Mighty No. 9 Reviews
Mighty No. 9's dash mechanic is a lot of fun, but bad art, imprecise hitboxes, and awful level design make the experience extremely frustrating.
Mighty No. 9 is cut straight from the heart of one of Capcom's best-loved franchises, but suffers several wounds in the process. Whilst it makes some attempt to shine on its own merits, I can't help but feel it's this retro love that holds it back. Frustrating, uneven and painfully restricted; something made all the more apparent by its current-gen status.
Frustrating to play and a pale imitation of Mega Man, Mighty No. 9 is unlikely to command the same reverence as its older cousin.
Mighty No. 9 is occasionally fun and inventive, but it fails to leave a lasting impression.
This feels like an answer to why Capcom isn't making Mega Man games anymore
Mighty No. 9 then is definitely a missed opportunity, not only in terms of crowdfunded gaming but also as a homage to what made the Mega Man games so great in the first place.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 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.
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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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.