Mighty No. 9 is a 2016 action platform video game developed by Comcept, in conjunction with Inti Creates, and published by Deep Silver. The game was crowdfunded through Kickstarter and incorporated heavy input from the public. Mighty No. 9 closely resembles the early Mega Man series in both gameplay and character design, on which project lead Keiji Inafune worked, and is considered a spiritual successor.
The minimum Kickstarter goal for Mighty No. 9 was successfully funded after two days of the launch of the campaign in September 2013. However, several other features including additional stages, special modes and ports to other platforms were announced after additional "stretch goals" related to it were achieved, increasing the total funds obtained to over 400% of the original goal. The game was originally scheduled to be released in April 2015, but was delayed multiple times until it was eventually released for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Windows, Xbox 360, and Xbox One in June 2016, with Linux and OS X ports released in August 2016, with planned versions for the PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS never surfacing.
Mighty No. 9 was highly anticipated after it was announced, but lengthy delays and Comcept's decision to fund another project, Red Ash: The Indelible Legend, through Kickstarter were met with accusations of mismanagement. The game received mixed to negative reviews from critics upon launch, with criticism being directed towards the game's design, graphics, lack of content, voice acting, story, and technical performance on home console platforms.
Gameplay Mighty No. 9 is focused on 2D platforming with a blend of 2D and 3D artwork and animation. Players control a robot named Beck (Mighty No. 9), who is able to run, jump, and shoot projectiles at enemies he encounters. Furthermore, the player is able to acquire both weapons and abilities from enemies they defeat. The game features an intro level followed by the eight main levels, which are freely chosen in any order by the player. At the end of each stage, Beck must face one of the other eight "Mighty" units in a boss battle. A final set of levels are unlocked at the end of the game, leading up to the final showdown. An additional level starring Beck's partner, Call, is also available at some point.
In addition to jumping and shooting, Beck's main ability is what the game calls "AcXelerate" (pronounced like "accelerate"), which can be used to move quickly and cross large gaps. Upon weakening enemies by shooting them, Beck can AcXelerate through them in order to absorb a substance known as Xel (pronounced "Cel"). Absorbing Xel from enemies grants Beck temporary enhancements, which are increased power for his attacks and the ability to shoot through walls (red), increased speed that allows Beck to run faster (green), and increased resistance to damage (yellow). There are also enemies that when weakened, turn blue. These enemies will refill the player's AcXel Recover 1 (AcXel Recover 2 is filled only at "Patch" checkpoints), which can be used to heal Beck. By defeating bosses, Beck can obtain new transformation forms, giving him new abilities such as magnetic limbs that can be used in various ways to deal with the enemies as well as traversing the levels. Conversely, Call can't absorb Xel but can boost further than Beck and can use "Patch service bot" that can activate a shield that reflects projectiles and slows her fall.
Raychel's (DLC) gameplay is also largely similar to Beck's gameplay, but with a few notable differences. Her default attack is a melee attack. She will instantly absorb any enemy whose health becomes too low (even if it isn't destabilized) to finish it off. Her counterpart to Beck's AcXelerate doubles as an attack and bounces off an enemy if they are not absorbed. Her health operates similarly to the way boss health works. She also earns different powers than Beck called "Variation Codes" from the bosses she defeats. The layouts of certain stages are altered to reflect this.
Plot Mighty No. 9 centers around an android named Beck (Yuri Lowenthal / Ayumu Murase), the ninth unit in a set of advanced combat and utility robots called the Mighty Numbers. A computer virus unleashed by a mysterious hacker suddenly corrupts the programming of the eight previous Mighty Numbers and hundreds of other machines across the world, causing them to turn on their human creators. The player, as Beck, must eliminate the other Mighty Numbers and uncover the identity of the villain who threatens the fate of the planet. Alongside Beck is his partner, Call (Julie Nathanson / M.A.O).
The game begins with a sudden massive countrywide robot uprising. Mighty No. 9, Beck, is one of the few robots unaffected. He is reluctantly tasked by the chief creator of the Mighty Numbers, Dr. White, to hunt down his siblings. Beck possesses a unique ability that allows him to assimilate the "Xels" of other robots when they have sustained sufficient damage. By assimilating the Xels of the Mighty Numbers, Beck is able to restore their original personalities. Assimilation also allows Beck to send data to Dr. White, who tries to find the cause of the robots' violent behavior. He also solicits the aid of White's bumbling colleague Dr. Sanda and his unaffected creation Call. Gregory Graham (Scott Whyte / Takehito Koyasu), president of Cherry Dynamics (the world's largest supplier of robots, also called "CherryDyn"), publicly denies responsibility for the current disaster and blames White's estranged mentor, Dr. Blackwell, despite the latter being in a maximum-security prison.
As Beck saves more of his siblings, White finds among the affected Xels traces of code from his abandoned project, "Trinity", a robot that can learn and grow infinitely by assimilating other robots. As Trinity was funded by CherryDyn, White decides to visit Graham while Call and Sanda go to Blackwell for a direct explanation. While infiltrating the prison, Call questions why White would make Beck a battle robot when he was primarily designed as a symbol of peace. Upon meeting Blackwell, Call and Sanda learn that the real cause of the countrywide uprising is Graham's failed attempt to reverse-engineer Trinity's design for military applications. Trinity can reprogram, rewrite, and assimilate other robots effortlessly; thus, she posed an incalculable danger to all of humanity and Blackwell, recognizing this, forced White to shut down the project. He was subsequently framed for terrorism and imprisoned, enabling Graham to bring White under his complete control.
Meanwhile, White confronts Graham about the latter's decision to restart Trinity, for which he again tries to deny responsibility. White mulls over how, despite Trinity being his greatest failure, he had taken what he had learned from her creation to perfect Beck, implying that Beck's aversion to combat is the only difference separating his fate from Trinity's. Graham then realizes that White is actually Blackwell's illegitimate son, Bill.
Just as Beck foils Trinity's plot to launch a massive war against humanity, the robot grows to the point where she begins to assimilate even non-robotic objects, and Beck, being the only one immune to her rewrite ability (though not immune to her assimilation), moves out alone to stop her. Beck successfully assimilates Trinity like he does with his siblings and eliminates her influence on all other robots. With the help of the other Mighty Numbers, Beck and Trinity (restored to her true, humanoid form) manage to escape.
Photos shown before the credits give an epilogue to the game, with Trinity befriending the other Mighty Numbers, White completing Trinity and giving her a proper body, and Beck, having accepted that peace can only be achieved through strength, taking part in a fighting tournament to hone his skills.
In a post-credits scene, White visits Blackwell in his cell to inform him of Trinity's change of heart and pitches the idea of a new symphonic heart routine that will help robots grow more responsibly. However, Blackwell scoffs that he got lucky and remains unconvinced (calling White "Bill" in the process); White, feeling unappreciated, vows to prove Blackwell and everyone who doubted him wrong. As the screen fades to black, Blackwell states that only time will tell if Beck is a blessing or a curse.
Development Mighty No. 9 was announced in a conference at the 2013 Penny Arcade Expo by Inafune and his team. The Kickstarter campaign for the project launched on August 31, 2013 and met its US$900,000 target only two days later, on September 2. 8-4, a localization company, handled the Japanese-to-English translation work for the project in addition to consulting and PR work. 2 Player Productions produced a four-part documentary series during the game's development, detailing every aspect that has gone into the creation of the game as well as providing developer commentary from Inafune and his team.
Mighty No. 9s concept was initially widely acclaimed for its return to the genre of Mega Man-styled games, going against the alleged neglect of the franchise by series owner Capcom. The game has been noted as one of the first crowd-funded video game projects launched in Japan.
Inafune had promised to provide "unprecedented access to seeing [his] team at work" over the development cycle of Mighty No. 9. In the video promoting the Kickstarter, Inafune stated that he wanted to make the project one where he could get the fans involved, following the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3 which similarly sought to get fans involved with the game's development process. On September 4, 2013, it was announced that the two mystery stretch goals that were previously announced were to be pushed back in favor of attempting to release the game on consoles quickly. The mystery goals were still retained, and later revealed once funding reached the $2,200,000 goal and beyond. As each particular stretch goal was attained during the month of September, additional stretch goals were announced, pushing the final goal to the $4,000,000 mark. The first of the documentary series by 2 Player Productions was released on September 26.
An opinion poll was launched on September 27 to choose the design of Call, Beck's partner. The poll asks voters to choose among nine design choices labelled from A to I, all drawn by members of both Inti Creates and Comcept. The poll was closed and the result was posted on the evening of October 1, with designs E, F and H winning out. The game's soundtrack was composed primarily by Manami Matsumae, of Mega Man fame, with sound direction and additional compositions by Ippo Yamada. A single track each was also contributed by Takashi Tateishi of Mega Man 2 fame, and Masahiro Aoki.
On September 30, 2013, the game's use of Unreal Engine 3 was confirmed. The pledging campaign ended on October 1, 2013, raising $3,845,170 in total, and becoming the then sixth most funded project in Kickstarter history. An additional $201,409 obtained via PayPal increased the total money collected to $4,046,579, contributing to the achievement of all the stretch goals announced. In an interview published in an issue of Game Informer in October 2013, Inafune revealed he would not have ruled out Capcom, his former employer, as a potential publisher for the game, even if it meant re-skinning Mighty No. 9 as an actual Mega Man game. However, he added that he would only negotiate with Capcom if "they had the best terms". An official website for the game was launched on November 21, 2013, alongside a backer exclusive forum. On March 19, 2014, a development trailer was shown at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California.