Topic: Canceled Mega Man FPS Developed by Former Metroid Prime Leads

[Steel Diver]

A gritty Mega Man? It could have happened. 

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/33813

A Mega Man X first-person shooter was in development back in 2010 courtesy of Armature Studio, a studio formed by former Metroid Prime leads.

Codenamed Maverick Hunter, the game would have been grittier take on the Mega Man series, taking inspiration from the Mega Man X games. In the canceled title, Mega Man would have had a sidekick described as a "Bruce Willis-like police officer." Maverick Hunter was originally planned as a trilogy of games.

Maverick Hunter was canceled around the time Keiji Inafune left Capcom, similar to other canceled Mega Man games like Mega Man Legends 3 and Mega Man Universe. Armature Studio is currently working on Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate for the 3DS and Vita.

[Bman87301]

A whole game that looks like the American boxart from 80s-- thank God this never saw the day of light... This brings back memories of that horrible mature Bomberman Konami made a few years back... *shutters*

[leahsdad]

Thank God this never saw the day of light... This reminds me of that horrible mature Bomberman Konami made a few years back...

You say that, and I understand that logic and history would tell you to think that (see Metal Slug 3D and countless other examples) but..... When they first announced Metroid Prime, I thought it was a HORRIBLE idea.   And developed by some no-name American studio?   From people from Iguana, which brought us Turok?   All the signs at the time pointed to Metroid Prime being a big stinking pile.   And look how that turned out.

And this Mega Man game would have been from some of the MP people.   Who knows how this would have turned out?

[Fatty The Hutt]

Thank God this never saw the day of light... This reminds me of that horrible mature Bomberman Konami made a few years back...

You say that, and I understand that logic and history would tell you to think that (see Metal Slug 3D and countless other examples) but..... When they first announced Metroid Prime, I thought it was a HORRIBLE idea.   And developed by some no-name American studio?   From people from Iguana, which brought us Turok?   All the signs at the time pointed to Metroid Prime being a big stinking pile.   And look how that turned out.

And this Mega Man game would have been from some of the MP people.   Who knows how this would have turned out?

Yup. I agree with this.
Alos, game looked pretty neat to me, what they had completed so far. It wan't anywhere near finished, was it?

[MagicCow64]

The art is a bit icky, but really, for Mega Man to stay relevant Capcom was going to do something with the property to get it into AAA territory. I'm sorry they backed off the attempt. It could have been terrible, but it could have been a Metroid Prime level rejuvenation of a mostly defunct property. Does anyone think Capcom is going to produce a full-fledged console Mega Man game at this point that is even as close to the original 2-D aesthetic as Legends? I doubt it.

[azeke]

The art is a bit icky, but really, for Mega Man to stay relevant Capcom was going to do something with the property to get it into AAA territory.

AAA is old hat.

We AAAA now.

[ThePerm]

Well its been several years since that crew made a Metroid game, maybe Nintendo should give them a bunch of money to make a new Metroid game.

[Adrock]

Metroid Prime worked because it still looked and felt like a Metroid game, just like Super Mario 64 still looked and felt like a Mario game. It's difficult to tell how Maverick Hunter would have turned out based on the short clips released, but the action seems very different from Mega Man X, it's source material, and it certainly doesn't look anything like Mega Man besides X being blue. Maverick Hunter may have been a good game, just not a good Mega Man game.

[Ceric]

Mega Man Legends X Monster Hunter.  They already use the same currency.

[Spak-Spang]

You know the thing is this was a prototype.  I could see Capcom looking at the game and approving it, but changing the artstyle.  If you look you can see that one level was more gritty than the other, and that more cartoony one, although bland was filled with more Mega Man colors. 


So looking at this game as a concept is interesting, but it would not have been the final concept.

[Crimm]

[leahsdad]

Metroid Prime worked because it still looked and felt like a Metroid game, just like Super Mario 64 still looked and felt like a Mario game. It's difficult to tell how Maverick Hunter would have turned out based on the short clips released, but the action seems very different from Mega Man X, it's source material, and it certainly doesn't look anything like Mega Man besides X being blue. Maverick Hunter may have been a good game, just not a good Mega Man game.

You have a very good point there.  Metroid as a 2D game was slow and methodical, and could conceivably translate into a 3D FPS.   MegaMan is very different-- fast, with a whole lot of jumping.   Just the platforming would be difficult.  Metroid dealt with that by severely limiting the platforming and almost divorcing jumping from combat completely---I don't recall any enemy or boss that required precise jumping or platforming, except maybe that thing with the spinning tentacles in MP3.

[Sundoulos]

It's a pretty dated reference at this point, but I still laugh about the time that Greg Leahy's facetiously compared Mega Man to Sylar from Heroes during an episode RFN.  If they went that route with Maverick Hunter, a robot that hunted down other robots for their powers to feel "special", that would be about as gritty as you could get with Mega Man.   

In all seriousness, I think that the concept of the prototype could have shown promise as a sort of BladeRunner-esque sci-fi game, but I agree that this is not the direction I would prefer for the Mega Man franchise. 

[jwriston]

This seems a tad nutty. It rings of "Well I'm taking my ball and going home!" This makes the devs look like one trick ponies. These talented folks need to come back in to the Nintendo fold and Nintendo should welcome any solid US developers with open arms.

[smallsharkbigbite]

I'm not sure I would have liked this.  But it makes me sad to know of all these cancelled Mega Man's as a fan of most of the games developed in the series.