Mighty No. 9: What Happened?

I recently did a quick review of the Mighty No. 9 video game, a game that may easily be considered by many as the gaming disaster of the decade. And why wouldn't people think that? Three years of delays, lies, pie in the sky promises, condescension and overall failure. A failure that has turned a man once considered a legend in the industry into a pariah. But to get to just how far things went, we need to take a quick look back at how this happened in the first place.

It was the summer of 2013 and gamers were finally feeling burnt by Capcom, who after parting ways with Keiji Inafune, decided to start cancelling every single Mega Man game in development, including Mega Man Legends 3. It was Capcom at their worst, focused on on-disc DLC, unwanted reboots of beloved franchises and just being otherwise spiteful to the audience that embraced them. They're still no better in 2016 mind you, but in recent times they've cooled down and look to no longer be intentionally trying to burn all bridges like Konami.  But in 2013, it was definitely a dark time to be a Mega Man fan.

Then, Keiji Inafune had an idea. If Capcom were digging their heels and refusing to bring the world more Mega Man, he'd give them Mega Man. A new Mega Man. And thus, Mighty No. 9 was born in concept. All he needed was the money. And who else to ask than the fans spurned by Capcom. He took to kickstarter, promising the game for all consoles as the goals continued to be met. After a month of funding, the final toll would come to 4,046,579. Four million dollars! Surely that was enough to make a game that, at its core was intended to just be a Mega Man successor, right? Well, he then did another short kickstarter for DLC, which also met its goal.

And then the three years of mighty drought began. Multiple delays, focus on another kickstarter for Red Ash, which didn't meet its goal, but still got a developer anyway. Stories of poor communication with developers. Even more delays for tacked on multiplayer. You'd think that Inafune, who had promised to deliver to the fans the Mega Man game they were looking for would do everything to focus on making the game its best before any other priorities? But his focus began on franchising, with talks of an anime series, live action, possible movies, and of course plans for a sequel way before the first game was even released to the public. All this began to show the true side of Keiji Inafune as a man not motivated to service fans, but a man focused on greed.

And while all the mess behind the "Return of Mega Man" was being made, Capcom decided to school Inafune. While there isn't any new Mega Man games released, they made a big move by partnering with Nintendo to bring Mega Man to Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS. It proved a great move that helped build more buzz for the big fighting game sequel. They even re-released the original six games on the Mega Man Legacy Collection for multiple platforms. It's better than nothing (as in literally nothing and not just a lazy excuse for a lazy game), and definitely the most respect Capcom had given the blue bomber in years. It hasn't led to anything else, but it was still a generous act.

As for Mighty No. 9, it finally had a concrete release date of June 21st, 2016. At this point, after years of delays and the horror stories involving the game, most fans were weary of the title, but were still willing to give it some good will. And then publisher Deep Silver released the "Masterclass" trailer. In what could only be considered a massive blunder, the trailer tried to sell the game with a goofball narrator talking about how the game is "like popping bubble wrap addictive" and how the absorption boost will "make the bad guys cry like an anime fan on prom night." Even for an attempt at levity, crapping on a good chunk of the fans who backed and supported Mighty No. 9 through the hardships was not a wise move. Also, didn't Inafune say he wanted an anime adaptation? Did Deep Silver talk to anyone before releasing this to the public? Meme worthy as it was, the trailer was the last straw for many.

Then the reviews came, citing the game as mediocre. Its graphics terrible, its gameplay average, its feel soulless. Surely Inafune would try to defend this game, this passion project, this attempt to bring Mega Man back to the fans who had yearned for his return. Surely he would defend it perfectly. Nah, his excuse was that it was "better than nothing", proving what people had already felt about Inafune to be true. He wasn't in it for the fans, he was in it to make a buck off the gullible. Keiji Inafune: Gaming's music man. The Japanese Peter Molyneux. Seller of dreams and deliverer of diddly squat.

And if that wasn't enough of an insult, when the game did arrive, it was plagued with problems on multiple platforms. Steam was without an install button for a while, backers were being delayed their keys, the game was dangerous to computers and in the case of the Wii U port, so hazardous that it could brick the system. There have been disasters in gaming, but everything that fell on Mighty No. 9's launch day was a disaster so beautiful that it's hard to think of one so bad and so damning.

And that's what happened with Mighty No. 9. A game made by a shyster preying on the nostalgia of a scorned fanbase, a product poorly built despite the money made, insensitive advertising from people with zero clue who they're even selling the game to, and the literal console cancer that it would end up being. It's a true tale of scum and villainy. One that hopefully will be a rarity in this era of "spiritual successors". Igarashi's Bloodstained looks to be a Castlevania reimagining done with heart and Yooka-Laylee feels more and more like Banjo-Kazooie with each new piece of info. These appear to be games done by people who truly want to please the fans and not milk them. And you have true kickstarter successes like Shovel Knight, and games like Undertale that were made with love and not kickstarter gains. Those are the games to play. Simply avoid Mighty No. 9 and anything by Comcept. They've already robbed enough people.