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Last October, Keiji Inafune, the creator of Megaman and long-time Capcom employee, left the legendary video game firm. If Joystiq’s report can be believed, Mr. Inafune left the company because he felt there was no further he could rise in the ranks and that his creativity would suffer if he didn’t move on. Whether or not this is all true ultimately isn’t the problem here; Mr. Inafune has started his own company, Comcept, and, hey, all the power in the world to him for the many, many hours of gaming awesomeness he’s brought all of us.
The problem here is, this March, Capcom canceled Megaman Universe, the multiplayer, Blue Bomber experience that was designated as a download for XBL and PSN. And then, after eleven years of waiting and the worst cock tease of all time, Capcom canceled the Megaman Legends 3 Project. Did they do all of this because Inafune left? We could speculate about their reasons and dance around the simplified “probably”, but the much greater concern here is, with these projects canceled and nothing new for him on the horizon, what’s going to happen to Megaman?
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First Words from Louis Santiago, a Fan Since Megaman 2:
So, here’s my problem: I’ve seen this before. With Nintendo. Nintendo, above and beyond any other firm I know, really sucks with some of its best IP’s.
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Item #1: Star Fox. I don’t know exactly why Nintendo hasn’t done anything with this series for nearly five years. From what I imagine though, it’s because it’s not lucrative in their eyes, a pretty solid assumption when its last two console installments were Star Fox Adventures and Star Fox: Assault. The thing is, Adventures was developed by Rare and Assault by Namco. I can’t see that as anything but Nintendo saying, “We have better things to work on.” Unfortunately, that means we get stuck with the developer’s piss pour efforts and then Nintendo blames neither Rare nor Namco but Star Fox itself. It means Nintendo says, “We just lost a lot of money on that franchise, so let’s just stop doing that and instead port more classics people have already played a million times because that will make us money.”
Item #2: Metroid. It’s almost the same thing, only Nintendo completely lucked out choosing Retro Studios and we got an awesome trilogy (which was only a trilogy because it made money). Unfortunately, Nintendo decided to license the IP to Team Ninja next and we got Other (e)M(barrasment). Now, in the impending storm of the Wii U, there’s not a whisper about Samus Aran nor the tell-tale squeal of a Metroid on the wind.
So how does this relate to Megaman? Did Capcom license him out to other studios? No, not like Nintendo would’ve anyway. But they might as well have; like Star Fox and Metroid, Megaman has always been a meal ticket for the home team. If you really think about it, you’ll realize that (excluding Mario) Megaman has had more sequels and more spin-offs than any other franchise in history. You know this and I know this; we’ve both joked about it. In freshman year of high school, the joke was, “So, now with Megaman X, what happens when they get to Megaman part ten?” In freshman year of college it was, “So what happens when they get to Megaman X part ten? Will it be Megaman XX? If so, how the hell are they gonna write ‘Megaman X twenty’?“
But if it’s true that he’s had more sequels and spin-offs than nearly any other mascot, how can Capcom just retire him? The simple answer is he’s just a liability in their eyes. Back when Megaman was first born, Capcom spent a lot of time on games licensed from Disney. Now, they have other IP’s that will either make money or, at least, not lose it; the sad truth is, Capcom pushed Megaman so hard for so long that unless they gamble money and time to really reimagine him (the original Blue Bomber himself, I mean [who has still never left 2D or ascended higher than the Saturn and Playstation {and no, ports don't count}]), they probably won’t be able to sell him (or his spin-offs) for a profit ever again. Because we finally got Megaman 10 and it was absolutely terrible. And long-time fans knew it would be; it came a year after the incredible success of Megaman 9 and tanked miserably because we knew what it was immediately—what Capcom was doing with it.
Earning a meal. Paying some bills.
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No, I'm not saying I want this Megaman (posted by Justin Devore on Destructoid), but for the love of God, it's different.
Megaman’s been a money machine that has run on the same engine, the same formula, for ages, over and over and over again until even fans are unwilling to pay the umpteenth time around. And one of the major revolutions in his make-up (Battle Network) was just an attempt to cash in on the success of Pokemon. The other (Legends) was an experiment that Capcom ultimately dropped. These aren’t things a firm does to a franchise it loves; if they cared, Capcom would actually try to reinvent the Blue Bomber in a way that mattered instead of giving him wings, a color swap, a sword, and another series’ gimmick. Me? I’d do a new, 2.5D, partially free-roaming installment with cell-shaded graphics, a leveling system, and character design by Toru Nakayama of Megaman Zero fame. It seems Capcom’s content to not even attempt the transitions that classic series (Mario Bros., Castlevania, Metroid, etc.) have struggled with but ultimately defeated.
So with all of this in mind and the fact that Capcom has canceled every Megaman related project in the works, does it mean we’re never going to see the Blue Bomber again? And if it does, is there anything we could do about it? Would Capcom listen and would fans (enough fans) actually rise to the call?
I know my answer. I just hope I’m wrong.
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A Love Letter from Chaos Mechanica, Super Fighting Fanbot:
I never played Megaman on the NES or SNES. It took me many years and some emulators to experience for the first time the awesome and insane difficulty of a Megaman game (and then put it back down because it made me weep uncontrollably). It took me many years to ever get to the great Megaman X series, and while I owned or borrowed Megaman Legends and Tron Bonne at different times, I never finished them. Damn, okay, I’m making a horrible argument for being a Megaman fan but believe me when I say I fricking love the little blue guy.
My love for Megaman started as soon as I turned on my TV and heard that fantastic, catchy (or repetitive) theme song about a “Super Fighting Robot” named Megaman. The rest was pure magic.
Raised by TV for a bit of my childhood, I would watch Megaman day in and day out. I’d read through the TV Guide, find when he came on, and watch excitedly as he whupped all of his enemies by taking their powers and turning it back on them. It was action packed, finely animated, and fun to watch. I was hooked.
Megaman has been in countless series, from the original games to the X series, from Legends to Battle Network, from the Capcom VS games to the sequel that took a decade to come. This year seemed to be a Megaman Renaissance, filled with hot new ideas and excitement and all seemingly for the love of the fans.
You know what? I actually voted for the supporting character of Megaman Legends 3 and for the color scheme for Megaman. I was excited to have Capcom making me, in some small way, participate in the creation of the people I would be playing. In that way, I was making this game right along with them, and now it really hurts to have it snatched away, like a family-built Jenga tower that got knocked down by the family dog.
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Thanks Capcom. Isn't the economy bad enough? Now these lovely ladies have no job.
I was also excited for the idea of Megaman Universe. Here was a game that took the participation of the Megaman Legends 3 Project to another level: it was all about user-generated content, it was all about customization, it was all about making me happy by making it all about what I could do about my imagination. And that, too, has been taken away from us, suddenly and without a solid reason.
And you know what it seems like? It seems like Capcom is not only punishing Inafune, but also punishing we, the fans, the supporters. We who called in one loud voice for what we wanted, and in turn they gave us Megaman 9, sure, but only almost gave us Universe and the long awaited Legends 3. It seems like Capcom and Nintendo are making a statement: that all of that participation and imagination that these new projects were encapsulating means nothing to them anymore. Every economics student knows the idea of Supply and Demand: so why aren’t Capcom and Nintendo supplying the Blue Bomber fix we demand?
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How much is Capcom paying you to destroy Megaman, Wily?
I’m not sure what to make of this, and until Capcom actually release a statement that makes sense to me, all I have to go on is heresay and conspiracy. But if this is how they’re going to treat one of their most beloved franchises and its fans, it makes me wonder whether Doctor Wily has unleashed his best scheme to kill Megaman yet: insult his fans.
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Now Darth Healthcare Vents a Bit:
I can’t say I’m a huge Megaman fan, but I’ve played enough games in the series to know this: there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with Megaman. With that in mind, the way Capcom seems to be killing off the character is slightly insulting. Yes, Megaman 10 was a pretty awful game, but give a character enough video games to star in and eventually a couple of them are going to be awful. That’s no reason to end the entire franchise.
Let’s go back to what Louis said earlier about Nintendo’s neglected franchises, and let’s assume that Capcom, for whatever reason, doesn’t care about making new Megaman games. At least Nintendo was aware enough to recognize that their fans still had a passion for the games they were neglecting. Sure, Other M wasn’t great and either was Star Fox Assault, and we definitely got lucky with Retro’s Metroid Prime series and SEGA’s F-Zero GX, but at least we got something. Capcom has more than enough talented developers under its ownership that if the main studio didn’t want to make a game they could easily pass it on.
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For all he's been put through, Megaman has never had to look like the love child of Bowser and the Vampire Lestat.
And speaking of SEGA, no company can be accused of milking its mascot harder than them. Poor Sonic has been run through the ringer more than any other character, with Megaman being either a close second or a possible tie. The one thing that SEGA can never be accused of though is giving up. With each successively worse Sonic game they could have easily thrown in the towel. Instead, they experimented in every new title, and in the course of these experiments they eventually came back around and rediscovered what made the character great while also adding new things. I’m not kidding when I say I’m looking forward to Sonic Generations more than any other game this generation. All of this is to say that while Capcom has stretched Megaman thin, they also seemed to be on the verge of some amazing titles (Megaman Universe, specifically) that harkened back to the good old days and added a modern twist. To pull the plug the way they did denied these ideas the opportunity to shine.
I’ll definitely be sad if this is the way Megaman dies; not in a bold blaze of glory, but neglected in a dark corner of Capcom. There’s still so much that character can achieve, and to ignore that potential is Capcom’s own misfortune.
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How do you feel about Capcom’s retirement of the Blue Bomber? Make your voice heard by commenting or voting below!
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