Mighty No. 9 - Ray Expansion (DLC)

I went into the Ray Expansion expecting a bone thrown to fans who liked the base game more than the critics did. What I got was something more interesting than that on paper, and more frustrating in practice. Ray is structurally the same game you already know: eight side-scrolling stages ripped from the Mega Man playbook, each capped with a boss fight. But she plays nothing like Beck, and that separation is where the DLC earns its keep. The core twist is a constant health degeneration mechanic. Ray's health ticks down whenever she is not actively pushing forward and absorbing enemies. It sounds punishing on paper and it is punishing in practice, but the design intent is clear: Ray is meant to be a speedrun character, a high-aggression scalpel compared to Beck's more methodical style. Her attacks automatically assimilate weakened enemies, she rips through standard mobs fast, and her dash covers ground quickly. The problem is that boss fights were not redesigned to accommodate her. Bosses with prolonged invincibility windows or large gap-crossing scripted attacks actively drain her health during moments when she cannot absorb anything, turning what should be intense sprint-style fights into war-of-attrition slogs on Normal difficulty. Community feedback from launch was consistent: the degeneration rate is too aggressive against bosses, and many players compared it to unintentional Maniac-difficulty spikes. The level portions are genuinely fun with Ray. The boss rooms regularly are not. Beyond the health gimmick, Ray brings a separate set of unlockable abilities and an exclusive story chapter, the "Vermilion Destroyer" stage, which adds a new boss encounter and some lore around Ray's origins. It is slim content by any measure. Players who complete the base game in around six hours will clear Ray's campaign in a couple more, and that is before factoring in the frustration tax on boss attempts. If you were hoping for significantly redesigned levels or new stage layouts, the expansion does not provide that. It recontextualizes what is already there rather than building on top of it. All of this sits inside a base game that landed at a 52 on Metacritic and drew criticism for weak visuals, forgettable level design, and the kind of over-hyped Kickstarter baggage that poisoned first impressions well before launch. The Ray expansion does not fix any of that. The same flat textures, the same stiff cutscene presentation, the same relative lack of polish are all present. Ray as a character concept is legitimately cool, and the aggressive-playstyle loop clicks during stage traversal. But the mechanical rough edges make it hard to recommend without serious caveats, even to players who already own and enjoyed the base game. Bottom line: if you played Beck's campaign and liked it enough to want a challenge run with a faster, riskier playstyle, Ray delivers that in short bursts. If you bounced off the base game or never connected with it, this DLC adds nothing to change your mind.

Alex · Scout Team

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