k42

Mohammed, 21, Kuwait. I play videogames regularly, I watch movies casually and I drink coffee constantly. To extend upon this, my favorite game of all time is Super Metroid, my favorite movie is 2001: A Space Odyssey (directed by Stanley Kubrick) and my favorite type of coffee is Nescafe. When I'm bored of life and games I'm usually reading in my bed, sipping through my own cup of misery. I work in a very dull environment surrounded by some very dangerous equipments that could blow the country to pieces. I dream of creating an 8-bit game with some interesting gameplay mechanics in which I already planned. But that's not gonna happen. That's why it's called a dream.

Feel free to contact me anytime regarding any subject; colorization [at] gmail [dot] com (this is to prevent spam).
Oct 05
Permalink

Mega Man 9 (Inspection)

Thank you, Capcom. Thank you very much. Sorry, but this is how I planned to start my review, butt-kissing Capcom like a madman. Every true Mega Man fan would have to agree with me on this: this is the best thing Capcom had ever done this generation. Mega Man, in my book, died right after MM4. Every other iteration in the classic series wasn’t favorable to me and I just hate them, and yes I’m looking at you feriously; sucky sucky Mega Man 8. While the X and Zero series were generally good, I couldn’t love them. A Mega Man game with a charge shot is not a Mega Man game to me, sorry. Yes, it’s a different approach to the series by adding much story and action to it (dashing and wall-grabbing) but I grew up with the blue bastard just running and shooting, maybe sliding in the third one. Anything after that is overdosing in my opinion, and you have every right to disagree with me —I’m ancient and I like it. So, after god knows how many ages had passed, Capcom had finally decided to take the right step: a true sequel to the classic series but in veins of Mega Man 2, one of my favorite games of all time and the best Mega Man game ever made. I was ecstatic about the news; it’s 8-bit graphics with chiptunes and all, and they even stayed true with the 5 colors a pallete limit, which was a limitation on the Famicom due to it’s memory limit.

As always, you have to defeat 8 robot masters to advance to the next ‘challenge’. This game introduces the first female robot master to ever grace the classic series, Splash Woman, which is great by every possible mean; whether it’s the music, the level design, the boss or even the weapon you acquire from her. I got the game first on the Wii the second it arrived on the Wii Shop. I remember every millisecond of that day; I was eating fotoor while watching the download screen, so eagerly to play a game I’ve been holding my breath to, for over a decade. My first hour with the game was insane; I said to myself that I’m not gonna finish it with precision and such, like the old ones. It was harder than any game I have ever played, and you are reading for a person who completed both GNG and Super GNG (on NES and SNES respectively). Of course it’s not what I thought about it first, nothing can beat GNG for sure, but the levels were insane in my first playthrough. In that particular playthrough alone I had died so many times that I lost count early in the game—more than I have died in Mega Man 2 since it’s release. It gets easier as you progress with it, and as you keep replaying the stages you will find them much easier than the last time; thinking ahead of the game and planning strategies for different parts. It was just sheer awesomeness, a feeling I haven’t got since the 8-bit era (maybe a little in Etrian Odyssey with the map drawing and such). At the moment of writing this review, I have memorized the game backwards to the point where I can literally beat half of Galaxy Man’s stage with my eyes closed —I am not exaggerating, I tried it. And with each and every playthrough I discover new things about the game, and this is exactly where it shines upon everything else: the attention to small details is impeccable. Amazing, so amazing. I’m really amazed at how Inti Creates carefully built and create this flawless gem, there are moments where I gasped inside myself just by thinking about the think that crossed the screen (or that I did, etcetra). There are fantastic small details that I dare you to find in any modern new game. The level design in it’s entirety is amusing. Every platform is precisely put at the right frame, every enemy pattern is unique and compelling; everything just mesh well together with the rest of the game that you may wonder how God created humans with such fantastic minds that could do things like this.

Looking at the technical side of the game, it is amazing. Yes, it’s dated by today’s standards, but to actually have the ability to create a virtualized version of a 20 years old game is just PHENOMENAL. Period. The music is also very good, right there with the best of the series and one of the best chiptunes mixing I have ever heard.

I can’t stretch this enough. Today’s childs may don’t like it, they’re polluted with online co-op, fancy visuals and orchestrated soundtracks; to the point where they’re actually calling Mega Man 9 an archaic game. Fine by me, I have seen people calling Nancy Sinatra and Edith Piaf amateurs, and A Space Odyssey to be ‘the worst silent movie ever made’, so you can not cease to amaze me more than what I have already seen, heard or read. You don’t have to like it nor beat it, but you’re certainly don’t have the right to bash it —this is one of the best things that ever happened to me since I started gaming. I’m calling it; this is my definite Game of the Generation. This game gave me lots of real fun that no other game for the past 5 years at least had given me. This is what I grew up with, and this is what I like to play for the rest of my life. Again: I’m rustie and I like it, sue me!