Ya, Yacht Club were definitely better at that, plus it seemed like they had everything planned out, and just needed money for development costs. Plus, Comcept/Inafune were the pretty much the first Japanese indie developers to use Kickstarter to fund a game, so I think its safe to assume they were unfamiliar with how to interact with backers/fans in the most optimal way, in my opinion.
Foxcade I agree with the planning thing. Both companies announced that they were going to make a platformer reminiscent of the ones of old (Comcept choosing to shove the "creator" or "developer" of Mega Man in our faces.) It's clear they had no idea how much people wanted a new Mega Man game. Adding onto that, Shovel Knight actually took time for its stretch goals (Plague of Shadows coming out a solid several months after the game launched, and Spectre of Torment releasing in a couple of months). MN9 tried to do all of their stretch goals AT LAUNCH. It's sad, really. It looks like it's down to Yooka-Laylee and Bloodstained:Ritual of the Night to prove themselves.....
@@SylentVoidkeeper Now that yooka-laylee and bloodstained have both been released, lets look at the results: Yooka-laylee: From the looks of it, this game was reviewed to be pretty mixed, and how good the game was considered depended on the person. Overall, not bad, but not great either. Bloodstained: As the game has only been released for a month now, I can't say how the game will do down the line. So far, however, it looks like this is being recieved extremely well, as most scores for this game say it's great. Say, what did you think about these games?
That would be an interesting thing to look at, especially since Freedom Planet started as a Sonic fan game, and seems to be doing Sonic better than Sega is currently doing, though I haven't touch Freedom Planet myself yet, only watched LPs, so that's just based on what I've seen
Foxcade I played it myself and the diversity between the cast was each of its own. The level design suited for all character except some special for character exclusive. While the DLCs weren't finished yet but the 2 DLCs character had their own quirk that made them represent Gunstar Heroes and another represent Megaman X3 upgrade. Pretty neat though.
Blank Name but what if there is a year where an oddly large and unreplicated amount of presents are given? Wouldn't that also be "the present year"? Wouldn't every other year not be "the present year"?
Shovel knight he's blue he has different colored armor 8 different weapons Weapons gained within the stage Very hard 8-bit retro style Good intro stage that teaches you without text or in plague of Shadows dlc a small amount of text 8 main bosses After 8 bosses their are stages after it acting like "the willy stages" Mini bosses and can kind of choose the stage you play it's not the most linear it has a lot in common with mega man
A slice of cheese megaman as well The only hard megaman games i have played (my played list is megaman 1-7, X 1-8, Z 1-4 and battle network 1-3) is zero 3 and final bosses of BN
I am trying to study game design, so i watched a lot of videos explaining what went wrong with Mighty No. 9. This was by far the best and most useful one. Thank you so much for making this video. :D
maybe I didn't play enough megaman growing up, but shovel knight feels a LOT more like a classic castlevania game that doesn't take itself seriously to me.
To me, it feels more like Ducktales due to the mechanics how you attack enemies. If it takes anything over from MegaMan, it's the option to switch special weapons and use them in cost for special energy as certain weapons also have variable impact on different enemies.
XSoulbound __ eh. Gunvolt has a lot of the same basic problems on level design that MN9 has and some new, like the main mechanic making you Stop all the flow.
It executed a lot of things alot better. The flashfield is very effective, and let's you move quickly through each level. I admit the game is far from perfect, the characters and story are pretty weak, and it's not all that difficult, but it's still fun to play, and I'll take the speedy gameplay over unfair deaths any day.
Completely agree on all points. In Mighty No. 9's case, dying is compounded not only by the mere frustration of it (as discussed) but the horribly long reload time (over 10 seconds) before you actually respawn. WHY? Shovel Knight in contrast: you die, 3 seconds later you're standing at the last checkpoint ready to make another go FOR SHOVELRY.
If I made mighty number 9 two I would make it so you respawn instantly and remove lives, I would also make so the buster is useless but give you most of the boss weapons from the first game at the start
Ah, what can be said about Shovel Knight. The beautiful pixel art style, the interesting characters and lore, the amount of content in the game and an amazing/memorable soundtrack. All this for 30 bucks, my friends
@Adam Senzai Yeah, the items are wildly varying in terms of usefulness, and that's why everybody probably just had the phase locket equipped 24/7, but on the plus side, it made some otherwise frustrating sections really manageable.
15:11 I almost feel like there were clashes between Comcept and Inti Creates in regards to the level designs, and they could never agree on anything. So, instead, we get this nightmare of a blender mix.
Great video! Your insight on the subject is definitely some food for thought. I can't help but wonder what your thoughts are on the other Mega Man successor: Azure Striker Gunvolt.
Thanks! I might do a video on Azure when I finally play the sequel, though I found the first games major failing is that it could have used more diversity in weapons, mainly a beam saber (a la Megaman Zero). The flash field mechanic had potential that I found the rest of the game failed to live up to, though its been a while since I played the game, so its not too fresh in my mind considering how short it was.
Foxcade I totally agree with you on Azure Striker's shortcoming of a lack of weapon variety, although I'd add that its story tries to go far too deep; especially with such a shallow presentation. The sequel is definitely worth checking out! Inti Creates didn't really improve on Gunvolt's weapon variety, but the second playable character, Copen (yet another Protoman/Zero figure), has a MUCH greater variety in his arsenal. In my opinion, he's more fun in general to play as, and really delivers where the first game fell short.
Ya, the story definitely wasn't one of its strong suits. And the hidden true ending that no one knew how to get during the initial frustrating as well. Interesting, I will definitely check out the sequel out when I finish whats currently on my plate (FF XV, Last Guardian & Pokemon Moon) :)
+Pixel Blasters The main reason we're comparing the two is because they were both made by Inti Creates, the developer responsible for the Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX series - both of which were good series in their own right - as well as Mega Man 9 and 10. From what I understand, Inti was composed of veteran Mega Man developers to begin with. When you think of it that way, it makes a lot of sense to compare Gunvolt to Mega Man, since it's a spiritual successor made by the same team that's made every 2D platformer Mega Man to come out since the turn of the millenium.
@@cameronmoore7675 I would say that it is fair to compare it to MegaMan X, but comparing it to MegaMan, or, indeed, Shovel Knight, is a bit unfair. Whereas classic MegaMan and Shovel Knight typically are slow paced with fairly deliberate, careful platforming, Gunvolt and X are more generous with platforming mistakes, which is a necessity given their fast pace.
I keep saying... The issues of the game come from the poor use of the dash mechanic. Also, never touched it or Shovel Knight (or really any Megaman game apart from maybe Blue Moon.) Septimal Energy was too powerful. That said, every time I look at the gameplay of MN9, I'm immediately drawn to how POORLY the dash is BRUTE FORCED into the game. Note the following: 1) At what point are you not being blatantly required to use it to get anywhere in the game? 2) When you use the dash, does enemy placement or ANYTHING in the game actually revolve around how the dash works (the way it's INTENDED to work) most of the time? 3) If the dash was removed from the game, would you ever really notice it was part of it in the first place? Would something feel missing from the way the game works? There's where the real kicker seems to be. The mechanic is placed in a game that is trying to copy the levels and feel of Megaman, without asking even once why certain design decisions were made. Why was an enemy placed HERE and not THERE? What does THIS contribute over THAT? Why were E-tanks USEFUL? The result is that it is often forced onto you instead of the player reaching a conclusion of their own will that it is useful, and it is done repeatedly.
Ya, the dash mechanic feels forced in, especially when you look at the original kickstarter and there was never any mention of a dash, at least from my memory. I you want some games with great dash mechanics, check out Hyper Light Drifter, or Noitu Love 2: Devolution
Foxcade That said I'm actually doing my own analysis of the game and I kind of want to show how it breaks everything. This game is much like DmC, it has no clue what it wants to actually be. The dash mechanic would let it be a unique title, but the megaman carbon copy level design kind of makes it want to be a megaman clone. You can't exactly do both the way this was done. You could probably get both, but it would be insanely hard.
I don't know if Mighty #9 actually made any money. I think the only people who own copies are those that kickstarted it and it got such bad PR that no one else bought it.
Rip and honestly after the patchs I actually enjoyed mighty number 9 I did get it super cheap on steam tho and I also bought the Ray dlc which is Soo worth runing through the levels tearing bots to bits feels so good and it kinda sucks that the game kinda ruined it's first chance I think the characters have heart in them and have neat designs well most of them and the story could easily be polished off in a new game also recently a new company bought up the game along with alot of others who knows maybe in the right hands it'll turn out good? And heck mighty gunvolt or mighty galgun depending on your system is also really good it's a cross over game that plays alot like MegaMan 1 but with the ability to control and upgrade aspects of your gun and it handled mn9 way better in it's own way
I honestly found the dashing in Mighty Number 9 to be an enormous pain in the ass. It didn't really feel like there was any benefit from it except that it's faster than shooting things to death, and it ran counter to my instinct of "Don't run into enemies." Also, the ability to infinitely air dash meant they could be much, MUCH lazier in their level design.
It could have worked much better if the level design and gameplay meshed so that the player could use the dash more fluidly. If you look at the Ray DLC for MN9, the dash mechanics were implemented much better, as the character was build for close range melee combat.
I finally picked up Shovel Knight yesterday. And man, I can't believe I let it slip by me for so long. It's really an incredibly good game. I find it kind of difficult, mainly because I'm bad at platforming.
These game reviewing channels that put time into their videos are on the rise. Your channel is going places. I feel like your subscriber count is about to explode.
Speaking as someone who’s played Mighty No. 9 and beaten it, agreed with everything you said. Makes me want to play Shovel Knight even more! Great video!
Gosh, this video was surprisingly very informative. And by "surprisingly" I mean that several times when you made a point, I either rolled my eyes or chuckled, cause it sounded silly to me... but each time when you started to explain what you mean, I got what you mean and began to agree. You manage to get your point across really really well, so I do wish to give you some praise! Neat video!
The one thing I REALLY disliked about Shovel Knight, which was enough to nudge me into putting off finishing the game prior to Plague Knight being released (who's faster pace kept me interested), was actually the Dark Souls-esque death penalty. It left a really, really sour taste in my mouth any time those hard earned gems became unrecoverable. On my first play through, I got to Propeller Knight's stage and outright quit in frustration, thanks to all the bottomless pits and stage gimmicks making any given death a huge loss of gold. I would take a moderate lives system over this any day, especially if it was designed to only put the player back to a middle checkpoint, since that actually serves the point of "resetting" a player's moment if they start banging their head against the wall too much. Hell, I might even take a harsh lives system that makes you start over. At least actually beating that makes it feel like you accomplished something. Losing a bunch of gold and regaining it... Doesn't feel like anything at at, while failing to get it back is extremely frustrating. To be honest, Dark Souls isn't a good game. It's never been good. It'd be regarded as a mediocre ARPG at best if it didn't pander to the hardcore image, and any game trying to copy it is going to likely end up lesser for doing so. This is made worse by the fact injecting a modern day death penalty into a platformer is about the worst thing you can copy from another game genre, let alone Dark Souls. Death penalties are horrible design to begin with.
Countershade's stage was not easy. Having insta-kill electric wires cover areas of the map you thought you had memorized while also having to deal with Countershade's constant sniper fire that can peek around walls thanks to these unintuitive magic spheres was not fun. Not to mention THERE WERE NO CHECKPOINTS. Worst stage in the game, by far.
@@flameshana9 seems like we have a terraria mech boss situation, where the type of player you are defines how hard each boss is. One playstyle can increase and decrease the difficulties of another playstyle
That’s strange I beat his stage first try no deaths, he was really easy just blot it too the end of the screen and hope you get an xel tank so you can heal yourself. Also the instant kills are really easy to avoid if you have panteints for them or get lucky with a good cycle
Watching this video gives me so much more appreciation for Yacht Club than I did before. I knew Shovel Knight was great, but I didn't realize just how cleverly and well-thought-out its level design and structure as a whole was. Yacht Club seriously knows what they're doing and it's no wonder Shovel Knight is such a beloved title. Makes me anxious to see what they'll come up with next!
I think that the limited lives system can be pretty good when the game is designed correctly. Mega Man had pretty good level design (except for Mega Man and Bass), so the life system was pretty good in my opinion, especially in challenging games such as Mega Man 9. Mighty Number 9 failed on level design, so the life system was bad.
Spat856 if you count the other two campaigns in shovel knight than it focuses on both story and gameplay, thus leaving no reason to buy mighty number nine over shovel knight.
I do confess the one most frustrating thing in M-#9 was I took it like a Megaman Style game and suddenly was like: "Wait hold on... I'm blasting this boss maverick but he's just NOT going down! What am I doing wrong?!" Then later realized the Xel dash was needed to defeat bosses lol wow X'D It's not god-awful but this can be a bit frustrating for: -first time players, -veterans who never knew about that (like me), -when in a pinch and hoping to end a boss fight
I think nostalgic expectations allows for so much criticism. We had no expectations of Shovel Knight. We expected Mighty #9 to recapture yet reimagine our nostalgic experiences. It simply will end up falling short because it's not Mega Man.
The creators of Mighty No. 9 probably did the kickstarters to make some *bank*. When it worked, they made a cheap, uninspired game so they could keep all the dough they earned and never look back. The creators of Shovel Knight actually told you what you where paying for and where a humble, obscure studio at the time.
Enjoyed the analysis man. Using Shovel Knight to contrast Mighty No.9 was a good idea, and works well to display how one adopted and innovated, while the other kinda updated but regressed. Only thing I'd say is you might want to emote just a little more. Nothing crazy, just inflect a little bit and you'd be good.
Thanks for the critique! Up until recently I was still unfamiliar with the mic, and it took me a while to get used to it, but I will keep that in mind :)
Totally understand that man lol. Been watching some of your more recent videos, and realized I probably should have watched them before leaving the comment. Keep up the good work man, looking forward to your next video.
Hollow knight has the Same level of difficulty compared to shovel knight each time you die in hollow knight you feel like you did something wrong the same way each time you die in shovel knight
this is a a really good video, Do you plan on making more in this style in the future? also I was honestly shocked to see you had less then 700 subscribers because this video was great.
Thanks! I do plan to do something similar when I find games that contrast well together. I original was going to do on with DMC 2 and the DmC reboot, but that turned into my DMC retrospective series. I have one on Zelda cooking, though I worry about being lynched by Zelda fans...
Hey. Just like some others here, I'm totally into game design, or to be more specific, I'm a programmer who wants to code video games in the future. Therefore I'm 'collecting' every video about game design that I can find, and yours are pretty good. So thanks for giving me some more insight on what makes a good game, and don't stop doing what you're doing. Have a nice day.
As far as true successor to Mega Man goes, it basically boils down to three games: Shovel Knight, Azure Striker Gunvolt and Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures. All three I can get on Steam, all three done in 8 to 16 bits graphics, all three I really need to beat one day (just like the original Mega Man which I am still trying to master at but I only got done the first three).
So this video appeared on the home feed, and like what, how did it get there you only have like 30 subscribers! I'm very glad I did stumble across it though this is good stuff.
Top notch video and content you've got here. Def earned a subscribe from me. I too saw this featured on the top level of youtube. Hope that keeps happening for you so your channel can expand. Looking forward to more of your content.
Ummmm. Please don't include massive game spoilers without a warning. I haven't played Shovel Knight yet and it sounds like now I know the ending. Despite trying to skip ahead when I saw that part.
Are you talking about the part with the Order of No Quarter? That's in the very beginning of the game. Please keep in mind that I'm at 6:43 as of making this comment, so I haven't gotten a lot of information. After getting farther in the video: Okay, I know where you're talking about. At least he keeps it vague so you're not entirely sure what happens. Second edit: Never mind. -_-
"This happens in the story" vs. "This happens AFTER you beat the FINAL BOSS." "So and So is introduced halfway into the game" vs. "By the way, So and So DIES at the very END." Endings are always called major spoilers, same with deaths. Story discussion doesn't need to contain such things. Not without a warning.
he had a small annotation allowing you to skip it, plus stories will include spoilers if you are reviewing the game about all of its meaning, like he did.
Nah 1. Hax is stubborn and I doubt he'd give up the GC controller 2. His left hand is so messed up right now he can barely use it in general, let alone play Melee
I want a successor to Battle Network (and by extension Star Force). I love X and Zero but Battle Network has always been my favorite. Ironic because I didn't like it at first cos it was very different from traditional Megaman but boy how I ate my words later on in terms of enjoying it. I still go back and play the games from time to time and its every bit as good as I remembered it. Used to look forward to my annual dose of Battle Network and Zero on the GBA every year, those were the days. Sad that Star Force only got three entries and ZX two on the DS.
on the first megaman you didn't get to save or even have a password system. there was a great risk for losing. it gave you insentive to play your best and look for all the secrets and made them all that special. that is what modern games are forgetting to do, give the player risk.
It looks like mighty no. 9 was just too nostalgic. It brought back the memories of bad level design and cheap deaths that were a big part of mega man baxk in the day, while Shovel knight brings back the good memories and leaves out the cheap deaths and bad game design that people tend to forget when thinking about the classics.
Tenshi Hollywood man, it's so good you won't regret it. And free DLC?! It got a mode last year where you play as another character in the game. He plays so much different than Shovel Knight and the levels are designed different. It's basically ANOTHER GAME. Not as good as Shovek Knight, but hey, it's free. And they're making another one of those soon and there's one more left!!!! (this were Kickstarters goals and Yatch Club is delivering more than anyone expected!)
Being someone who arrived to the final boss, lost and then deleted the damn game (Mighty) I have to add that countershade`s level was far from a cakewalk.
I know alot of people say this, but I'm being serious when I say YOU NEED MORE SUBSCRIBERS! Your scripting is good, your editing is great and you seem like that kind of guy that does his research. You sir, just gained a subscriber. Hope you reach 1,000 soon!
Thanks, I did spend a good amount of time researching and fact checking for this video so I'm glad that its noticeable! I should hopefully reach 1000 in the next month or two if people keep liking and sharing my stuff around :)
Megaman takes place in America. If you look at the boss select screen in either Megaman 7 or 8 (I'm not sure which) when you go over to Dr. Light, his location on the globe was in the United States a little ways above Texas I think. Besides, you can see that many places in the real world do exist in Megaman through the levels or just looking at that globe. Just a little fun fact.
MegaMan: Beck, Shovel you two are greater successors. Amd beck I'm your series did not go as planned... Beck: It's alright rock at least I was GV's games.
...It helps that the Shovel Knight development team was also, you know, OPEN AND CLEAR with what they were providing in their Kickstarter...
Ya, Yacht Club were definitely better at that, plus it seemed like they had everything planned out, and just needed money for development costs. Plus, Comcept/Inafune were the pretty much the first Japanese indie developers to use Kickstarter to fund a game, so I think its safe to assume they were unfamiliar with how to interact with backers/fans in the most optimal way, in my opinion.
Foxcade I agree with the planning thing. Both companies announced that they were going to make a platformer reminiscent of the ones of old (Comcept choosing to shove the "creator" or "developer" of Mega Man in our faces.) It's clear they had no idea how much people wanted a new Mega Man game. Adding onto that, Shovel Knight actually took time for its stretch goals (Plague of Shadows coming out a solid several months after the game launched, and Spectre of Torment releasing in a couple of months). MN9 tried to do all of their stretch goals AT LAUNCH.
It's sad, really. It looks like it's down to Yooka-Laylee and Bloodstained:Ritual of the Night to prove themselves.....
@@SylentVoidkeeper Now that yooka-laylee and bloodstained have both been released, lets look at the results:
Yooka-laylee: From the looks of it, this game was reviewed to be pretty mixed, and how good the game was considered depended on the person. Overall, not bad, but not great either.
Bloodstained: As the game has only been released for a month now, I can't say how the game will do down the line. So far, however, it looks like this is being recieved extremely well, as most scores for this game say it's great.
Say, what did you think about these games?
@@trevorjamieson8892
Bloodstained is fucking great!
Mighty #9 made buyers cry like an anime fan on prom night.
(•_•) ( •_•)>⌐■-■ (⌐■_■)
(I'm disappointed I didn't think of that when I made this...)
Would like to make a video about Freedom Planet? A good Sonic/Megaman X/Treasure successor?
That would be an interesting thing to look at, especially since Freedom Planet started as a Sonic fan game, and seems to be doing Sonic better than Sega is currently doing, though I haven't touch Freedom Planet myself yet, only watched LPs, so that's just based on what I've seen
Foxcade
I played it myself and the diversity between the cast was each of its own. The level design suited for all character except some special for character exclusive. While the DLCs weren't finished yet but the 2 DLCs character had their own quirk that made them represent Gunstar Heroes and another represent Megaman X3 upgrade. Pretty neat though.
I'm still waiting for my refund.
"It is the present year"
This is an entirely correct statement.
but it sounds odd
It can never be false
Blank Name but what if there is a year where an oddly large and unreplicated amount of presents are given? Wouldn't that also be "the present year"? Wouldn't every other year not be "the present year"?
@@idiothead5511 Yes, the "present year" is the year you receive the most presents. That's common knowledge.
"Water is wet"
This is an entirely correct statement.
Shovel knight
he's blue
he has different colored armor
8 different weapons
Weapons gained within the stage
Very hard
8-bit retro style
Good intro stage that teaches you without text or in plague of Shadows dlc a small amount of text
8 main bosses
After 8 bosses their are stages after it acting like "the willy stages"
Mini bosses
and can kind of choose the stage you play it's not the most linear
it has a lot in common with mega man
lol shovel knight is nowhere near being very hard but I agree with the rest
A slice of cheese megaman as well
The only hard megaman games i have played (my played list is megaman 1-7, X 1-8, Z 1-4 and battle network 1-3) is zero 3 and final bosses of BN
I'm bad at platformers so SK is very hard XD
@@librathebeautifulwarmonk1283 What did you think about Plague of Shadows and Specter of Torment?
*I Like Dogs* It’s not 8-bit though. And neither it Mega Man. Just more pixelated than, say Mario 64 or Call of Duty Black Ops 4.
I am trying to study game design, so i watched a lot of videos explaining what went wrong with Mighty No. 9. This was by far the best and most useful one. Thank you so much for making this video. :D
Thanks, I'm glad it was useful! I was really frustrated by Mighty No 9 and how it came out so I used this to basically vent my frustrations haha
+Foxcade I also felt the same way about it being in America. I felt the story was so bad I hated everything else.
also make sure to look at the classic sonic games, they seem to have a lot o the things that are "wrong" mighty number 9 in them
maybe I didn't play enough megaman growing up, but shovel knight feels a LOT more like a classic castlevania game that doesn't take itself seriously to me.
To me, it feels more like Ducktales due to the mechanics how you attack enemies.
If it takes anything over from MegaMan, it's the option to switch special weapons and use them in cost for special energy as certain weapons also have variable impact on different enemies.
MegaManNeo It also takes the idea of themed stages, based on there boss. But I suppose that was sort of a general trope in NES games.
I think Shovel knight is more like THE ULTIMATE NOSTALGIC PLATFORMER *broadcaster voice*
@jhonlong765 Have you seen shovel knight upcoming dlc for specter knight? Now that feels like Castlevania!
Shovel Knight is more of a hodgepodge of different classic platforms. Mega Man, Duck Tales, Mario, etc.
Everyone is talking about mighty number 9 and shovel knight, and I'm just over here playing gunvolt
_Mighty Gunvolt_ is Beck's best game.
You and me brother.
XSoulbound __ eh. Gunvolt has a lot of the same basic problems on level design that MN9 has and some new, like the main mechanic making you Stop all the flow.
It executed a lot of things alot better. The flashfield is very effective, and let's you move quickly through each level.
I admit the game is far from perfect, the characters and story are pretty weak, and it's not all that difficult, but it's still fun to play, and I'll take the speedy gameplay over unfair deaths any day.
I dunno, after I got to grips with the central ideas I never found myself breaking flow
"Makes you wonder if Capcom was right not to continue doing games using the Megaman formula"
Well, Megaman 11 proved you wrong ahah :D
fuck megaman 11 I want x9 or zx 3
Completely agree on all points. In Mighty No. 9's case, dying is compounded not only by the mere frustration of it (as discussed) but the horribly long reload time (over 10 seconds) before you actually respawn. WHY? Shovel Knight in contrast: you die, 3 seconds later you're standing at the last checkpoint ready to make another go FOR SHOVELRY.
If I made mighty number 9 two I would make it so you respawn instantly and remove lives, I would also make so the buster is useless but give you most of the boss weapons from the first game at the start
@@jettlucashayes8508 Removing lives would make the game worse.
There is another game that some say is a "spiritual" successor to MegaMan that wasn't mentioned: The Azure Striker Gunvolt games.
According to MM8, the classic series is set in America too; look at the location of Light's Lab on the world map.
Shovel Knight is goddamn perfect
Shovel Knight is pretty much Mega Man's alter ego.
*◄* Insert "Fighting With All Our Might *►*
Damn straight
Ah, what can be said about Shovel Knight. The beautiful pixel art style, the interesting characters and lore, the amount of content in the game and an amazing/memorable soundtrack. All this for 30 bucks, my friends
@Adam Senzai Yeah, the items are wildly varying in terms of usefulness, and that's why everybody probably just had the phase locket equipped 24/7, but on the plus side, it made some otherwise frustrating sections really manageable.
Stayed for all 23 minutes. Zero regrets.
Great video man!!!
FafGuy Played mighty number nine, over nine regrets
@@speggta645
Played Mighty Number Nine...
Oddly liked what was considered a con more than what was considered as a pro.
*◄* Insert "Duality" *►*
Zero regrets what
6:19 you can definitely see where Devil May Cry 1 got inspiration for its dialogue.
15:11
I almost feel like there were clashes between Comcept and Inti Creates in regards to the level designs, and they could never agree on anything. So, instead, we get this nightmare of a blender mix.
Great video! Your insight on the subject is definitely some food for thought.
I can't help but wonder what your thoughts are on the other Mega Man successor: Azure Striker Gunvolt.
Thanks! I might do a video on Azure when I finally play the sequel, though I found the first games major failing is that it could have used more diversity in weapons, mainly a beam saber (a la Megaman Zero). The flash field mechanic had potential that I found the rest of the game failed to live up to, though its been a while since I played the game, so its not too fresh in my mind considering how short it was.
Foxcade
I totally agree with you on Azure Striker's shortcoming of a lack of weapon variety, although I'd add that its story tries to go far too deep; especially with such a shallow presentation.
The sequel is definitely worth checking out! Inti Creates didn't really improve on Gunvolt's weapon variety, but the second playable character, Copen (yet another Protoman/Zero figure), has a MUCH greater variety in his arsenal. In my opinion, he's more fun in general to play as, and really delivers where the first game fell short.
Ya, the story definitely wasn't one of its strong suits. And the hidden true ending that no one knew how to get during the initial frustrating as well.
Interesting, I will definitely check out the sequel out when I finish whats currently on my plate (FF XV, Last Guardian & Pokemon Moon) :)
+Pixel Blasters
The main reason we're comparing the two is because they were both made by Inti Creates, the developer responsible for the Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX series - both of which were good series in their own right - as well as Mega Man 9 and 10. From what I understand, Inti was composed of veteran Mega Man developers to begin with.
When you think of it that way, it makes a lot of sense to compare Gunvolt to Mega Man, since it's a spiritual successor made by the same team that's made every 2D platformer Mega Man to come out since the turn of the millenium.
@@cameronmoore7675 I would say that it is fair to compare it to MegaMan X, but comparing it to MegaMan, or, indeed, Shovel Knight, is a bit unfair. Whereas classic MegaMan and Shovel Knight typically are slow paced with fairly deliberate, careful platforming, Gunvolt and X are more generous with platforming mistakes, which is a necessity given their fast pace.
If the channel owner himself sounds bored and annoyed when talking about No. 9 in comparison to Shovel Knight...
I think my point has been made.
20XX deserves the spot more
Ike of Pyke 20XX is great.
And the music in that first stage.... WOW! that's how you get a person ready to play their game!
I’ve felt this way for years. In fact, I’ve sometimes said that Shovel Knight is my favorite MegaMan game. Moreso than MegaMan 3 or MegaMan X.
It's demeaning to call Shovek Knight a Mega Man game. I do agree to disagree with that opinion.
That first stage theme of Shovel Knight still gives me goosebumps.
Edit: Losing Shield Knight hits my right in the feels ;.;
I loved editing this video because I got to listen to all of Shovel Knights awesome themes over again!
@@Foxcade hey you!
Watch me dance!
I keep saying...
The issues of the game come from the poor use of the dash mechanic.
Also, never touched it or Shovel Knight (or really any Megaman game apart from maybe Blue Moon.) Septimal Energy was too powerful.
That said, every time I look at the gameplay of MN9, I'm immediately drawn to how POORLY the dash is BRUTE FORCED into the game.
Note the following:
1) At what point are you not being blatantly required to use it to get anywhere in the game?
2) When you use the dash, does enemy placement or ANYTHING in the game actually revolve around how the dash works (the way it's INTENDED to work) most of the time?
3) If the dash was removed from the game, would you ever really notice it was part of it in the first place? Would something feel missing from the way the game works?
There's where the real kicker seems to be. The mechanic is placed in a game that is trying to copy the levels and feel of Megaman, without asking even once why certain design decisions were made. Why was an enemy placed HERE and not THERE? What does THIS contribute over THAT? Why were E-tanks USEFUL?
The result is that it is often forced onto you instead of the player reaching a conclusion of their own will that it is useful, and it is done repeatedly.
Ya, the dash mechanic feels forced in, especially when you look at the original kickstarter and there was never any mention of a dash, at least from my memory. I you want some games with great dash mechanics, check out Hyper Light Drifter, or Noitu Love 2: Devolution
Foxcade That said I'm actually doing my own analysis of the game and I kind of want to show how it breaks everything.
This game is much like DmC, it has no clue what it wants to actually be. The dash mechanic would let it be a unique title, but the megaman carbon copy level design kind of makes it want to be a megaman clone.
You can't exactly do both the way this was done. You could probably get both, but it would be insanely hard.
Mighty 9 getting a sequel? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
The bigger question is who's gonna fund it? With all the negative publicity and stuff.
I don't know if Mighty #9 actually made any money. I think the only people who own copies are those that kickstarted it and it got such bad PR that no one else bought it.
Rip and honestly after the patchs I actually enjoyed mighty number 9 I did get it super cheap on steam tho and I also bought the Ray dlc which is Soo worth runing through the levels tearing bots to bits feels so good and it kinda sucks that the game kinda ruined it's first chance I think the characters have heart in them and have neat designs well most of them and the story could easily be polished off in a new game also recently a new company bought up the game along with alot of others who knows maybe in the right hands it'll turn out good? And heck mighty gunvolt or mighty galgun depending on your system is also really good it's a cross over game that plays alot like MegaMan 1 but with the ability to control and upgrade aspects of your gun and it handled mn9 way better in it's own way
Mighty number 10
There is a sequel now, but I’m hearing that it’s actually quite decent!
It’s 3:30 in the morning and zero yelling “what am I fighting forrrrr!” Woke my dog up
I honestly found the dashing in Mighty Number 9 to be an enormous pain in the ass. It didn't really feel like there was any benefit from it except that it's faster than shooting things to death, and it ran counter to my instinct of "Don't run into enemies." Also, the ability to infinitely air dash meant they could be much, MUCH lazier in their level design.
It could have worked much better if the level design and gameplay meshed so that the player could use the dash more fluidly. If you look at the Ray DLC for MN9, the dash mechanics were implemented much better, as the character was build for close range melee combat.
Also shovel knight is going on 4 playable characters and all of them have different levels and mechanics
I finally picked up Shovel Knight yesterday. And man, I can't believe I let it slip by me for so long. It's really an incredibly good game. I find it kind of difficult, mainly because I'm bad at platforming.
These game reviewing channels that put time into their videos are on the rise. Your channel is going places. I feel like your subscriber count is about to explode.
Speaking as someone who’s played Mighty No. 9 and beaten it, agreed with everything you said. Makes me want to play Shovel Knight even more! Great video!
Gosh, this video was surprisingly very informative.
And by "surprisingly" I mean that several times when you made a point, I either rolled my eyes or chuckled, cause it sounded silly to me... but each time when you started to explain what you mean, I got what you mean and began to agree.
You manage to get your point across really really well, so I do wish to give you some praise! Neat video!
The one thing I REALLY disliked about Shovel Knight, which was enough to nudge me into putting off finishing the game prior to Plague Knight being released (who's faster pace kept me interested), was actually the Dark Souls-esque death penalty. It left a really, really sour taste in my mouth any time those hard earned gems became unrecoverable. On my first play through, I got to Propeller Knight's stage and outright quit in frustration, thanks to all the bottomless pits and stage gimmicks making any given death a huge loss of gold.
I would take a moderate lives system over this any day, especially if it was designed to only put the player back to a middle checkpoint, since that actually serves the point of "resetting" a player's moment if they start banging their head against the wall too much. Hell, I might even take a harsh lives system that makes you start over. At least actually beating that makes it feel like you accomplished something. Losing a bunch of gold and regaining it... Doesn't feel like anything at at, while failing to get it back is extremely frustrating.
To be honest, Dark Souls isn't a good game. It's never been good. It'd be regarded as a mediocre ARPG at best if it didn't pander to the hardcore image, and any game trying to copy it is going to likely end up lesser for doing so. This is made worse by the fact injecting a modern day death penalty into a platformer is about the worst thing you can copy from another game genre, let alone Dark Souls. Death penalties are horrible design to begin with.
Shovel Knight is by far my favorite thing to ever come out of kickstarter. and I'd dare say it's my favorite indie platformer of all time.
Gunvolt is closer to a mega-man successor , as it really feels like a successor to the Zero/ZX games
why do i feel your fox eyes should be moving right and left continuously.
Because Foxes are suspecious thieves...
AstrosGamer raccoons are more theif like
Countershade's stage was not easy. Having insta-kill electric wires cover areas of the map you thought you had memorized while also having to deal with Countershade's constant sniper fire that can peek around walls thanks to these unintuitive magic spheres was not fun. Not to mention THERE WERE NO CHECKPOINTS. Worst stage in the game, by far.
Agreed.
@@flameshana9 seems like we have a terraria mech boss situation, where the type of player you are defines how hard each boss is. One playstyle can increase and decrease the difficulties of another playstyle
I sincerely just did brandish, got his power then did countershade so that I could deflect the bullets
That’s strange I beat his stage first try no deaths, he was really easy just blot it too the end of the screen and hope you get an xel tank so you can heal yourself. Also the instant kills are really easy to avoid if you have panteints for them or get lucky with a good cycle
Watching this video gives me so much more appreciation for Yacht Club than I did before. I knew Shovel Knight was great, but I didn't realize just how cleverly and well-thought-out its level design and structure as a whole was. Yacht Club seriously knows what they're doing and it's no wonder Shovel Knight is such a beloved title. Makes me anxious to see what they'll come up with next!
I think that the limited lives system can be pretty good when the game is designed correctly. Mega Man had pretty good level design (except for Mega Man and Bass), so the life system was pretty good in my opinion, especially in challenging games such as Mega Man 9. Mighty Number 9 failed on level design, so the life system was bad.
Team shovel knight
Shovel Knight is one of my favorite games.
and now we have Mega Man 11 + the one good thing about MN9, is the design of the boss robots
Mighty No 9 tryed to focuse too much on story and the gameplay flooped. Shovel Knight had a simple story but focused primarily on the gameplay.
Spat856 if you count the other two campaigns in shovel knight than it focuses on both story and gameplay, thus leaving no reason to buy mighty number nine over shovel knight.
Excellent video. New subscriber, and hope to continue to enjoy high quality criticism like this in the future.
Now I want to make a driving game with ducks as a hazard.
I do confess the one most frustrating thing in M-#9 was I took it like a Megaman Style game and suddenly was like: "Wait hold on... I'm blasting this boss maverick but he's just NOT going down! What am I doing wrong?!" Then later realized the Xel dash was needed to defeat bosses lol wow X'D
It's not god-awful but this can be a bit frustrating for:
-first time players,
-veterans who never knew about that (like me),
-when in a pinch and hoping to end a boss fight
I think nostalgic expectations allows for so much criticism. We had no expectations of Shovel Knight. We expected Mighty #9 to recapture yet reimagine our nostalgic experiences. It simply will end up falling short because it's not Mega Man.
The creators of Mighty No. 9 probably did the kickstarters to make some *bank*. When it worked, they made a cheap, uninspired game so they could keep all the dough they earned and never look back.
The creators of Shovel Knight actually told you what you where paying for and where a humble, obscure studio at the time.
Enjoyed the analysis man. Using Shovel Knight to contrast Mighty No.9 was a good idea, and works well to display how one adopted and innovated, while the other kinda updated but regressed. Only thing I'd say is you might want to emote just a little more. Nothing crazy, just inflect a little bit and you'd be good.
Thanks for the critique! Up until recently I was still unfamiliar with the mic, and it took me a while to get used to it, but I will keep that in mind :)
Totally understand that man lol. Been watching some of your more recent videos, and realized I probably should have watched them before leaving the comment. Keep up the good work man, looking forward to your next video.
No problem! I love you guys and what yall do for the indie games market!
Plague knight is one of the best characters conceived in a video game and I will die on this hill
Good video! You deserve more subs, which is why I'm subbing. High quality content from such a tiny youtuber is hard to find nowadays
You pretty much got it perfectly. If I were to describe Mighty No.9 with one word, it'd be "outdated".
You're really good at analyzing games. I'm glad I watched this video. Keep it up!
Hollow knight has the Same level of difficulty compared to shovel knight each time you die in hollow knight you feel like you did something wrong the same way each time you die in shovel knight
this is a a really good video, Do you plan on making more in this style in the future? also I was honestly shocked to see you had less then 700 subscribers because this video was great.
Thanks! I do plan to do something similar when I find games that contrast well together. I original was going to do on with DMC 2 and the DmC reboot, but that turned into my DMC retrospective series. I have one on Zelda cooking, though I worry about being lynched by Zelda fans...
Foxcade I wouldn't worry about the Zelda fanbase being mad as long as you make it like this one.
Hey, atleast we got Azure Striker Gunvolt, Azure Striker Gunvolt 2, Mighty Gunvolt, and Mighty Gunvolt Burst
Hey. Just like some others here, I'm totally into game design, or to be more specific, I'm a programmer who wants to code video games in the future. Therefore I'm 'collecting' every video about game design that I can find, and yours are pretty good. So thanks for giving me some more insight on what makes a good game, and don't stop doing what you're doing. Have a nice day.
Thanks for the feedback, and good luck in you future as a programmer!
Foxcade always a pleasure. Expect the next future defining video game in about 5 years or so
Tristan Wilke Awesome, I look forward to seeing what you make!
Foxcade me too ^^
Hey Kids! One of these characters doesn’t belong!
Is it: Shovel Knight, Beck, Hollow Knight or Mega Man?
This video is done really well. Solid job on the video! Keep up the good work!
Thank you, its motivating to hear people enjoying it!
I finally got shovel knight a few days ago and I can agree it's amazing
Wow! Great video review and your points of view! We loved it here!!! Big fans now of your channel
1:30
That has some _interesting_ connotations
So glad you mentioned Egoraptor's video. That's a masterpiece when it comes to talk about what megaman does good.
Mighty No. 9 takes the good and the bad from Mega Man, while Shovel Knight takes the best aspects of many NES games, and puts a modern twist on it.
"Mole Knight's stage has this in spades." *ba-dump, tss*
As far as true successor to Mega Man goes, it basically boils down to three games: Shovel Knight, Azure Striker Gunvolt and Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures.
All three I can get on Steam, all three done in 8 to 16 bits graphics, all three I really need to beat one day (just like the original Mega Man which I am still trying to master at but I only got done the first three).
The true successor to Megaman is a little project called Megaman 11
This game was a great example of good concept, terrible execution.
Love me some Rocky Horror, liked the video even more.
So this video appeared on the home feed, and like what, how did it get there you only have like 30 subscribers! I'm very glad I did stumble across it though this is good stuff.
I'm pumped you were able to find it and enjoyed it! I'm still working on getting my videos out for people to see but its taking time
Top notch video and content you've got here. Def earned a subscribe from me. I too saw this featured on the top level of youtube. Hope that keeps happening for you so your channel can expand. Looking forward to more of your content.
Thanks for the support, I'm glad people are finding and enjoying my content!
I havent played shovel knight, but from what I gather it looks like megaman had a baby with ducktales
It's actually a combination of Ducktales, Zelda 2, Mega Man, Castlevania and Mario 3. With modern things involved too.
Ummmm. Please don't include massive game spoilers without a warning. I haven't played Shovel Knight yet and it sounds like now I know the ending. Despite trying to skip ahead when I saw that part.
Are you talking about the part with the Order of No Quarter? That's in the very beginning of the game. Please keep in mind that I'm at 6:43 as of making this comment, so I haven't gotten a lot of information.
After getting farther in the video: Okay, I know where you're talking about. At least he keeps it vague so you're not entirely sure what happens.
Second edit: Never mind. -_-
You shouldn't be looking at anything that reviews the game, like as a comparison would.
I mean mechanics and everything is going to be spoiled.
He clearly titled that portion of the video "story", so it's not hard to make the assumption that there are spoilers
"This happens in the story" vs. "This happens AFTER you beat the FINAL BOSS."
"So and So is introduced halfway into the game" vs. "By the way, So and So DIES at the very END."
Endings are always called major spoilers, same with deaths. Story discussion doesn't need to contain such things. Not without a warning.
he had a small annotation allowing you to skip it, plus stories will include spoilers if you are reviewing the game about all of its meaning, like he did.
Wow this video was great, I loved how you built up the antici
3:06 HAX MONEY BABY
RIP hand, 20XX got delayed by health issues
smashbox though?
Nah
1. Hax is stubborn and I doubt he'd give up the GC controller
2. His left hand is so messed up right now he can barely use it in general, let alone play Melee
:(
oioi i won now he is using smashbox gg mate ;) ;)
why are you talking about shovel knight when there is a more accurate megaman esque game in gunvolt?
Eh, gunvolt looks, sounds, and feels more like mega man X then mega man
Chucho Silva
Its too anime
Because it's a more well known and successful platformer to general auidience? (shrug)
Gunja Fury the battle network series, the star force series and the ZX series... and you think THIS is too anime
There is also the comparison to be made between two games that were crowd funded. Gunvolt, to the best of my knowledge, was not.
I want a successor to Battle Network (and by extension Star Force). I love X and Zero but Battle Network has always been my favorite.
Ironic because I didn't like it at first cos it was very different from traditional Megaman but boy how I ate my words later on in terms of enjoying it. I still go back and play the games from time to time and its every bit as good as I remembered it.
Used to look forward to my annual dose of Battle Network and Zero on the GBA every year, those were the days. Sad that Star Force only got three entries and ZX two on the DS.
on the first megaman you didn't get to save or even have a password system. there was a great risk for losing. it gave you insentive to play your best and look for all the secrets and made them all that special. that is what modern games are forgetting to do, give the player risk.
It looks like mighty no. 9 was just too nostalgic. It brought back the memories of bad level design and cheap deaths that were a big part of mega man baxk in the day, while Shovel knight brings back the good memories and leaves out the cheap deaths and bad game design that people tend to forget when thinking about the classics.
this was made before mega man 11 was announced
Now we can all sleep soundly at night thanks to the successful recent release of Mega man 11!
I couldnt gelp but think of Egoraptor screaming at every title screen
Plot twist: it was mega man 11
The mighty doesn‘t even deserve to stand next to Shovel Knight
2:02
"What demon from the depths of the Hell created thee!?"
And honestly, I'm feeling the same thing after seeing and hearing about ReCore.
Ya, from what I've seen from ReCore, it looks like its having similar problems, though I haven't had any hands on
Great video man! Subscribed! Looking forward to checking out your other stuff too.
Great video, thanks for uploading it.
Loved the video dude, you may have just sold a copy of Shovel Knight.
Tenshi Hollywood man, it's so good you won't regret it. And free DLC?! It got a mode last year where you play as another character in the game. He plays so much different than Shovel Knight and the levels are designed different. It's basically ANOTHER GAME. Not as good as Shovek Knight, but hey, it's free. And they're making another one of those soon and there's one more left!!!! (this were Kickstarters goals and Yatch Club is delivering more than anyone expected!)
Who is here after mega man 11?
Love your channel man. Hope it grows crazy. Just figured it out. Keep it up
Being someone who arrived to the final boss, lost and then deleted the damn game (Mighty) I have to add that countershade`s level was far from a cakewalk.
I know alot of people say this, but I'm being serious when I say YOU NEED MORE SUBSCRIBERS! Your scripting is good, your editing is great and you seem like that kind of guy that does his research. You sir, just gained a subscriber. Hope you reach 1,000 soon!
Thanks, I did spend a good amount of time researching and fact checking for this video so I'm glad that its noticeable! I should hopefully reach 1000 in the next month or two if people keep liking and sharing my stuff around :)
Congrats on 1000 subs!
This is a really interesting video on a topic I thought would be too obvious, good job! You deserve more subscribers man
The green enemies that are affected by lava are called blorbs. There's an official enemy list on the Yacht Club Games website.
You forgot the part that makes it the true better game
The half a step forward when you flick the control stick
I never heard of mighty no9 until I saw a playthrough of it, after release of course
I just got thru the 20 minutes without noticing. Nice job, congrats! :D
I think that the live system can be good if used correctly.
I can't hear or see any reference to Rocky Horror without binging on it immediately after.
Megaman takes place in America. If you look at the boss select screen in either Megaman 7 or 8 (I'm not sure which) when you go over to Dr. Light, his location on the globe was in the United States a little ways above Texas I think. Besides, you can see that many places in the real world do exist in Megaman through the levels or just looking at that globe.
Just a little fun fact.
MegaMan: Beck, Shovel you two are greater successors. Amd beck I'm your series did not go as planned...
Beck: It's alright rock at least I was GV's games.
Thats good shit my dude. I played through both campaigns of shovel knight, and I agree with all of the points you made. Good commentary my dude.