Delays for Kickstarter projects or even video games in general are not uncommon, but even the most jaded project backers may be surprised to hear that Mighty No 9, the spiritual successor to the original Mega Man series, has been delayed for a third time.

“In preparation for the February release of Mighty No. 9 we have been working hard with our partners to resolve any network issues and porting work necessary to publish Mighty No. 9 on the various platforms,” Keiji Inafune, the game’s creator, wrote in an update on Kickstarter.

“However, the issues relating to the network modes were more critical than expected, and it has become apparent that we will need to delay the game from its February 9th release date. We have been working up until the very last moment to resolve these issues in order to make the February release, but it has become clear that we no longer have enough time to fix the issues and have everything prepared for release.”

Inafune said that the primary issue affecting the game at the moment involves problems with matchmaking for multiplayer, which he says is largely due to the wide range of platforms on which the game will be releasing, as well as the fact that the game’s engine is no longer being updated.

“Unfortunately, this is all a result of miscalculations on the part of us, the development staff,” Inafune admitted. “As a result, our fans who have been looking forward to Mighty No. 9 have been forced to wait for over half a year longer than expected, and for that we are sincerely sorry.”

The developer could not offer an exact date for when the game is expected to actually release this time, but Inafune said that he expects it “to realistically be in Spring 2016.”

Image courtesy of Comcept USA LLC