Mega Man 9 Defeated:

The game was insanely hard.  I must have died thousands of times.  Hundreds against the last boss alone.  But with enough patience, luck, and trial and error, all things become possible.

Does that mean the game was fun?  Not really.  Addictive though.  I didn't want to lose to all these stupid puzzles and traps.  I wanted to prove my worth.  I guess by raising my competitive hackles, the game succeeded in sucking me in just as though it were fun.

The game would have been even harder if not for the checkpoint save mechanic, which essentially gives you infinite lives.  At least this way, once you clear half the stage, you don't have to do it again, but can just concentrate on the second half.  I also relied on the extra armor item to fight Dr. Wily with (though it turns out I really didn't need it, I trounced him.)  Both of these functions are new to the PS4 version, so I don't even want to think about how hard this game was originally.

I wish the game had allowed me to save anywhere in the stage, even midway through fights, so that when I do something well I don't have to do it again.  It becomes monotonous redoing areas of the stage you can do in your sleep, only to die at the final puzzle over and over and over again because it's too difficult.  It means you get about three seconds of new gameplay for every five minutes of repeat, worthless nonsense.

I also wish I could have purchased items from inside Dr. Wily's castle.  It's stupid that they keep giving out screws but there's no place to use them.

The one bright side to the game was the weapons.  They felt unique and cool.  I relied on them heavily by the end and was barely ever using my mega blaster.  The Jewel Shield especially.  It's magnificent.  You can move around with it on, it can kill an indefinite number of enemies, it kills anything that gets close to you without even disrupting your momentum, so you can jump around freely without enemies interfering in deadly situations.  It's just this all purpose divine protection.

I hope Mega Man 10 is less challenging and more fun, like the old Mega Men.  I'm pretty sure Mega Man 9 was the hardest game I've ever beaten.  (7th Saga is the hardest game I've ever played -- never beat it.)  10 does not need to one-up that legacy.  Just one more game and another franchise will be complete.