EDIT: I realise this initial post isn't very clear in the two points I wanted to address (regarding MM9), so please read my later post for clarification. Especially just noticed that "Retry" can be misinterpreted - I meant a function to start the whole level from scratch with full lives! Sorry for my inability to explain what I mean properly!

Megaman 9 has two:

1 - There is no "Retry" option, meaning that if I lose a life before a checkpoint the most logical cause of action is to hurl myself down a hole repeatedly until I lose all of them.

2 - On the final level, I cannot save between the four separate stages (well, I can but if I load the saved file I am sent right back to the start of the first stage). Being that I have infinite continues, this doesn't make much sense. These levels are exhaustingly difficult and all I ask for is a break between completing them without having to leave my console running (I wanted to play something more sedate on the same machine).

I know the game is a homage to the NES classics but that's no excuse. They included a few (relatively) modern features (a save function rather than passwords, the challenges) because they add to the game. Could they not have also removed the archaic design flaws that detract from it?

PLEASE NOTE: I'm not annoyed at the high difficulty level, just the lack of logic in the two mechanics described above.

so you like the high level of difficulty but you're annoyed at the high level of difficulty because it has checkpoints and the last level is really hard?

Dark mist, no save points at all. Pretty crap for people who can't spend more than 1 or 2 hours playing games in one sitting.

@ ROL - So I can restart from exactly the same place but with one more life!

I see it as just getting practice getting to that checkpoint. 

If you die on the way there you obviously need more practice.

Does aren't design flaws.. THIS IS HARDCORE! xD

*Giggles* then just be glad that you weren't there in the NES era.. back then you didn't had infinte continues.. maybe 3... savegames?.. some had them.. but most didn't.. some games even hadn't a password system.. Just would just have to play the game untill you finished it..

So you would prefer starting a new life more like Contra? In Mega Man that would make the game too easy, IMO.

This isn't a question of difficulty, it's a question of convenience.

1) I can retry the level by using the "kill myself to end up in exactly the same place but with 3 lives" technique already. A "retry" option would be more convenient, it wouldn't make the game easier.

2) The final level is split into four stages. If you continue after dying then you begin at the start of the stage you were on. You have infinite continues. Theoretically, I can continue from the start of each stage as many times as I like provided I leave my console turned on. Allowing me to save would merely allow me to turn my console off, it would not make the game easier.

Think about it!

Sorry man, but I'm a old-school hardcore gamer, and the changes you're asking are way too much to handle for my little mind. There was never a "Retry" option in any Mega Man game (note: Mega Man, not Mega Man Zero or whatever), and there were no ways to restart a certain Wily stage.

Saves are added for the casuals, because they would find it too hard to write down little dots on a grid (like in the old Mega Man games, hehe). Besides, in Mega Man 8: Anniversary Edition and Mega Man X4 through X8, there are saves (and still no way to restart at a certain Wily/Sigma stage). Challenges are not new, they're just ''proposed'' to you instead of yourself making an achievement list. I remember when I used to write down a lot of statistics about my different game plays in my little notebook...! ;)

*PS: The casuals part is a joke.

These flaws don't exactly ruin games, but are really annoying and ofter glaringly obvious.

1) RPG:s that are way too black-and-white with their dialogue choices and character development. Especially prominent in Bioware games - as much as I like their stuff, they have a really nasty habit of forcing their players to become either Disgustingly Good or Retarded Evil or SUFFER - and there might be a Bastard Neutral option if you're really lucky. JRPG's are exempted, as I haven't really seen any player-influenced character development in any one of those that I've played.

2) Games that don't punish failure at all. Ie. Bioshock - it completely kills the games intense and frightening atmosphere when you can't really lose for most of the game. In fact, you can just clobber everyone with a wrench and not fire a single shot since dying is completely inconsequential. Yeah, you can switch the Vita-chambers off with a patch or just refuse to use them (which is what I did), but they shouldn't really exist in the first place IMO, handwaved or not.

3) Stretching the games length by any means necessary, usually done with completely inane plot devices/twist, busywork fetch-quests and powerful-on-paper bosses who are completely irrelevant to the plot. The Witcher/Gothic 3, I'm looking at you.

4) Pointlessly hard jumping puzzles with crappy controls. Dozens of games have done this over the years, and it still isn't funny. The final level of Psychonauts deserves a special mention, being arguably the worst platforming level I've ever played.

5) Redundant combat with no way around it, especially in RPG:s. If I play an Role-Playing-game, it means that I want to play a role of my choosing. Total freedom of choice isn't naturally possible in a video game, but at least let me do something else than beating down those same 50 goblins again. Talk them down, go around them, disable them with traps, lure a pack of bears over, wait until they leave, bribe them etc. Combat in RPG's is very enjoyable when done right, but for every good, balanced fight, there are 100 boring/frustrating/redundant fights to slog through, and it's a damn shame.