Aside from the 2008 production note on its title screen, you'd have no idea “Mega Man 9” was made in this decade.

Capcom's downloadable title draws heavily from the nostalgia players will feel for the glory days of the standout “Mega Man” titles on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Not only is the open-ended eight-robot level structure and exacting platform play intact, but the blocky eight-bit look of “9” perfectly matches that of the first six “Mega Mans.” The game even refrains from overloading the screen with more enemies than the NES could simultaneously render.

Players who got their start with games past the eight-bit era may question the value or purpose of so primitive-looking a game as “Mega Man 9.” Such an aesthetic would appear gimmicky or pastiche if the game play of “9” wasn't on par with that of “Mega Man 2” and “3,” which are widely considered among the best NES titles in the system's bulky library.

Just as he did in those classics, the helmeted Blue Bomber must halt eight robots designed by the evil Dr. Wily in “9.” Classic-looking cut scenes of static images and text depict the “Mega Man” arch-villain's framing of Mega Man's mentor, Dr. Light, for the robots' destruction sprees. Clearing Dr. Light's name requires players to maneuver Mega Man through scantily placed platforms and batteries of hostile robots before battling each Robot Master.

The levels of “Mega Man 9” are expertly designed to challenge players with jumps that require split-second precision and enemy waves that demand patience to evade or eliminate. When the game isn't directly difficult, it poses another threat by building player expectations and then subverting them.

A helicopter robot swoops down on Mega Man early in Galaxy Man's stage, but it appears harmless so long as the player jumps over ground spikes when the helicopter sweeps Mega Man over them. Eventually the player will grow to dismiss the helicopter as a non-threat. But later in the stage, it grasps the hero once again and hurls him toward a wall of horizontally mounted spikes to kill Mega Man just after the player sees the approaching danger.

The same players who struggle to digest the dated look of “Mega Man 9” will wrestle vigorously with the game's unforgiving difficulty. Only a player with inhumanly sharp reflexes will defeat a Robot Master's level on the first try. Most will need to memorize each landscape of platforms, placement of spiked floors and pattern of disappearing lifts through trial-and-error before making it to each level's boss. Once there, just as in previous “Mega Man” games, players will want to experiment with different boss weapons they've acquired to determine which will defeat other bosses most easily.

The simplicity of “Mega Man 9's” controls blunts the cruelty of the game's difficulty. The Blue Bomber can only walk, jump and shoot his arm cannon. In a game climate where players juggle up to a dozen controls in current-generation titles, “Mega Man 9” refreshes the norm with a wholly graspable control scheme. Only a combination of those three controls separates players from success, which is why even the most intimidating levels continue to feel inviting after repeat failures.

In-game achievements, a hard disc save system and power-ups for sale are the only concessions “Mega Man 9” makes to contemporary gaming. It's both an untainted time capsule and a call-to-arms for hardcore players who want to rediscover simple, direct and difficult video games. Though its over-the-top cover art may suggest blithe nostalgia on the Capcom's part, the purposeless package gift-wraps one of the best pure games of 2008.

David Wilcox

253-5311 ext. 245

david.wilcox@lee.net