Capcom to release Mega Man 9 DLC this Thursday

by Andrew Yoon { Oct 20th 2008 at 10:15AM }

We feel bad for our old friend Mega Man. It looks like, in spite of being both a boy and a robot, he has somehow started to lactate. Why do we say that? Because Capcom is milking him for all he's worth. This Thursday, three new pieces of DLC will be available for this ever-growing retro-styled game. Will fans continue to shell out their dough?

Hard Mode – Dubbed Hero Mode in Japan, this mode enables you to play the entire game on an increased difficulty level with alternate enemy distribution and spawning points. Hard Mode is not compatible with Rankings or Challenges Modes.
Expert Mode – Dubbed Super Hero Mode Japan, this mode represents the apex of Mega Man 9 difficulty settings and is not for the novice Mega Man 9 player. This mode triples the level of difficulty from the default Mega Man 9 game. Expert Mode is not compatible with Rankings or Challenges Modes.
Special Time Attack Stage – This DLC gives you an additional stage for Time Attack Mode, complete with an all new level and Robot Master Boss, "Fake Man." Similar in difficulty to the Willy Stages, players will have a fun time tackling this time sensitive competitive stage. Special Time Attack Stage is not compatible with Challenge Mode.

Gallery: Mega Man 9

Tags: capcom, mega-man, mega-man-9

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

chililili @ Oct 20th 2008 10:20AM

This should all ahve been in-game and it seems the only content they can develop is more difficulty. I hated the demo anyways. If they added SNES graphics, and charge up blast I would get this.

Levi @ Oct 20th 2008 6:25PM

No, it should not have all been included - since when did any of the NES Mega Man games have unlockable characters, extra levels, or especially anything that remotely resembles an Endless mode? The $10 download that you get initially, without any extras, is a complete NES game, just like the originals. Save for one additional difficulty, I can agree that they should have at least included one other difficulty level.

But seriously, I am sick and tired of people bitching about this-- go play Mega Man 2 - you will not find 4/5 of the DLC they are offering for MM9. You are just being cheap whiny bitches that bitch about everything you can possibly think of.

If you don't like the game, don't buy it, but it's a great game once you get past the difficulty, and nobody's forcing you to buy the EXTRA CONTENT.

Jesus.

Think Adrian @ Oct 20th 2008 10:20AM

I love MegaMan, but I didn't buy this game because it was too hard to be fun. And now two even more difficult levels?! What about us who love games but can't spend 20 hours a day playing and brag to our other geek friends?

Jerses @ Oct 20th 2008 10:40AM

i will not buy. Even if i love mega man i have more interest if i see a North america release of resident evil serie.

Gaucho @ Oct 20th 2008 10:42AM

I have every megaman since megaman 2 (I lost the first one :( ) and maybe I forgot, but I don't remember Megaman every being THIS hard. I used to beat them without too much of a problem when i was little and i downloaded the demo (If this looked like it took some effort to make instead of a lazy attempt to milk a dead franchise under the guise of "retro feel" I would have paid)to find that the elevated difficulty is anything but as fun as the originals. It did make me want to get Megaman Maverick Hunter X.

Think Adrian @ Oct 20th 2008 10:49AM

If they could make Mega Man 2: Rearmed, or something ;)

Levi @ Oct 20th 2008 5:55PM

agreed :)

Ole @ Oct 20th 2008 10:52AM

I hope it's free.

blackbeard_ @ Oct 20th 2008 10:52AM

Isn't it hard enought already... now they want us to pay more to make it even harder? :-/

I like that game, but I am not going to pay for difficulty settings.

Popfrogs @ Oct 20th 2008 11:45AM

Yeah I can't believe this game was released as Megaman 9 but he doesn't even have a charge shot. He's had charge shots since Megaman 3. On the Sony blog I asked a Capcom guy what happened and if the designers of this game even played 3-8. I got silence.

Lame moves Capcom. There's a difference between a game being truly difficult, and being difficult due to poor level design.

Sharpie @ Oct 20th 2008 12:14PM

Mega Man 9 was made to be similar to Mega Man 2 thats why there is no charge shot

moogle @ Oct 20th 2008 12:24PM

man, do your research

megaman 9 was created by keiji inafune, the original creator of the megaman character himself.

He chose to leave out the charge shot because he felt that it refrained from the idea of using the boss power ups. In the 1up interview he even stated that he never really wanted to include the charge shot in the first place in the older games. I dont entirely agree with him, i personally like those features. But man... do your research, of course the developer has played the old megaman games, he freakin created the character.

Popfrogs @ Oct 20th 2008 2:14PM

Thanks for the research. However that doesn't change the fact that every Megaman since 2 had the charge shot. Now 9 doesn't? It doesn't make any sense.

The worst part is, you get charged to earn that ability. You have to pay $2 to get Protoman. Who is basically Megaman from 3 to 8 with a different color scheme.

Levi @ Oct 20th 2008 5:58PM

the game has great level design, some of the best in the series, and a character's ability is not part of level design. The only thing I can really see people complaining about as far as level design in this game are those guys that grab you and fly you into the spikes >.<

The creators modeled the game after Mega Man 2, not 3-8, because they thought MM2 was received the best in the past 20 years. I read that in an article somewhere, didn't make it up, I swear :)

money_mike_preme @ Oct 20th 2008 12:55PM

i just hate the fact that all this dlc isn't compatible with rankings....why the hell not? i mean i think if you can beat the game in "stupid crazy i mean you wanna throw a brick at your 60 inch plasma" mode i think you should be able to compare yourself to others around the globe.

flynn110 @ Oct 20th 2008 1:31PM

megaman has always been difficult, so to expect any less from this iteration does not make sense. and this one really wasn't that hard, i think it took me 3 nights or so to complete it. i am kind of excited for the time trial mode.

Adjsteam @ Oct 20th 2008 3:41PM

a lot of stuff to buy is implemented but no (free) trophies were... and capcom is getting a personalixed store??

they shoul get their ass kicked so badly!!

Levi @ Oct 20th 2008 6:25PM

Trophies were not announced until after much of the development was done. The dev team thought the game was going to lose money already, therefore it doesn't make sense to add more time to the development to add a free feature.

Capcom deserves their own store, as they are a huge contributor to PSN. They are releasing quality games at very low prices, and they should get their ass kicked?

Levi @ Oct 20th 2008 6:24PM

So, everybody complains about the DLC and Mega Man's limitations in-game. I was following the development very closely, and I'd like to throw a couple things out there.

Mega Man 9 was based on MM2. The team decided that MM2 was the most played and highly regarded title of the classic series, so they modeled MM9 after it. I read that they wanted to keep it simple and close to the style of MM2.

Next, the DLC. Many people are complaining that the DLC is garbage, it should have been included for free, whatever. I'd like to point out that MM2 had only one thing included that MM9 sans DLC did not: an 'Easy' mode. The harder difficulties that the DLC offer are also different from MM2's difficulty levels in that they change enemies' spawn points and distribution. MM2's difficulty was based on damage from what I can remember (I could be wrong there though?) There was never an Endless Mode, you could never play the classic games as Protoman, there was never the ability to download a new level and boss onto your NES cart. These really are extra features. I can't say I agree with ALL of the DLC, but I do think people are giving it a hard time. To avoid the game altogether is a shame, because it really is a great title in the series. Endless mode is extremely awesome IMO.

Last, I'd like to share some items about the development. The dev team thought it would be easy to just throw an 8-bit Mega Man game together, but I read that they found it to be a daunting task. It was apparently very difficult to create an 8-bit game that was still fun, and to have it retain the classic feel of the old MM's. Dev time ended up going way over, as well as the budget. I remember reading one of the Capcom guys saying on the Playstation blog that he thought the title wasn't going to make any money because the project was so over budget. I think the DLC might be a way to try to basically make this game "worth it" to Capcom - but can you really blame them? From a business perspective, you don't do something unless it works out financially. If you like the game, but the DLC makes you mad, look at it this way: without actually paying money for things like Mega Man 9, they won't make these kinds of games. If you don't like the DLC, but like the game, why not just avoid the DLC?

There's my two cents. I tried to keep my Mega Man fanboyism out of it, don't think I fully succeeded, but I think I did an OK job :)

Jacksons @ Oct 20th 2008 6:55PM

I blame Burnout's incredible (and free) DLC for making me think Mega Man 9's DLC is ludicrous. I'm not going to grab a torch and pitchfork over it or anything, but I can't justify paying for something as minor as altered enemy distribution, no matter what their development process was like. By that logic, Braid should have been $60.