Mega Man 9

Mega Man 9, known in Japan as Rockman 9: The Ambition's Revival!! (ロックマン９野望の復活！！), is the ninth numbered installment in the classic Mega Man series. The game was developed by Capcom and Inti Creates, and was published by Capcom in 2008 as a digital download for the Nintendo Wii (WiiWare), Microsoft Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade) and the Sony PlayStation 3 (PSN).

Mega Man 9 is one of the latest non side-story game in the classic series released since 1996/1997's Mega Man 8, and one of the latest non-licensed game released in the classic series (not counting remakes and collections) since 1998/2002's Mega Man & Bass.

According to Capcom's own Keiji Inafune, who was working closely with Inti Creates on the project, the game was developed using an 8-bit graphics and music engine to bring back the nostalgia of the NES-era Mega Man games. Like Mega Man and Mega Man 2, Mega Man is unable to slide and will not have a chargeable Mega Buster; this was done to make the game's challenge and handling more in-line with the first two games in the series. While cutscenes are used to tell the story, they are 8-bit in nature. According to Inafune, the game is "just as much a new Mega Man game as it is a new NES game." The game features the first female Robot Master boss in the series, Splash Woman.

Story
It is the year 20XX. Since Dr. Wily's last defeat, the Blue Bomber has seen peace return.

Just when people forgot all about Dr. Wily, robots all over the world began going crazy. It soon became apparent that these robots were those created by Dr. Light. As phone calls came pouring in to Light Labs, Dr. Wily interrupted all television programs to announce that these robotic riots were not his doing. He then continued to show video evidence that proved Dr. Light's involvement in the recent violent outbreaks. To make matters worse, Wily gave the account number to his personal bank account and announced that he would accept donations to build his own robot army to counter that of Light. Mega Man quickly volunteered to clear Light's name and was sent out to investigate the source of the problem.

Before long, the police came to Light Labs to arrest the good doctor, but Light went along quietly to prove his innocence. Meanwhile, Mega Man went after the Robot Masters and, after he defeated a few of them, discovered that they were scheduled to be decommissioned and sent to the junkyard because they had reached the expiration date assigned to them by the government. Once the final Robot Master had been taken down, Mega Man brought back one of the robot's internal memory units to Auto for investigation. As it turned out, Dr. Wily had convinced the robots, who were scheduled for demolition, to rise up against their human masters rather than be destroyed. All the robots wanted to do was have a purpose, and they certainly did not want to be sent to the scrap heap.

After they had viewed the video, Dr. Wily burst into their lab and stole the memory circuit and then withdrew to his newly constructed Skull Castle. Mega Man made his way through the fortress, fighting powerful robots built with the money Wily received from donations from those concerned with the robot uprisings. In the end, Mega Man defeated Wily once again, and showed him footage of every single defeat he had dealt Wily. Although Wily seemed contrite and apologetic, he tricked Mega Man into thinking that Dr. Light was, in fact, imprisoned in a jail cell in the next room. Although Proto Man warned him that it was a trap, Mega Man went to investigate the cell and was electrocuted and Wily's lab self-destructed. Thankfully, Proto Man returned and teleported Mega Man out of the lab just in time.

In the end, Light was released from prison and then found useful purposes for all of the Robot Masters he had designed, but which had reached their expiration dates.

Although the ending states that Dr. Wily was nowhere to be found after the destruction of his base, the credits show Concrete Man chasing him.

Fortress Bosses
Wily Castle:

Currently, there are no sources that include names of bosses; so at this point, all boss names below are guessed.
 * 1) "Spike Shooters"
 * 2) "Shark Submarine"
 * 3) "Twin Devil"
 * 4) Rematch with the Robot Masters
 * 5) Wily Machine No. 9 and Wily Capsule

Special Stage boss:
 * Fake Man

Challenges
If certain challenges in the game are accomplished, then players gain the following recognition for it.

Reception
Mega Man 9 has received highly positive critical reception. IGN gave the game an 8.6 and awarded it with an Editor's Choice award. It was praised for 'having some of the best level design in the series'. GamesRadar & WiiWare World gave the game 9/10. Gamespot gave the Wii and PS3 versions 8.5 out of 10.

Trivia

 * The mobile phone version of the game includes all downloadable content plus a new Rookie Mode.


 * Each boss's weakness has a detrimental effect besides causing more damage (eg: Jewel Satellite negates all of the boss's projectiles, Tornado Blow cripples the boss's weaponry).


 * Bass does not appear directly in the game; however, in the game's endings he makes a cameo appearance. In the background, his blueprints can be seen on Dr. Wily's computer. Despite this, Treble was absent from the game entirely. This may have been an indication of his appearance as a playable character in the next game, Mega Man 10.


 * The song that plays in the ending is a remix of the stage select theme from Mega Man 2.


 * The number to Dr. Wily's "Swiss bank account" shown in the intro is actually the release date for the first Mega Man game in Japan.


 * This is the first numbered console game in the Mega Man series to feature Proto Man as a playable character.


 * In the opening scene, the news reporter bears a resemblance to Chun-Li, a character from Capcom's Street Fighter series. This is a reference to the live-action Street Fighter movie where Chun-Li is a news reporter.


 * This is the second Mega Man game with downloadable content, the first being Mega Man Powered Up.


 * This is the first original series Mega Man game to have two harder difficulty settings, although the feature was earlier used in Mega Man Legends 2.


 * The song that plays on the Main Menu, is the music that plays on the Password screen in Mega Man 2.


 * The song that plays when Mega Man gains a weapon, is similar to the theme from Mega Man 2.