This game can be frustrating, or easy. Take your pick.

User Rating: 9.5 | Mega Man 9 PS3
Megaman 9 on the PS3 is the long awaited return of the original Megaman story. The game is presented in an 8-bit graphic style to mimic the original 6 Megaman games on the NES. The graphics look similar, but not the same. Capcom also made it an option to have graphical errors like in the originals too. These can be switched off at any time. Also the controls ave been simplified down to the basic jump and shoot.

The story of this game is very simple, but then again, it keeps the theme of emulating an older game. The basic idea is that 8 robots went crazy and because they were built by Dr. Light, he is seen as the one who made them go crazy and is eventually arrested. So of course Megaman sees this as an injustice and sets off to once again destroy 8 robot masters and restore Dr. Lights reputation.

The controls in this game are kind of hard to explain. If you've played the original games, or played most NES platforming games, you'll be used to these controls very quickly. They don't respond with the physics you'd expect to see in most modern games. This can at times make jumping gaps difficult, but you can get used to judging the jumps pretty fast. Also Megaman can still shoot through walls like in the originals. This was fixed in some of the re-issues of the first 8.

The music is great. It has the same sound as the old games. By that I don't mean it sounds 8-bit, I mean they have the same tunes you'd expect to hear. If these were in the originals, they would be considered classic tunes just like 'Wily stage 1' from Megaman 2 is today. The boss theme was a surprise though. I'm so used to the old one that I'm not sure if I personally like the new one. It works for the game, its just not what I was expecting. All the old sound effects are still there. The shots, the jumps, the hits, all of them. The menus also have a few references in the music that is played on them, like how one screen uses the password theme from an older game.

The difficulty of this game is something that seems to have a lot of random opinions. Some people think the game is impossible, some beat it in one sitting on the first try. It all comes down to if you've played a real game before or not. If you are young and think the newer games are too tough, this game will make you more frustrated than you've ever thought possible. If you're like me and have been playing games since the first 6 in this series were still current, you will find your way through this one with minimal difficulty. It can be frustrating even for veterans at times though.

The shop system is back in this game. This time featuring the unlimited bolts style currency in Megaman 7 instead of the limited version in 8. The shop has some items that are worth buying right away, and some that are pretty useless to the progress of the game. You can buy the standard power up items like extra lives and an energy balancer. Then there are the odd items like a new outfit Roll.You can also buy a book that lets you play as Megaman with his helmet off. This actually has a pretty big effect on the game. It makes you take more damage, and you also have to re-buy the item if you die. Every time you die and come back, the helmet comes back with you.

This game also introduces two things that are new to the series. A challenge list, and a female Robot Master. The challenge list is mostly just simple things that will only take a few tries to finish. Some of them will take longer than others. The challenges range from 'Beat the game 5 times in one day.' to 'Finish the entire game without taking damage'. These don't all have to be done in one run thankfully. You can use as many plays as you need. There are 50 total challenges to complete.

There is downloadable content planed for this game to be released later. These will include things like being able to play as Protoman, hard mode, and a few other surprises. Also if you think this game is hard as is, wait till hard mode is out before you make an idiot out of yourself. The extra content will not be free, but they will be cheap. Will all the content and the price of the game, the grand total will only cost about $18. For a game like this, that is a great deal. This game has a ton of replay value, and the challenge mode will help keep it interesting for some time.

If you should buy this or not comes down to a few things. The most important is that this game is fan service for people like me who have been playing since we were kids throwing controllers cause we couldn't beat bosses like Shadow Man. If you haven't played the old games, but wanna see a bit of what you missed, check this one out. If you complain and say a game is bad just cause its hard to beat, stay away from this. Chances are if you wanted this game, you'd already have it by now. I was looking forward to this game for a long time, and I am very happy to say that I wasn't disappointed at all.