- Pyrogen and the first 5 Mighty Robots you encounter in the game all appear to be a throwbacks to the first 6 Robot Masters from Mega Man. 1 has the most in common with his supposed predecessor Fire Man. Like Fire Man, Pyrogen's design was based off of a Zippo lighter where Fire Man was believed to be based off of a torch or a knight.
- Jun 21, 2016 Mighty No. 9 is a Japanese 2D Side-scrolling Action game that takes the best elements from the 8 and 16-bit classics and transforms them with modern tech, fresh mechanics, and fan input into something amazing! Led by a veteran team with decades of experience, Mighty No. 9 promises to be an evolution in the well-known genre.
- 9's other interesting wrinkles though. This too is undermined. Since there's no limitation of any kind on the number of air dashes you can take, and virtually no cooldown, Beck is.
9 Gameplay Walkthrough with No Commentary. This playthrough includes all bosses, levels, all cutscenes, final boss & ending. If you like the video.
Mighty No. 9 has a unique struggle. It was proposed to Kickstarter backers as a Mega Man game (without calling it 'Mega Man'), but as development continued, it became a game that simply captured the spirit of Mega Man. That obviously confused fans. Reading the concept on the Kickstarter page and watching trailers, it's clear Mighty No. 9 is a skill-based platformer comparable to Mega Man, but it's not supposed to be the next Mega Man. It doesn't pick up and run with the gameplay luggage of previous Mega Man games. It also wasn't proposed as a re-skin because Comcept can't use the Mega Man IP. Ultimately, Mighty No. 9 is a retread. It's Keiji Inafune attempting to give fans more Mega Man without actually giving them Mega Man. The problem is it's so similar to Mega Man, people are annoyed it's not Mega Man.
Video Review
Mighty No. 9
A mighty challenge.
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Instead, you control Beck, Mighty No. 9. He is the only robot that has avoided a virus that corrupted a civilization of robots and every other Mighty Number. You're tasked with saving the other Mighty Numbers, get to the root of the problem, and save the day. It's hard to invest yourself in the story. It's an unconvincing attempt to provide context for a game that could stand alone with just gameplay. Mighty Numbers 1-8 have familiar Japanese tunes to their personalities but most didn't express themselves enough for me to connect with them. Ones like Aviator made me laugh, but the others made me raise an eyebrow or bored me with their humdrum temperaments. Beck especially falls into that category. To be fair, Mega Man was bigger than video games and Beck hasn't been around long enough for us to emotionally attach to him. But he doesn't show much to attach to. And though Beck and Mega Man differ in personalities, they also differ in abilities.
Beck can't charge his cannon, for one, but he can absorb enemy attributes. Beck has a dash move called AcXelerate, and when an enemy takes enough damage, you can use AcXelerate and absorb AcXel of other robots. Their AcXel sometimes adds abilities to your cannon. These abilities are temporary but they stack so you don't have to worry about losing them as you pierce your body through enemies. You also have to use AcXelerate against bosses in order to inflict permanent damage and that can be particularly challenging. Beck can also use the powers of other Mighty Numbers and switch them on the fly. You can designate up to three powers to different buttons. I wish you could add more than three because it gets tricky scrolling through the abilities while you're playing. But that is part of the challenge and Mighty No. 9 embraces challenge like a grandmother hugging her grandchildren.
I'm reminded of early 90s platformers. You need nimble fingers. You need patience. Trial and error is important and necessary, as well. As a side-scroller, there are a lot of blind spots so you can be on a roll but all of a sudden you hit an electric field that kills you. It can make your mouth drop. You have a limited number of lives but the game is gracious with checkpoints between lives. But if you lose all of them, you will have to start from the beginning, which can be heartbreaking. Difficulty increases equitably with your skill but each level also tests your use of those skills. It feels like the level is one step ahead when it's really an unfamiliarity with the nuances of a boss or segment. And like old-school games, once you get through it, it's easy.
Comcept made one accommodation for those who struggle, though. If you die too many times on Normal mode, a robot will drop random items that might help you get past a segment. Thankfully, the controls are responsive so any failure you have is on you, but that also means any success you have is on you and the explosion of joy and relief after beating a tough segment is extremely satisfying.
Mighty No. 9 also comes with offline and online challenges. The offline challenges are tests such as finishing levels as fast as possible under specific conditions, Super Smash Bros. style break the target levels, and time-trials using levels from the campaign. Online challenges set you against a random player and your goal is to complete the challenge before your opponent does. There's also a co-op challenge mode where one person controls Beck and the other controls Call - another character that is not a Mighty Number. This mode reminds me of Sonic 2 because if Beck gets too far ahead of Call, she goes into catch-up mode and that doesn't sound appealing. The online wasn't available to test while I was reviewing it but that is the gist of how online works.
My only complaint about Mighty No. 9 is the graphics and performance. We remember the trailer with the pizza explosions - and if you haven't seen it, YouTube it. Unfortunately, explosions still look like pizza. Thankfully, your eyes are so focused on the movement and action that you'll rarely notice it. Overall, the graphics aren't attractive and it's hard to tell if that's by design or in the spirit of old Mega Man games. If it's the latter, it doesn't look deliberate. The colors do pop, however, and the game would look considerably worse if it weren't for that. Also, animations like body movement lack charisma and the voice acting lacks energy. The framerate is choppy, as well. Keycue 9 0 download free. It mostly stayed around 45-50 FPS but when it hit 60, it was lovely. Sadly, it wouldn't stay.
Mighty No. 9's biggest struggles have little to do with the game. It's extremely challenging and offers plenty of ways for you to keep challenging yourself with simple but precise mechanics. It would be nice if it looked better and the framerate stayed at 60 consistently but those problems don't hurt what Mighty No. 9 is trying to do. What hurts Mighty No. 9 is that it's not Mega Man. So if you want Mega Man, keep playing Mega Man. If you want a game in the spirit of Mega Man, Mighty No. 9 will definitely satisfy that desire.
MIGHTY NO. 9 VERDICT
Mighty No. 9 went through a tough development and was rightfully scrutinized but it's a challenging game with great controls. Microsoft office cloud. The graphics could be better and the framerate doesn't stay at 60 but those problems don't ultimately hurt the game. What hurts Mighty No. 9 is that it's not Mega Man. So if you want Mega Man, you're better off playing Mega Man. If you want a game in the spirit of Mega Man, Mighty No. 9 will satisfy you.
TOP GAME MOMENT
Dodging enemy barrages by sheer instinct thanks to the responsive controls.
GoodvsBad
- Extremely responsive controls
- Very challenging
- Plenty to do what's the main campaign is over.
- Graphics don't have a distinct look.
- Framerate doesn't stay at 60. Hovers around 45-50.
- Voice acting and animations are lifeless.
There's a funded project on Kickstarter by the name of Mighty No. 9, which is being developed by a company called Comcept and billed as a spiritual successor to the Mega Man series. You can see why too; not only are the character designs and gameplay practically identical but it has Keiji Inafune -- director behind Onimusha, Dead Rising and Mega Man itself -- heading up the project.
Recently, Comcept appointed a new community manager called Dina Abou Karam. Her job seems to be to listen to fan feedback and forward it to higher-ups at Comcept. She's also posts blogs and updates on the game, manages the forums and basically acts as a go-between for the fans and developer.
The trouble is that Dina being appointed raised a whole host of questions amongst the many, many backers of Mighty No. 9. Firstly, Dina presented a piece of fan art of a gender-flipped version of Beck -- the male protagonist of MN9 -- and stated:
'As someone who cares about gender representation in games, please make Call [the game's female character] a playable character, or even better, make Beck a female bot alltogether [sic]! It shouldn't and won't affect gameplay! I started on some Mighty No. 9 Fan Art myself as a way to promote this Kickstarter/express my wish:'
Other than that, Dina tweeted that she was 'never a Mega Man player' but she supported MN9 because her friends and boyfriend were working on the game. Here's some screenshots of some of the entire situation:
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So what's the big deal? Well one of the reasons that fans of Mighty No. 9 and the Mega Man series are so frustrated by these developments is because they've been waiting a long time for a new iteration of the Mega Man series (and yes, this counts, albeit in a different form). There hasn't been a new
This video -- 'Mighty Number Nope: The Dina Disaster' by a Youtuber called InternetAristocrat -- gives a more detailed account of why fans would be frustrated than I can and provides screenshots from the backers-only MN9 forum. It goes into detail about the social justice causes Dina is interested in according to her tweets and mentions that she stated her favourite Mega Man game is Mega Man X .. after saying that she wasn't a Mega Man player.
Basically, it's understandable that the fans would be angry that a non-MM fan made suggestions that Comcept change the game to suit a personal ideology -- and be hired following it -- when that's not what the backers agreed to when they donated. They have a right to be angry over someone being hired who has been forceful when expressing her political viewpoints in association with the game (and the video by InternetAristocrat shows that Dina herself stated that she was hired because her boyfriend worked for Comcept). It's not what they paid for. Nor is it the person they want speaking on behalf of the backers/the Western audience. Here are some of the responses when Dina was announced as community manager:
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I should point out before I go any further that yesterday, Comcept released a statement saying that none of Dina's views actually effect the game in any way. Their statement can be viewed on Gameranx -- more on that site later -- but here's the important part:
I've never played a Mega Man game but personally, I think the backers who want a refund are completely justified, even with Comcept's clarification (and as clarifications go, it hits all the right notes).
There's a good reason why companies keep their business and personal lives separate -- in fact, in InternetAristocrat's video, it's stated that Dina deleted her tweets about never being a Mega Man player for that exact reason -- and the backers donated to this project in good faith. I don't want to sound overdramatic but Dina is an unknown quantity in this situation. It's fine to have feminists on development teams -- in fact, it'd be pretty hard to avoid and ridiculous not to -- and it's even fine to have people on a development team who are not fans of previous games in the series. Lord knows that having developers who are fans of the series doesn't always work; look at the Ninja Theory's DmC. However, that's not what the backers paid for. The Kickstarter page itself says the following [emphasis theirs]:
'Every aspect of development—art, level design, music, programming, etc.—is being handled by veteran Japanese game creators with extensive experience in the genre, and with Mega Man in particular, all the way up to and including the project's leader, Keiji Inafune himself!'Moreover, this is specifically someone who was hired following a suggestion of her own, game-altering ideas based on a personal, political agenda and who got her foot in the door due to her boyfriend putting in a good word for her in spite of being unfamiliar with the series. There's no real reason for her to be a part of Comcept any more than any of the other thousands (I assume) of bilingual Mighty No. 9 fans out there.
My issue with this entire controversy is Dina's initial suggestion of, 'even better, make Beck a female bot alltogether! It shouldn't and won't affect gameplay!' It's odd how if you said this about making Lara Croft or Samus male, all you would get is funny looks. Unusually, I've actually heard this suggestion before, about Link from the Legend Of Zelda series. I also heard the exact same thing when Peter Capaldi was announced as the next incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who. So why is it that when pushed for a reason why this should happen, the only response I ever see is 'why not'?
If the only reason why you should change a character's gender is 'why not' or 'because we can', then there's a problem. You could apply that to any characteristic and make the same claim. 'Why shouldn't the character be from Paraguay?!' Again, you could also say the same thing about gender-flipping female characters or making every non-white character Caucasian.
The reason 'why not' is because these are established characters -- or at least characters with an appearance more-or-less figured out in the artist's mindset prior to drawing them on a page -- and even in the case of a character who can change his appearance, such as the Doctor, doesn't it do more to establish new strong female characters rather piggybacking on the success of a one who has been male for half a century? What would that bring to the table except for tokenism?
Look, there are actually some quite plausible reasons for switching a character's traits during development, such as if the writer adds something to the mythology that would make it awkward for the character to be [insert race/sex/sexuality here]. Or perhaps it conflicts with something that was already there and needs to be changed to suit it. However, regardless of the reasons why, I would think we could all agree that two fans who 'care about gender representation' are not a good enough reason to alter the character designer and game director's creative visions.
Having said all of that, hopefully Comcept's clarification puts a few minds at ease. It's probably the best thing they could've done and maybe it will do the trick.
Anyway, one of the wonderful things about this entire controversy is that even though the typical parties have come out of the woodwork to express their frustration with the 'misogyny' towards Dina -- do me a favour and take a look at the comments pictured above. See any hatred of women? -- mainstream gamers don't seem to share that viewpoint. If you visited the Gameranx article above, you might've noticed that Ian Miles Cheong (yes, that one) disabled comments. It's hard not to believe he didn't do that because of the backlash against his previous article on the subject, the blatantly clickbait-titled 'Be Respectful and Considerate - Mighty No. 9 Kickstarter Explodes With Misogynist Rage'. Some of the comments are very satisfying to read, calling out Cheong for casually, and unprofessionally, making the Mighty No. 9 backers out to be misogynists.
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And my personal favourite:
Mighty No 9 2
When a game journalist -- even one as biased as Cheong -- actually starts throwing around the term 'misogyny' simply because people object to having the rug pulled out from under them on a product they paid for, game journalism really has hit its lowest point. I live in the UK and tracts like Cheong's are quite reminiscent of the snidely aggressive articles we see in the pages of tabloids like the Daily Mail.
Mighty No 9 1 09
Mighty No 9
In other words .. it's just a typical day on a gaming news site. Feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me at themalesofgames@gmail.com