Mighty No. 9
Platform: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, OS X, Linux, Android, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo 3DS
Few platformers of the golden era brought as much joy and inextinguishable rage as Capcom’s Mega Man series. Following Keiji Inafune’s departure from Capcom, the former artist and illustrator on the NES and SNES Mega Man games founded the video game developer Level-5 Comcept in 2010. Three years later and Mighty No. 9 was Kickstarted, reaching its target in under two days; and another three years later, the much delayed platform adventure finally landed on stockist’s shelves.
It is not particularly innovative in terms of gameplay or design – in fact it pretty much takes chunks wholesale from the Mega Man ethos – and it is frustrating as hell in the way that only platformers are sometimes allowed to be, but the learning curve is not so steep as to become infuriating and unplayable. Its biggest issue is that it isn’t Mega Man, which is hardly fair. Cartoony graphics, amusing dialogue and a pick-up-and-play style means this game is most fun when played in chunks.