What are you talking about 8-bit was pure awesomeness. Back then the games felt really well made and designed and the bosses were always tough to beat.
The RPG type gameplay of the Battle Network series and the Star Force series didn't cause the Mega Man series to go down. In fact those series are extremely popular over in Japan, especially the Battle Network series which hosted several popular Arcade Games, Cell Phone Games, Anime Series, Toys, Handheld Games, etc...
Personally this going back to the 8-bit Mega Man is a welcomed change from the usually hype of trying to pump out a new game with next gen graphics only for the game to fail because to much work was focused on the graphics then the actual gameplay. Besides, any gamer out there that has been playing videos games since back in the age of the Atari can tell you that graphics don't make the game. Its just part of it.
The graphics in the game are what visually bring the player into the games world, it doesn't give great gameplay, story, etc... For example, Chrono Trigger is getting re-released for the Nintendo DS. Now I could careless if they decide to do what was done with the Final Fantasy games on the DS and remaster it with 3D graphics. In fact, if all they did was port the SNES version to the DS, I would be happy. Why? Becuase Chrono Trigger by itself in all its 16-bit glory, is an awesome game. Sure, upgraded Graphics wouldn't hurt, it sure didn't hurt for the Final Fantasy remakes. But my point is that as long as the game is fun, it shouldn't matter if the game is in fully rendered 3D models, or in 8-bit graphics. As long as the game it fun and enjoyable, I'm happy.
Now I should add to that at to some extent graphics do matter a little bit, but what I'm about to say applies to both 8-bit games, and full 3D games. That point is that if the graphics of the game are so horribly done that it hurts to look at it, then you shouldn't probably play that game. For example, playing a game with a red background and you have a orange character. Things like that which cause it hard to play games. Now the Mega Man series had never had a problem with that so there is no need to worry about Mega Man walking past a wall that is the same color as him and getting lost where you are.
Trust me, I have a lot of experience with video games, I've been playing them since the days of Atari, or at least the Atari console my dad still had laying around the house. I've played games on the Atari Computer, and on a PC back before Windows 3.1 when all the games were DOS based. Trust me, that was fun
In fact, I remember back in the Windows 3.1 days when Space Quest IV came out. Man, and we thought that graphics on that game were awesome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKE4YExWcy8 <- Space Quest IV (BEST PC GAME EVER!)
lol, I remember back in the day when everything had to be user command imported. I can't imagine anyone in today's age coming out with a PC game which required to your type in every command and function.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uq8R7Zj9qE <- Exmaple. Anyway, Mega Man 9 sounds like it will be fun, and I hope that you can take something out of what I've said. I'm just trying to share my experience with video games period with other people because in this era, everything seems to be graphic based.
by XHunter » Sun Jun 29, 2008 8:56 pm 
