I normally avoid writing reviews for games I don't complete because there's no shortage of negativity online and making games is really hard. But I backed this game on Kickstarter (I'm Mighty No. 28384), I was invested throughout its development process, and I wanted to journal my reaction to playing the final product.
I would say I'm a bigger fan of Mega Man's iconic character design and in-game art than his actual games. I've played and enjoyed his titles over the years, but never as much as more forgiving platformers like Mario or Sonic. I backed the project because I was a fan of Keiji Inafune's design work for the series, and his promise to deliver a modern take on the franchise appealed to me. In the same way that Broken Age and Armikrog expanded upon but streamlined classic point and click adventures I found difficult to play as a newcomer, I hoped that Mighty No. 9 would do the same for run and gun platformers.
Unfortunately, I walked away disappointed.
Visually, the game fails to live up to the concept art. Characters are expressionless, poses are symmetrical and clunky, textures and lighting give many elements the appearance of inflatable balloons. It's fine to avoid modeling fine details (like segmented arms/legs), but the execution fails to capture much of the original's dynamic energy.
I had fewer expectations for the environments, but I have to mention a particular underwater portion of the "Water Works Bureau" level. The color of the water that fills the screen seems as though it couldn't possibly have been intentional. It's a baffling design choice, captured well in this GIF from Kotaku's review:
It's definitely disappointing to see Inafune's sensibilities as an illustrator aren't shining through. But I'd forgive these quirks if the game was a blast to play. Unfortunately, it isn't. And perhaps most frustratingly, there's glimmers that it could have been.
The game's clearest differentiation from the Mega Man series is its combo system, which involves dashing through wounded enemies, ideally in rapid succession. When I first encountered this system in-game, I loved it. It's a lot of fun to leap over an obstacle, fire a few rounds at an enemy, and then dash right through them in a burst of speed. I thought the feature might save the game.
Sadly, it doesn't. Because as often as the game encourages you to use the feature, it punishes you just as often for using it. Most of the time, enemies line up in a row, which means you can only "wound" the closest one. If you dash through that first enemy and hit the second, unwounded enemy, you stop dead in your tracks and take damage. If you dash through an enemy and hit anything, you stop.
It is so phenomenally frustrating to be shown a feature, to have fun using it, only to have to consciously avoid it altogether, that I found myself wishing they hadn't even bothered... especially given the game's finite lives (by default 3, but you can bump it up to 9) and invisible, infrequent checkpoints.
I wanted to give this game the benefit of the doubt. I've had good luck with crowdfunding so far, and some of the games I've really enjoyed have seen their share of backlash (Broken Age) or critical dismissal (Armikrog).
In this case, I think the negativity is spot on. And that's a shame. Shipping any game... even a mediocre one... takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears. Inafune has a lot of experience, most recently as a businessperson. I hope future episodes of the documentary series shed more light on what the heck happened.
In the meantime, I'll be playing something else. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
