t the first time you’ve been able to increase the game’s difficulty via DLC.

Didn’t really think there was much of a market for people that wanted a Mega Man game to be harder, but just goes to show, when it comes to DLC, there’s a market for pretty much anything.

Pay $1 to Make Mega Man 9 Harder [IGN]

At Evo 2009, Capcom community-mans Seth Killian gets cornered about the final undiscovered secret in Mega Man 9 but vows it does indeed exist, and that it is still out there.

“People have found a ton of amazing stuff in the game that I didn’t think would have been dug up for a long time,” Killian says. But the “final secret” isn’t among that. His questioners try to coax more details out of him, but Seth doesn’t budge.

Last October, someone on the Capcom-Unity boards speculated that the last secret was a weapon, specifically a throwing weapon. S-Kill put the splat on that.

What the hell could it be? After nearly a year, we probably stand a better chance of, collectively, blindly guessing what it is rather than actually finding it. I say it’s a Ghosts N Goblins Easter egg.

EVO 2009 – Seth Killian [YouTube via GoNintendo]

Not counting his first Japan-only forays on the Famicom and Superfamicom, Astro Boy has only appeared in one PlayStation 2 game and one GameBoy Advance game. The year was 2004 and both Sonic Team and Treasure Inc. (partnered with Hitmaker) developed games based on the 2003 anime remake of the original 1960s Astro Boy cartoon. Sonic Team’s PS2 game, Astro Boy, was pretty lousy while Hitmaker/Treasure’s GBA Astro Boy: Omega Factor was one of the best things to happen to handhelds that year. Since then, we’ve got nothing but a quietly-announced, never-demoed tie-in game to the upcoming CGI Astro Boy film directed by David Bowers.

Astro Boy’s absence from video games could be due to many reasons – licensing, marketing, etc. – but two big ticket items ultimately tank any hopes of a serious Astro Boy gaming franchise: demand and need.

There’s not enough demand for Astro Boy video games in the United States because we don’t love him the way they do in Japan. The 1960s cartoon didn’t even complete its full 193-episode run in the States when it originally aired in 1963; and it took decades before Dark Horse Comics to translate and publish the manga. Poor Astro Boy just wasn’t on the radar as America’s resident robot hero.

Back in 1960s Japan, when Astro Boy was first created, there was a desperate need for heroes. World War II had been over for more than a decade, but there was a loss of hope in the country and a profound fear of technology and nuclear weapons*. Anime and manga icons like Astro Boy and Ashita no Joe restored to Japan a sense of purpose and youthful optimism they’d lost in the war. Also, science-y things like Astro Boy put a friendly, rosy-cheeked face on technology, which helped the country cope with the devastating fear inspired by the A-bomb attacks.

In short, Japan needed Astro Boy and America didn’t. Without the need for the robot boy hero, America never established a connection to Astro Boy that would inspire parents to make their children watch the 1960s cartoon. Later when the 2003 reboot of the anime series reached America, the show still couldn’t find its audience and was canceled after spawning the hideous PS2 game and the wonderful GBA game.

That’s not to say America can live without robot heroes.

We have one, in fact, and his name is Mega Man. Mega Man does most of the same stuff as Astro Boy – he even has the beam cannon on his arm – and he beat Tezuka’s beloved boy robot to the US gaming scene by a good decade or more. He may not be as fleshed-out a character as Astro Boy, because Mega Man didn’t start out with a manga or cartoon series to establish his back story. But he did have the whole filial piety thing going on with his creator, Dr. Light, which was similar to the connection Astro Boy had for his adoptive father figure, Dr. O’Shay (a.k.a. Dr. Ochanomizu, Dr. Packadermus Elefun, Professor Peabody, Jimmy Durante’s nose-twin). So what if Mega Man wasn’t about childlike wonder or youthful optimism; so what if he never did anything serious like address racism against robots. Mega Man was about kicking robot arse and Americans can totally get in on that.

So, alas, Astro Boy. We loved you in Omega Factor and we respect you as a cultural icon worthy of Mickey Mouse’s company – which is why you’re in the Robot Hall of Fame. But Mickey doesn’t have a great gaming franchise and so far, you don’t either. Maybe your upcoming tie-in movie game on PS2, Wii, PSP and DS will be good. Heck, maybe the film itself will be awesome. But in the meantime, we’ll be sticking with Mega Man 9.

*The Films of Akira Kurosawa, Donald Richie

This Mega Man 9 fan tribute is a real work of art. Paper cut-outs are stop-motioned across real world objects arranged to form Mega Man-esque levels.

Actually, watching it back again it reminds me of a particularly creative LittleBigPlanet creation. The Oreo Cookie ‘boss battle’ is genius. Maybe this would be a good start point for Mega Man 10?

Mega Man 9 – Rockin’ in Paper! [Snow's Capcom Blog - thanks to Kyle Morse for the tip]

The other two packs are for the hardcore Mega Man 9 player, with Hard Mode kicking asses and Expert Mode crawling up inside and kicking intestines. I sure paint a pretty picture, don’t I? check it for yourself right… here;

Hey Mega Man junkies,

We're proud to announce that the second of Downloadable Content packs for Mega Man 9 will be available this week. Here's the run down on what's coming out.

Hard Mode - Dubbed Hero Mode in Japan, this mode enables you to play the entire game on an increased difficulty level with alternate enemy distribution and spawning points. Hard Mode is not compatible with Rankings or Challenges Modes.

Expert Mode - Dubbed Super Hero Mode Japan, this mode represents the apex of Mega Man 9 difficulty settings and is not for the novice Mega Man 9 player. This mode triples the level of difficulty from the default Mega Man 9 game. Expert Mode is not compatible with Rankings or Challenges Modes.

Special Time Attack Stage - This DLC gives you an additional stage for Time Attack Mode, complete with an all new level and Robot Master Boss, "Fake Man." Similar in difficulty to the Willy Stages, players will have a fun time tackling this time sensitive competitive stage. Special Time Attack Stage is not compatible with Challenge Mode.

All three DLC packs are available now on WiiWare Channel today (October 20 th, 2008) with XBLA following on October 21 th, and PSN releasing October 23 th.

Economic meltdown? Pah! As long as there is quality games swag floating abut you can be sure that someone is going to find some ready cash in order to indulge themselves.

Of course, in these difficult times, highly covetable promotional tat is likely to be the most solid investment around. Gold is just a shiny metal, after all – this thing comes in a box shaped like a NES cart.

Beat that, gold. Stupid gold.

Limited Edition Mega Man 9 Launch Pack and T -Shirt XL [eBay via Capcom-Unity]

The DLC packs are available today on the Wii, with the 360 getting it tomorrow and PlayStation 3 on Thursday, as per usual. While the other two consoles wait, here’s a look at what Wii owners are doing right now.

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. Sounds like good enough news to me, considering it doesn’t include any PS3 or 360 sales, but it ain’t true, says Capcom.

Capcom “Cautiously Optimistic” with Mega Man 9 Sales So Far [Nintendo Everything]

“Why make a game so hard that only the most skilled and determined players can complete it?” asks Brophy-Warren, who then proves the appeal of just such a game. “What makes games such as Bangai-O [Spirits] appealing is that glimmer of joy a player gets from even the smallest achievements. (I only squeaked through the tutorial for Bangai-O, so even mastering the accuracy aspect of the game was an accomplishment for me.)”

The writer talks to Treasure, which developed Bangai-O Spirits, and Capcom’s Hironobu Takeshita, and also Jesper Juul, a video game researcher at MIT. “”It’s about the feeling of inadequacy,” he says. “You get stuck somewhere and feel stupid.” That can lead to a sense of triumph if one does eventually succeed.”

Hard to Handle [The Wall Street Journal]