When I have to call up numbers for any reason, I rely on “funny” math. 1+1 = cow and whatnot. I don’t like math and math doesn’t like me. There’s a reason why I’m scrabbling as a writer and not pursuing my dream career as an epidemiologist (no, I’m serious).
This is my roundabout say of saying I miscounted the days and my “Ten Games Nadia Played, etc,” list isn’t going to hit double digits. It will be forever young and I’m comfortable with that.
One reason I might be so bad with numbers is because I spent a significant amount of my childhood playing Mega Man games instead of doing something useful. When you’re a Mega Man fan, what use is there for numbers above eight? Of course, when it comes time to count the sheer number of sequels and offshoots Mega Man has appeared in, you’re kind of boned. I thought I’d just do like the rabbits from Watership Down and refer to large numbers as “Hrar”--but then rumours of Mega Man 9 showed up and around and I knew the title deserved my attempt to count above eight.
The first substantial details about Mega Man 9 came through the June 2008 edition of Nintendo Power. It was pretty heartening to read jaw-dropping revelations about a highly anticipated title through a print magazine; that sort of thing just doesn’t happen so much anymore.
At first I was disappointed that Capcom wasn’t though with state-of-the-art turbo-powered graphics for Mega Man 9, but then I quickly realized it was pretty clever on their part. Mega Man games have always had pleasing graphics, but they should be about gameplay, tinny music and controls you can swear by.
Nostalgia is a powerful, blinding master that still has hordes of twenty-somethings believing that the cartoons and video games that raised them in the ’80s contained beautiful statements on the human condition instead of subliminal suggestions to buy toys. Mega Man 9 caters to every pore in an ’80s/‘90s fan boy, or fan girl; when I played it, my reflexes were whisked back to the summer I slowly mastered Mega Man 3, my very first Mega Man game.
That comparison alone is assurance that Mega Man 9 is more than empty nostalgia. It’s a phone call back to our eleven-year-old selves, a visit from a loving but slightly eccentric military grandfather who pokes you in your paunch and orders you to drop and give him fifty. Maybe we didn’t need a reminder of how nastily hard games were when we were kids, but the fact Mega Man trusted me help him rescue Doctor Light without first subjecting me to an hour-long tutorial makes me adore him, no matter what he put me through.
Related Links:
Mega Man 9 Goes Back To Your Roots. Way Back.
Mega Man 9 Bosses Look Like Mega Man Bosses
My Last Mega Man 9 Post, I Swear
