Let me tell you something: this game kicks ass. I picked it up on PSN last week (reason: better D-pad than 360, more storage space than Wii) and I’m effing loving it. To be fair, I still haven’t quite beaten the last set of levels in Wily’s castle, but the robot masters alone have been worth their weight in money, Microsoft points or Wii points. Here are my thoughts on of each of the stages:

Concrete Man:
While the stage starts off with some frustrating enemy placement, the level itself is probably only mid-range as far as difficulty goes. There were a few frustrating moments when little shooty enemies would pop out of holes as I was jumping over them and knock me in for a 1-hit KO, but after a continue or two I figured out where the bad guys would pop up and learned to avoid them (pro tip: or you can just use Jewel Satellite and breeze through the level completely protected from small enemies). Concrete Man himself is damnably hard if you don’t have the weapon that’s super effective against him, though. His gun will not only deal damage do you, but also freeze you in place so he can hit you a second time. Each time this happens he’ll take out about 1/3 of your health bar. Ouch.
Conclusion: Bitchin’

Tornado Man:
Like most air-themed robot masters, Tornado Man’s level takes place in the sky with only a few scattered platforms standing between Mega Man and a deadly fall. In opposition to Concrete Man’s stage, Tornado Man’s level begins relatively easy and gets more frustrating near the middle with the introduction of sticky, spinning platforms that move back and forth. The upshot of these platforms is that half the time you’ll simply fall straight downward instead of going up when you jump off of them. Throw in some spikes (and later, wind) and this is a pretty tough obstacle to get past. I found Tornado Man’s stage to be a little more difficult than most, and it might actually be the toughest level amongst the 8 robot masters. The final showdown with Tornado Man isn’t all that difficult, however. I was able to dispatch him with nothing more than quick reflexes and my Mega Buster since his pattern is so easy to predict.
Conclusion: Tubular

Magma Man:
Most of Magma Man’s level is easy, but there are plenty of surfaces that will make Mega Man explode into tiny circles if touched, including huge pillars of magma that spew out of big tubes at regular intervals. Enemy placement in Magma Man’s level is actually really intuitive. Maybe it’s just me, but when I just played through the stage instinctively the enemies would fly underneath me or appear far enough ahead that I’d have plenty of time to formulate a plan of attack. By far, the most frustrating part of this level is the battle with Magma Man. He shoots three giant fireballs that are hard to avoid while jumping around the steps that make up the floor of his level. Since Mega Man can only shoot straight, having the enemy constantly move to higher or lower positions can be frustrating. If that’s not enough of an irritation, Magma Man also has a tendency to jump directly onto whatever area Mega Man is standing on and he stays so low to the ground that it’s hard to avoid.
Conclusion: Frustrating (but in that good, Mega Man-y way)

Galaxy Man:
Not only is Galaxy Man’s design totally awesome (he’s a freakin’ flying saucer! Hell yes!) but his stage has some of the neatest visuals I’ve seen in any of the classic Mega Man games. They say the boss makes the stage, and this is no exception. There are little flying saucers and big alien eyes all over the place, and the inclusion of some neat purple portals brings a fresh platforming element to the level. Galaxy Man himself is, like his stage, probably one of the easier bosses to beat. His only real attack is a homing black hole that tries to suck Mega Man in, but it’s pretty easy to avoid.
Conclusion: Far out, man

Jewel Man:
Jewel Man’s stage is a pretty standard run-and-gun affair. This actually turned out to be one of my least-favorite levels in the whole game, particularly since it has a frustrating mini boss that looks like Meatwad from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. This boss drops big ol’ boulders all over the place and then will slam himself into the ground, stunning Mega Man if he’s touching the floor at any time while the screen is shaking. Jewel Man can be irritating if you don’t have his weakness in your arsenal, as he uses his jewel satellite move to deflect most projectiles. The one thing about this level that I really like, though, is the purple and sky blue color scheme since it stands out so much against most Mega Man stages.
Conclusion: Totally posh

Hornet Man:
BEES!!! Hornet Man’s stage is a bright, sunny romp filled with flowers… flowers that are trying to kill you. This is, without a doubt, one of the harder stages. The mini boss, for example, is a battle with a flower that shoots its petals at you as it teleports to one of 8 platforms that are radially situated directly around a big, rotating stick of spiky flowers. It’s a tough fight if you don’t have a weapon that can shoot diagonally and will almost definitely take a few tries to actually beat. As if that weren’t enough, the last stretch of the level has Mega Man advancing along platforms that have to be uncoiled by shooting them, but the only stay open just barely long enough to run across them and jump to the next one. This wouldn’t be a problem if rogue scissors weren’t constantly appearing on the screen with the intention of cutting Mega Man down to size. Even the final fight with Hornet Man can be a trying experience, since he sends out a trio of hornets that home in on Mega Man. They’re damn hard to avoid, too.
Conclusion: BEES!

Splash Woman:
What I don’t understand about Splash Woman is that technically she’s not a woman at all. I mean, she’s only as much a woman as any of the robot masters are men. It doesn’t make sense; they’re all just robots. Maybe this was part of some feminist rights movement or something, but it feels kind of out of place in a Mega Man game. Oh well, she’s a damn cool boss regardless. Her stage, as her name suggests, takes place under water. What this means is that Mega Man can jump about 4 times as high as normal. Of course, 90% of the time this is actually a burden since the ceiling is covered in spikes that will destroy Mega Man with the slightest touch. One cool mechanic of this level, though, is the inclusion of rising bubbles that Mega Man has to platform across and up toward the surface of the water. Splash Woman herself isn’t too hard, though, since her primary attack is to go to the top of the screen and rain laser tridents down on Mega Man’s head.
Conclusion: Dead sexy

Plug Man:
Ok, without a doubt the coolest part about plug man’s level is that if you pass by a fuzzy screen it produces a shadow Mega Man that attacks the player. Sure, it doesn’t make sense for a plug to be able to do this, but it’s still cool in the same way that fighting Shadow Link in Ocarina of Time was cool. My heart sank, however, when I heard that terrible “pzzzjeee” noise that signals the appearance of a block. For those of you out there that have played Mega Man 2, you’ll recognize the sound from Heat Man’s stage during the frustrating bit where they would appear at seemingly-random over a pit of deadly lava. This time, at least, there’s no lava. Instead, there’s just nothing. If you miss a jump or one of the blocks disappears beneath you, you simply drop to your death. Ugh. The boss is pretty sweet, though, and he’s not too difficult. He just shoots little electric balls that slide along the ground and walls. They’re pretty dang easy to avoid.
Conclusion: It’s electric! (Boogy-woogy-woogy)

So yeah, Mega Man 9 rocks. It’s a great throwback to the NES era and inspired me to go to OC Remix for the first time in ages. Seriously, the music in this game is incredible and even though the visuals are very modest, the gameplay makes Mega Man 9 well worth the $10 asking price. If you’re anything but the most casual of gamer (and why would you be at this site if you were?) this is a must-play. Get it, get it, get it!