The original Ittle Dew holds a special place in my family’s heart. Not only did my love of Nintendo’s Zelda series draw me to the title, my grandmother also enjoyed it. Needless to say, Ittle Dew 2 had big shoes to fill.

Ittle Dew 2 starts where its predecessor ends, with the hero Ittle and her fox floating on a raft. Wasting no time, they crash into an island and set off on their adventure. The scope of the game is on point – rather than spending hours on tutorials and exposition, this title immediately sends you on your way to adventure. Subtle hints and a map with a marker lead you to where you need to go, but the world is completely open to explore. Armed with a stick, a buddy fox, and a map, it is up to the player to find where to go next. Ittle Dew 2’s creativity shines here with its first dungeon being a literal “pillow” fort. Though this may imply that this area is soft and easy, this dungeon doesn’t disappoint, and eases the player in with simple puzzles.

After a couple of dungeons, I did a little sidetracking and found a puzzle maze. Another aspect where Ittle Dew 2 excels is in its optional puzzles and dungeons. Hidden caves literally cover the map, each filled with secret items and life containers in the form of crayons. Each pack of crayons adds a quarter of health, increasing your total stamina. Items are also available that increase the damage output of your weapons.

Although my playthrough of Ittle Dew 2 lasted around eight hours, I felt like I just scratched the surface. Even after writing this review, there were still secrets that needed to be uncovered. Hidden maps and secret caves offered upgrades to different items not necessarily required to complete the game.

Tools in Ittle’s arsenal also tap into this title’s creative spirit. A sword extender chain (which extends into a larger sword), an ice block creator, a push rod that moves objects (and dishes out damage), and a stick of dynamite are just a few that stand out. What set these items apart was that they could be used together to solve puzzles, something I felt that was very gratifying.

While exploring, I found my way to the entrance of a dungeon not marked on my map. The traditional “fire” dungeon is even noted by your fox as a token fire dungeon in this type of game. This dungeon was a noticeable (but welcome) spike in difficulty. Here I found my first enemy that wasn’t outright killable, as well as obstacles that required more than simple strategic movement. In Ittle Dew 2, the controls almost directly resemble the top-down Zelda games, albeit with a new roll ability. The roll is essential in making it past spikes and enemy attacks, and becomes a critical part of the game.

Since the world is open for Ittle to explore, the player is made aware early on that all dungeons can be completed with just the items you enter with. Put simply, if you can enter it, you can beat it. While this helps replayability tremendously, my initial playthrough was met with a good amount of difficulty in the later stages of the game. Whether I was underpowered or not is unknown to me, as I did not complete every side dungeon and don’t know if armor or potions are available.

Shortcuts are available in dungeons but certain items (obtained by completing dungeons out of order) are required to utilize these shortcuts. I’m impressed at the level of polish that went into the playability and puzzles in this game, as both the puzzles and the items have an incredible amount of depth.

My complaints for Ittle Dew 2 are few: a few dungeon bosses are reused (albeit with different weapons), and late game balancing seemed rough. I can’t verify that a playthrough would be easier for anyone else, but the difficulty spike is unreal in the final dungeon. Nowhere within the game did I find the ability to replenish health via a potion, nor armor that allowed me to take less damage. Certain enemies within this dungeon were so hard that difficult that it almost felt like luck was needed to beat them.

Ittle Dew 2 feels like a focused and expert approach to making a Zelda game. What Ludosity was able to accomplish here felt like the developers had a level of understanding of the gameplay on par or even better than some of Nintendo’s offerings. Fluid gameplay, challenging dungeon crawling, incredible replayability, and satisfying progression make the experience a very satisfying one. Fans of the genre – and even my grandmother – would get a kick out of Ittle and her adventures.

Ittle Dew 2 – Indie Adventure At Its Finest – Gif Dump

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Described as a love letter to the pixelated platformers of old, Owlboy instantly grabbed my attention. Whether it be taking on flying as a platforming mechanic, utilizing the speed and precision of 2D shooters, or just simple puzzle solving, it’s clear the attention to detail present is second to none.

Owlboy starts out simple enough with an introduction to its game mechanics and our titular hero Otus. Our protagonist is portrayed as a clumsy mute with promise, but also inept at the higher teachings of greater owls. Simple controls allow Otus to fly, roll, jump, spin attack, and mid-air dash around the screen. Everything is smooth and crisp when using an Xbox One controller on PC. After some brief exploration and some conversations that push the story forward, Otus makes his first friend in the town’s defense mechanic, Geddy. Geddy serves as the first actual weapon in the game, shooting his blaster while being carried during flight. The blaster is very effective on the outset, utilizing 360 degree targeting via the right analog control stick or mouse. Additionally, Geddy’s blaster is utilized to destroy barriers and allow progression through the first area temple.

I want to stop right here and, before going further, would point out the pixel art in this game, which is practically unrivaled in the industry today. Though I have played through hundreds of video games spanning decades of consoles, I feel that Owlboy is the best looking 2D pixel game ever created. Titles like Ori and the Blind Forest and Axiom Verge pushed the boundaries of what could be done without console limitations, and Owlboy continues this trend. Character models breathe, grass blows in the wind, and even candles flicker against the walls. Each area has no less than four distinct layers. It truly is astounding how much attention to detail has been put into this game. Over the eight or so hours that encompass this truly incredible experience, I never once felt like any part of this game wasn’t alive.

Owlboy Gif Collection

Progressing further into Owlboy, our protagonist Otus finds himself periodically stunted from proceeding. When this happens, a new shooter character is implemented as both a companion and a source of commentary. Following the beam blaster character Geddy, Alphonse and his leaf-burning shotgun is also available. This shotgun is utilized to traverse obstacles and deal with larger enemies. Finally, the stickbug Twig rounds out the trio of companions available to Otus. Twig acts as a web slinger, shooting his web at various hinges and slinging Otus across the screen. Switching weapons can be done with the press of a button, allowing for various battle scenarios. Further bosses utilize this strategy by requiring the player to switch back and forth between guns to do proper damage. Though it made sense in my playthrough, first time fights with different enemies may require a little bit of practice.

Owlboy tells the story of a quiet but goodhearted protagonist that wants to help the world he is part of. Otus, a kindhearted and truly gentle character, is intent on helping his friends. In doing so, the experience goes to floating sky cities, space pirate ships, lava caverns, snowy mountains, radioactive plants, and even outer space. The progression throughout the game is well-balanced, and it’s hard to not just want to get lost in its world. Various areas also expand slightly with hidden pathways leading to hidden treasures and collectibles. The only real drawback that occurred during my playthrough was in the technical window settings. When shifting between full screen and windowed mode, the sound sometimes dropped out. However, a menu that restores the audio is present. Additionally, the soundtrack throughout the game gave way to wonder and joy at times while also conveying desperation and suspense for a world that wants to exist. Each area is truly alive, and that is represented in all aspects throughout the game.

Games created with this level of attention to detail are hard to find. Throughout the past decade we can each pinpoint various favorite titles that truly touched our hearts and minds, but Owlboy stands at the top or near it. This is the kind of game that transcends time as its art, gameplay, story and music truly should be heralded as a shining example for developers to aspire towards. Whether this is something that can be duplicated remains to be seen as this title is a true labor of love and passion. Every frame in the shows the deep level of love that is only possible by withholding a game until perfection. I’ve only played a handful of games that could be considered perfect in my time and this stands among them. Congratulations go to the developers for creating a masterpiece.

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Dragon Quest Builders starts out rather simple. Simple fetch quests and small area tasks teach the player where each thing is, where it goes, and what its for. Your task as the non-hero is to save the world from the Dragonlord who has released darkness and chaos throughout the land. You are given a square plot of land and the tools you need to get started and then with the quests in front of you it is a simple to and fro playstyle of step by step building for your community. Growing the town consists of building blueprints received from townsfolk to upgrade your capabilities. In order to build these structures you need to scout the area for various materials and compile them within a large coffer.

One of the best parts of the entire game and a huge improvement to the builder formula, a “Colossal Coffer” allows the player to access his entire store of inventory on the fly, anywhere, at any time. Gone are the days where you can only carry a certain amount of materials, stunting progression with meaningless backtracking to store said items in a home cache. Instead Dragon Quest Builders allows the player to have instant access once the Colossal Coffer is crafted. As a very experienced Minecraft player told me how he felt, the Colossal Coffer is like a universal “backpack” for access to all your items. Progression wise, this does not break the game as you can only build a Large Coffer once several hard to find items are required. Additionally, while mining or gathering materials for building, anything obtained once the player’s inventory is filled gets automatically transferred to your large coffer inventory. It’s a huge change to the genre and since each chapter has you start over with no items and new objectives, it never feels overpowered to have that kind of ultimate inventory access. Instead it just adds to the possibilities of building and wonder.

Story in Dragon Quest Builders is plain but that isn’t necessarily a problem as this game is about building. Unfortunately the progression with chapters is a bit flawed in that the chapters are split with progress only affecting each chapter. While not that big of an issue, focusing on the story divides the world from progression and just gives a sense of having to grind even harder to accomplish the same goal. With OCD I didn’t care to lose my town I just spent 10 hours building as the prospect of doing it over was a challenge I relished. Unfortunately I could see how this would really deter someone from wanting to continue, having spent over 10 hours building a community of buildings to only lose it all and get forced to start over in a harder area to continue. Again, not too bad for me but slight tampering with the formula could help.

Battle in Dragon Quest Builders leaves something to be desired but does not feel poorly developed. If anything development for the battle system must have been decided early on as it’s a simple and effective approach, allowing for pick up and play regardless of first chapter or third chapter. The formula of building and growing a community comes with upgrades to weapons, armor and accessories that help the player venture further into the overworld. The player has a basic set of 2 moves, (attack and 360 charged power swing) and with these moves is charged with besting multiple monsters in short range combat. The hit area for the attacks is severely limited though and tactics for combat reflect that. While some knock back is made from the swing of the sword, strategy is extremely limited in combat to a dance of attack, move out of the way and repeat. While not expecting a god of war combat from a building game, it would still be nice to see at least an attempt at fun fighting.

End chapter bosses are a different matter and should be heralded. An end-chapter Boss battle consists of not only besting the area warlord but also utilizing the games core-concept of building to do so. This culminates boss battles that are up to the player to come up with a creative solution that will ultimately save the town from an imposing threat. Instead of a straight forward boss battle with mechanics to figure out, Dragon Quest Builders shines here, tasking the player to build in order to defeat the monster. For example in Chapter 2, ballistas are required to attack the monster throughout the fight and in order to do so, a creative solution is needed. Since my first attempt was disastrous, reloading a save file I made right before the battle allowed me to create a structure that would allow me to place the ballistas in strategic locations. This all felt well executed and extremely inventive to the builder formula. Finally, once the area boss is bested, new pillar of light will lead the hero to another land filled with adventure and more people to save.

Alongside the battle mechanic is the need to heal and eat in order to keep the player fully powered while adventuring. To do this various edible items are obtained from throughout the area both in the form of crops and beast meat. These items are then cooked in kitchens that you can build inside your community. Bonuses are available for cooked food that combines healing materials with edible materials to great effect. Life bars and stamina bars require the use of medicine and food which are grinded from throughout the area. This leads to upgrades in the kitchen for better recipes. Community members also contribute by placing items in a community chest within these rooms for the player to use. Upgrading a kitchen to a cafeteria gives more items in the a community chest for the player to use as well. While stamina and health definitely play a part in the full experience of DQ Builders, it never feels arbitrary and instead just fits the ultimate goal within the game.

In order to do more and take less damage, respectfully, the crafting of better equipment throughout the game gives an added layer of progression. With each chapter starting with a wooden hammer and plain clothing, it is on the player to accumulate the required materials in order to upgrade hammers, weapons, shields and armor. Better weapons help in besting harder monsters while better hammers are needed to mine harder materials utilized in crafting story advancing items. Additionally tools are crafted like shovels, fishing poles and rakes (to name a few) that add layers of gameplay to the builder formula.

A huge component missing from this game was multiplayer. Granted, this game benefited from focusing on a single player campaign, It can’t help but be felt like a major part of this game is missing by not letting 2 people work together to create something. One of the major reasons Minecraft is so successful is that anything is possible since people can work together to create anything they can think of. It seems like for now Square-Enix is content with dabbling in the genre, rather than redefining it.

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Dungeon Rushers Review

With said plucky main character and a hero-parody theme, Dungeon Rushers lays the humor on thick. As the latest title by Goblinz Studio, Dungeon Rushers specialized in 2D tactical RPG gameplay, complete with turn based fights and top down dungeon maps. Although my playthrough of the game didn’t end with a completion of the content this review will cover the majority of gameplay mechanics. In regards to multiplayer, I did in fact use the dungeon map creator and published my map, but it has not been played as of this writing.

As a dungeon crawler RPG, the majority of the game takes place on a game board. As the game progresses, more of the board is unveiled and players can move around more. The ultimate objective of every dungeon is to find the treasure chest, loot it, and leave. Sounds simple, right? Various abilities are available on the map that can be used to reveal tiles, disarm traps, and cast pre-battle spells. It all works very well, and is easily accessible early on in the game. Combat is similar to that found in traditional turn-based RPGs, with both your party and the monsters taking turns. Balancing is a bit of an issue in battle, as debuffs and slow burning status ailments aimed at sapping energy are used gratuitously by the enemy. This feeds into item management, as potions you don’t have are needed to keep your characters alive.

The overall balancing of Dungeon Rushers doesn’t get any easier, with the majority of levels requiring multiple playthroughs. What makes dungeon crawlers fun isn’t the repetition, but the accomplishment of leveling up your character with skills and better gear. Here it takes way too long to do so as I was redoing dungeons within the first two hours. To make matters worse, the battles offer a low amount of experience. This is made worse when the spoils from battle don’t enhance your character’s gear after about more than an hour of grinding. Even worse is you can do an hour of grinding in the first five hours of the game, and barely even go up a level. This ultimately makes the skill tree just an afterthought and really deterred me from wanting to continue. As a result, it really just felt like a likeable indie game was made longer by the requirement of needless grinding in order to proceed.

Gameplay isn’t just grinding 24×7 though. The dialogue, pixel art, and crafting all stand out, even without voice acting. The main character in particular reminded me of those found in old 80s animated dungeon cartoons, with sly humor and tongue-in-cheek one liners. Rendered in really wonderful pixel art, the characters are further influenced with charm and vibrant to look at. Crafting is often the best part of this game, as it includes a robust item creation system that also incorporates a leveling mechanic for better gear. The dungeon crawling aspect comes into play here with the materials earned from dungeons being used to craft your better gear. For those that really get to enjoy this game, crafting will be your best friend and used throughout your adventure.

Gameplay in Dungeon Rushers is fun, easy to start and enjoyable to play. I really liked the campy dialogue and innocent approach to a diverse dungeon crawling genre. The crafting was designed well to accompany the materials acquired from grinding through the game. Unfortunately, with strong enemies appearing early and often, balancing is a serious issue, one that requires needless visits to small dungeons. Forcing players to replay dungeons so early on impeded my progress, and ultimately deterred me from playing further. It just seems to me that the developers missed the point with their own hero-parody style and missed an opportunity. If it was a short dungeon crawler, it wouldn’t really be in the same genre, but more enjoyment could be had if I could actually progress through the game.

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Batman – The Telltale Series Episode One Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci31KnWjF8E

I remember a time when Batman games didn’t hold the luster or metacritic that current Batman games hold. In fact growing up games like Batman Forever on Genesis or Batman and Robin on PSX respectively, barely hit 5/10 or better. With Rocksteady averaging an astounding 91.3% across their Batman trilogy, its needless to say that anyone following up a game with our Caped Crusader has big shoes to fill. And let me tell you, Batman The Telltale Series Episode One “Realm of Shadows” does just that.

Can I just say how much I loved the intro to this game. It was so classy to see the hand drawn comic book variant from Batmans past featuring various incarnations in different times (and suits!) even going all the way back to Detective Comics Number 27, the first Batman Comic. It felt like a great nod to the source material and as a fan made me appreciate that Telltale took the time to say it first. Making first impressions only continues with a BANG once you start the game, as you are dropped right into the action of a Burglary in progress and let me just say playing as Batman starts off pretty friggin fun actually. Sure its simple Up, Down or A, B but after a little bit their are combinations of A and Right or moving a reticle and clicking Right Trigger to complete an action during the fight. It really felt like playing a Batman Cartoon complete with the taking down of Catwoman in a fight where neither of them pull their punches.

Where this game may stumble just a little bit is in its small talk. Only occurring for maybe 30 to 45 minutes of the total 2 Hour and 30 minute playtime, small talk was kind of boring with what felt like a few characters just adding to back story or to set up future content. Oswald Cobblepot makes a small appearance as Bruces childhood friend only to hint at tidbits for future episodes while Bruce mixes it up with Harvey Dent on an election campaign. It played like plot fill at this point since we only have episode one to play right now and its all foreshadowing. On the other hand one of the more memorable sequences took place between unmasked Catwoman/Selina Kyle and a similarly unmasked Batmam/Bruce Wayne. Somehow these two characters always mix up the pot with their sexual tension and mental chess and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

The central theme of Episode One follows a fairly straight forward plot line of Corruption and Gothams #1 Crime Lord Carmine Falcone. I think ever since Batman Begins Carmine Falcone is the first fall guy go to, so it should be pretty obvious what direction this was taking. What made it cool was how they employed it. Utilizing Selina Kyle as the source of info on a buyer of illegal goods, Batman is able to Investigate a crime scene in order to produce evidence and leads towards taking down Falcone. Here Telltale has Batman play the Detective by linking clues to piece the story together. Once you actually link different clues to their correct corresponding story point, Batman is able to piece together what happens and move the plot forward. I found it fun and I really liked how they actually have Batman the Detective in the game. It wasn’t anything where you could effect the outcome of anything but it was satisfying.

Without Spoiling the end, Batman – The Telltale Series Episode One has you put everything you’ve learned into a final conflict with Falcone. Utilizing the same Clue Linking mechanic learned previously, Batman puts together a plan of attack that is really fun to setup and then play. It felt like playing what Guy Ritchie did with Sherlock Holmes where he visualized the attack then employed it, only here you get to choose how you attack and then actually get to do it. The results led to a very satisfying Batman scene that flows straight into the final conflict. Not gonna lie, I kinda want to play just the Batman parts again to see the different play style choices.

While there were a couple key choices throughout the episode, the game played mostly like an overarching story with different dialogue options. With what appears like 4 more episodes, we have yet to see any real game changing plot options but I still think there is plenty of time and this was an incredible start. What it truly needed was more of that friggin Batmobile. Seriously, How cool was the Batmobile Lambo? The thing friggin went from Red to Black with camouflage tech then Armored up while also opening the back for jets. LAMBO BATMOBILE GG Telltale. Click HERE to see the GIF

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Inside Review

Sneaking through the forest, a child running for his life serves as the main protagonist of Inside. Running further into the forest, it becomes apparent that the boy is running from an ominous threat. Having to sneak past trucks filled to the brim with mindless people that are being shipped off to an unforeseen destination, you are given a sense that everything is not ok. Further enriching the experience is the threat of dogs chasing you, masked bad guys gunning you down and worm infested pigs being, well worm infested pigs.

This was all in the first 10 minutes by the way. Part of what developer Playdead does so well is putting the player in an immediately immersive world with an action button and a jump button. Puzzles are the main antagonist of the game ranging from simple to almost really difficult. Never did I feel that a puzzle was going to end my game or make me have to go look it up or ask for advice. One of the things I really did like about some of the puzzles were the audio cues you would get from solving them, really giving satisfaction for progress.

The game adds in a mind controlling aspect where the player puts on a little helmet and you can control little mindless humans in the background for the purpose of solving a puzzle. It was a fun novel way to approach puzzle platforming and I rather liked it. Unfortunately, like the rest of the game, there just wasn’t enough of it. At certain points of the game you get achievements by finding out of the way hard to reach nodes to destroy. If you find them all you can achieve an Alternate ending which for the purpose of this review I did not do but it was nice to see a little added content for a short game.

About 50 minutes into the game I fell in love with the submarine you are given to play with. Obviously I’m biased since I served in the Navy on a Submarine but it was a fun little thing. It had a boost on it and a light and was simple. You could boost through barriers, over obstacles and into broken walls revealing access. Also there were these little underwater creatures you had to get away from but keep your spotlight on. I liked the way their hair flowed underwater with the current, it gave a sense of serenity. But let me tell you, the second you took your attention away from them they sneak up on you and completely eviscerate you. Which brings the brutal nature of this game. At any point when you die, you are completely ripped apart and or torn to shreds with blood going in all directions. It served as a reminder that this world the player is in is full of threats and the only way to get through it is to keep running.

All told if you do everything possible in this game you still fall well short of 10 hours, but at $20 it’s a novel puzzle platformer that definitely scratches the indie itch. Following up Limbo should have been an arduous task but it seems that developer Playdead has the ability of blurring the lines between art and video games inside its DNA. I for one feel like games like this need to exist in an industry bursting with more and more mundane AAA titles. Now if only it can take less than 6 years between games. Inside was definitely a very good game, even at times great but it was by no means a perfect platformer and was at best a pretty good puzzle game. What makes Inside good is the overall experience i.e. the tone, setting, pace and soundtrack. Definitely a must play.

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Mighty No. 9 Review

I first got my hands on the Kickstarter backed video game Mighty No 9 after it finally released for STEAM at 10 AM on June 21, 2016. Not trying to nitpick here but I play 100 Games in a Year and am used to having a game at 9PM PST when it is available at 12AM EST on the East Coast on the night before release. After some research the game was in fact released at that time for PS4 but I will let bygones be bygones… for now. Having not backed the kickstarter campaign myself, I was prepared to just have fun and enjoy a game from one of the industry veterans responsible for decades of Mega Man. For the record, Keiji Inafune is not the creator of Mega Man but was arguably the most influential figure behind the franchise.

For this review I played Mighty No. 9 via my PC using an Xbox One controller. First booting up Mighty No 9 I was greeted with a familiar city Level that is extremely reminiscent of Mega Man X. A little still frame un-animated story with kind of cheesy dialog followed and then I was off to the races. With my new little Blue Bomber it was immediately apparent that this is a faster game, being prompted immediately to use my new “AcXelerate” to collect power from weakened enemies using my blaster. AcXelerate acts not only as a means of finishing off weakened enemies but also as a form of in air Dash. Lots of fun right! The 1st level ends with a rather weak boss but that made sense since this was just the beginning.

The first problem I had with Mighty No. 9 began with the cut scenes following the first level. See a game doesn’t need to have cut scenes to be great, Dark Souls proves that. What it does need to do is maintain the attention. Unfortunately as soon as the levels end the story is told using lifeless character models and terrible voice acting. It completely disconnected me from any story being told which kind of sucks since I wanted to care for these characters and now couldn’t. This is a game for platforming and special weaponry though, so again I let it go. After a suggestion from User: MannySlain in my Twitch chat to switch to Japanese voice acting and Retro Soundtrack, much of the pain was gone. By the way it should be noted that the soundtrack was ok at best till I switched to Retro. Once I did the game felt and sounded so much better.

[testimonials user=’JJ David’ email=” name=” position=” photo=”]Unfortunately as soon as the levels end the story is told using lifeless character models and terrible voice acting.[/testimonials] What followed within the game was a standard Mega Man like experience with 8 boss levels to choose from displayed in an order from Mighty No. 1 to Mighty No. 8. I went in order for half and then switched it up and went in a different order for the rest just to see if anything changes. What I did really like about the levels were that if you did them in a secret correct order (not 1 through 8) you got help from certain bosses in the level where their power would be a weakness to the end boss. Not only do you get help but the Mighty No that is helping has dialog and is featured within the level running around in the background smashing bad guys. Was a nice addition. What I did NOT like was that the levels are mostly pointless enemies in succession that can almost all be skipped within the entire game. I found that after having died once I could mostly skip and dash straight through each level to the end without much in the way of any significant challenge. This was the first sign that this game was developed with 8 year olds in 2016 in mind and not 31 year olds that have scars from the 8 bit generation.

While the levels were a bit bland I did find that they were at least fun to try to go as fast as possible to the end level bosses. This brings up the next aspect of Mighty No. 9, the bosses. It is your job in Mighty No. 9 to face off against 8 of their other Mighty No. bots that have been corrupted. Sadly I was able to effectively break more than 3 of these bosses by spamming my buster shot within a close range and defeating them before they could do enough damage to me. My favorite 2 bosses were Dynatron (electricity) and Aviator (Flying). These were the only 2 bosses that I found with actual game play mechanisms requiring thinking, precision and timing. Other than these 2 bosses though, the bulk of Mighty No. 9 was pretty simple without the need for anything more than simple platforming or any form of skill. It was a little disappointing given that Mega Man is known for its heart crushing difficulty in certain games.

I think one of the saving graces of Mighty No. 9 was the difficulty spike following the first 8 bosses. While going from a simple platformer to an unforgiving one is to a detriment in this case for pacing, I was grateful for the difficulty spike in the final 3 levels especially the final boss. It was by no means as hard as Mega Man X’s final boss, it was however a testament to what could be done with this game. The final boss was far and away the best part of the game, utilizing platforming, precision, timing and just a little bit of luck.

Since its release I’ve seen a lot of disappointed people criticizing this game for many reasons. I can definitely tell you that even though it felt polished, it felt like half of a heart. In my opinion Comcept,(Keiji Inafune’s Company), bit off more than they could chew by creating a game across as many platforms as this game released on. Its no wonder why it had 3 delays seeings as how it released on PS4, Xbox One, Playstation Vita, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, PS3, Xbox 360, Steam, Linux, and Mac OS. If I have one wish for future kickstarter games (Bloodstained), please polish your game and release it on one platform then port to others. Mighty No. 9 suffers from spreading a great idea too thin and thusly not allowing it to thrive in its own right. It was a promising first start but in order for this to be a future franchise I feel like more focus will be needed. At just over 7 hours of a campaign time, Mighty No. 9 is not a bad game by any means, and for $20 it is extremely worthwhile. It just isn’t the great game we wanted and instead is a hopeful good game with promise. Here’s hoping it gets a sequel.

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