Mega Man 9's item shop is the future of Mega Man's past

Though it's intended as a sort of continuation of Mega Man 2, Mega Man 9 still manages to sneak in some elements from the later games. The item store is full of things that have shown up in Mega Man 6 and later, which is fine! We like later Mega Man games, and the idea of synthesizing the best elements from the whole series is a sound one. Plus some of this stuff is really helpful.

You can use the bolts found throughout the levels to buy these items. Just for reference, we saw several of these bolts in the E3 demo levels, but couldn't reach any of them. So good luck! You can probably figure out what they all are from looking, but we'll describe them for you as well after the break.

• 1up: well, okay, you know what that is.

• Energy tank: stores life energy.

• Mystery tank: stores life energy and weapon energy.

• Eddie Call: summons Eddie to give Mega Man a random item.

• Beat Call: summons Beat the bird to attack.

• Energy Balancer: Sends weapon energy pickups to the weapon with the least energy.

• Guard Up: Cuts damage in half.

• Shock Guard: Allows Mega Man to step on spikes once without dying.

• Costume: The description on the website says that Roll wants to show you her favorite costume. Probably allows you to play as Roll -- or Mega Man in drag, who happens to look just like Roll.

• Hair Style Book: Gives Mega Man a new hairstyle. We're guessing it's something on the order of "Not a Helmet"