Chronicles: Mighty No. 9. The Disappointment.

Before I even start getting into things, let me clear some stuff up so you can have a better understanding about where I'm coming from. I am, in fact, a huge Mega Man fan. Long story short, Mega Man 3 was the very first game I played on the NES when I was a kid. Therefor, when I talk about Might No. 9, I'm talking about it as someone who is incredibly passionate about the ideals, and history the game tried to represent. Second, this is NOT a review. If you'd like to read a review of the game, check out Andrew Reiner's review on Game Informer, it's the most comprehensive. I just don't feel like I can be completely un-biased about the game, at all. So, with that being said, it's been a while since I did something like this, but here are my complete thoughts, chronicling the kickstarter, development, and release of Mighty No. 9. 

I want you to picture this. I log onto Facebook to see a post from the getmeoffthemoon page (a really cool Mega Man fan page centered around Mega Man Legends) with a video from Keiji Inafune, with him explaining his new game. I, for good reason, freaked out and clicked on the link immediately. This happened to bring me to the kickstarter page for a little game called Mighty Number 9, a spiritual successor to Mega Man. This was 2013. 

For those of you who don't know, Mighty No. 9 was supposed to be the return of the classic Japanese side scrolling games. These were games that thrived on twitch reflexes, memorizing enemy patterns, and solving the puzzles each section of the game presented. Developed by the father of the beloved Mega Man games, Keiji Inafune, the game had huge promise. His company, Comcept, announced a Kickstarter campaign, and within 2 days, raised the $900k goal they had set. After that, money kept pouring in and eventually reached over $4,000,000 in total funds raised. It was one of the most impressive Kickstarters ever, and really showed companies that there is still a desire for the older games of a past generation. 

Backers got to choose which version they'd want for Call, the sidekick

Okay, everything I just said there seems great right? Like, how could any of this possibly go wrong? Comcept even went as far as to release bits and pieces of recorded footage of them developing the game. Interesting. Those pieces would eventually be put together into a documentary. Honestly, if the campaign would have stopped at $900k, I think a lot of issues wouldn't have arisen. Believe it or not, at the time, there was major hype for this game, and people couldn't imagine any part of it failing. From the beginning, everything seemed to be going smoothly. The updates we rolling in, and gameplay footage was shown regularly. For what it's worth, that's exactly how you're supposed to do a kickstarter, keep everyone up to date with what's going on-perfect. However, the updates started slowing down and less and less information was being released about the development of the game. Eventually, the info just stopped. Now, it takes a lot of intestinal fortitude to ask complete strangers for $1,000,000, it really does. However, once you get 4 times the requested amount...that's it, no more...all done. You can't come back and say, "We need more money for things that have nothing to do with the game itself". Okay, so the Ray stage was pretty cool of them to create, but the friggan voice acting? We didn't need that. So there you go Comcept, there's an extra $400k, now what? Eventually, the campaign ended with them raising a ton of money for what started out as a simple game. It seemed like it was getting more and more out of hand every day. 

So, developing games is probably very difficult to do, trust me, I'm not doubting that. However, it's also not my fault that game development isn't easy, and to say this went through developmental hell, is an understatement. I know what a lot of you are thinking, "What about games like Kingdom Hearts 3, Final Fantasy XV, and The Last Guardian?" Let me tell you the difference, those games were forgotten about. That is exactly how it sounds, the game studios put their respective games down and said, I'll get back to it...and didn't touch them, for a very long time. The huge difference is, Mighty No. 9 was being worked on, constantly. Which means, I can only imagine, the amount of stress that plagued the team working on it was immense, because it was stressful just watching from the outside. The game was supposed to release on April 28th 2015 but got delayed to September 2015, then that got delayed to January 2016, then THAT got delayed to June 2016, and now we finally have the game. You know, over a year late. Yikes. The development issues, I believe, can be directly tied to another game Comcept announced at E3 2015, ReCore for the Xbox One. Now, I don't know for sure, but one can assume that Microsoft dumped a truckload of money on Inafune's porch and told him to make a game, so he did, at all costs. The issue is that Comcept isn't really a huge studio to begin with. So now you have some people working on Mighty No. 9, and some working on ReCore. Let's say the game began development at the end of 2014 and they prepared a rough build for E3 2015. That means the development of Mighty No. 9 must have been completely halted for the announcement of ReCore, which explains the delays considering the game probably wasn't even finished at the beginning of 2015. In fact, I have doubts that the basic game had made much progress at all by the end of 2015. 

This was from the demo...looks the exact same huh? 

that's a long list...

It is mid year 2016, Mighty No. 9 just released, and it let me tell you something, it looks exactly like it did in the first videos we were shown during the kickstarter. Nevertheless, it came out. It's no secret the reviews are bad. I don't think it deserves all the hate it's getting, however, Mighty No. 9 isn't a good game. Not by any stretch of the phrase. It is a shallow, lifeless version of what I believe Inafune wanted it to be. Think about this for a moment. At one point in time, Keiji Inafune was excited about Mighty No. 9. Hell, he even talked about franchising it out, making a dumb cartoon about it, and really owning the idea. Somewhere down the line, that excitement faded, and eventually disappeared. Nothing sums it up better that his own quote when being interviewed about the games response, "It's better than nothing..." That is a line from a man who is disappointed, and he should be. He had these ideas of grandeur, making a new Mega Man game for the people who wanted Legends 3, and who miss Mega Man X; this was for them. Then that passion died. Let me tell you something, $4,400,000 is a lot of money. Like, a lot. There were 16 stretch goals for the kickstarter that the $4,400,000 had to achieve. That sure is a lot of content considering this was supposed to be a $900,000 game. It literally needed to be 4 times the size of it's original idea, there was no way it could live up to the expectations.

I still think the cover art is amazing, just saying

After everything, I think Inafune lost touch with what Mighty No. 9 was supposed to be. I honestly don't think he wanted it to turn into what it is now. It's hard to say really, but I think he saw the failure coming. Effort shifted towards ReCore and Mighty No. 9 was left in the dust. It probably wasn't that extreme, but it sure felt like it. I feel bad for Inafune. However, I hope he learns from the mistake and continues making games. I don't know if we'll ever get a good Mega Man game again, and honestly, I'm okay with that. I want people to remember Mega Man for what it was, and not what it was turned into. As for Mighty No. 9, I think it's best if we all just forget this ever happened.