Mighty No. 9 Reviews
As an homage to Mega Man this is almost a complete failure, especially given the only successful elements are those that have the least to do with the original games.
Mighty No. 9 promised many things to the fans of the legendary Mega Man, however developers weren't able to keep their huge promises. Instead of an entertaining platformer we received an uninteresting game, which tries to hide its flaws behind hardcore difficulty. Simply said, that's not enough for a modern player.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Mighty No. 9 may be one of the most disappointing games I’ve ever played. At the start, we were promised a spiritual successor to Mega Man and we didn’t get that. Gameplay wise, Mighty No. 9 isn’t a bad game, it’s just muddled down with bad design, poor characters, and other technical issues.
At the end of the day, Mighty No. 9 is simply an average game. That is not a terrible thing, it is not what I would call a bad game. Certainly the hype surrounding it helped to elevate expectations that it did not and probably could not have met, so tossing aside the Mega Man comparisons and taking Mighty No. 9 for what it is? You have a bland-looking game with some interesting mechanics that deliver some entertainment without doing anything to make itself a memorable experience. There are worse things than that, but there are also better.
After a Kickstarter project that has received more than $3.5 million (US), and many delays in the development, the expectations were high regarding the game created by no other than Keiji Inafune, the creator of Mega Man. Seen as a spiritual successor of a franchise that is loved by a dedicated fanbase, the game was seen as a way to scratch that itch: the need of a fast-paced action platformer like its blue bomber cousin. Unfortunately, the result is not as strong as it could have been: this is not a Mega Man game and is not as fun as its ancestor.
When the gameplay fails to hold your interest, and the presentation doesn't offer any impetus to continue, I find it hard to recommend Mighty No. 9.
One of the most frustrating aspects of the level design is the game's liberal use of instant-kill environmental hazards. They appear frequently and in ways that trigger cheap and frustrating deaths
This game could have been so much more had it not been saddled with a weight of expectation as great as being a spiritual successor of the Mega Man series. It isn't bad, it's just painfully average. For all the clamour and claims that had been made about the title nothing in it actually lives up to the hype.
Mighty No. 9 is a game that unfortunately was never going to meet the unrealistic expectations placed upon it. It was certainly compelling enough for me to want to finish the game.
Mighty No. 9 isn't a bad game, but it's generic in gameplay quality and suffers from technical issues that hamper the experience. If you wanted a brand new 2D platforming experience in the vein of the old Mega Man games, then this is probably something worth your time. Just don't expect anything more beyond that, and be ready to restart your Wii U in case of a bug or two.
The phrase that best describes Keiji Inafune's infamous spiritual successor to the classic action-platforming franchise is "aggressively mediocre." In fact, Mighty No. 9 is such an average video game that reviewers could give future mediocre games a Mighty No. 9 out of ten and it would serve as a perfect indication of their quality.
With the lack of tight controls, an honest challenge and the addition of a generic plot and characters we're left with a totally average action platforming game that promised the world.
The final line of dialogue in the story posits that only time will tell if "this Mighty No. 9 is a blessing or a curse." The statement probably wasn't meant to be as fitting or applicable to the finished game as it ultimately is, but maybe it was a rare moment of introspection.
Mighty No. 9 created very high expectations and could have reached a perfect formula for success but as it is, it failed to capture Mega Man's essence and doesn't build up on what its inspiration did best.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Mighty No. 9 is not a terrible game, nor is it even a bad one - it's just plain mediocre. From its downright disappointing visuals to its flat music and bland-at-best level design, everything about Mighty No. 9 screams of mediocrity. And let's be clear - if this were a fan game made by a small group of devoted Mega Man fans it'd be deemed more impressive. Yet this is a budget retail title developed by one of Mega Man's lead designers, which also had involvement from Inti Creates, a proven studio with hits like Mega Man 9 and Azure Striker Gunvolt among its credits. We're not sure where things went wrong, but Mighty No. 9's finished product is just a "mega" disappointment.
Mighty No. 9 attempts to breath fresh life into the 2D platforming genre but it lacks the polish and magic that made Inafune's iconic series such a staple of 90s gaming.
Mighty No. 9 can have its moments when its platforming and shooting tickles that same nostalgic bone that makes us love Mega Man, but its poor design makes it more frustrating than novel.
Regardless of how much you like the Mega Man series, in Mighty No.9 you're unlikely to find a game that comes close to that legacy.
In its day, Mega Man went from a pioneering force in action game perfection to the poster child for redundant, cookie cutter sequels that failed to push the genre forward. Mighty No 9 does present a few concepts that feel like they could have been the next iterative step. Even if it had avoided its many pitfalls and baffling design choices, though, it's likely a few decades too late for such minor improvements.