Totally hilarious image from Connectionworld.org

Last week the video game world was rocked by the release of Mega Man 9. Mega Man 9 is important because it marks the first time, to my understanding, than an entire commercial release was created in a technologically obsolete manner for artistic, and even commercial reasons.

Sure, some games hint at this: No More Heroes has old school 8 bit sprites in the game, but it is otherwise a modern, 3D title. And of course many intrepid freeware designers have and continue to make excellent games in older motifs.

So is the game any good? Yes, it is great! What I think really makes Mega Man 9 worth playing is that it embraces the "old school" but also employs a modern design aesthetic: you won't find cheap deaths and filler content here. The game is quite hard but fair (you are always carefully taught tricky stuff in a safe environment first, which is a technique right out of Design 101), and hence feels fresh. It just doesn't feel like playing an "old" game at all.

Read.