Mighty No. 9

Mighty No. 9 has a strong gameplay core that isn’t better or worse than Mega Man—it’s just different. The further the game deviates from that core, however, the worse it becomes.

There are so many cool ideas scattered around the game that the sore aspects really stand out even more. Growing up such a huge fan of the Mega Man series has certainly left me starved in recent years, and Mighty No. 9 fills that void well. There is a great game buried in here, one that kept me coming back like the Mega Man titles I grew up with, but the rough edges really shine bright just when I start looking past them.

Color us not impressed: despite being delayed numerous times, Mighty no. 9 is a derivative, short and technically mediocre game. Recommended only if you truly miss Mega Man, and if you already played other (and better) tributes like Shovel Knight.

Mighty No.9 disappoints in almost any area due to an inaccurate and frustrating gameplay and a bad technical production with uninspired art. Unlocking the co-op mode only once the story has been completed was a bad and inexplicable choice, too. On the bright side, though, it's packed full of contents and when it works it can be frantic and entertaining. Not a total failure, but given the kind of talents working on it it's unluckily a huge letdown.

Mighty No. 9 fails to fill the shiny blue, metallic, oversized boots of its predecessor. The game manages to capture the essentials of the previous titles without capturing the essence.

If you are feeling nostalgic for Mega Man, dust off your NES or Super Nintendo; Mighty No. 9 is not the spiritual successor we wanted. It may look and play like Mega Man, but Comcept’s robotic doppelganger doesn’t have the heart of Capcom’s Blue Bomber. A sparkless facsimile, Mighty No. 9 never captures the excitement or creativity of Mega Man’s classic exploits

If you've got a hankering for old-school platformers (albeit ones bastardised by a few modern conventions) Mighty No. 9 is a game for you. If you were going to pick it up on a whim because you fancied a taste of Capcom's golden age, you're better off looking elsewhere. Hardcore gamers eat your heart out, but don't expect to sleepwalk through this one.

Mighty No. 9 is an inoffensively average game sprung from the memories of the past, with little to show for its position in the present.

A frustrating, joyless platformer that buries its few good ideas under apathetic nostalgia. [Sept 2016, p.77]

Mighty No. 9 is largely not fun, and irritating in many ways: controls, voice acting, repetitive music. It is a hollow and empty experience. This is pretty much the kind of game you'll buy when it's on sale dirt cheap to see what all the fuss was about.

What it is is a victim of extremely unrealistic expectations. Perhaps the famous Kickstarter campaign is to blame for that. Or maybe it's our nostalgia-fueled game culture. Or maybe some of us just don't have the patience for really hard games designed for kids.