Hello.  This is a review of the Steam version of Mighty No. 9.  From what I have gathered, the Steam version is the most stable version of the game, and it only costs $20 compared to other versions (~$30).  Before I start the review, I'd like to quickly summarize what the game is.  Mighty No 9 is a game created by Keiji Inafune, the creator of the Mega Man franchise, and was designed to be a spiritual successor of the series after Inafune left Capcom.  Considering that the Mega Man series is one of the oldest and most beloved franchises in the video game community, this game had quite a legacy to fulfill.  But does it reach those expectations, or is it worthy of the title "Better than Nothing?"  Without further ado, let's find out!

Note: at times (actually, a lot of the time), I will compare Mighty No 9 to the Mega Man franchise.  I justify this because Mighty No 9 was modeled after the series, so I believe it makes sense to compare the 2 franchises.

---Gameplay---
As the intro heavily implies, this game playa lot like Mega Man classic and Mega Man X.  You go from Point A to Point B, absorbing and destroying enemies and obstacles in your way and making your way to the Boss at the end.  The Boss will have a health bar that's about 3-5 times larger than yours, they do a frick ton more damage than you and take it better than you.  Most of the time.  Once you defeat them, Beck gains "RefleXions" that change your form for new attacks and techniques.  For instance, Aviator RefleXion adds a propeller blade above you which can be spun to drastically decrease fall speed and be released for a boomerang-like weapon.  Each RefleXion does extra damage against one of the other Mighty Numbers, and trust me, it becomes obvious which robot is weak to what.  When you defeat a Mighty Number they snap out of the virus and help you in one of the other stages.  They usually only help out for an area or two, but they also include a little conversation between them and Beck to remind you that they're family who stick together, which is a nice touch.  Once you defeat all the Mighty Numbers... well, I'll leave the game to tell you what happens if you play the game.  When fighting enemies or bosses, you instead damage them enough to dash into them.  When you dash into enemies, you'll gain points and either earn a bit of ammo to for a full heal or temporarily increase power, defense, and/or speed.  Boss battle revolve on you doing enough damage to make them vulnerable, then dashing into them to make sure they stop recovering health.  Have fun!

---Graphics---
The graphics, while not terrible by themselves, don't really stand out compared to other games as of now.  The best way to describe how the game looks is that it's mediocre.  I can't consider them "ugly," they do show good detail and the quality of the models does stand up.  The problem with the graphics is that they lack color.  In other words, the graphics aren't very bright and look incredibly muddy.  This wouldn't be a problem if the models look... cartoonish with a chibi styled look the game gives off.  As such, the mix of cartoonish model and bleak colors degrades the overall quality of the graphics.  However, that's not all.  The game features cutscenes!!!.... that involve models with static mouths talking with slightly-better-than-MM8 voice acting.  I was going to give graphics a 6 at first, but I eventually realized that a 5 is more fitting.

---Sound---
There is a similar problem with Sound.  Overall, the tracks of the game are... unmemorable.  While a few of the tracks (Main Theme and Robot Factory come to mind first) are enjoyable, catchy tracks, the rest of them don't hold up nearly as well.  You listen to them once and forget what they were about.  Not helping this is that the Sound Effects have a tendency to drown out the Background Music with all the explosions and absorbing that is going on.  While the quality of the music is fine, the melodies and rhythms just feel like they're.... there.  Considering that the game was designed to be similar to Mega Man, a franchise where you could easily identify when and where a track plays from around 100 different games, it's hard to go "oh I remember where that plays!" from a pool of ~30 tracks.  However, I will give the game this.  If you really like the chiptunes you loved from the Mega Man series, there is an option to turn on "Retro BGM."  Just make sure to turn down the volume of the sound effects.  Overall, the lack of memorable tracks forces me to give this game a 6.

---Addictiveness---
This is a tricky one simply because of how difficult the game is.  When you play the first time, you are going to die.  A lot.  But I'll save the details for the Difficulty section.  Because of how difficult the game is, and how you are most likely going to rage quit a few times during your first playthrough, you might have the urge to just delete the game from your Steam Library so that you never see it again.  That's where things get complicated.  Because this game is Mega Man based, and therefore, heavy on Memorization, if you play the game again on the same difficulty, you might find yourself having a bit more fun.  Using the RefleXions in areas that you found tricky on your first playthrough.  The game also offers higher difficulty modes, but you actually get to start the game with all the RefleXions, which I actually found to be a great way to encourage secondary playthroughs.  The problem is that you probably won't want to play the game again based on your first experience, which renders all of the above useless!  While the game does do a few things to encourage another playthrough, I can't give Addictiveness anything higher than a 7 because you're going to find a lot of issues in your first playthrough.

---Story---
The world has advanced to where robots do a lot more things, and there's a battle colosseum that allows robot designers to show off their skill.  However, one day, a virus strikes all robots in America, except for Beck because [SPAELORS].  Meanwhile, Dr. White, the creator of Beck and the Mighty Numbers, decides to send Beck out to stop the 8 main threats to the US, his Mighty Numbers, and make it his personal duty to figure out why robots are going haywire.  It's a relatively simple plot, but it does job... at first.  I can't reveal TOO MUCH, but I'll just say that the story gets a bit more complicated with some kind of hidden lore that we're supposed to figure out.  It's kinda confusing, but I will say no more because [SPAELORS].  However, they way that the story starts and the ending that correctly wraps things up while still allowing room for more storylines gives me enough reason to give Story a 7.

---Depth---
There's a LOT of post-game depth, which I briefly mentioned in the Addictiveness section.  To recap, the game has higher difficulties, but if you start on a higher difficulty, you get all the RefleXions right from the get-go.  There are 4 difficulties, Normal, Hard, Hyper, and Maniac.  Normal is the initial difficulty, Hard and Hyper are for more challenge, and Maniac, which I prefer to call "Contra" difficulty because it's exactly that.  1 hit is all you get.  Aside from that, there's also online mode which is disfunctional so don't touch it.  There's a Boss Rush that, as of writing this, only has around 100 people in the WORLD that have beaten it.  And the challenge mode, which puts you in a bunch of mini-missions.  There are 3 types: the ones that test your knowledge of the RefleXions, the target test ones where you use a RefleXion to BREAK THE TARGETS a la Brawl, and the Time Attack ones where you beat a level WITHOUT DYING as fast as you can.  Chances are, you're going to be more focused on that first objective.  The latter 2 types have online leaderboards, but I'm fairly certain cheaters exist there (I don't believe for a second some beat the intro level in ~3 seconds) so enter at your risk.  And finally, there's the last challenge in the game.  Why do I put it in it's own section?  Simple.  That challenge forces you to go through the entire game.  WITHOUT DYING OR SAVING.  Let me remind you this is a game that usually takes about 2-3 hours to beat on your first try.  I'm willing to bet you won't want to do it.  With all this stuff, unfortunately, the only things worth your time are some of the challenges, Boss Rush, and maybe the Hard and Hyper difficulties.  Still, there's plenty of things to waste your time on, so I'm give Depth an 8.

---Difficulty---
This game is Nintendo Hard at it's finest.  On the normal difficulty, there are 1) limited healing items.  Each hit you take will last quite a while before you either die and respawn or you finally reach that small heal item.  2) Enemies around every corner.   3) Enemies that will easily punish you if you make one small mistake.  4) Bosses that all have the chance to regain chunks of health.  They force you to rush at them.  5) Instant Kill traps.  Everywhere.  6) Gimmicks that lead to instant death.  7) Instant Kill traps that ignore invincibility frames.  8) Instant Kill traps in places that are hard to avoid.  9-Schmyeventy Two) INSTANT KILL TRAPS.  Do you get the idea now?   No?  Well, it's hard, but with trial and error, you'll eventually be able to beat each level in the game.  And when you do, give yourself a pat on the back (or let someone else do it; it's up to you) because you earned that victory... until you realize the score system depletes to 0 every time you died, so your ranking usually ends up a D.  The only way this game helps is through giving power ups after you die enough times and allowing you start each level with 9 lives.  The game has to handicap itself in order to help you!  This game has earned its 10 fair and square.

---Overall---
This game is... mediocre at best.  While it does have quite a bit of content and an acceptable story, everything else is just subpar at best.  The graphics are muddy and the music is very forgettable.  While there's a lot of content, how good is it if most people will stop playing after their first experience with the game?  The difficulty is nigh-unforgivable with only a little grace.  And despite all this... I actually enjoyed this game.  I had fun messing around with the admitting situational RefleXions.  I'm enjoying going through Hard Mode.  I loved the Target Test challenges and I'm determined to eventually beat the Boss Rush.  But I can very easily see why the internet doesn't exactly have a good name for this game.  However, there are still people I can recommend Mighty No 9 to:

- If you have the patience to go through Trial and Error
- If you are/were a hardcore fan of Mega Man
- If you like REALLY hard games.
- If you're desperate for a Mega Man game.

And with that?  What is my final score on Mighty No 9?  Well... after some consideration, I'm giving Mighty No 9 a 6.8 out of 10.  It's a flawed, mediocre game with a few upsides that may or may not be worth your time and money.  One final Pros and Cons?

Pros
- Storyline that works.. at first
- Gameplay that rewards good players
- Lots of replay-ability and depth
- A good ending and final level
- Challenging(?)

Cons
- Unforgiving difficulty
- Plot becomes too complicated for its own good
- Graphics are mediocre and kinda ugly
- Music is mediocre and forgettable
- Unforgiving difficulty
- The game, as a whole, is mediocre.
- Unforgiving difficulty
- TERRIBLE cutscenes
- Unforgiving difficulty
- Unforgiving difficulty
- Unforgiving difficulty
- Unforgiving difficulty
- Unforgiving difficulty
- Unforgiving difficulty
- Unforgiving difficulty
- Unforgiving difficulty
- Did I mention unforgiving difficulty?

...And that's all!  Thank you for your time.