Review: Mighty No. 9 (Steam)

You play as Beck, the 9th in a line of powerful robots, and the only one not infected by a mysterious computer virus that has caused mechanized creatures the world over to go berserk. Run, jump, blast, and transform your way through twelve stages using weapons and abilities stolen from your enemies to take down your fellow Mighty Number robots and confront the final evil that threatens the planet. Here is our Mighty No. 9 review.

Pros:

• Decent graphics.
• Full controller support. You are encouraged to use a controller.
• 12 Levels to battle through.
• Opening tutorial with an introduction to the story and the characters.
• Graphic options: Screen type, Resolution, Screen percentage, Gamma, V-Sync, Graphic quality, Texture quality, Shadow quality, Bloom and motion blur.
• Unlock 36 additional challenges with unique conditions.
• Boss rush mode.
• Full online leader board support.
• Steam achievements.
• Steam trading cards.
• Lives: You can actually change the amount of lives you start with, Up to 9 without penalty.
• Can rebind controls.
• Action 2D shooter/Platformer game play.
• Co-op: Unlock two game modes- Online challenge mode and online battle race.
• Tips unlock as you play the game and act as an instruction manual.
• Absorb Xel from enemies which give you timed buffs like improved fire rate/power, Health regen and more.
• Beat bosses to unlock the ability to change into that boss and use their weapons.
• Controls are simple and its easy to quickly jump between weapons or do quick dashes etc.
• Check points are scattered throughout the levels.
• Clean easy to read UI.
• Level completion awards you a rank based on your performance.
• Great soundtrack with the option to play the game with an 8 Bit soundtrack.
• Unlock new game plus which in itself unlocks two new difficulties.
• Three save slots.
• The game demands a strong willed player with pin point precision required as you navigate the levels.
• Game over just resets level progress and isn’t a big deal.

Cons:

• You have to unlock co-op.
• Tips are unlocked despite holding a lot of information. In other words you will spend ages reading what the game wants from you rather than learning in game.
• Tutorial doesn’t do a great job of explaining what to do and why you do it.
• Constant difficulty spikes.
• Uses every platformer cliche in its original prehistoric form.
• The game will not shut up! Every option has a character say whats in that option, You always get an annoying voice bit when shutting the game down.
• Boss fights are just anger inducing, Cheap punishing exercises in torture.
• A lot of instant kill scenarios, Hitting spikes is instant death, A boss can instant kill you its all just put in there to annoy and aggravate rather than add to the experience.
• Calibration option in the menu actually requires a keyboard despite not showing a keyboard?
• Cut scenes feel cheap and rushed with lacklustre animations and no mouth movement.
• Needless extra button presses to navigate through the main menus. I mean in 2016 do we still need a “Are you sure” button prompt when pressing play…No.