Everything Wrong Is Right Again
So yes, winnowing forum-goers age by their positive and negative responses to the game works on a certain superficial level, to be sure. Gamers who grew up with the NES Mega Man games are generally pumped; those who came to the franchise with the X series or later are baffled. But anyone who looks more deeply into the decision to go old school should also find plenty to be excited about. There's more going on here than the obvious nostalgia-button-pressing on the surface; behind this seeming madness is meaning. Meaning and purpose.
It's a simple purpose, too: Nothing more ambitious than the desire to make a good Mega Man game. This is evidently much trickier than one might think, because a lot of Mega Man games have been released over the years, and quite a few of them have been, frankly, no damn good. The vast majority have been merely meh. But nearly everyone can agree that the best games in the series were the originals, the NES games that launched the Mega Man empire, such as it is.
Which isn't to say that all the NES titles were masterpieces, which is where much of the collective ambivalence about MM9 comes from. Let's be honest: The drop-off in quality after Mega Man 3 was steep and painful. While the latter NES games had their moments, the simple fact is that by the time the 8-bit titles were retired the series had long since become a rote exercise in pulling in some easy cash every autumn.
They're taking an unconventional approach, eschewing the obvious direction of another easy cookie-cutter sequel for the world's most popular system in favor of a deliberately regressive return to the good old days, with far more creativity in the handful of screens on display than we've seen in the past five years of Mega Man combined. It looks like goofy, nonsensical, cartoonish fun -- precisely what the original Mega Man lineup should be.
But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the retro look is a cynical attempt to ride the Famicom nostalgia that seems to have a permanent grip on Japan, a low-budget attempt to latch onto the coattails of retro-styled games like Yuusha no Kuse ni Namaikida, with the added benefit of authentic retro heritage. And no doubt that's some part of the inspiration behind MM9's look -- old people still love their old games. But while series creator Keiji Inafune is a canny man, he's also an honest one; he freely admits that the old Mega Man games are his favorites, which is an executive's tactful way of saying "those are the best, and the people who have followed in my footsteps mostly suck." I've even asked a few avowed MM9 haters (including a certain opinionated co-worker) what their favorite Mega Man game is, and the answer is universal: Mega Man 2. This isn't a coincidence; MM2 was a truly brilliant game, tough but wonderfully balanced despite its innate openness. Every power-up in the game had a purpose, every boss required different strategies, every enemy was memorable. Despite its modest technology, it was packed with personality; despite its simplicity, it's almost infinitely replayable. MM9 is an attempt to bottle the lightning that made that classic so exquisitely perfect.
A fundamental rethinking of what makes a good game is at play here. The classic Mega Man series worked because of the specific play mechanics made possible by their technology. When the games went 16-bit, something intangible yet essential was lost -- the pace slowed, the "improved" animations interfered with the playability, the oversized sprites felt cramped on the screen and overly loose in the heat of action. The exceptional, precise feel that had defined Mega Man was compromised by the need to upgrade to Super NES standards.
Mega Man 9 may be the most dramatic technological regression ever seen in a major game franchise, but it's hardly the first. Remember last year when Square Enix revealed Dragon Quest IX?, a follow-up to one of the best-looking PS2 games ever -- as a DS game running on hardware barely more impressive than the original PlayStation? Remember how Contra 4? was the first chapter of that series in more than a decade to feel like it belonged to Contra from start to finish, a feat it accomplished by ditching all the awful 3D and aiming directly at its 16-bit predecessors? Remember how the only Sonic games worth a damn these days are the portable Sonic Rush? titles rather than the head-slappingly terrible 3D console games? Remember how the PS2-based console Castlevanias feel like like an afterthought while the portable, PS1-quality 2D platformers are clearly where the team's most sincere efforts are being invested? Mega Man 9 is simply the ultimate realization of something a lot of developers have been playing at for quite a while.
Mega Man 9 is cause to believe that everything that's gone wrong with these old franchises can be made right again. As the recent spate of retro-tinged sequels like Dawn of Sorrow and the upcoming Wario Land Shake It? (a true sequel to Wario Land IV?, with the added benefit of high-resolution Production IG visuals and some thoughtful motion controls) demonstrate, there's still plenty of life left in those hoary old franchises -- plenty of new ideas to be eked from genre tropes that we all assumed were tapped out when the 16-bit era slouched to a halt. But bleeding-edge visuals and game elements may not be the best way to realize those inspirations. Really, what can you do to improve Mega Man with bloom lighting and shader mapping? Is 2D Mario platforming really any better with real-time light sourcing and self-shadowing? Classic franchises earned their stripes in the days when great graphics were still pretty laughably simple; they became classics because they offered satisfying gameplay beneath whatever passed for visual polish in 1988. So why not let those games live in their proper environment? Just as Halo is demonstrably silly as a 2D platformer, Mega Man (at least, the old-school variety of Mega Man) sucks in 3D. Gamers have known it for years; the fact that developers are realizing it (and, more importantly, that publishers are letting them act on it) suggests that there's hope for this medium yet.
Mega Man 9 has taken a decade to become a reality because there was no place for it until now. We're fifteen years past the point at which MM9 as it exists today could have been a full retail release. But an affordable downloadable title? Well, that's something else. And herein lies the true strength of the current generation of consoles: Not that they offer the power to render ultra-realistic cubes of glistening, gelatinous meat, but rather that they provide an avenue by which to offer the full spectrum of game experiences.
MM9, is something completely different. It's a recognition that certain game concepts are still viable, that those concepts work best within a specific context, and that it's still possible to make use of the appropriate framework.
There's certainly no guarantee that gamers will embrace MM9's regressive design, of course. Maybe it'll flop hard! The important thing is that Capcom's taking the chance, and in doing so sending out a clear statement to the gamers and designers alike: The best available technology isn't always the right technology.
Eu percebi o que era a plataforma rotativa... só não consigo percebi se estavas a críticar ou a louvar isso. Agora com o, tá brutal, já percebi 
