How exactly does this "bitch-slap" anyone? :)

By underlining (I'd like to say proving, but that remains to be seen) the statement that high-budget graphics are completely redundant if the gameplay is solid.

Ok. So how does it do that? Like there hasn't been a game just like that before.. by sales? By fanboys saying it rulez?

Totally off topic, but Tekken is NOT a button masher. I was really into this game in the past, and I know it is at the same technical level as SC.

Hell, my friend would bet people large amounts of money that he could beat them 50 rounds in a row without losing once because he knew he could do it because he understood the game that well.

This was only expected.Capcom wouldnt have let such a chance fly away.

Well, at first my interest decreased. After the end of the trailer.... different story.

By being a core franchise and having a retro-styled audiovisual look (and gameplay) at the same time.

And there are several other games that have done this - Wii Sports being probably the best example - but MM9 can't be handwaved away with the same "casual crap" blanket statemet that has been applied to almost every game with minimalist graphic style, since Megaman is one of the oldest active game franchices. If Capcom, one of the industry giants, is producing a game like MM9, it's setting an example to other big game publishers - If the game is great, it doesn't matter how it looks like.

I'm personally biased against the "graphics first, everything else second, colors last" - mindset that seems to be the industry standard, so one can take my opinions with a heap of salt. But IMO it's a really ballsy move for Inafune and his team to make something that's essentially an enhanced NES game in an age where graphics are the king, people try to make games into movies and making a game can bankrupt a small country.

I'm not expecting MM9 to sell gangbusters, but it doesn't have to. Just by existing it's doing something that almost every other gaming company wouldn't even dream of, and that's awesome IMO.

[/innerfanboy]

@Mise

Well releasing a game that can be made for peanuts is not "ballsy" by any means. It is just a try to ca$h in with a retro game.
As for setting an example to other publishers, isn't there a lot of little games available already on wiiware/vc/xbla/psn?

Well anyway, good for you that you will love this game but it really is not bitchslapping anyone. :)

If you had singled out any other Megaman franchise besides the classic one, I would've agreed.

Capcom actually did do Megaman cash-ins for years on the original NES, and are doing them right now on ZX and Starforce. If they really wanted to just cash in on the classic Megaman, they would've remade Megaman 8 with minor improvements and slapped a 50$ price tag on it.

And yes, there are a lot of similar games already available, but I don't think any other game has gone this far with the retro thing. Except maybe Nintendo, but anything made by Nintendo is immediately judged "kiddy" and "casual" anyway. And while Virtual Console is a great thing to have, it has no new games.

@Kyros: While graphics do matter, they're far from being the most vital aspect of a game.