REVIEW --- Mighty No. 9

Mighty No. 9 is an action-platform video game developed by Comcept, in conjunction with Inti Creates, and published by Deep Silver. The creation of the game was based on the online crowdfunding website Kickstarter and incorporated heavy input from the public. Mighty No. 9 closely resembles the early Mega Man series in both gameplay and character design, which project lead Keiji Inafune worked on, and is considered its spiritual successor.

The minimum Kickstarter goal for Mighty No. 9 was successfully funded on September 2, 2013, after only two days of the creation of the campaign. However, several other features including additional stages, special modes and ports to other platforms were confirmed after additional "stretch goals" related to it were achieved, increasing the total funds obtained to over 400% of the original goal.

The game was released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Wii U, with the PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS versions still in development. Abstraction Games and Engine Software are porting the game onto the PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS respectively. The game was originally scheduled to come out in April 2015, but was delayed multiple times, with the game eventually being released worldwide in June 2016 on all non-portable platforms except Xbox 360, OS X, and Linux, with the portable versions still in development and slated to come out later in 2016.

The game was highly anticipated when it was announced, but lengthy delays and Comcept's decision to fund another project, Red Ash: The Indelible Legend, through Kickstarter were met with accusations of mismanagement. The game received a generally mixed reception from critics and Kickstarter backers upon launch. The game's design, graphics, content, voice acting, and technical issues were criticized, and critics agreed that the game failed to live up to expectations.

Plot:

Mighty No. 9 stars an android named Beck, the ninth unit in a set of combat robots called the Mighty Numbers. At some point a form of computer virus attacks the rest of his fellow units, as well as machines around the world. The player, as Beck, must fight the rogue robots and discover the villain who threatens the fate of the planet. Alongside Beck is his partner, Call. Comcept previously held a fan opinion poll in order to determine the most popular mockup design for Call. As a result, concept design "F" was selected as the base design for the character. The name Beck was chosen as "his creator wanted him to have a human name, unlike his peers", and also because it fit his partner's name as well (as in "Beck and Call").

There are three scientists involved in the story, each with a specific part to play: Dr. White, the robotics designer who created Beck and the rest of the Mighty Numbers; Dr. Blackwell, the inventor of "Xel" technology that provides the basis for the Mighty Number and all robots in the game; and Dr. Sanda, who also works in "Xel" technology and has created Call but plays an otherwise unknown role at this point. Designers from Inti Creates as well as Comcept are both working on the designs of the characters in the game and have noted that "each [character is] intended to have his [or her] own unique look" within the art design.

The Verdict:

Like I mentioned on social media, I honestly don’t understand the hate with this game from gamers. Sure, Comcept didn’t  deliver on a lot of crowdfunding goals (I still want my Mighty No. 9 anime :’( …) and the game was hit with setback and multiple delays, but you’re mad over the crowdfunding goals then you only have yourselves to blame from investing that much money on a video game or any Kickstarter for that matter when you have no idea where your hard-earned cash is going. For that part, I’m not holding any ill-will or resentment against Keiji Inafune towards this game. I honestly can’t even remember if donated anything towards this project or not, so if you guys see my name in the game’s ending credits then let me know because I’m not still around for FOUR HOURS watching the end credits…

You have to be insane to think that the final product was going to look the concept art here that was shown at the START of development when the title was first announced. 

Right out of the box or rather right off the bat if you bought the game digitally, the game looks pretty decent, despite people being disappointed that it doesn’t look like it did in the original promotional footage that was shown for the game when it was first announced. C’mon people, this is Killzone 2 all over again. Games tend to change visually from the time of their initial development until the time gamers get their filthy hands over said game. 9 times out of 10, it’s NOT going to be the same thing that the developers showed off in initial trailers and previews.

In terms of gameplay, everyone supporting this game should have known right off the bat that it’s homage to the classic Mega Man series with a few subtle nods to the X series.  Beck has the basic arm cannon that Mega Man has sported in the traditional classic Mega Man franchise but he also has the ability to absorb Xel from weakened enemy robots by dashing into them. This is an ability that will become a staple of combat in Mighty No.9. It’s effective on every enemy in the game, including bosses. If you don’t weaken bosses and absorb their Xel quickly enough, they will fully recover their health and make things even harder for this totally unforgiving title.

The game isn’t throw your controller in frustration hard, but NES era hard where it takes a lot of trial and error to memorize patterns and devise a proper strategy to each of these stages. On Normal difficulty, the game actually gives you more items and power-ups to help you out if you die repeatedly on a single level. On Hard and Hyper, there’s no type of help to serve as forgiveness for your mistakes on those higher difficulties. I did feel like it was a cop out to recycle and rehash the Yellow Devil for the final boss of this game.

Instead of acquiring a single weapon from each of the defeated Robot Masters, …err Mighty Numbers, Beck acquires the ability to absorb their Xel and use their powers in a new form called a ReXelection. These powers change Beck’s appearance and grants him a new ability and special weapon. Some of these powers cost weapon energy, others don’t, but this game is a little more generous in the aspect that Beck’s weapon energy automatically recharges after a few seconds of nonuse. I suppose this is to prevent players from spamming weapons for Inafune doesn’t end up with another Metal Blade on his hands. Each of the ReXelection abilities bring something new to the table but I personally felt that Countershade, Battalion, and Brandish had the most powerful weapons in the game, especially with the latter offering almost near-infinite weapon usage and some invincibility during usage.

In terms of story, I was a little underwhelmed with the plot until the reveal about Dr. White’s “true” identity and revelation behind Trinity being awakened again. I thought it was pretty cool that all of the Mighty Numbers help Beck out throughout the course of the game after Beck “cures” them of their malfunctioning circuits. How can I hate the Mighty Numbers for their hilarious banter throughout their boss fights or while assisting Beck throughout the many stages? I won’t lie – I was annoyed at their taunting when you die or get game over versus the Mighty Numbers as they made fun of your mistakes and piss poor judgment.

Speaking of that, Comcept should have taken out the “Advice” tab description on each of the Mighty Numbers’ stages. After you defeat one of them, it’s just a matter of skimming around until you notice the corresponding Mighty Number comment on their siblings’ stage to know which ReXelection will work on that corresponding Mighty Number. That makes the process and more importantly, the fun, of figuring out the boss order less fun altogether. I guess it doesn’t matter too much as each of the Mighty Numbers’ stages is a hurdle of difficulty each in their own right on multiple fronts.

At launch, the game was full of glitches and bugs. I was playing the game on last-gen consoles (notably Xbox 360 which was delayed at launch until later that week but still came out with several bugs and glitches) and ran into quite a lot of these bugs. It wasn’t until the week 2 patch was when I was able to have the game register and save my achievement and trophy support instead of deleting it every time I launched the game on my console. That was a little heartbreaking but at the same time,
I’m not an achievement/trophy whore so I wouldn’t mind replaying the game again just to battle the Mighty Numbers again. On top of that, I ran into a glitch a few times where my game would crash completely if I looked at the achievement that unlocked after defeating a boss. I had this happen during one of my streams of the game where I just said fuck this and went to play something else. I guess Inafune and Comcept got a TON of complaints after week 1 as I haven’t had any of those issues after the week 2 patch. There’s still an occasional slowdown or drop of frames when there’s a lot of enemies onscreen or a ton of explosions but it’s not so bad that it ruins the gameplay experience.

I wish the game gave you more than one level to play as Call with. Her solo level was a nice break from Beck’s head-on approach and I wish we got more of that throughout the main game. Maybe Comcept will be convinced to give Call some solo Challenge missions or DLC stages in the near-future? She’s playable in Online Co-Op Mode as well, so at least there’s that much.

Buy It or Don’t Bother?

At this point, everyone has pretty much blacklisted this game, but I’m not butt-hurt or irate at Inafune for what we were given here. At $19.99 it’s not a bad game. I don’t know what everyone else got at launch as I’m speaking for the last-gen (Xbox 360) digital version here, but I was more than satisfied with my purchase. Inafune’s even going to give fans the RAY DLC for free as an apology with the physical copies, so what else do you want? I still say the people who are mad about the Kickstarter only have themselves to blame if they felt like they were ripped off off the end product. You should be happy that you got anything – if at all, especially given how most of these video game Kickstarters have horror stories and unhappy endings.

All that I’m asking is that my fellow gamers and Mega Man fans to appreciate this labor of love for what it is – a homage to the Mega Man gameplay that we have known and loved. Is it perfect? No, but we knew going in that it was going to be a throwback to classic Mega Man games. It's not like Capcom are going to do anything new with the Mega Man franchise outside of re-release the older titles anyway. 

REVIEW -- Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z

Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z is a third-person combat game in the Ninja Gaiden franchise by Tecmo Koei. Keiji Inafune produced the game, providing character designs and creating the character of Yaiba. The game was released for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows platforms on March 18, 2014.

I personally remember being VERY excited for this title when it was announced at E3 a few years ago, but after the tidal wave of negative reviews and feedback came out following the retail release, I was skeptical to buy this title at launch. Now that I'm plowing through last-generation titles on my gaming backlog, I finally got around to playing this bad boy... and let's just say it didn't go as well as I expected.

(Whistles) Let's get this over with shall we?

The Plot: (FULL Spoilers)

The game follows the exploits of the powerful ninja Yaiba Kamikaze. Yaiba was once part of a clan that tested the abilities of its ninja by putting them up against a highly skilled member; in this case it was Yaiba they had to face. However, after growing weary of his work, Yaiba eventually decides to massacre his own clan and leave the survivors to their deaths. At one point he meets with the franchise mainstay Ryu Hayabusa and decides to challenge him, claiming that he is the weakest foe Yaiba has encountered thus far. During the battle he discovers otherwise as Ryu slices Yaiba's left arm and eye, killing him.

Later, Yaiba is discovered by a mysterious organization known as Forge Industries, led by Alrico del Gonzo, brings him back to life and restores his lost body parts with mechanized duplicates, thus turning him into a cyborg, with a female named Ms. Monday as his navigator. Yaiba learns that a zombie outbreak has begun and that Ryu has been searching for the source of the infection. He decides to work with the Forge Industries that resurrected him in order to exact his revenge against Ryu, agreeing to help put a stop to the spread of zombie infection.

Upon finally encountering Hayabusa again one last time, and manage to defeat him, Yaiba finds out that Forge Industries has been manipulating every events, such as unleashing the zombie outbreaks and using him as a tool and self-destruct bomb to kill him and Hayabusa to further the organization's plan. Yaiba decides instead to sacrifice himself to festry the bomb and spare Hayabusa's life in order for him to save his disciple from, Momiji. Upon his revival by Ms. Monday for the second time, she too defects Forge Industries due to Del Gonzo's attitudes and manipulative nature, having unleashed the zombies for his own purposes of seeking immortality.

Once Yaiba landed in an abandoned, yet zombie infested Forge Industries building, Yaiba finds a portal to what appears to be an Aztec-themed alternate dimension and found the real Del Gonzo, whose seems to be in dying state and inside a tube. Though unable to stop Del Gonzo from transforming into the embodiment of the Aztec god of the underworld, Yaiba manage to find a weakspot to make him mortal again. When Del Gonzo trying to escape from Yaiba's wrath, Ms. Monday appears in person and kills Del Gonzo for good. With the portal to the real world closing, Yaiba and Ms. Monday barely escape. In the end, Yaiba and Ms. Monday decide sell the data of curing zombification. Unknown to them, Hayabusa is observing them.

The Verdict:

I can't believe that Keiji Inafune attached his name to something like this. I guess he wanted that cheap plug for Mighty No. 9 as that DLC costume, but still, geez man... Then again, not every Mega Man title was good either, so yeah.

At first glance, this is a VERY buggy and glitch game. Oftentimes, I could find myself getting past troublesome areas (read: difficult for most players new to the Ninja Gaiden series) due to the fact that the enemy AI would glitch up offscreen and fail to spawn more henchmen or fall through the environment and allow me to continue regardless.

In terms of gameplay, this is a VERY short game. The Story Mode spans rough 8 stages (two of those stages are entirely boss fights) while sporting a lackluster narrative, fueled by Yaiba Kamikaze's bloodlust for revenge against Ryu Hayabusa. While I found myself chuckling and laughing at most of the banter between Miss Monday, Del Gonzo, and Yaiba, the game tries TOO hard to be provocative for no reason in terms of content. As a result, Yaiba comes off a huge moron throughout the narrative.

Speaking of enemies, the game sports little to no enemy variety. You'll be spending the duration of the game fighting the same 3-4 enemy types the ENTIRE game, either the standard zombies (Stiffs - along with their elemental counterparts, Clowns, or Punchdrunks), electric Zombrides, fire Priests, or toxic hags. The game also recycles the bosses over again towards the end of the game, so you can tell that Team Ninja didn't spend much time cooking up enemies during development.

Enemy AI is cheap to the core. Be prepared for a LOT of cheap deaths due to attacks offscreen and bad camera angles. Seriously, I thought we left bad camera angles back in PlayStation 2-era gaming?

Don't get me started on that boss fight against Ryu Hayabusa that literally gave me blisters on my thumbs and almost wore out one of the buttons on my controller from the QTE mini-game during this sequence. You need a LOT of luck in that one. I've heard most players say it took them about 200+ continues to complete that level, but I lucked out after roughly 40 attempts.

EVERY in-game enemy in the game falls victim to the Mega Man-esque element weakness tree in a twisted version of rock, paper, scissors. The system is hit or miss but you're going to be forced to depend on it in the game's more difficult encounters, such as a room full of roughly 20+ fire Priests or 10+ Zombrides. Ugh...

As a result of this system, Yaiba's basic attacks don't do much damage, if at all to anything but the basic zombie types (Stiffs). Your best offensive combo is flail to sword x 4 (on X360: B,XXXX or Circle, Square x 4 on PlayStation 3) or flail to cyborg arm (B,YYYY or Circle, Triangle x 4). The first combo is great for crowd control while the later is better suited for one-on-one encounters. Don't abuse the first one too much on Stiffs as you'll have a mob of angry flying torsos after you on higher difficulties.

The lack of a lock-on targeting AND means to jump (replaced by a evasive dash in combat) is absolutely jarring. I know that the Flying Swallow technique is like one of the most OP (read: over-powered) moves in the Ninja Gaiden series (despite the fact enemies can actually block and evade it in Ninja Gaiden 2 and 3), but there's NO reason to strip away the means to jump out of combat completely. I personally found that omission to be completely moronic in terms of game design.

Buy It, Rent It, or Don't Bother?

I'm honestly swaying towards don't bother here as the first few levels will turn most players (even the most dedicated Ninja Gaiden fans) before they get to the more enjoyable parts of the game. At the same time, there's a few good things to discover with this game when you get to the latter half of the game and the Ninja Gaiden Z bonus mode was a great unlockable to give you something to do after completing the main campaign.

I highly suggest renting it if you can, because even the $7 for this game brand new is a bit much in terms of what you have to put up with in this game before it pays off and you actually enjoy it - even that is a big what-if. I'm not going to lie. Most players will throw their controllers or break them out of sheer frustration playing this game. Seriously, if you're new to the Ninja Gaiden series, skip this one. If you're a series veteran like myself, play at your own discretion. There's very few things to like here, but the bad far outweighs the good.