Mega Man could be described as ‘versatile.’ This is a character that has appeared in over 120 games that range over go-karts, football, fighters, board games, strategy, and even the odd platformer for old times’ sake. It’s not small beer: Mega Man is responsible for more of Capcom’s income than Resident Evil and Street Fighter combined.

Rather odd, then, that the main series hasn’t seen an instalment since the SNES. So the first phase of Capcom’s comprehensive exploration of its IP in the downloadable marketplace arguably ends with this game, the bravest of them all in being designed for the capabilities of the NES. It’s not simply a retro visual style – outside of the resolution, this game contains no situation, effect or enemy that could not have been achieved on that hardware. There’s even a ‘Legacy Mode’ in the options menu that lets you turn sprite flicker on and off.

It will be divisive. For every moment when the restrictions force something inventive from the designers, there’s a spike trap. For all the flights of fancy squeezed from such a small palette, there’s some rote learning of attack patterns. Clever enemy design goes hand-in-hand with cheap enemy design, and liberating stretches of platforming are nearly always brought to an end with instant death.

As homage to bygone days, this is exceptional. Out of context, it appears less impressive. Mega Man 9 might try to fit in the ‘retro cool’ category, but really it’s just retro: and that’s much less of a safe bet than Space Invaders T-shirts and Pac-Man keyrings. The good and the bad aside, though, there is one thing it indisputably shows. They sure as hell don’t make ’em like they used to.

6/10