I had a moment over the weekend, so I decided to download the Mega Man 9 demo (the full version will be on all the current-gen consoles) while I was making a meal. The download was actually so small that it had finished before I even left the room, but I installed it, had my meal anyway, then got cracking at this "new classic Mega Man". I watched the little intro movie, which shows an allegedly reformed Dr. Wily framing (we assume) Dr. Light and sending his robots out to conquer the world again. Mega Man and whatever his dog and bird robot friends are called immediately set out to protect everyone.
For the demo, you must choose to face Concrete Man's level, which is immediately so difficult that you will wonder why the National Guard couldn't just come out and help shoot some robots. Every step along the way reveals a new irritating little trick in the gameplay that could easily infuriate you. It felt a lot like I Wanna Be the Guy, truthfully. Here's a step-by-step progression for as far as I could get in the demo:
1. Flying robo-owls drop what look like owl turds down on you. The turds usually fall just in front of you, but then they break up into smaller bits that scatter and hit you anyway. You basically have to shoot them first or else you'll get hit, which becomes more difficult as multiple owls start to come at once.
2. What appear to be simple gaps you have to jump over are incredibly perilous. Chances are, you'll immediately just jump, only to have a floating green turret thing pop up into you, which hurts you and drops you into the endless abyss, forcing you back to the start of the level. If you miss them, then the above owls may still drop turds on you that force you back into the gap.
3. Past several gaps, you come to a small cannon on a raised ledge. You can't really jump over it, so you must simply blast away at it. Still, it takes extremely precise movements to actually dodge the cannon fire, which can be ruined by the floating turrets from before. You probably lose half your life, but at least you won't die just yet.
4. Little spiky things scoot over several platforms, and you can freeze them for a moment by shooting them. The platforms are spaced just right to be difficult to clear, but just barely possible, in your short time allowance with the frozen spiky things.
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