Mighty No. 9 is a game that will definitely make it into the history books, however, not for the reasons they would expect it to be remembered. Instead of being the spiritual successor of Mega Man that was long due after Capcom’s abandonment of the franchise, it became another example of a kickstarter campaign gone wrong. It all seemed to be over for the protagonist Beck until he was given the chance to star alongside Gunvolt and Ekoro in a title called “Mighty Gunvolt” which was released alongside Azure Striker Gunvolt on the eShop. Despite being a short title that was delivered as a bonus for purchasing Gunvolt, it actually was able to channel the classic Mega Man game play we grew up with and loved much better than its origin game. Mighty Gunvolt Burst takes everything that went right and refined into a more robust and memorable experience
Developer: Inti creates
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release date: June 15th, 2017
Price: $9.99
Justice for Beck
If you have read my previous Azure Striker Gunvolt review, then you know that I have a special place for Mega Man in my heart. For years Mega Man X has been my go-to game for when life is being rougher than usual. Last year I had an amazing job offer which required me to relocate. It isn’t the first time I’ve had to move away, but those who have done it know how hard it is to just abandon your life and start a new one, especially when you know absolutely no one on your new location. I started the job on June 19th, so I spent the prior Thursday packing up my stuff, and just before packing my switch I opened the eShop and downloaded one game: Mighty Gunvolt Burst. At the time a dear friend accompanied me on the road trip and stayed with me one week while we discovered my new town. After she left, I tried to make the most out of my time, but every night when I went back to my hotel room I knew there was a game waiting for my that was nothing short of amazing, of course I am once again talking about Mighty Gunvolt Burst.
Ok enough story time.
Mighty Gunvolt Burst is a classic 2D action platformer set in the Mighty No. 9 universe after the events of the game. The game takes place in a virtual world created by Dr. White for Beck to train. Due to unforeseen circumstances Gunvolt (and all of the other DLC characters) have been dragged into the virtual world, and it is up to them to figure out a way to exit the simulation. The game originally featured Beck and Gunvolt as playable characters, each with its own individual story, but at the time of this review the cast has expanded considerably by adding 6 new characters which include the likes of Copen, The Vermilion Destroyer and even the Muse herself!
The core of the game plays like your standard jump ‘n shoot afair, with multiple stages to beat and unique bosses to defeat. The bosses are the 8 robots from Mighty No. 9, all featuring a stage that is created in their own theme and with unique gimmicks to overcome. Pyrogen’s stage “Oil platform” feature incendiary oil and magnetic fields. Aviator’s stage “Radio Tower” features wires and hooks to cross bottomless pits. Each stage also features multiple secrets to uncover that range from pixel sticker to CP upgrades and even unique modifiers for your weapons. If you are a completionist, then you will most definitely have a good time exploring every nook and cranny of each stage to uncover its secrets. Every wall suddenly raises suspicion, and even if you weren’t able to 100% a level you can always go back and replay it. Far from being a tedious grind, replaying stages never feels old and tackling old challenges with new weapons is always an incentive to dive back in.
Beating each stage will also let you choose one of 3 upgrades which can be the boss’s element, a CP upgrade or a pixel sticker. If you are ever feeling weak or in the need of extra power, then you can always replay a stage and choose a different reward at the end of the stage. The rewards are unique, so you can’t beat a stage and attempt to collect the same reward for clearing it.
A bullet for every situation
Customization is the name of the game, and with it you can completely overhaul your shots to your heart’s contempt. Instead of having predetermined weapons, you can create your own custom shots from the customize menu. If you ever wanted your shot to be faster, bigger or even following a wavy pattern, then the game as something for you. Most properties of your shots can be modified in a variety of ways, you can customize the number of shots that can be on screen, you can increase or decrease the size of the bullet, you can modify the damage, the trajectory, the time on screen before a bullet disappears, the element, you can even add a homing effect for your bullets or change it to be swords or rockets.
You can’t just tack on every positive customization and have overpowered shots though. Your shot loadout carries a cost in CP which increases or decreases depending on the features you added to your shot. Increasing the number of bullets on screen or the bullet damage will increase the CP cost, and your combined CP cannot exceed your max CP. CP starts at 1000 but can be increased by collecting CP upgrades from the stage rewards or hidden deep within a stage. This limit might be pretty tight at the beginning, but as you progress the game the available options will increase. If you are really wanting to equip a certain feature, then you can also opt to downgrade your shot to increase your available CP by doing things such as decreasing the time on-screen for you projectiles, decreasing the number of shots or even reducing the size. Giving your shots strengths and weaknesses is crucial to your game plan.
Not everything is about creating the perfect custom shot, you can also use your CP and equip extra abilities. You can opt to increase your mobility and equip and air dash. You can also increase your defense. A neat option you can also equip is the dowsing feature, which will allow your controller to use the HD rumble when near secrets, with the rumble intensity being stronger when you are closer to a secret. You can also enable charge shots for your weapon. These charge shots instead of being powered up versions of your shots, are actually just a shot from any other customization you currently have. The advantage is that it can be ANY shot regardless of its CP, meaning you could create the most absurdly strong shot that is huge and damaging and even has a shotgun like spread but is clearly beyond CP limit. You may not be able to equip that as a regular shot, but you can definitely use it as a charge shot!
The big bad bosses
As is expected, there is always a boss at the end of every stages. In true classic fashion, these bosses are really tough and are sure to leave a dent on your honor if you try to face them unprepared. Thankfully, you are always given a second chance to face this mighty foes should you fall in battle. The game doesn’t have a life count, but instead tracks the total retries you had for each level. Other than being detrimental to your score, these retry counter is completely harmless, but serves as a reminder that you can do better and try a clean run of a stage. The bosses are all weak to an element, which may or may not make sense depending on the boss. They also offer little to no feedback to let you know you are hitting them with their weakness. I’ll admit I had to check the weaknesses online because of how tedious it was to try every element until I found one that did more damage than the rest. The absence of unique weakness animations is a small deal, but is definitely missed in the grand scheme of things.
Speaking of elements, one of the biggest weaknesses of the weapon customization system is how long it takes to create custom shots or even swap them. In order to take advantage of an element, you have to create a custom shot and equip its element, so for starters you would need to create 8 different shots just to cover every possible enemy weakness (unless you are willing to swap the current element of your shot when the need arises). This annoyance is accentuated as your progress the game and increase your CP max, because you will now have to either upgrade every single element shot to accommodate for your newfound strength or stay with under-powered or under-tuned shots. Though changing elements isn’t absolutely critical, and clearing the game with your standard shots is plausible, but comparable in difficulty to trying to beat Mega Man 2 using only the buster.
IN YOUR FACE
Despite being in its name, I haven’t talked much about the burst mechanic. By dealing the killing shot to an enemy in melee distance, you will “burst” the enemy. Bursted enemied explore in a more meaningful game and award you higher scores. Chaining consecutive bursts will increase your combo and award you with huge numbers. Aside from that there is not much to bursting enemies, should you feel inclined to max your score then by all means try to full combo a stage with bursts. However, scores aren’t meaningful to every player so if you are the kind of player who doesn’t care about it, then there is no need to get in danger just to try and score bursts. One thing I do have to mention is that when attempting speedruns, bursting looks sick because of how constantly you are moving and how often enemies die in your face!
On the content department, the game features a lot of hours of gameplay. Aside from clearing the game with every character, the game has “achievements”. While not favored by every player, achievements offer extra challenge for players which range from beating a game, to beating individual stages with specific loadouts that make the game more challenging. You are rewarded pixel stickers, so at least there is some incentive to complete these challenges. If pure challenge is that you are looking for, then you can attemp to beat the gam in the harder difficuties. If variety is your thing, then the game features 6 different DLC characters which are not at all expensive costing $1.99 each. Each character features its own story and unique mechanics that completely change the game, like Copen having EX skills or Ray’s HP constantly decreasing unless you kill enemies.
Closing words
As you can see, I am very passionate about these kinds of games. Going back to my story, I spent 25 hours according to my Nintendo profile beating the original release with 100%, since then I’ve done a full run every time a new DLC has been announced. The game is still as awesome as it’s ever been and it is refreshing to fight good ol’ bosses with completely new skills and characters. The visual are also extremely pleasing with its middle point between 8-bit and 16-bit graphics. But don’t think that this game is easy, it provides a hearty challenge that is extremely rewarding if you are willing face the odds and persevere. If you are the player that enjoys 2D action platformers, then by all means buy it! This is the game Mighty No. 9 should have been and a true homage to the genre. If you aren’t convinced yet, then try the demo and see if this game is for you! You also get the Ekoro DLC free if you transfer data from the demo, so that is always nice.
