Topic: Mighty No 9 To Release In Spring

[Shaymin]

The same bugaboo that knocked it out of 2015 continues to trouble the project.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/41835/mighty-no-9-to-release-in-spring

Mighty No 9 is facing another delay, with Spring now the target date for the crowd-funded title.

Originally given a release date of September 15, 2015, the game was delayed a few weeks before the release date due to issues with online functions. A new date of February 9 was then announced during the last Nintendo Direct, but Comcept updated the game's Kickstarter page this morning with word of the delay.

"Unfortunately, we have an announcement that will be very disappointing to all of you. In preparation for the February release of Mighty No. 9 we have been working hard with our partners to resolve any network issues and porting work necessary to publish Mighty No. 9 on the various platforms. However, the issues relating to the network modes were more critical than expected, and it has become apparent that we will need to delay the game from its February 9th release date." - Kickstarter

The update specifically referred to the console versions originally slated to release in two weeks; the fate of the 3DS version of Mighty No 9 was not mentioned.

[Adrock]

That's a shame though I hate seeing rushed games. Fix it and don't come back until you do. At the same time, stop over-promising, particularly with a project's release date.

I originally funded this game then rescinded my pledge. I'm not a huge Mega Man fan. I'm hoping Shantae: Half Genie Hero and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night don't suffer repeated delays, especially since I chose the Wii U version for both.

[UncleBob]

The important part is that they are communicating about the delay.

Aside from that, it makes me wonder if the Developer/Publisher model is more important that previously thought - the Publisher would be pushing and pushing to get the game completed and out the door.  Is this going to be a better game because it wasn't rushed?  Who knows?

[Luigi Dude]

No real surprise here.




This game was always just a cash grab with no real direction.  When Inti Creates is able to make their own Mega Man style game for the 3DS eShop with many of the same people who are working on Mighty No. 9 and are even able to start work on a sequel, and both games have no involvement with Inafune and Kickstarter kind of shows who's the weakest link here. 

People have to remember, Inafune was the man most responsible for Capcom going to complete **** last gen.  His terrible management is the reason Capcom lost most of their top talent like Kamiya and Mikami and started their path of ruining franchises by trying to be more Western like, when most of these franchises like Resident Evil were already popular in the West and the things Inafune did only hurt them in the end.

No surprise his first big project after leaving Capcom has been such a mess.

[michaelbaysuperfan616]

I completely forgot this was even a thing, I thought it had been canned already. It might as well be cancelled it's going to tank anyways.

[Evan_B]

Whoa whoa whoa. Inafune actually collaborated with Inti Creates on Azure Striker, which is probably the reason it's such a mess. Funnily enough, he bashed the original build they bowed him so they brought him on to help direct the action.

I don't think the game really CAN tank at this point, with the ungodly amount of money it's already made. But it can miss out on additional sales because it's a lackluster product. Which it seems to be shaping up to be.

[Luigi Dude]

Whoa whoa whoa. Inafune actually collaborated with Inti Creates on Azure Striker, which is probably the reason it's such a mess. Funnily enough, he bashed the original build they bowed him so they brought him on to help direct the action.

So I looked it up on Google and it looks like he did.  Well I guess I missed that interview when it first came out.  Well I guess I can blame Inafune for that games problems now as well. :

[Ian Sane]

I honestly forget that this game has not already come out and then get reminded with news stories like this.  I think at some point I mistook the lowered enthusiasm for a lukewarm reaction to a released product.

How long did titles like Mega Man 8 or Mega Man X4 take to develop?  I would figure the dev time on something like this would be similar to games like those.  Aren't sidescrollers supposed to take a lot less time than full 3D releases?

[broodwars]

And the sick joke that is Mighty No. 9 continues. *sigh*

Here's the thing about this delay: if we had any reason to think the end product would be amazing, this delay would be disappointing but at the end of the day we still have an awesome game to look forward to. However, it's not an amazing game. It will never be an amazing game. I'm a backer on this Kickstarter, and I've pretty thoroughly played the backer beta and demos we received last year. Yeah, I liked the demo better than most, but it's a pretty mediocre product in general. And according to Comcept, that backer demo last year pretty much was the finished SP game, just with 3/4 of the stages locked out and the online elements removed. I mean, really...just look at it. 3 YEARS worth of work here on display from a team who used to put this type of game out every year:







At best, it looks like a mid-tier PS2 game, which I hesitate to say since it's an insult to PS2 games.

Just as a reminder, this is the concept image Comcept used to dupe us into backing this game:



I STILL want to play that game.

Both this and the previous delay was to fix online functionality no one really seems to care about, and now Infaune's complaining that their engine is no longer being supported. Well yeah...that's what happens when you take 3 years to churn out a low-budget Mega Man knock-off because you instead focused on all the marketing tie-in deals you could have instead.

My $99 was paid years ago, so of course I'm going to play this game whenever it comes out and honestly I'll probably enjoy it for all its faults considering how I felt about the demo. However, I don't think anyone can argue that what Inafune has incompetently made after 3 years and so much funding over his budget is anything close to what we were promised back in 2013.

[Ian Sane]

That game footage vs. concept art comparison is pretty damning.  And that concept art doesn't even look unrealistic.  You could totally make a game that looks like that.

[Luigi Dude]

That game footage vs. concept art comparison is pretty damning.  And that concept art doesn't even look unrealistic.  You could totally make a game that looks like that.

The funny thing is there's quite a few indie games that are inspired by Mega Man that look closer to the concept art then this game does.  Inafune pretty much showed when he ruined the Mega Man X Collection over a decade ago that he cares more about money then actual quality in gaming.  All the extra content that was promised to the fans like redubbed X4, a new translation for X6 that isn't unreadable Engrish, and lots of remixed music was removed at the last minute because he decided that if the game had those features people might not buy the eventual remakes on the PSP which he was planning to do.

That's right, this is the one guy in gaming history that had a game delayed so content that was already in the game that was already advertised and was a selling point to fans could be removed.  That's why the game was originally suppose to come out November 2005, but was delayed to January 2006.  All because he planned on remaking all 6 X games for the PSP and wanted to force fans to spend hundreds of dollars more to get some of the content they were suppose to get in Mega Man X Collection.  And of course the remakes never came because the first remake bombed on the PSP so Inafune had all that extra content removed for nothing in the end.

Seriously, Inafune is as slimy and corrupt as they get.  He should be working for Activision since Kotick would love to have a guy like him around.

[broodwars]

I think if there's one huge thing to take out of this whole situation, it's that publishers probably get a worse rap than they deserve. Capcom got SO much hate thrown at it for how they weren't allowing Inafune to work on new games (particularly Mega Man), which Inafune was proud to exploit with his original Kickstarter pitch. I wonder how many people would still hate on Capcom so much now that they've had to a chance to see what Capcom had to deal with for decades dealing with Inafune. Inafune's boasting about having his team continue working on Dead Rising after cancellation so Capcom would financially have to release the product doesn't look so charming anymore, does it?

Yeah, there are some slime-y things that certain publishers do to their developers, but they also deal with a lot of logistical & egotistical B.S. we never have to see on the consumer side.

[ShyGuy]

I look forward to the 'Might No 9 To Release In Summer' talkback thread.

[Shaymin]

I look forward to posting that in April or so.

[Crimm]

I frequently take shots at this thing, because at one point I cared.


I cared a lot.

Mega Man, and the related spin-offs, were among my favorite games from about 12 - 14. I didn't play many of them when I was really young, so I gorged on Classic, GameBoy, X, Legends, and caught up in time for Battle Network and Zero. Then, nothing. There was a time I could, in a single sitting, bust through 2 or 3 games in Mega Man X Collection - I was obsessed.

Then, in the wilderness that Capcom left the franchise, came Mighty No. 9. People tied to the development of Mega Man franchise (not just Inafune but the people at Inti Creates) were going to create a new Mega Man-inspired game? I was ecstatic. The concept art looked stunning. I understood that it was art, but it seemed totally doable. This was a 2D game so 2D sprites seemed obvious, and with good sprite work you could achieve that concept art - just look at games like Muramasa.

When this game was first sold, it sounded really impressive. You wouldn't just get powers from bosses (although you would), you could leach powers, Kirby-style, from regular grunts. I mean, the theft of Mega Man concepts was transparent, and it made me slightly uneasy. However, the willingness to do so just made me certain that it was going to be right. You wouldn't, you COULDN'T, ape a series you worked on so openly and get it wrong. Right?

Then, of course, digging into the Kickstarter announcement, I should have seen some signs. The game running Unreal 3 suggested they weren't going the Muramasa, beautiful sprite, approach. It wasn't IMPOSSIBLE, but it seemed like bringing a cannon to a knife fight.

The Kickstarter exploded, providing Comcept more money than they asked for by a towering margin. And yet, then came more crowd funding. Money for Japanese voice acting. A PayPal campaign. An animated cartoon? Why? Who asked for this?

And of course, the first alpha footage. The demo on the placeholder stage looked okay. The models looked fine, although it seemed slow. Then the video transitioned to the actual game stage, and everything was untextured. It lacked detail and flair. It looked nothing like the concept art. It looked like a sharper PS2/GC/Xbox game. But those systems gave us stuff like Viewtiful Joe and Alien Hominid. 2D games with STYLE AND SPEED.

Delays and absolutely insane Red Ash Double-Kickstarter followed, and nothing that came out made me feel better. I became jaded.

Think about this: Genei Ibun Roku #FE took 1067 days from the initial teaser to come out (in Japan). If Mighty No. 9 comes out at in May (Spring) it will have taken 967 days from announcement. This game has been around FOREVER. And if I had any faith left I don't know how I would be able to keep it going.

I say this: Capcom, please just make a Mega Man game. Let someone else make it if you have to. You're not using the license, go ahead. You think you couldn't find one of the platform holders to fund this thing? I bet you could. I mean Microsoft spent 3 months talking about Battletoads because an Internet meme and self-delusion triggered some kind of self-hypnosis that transformed that into a good franchise.

Heck, announce it before you've done any work on it at all! You'll probably have it done in 3 years, and you'll get to lord that over Inafune. I'm begging here. I thought Inafune would be the answer, but he wasn't. He isn't. The talent exists to make an awesome game, mixing style, speed, and challenge.

You know what? How about this, you want to be assholes? When Comcept FINALLY gets around to releasing Mighty No. 9, and it fails to live up to expectations, announce your Mega Man Zero-inspired follow-on the day the MN9 review embargo is up.

Just don't stick your hand in my pocket to pay for it.

[nickmitch]

Do you need a hug, Crimmy?

[Crimm]

Mad not sad.


Anger is a kind of self-hug.

[UncleBob]

Correct me if I'm wrong, which I might be, since I haven't really followed this cluster, but the entire "leeching" thing was cut from the game pretty early because it was going to take too much to develop, right?

Now, we're on the second delay because they can't get the online mode - that it doesn't seem like anyone really cares about - working?

Nice.

[broodwars]

Correct me if I'm wrong, which I might be, since I haven't really followed this cluster, but the entire "leeching" thing was cut from the game pretty early because it was going to take too much to develop, right?

Well...no, it's still in there, just not the way you're probably expecting. What was in the demo was that when you hit an enemy enough to put it into a death state, the enemy starts leaking particles ("Xels") and you can dash through them to instantly kill them, increase your score multiplyer, and add a temporary passive buff to Beck. IIRC, red particles give you extra attack power (and allows your shots to go through multiple enemies), green give you extra speed and jumping, blue fills a meter you can dip into for health items ala Mega Man X's subtanks, and brown gives you higher defense.  ALSO, you can only defeat bosses by dealing enough initial damage to them to cause them to start leaking particles so you can dash near them to make the damage permanent. Otherwise, they just regenerate the lost health.

The levels are geared towards speed running, with you constantly damaging enemies and dashing through them without getting hit to chain together combos and end the stage with a high score. It's kind of what Azure Striker Gunvolt tried to do, but with easier to understand rules.  But no, it's not like Kirby or even the original Mega Man.  Supposedly, Beck can still absorb boss powers ala Mega Man, but that feature was not in the Backer demo (along with support allies, who were also excluded).

Edit: Here's a video of some gameplay from the demo that shows what I'm talking about:

[Evan_B]

The only animation that looks decent is the dash animation and I was sick of seeing it two minutes into the stage.

[Enner]

I feel for those in pain, and eagerly await for this sad tale to finish.

[Adrock]

There's a lot of understandable and justifiable salt regarding this latest delay. Mighty No. 9 doesn't look terrible. It just doesn't look like a game that should have taken three years to develop. At this point, it has so much notoriety, I expect people to dock points from it for not delivering on what was promised. And rightfully so. Development was fraught with dishonesty. I typically support delays and I support this one because I'd rather see a complete product released. However, I acknowledge how shitty it was for Comcept to delay the game again after the Red Ash fiasco and promising no further delays. Get your **** together, Comcept.

[Triforce Hermit]

I try to hold out for Red Ash. Since I'm still bitter over MML3 being cancelled. But I know deep down it's a pipe dream.

[ejamer]

I'm excited about Bloodstained.


Wanted to say something positive, but just couldn't think of anything related to Mighty No 9 that fit the bill.

[michaelbaysuperfan616]

This is why I always thought the crowdfunding thing was a waste of time.