Despite launching to a series of technical problems and negative review, Mighty No. 9 producer Keiji Inafune says that the current state of the game is 'better than nothing.'

The development of Mighty No. 9 has been a rollercoaster for fans of classic 2D side-scrollers. The initial excitement about the legendary producer Keiji Inafune returning to the nostalgic genre was enough for many gamers to forget how risky crowd-funded video game projects can be. Mighty No. 9 finally made it to launch this week, which is exciting, but unfortunately the game isn't delivering the experience that some backers were hoping for.

The game's initial reviews have been pretty harsh and it's currently sitting around a 60/100 on Metacritic, although there are still many outlets who need to report in. Not only is the game suffering from negative reviews after a long-delayed launch, but the Xbox 360 release is also experiencing technical problems and has been delayed. Despite all of the day one criticism, Inafune stands by the finished product.

In a livestream event on Twitch, the producer discussed whether or not he was satisfied with the finished version of the game...

“The reality is they put everything into making this game... They didn’t try to microtransaction it out, they didn’t try to DLC it out for extra money. They put it all in. So, for now, this is what you see and what you get, for the Mighty No. 9 world. But, again, we can hope that if things go well, there’ll be sequels. Because I’ll tell you what, I’m not getting my 2D side-scrolling fill. And at the end of the day, even if it’s not perfect, it’s better than nothing. At least, that’s my opinion.”

Inafune makes some strong points about delivering a complete product, rather than hiding part of the content behind paywalls and DLC. That said, his words about the game being 'better than nothing' are likely not what the project's backers hoped to hear when they signed up. At the end of the day, despite the delays, the team did deliver a complete project, which is more than many Kickstarter creators can say. Talk of a sequel is nice, but on day one many fans are more worried about this game than the hypothetical next one.

Although Kickstarter and other crowd-funding tools have been around for a few years, the market is definitely still figuring out how to handle these projects and how to manage expectations. When legendary creators go to Kickstarter, it can be hard to remember that many times they are technically making an indie game that may be very different from what we've seen from them in the past. With Shenmue 3 and Star Citizen launching in the coming years, it will be interesting to see how bigger budget games deliver after successful crowd-funding.

How do you feel about the developers launching a less than optimal version of the game? Will you still purchase it? Let us know in the comments.

Mighty No. 9 is now available for PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 (delayed), Wii U, and PC, with plans for the game to also be ported to Nintendo 3DS and PS Vita.

Source: Twitch