Yesterday afternoon I began to explore Capcom's Mega Man 9.  I was expecting a little challenge, but I figured I could handle it.  My Mega Man abilities go back twenty years, after all.  I had some trouble with the two levels on display back at E3, but I marked that down to trying to play while standing amidst the chaos of the little show floor.  Surely once I reclined in my comfortable chair at home I'd handle any obstacle that the game had to throw at me, right?.  Funny thing is, not so much.  I've elaborated on this over at Kombo.

Once the stage select screen appeared I felt as if I'd stepped back in time. After all these years I found myself looking at the new batch of Robot Masters with absolutely no idea where I should begin. It was disconcerting to step into a Mega Man game after all this time and not know the magic order needed to efficiently destroy the bosses. I decided to start with Galaxy Man which was a fitting warm-up. I destroyed him easily enough and decided to move on to Tornado Man, and it was here that I began to see just how my 8-bit Mega Man skills have deteriorated after years of neglect.

Somehow I think that Mega Man 9 will end up winning the honor of most frustratingly fun game of the year.  Until I start to learn the new stages and Robot Master patterns I'm planning on stocking up on energy tanks, extra lives, and Beat whistles (bottomless pits turn up in the darnedest places).  When precision fails, the next best tactic is a brute force assault.  Two bosses down, six to go...