Mighty No. 9: A Comprehensive Game Design Analysis

[@niceteal]

Long-form, hyper-specific video game analysis videos are my favorite videos.

[@Jason0binladen]

Long form over complicated statements of the obvious are better

[@mushymcmushington7176]

I prefer long form unnecessarirly jerkish replies, myself

[@HappyMan0203]

Nice T.L. If you're a fan of this sort of thing, look up KZbinr "Noah-Caldwell Gervais".

[@Jason0binladen]

MushyBird McMushington I was being serious though, no sarcasm

[@s_SoNick]

The Geek Critique is another channel that does great long-form analyses of games, as is Mark Brown's "Boss Keys" series

[@sompret]

"He's a businessman, not a creator." ~ Hideki "Do you eat shit?" Kamiya

[@Carsonj13]

If he allowed this game to slip through the cracks he's a terrible business man.

[@solar464]

can you explain that nickname?

[@sompret]

+solar464 It's his reply to Luke Plunkett from Kotaku when Luke, in his usual, infinite Australian wisdom, asked a really *really* stupid question on Twitter.

[@tkpantol]

Joshua Madoc What was the question?

[@sompret]

+tkpantol www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=507443

[@BigBossMan538]

If you think about it, the bosses helping Beck in stages is kinda neat. It's actually heartwarming! But ture, they could've handled it in a way that didn't blow the boss' weakness.

[@sethmichel6138]

I think there is a way to do it well, not having them help the main character in the main stages, but the final stages. 3-4 stages with 2-3 previous bosses appearing per stage and offering help but the player can decline, maybe throw in a collectable your help will take if you accept their help, maybe a card with bonus info. With this I've made it so the bosses help you, players can choose to have an easier or harder time, and players who choose to be challenged are rewarded

[@gino14]

My solution would have the bosses lend help in a stage order that is _not_ the bosses weakness order. This creates 2 separate "optimal" tracks the player can progress through. In addition, two different optimal tracks increases the likelihood that players who wander in their own order will randomly come across a boss helping them(which is heartwarming) or a boss being weak to a weapon Beck just happened to have(which is neat when you're not looking for it)

[@michaelzaiser8088]

Agreed. Great idea, bad execution.

[@EL4701.]

My personal solution to this problem would be to make it so that the bosses appear in the stage housing their weakness. For example, instead of Countershade appearing in Aviator's stage, he'd appear in Dynatron's stage, as he is weak to Dynatron's weapon) That way, if you're going in weakness order, you'll only get help in one stage, the last one. (e.g. Pyrogen appears in Aviator's stage) This would introduce players to the help mechanic and spark their curiosity about what else the bosses help with. This gives the player a choice; easier levels and more difficult bosses (help from the bosses but no weakness for the stage boss) or vice versa (weaknesses for bosses but no help throughout the stage). It would create a fun dynamic for the game while not spoiling the exact weakness chain on a first playthrough.

[@AlsoMeowskivich]

falling elevator done right idea: have the elevator begin to shake, and have it fall piece-by-piece starting from the left going towards the right to encourage the player to quickly find a way out.

[@DrShaym]

My biggest complaint about the game is the graphics. Not just because the game is ugly, but because the screen is always so cluttered with small, brightly-colored moving objects that I can't see what I'm doing half the time.

[@fullmetalgamer6062]

It failed to make the bad guys cry like an anime fan on prom night. That's what went wrong.

[@plasmaoctopus1728]

It instead made megaman fans cry on all nights.

[@SlammedOnGasoline]

It made capcom make a new mega man game because it was so bad.

[@SirBlackReeds]

@@SlammedOnGasoline So, it's the Hunt Down The Freeman of Mega Man games?

[@Horrorfreak106]

It's funny because mighty no. 9 does exactly what ego raptor said not do do in terms of telling the player what to do (or lack there of rather). It's even more ironic because they plastered a drawing of him in one of the levels too lol.

[@pepsifuhrer4828]

Horrorfreak106 he apparently pledged over $2000

[@bigvidboi4909]

Arin always sucked at decision making

[@isaacargesmith8217]

That LP channel decision was a good one at least.

[@chriskallen1]

With that in mind, do you think at least one high-level person on the devteam intentionally sabotaged things? There are only so many times you can ignore when a tester or programmer tells you "this part is wrong" before game design becomes a demented ego trip.

[@Despatche]

Egoraptor isn't exactly right. His videos are not gospel.

[@RunicSSB]

26:03 Did you forget about the Remote Cannon, the thing that can one-shot almost any enemy and has an AOE the size of Australia? Speedruns of the game use it almost exclusively because of how astronomically broken it is vs. mobs.

[@MajorZelDaFan1234]

i think my favorite part of this is you can clearly see this man's strife about discussing this game for so long, in the sense that around the 4th video he's begun adding more goofs and memes and jokes but started out very serious and insightful. I love it.

[@unwritten_zephyr]

"Gah, if only I could see the future! I wouldn't have played this game..." Are we not going to discuss the genius that is that line?

[@gulorful8488]

I didn't watch the whole video. When did he say it?

[@HollowCats]

Gulorful I know I’m 2 years late, but 46:16. You’ll need to rewind idk 10 seconds before to get the context behind that quote.

[@dbgr9875]

@@HollowCats I've only seen it's trailer, but is it a Xenoblade thing?

[@HollowCats]

Daniel Griffith I'm confused by what you're asking. The context behind the quote in the timestamp is that the game doesn't give the player enough time to react to certain things, so he says "if only I could see the future". However, if he could see the future at all, he wouldn't have played the game to begin with because he already would've been able to tell it was awful. I don't know anything about Xenoblade, so I wouldn't know if it had anything to do with that.

[@dbgr9875]

@@HollowCats If you watch the Xenoblade Chronicals 2 remastered trailer, I think that something like in this video happens. Something near Shulk explodes, and he was all like I wish I could see the future so he could have prevented that, but I get the joke that this vid makes.

[@dragoon3zero]

i didn't even know we had an alt-fire

[@JRokujuushi]

I can still go back to the campaign page for MN9 and get excited by it. Then I remember the game came out and I've played it. The campaign made the game seem like it would have more of a strategic element to it with stuff like how absorbed energy could be unleashed at will, and transformations would have more utility than being just another weapon. Somewhere along the way, it feels like they completely changed the design philosophy and tried to make the game more score-oriented with a focus on speed - completing a level faster gets you a higher score; quickly absorbing an enemy gets you a higher percentage, which gets you a higher score; getting multiple 100% absorptions gets you a higher combo, which gets you a higher score; you can get Quick Clear and Sprinter score bonuses for quickly getting through enemy gauntlets and platforming sections. It even extends to the gameplay - absorbed energy activates automatically, save for the sub tanks, and even they can be activated with the press of a button without going into a menu; weapons are selected in realtime without going into a menu (although you still have to press a button to activate it which is slower than it was in Mega Man X, but it's probably to account for the animation and model change during transformations since it's not as easy as a simple palette swap); the level select tells you if you have the weapon needed for that stage's boss so you don't have to deal with figuring it out for yourself; only one weapon is of significance in each stage (like Bat's weapon in the Mine stage - Mic is weak against it, rocks can be blown up by it, Bat shows up in the middle of the stage to assist - compare to Morph Moth's stage in MMX2 where Morph Moth is weak to Flame Stag's weapon, but you can find a secret upgrade using Wheel Gator's weapon); revisiting stages is pointless because lives and sub tanks get reset after each stage. I still want that game concept they showed in the campaign. Let me turn into a tank to cross spikes and get an upgrade. Let me decide on my own when I want to activate my blaster upgrade. Let me move blocks into position to access an alternate path. Let me have a double jump. Let me grab and remove enemy shields. Let me use an attack that blasts an entire screen of enemies at once. That all sounds fun.

[@likeanuuk6612]

take my thumbs up. just because you mentioned mmx2, take my thumbs up.

[@khaosklub]

I had little hope for that kind of game. it was too ambitious, and in 3D? all the modelling required? it's like Kirby meets mega man essentially.

[@plasmaoctopus1728]

Erik Red "all the modeling required" well this was a 4 million dollar game I think more detail in the models should be somewhat a given honestly....

[@hariman7727]

The campaign sold Mighty No. 9 as both Megaman X9, and as almost a Metroidvania. I'm still waiting for my 3DS copy, to actually see if it really is that damn bad.

[@elchar3577]

i'll have two number 9's a number 9 large a number 6 with extra dip,a number 7 two number 45 one with cheese and a large soda

[@BrawlYoshi]

You guys seriously know your shit. When I first played it, Although I went into it wanting to hate it, I thought it was good, though not Jesus Christ walking on the water like everyone originally hyped it up to be. All the criticisms toward the game itself I heard were "it's average" and "it's mediocre". You guys, however, really went above and beyond in your analysis of this game. I would love it if you did more videos like these. Your let's plays are fun, but it'd be a lot cooler if you'd go into the nitty gritty like this one.

[@V0ID115]

They have a dedicated channel for that: It's Game Soup Analysis and the profile pic is a Gameboy Panda instead of a... Cat?

[@Catmomila]

+V0ID115 I guess it's a tanooki suit.

[@texannationalist5887]

no, it has a cat face

[@charleschase7945]

BrawlTheMan Man that level design in later stages turned me off. Down dashing through a certain pathway with spikes at the bottom with no way of knowing and not being able to cancel a down dash made the experience frustrating. They should have put in mechanics where you could avoid danger with precise timing such as stopping mid down dash and doing a forward dash.

[@Tirgo69]

jumping jumping barrier

[@VideoGameAnimationStudy]

Superbly deconstructed! I love when a creative solution is offered!

[@GibusWearingMann]

"Here's a hint: It's broken as fAnyway,"

[@GibusWearingMann]

"Here's a hint: They're broken as fDo you have any thoughts"

[@michaelcrandall6399]

I hate the dash mechanic to kill enemies. That ruined the game for me. It's supposed to be run and gun. Not gun then stop before you accidentally kill the guy, the dash before it's too late. Just a bad gameplay feature imo

[@joepodkalicki]

I guess we know why Capcom doesnt deal with him anymore

[@lsebastian9086]

Between this and Kamiya's history with him...it seem s obvious he was becoming a problem for them

[@heartlessmushroom]

Watching this made me realize that even I wanna be the guy, a game meant to be a big joke played on the player, is in theory less frustrating than this. In games like IWBTG, 1001 spikes and Super Meat Boy (listed in order on how refined their game design is) the game is very good at telling you 3 simple rules right away 1.-You die in one hit 2.-Shit happens, never get complacent, ever. The whole game is filled with nasty, hard to avoid deaths you must constantly be on your guard for.. 3.-Keep moving,dont hesitate too much once you got the pattern down Not to mention the two details that make all the difference: infinite lives(or clever tricks to get infinite lives), and quick respawns on the level or the section of the level you died in, so you can pretty much try over and over and get good at it, rather than going all the way back once you run out of lives and having to sit through dialog and cutscenes all over again in the process. The sooner the player can retry a difficult , the less frustrating it can be. Instant death is frustrating when the game in question doesnt set it up as a basic rule of the game and makes it its most common hazard, you have a life bar but you feel like it doesnt even matter. This is why a game like Contra has good game design and a game like this has bad game design when it comes to instant-death.

[@blackdot105]

Can you skip the 4 HOUR credits?

[@LordArikado]

Yes.

[@Jerkwad152]

*Massive No. 2

[@KryptekDragon]

"It's almost as if mechanics and game design were done by two different teams"......but.....they were done by two different teams.

[@ChiefMedicPururu]

And that's a problem.

[@cake6851]

That's the joke

[@baval5]

should have been a different boss to appear in the stage than the bosses weakness. that would tell you the boss ISNT weak to that weapon, but thats a much smaller hint

[@ew275x]

Fun Fact: Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus has sold more on Steam than Mighty No. 9

[@marioparty17]

ew275x you mean that weeb game that sold millions in japan?

[@ew275x]

+Crimson Fury Well all the 4 games had sold 1 million worldwide by August 2015, so I guess it's not that weeb game.

[@Sukaiba69]

Crimson Fury Well looks like those Anime Fans on Prom Night can recognize a well made game.

[@triplehelix3207]

also having waifus all over the game doesn't hurt

[@harrysarso]

yup looked it up on google totaly a weeb game cant deny it

[@GlobalWarmingSkeptic]

It's like giving your dog a treat then punishing him when he eats it.

[@countdeku646]

When topspin is more useful than half the weapons on your game you know you did something wrong

[@YTDeepshock]

Still better than thunder wool, but only just. Battalion's weapon is the best crash bomb and belongs in a better game. Edit: MM8's flash bomb is the best bomb weapon in classic, but my point stands.

[@samk9693]

Just found this video in my Recommends, and immediately got sucked in. I respect how much effort you put into breaking down each element of gameplay, and I enjoyed watching it. I look forward to exploring more of your channel's content now that I've come across it

[@azariusflashfang5716]

Wow, I had heard about the Kickstarter debacle for this game but I didn't know just how straight up *bad* the game actually is from a design perspective. It's not just the left hand not talking to the right, it's like the hands literally had a vendetta with each other and were trying to sabotage one another.

[@Humaricslastcall]

I'd improve the dash mechanic by auto-dashing to the nearest mob with the lowest health in an area and damaging it after dashing trough the first mob. If the hit would weaken the mob, the player would instead destroy/assimilate it and chain to another mob nearby. This dash is biased toward the direction the player was going with the initial dash. This provides an alternate way to transverse trough the stage if there are enough weak mobs in the path.

[@DenerWitt]

its like they didnt spent any of the money they got on play testing.

[@lincolnmiller4757]

One game with fun alternate weapons is Specter of Torment. The Chronos Coin slows hazards and enemies, the Barrier Lantern absorbs projectiles, the Dread Talon bypasses armor, and so on.

[@PauloDDD2]

Awesome content! I subscribed in the Analysis channel and will watch all the previous videos! Thank you!

[@GameSoup]

thanks!

[@RizenLink]

There should be an entire video dedicated to why Cryo's 'Batman and Robin' ice puns were a bad flipping idea to include.

[@MrBucketRocket]

for me the every normal Enemy in the level was no challenge at all once i got Battalion's Weapon wich was one of the first Weapon i got in the game. It does so much damage that most enemy's were Dashable after at least 2 hits, the blast range is huge and the fact that dashing into the enemy means that i get Ammo back means that it never runs out for me... I miss the part where you have to be careful with your Ammo like in Megaman...

[@lambda494]

Um, your game theory is amazing. Subscribed!

[@postmary4333]

The worst part is that there’s a game called Fallen Knight which is basically mighty number nine but good

[@Prankmeister1990]

Funnily enough, the idea of bouncing back on each dash mentioned in the first part of the video is exactly what Yacht Club did for Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment and it turned out fantastic because enemies were placed well enough to capitalize on it. Specter Knight was highly mobile and capable of dodging things easily because the design stayed consistent and thus, allowed you to know exactly how you would move at a given time.

[@Aardie_Aardwolf]

Let's say this together: I HATE DR. WHITE FROM MIGHTY NO. NINE.

[@dr6559]

Seriously, HE'S the goddamn villain. He deserves to be put in prison! What dumbass designs a robot like Trinity without seeing the problem with it?

[@Cyberbrickmaster1986]

After seeing the very end, how can he not be the true villain? They're probably building up for a sequel, but let's be honest, who would want to play another one of these when the first one showed bad signs since the start?

[@dr6559]

Well, we got Mega Man 2 after Mega Man 1, so anything's possible.

[@Cyberbrickmaster1986]

Mega Man 1 was a good game, it just didn't hold up as well as Mega Man 2 since it revolutionized the franchise like Super Mario Bros. 3 did with the already great Super Mario Bros. trilogy on NES.

[@AbelGomez1987]

agreed, Mega Man 1 can still be recognized with Mega Man Powered Up. Its' too bad that during the PSPs run, that they didn't make Powered Up spinoffs like Inafune envisioned.

[@DJFlare84]

5:42 - "Put another way, those developers trust their game enough to let it speak for itself." I had this overwhelming feeling the whole time I was playing Mighty Number 9 that it wasn't made for us MegaMan fans, but rather it was made for new people who have no idea what MegaMan is or what it's like.

[@michaelgum97]

I think that the dash and chain system would work better for 2D/side scrolling beat 'em ups. Staying close to enemies is already a part of genre, so why not dashing dashing at enemies, but there are some things to improve on it: Dashing through multiple enemies; again, chaining combos is a staple of beat 'em ups so chain dashing multiple enemies wouldn't seem out of place. Varied dashes; instead of only having one type of dash, why not multiple types of dashing, like a shoulder, a punch dash, a kick dash and a knee dash just to name a few, it would prevent things from getting tedious, and it can give more combo. Invulnerability: As you dash, you're invulnerable to damage, it's mainly to get you out of a tight spot in boss battles.

[@Y.Moroboshi]

The pseudo E-tank thing is what really gets me. I honestly had no idea the game had a version of e-tanks until I got to the last stage, since the game doesn't make acquisition notable. I mean, Megaman games had a big tank with an E on them that made all the hurts go away when used, and the X games had easily identifiable artwork for the sub-tanks. I had the feeling that whoever made the call on that one really hated E/sub-tanks or something. Or made their existence obscure for the purpose of making the game "harder". And agreed, they were implemented horribly.

[@blevenox1916]

'with all due caution'

[@jhawkdx4000]

Very enlightening and fun video, this taught me quite a few things to look out for when designing a game as well as common sense. Good video!

[@TheJavaMonkey]

MN9 was such a disappointment. I grew up addicted to the NES Mega Man games and I've followed the series and spinoffs ever since. I was so excited to have Inafune return to the Mega Man formula with an interesting twist. The Azure Striker Gunvolt series is so much better - it's quite a worthy spiritual successor to the Zero games.

[@khaosklub]

disappointing, yes. But how does it compare to mega man 1?

[@robokill387]

Erik Red that's a ridiculous comparison. Mega man 1 came out literally decades ago. This is a new game that has the benefit of decades of progress in game design.

[@khaosklub]

it's the first in the series, trying new mechanics, with no 'decades of progress in game design' regarding it's particular mechanics... which had to be altered due to not being feasible.

[@shingshongshamalama]

A tiny problem with the idea of not explicitly tutorializing basic gameplay, and I do entirely agree with you on it, is that I have seen plenty of people who just cannot manage to press all the controller buttons to find out what works. We've become far too used to having every single button taught to us, and now a lot of people just never experiment. They'll come to a gap, not know how to dash, not think to LEARN how to dash, throw down the controller and blame the game.

[@snivyservine6361]

That ninja gaiden clip with the girl made me laugh a bit.

[@julioc.toledo]

Thumbs up for that opening statement! I love humor, and you, sir, got me with it. Also enjoyed your analysis and critique, as always. All the best!

[@kumatoraabomination]

I'll have 2 mighty number 9's...

[@CNWhatImSaiyan]

A mighty number 9 large...

[@hibubgames7667]

I'll have a mighty number 2.

[@KelvinShadewing]

Duck dash! Whoo-ooh! Unclear hitbox? Instant death? Just duck dash! Whoo-ooh!

[@Daniel-qd6qg]

"I've seen this already." *checks description * "Oh."

[@cactoidpinata]

Good analysis! I recently decided to give this game another chance. I spent about 4-5 days with it and went ahead and got the platinum. You make a lot of valid points about how flawed this game is and I agree with most of them. Some of them are contradictory though. You mention that the boss weapons are mostly useless and you talk about having to use the absorb mechanic to shoot through walls being unfair in the Mine level. The idea is that the boss weapons are sometimes useful throughout the stage of whoever is weak to the weapon. The Battalion weapon gets you through that area with little to no challenge. I'll also say that, as lame as all the cheap deaths are in the game, especially the ones you can't react to, it feels rewarding to have all the spawn points and the entire level memorized. I agree that it's all design flaws though and that the rewarding nature of the memorization is a side effect or coincidence that made the game somewhat fun. I feel like the first playthrough of this game is a 5/10 and sticking with it, the final playthrough is a 7/10.

[@Insertmiddlefinger]

What the hell went wrong? EVERYTHING! And because you did not see this, this game should: BURN TO THE GROUUUUND! BURN TO THE BURN TO THE! BURN! BURN BURN! BURN TO THE BUUUURN! BUUUUURN! BURN TO THE GR! BURN! BURN! BURN! BURN THE GRO...BURN!

[@LoneKuroRaifu]

For one, there wasn't a blind drop. A platform was clear, you just decided to drop without worry, in other words, you take a drop of faith. 2. I learned how the dash assimilation worked stage 1 as you NEEDED to figure out or you'd never finish it. (and to be fair about game-play should tell the player, I seen streamers never pass the 1st fucking level because they are too brain dead to realize dashing chunks boss health) 3. Stages DO give you hints of enemy weakness. For example, before you even select the stage, if you press info after defeating a specific boss, the boss character who's strong against the selected boss will speak and also help you during the stage (AND YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO CLICK ADVICE, so don't pull that "spoiling the player" bs). Not even that, there's platforms and obstacles that can be destroyed by the boss stages weakness. Rocks in some stages can be destroyed by Battalions weapon, which is the bosses weakness. 4. Simple answer. Invincibility frames were removed most likely to deal with the fact that you dash through bosses to take their health. Would you REALLY want Invincibility frames where bosses regenerate if you don't dash into them? 5. Don't diss the Bulldoser because you can't handle it. I've been proven wrong countless times when my nephew who sucks at Megaman games wrecked everystage with that thing. Its powerful and when you get enough momentum your practically invincible if you know how to use the spin jump correctly. Also, Battalions weapon is ideal for any situation, even boss fights. What was there to complain about again? 6. Alt-Fire, bit useless, I agree with that. I seen one person use it effectively for the last boss but I just used Battalions weapon to do it. 7. Call's stage is meh, very meh. Mainly because her weapons is not accommodated for offense but defense. Ducking, and shields. It makes a challenge for players to use their new abilities to navigate through the stage and some bit of cunning for the last boss. In otherwords, its not bad. And her personality is not new in anime. Android like characters talk like that, why she talks like that is because the fat tub of lard guy (i cant remember his name) sucks at designing robots like Doctor White. 8. And last thing I'll respond to is this. If you didn't get any hints in stages of what could happen in some stages, then you failed to catch on. Is it suppose to be completely blunt that if you go to the Mine stage and see a ledge you can hang from and a floating platform, then its safe to assume that there's something below you (answer 2 secs). Even near the last stage where you have to use Avi's copter to navigate, you see spikes on the ceiling with no rhyme or reason, You have the ability to scope the area out with the copter to investigate and realize the whole area is covered with spikes you need to navigate through, its that simple (not to mention you can dash infinitely in the air which makes it that much more forgiving). There's always something. And last but not least, that elevator...you see one hole in the wall, you missed the 1st one, and even the 2nd one, how even. The game tells you the place is trying to KILL YOU. Nuff said. Angry supporter is angry obviously, but this is just bull-shittery.

[@Peasham]

Let's be real, hell itself went wrong when Mighty No. 9 was released.

[@plasmaoctopus1728]

But if hell went wrong, then that means hell became good? Is this the only thing that Mighty No. 9 do good, it fucked up hell to be good?

[@jonmahashintina]

I guess I was the only one that ever read game manuals when I rented/bought games I hadn't played yet. Everyone forgets about them now because they just download roms and assume the game was intended to teach you how to play as you went.

[@ChumblesMumbles]

And you didn't even have to spend time on graphics quality or voice-acting. Impressive.

[@dragonlover439]

I do have to say, even though the bosses helping you in levels is a huge game design flaw, it’s extremely cute from a story perspective. I like the idea that after helping your friends they help you in stages afterwards. Maybe it could have been solved if you could choose which mighty number to help you in the level without knowing what the weakness is? I mean, I’m sure that has flaws in itself, but I think it’s a good compromise.

[@MFG1243]

Donald Duck dash.

[@haxpor]

You spot very tiny little details across the game. I learned a lot from these. Thank you!

[@Duskraven377]

I backed this game and absolutely hated it. It felt like every mechanic in the game was meant to frustrate and annoy me. Nothing made sense. The dash-absorb mechanic was the worst of it. I just wanted to blow things up.

[@khaosklub]

go play any NES mega man game... the mechanics are virtually the same. you can even shoot things until they blow up in MN9.

[@kalathi1898]

@Erik Red - As the video mentions, level design plays a part in the frustration. The level design and mechanics were at odds with each other instead of complementing one another to create an experience that feels cohesive and satisfying to play. It's true that the NES Mega Man games shared many of these faults, but people backed this because they wanted Mega Man in the modern day - back and better than ever, free of the archaic design that made things frustrating. It didn't deliver that and it's why people are disappointed.

[@khaosklub]

@kalathi no, people backed because they wanted Mega man period. the people who initially backed and met the goal in 2 days just wanted to revive mega man in some way. The people who demanded more are what led this project to utter failure... actually, the one's that demanded the game be ported to their console of choice led this project to utter failure. We were promised a spiritual successor to mega man, not a refined version of classic mega man. we were promised a low budget title to try to ignite the spark. people expecting AAA level work are just fooling themselves. In fact, there are many AAA budget games more broken than this, and none of those games get as much flak!

[@kalathi1898]

The low budget excuse went out the window once they were pushing the $4 million mark. The devs themselves were the ones who raised people's expectations to such heights, and they're the ones that delivered a mediocre game that doesn't play nearly as well as classic Mega Man, especially if you're including the SNES MMX games. It deserves the flack it gets. It sucks that it pretty much killed Mega Man dead, but you can't pin that on the fans.

[@khaosklub]

kalathi 4million is low budget. And people treated kickstarter like a preorder. realistic people knew what they were funding. They did exactly what they set out to do. Not saying it was top quality, but they did what they could with the pittance of a budget. Inafune made mistakes, he's used to having the backing and resources of a major developer. Inte creates bit off more than they could chew. they tried, didn't turn out as expected. people act like they purposefully made the game as such, but they had to really cut back on the kirby mechanic.

[@logixindie]

This game is meant to be challenging, VERY. Good for hardcore players, not so friendly for anyone else.

[@helpmeget1millionsubscribe983]

What do you think about megaman 11?

[@litarogers3984]

6:25 "its as if mechanics and level designs were made by 2 seperate teams" cuz they.... were

[@SolidOcelot]

This is a fantastic analysis. I just want to point out I don't think using the bubbles on the alien in Mega Man 2 is beyond reason, the alien was a hologram and water>electronics. (There's is a little projector or something floating around the room after you beat the alien so you aren't just attacking a hologram.)

[@ReginLeif]

If you want something similar to the NES Megaman games, you can always give Legend of the Dark Witch a try. It might have some elements of Gradius as well (By some elements, I mean just the upgrade system), but I think it's the closest thing we have to a spiritual successor to Megaman

[@TabbyWesa]

26:30 Um... Charge Kick is Megaman 5, not 6. ^^;

[@theenglishmentlegen8924]

I love these videos. I feel like this game was designed with a melee based character in mind, and I think that with some different abilities and better level design this game could have been something fresh and interesting.

[@KnakuanaRka]

Yeah, small wonder he likes Brandish’s weapon the most.

[@5h0ckblock]

I feel like I'm the only person in the planet that knows the full potential of the boss weapons. the "small" explosion can be charged for larger range and damage the bulldozer can safely and continuously bounce on top of enemies the sniper rifle ricochets off of enemies and automatically targets everything else on screen while doing high damage the sword swats away projectiles oh and you can dash after being hit so you don't fall to your death

[@BurningVAP]

You are not, but neither of you got it right, the most broken weapon is batallion´s, a huge ass missile that does a lot of damage, explodes causing even more damage in a BIG area, has little cooldown and has much more weapon energy than it should have, it is completely broken, just with it and a little bit of utility here and there (with brandish´s and avi´s weapons) you can destroy every level easily (except the one with Call, obviously)

[@5h0ckblock]

I honestly forgot that one. Anyways I was just focused on the weapons they mentioned. Otherwise I would have talked about each of them.(I know they mentioned battalion but I started typing partway through the vid and I had to do something in real life so I cut my comment short) I get that the game isn't perfect, but c'mon don't spend 1 minute on a weapon then say its useless.

[@Eltrotraw]

In their defense, those sorts of things aren't very intuitive. - Pyro's explosion takes an unforgiving amount of time to charge up to full (I think 10 seconds? It's been a while), since it takes several seconds to reach the next level of charge. Considering the core gameplay that contributes to the game mechanics fighting itself, it wants you to fight enemies in close range, dash a lot, and if you add this, do nothing while you charge up for several seconds? In a fast paced game 10 seconds is a long time. - Considering how the bulldozer acts, it doesn't come naturally to many players to assume you can just keep bouncing off of enemies safely. For instance, by "bounce", do you mean that you have to bounce off their heads like you're playing Mario (with the power active or not?) or do you have to continue holding the button down to keep charging at them? Regardless of that, melee abilities in Megaman have rarely worked well because they either leave you too wide open (Top Spin, Charge Kick) or are incredibly overpowered for what they do (i.e. Brandish). - Sniper rifle ricochets off of enemies, yes, but I think one of the bigger things the video should have drawn more attention to was the energy drain. That thing costs way too much energy for that, and was a definite turnoff when I played the game. - Sure, the sword swats away projectiles, but the more immediate call to broken potential is that you're invincible while swinging. That's not right - Keiji was involved with the X series especially when Zero became playable and the Zero series itself, so what happened? Why is this sword so basic in what it can do? - Dashing after being hit works if you're able to move while still above a pit to grab a ledge. Otherwise you're still screwed.

[@Pihutihutihutijay]

Pyro's explosion is useful, but to get the most out of it you have to know the perfect spot to activate it. Something to note about snipers energy drain, most enemies are destabilized from sniper, and you'll generally get enough energy from fast absorbs to keep on sniping. This doesn't change how broken battalion's weapon is and that it does overshadow the others.

[@5h0ckblock]

its 5 seconds for full charge(though halfway is good enough) though I will admit I only found it useful in certain moments. for bulldozer you do need to activate the power in the air for it to work and its Mario from then on. This I can understand people missing since you wouldn't think to use a ground based vehicle while in the air. This does good damage though and you can dash out of it at any moment if you feel your in danger. the bouncing does take getting used to though, so I can see why this will also throw people off. yea melee in megaman games are typically lack luster with few exceptions(shoryuken in X2) sniper does use a lot of energy yes, however it does good damage, and because it ricochets it can hit the enemies as well as boxes, missles, basically anything hitable it will fly towards. you don't even need to aim at the enemy, just shoot a wall and it still works. think gemini laser but with homing capabilities. since it does so much damage enemies get stunned quickly, and assimilation refills your ammo, making up for its large consumption. best part is its useful almost everywhere(its worthless if theres only 1 object on screen) grounded enemies? fire a shot at the wall then watch them get wrecked. single enemy that launches multiple missles? shoot one missle and they're all gone. If it wasn't for the ammo and the fact that its useless when fighting only 1 enemy I would say best ranged weapon. sure it would be cool if the sword could do more than stop projectiles and do spin attacks. perhaps the devs thought it didn't need more since it has almost endless energy and does amazing damage. yea the dash thing is literally a combination of position and reaction time.

[@ShinAk1raSama]

I must say, though, Bat's "Crasher Bomb" is actually the most useful thing in the game, due to the huge AoE range and damage it causes. More often than not, you only need one shot to weaken enemies to the point that they may be assimilated. During the whole chase in Mic's stage, you can skip needing to get the piercing power up by using Bat's weapon again. In addition, Bat's weapon can also destroy some of the boulders blocking your path. (Furthermore, I think you're going to just consider me not a normal human being, because the dropping crates attack Mic does is extremely noticeable.) If you need to be 100% sure you're not going to get sucker punched by a street sign in Brand's stage, just shoot some bombs ahead. Dyna's little bit things can be destroyed immediately by using Bat's weapon. In Shade's stage, just spam the thing to get the minions away as quickly as possible. Same in Avi's stage. As long as you don't make the explosion touch the oil, you're pretty okay. Each of the Pong mini-bosses in Cryo's stage are ready for assimilation after two shots of it. In their cases, a 100% assimilation should cut half its health. In addition, it can also be used to destroy Cryo's ice pillar in one shot.

[@BEEEELEEEE]

Saw this game at GameStop for 10 bucks today. Still too much, you should be paying me to play this atrocity.

[@MiyaMam948]

I got it free with ps+ and it's still too much

[@JoeCoolMaveric]

BEEELEEE, hell, you can use that 10 bucks to buy an actual good game like Mighty Gunvolt Burst...

[@kinshraslave3450]

You can't know its bad if you havn't played.

[@a.dennis4835]

I saw one at my Gamestop for 30.

[@PointsofData]

$5 now

[@2Ensta]

Holy shit 1 hour of content yet you guys don't talk about how they never put out the 3DS/Vita version and how backers still haven't gotten physical rewards?

[@Unethical.FandubsGames]

Yeah that's kinda besides the point being made though. The point was that the GAME was bad. So he talked about the GAME. Not the launch, platforms, or rewards.

[@MustacheDLuffy]

From 5-5:49, you're right about this. You figure out how people will experiment with things and find it so that after a bit of thinking they could solve issues they previously had problems on

[@whichcache2517]

You want to know my experience with it? I had next to no problems with it. Sure, the controls were kind of difficult to get a handle on, the graphics weren't that great, some things I hardly ever used unless I had to use them, but... it wasn't any harder than playing any of the Mega Man games I've played. I died about just as many times, there's some Spark Mandrill Syndrome thrown in for good measure, and I had about as much fun playing X, X2, X3, or X4. Maybe not as much fun as playing Z, but that's besides the point. I don't really understand the complaint behind "taking a player out of the game". I just read the tips, did the challenges, and felt no overall change in regards to how I approached the game. It's a game, after all, so learning the rules of it isn't something that seems too jarring to me, even if it's something that "flows" wrong. I didn't have much of a problem with AcXelerating, either. I just figured "Okay, so dashing into enemies makes me more powerful because Mighty No. 9 has the ability to absorb Xels from weakened enemies by doing so. Seems practical in a future with 52 States", and I never had a problem with it outside of dashing normally, only to hit a monster, get massive knockback, and accidentally fall into a pit or malfunctioning purification equipment (read as: spikes). As for crate-carrying robots coming from the foreground and get hit? I adapt and I dodge them the next time. As for the boss weapons that I'll never have to use? Cryosphere and Dynatron were pretty useful, the former for being able to freeze most enemies in place and provide a longer window of time to dash into them, and the latter for being able to absorb enemies without having to dash into them. I didn't really have a problem with the bosses' weaknesses being splayed out, either. I actually found it extremely helpful, where instead of going through a bunch of pain and suffering, only to find out you can do almost nothing to a boss, you are instead given the answer to save you the relief. I mean, let's be honest with ourselves, even with Seismic, was Brandish really that much easier? In my experience, though, this is what I do against him: Hit him with Seismic when he's prone to damage (jump if and when you can) until he loses his swords. Then, use Cryosphere. Done deal. The + is indicative of a reticle, and while I'm not sure what the three lines mean, if I had to take a wild guess on the air weapon, I'd imagine that the H, which is a symbol used to denote helipads, represents the helicopter blades you shoot out, which comes from the Boss that is designed like a helicopter... how was that hard to follow? There are two other things that Seismic can do. It can turn around and jump. Uh... Call having no personality was on purpose. It's explained in-game that the Mighty Numbers (and other robots created by Dr. White) are created with the purpose of giving them "hearts". So having next to no personality and talking like what a robot typically sounds like makes sense. And the person who "designed" that elevator was Trinity. That entire level is basically designed to kill Beck at every opportunity, so whether he dies along the way or he dies at her hands (in which he'll be assimilated in both circumstances) is her doing. About that "unavoidable damage" you're talking about. Since Beck can dash ad infinitum, and there's a space just big enough for him to pass through, do you know how to easily avoid getting hit again? Go right. I've never had to use the power up to get passed the barrels. I just used Battalion to destroy it. ... They look different, but do you know what else they look like? Glowing yellow gaps that almost certainly involve hanging off them. As for the other "unavoidable attack", since he isn't attacking you while performing that attack, it stands to reason that you have enough time to look up, see where the blocks aren't gonna fall (denoted by the lack of dust clouds), and go there. And what he said was "shot blanks", not... what it sounded like. *Sigh...* Is it weird that the only reason I played this game was to get the bad taste out of my mouth from reading a bad Mega Man fanfic, and I had a more enjoyable time taking two months to complete it and the Vermillion Destroyer DLC? But I guess this video was pretty in-depth, all things considered.

[@khaosklub]

I'm disappointed in the lack of quickfalling in the gameplay seen. The reason most people don't like MN9 is because most people don't like mega man games. Plenty of X fans, or rather X and X4 fans, and people like MM2 because metal man is on the list of easiest 5 robot masters ever, and let's you wreck everything you fight after that, but only real mega man fans love MMZ! If you can't S rank MMZ, you have no business playing MN9 I think.

[@MateusDrake]

Thank you. Just thank you. I see the problems and most of the criticism is valid, but... It's not unplayable. To me, MN9 is like MM1. But who knows if we'll get a sequel thst builds upon the foundations of the first one again. There's a reason I play the classic and X series yearly, but usually skip MM1...

[@khaosklub]

If you can get your hands on it, play powered up instead of MM1, I think it's much better.

[@charleschase7945]

SuperStachey eightnineeightnine You weren't frustrated with the level design? I stopped immediately when I came across that rock stage because down dashing means instant death down a certain path.

[@whichcache2517]

So because you performed an arbitrary action that resulted in your death, rather than simply *not* doing it in that particular place where you died, you instead gave up on the entire game because of a minor, non-existent issue of a stage that simply asks you to think before you act... I've heard people complain about Countershade because there are no checkpoints (when the simple solution is to preserve your health and avoid attacks whenever possible, a staple in the Mega Man series). I've heard people complain about Dynatron because of the gears that are hard to dodge (instead of enacting trial and error to overcome it, a staple in the Mega Man series). But your issue is the equivalent of trying to spin-jump in lava in Super Mario World and blaming the game for dying... that is certainly... a new one.

[@FlameSoulis]

Getting back to this video, at 45:10, to be fair, it is partly telegraphed, but they could have done better by adding shadows also on the ground to indicate the falling blocks so that you have two things telegraphing, with one of them also not pulling away from the main action below. Another thing they can do is, since he doesn't move while the attack is happening, the shockwave could be visualized going upward to help clue the player to look up for the telegraph.

[@HighRollerZagg]

Kenji Inafune. You have disappointed me

[@Unethical.FandubsGames]

Is that why you changed his name?

[@lilwartank1]

I'm almost two years late coming into this but I wanna say I loved the analysis of the game. Towards the beginning you mentioned INTI creates and the Azure Striker Gunvolt series, another MegaMan spiritual successor. I'm not sure if you know but they released a game called Mighty Gunvolt Burst that has Beck as one of the main characters in a game design that I think does almost everything right that Mighty No.9 did wrong. No idea if you ever played it before but I'd love to see thoughts on how these mechanics and Beck are used in a game made by a different team and generally much better that exists in the same genre. No idea if you'll see this or not but thought I'd at the very least mention it just in case

[@pawel2669]

For a game that tries to be deep with story, it has very few memorable characters.

[@KanalDerGutenSache]

To be fair, I think the weapon weaknesses are already a big problem of replayability in Megaman. If you replay a game, you want it to be more challenging, like a hard mode or time challenges, while mastering the controls and knowing the levels equips you for that. But picking whatever boss in the select screen, maybe one with a really difficult level or a difficult boss fight itself, is kinda frustrating. But when you finished the game, you will start with the easiest boss to kill with the Buster, and just rotate through the weaknesses, making it significantly easier.

[@ahbeef]

is this just a compilation of all the MN9 videos or is this something new?

[@FelLeatherwing]

ahbeef that is what I wondering here

[@Pokemanic33]

From the description: _This video is a supercut of our five analysis videos on Mighty No. 9. Now you can watch Mighty No. 9 in all of its horrendous game design glory without having to switch between five separate videos!_

[@Pesthuf]

...And that's exactly why KZbin created playlists.

[@Tengila]

It's a compilation - it says as much in the description

[@ahbeef]

when i left that comment there was no description lol

[@shingshongshamalama]

I love the bit where the clearly-not-getting-enough-director-input voice actor read the name Mic (as in Microphone) as "Mick".

[@KxNGFeel]

best 7 sec into. k bye

[@Acecard-jl2py]

I want more 50 minute long video game reviews.

[@jitterbugwaltz8273]

one of the worst parts of mighty number 9 for me was the confusing art design. with platformers like this, the background should always look duller or darker that the foreground to create contrast. this game throws that straight out the window so the screen is always cluttered and I can't tell what the fuck is going on.

[@Unethical.FandubsGames]

Or have a slow scrolling background with colder colours than the warmer and sharper foreground. Foreground objects should be fast and backgrounds should be slow. Pretty simple, really.

[@freddieblue.tokuguy9]

Megaman must be disappointed passing the torch to him...

[@basteala525]

So disappointed that he took it back XD

[@abeness]

You never even mentioned the graphics and art direction... Which are absolutely awful... Especially disappointing, when you consider that the primary Kickstarter art concepts were actually super good...

[@Despatche]

They were also completely unreasonable to replicate and any game that actually attempted to do them justice would have costed so many millions. Proof: we saw this happen with Cuphead. That game took almost a decade to create the devs did crazy things like refinancing their house, and it still doesn't look anywhere near as good as the Mighty No.9 concept art. Cuphead is a fucking miracle. A game of that type with that execution should never sell at all, but it sold two million. This shit is inconsistent and random and very very very few people can make authoritative statements on it.

[@bluerious5475]

Despatche I mean, if you actually see how Cuphead was animated (completely and authentically hand-drawn instead of computer animated,) it makes complete sense why.

[@chuyrenteria6252]

Those explosions look more like pepperoni pizzas.

[@sheriffaboubakar9720]

Bluerious I actually thought Mighty No 9’s graphics style and art direction was amazing.

[@Draggobuttboi]

wasn't the art style butchered because of the cancelled 3DS version? since they can't make a game that isn't possible to port to that system

[@chriskallen1]

Example of dash-chaining that works extremely well: Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams. It's very tough but it never feels unfair. No goofy long-range-short-range paradox needed to make progress against enemies--one dash is needed and nothing more.

[@viviankong69]

And rip 3ds port

[@thetruebause3122]

Overall massive kudos to the awesome game design breakdown. Sure I felt a small few nitpicks were exaggerated but the only one I don't get is the complaint about signposting 41 minutes in. At that point we've extensively gone over how there are bad blind drops so you have to take every blind drop carefully. So it has been signposted. I would think the complaint would be toward how it would slow the players down and make the level design tedious

[@Beefster09]

Why did the game use chiptune music but modeled graphics? That makes no sense.

[@JRokujuushi]

There's an option to use NES-style music instead of the original versions, that's just what they happened to have selected when they recorded the footage. (I was going to call them "fully produced" versions, but I decided against it because personally I think they mostly sound like demo versions of tracks that never actually got finished.)

[@ForgottenMovieGems]

Great to see an analysis video that goes into how NOT to do things :P I'd love to see more bad games analyzed like this.

[@shaginus]

Now People know why Capcom part way with Inafune

[@AlexaDoee]

and the final slap in the face, in the form of the boxes and booklets has just been delivered

[@koipond6286]

16:39 that's an incredibly dumb mechanic. sounds like it was poorly implemented, too. almost seems like inafune was trying too hard to "reinvent" megaman

[@dallyink7412]

A lot of this reminds me of the "game design" found in something like Mario Maker or LBP. The person who made it thinks it must be okay because they understand it perfectly, so everyone else should be able to figure it out too.

[@Atlessa]

I didn't spend a penny on this game (I just couldn't afford it at the time) and I am still disappointed. :(

[@Blurns]

Surprised there's no mention of how the characters won't shut the hell up, so when you die you hear the same dialog over and over again.

[@ZapWires]

I played this, thought it was annoying and stopped.

[@daltonriser1125]

it is crazy that this is 9 videos compiled to 1 super vid

[@ThrillingDuck]

Ok I agree with you on everything except one point - it seems pretty arbitrary to me that you would choose to look at the game telling you the boss weaknesses as a bad thing. You complain about trial and error gameplay everywhere else, it seems to me like this would be a modern improvement, no? How is slogging through an entire level on a hunch that MAYBE this newly acquired weapon MIGHT be good against the boss, only to discover you were wrong and potentially Game Over a rewarding experience? While I agree that it can be fun to guess, the very fact that many bosses in past Megaman games had arbitrary or irrational weaknesses is a serious point against both them and the whole trial and error system. Mighty No. 9 is terrible on many many fronts, but for my money the way it handles the weapon rock-paper-scissor system is an improvement on the old Megamans.

[@ThrillingDuck]

Hell, give the developers a tiny bit of credit - maybe they employed flashier but less practical health bars BECAUSE they took the guesswork out of the weapon circle. Still doesn't excuse the whole health recovery system, but it's something that kind of makes sense.

[@monkeyking9863]

" irrational weaknesses " megaman 2 metal man is weak to Metal Blade :P

[@AztecCroc]

Well, you do fight all the robot masters again, so it's not like it's a situation that would never happen.

[@LunaTulpa]

how much money did you lose backing this game

[@ThrillingDuck]

Lol I didn't lose a penny. Didn't back the game at all. Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to find the tiny good points in something without being financially invested in it. What a concept.