Finished the game clocking in at about 2 hours or so. Really really good. Thoughts put into bullet-point form:
* As expected, GDJustin is full of shit
* The cries of OMGDIFFICULT are pretty funny to me, as what I got and what I expected were pretty different. Mega Man 9 is pretty much your standard MM as far as difficulty goes. I'm willing to wager lots that many people who find the game hard will start breezing through it once they've committed the game's obstacles into memory. I mean, don't get me wrong, it IS damn hard, especially in some spots in the Wily stages (DAMN YOU WILY STAGE 2), but not harder than the NES games. You must have forgotten what it was like going into MM2 fresh
Interestingly enough, MM9 has one of the easier final bosses in the series. MM7 Wily it is not!
* That said, am I the only one who banged my head against the wall multiple times in Tornado Man's stage?
* The challenges are freaking ridiculous :lol I got 20% of them just playing through normally, but the crap they expect you to do for some of these (I have no idea how the hell I'm gonna do the Pacifist challenge, much less the Invincible challenge). I'm not a fan of achievements at all in general, but it's gonna add some mileage to the game for many, that's for sure.
* The entire game really does feel like it was made in the early 90s. IntiCreates pretty much nailed it on the head with this one. Level design, enemy patterns, boss patterns, music, graphics, it really feels like an honest to god sequel to those games (well, I guess the whole point is that it actually IS an honest to god sequel). The only thing they got wrong was the level fade-ins. Smooth fade-ins look wrong in this game!
* All in all, fantastic game, doesn't miss a beat at all in continuing the NES games, and the ending was :lol
*
But no, seriously, whoever designed Tornado Man's stage needs to be shot and maimed, preferably with a Mega Buster.