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Mighty No.9‘s review starts with identifying that this game was funded through KickStarter and was probably one of the most anticipated titles for gamers for a long time. It was published by Deep Silver, who were in charge for the new Dead Island: Definitive Edition which I reviewed earlier in the year, and developed by Comcept, who are led by Keiji Inafune, formerly of Capcom, and a lead developer for all of the Megaman games. Comcept formed in 2010 and started their life with Soul Sacrifice for the Vita, which is a decent game with some cool artwork.
If you don’t know much about Megaman then you need to find out. In fact, you need to get Megaman Collection on the Gamecube and enjoy the challenge. Megaman games are basic, you can run, you can shoot, you can jump and you can climb but that is about all. However, they were and still are amazing, offering great 2D platforming and the kind of challenge you need in a game. I was desperately hoping that this one was going to, once again, take me back to the days of Megaman and the fantastic fun I would have sitting in front of my NES. So, let’s see what a Kickstarter project can offer.
As you switch on the game you are greeted to a screen showing all the nine characters from the games, and they look superb. At this point, I was pretty excited… then 20 seconds later you hear a very familiar Capcom sounding voice saying “Mighty No 9”. The repetitive riff on this screen is extremely annoying and I hoped wasn’t going to be the premise for the rest of the game. No spoilers here but… sadly, it was. Now I am going to spend the next five paragraphs explaining why you shouldn’t buy this game. You might just have found out that, somehow, this game is actually worse than Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan…
So, as you would expect, they kept the gameplay basic and this is what we all wanted. Once again, with Mighty No.9 you can run, jump, shoot and hang on ledges. You have the ability to AcXel through a bad guy once you have depleted their health. This makes for some combos, but they offer absolutely no excitement… maybe a few trophies but absolutely zero thrill or fun. One of the biggest problems this game has is that it doesn’t offer too much of a challenge. I would say that a few of the Megaman games were extremely challenging, but they kept you motivated.
I found the bosses quite hard in this game but also found them boring. They were introduced in a similar way to Battleborn and then you fight the most mundane boss you will ever see. Afterwards, you can use their skills, but this adds absolutely nothing to the game and you’ll only find a couple of them worthwhile. The controls don’t feel right and the character’s movement feels clunky. The story is boring and due to it being able to be completed in any order doesn’t flow. The story will take you around four hours to complete and you won’t feel any sort of achievement. Damn. Someone really could have done something good with this game but, instead, they gave me this. Devastated.
Seriously… the game sets the tone for the sound right from the start. You hear the generic Megaman-style of sound which, I have to admit, I didn’t mind, although I got annoyed with it quite quickly, but I have to say, that the voice acting is some of the most monotonous, boring audio I have ever heard. How can a game use voices which are so uninspiring? I am not lying by saying that the first time I played this game I fell asleep on my incredibly uncomfortable gaming chair. That is literally how bored I was, with the noises polluting my ear drums. It is worth reiterating that the general sound isn’t too bad and reminded me of Megaman and Sonic – this won’t be the last Megadrive comparison I will make. You will also get deeply offended by the noise our hero, Beck, makes when he jumps. Seriously, this was so annoying that I ended up playing the game with the sound off for long periods of time.
Graphics have to be the biggest downfall of the game. When you look at the game screen, the only thing which looks okay is the picture of the character in the top left corner. The pixels around the characters look horrendous, like they’ve quickly been created by a kid on Scratch. The backgrounds are dull and boring and every 3D object looks like someone has put the least amount of effort needed into it. Oh wait, don’t get me started on the smoke and fire. Shocking.
I think I understand what the creators were trying to do. The original Megaman games always looked good but, indeed, were plain. That said, true fans knew that this was something that should have and easily could have changed. I can wholeheartedly say that Mighty No.9 offers the same quality of graphics as Alien Storm on the Sega Megadrive, and that might just be too cruel to Alien Storm. In addition, this game has horrible framerate issues. How can that actually happen in the era of the PS4? I think this is a question a lot of people want answered.
God, how I wanted this to be fun and how I was let down. I feel like I have explained why this game isn’t fun but just in case you need a recap: the sound is average, the graphics are rubbish, the gameplay is in between rubbish and average and at no point will you be happy with the life choices you have made to be playing this game. I kid you not.
Overall, even though this isn’t the worst game I have ever played, it really is the biggest let down. I hope the next big Kickstarter campaign is half decent…
Mighty No.9 is out now on PS Vita, PS4 and and PS3. Click on the packshot for the full-size version.
Thanks to those Youtube channels featured for the gaming footage.
Important info:
- Publisher: Deep Silver
- Players: single player, two-player online co-op
|
GRAPHICS SOUND GAMEPLAY ENJOYMENT |
4 5 5 4 |
| OVERALL | 4.5 |
Directors: Koji Imaeda and James D Mortellaro
Producers: Keiji Inafune and Nick Yu
Music: Manami Matsumae and Ippo Yamada
I have been a video game player since 1993 and a music fan since I can remember. I studied Film and Journalism at university and ended up becoming a Primary School teacher. Video games changed my life and sent me on the right track and have stayed with me ever since.