What went wrong with Mighty No. 9

Hello folks and welcome, Antti, to our merry group!

I remember that I was quite excited when I first heard about the MN9 project, since I have always been a huge fan of the Mega Man games. Those who are not familiar with the MN9 project, it was considered to be a spiritual successor for the Mega Man. The project contained all the right elements. It was led by the original Mega Man game series director Keiji Inafune and the crew contained several key people from the original series. The creation of the game was based on the online crownfunding website Kickstarter and received lots of input from the future players. I even donated some money to it. (50€ if I remember correctly).

This was several years ago. The game release was delayed many times, which was at least somewhat suspicious. But I wasn't too worried. As legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto has said "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.". But when the game was finally released, it received so horrible reviews that I lost all interest to it for several months. Even though I got it for "free" because of my money donation.

Yesterday something changed, I finally installed on my WiiU console and tried couple of stages (unable to finish). In short, the game did not feel enjoyable. I try to explain here the reasons why I did not like the game.

First of all, it did not look good. As a Nintendo player, I have to accept the fact the games are not as graphically advanced as the games on other platforms. And I'm usually fine with this. It is possible that the game looks good even though it does support the latest HD graphics. IMO, the overall style is much more important. However, the style in this game feels soulless. It has no character. For some reason, it reminds me of those awkward first 3D games in the 90s that looked absolutely horrible.

Graphics are, however, one of the minor issues in the game. The main problem with the game is the level and enemy design. I sensed that it tried to imitate the design and gameplay of the original Mega Man games, but it failed miserably. It was too difficult for all the wrong reasons. The original Mega Man games were also difficult but they were also fair. Rarely there were situations that you died and you felt that the game is unfair. MN9, however, contained lots of cheap deaths and the only way to avoid those is to play the stages several times. And even then you have to remember all the places where the cheap deaths are lurking. And when you finally are able to move forward, it does not feel satisfying. It somehow feels like you are cheating.

One of the things that made the original Mega Man series so popular, was the music. If you haven't listened those, you can find those from Youtube. My favorites are Scull Man, Cut Man, Spark Man, Snake Man and MM3 Wily's Castle themes. If I remember correctly, Inafune was even able to recruit the original composer to this project. However, for some reason, the music is nearly inaudible in the background and isn't nearly as catchy as in the original MM series. A huge disappointment.



I think also that the goal for this game was to make it more plot-driven compared to its successor. This would have been OK otherwise, but now the badly acted dialogs are all the time interrupting the game. This is not acceptable for a fast-paced platformer.

At least Ville should have this game as well. Have you tried it yet? What was your first expression? By the way, you could invest to one of these to free your hands when taking your dog out:

Br.
Olli