Mega Man 9 "Much closer to Mega Man 2"

GamesRader has an interview with Mega Man, creator Keiji Inufune. Things of major interest in this interview:

GamesRadar: By the sixth installment, Mega Man had gained several moves (sliding, charge shots, Rush help). Will any of these make it into part 9 or are you aiming for a more Mega Man 2-style game?

Inafune: Mega Man 9 will be much closer to Mega Man 2. As mentioned earlier, in the process of going back to our roots, we came to conclude that those fancy moves were unnecessary. There are many gamers who claim that Mega Man 2 is their absolute favorite. I took it as an indication that Mega Man is not all about the moves. The beauty of Mega Man actually lies in its simplicity and a fine mixture of simple gameplay, puzzle-like thrill of maneuvering tricks at the last minute, and battles. Instead of new moves, we’ve tried to find an excellent balance in the game design and to achieve “simplicity and fun” in the very detailed-oriented age.

Now I love me some Mega Man 2. Really, I do. It is one of my all-time favorite games. That being said, no slide and no Mega Buster? I'm still stoked for this game, but that as of now, is a tough pill to swallow. Sure, MM can work without those two skills, but it isn't like they hurt the MM games either.They also got some hands-on time with the game. Lucky chumps.

"And by experiment, we mean "die a thousand deaths," as Mega Man 9 is easily on par or above the hardest games in the series. Hell, we played for two hours and only made it to three bosses, and even then only beat two. Not too surprising considering we don't yet know which boss is weak against the other, but damn, these guys are hard."

"A lot of music is right out of Mega Man 2. The select screen (which contains more than the game, but we can't talk about that just yet) and power-up screen contain the exact same tunes played in MM2, and we also spotted some enemies taken right out of the archives. The charging Mega Buster introduced in MM4 is missing (at least initially) but Rush is available from the start - as Rush Coil, naturally. Sliding was also MIA, though we did see small tunnels suspiciously similar to those accessed by the slide move."

"There's more going on than the regular game, as the menu we mentioned earlier does hold other options. We're currently unable to talk about them, so expect Capcom to reveal a bit more during E3 less than two weeks from now. Let's just say there'll be plenty for hardcore fans to obsess over when it hits WiiWare this fall. "

So it sounds like the game is gonna be pretty tough as well.