30. Mirror’s Edge Catalyst

The fact that the world of Mirror’s Edge had such untapped potential, to the point that many desired a sequel years after its launch, is a testament to its impact. The first-person parkour model would be in other titles, most notably Dying Light, but the focus on platforming and skill-based jumping, not to mention the gorgeous dystopian world, helped it stand out.

So when DICE finally announced Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, which offered a more open world, the excitement was palpable, even if it was revealed to be a reboot. While it retained the fluid movement and responsive controls, the world felt barren, the story rudimentary and the ending inane. DICE has no plans to return to the franchise, and for all its appealing aspects, Mirror’s Edge is pretty much dead.

29. Rise of the Ronin

As a fan of Team Ninja’s Nioh series and even finding some enjoyment in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, it’s sad to see how Rise of the Ronin turned out. On the one hand, it’s earned some praise for its combat and even the directions you can take the story. On the other hand, critics have expressed disappointment with its open world, English voice acting, story and visuals.

While there were plenty of comparisons to Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima, I feel that they’re both distinct enough and trying to do their own thing. So why is Rise of the Ronin so underwhelming? Well, for starters, it’s a PS5 exclusive in development for seven years, with Sony’s support, which lends certain expectations. This isn’t to say that all reviews were equally hard on the game, as indicated by the 76 Metascore, but ranking fifth in physical sales for the UK at launch and dropping to 14th place the next week is nothing short of disappointing.

28. Need for Speed (2015)

Years of requests for a new Need for Speed Underground title and Electronic Arts delivered…sort of. Employing real-world legends like Ken Block, it was ultimately about a cast of street racers struggling to get noticed. While the customization and visuals received praise, the uninteresting story, AI prone to rubberbanding, multiplayer and lack of certain features (including drag racing) soured fans. There was also the always-online requirement with no option to pause. It would have qualified as one of the weaker games in the franchise, but then Payback happened and drastically lowered the bar.

27. Biomutant

When a game like Biomutant promises a massive world with choices and consequences, extensive character customization, vehicles, deep combat mechanics and much more, it’s hard to not get hyped. The fact that it was five years in the making, with Experiment 101 consisting of former Just Cause developers, further contributed to this. However, all those intriguing bits turned out to be incredibly shallow, from the story and combat to the mission design and annoying narrator. An update helped improve things, and with a million units sold in a few months, it was far from a flop, but it still has a ways to go.

26. The Order: 1886

Ready at Dawn’s The Order: 1886 received extensive attention for its graphics, with gorgeous facial animation and lighting. The presentation also received significant praise, but everything else left much to be desired. The campaign was ephemeral, with the disappointing story (despite such an intriguing setting and premise) and over-reliance on quick-time events bogging down the overall gameplay. Ending on a cliffhanger with no prospects for a sequel didn’t help either.

25. Exoprimal

Piloting exosuits to battle hordes of dinosaurs sounds like a good idea in theory, but what is live service? The developer’s to join the trend resulted in Exoprimal, which featured a story focused on time traveling, simulations run by a rogue AI called Leviathan, and so much dino slaying. The story felt disjointed, with the characters getting little development, and the lackluster map variety and repetitive objectives brought the experience down. The developer has expanded on the different modes at least while also adding new Alpha variants of Exosuits (Beta variants are coming soon), but its launch state was just so underwhelming.

24. Star Fox Zero

Not that Star Fox had the best run since peaking with Star Fox 64, but Zero had PlatinumGames involved. Surely, the Wii U controls would allow for a compelling shoot-’em-up experience. As you’ve probably guessed, that isn’t the case, as the controls were criticized for their unwieldiness. It also didn’t help that the experience heavily mirrored Star Fox 64, though some critics enjoyed the approach. With less than 500,000 copies sold, it flopped hard, and there hasn’t been a follow-up ever since.

23. Thief (2014)

One of the most beloved cult classic stealth series of all time, Thief was considered as revolutionary for PC players as Metal Gear Solid for consoles. So when Eidos Montreal announced a reboot, there was excitement and perhaps a little trepidation, especially after Garrett’s old voice actor was replaced. A dull performance was the least of the game’s problems, with the level design, AI and story all feeling out of sorts. While opinions settled more on the slightly above side, Thief (2014) couldn’t match up to the original games in player freedom and choice.

22. Days Gone

The praise for Days Gone, Bend Studio’s open-world zombie survival title, cropped up most when it was free on PlayStation Plus. Full credit to the team for sticking with it and adding sizable new content and features, but that’s not the launch version. The latter was roundly criticized for its excessive bugs, performance issues and loading screens (that too after delays for more polish), to say nothing of the bland story and awful dialogue. The open world, the motorcycle maintenance mechanics, the shooting – nearly everything had its downsides.

Make no mistake – there were some positives, from the immense undead hordes to the progression, and it notched up some impressive sales numbers, topping the UK physical charts for three weeks in a row and outselling the combined total of Bend’s previous games. However, it was nowhere near the high bar set by first-party Sony titles. Perhaps for this reason, the publisher didn’t greenlight a sequel and directors John Garvin and Jeff Ross subsequently left the studio. As beloved as it is now, there’s no denying that Days Gone underwhelmed at launch.

21. RAGE 2

For its time, RAGE was trying to do something technologically ahead of its time courtesy of id Tech 5. However, it faced criticism for its overall story and forgettable characters, not to mention the aggravating cliffhanger at the end. The fact that it launched after the more successful Borderlands, which captured the Mad Max feel of a post-apocalyptic wasteland far better, also didn’t help. Nevertheless, it did receive some praise for its visuals, combat, side missions and AI.

With RAGE 2, Avalanche Studios decided to go for a more traditional open-world first-person shooter with vehicles. You had the usual enemy camps to clear, some points of interest and enemy convoys to assault, while the story was a paint-by-numbers “gather the MacGuffins” before a showdown with the big bad. The combat and visuals were still worthy of praise, but everything else felt further downgraded over the original, and it had microtransactions.

20. Immortals of Aveum

Coming from a new team with a five-year development cycle and emphasis on a single-player campaign with no microtransactions, Immortals of Aveum was a noble endeavor. Problems arose with the overall story, graphical issues on consoles, iffy dialogue (with the cast trying its very best to elevate it), and controls. With the emphasis on fast-paced mage combat, encounters could feel repetitive, ultimately underwhelming despite some impressive set pieces. Again, it received updates and new content while attracting a following, but Immortals of Aveum failed to leave a mark.

19. Shenmue 3

A sequel that fans (and creator Yu Suzuki) craved since the second game’s release in 2001. An announcement years in the making with $6 million in crowd-funding. A launch finally happening four years later, mired in controversy due to Epic Games Store exclusivity and a publishing deal with Deep Silver. Shenmue 3 finally arrived in 2015 and was panned for its outdated mechanics and storyline that ended on yet another cliffhanger. While some found the antiquated mechanics to be the appeal, it ended up feeling inconsequential and just another chapter in the ongoing story which would likely end.

18. The Callisto Protocol

Spiritual successors to classics from the original creators never fail to generate attention, as seen with Striking Distance’s The Callisto Protocol. This Dead Space tribute sported gorgeous visuals punctuated by over-the-top and grotesque death sequences. Delays and declarations of crunch didn’t help, nor did the performance issues at launch. Of course, despite all that, the experience was dragged for being overtly linear with shoddy melee combat, no option to skip the death scenes, a short playtime, heaps of unrealized potential and ultimately, not measuring up to the legacy of Dead Space.

17. Rainbow Six Extraction

After the success of the limited-time mode Outbreak in Rainbow Six Siege, Ubisoft did what any self-serving publisher would do – spin it off into a new game and monetize it. Extraction would take a while to launch, initially announced as Rainbow Six Quarantine in 2019 (and eventually abandoning the name for obvious reasons).

It would finally arrive in January 2022 after multiple delays and revealed itself as a session of interconnected areas with procedurally generated objectives and enemies. The sparse content, terrible objectives, bad AI, laughable story and repetition sadly made for a dull experience. While the developer would tout three million players in the first week (likely in no small part thanks to Game Pass), you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who remembered it past the first month.

16. Crackdown 3

Before Microsoft pushed cloud gaming via Game Pass, it hyped the computational powers of the same and how they would revolutionize gaming. Crackdown 3 was an example, touted as having a fully destructible open world. It eventually relegated into a separate mode, which quickly died out, while the base campaign launched after years of delay and generated ire for its archaic, repetitive design. Could you have some mindless fun? Sure, but it was a far cry from what Microsoft hyped the project to be and far from the next big leap for the franchise.

15. Resident Evil 3 (2020)

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis has always occupied a weird place due to its shorter length and unorthodox features (like the titular villain). Releasing in the shadow of the brilliant Resident Evil 2 didn’t help – unfortunately, that same fate awaited Resident Evil 3 remake. Despite some fantastic visuals and combat, it was more notable for omitting areas (city hall, the clock tower and more were nowhere to be seen) or changing some of the original’s most iconic moments.

Barring the final sequence, none of them felt like an improvement. The fact that Mercenaries wasn’t included, but we got Resistance, a terrible asymmetrical multiplayer mode, didn’t help. Even with sales at 8.4 million, Resident Evil 3 is considered the weakest of the modern remakes.

14. Wolfenstein Youngblood

MachineGames delivered not one but two excellent Wolfenstein titles, reviving the franchise for a new generation with some incredibly cinematic storytelling that remains impressive to this day. How did it follow these up? Why, with a co-op title focusing on B.J. Blazkowicz’s daughters, Jessie and Zofia. The initial gameplay showings weren’t terrible, and the prospect of venturing to Paris to take out Nazis was appealing.

Unfortunately, Wolfenstein Youngblood fundamentally failed to capture what made the previous games so successful. Enemies were bullet sponges, causing players to constantly run out of ammo, and the missions were forgettable, with bizarre hub-like stages that felt utterly unnecessary to the campaign’s flow. Throw in terrible AI when playing solo and microtransactions, and it felt like a poorly conceived side story rather than a proper follow-up to MachineGames’ hits.

13. Forspoken

You want to believe that Luminous Productions had good intentions when designing Forspoken, first announced as Project Athia. Boasting a premier writing staff and billed as a two-year PS5 exclusive, it could have been the developer’s next big thing. While the combat wasn’t terrible, it did little to uplift the barren open world and dull activities.

The initially awful dialogue and plot also weighed it down, but even as things improved over time, the story was over quickly. It wasn’t long before the developer declared that Forspoken’s sales were “lackluster” and by May, Luminous was reorganized and merged into the publisher.

12. Mighty No. 9

Also considered one of the worst games ever made, Mighty No. 9’s development history would have suggested otherwise. It was helmed by a new team at Comcept who promised a spiritual successor to the Mega Man franchise when the developer had effectively kept the series on the back burner.

Then the delays happened, and that whole second Kickstarter campaign to fund a completely different project. By the time Mighty No. 9 launched, it was beset by performance issues, terrible voice acting, lack of content and an overall feel that screamed “cheap imitation” rather than spiritual successor.

11. Skull and Bones

Before its multitude of delays that whittled any faith that anyone had in the developer to deliver a competent pirate game, Skull and Bones had some potential. Its first announcement trailer gave the vibe of an Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag but a stronger focus on naval combat that fans had demanded for years. Of course, then the delays happened, followed by reports of reboots, behind-the-scenes issues, incompetent upper management, leadership departures, etc. When Skull and Bones was close to launching – for real this time – Yves Guillemot made the baffling decision to call it a quadruple-A game instead of the tried and true “triple-A.”

Upon launch, and to no one’s surprise, Skull and Bones was a live service grind for “loot”, punctuated by increasingly dull missions and tedious back and forth. Good thing it sold for $70 and included microtransactions. The results were telling – less than one-fourth of Sea of Thieves’ launch sales in the UK and allegedly 850,000 players, including those who played the free trial.

10. Marvel’s Avengers

Marvel’s Avengers didn’t have the best of reveals, competing against the first-ever gameplay of Final Fantasy 7 Remake on the same E3 showcase. Nevertheless, despite how many felt about the lack of resemblance to the Marvel Cinematic Universe actors, it didn’t look terrible either. Live service was seeing a downturn, but with Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal at the helm, how could it go wrong?

Cut to the underwhelming beta and full release, and the distinction between Marvel’s Avengers and a title like Marvel’s Spider-Man became clearer. Despite unique kits for its heroes and some decent visuals, the mission design, objectives and loot were subpar. Post-launch support added some new heroes and content, which did little to raise the player count, and it was subsequently delisted from storefronts in September 2023.

9. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3

While one may joke that Call of Duty is a disappointment year in and year out, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 felt especially egregious. Reports indicated that it was to be an expansion to Modern Warfare 2 focusing on the Mexican cartel that underwent a reboot into a full-fledged game. Calling it that feels dirty due to the painfully short campaign with its lackluster and ultimately inconsequential story that sets up yet another sequel.

Perhaps even worse is the Open Combat Missions, promising sandbox-style action but coming off as lazy with simplistic objectives. Multiplayer was knee-capped out of the gate with the focus on remastered maps for its core 6v6 modes, and despite some solid gameplay, the age-old issues of skill-based matchmaking (or at least how COD approaches it) and connection issues still cropped up. Zombies was the only good thing about this release, but that’s been abandoned after some lackluster updates. At least the microtransactions continue to roll in.

8. Anthem

After the mess of Mass Effect Andromeda, it was the turn of the main BioWare team to produce something special. It was…a live service looter shooter, which emphasized co-op over the developer’s tried and true single-player story-driven approach. As impressive as the initial gameplay reveal seemed, it was reportedly fake – Anthem’s development period was plagued with issues, from crunch to terrible management.

The result is a mess, with poor characterization and dialogue, bad mission design and objectives, a baffling lack of quality of life, performance issues, bugs, glitches, unimaginative loot and a barren endgame. Despite changes and updates, Anthem’s attempt at a do-over was ultimately rejected by EA, and support is effectively dead (though servers remain available).

7. Ghost Recon Breakpoint

Speaking of an underwhelming launch, we have the developer going from Ghost Recon Wildlands, which grew into something great to Ghost Recon Breakpoint and its removal of AI teammates, looter shooter elements, bland open world, bullet sponge drones, bugs, glitches, the list goes on. Why did the developer suddenly want to adopt a shared world shooter approach with the franchise (besides live service revenue)? No one knows, but it was disastrous. The developer would eventually claw a good game out of it, one that still fell short of Wildlands, but at least offered a more tactical experience without worrying about gear scores.

6. Resident Evil 6

After Resident Evil 5, impressions of the franchise weren’t exactly the most positive, with many feeling it veered too much into a more action-heavy approach. Even if Resident Evil 6’s trailers were full of action, there was still the hype behind seeing so many fan favorite characters (and Jake) tearing it up together. The result offered some pretty good combat but flopped in multiple ways. The characters felt off, and the overall pacing of walk a few feet, cutscene, rinse, repeat was a killer. While Resident Evil 6 saw decent sales, its critical reception was in the gutter, but thankfully, it led to the rebooting in Resident Evil 7: biohazard.

5. Payday 3

Considering the ups and downs that Payday 2 saw, it was in a pretty good spot by the time Starbreeze stopped producing new content. Payday 3 would have been the perfect opportunity to start over with a fresh new slate, avoiding its predecessor’s mistakes while ushering in a new age of heist-focused co-op gameplay. Of course, it wasn’t to be with the always-online requirement and lack of an offline mode souring fans early.

This would come back to bite the development team when server and matchmaking issues ensured fans couldn’t play for days. Even after their resolution, the sequel faced heavy criticism for removing features present in Payday 2, whether it was the pre-heist planning map, text chat, or just the option to unready. Sales were below expectations, and given the poor reception, Starbreeze has replaced its CEO to try and turn the ship around. Thus far, it doesn’t look like it’s happening anytime soon.

4. Redfall

Arkane Austin, which specialized in immersive sims like Dishonored and Prey – didn’t inspire too much confidence when it was revealed to be working on a co-op looter shooter. The lack of an offline mode or progress for other players except the host in co-op also didn’t help. On the bright side, the state of Redfall made both issues feel like water under the bridge.

Horrendous AI, performance issues, bugs galore (including catchy music playing during serious scenes), horrible bosses, a dull story, lackluster characterization, bad mission design – everything went wrong. You may argue that expectations were low, but Redfall sunk lower, and still flounders despite some major updates.

3. Battlefield 2042

This one hurt for longtime fans of the franchise, especially coming off of a relatively disappointing Battlefield 5. With no campaign, Battlefield 2042 promised a return to everything that made the series great, wrapped in the veneer of modern combat and massive 128-player battles. Reports emerged of troubled development, and the beta earned some ire, but fans were still hopeful.

Cue the disappointment and savage response on Steam, with the sequel becoming one of the lowest-rated games in the platform’s history overnight. From the removal of the class system to the visuals, destructibility, map design and the scoreboard – that damned scoreboard – Battlefield 2042 was a letdown in every way. It’s improved over the years but is still a far cry from the series’ peak.

2. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

Before it was revealed as a live service looter shooter with a boring mission design, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League had a suitable amount of hype. How could fans not be excited when it was Rocksteady’s first new game since 2015’s Batman: Arkham Knight? After its disastrous showing last year, it was delayed almost a year from its original release. Maybe it would add an offline mode and tone down its live service elements, including but not limited to microtransactions and a battle pass.

As it turns out, none of these things happened, and when Suicide Squad launched, it was begrudged for its terrible mission design, repetitive gameplay and boring endgame. After Warner Bros. admitted that it fell short of expectations, Rocksteady would focus on fixing the plethora of network issues and bugs while prepping the first post-launch season. Unsurprisingly, Season of the Joker was another miserable disappointment with its utter lack of story content, boring “new” missions, annoying grind to unlock the Joker as a playable character and audacity to charge for immediate access.

1. Mass Effect Andromeda

Of all the games to disappoint over the years, this one probably hurt the most. It’s not like Mass Effect Andromeda was the next mainline title in the franchise or one that had the budget and resources of Mass Effect 2 and 3. However, as the first new entry in five years, fans looked forward to it all the same. The potential for a new story and setting with an open-world twist also sparked interest. When Andromeda launched, it was quickly clowned for its bugs, facial animation and dialogue.

Those who dived deeper discovered barren planets, uninteresting characters who couldn’t hold a candle to the original heroes and a low-stakes plot. The underwhelming critical reception and sales wouldn’t outright kill the franchise entirely (as evidenced by the recent Legendary Edition and upcoming sequel), but it was the first time that fans began to question BioWare. Of course, Anthem happened, and the rest is history, but Mass Effect Andromeda hurt more.

DEAD RISING 4

The Dead Rising series had already suffered a bit of a dip with its third instalment, but Dead Rising 4 turned out to be the final nail in the coffin for what had at one point seemed like a major Capcom franchise. Unfortunately, it seemed like the game just never got what it was about the series that fans liked. From the questionable changes made to Frank West’s character to the ridiculously over-the-top tone that tried too hard to be funny, from poor design decisions (like the removal of timers) to disappointing boss fights, there was too much about the game that just didn’t work out.

There have been quite a few of the latter this generation, and in this feature, we’ll be taking a look at fifteen of those. Do note that you might find a few titles mentioned here that actually manage to turn things around eventually thanks to great post-launch support- but for this feature, we’re looking only at the state of these games at launch.

FALLOUT 76

What a colossal screw up this was on Bethesda’s part. Let’s just ignore all the things that went around the game, and focus on just the game itself- because even that was bad enough to leave a terrible stain on Bethesda’s reputation. Fallout 76 was a broken mess of a game at launch that was lacking in any kind of a souls or identity, and felt like a hastily put-together cash grab that failed to understand what Fallout was all about. Bethesda are making efforts to turn the tide, and they’ve got some new things planned for the game in the coming months- let’s see how it pans out.

After a very long development cycle, Mighty No. 9 is finally out, and it’s… disappointing? The game seems to have been a victim of its own hype, and it seems like, in general, a half baked riff on a formula that it somehow does not fully understand itself. If you end up buying it, you’d probably be disappointed- Mega Man this is not.

That said, if you have bought it, and now intend to finish it then you may, at some point or the other, find yourself stuck. Mighty No. 9 is a straightforward game, and the only time you’d be stuck would be because you can’t do something that you need to to progress, as opposed to you not knowing where to go next. Regardless, if you are stuck, and figure that a walkthrough would help you figure your way through the level, then we’ve got you covered. Please note that this video walkthrough will very obviously have spoilers. 

Enter Keiji Inafune, Mega Man co-creator and longtime producer, and his studio, Comcept. When they announced Mighty No. 9 via Kickstarter, it seemed like a revolution. They would do with Capcom wouldn’t. They would give us a new Mega Man game, if in spirit rather than name. People believed in the project so much that they donated $4 million dollars to the game’s Kickstarter. To this day, it remains one of the most successful projects to come from crowdfunding. Only Star Citizen, Shenmue 3, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Torment: Tides of Numenera, Pillars of Eternity, and Psychonauts 2 have raised more money.

Then came the delays. The screenshots that didn’t look anything like what we were initially shown. And more delays. I did not want to talk about the crowdfunding or delays when discussing Mighty No. 9. I wanted to judge the game on its own merits. Plenty of games have come through troubled developments just fine. Plenty of good games have come from crowdfunding. But it’s impossible to separate the game that Mighty No. 9 became from its troubled, protracted development. As I forced myself through exceptionally mediocre level after exceptionally mediocre, visually dull level, I began to wonder where all of that time and money went, because it certainly wasn’t put into polishing the game’s visuals or making sure that the levels were fun to play.

"While games in the Mega Man series revolved around jumping over obstacles and shooting enemies with lemons from Mega Man’s buster, Mighty No. 9 switches it up by making Beck’s dash a critical part of his arsenal."

The story follows Beck, the titular Mighty No. 9, as he battles to defeat the other Mighty Numbers, a group of special robots who, like all of the other robots around, have suddenly started attacking everything in sight. Like Mega Man, Beck must go through each of their stages, defeat the evil robots that populate them, and take down the other Mighty Numbers. Defeating Beck’s kin grants you variations of their powers, which you can take to other levels and switch between on the fly.

Structurally, it’s almost identical to pretty much any Mega Man game, and if you’ve played any of them before, you’ll know what to expect here. What differs is the core gameplay loop. While games in the Mega Man series revolved around jumping over obstacles and shooting enemies with lemons from Mega Man’s buster, Mighty No. 9 switches it up by making Beck’s dash a critical part of his arsenal. Generally, an encounter goes like this: you run into an enemy and shoot them with Beck’s buster until they’re critically weakened. At this point, they’ll flash a different color, and Beck can dash through them to absorb Xel.

Different enemies grant different Xel: red Xel upgrades your attacks (you cannot charge your buster), green Xel increases your movement speed, and yellow Xel grants you more armor. Get enough blue Xel, and you’ll acquire healing items that can be used from the pause menu. The faster you dash through enemies after weakening them, the more Xel you’ll get, and the more you’ll increase your score and combo meter.

" I would like to stop for a moment and remind you that this game cost four million dollars. Four million. And the characters’ mouths don’t move."

It’s an entertaining loop that helps maintain a fast pace, but it’s about the only thing about Mighty No. 9 that works, and even that comes with major caveats. Despite his comically long strides, Beck absolutely plods without the movement buff, and movement in general feels clunky. So, the core gameplay loop works, despite some jank and how samey it feels after long periods of time. What doesn’t work?

Honestly? Pretty much everything else. I touched briefly on the presentation earlier, but it’s worth bringing up again because Mighty No. 9 is an ugly game. Its color palette mostly consists of browns, greys, and muted blues. The only other frequent colors are the crackling, electric purple that belong to the game’s intensely frustrating instant-death traps. Every now and then, you’ll get to go somewhere cool; you might scale a skyscraper or ride cars along a highway or assault a military base. But mostly you’ll be going down factory corridors that feel, at best, like they’ve been palette-swapped.

I’m not usually one to rag on a game for its visuals, but Mighty No. 9 looks like it could run on the original Xbox. You can try to hold your nose and say graphics don’t matter, and 99% of the time, you’d be right. But you can’t look at the mission select area and see anything more than poor textures and little detail. You can’t look at a cutscene without seeing that the characters don’t emote, or that their mouths don’t move when they speak. That their character portraits don’t change. That they don’t use any kind of body language outside of a few stock positions when communicating. That they all have the same lifeless eyes. I would like to stop for a moment and remind you that this game cost four million dollars. Four million. And the characters’ mouths don’t move.

"Unless you’re fighting one of the game’s bosses (which, it should be noted, are pretty good), you probably won’t be dying while you’re fighting something, and even then, most can be cleared in a couple attempts."

This could be saved with some great art design, but unfortunately the game just doesn’t have it. Like the environments, the characters come off as bland, static, and artificial. None of this would matter if the game didn’t shove the characters down your throat, but it does. After all, Inafune has said he wants Mighty No. 9 to be a multi-media franchise that includes a manga, anime, and a movie. These characters chatter constantly over your gameplay, and it’s meant to be endearing. Sometimes, the game pulls this off. Beck, his creator Dr. White, Battalion (a military Mighty Number trying his damndest to be R. Lee Ermey’s character from Full Metal Jacket), and Avi (a Mighty Number who narrates his stage like a news anchor) are genuinely entertaining.

The rest of the cast is sunk by a bad script or terrible voice acting, or sometimes, both. Worse still, these people never shut up. Their dialogue cannot be skipped or turned off, and when you die (and you will) or run out of lives on a level and have to start from scratch (and you will), you get to hear it all over again. Characters who would otherwise be moderately annoying, like Dr. Sanda, turn into a near-constant pickaxe chipping away the last vestiges of your sanity. No, Dr. Sanda, I do not want to hear you cry for your mother when the lights go out on Mighty No. 3’s stage again, thank you.

This, coupled with the poor-to-average level design, is enough to make you want to both strangle your virtual companions and bash your head into the nearest wall repeatedly in the hopes of just ending it all. The enemies are easy. Unless you’re fighting one of the game’s bosses (which, it should be noted, are pretty good), you probably won’t be dying while you’re fighting something, and even then, most can be cleared in a couple attempts.

"No, what will kill you are the instant death traps, which are used liberally and often cheaply to ensure as many deaths as possible."

No, what will kill you are the instant death traps, which are used liberally and often cheaply to ensure as many deaths as possible. Most are avoidable, but sometimes the game will task you will something inane, like hovering between two instant death traps placed on ceilings and floors of varying heights. Did you die? Do it again. Oh, you died three times. Play the entire level again. Don’t forget to listen to Sanda’s funny jokes about hacking!

You would think that a studio with the experience Comcept has would know better, but Mighty No 9. is drowning in amateur mistakes. One of the most glaring examples is on Mighty No. 8’s stage. Unlike most other stages, the stage actively involves hunting down No. 8, aka Countershade, which means you can travel anywhere on the stage at any time instead of just going from left to right. Pretty neat, right? The issue is that the stage is covered in instant death traps, and dying even once means you have to do the entire thing all over again. Yes, to get to the boss, you have to do the entire stage without dying. Enjoy hearing all that in-level dialogue over and over again!

The heartbreaking thing is that Mighty No. 9 is not devoid of good ideas or fun levels. It’s just a game that riddled with every problem a Kickstarter game can have. Stretch goals led to feature creep (How about that boss rush mode? Multiplayer? New levels and characters?) and the addition of multiple platforms, and you can tell all of these things pushed the developers to the brink and diluted the soul of what this game was supposed to be: a spiritual successor to Mega Man.

"I could go on about Mighty No. 9. There’s plenty more words to be written, almost none of them positive. What you need to know is that it is not a good video game."

I could go on about Mighty No. 9. There’s plenty more words to be written, almost none of them positive. What you need to know is that it is not a good video game. It is not the game Keiji Inafune sold to us with cool and colorful concept art. It is a bad video game. It’s is loaded down with lots of cool ideas that it never fully explores, and frankly it feels unfinished, unpolished, and unplaytested.

Inafune’s fallen on his sword and taken full responsibility for Mighty No. 9’s failings, and it was the right thing to do. Instead of trying to shoot for a multi-media franchise, maybe Inafune and crew should have focused on making a good game first, and proving that he was a legitimate design talent in the industry, and not just a good artist who produced some great games at Capcom. Right now, he looks like he doesn’t even know how to do that.

I will give credit to Mighty No. 9 for one thing. It made me want to play the old Mega Man games. And if Mega Man is on your mind, that’s what you should do, too. Don’t play this. Play Mega Man. Those are the games you really want, anyway. And maybe, just maybe, Capcom will give them to us someday.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

Comcept’s Mighty No. 9, the spiritual successor to Mega Man which saw numerous delays after being successfully funded on Kickstarter, hasn’t exactly met with the greatest of praise by critics. It also didn’t help that a mistranslated statement from creator Keiji Inafune stating it was “better than nothing” began to circulate.

As it turns out, Inafune is actually taking full responsibility for the game’s problems. Speaking to Eurogamer, he said, “You know, I want to word this in a way to explain some of the issues that come with trying to make a game of this size on multiple platforms.

“I’m kind of loath to say this because it’s going to sound like an excuse and I don’t want to make any excuses. I own all the problems that came with this game and if you want to hurl insults at me, it’s totally my fault. I’m the key creator. I will own that responsibility.”

The work across numerous platforms has also been a stated reason for the game being delayed on so many occasions. Whether you enjoy the game or not – and many certainly are not – at least Inafune seems keen to learn from his mistakes. Stay tuned for more information on the matter in the coming days.

Mirrors Edge Catalyst

Faith returns in Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, the much anticipated sequel to the original game. That being said, this is no ordinary sequel – Catalyst will be a reboot and origins story for Faith, presenting a whole new tale of oppression and intrigue in a futuristic authoritarian city. A lot has changed from the original Mirror’s Edge, including the addition of a skill tree and a huge open world to explore. Players will have the chance to create races that can stretch through the city or take part in the expansive story (which isn’t nearly as forgettable as the first game). Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is out on June 7th for North America and June 9th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Mighty No. 9

The long-in development, often-delayed spiritual successor to Mega Man will finally be upon us. Mighty No. 9 has seen its fair share of issues and controversies, ranging from failed additional Kickstarters to controversies with its community manager. That’s not even getting into the awful launch trailer that recently released and was apparently publisher Deep Silver’s fault. That being said, we’re still interested in what Mighty No. 9 has to offer with its combo-based gameplay, level design and call-backs to the Mega Man franchise. It’ll be available on just about every home platform on June 21st and June 24th

Umbrella Corps

What do you get when you cross a competitive multiplayer shooter with the zombies of Resident Evil? A horrifying monster, for one, but actually it’s Umbrella Corps. This shooter focuses on teaming up with friends as part of various mercenary groups sent in by bio-weapons corporations. Though primarily third person shooter-based, Umbrella Corps allows for aiming down sights in first person and melee combat. Numerous modes and levels, some which call back to previous games like Resident Evil: Code Veronica, also exist to be explored. Zombies are also a key factor, disrupting your operations when you’re not being gunned down by enemy groups. It’s out on June 21st in North America and Europe for PC and PS4.

Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens

You knew it was coming. The Lego Star Wars franchise has been a proverbial juggernaut in its own right and the saga continues with Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Interestingly, Traveler’s Tales is working on incorporating a number of new features into the series such as cover shooting; Multi-Build, which gives you more freedom for building and expanding on paths to explore; and much more. Classic characters like Rey, Poe Dameron, Finn, Kylo Ren and Han Solo are featured and the game will actually include content taking place between the period of Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. Will we finally experience the battle of Jakku firsthand? One can only hope. Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens is out on June 28th in North America and Europe.

Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness

The Star Ocean franchise returns with the game’s first PS4 outing (though it’s also out on PS3 in Japan) Integrity and Faithlessness, which comes to North America on June 28th. The RPG will be unlike any of its predecessors with a seven member party and seamless transitions from the cut scenes to gameplay. We’ll find out just how good it is when it actually releases next month.

The Technomancer

Spiders has been rather hit-or-miss with its action RPGs (mostly miss with efforts like Mars: War Logs and Bound by Flame). The Technomancer will nonetheless continue this string of efforts, taking place in the same setting as Mars War Logs. With three styles of combat, four skill trees, crafting, varying choices for completing quests and a choice of numerous companions, The Technomancer will also be the developer’s first current gen exclusive, releasing on PC, Xbox One and PS4. It’s out on June 28th worldwide.

We Happy Few

Imagine a dystopia Wellington Wells during an alternate World War 2 era. Something has happened to the city in order for it to win the war but it’s citizens resorted to the drug Joy in order to forget it all. What happens when you play as someone who hasn’t taken the drug and is subsequently hunted by those around them? We Happy Few balances survival horror with a sandbox element, challenging you to escape Wellington Wells without arousing the suspicion of those around you. It’s been in development since February 2015 and despite no solid release date, we know it will be coming in June to PC and Xbox One to inflict some Unreal Engine 4-powered trauma upon us all.

Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter

Frogwares’ Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter won’t be its last Sherlock Holmes title but it may be a while till we see the famous detective again. With five linked cases, a “deduction board” to piece together various clues and multiple conclusions, The Devil’s Daughter will continue the series’ penchant for compelling mysteries and consequences. It’s out on June 10th for PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Mighty No. 9 is finally almost here, after so many delays that most people we know have actually lost interest in the title. Still, the spiritual successor to Mega Man is almost here, and ahead of its launch, the developers and publishers are trying the best they can to drum up some hype for it.

Hence this new trailer, which shows off Beck’s ‘dash’ abilities, his combos, and his power ups- which together make him faster, more agile, more lethal, and just all around a far more effective character to play as. You can check out how all of these abilities work in the trailer below.

Mighty No. 9 will launch on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, and PC on June 21 in Japan and North America, with a PAL release following on June 24. Versions of the game for PS Vita and Nintendo 3DS are also planned, and will launch later this year- though after so many missed deadlines with the console version, I wouldn’t be so sure that this deadline would be met.

After a lengthy development cycle, and numerous delays, Comcept announced today that development on the Mega Man spiritual successor Mighty No. 9 has finally concluded- the game has now gone gold, and will be launching on June 21 in North America.

“I would like to say again how sincerely sorry we are for how long we have kept all of our fans waiting. We are finally able to deliver some long awaited news regarding Mighty No. 9,” Keiji Inafune said. “We have now confirmed the following release dates for Mighty No. 9: June 21st 2016 (North America & Asia) and June 24th 2016 (World Wide). We understand that as a result of the various delays we have disappointed and let down our fans, but we are happy to finally be able to deliver the game to everyone who brought us this far.”

Speaking of the uncertainty about the release date that is bound to persist, thanks to numerous previous delays, Inafune assured that since the game had gone gold, “the release date we are announcing is set in stone and there will be no further delays for the game.”

Mighty No. 9 will be launching on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, Wii U, and PC on June 21- versions for the PS Vita and Nintendo 3DS will follow at a later date.

Comcept’s Mighty No. 9 has faced another delay, it’s third till now, and will no longer be releasing in February.

Speaking to backers via Kickstarter, Keiji Inafune revealed that, “In preparation for the February release of Mighty No. 9 we have been working hard with our partners to resolve any network issues and porting work necessary to publish Mighty No. 9 on the various platforms. However, the issues relating to the network modes were more critical than expected, and it has become apparent that we will need to delay the game from its February 9 release date.

“We have been working up until the very last moment to resolve these issues in order to make the February release, but it has become clear that we no longer have enough time to fix the issues and have everything prepared for release.”

Since work on the engine is essentially locked, Inafune and his team have to implement these fixes for each platform separately. “Unfortunately, this is all a result of miscalculations on the part of us, the development staff. As a result, our fans who have been looking forward to Mighty No. 9 have been forced to wait for over half a year longer than expected, and for that we are sincerely sorry. I want to take this chance to apologize personally, and on the behalf of the development staff.

“Over the end-of-the-year-break and the beginning of 2016, the development staff has been working on these issues non-stop without break, and thanks to their hard work the end is in sight. We continue to make progress to resolve these last issues that have been holding up the release of the game on the different platforms.”

As of now, a new release date hasn’t been decided since the studio has decided to “wait and make sure everything is confirmed. For this 3rd delay of the game, we have no excuses for disappointing our fans and especially our backers once more. We want to take this chance to express our sincerest apologies to everyone who has looked forward to the release.

“We are all working hard to make sure that we can finish and release the game to all of our fans as quickly as possible, and ask once more for your support of this project that we have created together over these last few years.”

Thoughts on the delay? Let us know in the comments below.