#inafking

So, whilst I'm still working on my replay of Mega Man 7 (you think I'm reviewing these things after just one play? Poor form!) I decided to change it up and throw Mighty No. 9 into the mix.

Y'know, the one INAFKING (Keiji Inafune) himself left Capcom to make in lieu of there apparently not being any new Mega Man games -- before Capcom made the, frankly, fucking spectacular Mega Man 11.

MN9 is not spectacular.

So the Internet has decreed, this is an abomination of a game that neither lived up promises from the Kickstarter campaign, or to its premise as a Mega Man spiritual follow-up. Only, I think in the terms of the latter it kinda did. And kinda didn't.

Mega Man, much as I've come to love the series of late, is not the best thing ever. It has swings and misses like any other series (including a certain other blue hero-starring action platform game with an evil genius villain and his penchant for robots) and has more than a few entries that are so 'more of the same' as to be nigh-paralysing with the onset of crippling deja vu.

Mighty Number Nine has swings and misses, and is kinda more of the same (especially the basic formula of 'eight robots with various elemental attributes/weaknesses, followed by an endgame sprint). So far, so delivering on the promises as a game. But it makes some bold decisions in terms of overall game design that could've, maybe, in some parallel universe where they were executed well, elevated this over being a hum-drum tribute to its father series.

Before I continue, yes I am ignoring wholesale the debacle that was the game's Kickstarter promises and botched launch. I didn't back the game, I wasn't invested in it, other people can tell the story way better than I can. And when I managed to purchase the game for a reduced price circa mid-2017, I wasn't bothered much then either about anything other than how fun the game was.

And was it? Is it? Well, for me, yeah. Kinda. On the surface level it's a slightly-tame Mega Man clone, except the boss weaknesses work a little differently; they don't seem to be a method to absolutely steamroll the Robot Masters, um, the Mighty Numbers as much as offer a way to nullify certain attack patterns or gain other advantages -- thankfully, then, there's no refight boss-rush near the end of the game. But also, on top of this the game attempts to offer replayability with stage rankings and a combo system using the game's dash/absorb 'AcXeleration' mechanic for high scores, but it falls flat on its face and lends more an air of layout rote-memory to the affair than it does creative gameplay and improvisation.

Swing, and a miss, as I say. It's got some charm in places; I personally love the Mighty Number designs -- all apart from player character Beck himself who I could honestly take or leave. And, honestly, the banter between them during the game is great and I'd have loved to see more of them in future installments. But conversely, the game is marred by some occasionally-sadistic placement of instakill hazards in the platforming, overly-long basic boss fights (even with those, uh, "weaknesses", heheheh) and a completely unimpressive aesthetic.