Mega Man 9

In the downloadable game age, $10 can buy you a lot-- or a little. Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade service has games as low as $5, with some on sale as low as $2.50 if you play your cards right. As such, a game for $10 isn't always an astonishing value. For Mega Man 9, it's all up in the air.

In the old days, I used to rent Mega Man games and beat all 8 robots in the two day period-- sometimes also beating the game. Mega Man 9 is very much this kind of game. While very difficult in places, it's the kind of game you could easily beat in two days if you sat down and put some time into it.

By now you've no doubt heard that the graphics on all 3 platforms (Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii) are identical and specifically crafted to look like an NES game around 1989. It succeeds on all levels, if you put this on an NES cart it seems like it would fit in just fine with the classic console's best.

Rather than gush about how much fun it was and how I hope other developers take Capcom's example and make more games like this (Konami, I'm looking at you), I'll just say this: if you have $10 and enjoyed the original Mega Man games, you may like this. It was slightly shorter than anticipated, as the final castle didn't have a "surprise" leg at the end like some of the others, nor were their any special levels like the "doc robot" stages of the third game, but it's wonderful and fun and the kind of thing to remind older gamers of why they still enjoy this hobby.

For $10, it's a fun game. You can get the Mega Man Anniversary Collection, which has the first eight games in the series, for $5-$15. This is available on the GameCube (playable on Wii), Xbox (playable on the 360), and Playstation 2 (let's not go there) and it provides significantly more value for your money, however, you may have already had your fill of these games. Considering original Mega Man games on the NES were $35-$50 when initially sold, $10 seems like a pretty solid deal.

Cost: $10 (1,000 Wii points, $10 in PSN money, 800 MS points)
Value: Moderate
Novelty: High
Would buy again if given the chance: Yes