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Oooh. It's a bit hard, isn't it?

Handing you your ass in: Mega Man 9

We may have run a feature Nine little things we love about Mega Man 9 a few weeks ago, but it might just easily have read ‘Nine little things about Mega Man 9 that make you want to stick your head in an oven.’Make no mistake, you can’t fully appreciate the aneurism-baiting bastard hard challenge of this game until you've tasted trunk-based death again and again.

The first level throws a herd of elephants at you so evil, you’ll seriously start to consider a career in the ivory industry. The dastardly Dumbos have some murderous moves at their disposal, like blowing balls of destruction at you or trying to suck you to your doom in a level punctuated with hardcore platforming. Stopping yourself from becoming an elephant-sponsored soufflé requires deft fingers, nerves of granite and a masochistic streak that would shame most A-listers. And this is all still set against a backdrop of the purest pixel-perfect leaps you’ll find in gaming. Punishing, uncompromising and utterly nails.

Inexplicably harder than: Downing an army of 100 foot Olyphants in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

Want to avoid oven-based suicide? Then why not check out ourMega Man 9 - complete video guide?

Hear more about this article inTalkRadar.

Oct 13, 2008


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David Meikleham
David Meikleham
Google AMP Stories Editor

David has worked for Future under many guises, including for GamesRadar+ and the Official Xbox Magazine. He is currently the Google Stories Editor for GamesRadar and PC Gamer, which sees him making daily video Stories content for both websites. David also regularly writes features, guides, and reviews for both brands too.