To say I’m disappointed with the way Mighty No 9 has turned out is a gigantic understatement. Originally, I was going to go with a Xbox 360 or Wii U version. Instead, I opted for the Vita version. Why? Honestly, I didn’t know at first, but something in my gut warned me about the other two versions. Considering how the Wii U was suffering from bugs, and the Xbox 360 version has now been delayed on release day, I seemed to dodge a bullet. Well, one of the bullets from the hailstorm of artillery raining down on everyone, as the handheld versions have been delayed.
I was patient with all the delays, not even batting an eye. After all, I was confident there would be major improvements to make the game run better. Not to mention I was already looking forward to other Kickstarted games more than Mighty No 9, like Cosmic Star Heroine, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, and Indivisible. Plus I have a gigantic library of games to complete and review for my YouTube channel. Others complained about the delays, but I thought we just needed to be patient.
Another thing I should mention is that I am not that big of Mega Man games. This is partly due to my lack of skill, but it doesn’t mean I hate the series. My favorite incarnations of the blue-bomber were Battle Network, Legends, and X series. I funded Mighty No 9 out of spite against Capcom. Remember, around the time the Kickstarter for MN9 emerged, Capcom was not doing much of anything with Mega Man, and had made a reboot of Devil May Cry that to this day makes me cringe. I was also warned against supporting this too, as Inafune was the one to actually kinda set Capcom on this path of westernizing some of its games, which resulted in stuff like Bionic Commando (which had the hero’s wife be his robotic arm), and the reboot of DMC. I was willing to give MN9 a chance though, as it seemed like Inafune learned from the experience at Capcom, while Capcom was being sent into a spiral of mediocrity, damn near destroying series I loved.
Then Inafune announced Red Ash, and doubts began to surface.
It was set to be a Mega Man Legends clone, but the thing is, MN9 wasn’t finished yet. Inafune was asking for lightning to strike twice. What he didn’t count was a typhoon to slam the idea into the ground. Even after getting help from a Chinese company, Fuze, he still had the Kickstarter up to promote DLC for the game. They should have started with this idea when Mega Man Legends 3 was cancelled. The amount of angry fans back then would have supported that in a heartbeat. Moreover, Inafune should have finished MN9 first, judge what his audience wanted.
Then there was the trailer for MN9…I don’t think I need to comment on this much, but pro-tip: don’t insult the fans of your game when you are planning a goddamn anime for this series too!
And he didn’t learn from this, as we eventually find out some more reasons for the delays. He wanted to make a franchise out of MN9 before it even hit store shelves. An anime, a movie, even a sequel for characters we barely even knew about! It was kinda what Capcom wanted to do, as they wanted to make the DmC reboot to eventually make a movie off of the new series. Judging by what fans thought of the reboot, it’s clear that wasn’t going to happen. On top of that, I had only just found out that MN9 received additional funding, and thus expected a much better product. Then again, at most, here’s what I expected and wanted: a game that worked. No need for patches, no game-breaking bugs, just a satisfying and fun experience.
Judging by the immense negative reception to the game, and the amount of bugs reported, he made the jump into a spiky pit.
There was a similar experience of waiting on a game to be finished, the wait was killing me, but I did want the game to actually work. The game in question was a English-translated version of Summon Night 5, and I had pre-ordered the physical edition. It missed the release window, and the Vita version had some annoying bugs too. I had sold the Vita version to a friend, as I was eager to pull out my PSP again to play the physical copy. Months passed and I was growing more impatient. But I did eventually come to terms that if they messed this release up, and my copy had bugs, I would forever be upset and lose faith in their work, especially because PSP physical games cannot be patched now due to the Vita taking over the main market of handhelds for Sony. I eventually my bug-free copy and am currently loving it. Took some delays, but they delivered on exactly what they promised.
MN9 has not despite its delays.
In short: I want him to learn. I want him to care about delivering a satisfying product. I want him to avoid these same damn mistakes. And the stakes are raised, as a Vita isn’t exactly easy to develop. I follow Zeboyd developers, and they discussed how unexpectedly difficult it was to develop Cosmic Star Heroine on the Vita, yet claimed how they tried so hard to deliver a good product. THAT is what I hope to see Inafune and his team pull off.
I have a Vita TV, and am curious how they are going to handle this. Even if this game is not compatible with the Vita TV, I can just give away the code, or get a PS4 and just listen to news about the Vita port. I’m sure it will take a year, maybe more, maybe less. Either way, I’m just waiting to see if Inafune is willing to make the same damn mistakes he made on this launch, or actually learn from this experience, and make a much better running product. Only time will tell.
