Tonight I downloaded the full version of Mega Man 9 for the Xbox 360, and so far the game is freaking awesome!

I recently bought an Xbox 360 (I know, it’s about damn time) and from what I’ve been told is the D-pad of the 360 controller sucks big time. Since I don’t yet own a PS3 or Wii I was a little weary at the fact that the only way I could play MM9 is if I downloaded it from Xbox Live Arcade (I don’t think that spending $400 is worth it for just one five dollar game I want to play because the D-pad is superior).

At first I downloaded the trial version of Mega Man 9 just to see how bad the D-pad is. I have to say from what I played with, the D-pad it wasn’t that bad. 

The only level the trial game would let you play is Cement Man’s level.  I will tell you one thing…HOLY CRAP THAT LEVEL IS HARD!  I can though, understand the strategy by making that level the only level you can play. The beginning isn’t that bad but once you get up to the elephants your screwed if you don’t have some sort of upgraded weapon, and that’s where they get ye to buy the game.  I played the trial game for a while to see if I could get past the elephants of Cement Man’s level, and the more I played, the more I found myself using…the analog stick!?! O.o

Now I may catch some flack from my friends about this, but after a while I felt more comfortable using the analog stick to control The Blue Bomber than it was using the D-pad.  It’s not because the D-pad of the 360 sucked, it’s just I’m actually quite used to playing 2D games with an analog stick over a D-pad.  I guess the 10+ years of using an analog stick for playing PS and PS2 games, 2D or 3D has made me prefer an analog stick over a D-pad.

Anywho after playing Cement Man’s level about 7 times and not getting past the elephants, I decided that playing MM9 on the Xbox won’t be so bad.  So I bought the full version.

When I unlocked the full version of MM9, I decided not to go back to Cement Man’s level, instead I wanted to try out different levels of the game.

The first level I tried was Splash Woman’s level. This level is very similar look and feel of Bubble Man’s level from MM2.  Like the spikes you have to avoid when falling deeper under water, or the spikes on the ceiling when you jump under water.  I haven’t yet got to her, as after a while that level gets really hard.

The level I tried after that was Galaxy Man’s level.  This level imo is very easy. I beat the level and Galaxy Man without having to use up all my lives. In fact I had two left over.

After that I tried Tornado Man’s level.  I have as of yet to get to him, but I have to say the level is very challenging, yet fun and not too frustrating.

So far this game is about as challenging as Mega Man 2.  Though after a while MM2 for me got really easy, but as do all games when you play them enough. I hope the challenge level of this game stays where it’s at, because it’s about time we get a Mega Man game again that you need a lot of skill to traverse.