Long before the days of Fallout 4, Dark Souls, The Witcher 3, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Destiny, Halo, and even Pokemon there was a game that brought the heat. It was a game that brought rage that broke controllers and the patience of gamers of all ages, and probably still does. This game was the original Dark Souls and Ninja Gaiden. Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, I am referring to the game starring the Blue Bomber himself: Mega Man! Unfortunately This article is not about a new Mega-Man game but it is about the hero who is very well the one who may be inheriting that legacy and bring us back to a day of incredible fun and gamer rage. This young budding hero is named Mighty No: 9.
Mighty No:9 is the upcoming 2D and 3D side scrolling platformer not from Capcom but from Comcept, the game studio founded by Keiji Inafune, the the producer and character designer behind the Blue Bomber’s look that we have come to know and love, or its final version at least. It also happens to be unique in regards to its conception in that the game was largely crowdfunded by players themselves via Kickstarter and is one of the first crowd funded game projects to be launched in Japan. The backers of the game even were allowed to have their own opinions considered in the games development and, via an opinion poll, were the ones who ended up choosing the design for one of the game’s main characters: Call.
The game takes MANY notes from the original Mega Man in that each stage has you playing as a robot named Beck who will be jumping, blasting, and dashing his way though each stage and facing of against another “Mighty” unit in a boss battle at the end of the stage. Like the Blue Bomber, upon defeating one of these “Mighty” units Beck will obtain new weapons and abilities while gaining new transformation forms as well. Beck also, after damaging enemies a certain amount, has the ability to absorb something from enemies called Xel by dashing through them. This Xel provides further enhancements to his capabilities but be warned, these ones are only temporary.
The gameplay appears to be very similar to the Mega Man X series in regards to not only the platforming style of making your way across the stage, but also the sheer difficulty and learning curve required to not die every couple of minutes. The levels are riddled with various traps that you of course do have the ability to manuever through of course but in order to actually accomplish this task you will have to take some time to get the controls for Beck fully under your fingertips to the point where you can make those split second decisions the Mega Man series is known for that will save you from falling into a pit of doom or quickly avoid falling pillars that could result in the ever agonizing insta-death. (Also probably saving you money on thrown controllers from gamer rage.) Of course with a man who has worked in EVERY MEGA MAN SERIES TO DATE at the helm of the production of this game, why would we expect anything different? Rest assured though, this game will still be fun, much like the previous robotic blasting adventures Inafune has worked on, and the difficulty and quick thinking required to master the game will serve to be a positive fun influence for the game as opposed to a detracting factor. In addition to this Mighty No.9 will feature several different gameplay modes including higher difficulty settings, single player challenge mode, Boss Rush mode, 2 Player Online Co-Op and Race modes, and many more including DLC content that comes free with retail copies focusing on one of the Becks major opponents: Ray. (A great way to put in DLC if I may say so.)
Mighty No.9 looks to be everything we missed about our favorite side scrolling robot blaster and is set for a release date of February 9 on PC, Xbox One, Wii U, and Ps4 and you can bet we here at Nerd Union will be taking some time to not only relive that old nostalgia but also build up some new memories with our new robotic hero.
For more information about Beck’s adventure check out the Mighty No.9 Website here.
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All information found courtesy of Mighty No. 9 Wikipedia and Mighty No 9. Official Web Page
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I’m really tempted by the Signature Edition including a numbered figurine of Beck but there are so many other games launching early 2016 – Street Fighter V (2/16), Far Cry Primal and Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare 2 (2/23) then The Division (3/8) – my wallet might force me to go for the Standard “Retail Edition”.
For those who’ll play from day 1, check out here a nice recap on all available preorder editions: https://twitter.com/GameEditions/status/689681783118438400