I'm sorry to bump such an old topic, but I really feel the need to... get something off my chest. For the most part, Mega Man 9 is a great game. It did a good job of imitating the style of the classic, 8-bit games and getting Mega Man back to his roots. The graphics were good, the sound/music, gameplay, and even the storyline (even though there are people who hate it, since there was no connection to the Mega Man X series. I, on the other hand, couldn't have cared less). However, I DO happen to have some gripes with this game. It's mainly because they decided to remove the Charge Beam and Slide-Kick abilities, which Mega Man has had for over TEN YEARS STRAIGHT, since according to Keiji Inafune, those moves were "unnecessary". Yes, Proto Man might have had those abilities, but it just wasn't quite the same, since the Charge Beam was considerably weaker than how Mega Man's was in Mega Man 5 through Mega Man & Bass. Instead, it was more like the one in Mega Man 4.
Also, another gripe I have with the game is the lack of Bass and Treble. Bass happens to be my favorite character in the series, and it pisses me off to no end, that Capcom would blatantly disregard him the way they did, by not putting him in the game, and then slapping his blueprints in the ending to throw it in peoples' faces. It disappointed me even more, when they got peoples' hopes up, making it seem as if he would appear in the Special Stage, but instead, it was that piece of crap police robot, Fake Man (GOD, that's a stupid name). Seriously, what does HE have over Bass? Fake Man is NOTHING. All he has is an average Buster-Shot ability, as well as just running and jumping. Honestly, this is Mega Man 9. It makes NO sense whatseover, as to why Bass wasn't included in this game. Especially if people try using the "storyline" excuse, saying that he had no relevance to it, because the same thing could be said about Proto Man. He had NO story at ALL, despite being a playable character. But according to Capcom (in the booklet that came with the Arranged Album for Mega Man 9), Bass was supposedly getting upgraded (which was most likely something they came up with at the last minute).
Don't get me wrong, I still like the game. I'm just disappointed that Capcom cared very little about what other Mega Man fans wanted, besides just the Mega Man 2 fanatics. You know, the ones who act as if it's the best thing since sliced bread? The people who act like no other game in the series mattered, but that one (despite the fact that Mega Man 3 was tons better than it)? I happen to like Mega Man 2, myself, but I also feel that it's a bit overrated. For some reason, it annoys me whenever I hear things about Mega Man 9 being a "true successor" to Mega Man 2.