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.
The story is following a robot called Beck, nicknamed Mighty No 9, the 9th of a series of combat robots. It unfolds when some sort of computer virus spread out that contaminates all the Mightys, except 9, and he is assigned the task to stop the chaos created by the contamined robots. This kind of scenario is no stranger to those who played the blue bomber’s games. Unfortunately, it makes it very generic and forgettable.
We can definitely see the conventions set up by the game from what inspired it. After an introduction/tutorial level, we are able to choose the order in which the 8 robots can be defeated. They are all recognizable by an element that they control: ice, fire, wind, etc. One you beat them, you get its ability. Beck can defend itself with a gun on his arm. His movements are characterized by jumping and dashing. This is where the similarities with the original inspiration ends.
Dashing is an ability that was introduced in the Mega Man X franchise, and it was limited to a few times in a row. You needed to time it properly and it was put to good use. In this game, you can just dash infinitely, mid-air, as long as you’re fast enough to press the button before the gravity kicks in. It changes the dynamics completely and makes the platforming element a lot less dangerous as the other games. Or it could have been…
The level design in this game is just…bad, not to say awful. It seems the level designers just don’t love the players. The main issue on each level are platforming elements over gasps that result in instant death, which in some cases are combined with enemies, projectiles and environmental hazards. The constant need to slalom between all that and hope for the best can be tolerated in some cases, asking us to really be consistent and thorough in our analysis of the environment, but not with a game based just on that. Mega Man was an almost perfect blend of traps and combat through a variety of enemies. In this game, I would have difficulties naming more than 5 types of enemies for the entire game (excluding the bosses).
A nice idea was put in place in terms of gameplay though: instead of just killing an enemy by firing at them, at one point it becomes stunned and its color changes, with a little pixelated cloud over them. This is a signal that the enemy can be absorbed with a dash. It makes variety for killing the enemies and it is fun to do. For the boss battles, the same principle applies: you shoot until it becomes stunned, then you have a quick time to go forward and dash on it. If you’re doing it fast enough, you really inflict the damage you just did; if not, you have to start all over. It creates frenetic battle that can be enjoyed for some of them.
Absorbing the energy with a dash has a very useful utility: filling up energy tanks that can be filled and when full, it can be used as a healing item. This is a very well-known principle that every Mega Man uses. Here is the catch for this game though: if you die, you lose the entire quantity of energy that you accumulated. It wasn’t the case for the other games. It leads to very frustrating experiences where you can have 2 full tanks and lose it all because of a projectile that directly led you into a gasp. I cannot even count the amount of times this happened to me.
It also looks like all the resources were put into creating those levels, and that no attention at all was given to the story elements. The cut-scenes are the ugliest that I have seen on current generation consoles. They look so dated that could belong in a PlayStation 2 game at the beginning of the generation. They are also very stiff and the characters don’t even have facial animations when they talk. I was speechless when I saw that.
When I learned from a friend that backed this Kickstarter that it actually went back into public funding to allow voice acting to be incorporated, he thought (like me) that there would be some quality in there. We were wrong. Almost all lines of dialog are spoken with such over pronounciation and such exaggerated tones that it sounds like a bad Saturday morning cartoon. Only glimmer in this darkness : Steve Blum, an actor that did countless voices in many animation movies and video games. He plays a villain called Ray.
Despite its flaws, I still played this game for about 8 hours, because I’m a huge fan of the action platformer genre. For those that can overlook these flaws, there is still a game there. My play through only unlocked 9% of the trophies (I played on PlayStation 4). There are 2 additional level of difficulties and a lot of more modes like Boss Rush, Training missions, Challenges, etc. I have personally no motivation to go through those, because I didn’t enjoy the main game enough. You might think otherwise.
The game is available now digitally on Wii U, Xbox One, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 (cross-buy). It is also available physically on Wii U, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. There are still versions of Xbox 360, Vita, 3DS, Mac and Linux to come at an undetermined date.
