Terrible. By far the worst classic Mega Man game and a strong contender for the worst game in any Mega Man series. The design choices in this game are profoundly stupid. All of them. The removal of charge and slide, the outrageously slow menus with the same texts being repeated endlessly, the overuse of spikes and jumps that require perfection, among other things.

When it comes to retro games, it's true that they're often associated with high difficulty, but also with well-crafted level design and overall good progression. This game lacks an interesting one. Instead it is repetitive, and excessively frustrating level design. It also amplifies the worst flaws of these retro games like terrible navigation menus. In some cases, it goes beyond that, EXACERBATING these issues. Mega Man 2, for example, was nowhere near as clunky as 9 is.

I'd probably give it an even worse score, but visually, the game has a charm and a few stages are decent. It's a game from 1986 stuck in 2008. But not from a competent developer like Capcom, but rather on the level of bad stuff like LJN games.