Background

Keiji Inafune worked on the first Mega Man and Street Fighter games in 1987 as an art designer for Capcom. Infanue is known for his work on the character of Mega Man and his role as a producer for the games. Although he was not the creator of Mega Man, Infanue did help in shaping the design of Mega Man. The character was originally created by Akira Kitamura. The design was first thought up as a sprite by Kitamura and then Infanue drew it.

Mighty No. 9

The original Mega Man series started in 1987 and over the years, the series has spawned multiple spin-off games. The original series continued to 1996 with Mega Man 8, and its next game, Mega Man 9 wasn’t released until 2008. Inafune served as a producer and envisioned the project as a throwback to the original games. It was met with positive reviews and led to the development of Mega Man 10. After this, Inafune quit Capcom stating there was nowhere higher for him to go in the Capcom structure. He insisted, “I'm leaving Capcom with the intention of starting my life over.”

In 2013, Inafune announced a new project on Kickstarter. The project’s description read, “Mighty No. 9 is an all-new Japanese side-scrolling action game that takes the best aspects of the 8- and 16-bit era classics you know and love, and transforms them with modern tech, fresh mechanics, and fan input into something fresh and amazing!” The Kickstarter was asking for $900,000 and it was to be released on Steam by early 2015. Mighty No. 9 was regarded as a spiritual successor to Mega Man. Inafune, a man closely associated with the franchise had left Capcom and was going to give fans a new Mega Man.

The response to Mighty No. 9 was overwhelmingly positive by fans and outlets. The project blew past its $900,000 goal and gathered $4 million between the Kickstarter and PayPal donations. It broke records by becoming the most successful crowdfunded game and overall project on Kickstarter. A new platform and additional content were added to the game’s release with each stretch goal reached. The initial release was only expected on PC but quickly added mobile versions, console versions, and the then-upcoming PS4 and Xbox one.

Not so Mighty No. 9

Mighty No. 9 did not release as promised in early 2015. The game went through three delays. After missing the early 2015 release, it was changed to September 15, 2015 followed by February 9, 2016 before finally being released on June 21, 2016. Inafune addressed the delays to backers, “unfortunately, this is all a result of miscalculations on the part of us, the development staff.” He acknowledged the delays were due to porting the game onto the additional platforms from the stretch goals.

Upon its release, Mighty No. 9 was met with negative reviews and it wasn’t what everyone had expected. Polygon gave it a 5/10. The editor added, “this feels like an answer to why Capcom isn’t making Mega Man games anymore.” IGN gave it a 5.6/10. Their editor commented, “despite its pedigree, Mighty No. 9 doesn’t seem to have a good sense of what was fun about Mega Man, or 2D action-platformers in general.” Mighty No. 9 was intended to be the next Mega Man, not just in character, but in the spirit of classic side-scrolling action. Mike Fahey of Kotaku wrote, “It’s not the spiritual successor I was hoping for. It’s a passable game that’s attempting to use clout it barely has to fill in the rough edges.”

One of the main problems with Mighty No. 9 was trying to make 10 versions of the game at the same time. Inafune commented on this during a stream to celebrate the game’s launch. “In this case, it was do the base game and do the ports all at the same time. It ended up being a huge amount of work, more than they actually estimated.” Inafune accepted the game’s problems as the key creator. It also didn’t help that Inafune announced a second Kickstarter during the development of Mighty No. 9. On top of the three delays, backers weren’t happy when they had issues receiving their codes for the game.

Conclusion

Inafune had good intentions to give fans what Capcom wouldn’t give them but failed with Mighty No. 9. Interestingly enough, Capcom released a new entry in the original Mega Man series for its 30th anniversary, Mega Man 11. Unlike previous games that were 8-bit, Mega Man 11 uses a combination of 3D characters and 2D environments. Ironically, Mega Man 11 closely resembles what Mighty No. 9 wanted to be. The graphical change was favorably received and looks like a refined version of the Mighty No. 9 concept art. It’s a proper change of direction for the series seeing how this is what Inafune had hoped for Mighty No. 9.

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