Let me tell you. I love Mega Man. These games are the games that keep on giving. I…I… wait… Mighty No. 9? That’s a weird name for a Mega Man game.
Story
The game begins with Beck investigating a strange occurrence in which all operational/online robots suddenly begin to act violent. Turns out, there is a robot virus that has spread through all of the robots and has infected everyone but Beck. This includes all of Beck’s companions, the Mighty Numbers. Beck is the 9th robot in the group, hence the title.
There are a variety of stages that feature a boss at the end of the stage, not unlike most Mega Man games. You can choose from any of the initial 8 levels at any time. Once the Mighty Numbers are defeated and released from the virus, you go after the main cause of the virus. It’s up to Beck to stop the virus from infecting the world.
Gameplay
… Are we sure this isn’t a Mega Man game?
Alright. Alright. I’m just joking. Although I will say that I wish I was playing a new Mega Man X game. I’m so used to the X series that I would attempt to do things from that series in this game (e.g. climb up walls). So, if you’re used to the Mega Man X games, you may find yourself attempting to do perform actions from those games at various points in Might No. 9. I lost countless lives because of that.
The creators of this game may have gone a little overboard in terms of the instant death traps. More than 50% of most stages are instant death areas, or at least it seems that way. It gets old quick, especially with the “life” system. Can we all agree that the “life” system is a little outdated now? I mean, I get 2-3 tries to navigate the instant-death mazes littered throughout most levels and I don’t want to restart the entire level when I lose all of my lives. The irony is that most levels are relatively short, but are only padded with countless restarts due to the death traps.
Beck also “gets equipped” with weapons/abilities from his Mighty siblings after defeating them.
Again, like Mega Man, the weapons you receive give you advantages against certain bosses. For instance, Mighty No. 1’s (Pyro) weapon is strong against Mighty No. 2 (Cryo). The weapons range from extremely helpful to pointless.
One thing that differentiates this game from Mega Man is the Mighty Numbers will help Beck out in certain spots in different levels after you save them from the virus. They will eliminate enemies on the screen or clear obstacles for you. It’s pretty clever and I liked that aspect of this game. I don’t recall any Robot Masters or Mavericks helping Mega Man or X out.
The big difference between this and other Mega Man games is that you have to AcXel (a.k.a. AcXelerate) dash into bosses to defeat them (you can also do this to standard enemies for bonuses). This is Beck’s main ability and he can use it to cross pits and absorb Xel from weakened enemies.
Xel gives Beck a variety of benefits from increased weapon power, to increased speed, to better damage resistance. The AcXel dash can also be used to recover your sub-tanks… I mean AcXel Recover, which can heal Beck.
During boss fights, once you inflict enough damage, the boss will change color and you can perform an AcXel dash to permanently inflict the damage. That said, if you don’t AcXel dash into a boss fast enough, the boss has the chance to recover. This can be really frustrating given there’s so much happening onscreen that you sometimes don’t notice that that the boss is vulnerable and you miss the chance to AcXel dash into the boss.
The Verdict
All in all, I was disappointed with this game. I even went in with low expectations given that a lot of other people were harsh on the game. I will say one amazing thing this game has going for it is a 3 hour credits sequence. So there’s that.
I’m not entirely happy with the achievements in this game either. You need to obtain “Fine Plays” for doing specific tasks to the bosses but sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Other achievements have the player completing the game on high difficulties or speeding through the game.
Also, the game is apparently being pulled from the Japanese PSN. So, if you really want to try this game out, act quickly. Sounds like it may be removed soon.
One word comes to mind when I think back on my gameplay experience with this game: frustrating.
I give this game a Mighty No. 2 out of 5.
