Freebie Feelers... Mighty No. 9

 Freebie Feelers is a series where we download the free monthly console-specific or newly released free-to-play games to test their worth. This series will contain some useful information as well as plenty of personal opinion. While these articles may not be reviews, we hope that you will be able to use them to help decide whether that free download is worth it.

What is it?

Mighty No. 9 is a platform game, inspired by the early Mega Man series, that was developed after a successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. With Keiji Inafune spearheading the project as the lead producer and creating the concept for the project having worked on some of the Mega Man games. By the time the campaign finished and PayPal donations were counted the top raised was over $4 million in funding. After a long development cycle with a number of delays and bumps along the way the game released to mixed reviews.

What did you think?

Mighty No. 9 is by far one of the worst video games I’ve ever played, and I’m not sorry for saying that. Let me now break it down. For starters, the gameplay is boring and so dull that there is next to no enjoyment. Your character movements feel slow and unresponsive and the dash ability, sold as the main gameplay mechanic, ends up being a complete waste. These problems extend into the levels as well, with some of the most uninspiring levels ever made. Hitboxes are all over the place; there is no sense of difficulty scaling and the locations look and feel unfinished.

It is there that my main problem with Mighty No. 9 stands. As a video game it comes across as a student project and not one developed by a team of (what I hope) are skilled people. I won’t even start on the budget for this title and what is clearly some horrible management of the whole project. Mighty No. 9 is not just a poor title but honestly it is a lackluster experience that should not be this bad by a mile. I feel sorry for people who backed this project.

Is it worth downloading?

Honestly no, it is not. Mighty No. 9 won’t cure the itch you may have for Mega Man and with the Mega Man Legacy collections available on nearly all platforms there is hardly any reason to play Mighty No. 9 at this point. Download it if you fancy trying it but I don’t recommend it. In fact, avoid it if you can.

Mighty No. 9 is available now on PlayStation 4 as part of the PlayStation Plus lineup for March.