Today (September 22nd) is the 1st anniversary of Mega Man 9. In honor of this event, I am going to recap the events that led up to Mega Man 9's release (As I remembered it). Just keep in mind that I'm writing this at 6:11am, so I might have forgotten somethings / messed up the facts.

Back in the early 2000's, I frequently visited a well-known Mega Man site called Planet Mega Man ran by Lord Phoenix. I remember that one year, Planet Mega Man went to E3 and interviewed Keiji Inafune. One of the questions they asked was if we could expect to see a Mega Man 9 sometime soon. Sadly Inafune-san told PMM that he had no plans at that time to continue the classic series. I believe the interview was done in 2004 and at the time, it had been almost 8 years since the release of Mega Man 8.

In 2005 when the Wii, and PS3 were just announced at E3, PMM had a chance to interview Inafune-san again. PMM asked Inafune-san (If I remember correctly) if we could be seeing Mega Man games appearing on either the Wii or PS3. Inafune-san replied that the Nintendo Wii would most likely be the place where Mega Man could find a target audience. With that said, many fans started to discuss and debate the type of Mega Man games we could expect to see on the Nintendo Wii. Many instantly thought of a First-Person-Shooter type Mega Man game that could be based off of either Mega Man Legends, or the Classic Series. Mega Man fans grew in excitement waiting for when Capcom would announce the next console Mega Man game hoping for a revival of the classic series.

Three years passed and Capcom released several handheld Mega Man titles ranging from Mega Man Zero 4, to Mega Man Star Force. Many fans were doubtful that a Mega Man 9 would be made anytime soon. In fact, many fans had labeled the classic series as a dead series. But unknown to anyone else, Capcom had a ace up their sleeve. When news of Mega Man 9 was first leaked by Capcom's Australian Distributors when they registered the title at the GOV AU site, Mega Man fans everywhere started to get excited again over the possibility that the classis series would get a revival. Many fans stayed sceptical about the sequel as to not get their hopes up only to be disappointed.

When it was reported that Mega Man 9 had been confirmed in the August 2008 issue of Nintendo Power, Mega Man fans everywhere started to rejoice. Finally after 12 long years, the classic Mega Man series was getting a sequel, and not only that, but it was going to be in 8-bit. It was also hinted at and later announced that Protoman would become a playable character for the first time ever in the classic seires and that Mega Man 9 would be sporting DLC (Downloadable Content). At this point I remember being so excited that not only were we getting a Mega Man 9, but that it was going to be made in 8-bit graphics like Mega Man 1 - 6 to try and compete with the infamous Mega Man 2.

On July 11th, IGN released an exclusive first look at the Mega Man 9 trailer. The 8-bit music and graphics just made fans even more excited and made the wait for the September 22nd released date even longer. Besides being the first Mega Man game to feature DLC and Protoman as a playable character, Mega Man 9 shocked and surprised fans by introducing the first female robot master "Splash Women".

When Mega Man 9 was released on September 22nd, 2008 (One year ago) on the Nintendo Wii, it became an instant success. Mega Man 9 became the number one downloaded WiiWare titled and held that rank for several months. On October 28th, 2008, Capcom Unity member "Turian" asked Capcom about a set of tiles found in Mega Man 9 that were never used in the game. The sprites in question were Mega Man / Protoman doing some sort of throwing action. Seth Killian, Community Manager at Capcom, posted the following reply on the topic.

There's only one undiscovered Mega Man 9 secret that I know about, and this ain't it. Smile

So no, no secret weapons hidden in there!

best,

Seth

Seth's comment started a fan frenzy, and Mega Man fans all over started to looked to see who could find this undiscovered secret. Capcom community members and Mega Man fans, got together and shared with each other what they found which they thought could possibly be the "Unknown secret". To this day fans are still searching and sharing their discoveries with the rest of the community hoping that the "Unknown Secret" can be revealed. Many fans are hoping that Seth will shine a light on this secret after nearly a year of looking since today is the 1st anniversary for Mega Man 9.

In February 2009, Nintendo Power held their Game of the Year Awards. To little surprise, Mega Man 9 was awarded "WiiWare Game of the Year" with a 39% vote from the Nintendo Power Readers' Pick. In addition, Mega Man 9 was awarded "Best Shooter/Action Game" with a 44% of the Readers' Pick votes.

As of September 21st, 2009, Capcom has announced plans that they will be doing something special on September 22nd (Today) in honor of Mega Man 9. Unfortunately for those people hoping for it to be related to the "Undiscovered secret", it won't. Its only a matter of time before we find out how Capcom plans to celebrate Mega Man 9's 1st anniversary. Considering how successful it was, I'm hoping that do something big to honor our Blue Bomber :P

From everyone at The Rockman Anime Music Video Station, we congratulate Capcom on the success and 1st anniversary of Mega Man 9. May Mega Man bring prosperity upon you.

Fight Mega Man! For Everlasting Peace!