GamesRadar exclusively revealed Mega Man 9 for WiiWare today, also posting the first screens and giving some general information about how the several stages of the game will look and play like. Having a look at the screens one can now definitely rest assured that this is really going to be a blast for all retro gamers out there: It looks like a NES game indeed. There is not a single visual enhancement in there: It is a living 8-bit renaissance.

GamersGlobal already expected the game to be difficulty and as it appears, we were completely right with this assumption. It took GamesRadar two hours to make it to three bosses, and they only beat two of them. Traditionally, Mega Man steals the boss abilities of every defeated foe and can use them himself from then on. The abilities of Water Man are probably pretty strong against Fire Man (although those two guys won't exist in Mega Man 9; it's just the easiest example we could make up). So the game is going to get a bit easier when you find out in which order you should take down the bosses ideally. But it's still going to be tough, and we very much like the fact that Mega Man 9 will also give credit to the olden days by not tuning the difficulty curve down to today's standard.

Concerning the levels, there will obviously be one which features portals (Mr. Inafune, you didn't copy that from a certain Valve game, did you?) and hell yeah: There is going to be a disappearing-block level again. As well as the first female boss in the history of the franchise.

The game will also feature a shop, which we know from several Mega Man games already.

Head to GamesRadar for the full story. You will also find several hints about the main menu not only containing the access to the regular game there, but no facts are announced yet (oh NDA's, how much we like you). We can most probably expect some more surprise announcements concerning Mega Man 9 during the E3 which will take place less than two weeks from now. If we had to take a wild guess, we would suggest that you will probably be able to play some of the real series classics as well (although it will probably not be Mega Man or Mega Man 2, both already downloadable via the Virtual Console). Or probably Mega Man Deathmatch. Achievements? No, we're only kidding and making that up because we don't like to admit that we haven't got the slightest clue.

We however do have something else: the need to play this game. Here. Now. Please?