The GamePad simply mirrors the game, but we mostly used the TV screen as characters and foes can seem rather small on the controller alone.
And don't be proud - with all the cheap deaths in this game you'll want the maximum nine lives, at least for some parts. There are also multiple difficulty levels, and on normal you can adjust how many lives Beck starts with. The music is generic, meanwhile, and the option to switch to retro, chiptune-style fails to excite as the compositions are so simplistic. 9 looked a lot better, and while it's understandable that concepts and vertical slices are often unrealistic for a final product, there's no reason for a 2016 sidescroller to look this modest and for it to run like it's trying to process something on the level of the new Legend of Zelda on a GameCube. Quite frankly, the visuals are mystifying in their rough, poorly shaded and lifeless state.
If there's too much happening on screen the game will behave like it's on a PC that can't handle the software. The game performs poorly overall on the Wii U, struggling to maintain a stable pace. The netcode feels completely broken, and both modes would have been much better suited to local play.Īmazingly, we're not quite done with the negatives yet. The consensus here is simple: don't bother with the multiplayer. In the race mode - which felt janky and borderline unplayable - you go head-to-head with another player to make it to the end of one of the eight main stages. In the co-op challenge mode, you and another player (playing as Call) go through small stages and eliminate enemies. The online multiplayer modes (which were partially blamed for the game's constant delays) run poorly. All of these feel half-baked at best and completely tacked on at worst we'd have much rather had an excellent single-player experience than this messy array of features that are clearly only there because they were promised as Kickstarter stretch goals that hadn't been properly thought out ahead of time. 9 has a challenge mode with small missions, as well as multiplayer and boss rush-style modes. In addition to the eight stages (and late-game levels that most Mega Man fans will expect), Mighty No. One cool addition is that defeated robots will come back to help you in certain situations, but this doesn't have too much of an impact. After defeating a robot you can get a hint as to where to go next by seeing which stage has an "advice" button. But for the most part, Beck's powers are only useful for a single stage (following Mega Man's "rock-paper-scissors" formula) and feel rather redundant otherwise. Some of them are helpful one power allows Beck to fall softly and slowly while another freezes enemies and gives you more time to dash and absorb. To make matters worse, the powers that Beck collects aren't as satisfying as they should be. 9 is content to mostly copy its predecessor's gameplay mechanics. But where games like Shovel Knight took their inspiration from retro classics and made wholly original, compelling experiences out of them, Mighty No. 9 doesn't deserve criticism for its surface similarity to Mega Man the game was pitched to backers as a spiritual successor, after all. White and sister Call, Beck tackles eight missions in any order, defeats the robots and gains their power. 9 you play as Beck, a nice and gentle robot who has to go on an adventure to stop and recover eight other "Mighty" bots, all of whom have been corrupted under mysterious circumstances (sound familiar, Mega Man fans?). 9's journey from concept to finished article has been a bumpy one - and now that it's finally here, we can't help but feel a little short-changed. But after some controversial delays, questionable communication between the Kickstarter campaign and its backers and a shaky launch, Mighty No.
Billed as a spiritual successor to Capcom's seemingly dormant Mega Man series - a lineage Inafune is closely connected with - this new project was supposed to bring back everything fans loved about the Blue Bomber and introduce a new IP that would develop into its own successful franchise. There are few Kickstarter projects that have gained as much attention as Keiji Inafune and Comcept's Mighty No.