Highway

The Highway (ハイウェイ Haiu~ei) is one of the stages in Mighty No. 9. Brandish is the boss of this stage, and there is no miniboss. This stage is located in New Mexico.

Layout

This stage is similar to the first stage in RockMan X since it has vehicles as its terrain. The road itself is actually a bottomless pit, so if Beck loses his footing, he will get KO'ed, akin to touching the lava in MagmaMan's course in RockMan 9: The Ambition's Revival!! or touching a deadly spike in most RockMan games or touching lava in most Super Mario 2D platformers.

The first section is an easy platformer with few enemies that come after Beck. The main enemy to look out for is a sign-like enemy that flies at Beck, attempting to knock him onto the road.

In the second section, Beck will be in a dark tunnel, and there will be another enemy gauntlet, but the layout is similarly easy.

The third section contains another platforming section that sigues into an autoscrolling section where Brandish slashes through some cars with his swords. Beck needs to avoid getting knocked off on his way to the truck at the end. At the fourth section, the enemies come back and Brandish stops attacking. Brandish clears cars off the last truck's trailer's bed, and uses it as the battlefield he and Beck fight on.

Call's Explanation

"We have reports of automated vehicle malfunctions on the highway. Mighty No. 7 'Brandish' spotted."

Mic's Advice

"Yeah, it's Mic. I got eyes on Brand, but getting through these nutso cars ain't easy.

This could turn into a fifty car pileup any minute. Hate to ask, but I could use some help."

Enemies

• Combroid-Riot
• Dust Boxer
• Gantry
• Moto Chaser
• Nutall
• Propellifter
• Punk Rolley
• Brandish (Boss)

Boss Battle

The fight begins with multiple simple but fast attacks that can whittle down the player's HP very quickly.

Attack 1/2: Brandish leaps into the air, before coming down in 1 of 2 ways: he may do a fast diagonal kick aimed towards the player, which can be dodged by dashing underneath or away from the targeted point, or he may do a slower vertical spinning attack with his swords, targeting a landing spot like 1, but this will not make him travel as far. This makes it quite difficult to dodge because of both the need to predict where he will land and because of a larger width of the attack.

Attack 3: A simple horizontal spin slash across the stage that reflects Beck's projectiles. While being quite fast, it is quite simple to avoid by AcXelerating over it. Also, he usually does not go all the way across the stage, leaving a safe zone at either edge. This is where Seismic form comes in. Using this, you can do extra damage to him by stomping on his head as he goes past.

Attack 4: After you get him down to half health, Brandish will repair his swords and perform this attack. A blue section will appear just like in the stage's third section, and shortly afterward Brandish will slash through that area with his swords. He will continue to do this, but faster and at different angles. This can become very difficult as the speed becomes almost too great to react properly to.

His sword can be broken by Seismic's form, but this does not deter his moveset by much. His spin slash changes to a sliding kick, low enough for Beck's projectiles to pass above him. Brandish will form his swords back after a certain amount of time passes by or his health passes the threshold for him to do so.

In-Stage Bonuses and Map

• Nice Clear - Highway near the start where you are forced to kill enemies to process. If you kill enough, you will get Nice Clear (don't need to kill all of them).

• Sprinter - From the first checkpoint, where you jump across a bunch of smaller cars, before you enter the tunnel.

• Sprinter - From the beginning of the tunnel, right after 3 Nutalls

• Quick Clear - Again, where you are forced to kill bunch of the enemies

Ranking

Grading

• Clear Time: 6:00
• Kills: 80
• Combo: 20

Rank Requirements

• S Rank: 71,500 points
• A Rank: 42,250 points
• B Rank: 31,250 points
• C Rank: 17,500 points

For information, please visit this.

Music

Stage Theme

Desolate Highway

Stage Theme (Retro Version)

Desolate Highway (Retro Version)

Concept Art

Concept art for Brandish's boss room.

Ditto. (Higher resolution, cropped)

Trivia

• The Highway is the second stage that features a horizontal auto-scrolling segment. It is also the only one that has a visible bottomless pit and where the conventional "ground" is a hazard, which is averted in other stages except, in the latter case, the Radio Tower stage.
• Some of the fan submitted robots from the KIMO KIMO Cup Robot Design Contest can be seen on the background.
• Arin "Egoraptor" Hanson (Youtube personality, co-star of Game Grumps show), Alraz (moderator of the game forums and streamer) and Mega Man-inspired band The Protomen's logo can be seen on the billboards on the background as part of the "Face in the Game" Kickstarter reward for the beckers that pledged over $2500.
• Comcept's mascot,「KANE DE BOO」, can be seen on the background.

Arin Hanser (Egoraptor)

Alraz

「KANE DE BOO」