Topic: Mega Man the Way it Should Be

[WindyMan]

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/blogArt.cfm?artid=16226

  The past few weeks have been pretty devoid of big news, which is understandable during the run up to E3.  However, there's always that first big story that is a a sign of bigger and better things to come, and Mega Man 9 on WiiWare might just be the catalyst that triggers off a lot more big news.  But I'm not here to talk about E3.  I'm thrilled at the prospect of a brand-new old-school Mega Man game.    

I've always thought the original series was the best, even better than the Mega Man X series.  The NES games were challenging, despite their relative simplicity.  Yeah, some enemies and bosses were ridiculously hard, and jumps appeared downright impossible—the disappearing “vacuum” blocks come to mind.  But the beauty of the games was that you could do a lot with just shooting, jumping, and sliding.  Capcom made the most out of the limited core skills Mega Man had available—not to mention the audio hardware of the NES—and as a result made one of the best action-platformer series in the history of video games, which will soon be nine games strong.    

Here's some good news you might not have heard yet: Mega Man 9 is being made by the same core team that created the first batch of Mega Man X games, so you know it's going to be in the right hands.  Though I have a slight worry that the difficulty will be toned down somewhat to cater to a more casual audience, my gut tells me that it's going to be just as challenging as the NES games.  Konami didn't pull any punches with Contra 4, so I suspect MM9 will be in the same boat: A love letter to fans.  Capcom knows its audience and that its franchises have loyal followers, so I can't imagine the game not being just like everyone remembers.  It's the way Mega Man should be.

[Nick DiMola]

Agreed, this is Mega Man the way it should be. I absolutely love this revitalization of old franchises that has been happening lately. Contra, Mega Man, hell even Wario Land in 2D on Wii is a big return to roots. I hope Nintendo breaks out some more old school Mario at E3 as well. The 2D gaming torch needs to be carried, I'm glad Capcom has taken it for at least some stretch.

[WindyMan]

Also:

State-of-the-Art High-Resolution Graphics

[Kairon]

The past few weeks have been pretty devoid of big news

Then why am I prematurely graying? T_T

[vudu]

Apparently, the difficulty is going to be "on part with the NES games".  This brings me hope.

Mega Man the Way it Should Be

Does this mean no Mega Buster?    Seriously, the Mega Buster is the worst thing to happen to the series.  At that point the robot weapons became mostly worthless in all but a few cases.  I would love it if they returned to their old school roots.

I could do without the slide, too, but that's no where near a deal breaker.

[Kairon]

Yeah, no mega buster would be an interesting return to old-school. I could really dig that.

[Nick DiMola]

Screw the Mega Buster, I'd much rather it not be included.

[Jonnyboy117]

I'm beside myself right now.  Although I somewhat prefer the Mega Man X series, I was a fan from the very first game, and MM2 is one of my favorites ever.  Putting this on WiiWare is GENIUS.

[Caliban]

This is awesome news.

[Kairon]

Windy, please write a follow-up blog post to this about the recently revealed Castlevania game.

[GoldenPhoenix]

I am excited because I heard it will have more of a story and I'd love to see it link up with the X games.

[Yoshidious]

This is a wonderful development for WiiWare. I've been hoping for games that use a retro style and then let the game design do the talking since we first heard about WiiWare, and this could be the greatest example of that kind of approach yet.

I wonder whether Mega Man 9's visual style has anything to do with why Nintendo of America has chosen to hold back on releasing the NES games on Virtual Console. If that's the case, perhaps NoA will begin releasing them sometime after Mega Man 9 launches in order to capitalise upon the return to prominence of the Mega Man franchise.   

[ShyGuy]

I wonder why we haven't seen more of these retro resurgence games. Space Invaders, Mega Man, Contra 4, Pac Man CE last year, you would think publishers would be milking this cow dry.

Also, Why So Serious 360 controller? nice.

[KDR_11k]

I think it'll probably on par with the difficulty of the ZX games which are roughly on par with the MM games. Eh, as long as it's easier than the GB games... MM1 for the GB was my first MM game, the real MM games feel ridiculously easy in comparison.

The charge buster isn't a problem if done right, of course if the weapons are designed to be more gimmicky than useful a regular weapon that shoots straight is going to be the winner but with good weapons the charge buster's appeal recedes a bit (I guess its availability would still make it more popular though...).

[Morari]

I don't know... I don't like the idea of making the graphics "similar" to the original. I would love to see more modern 2D games, but with enhancements. Sprites could look so good nowadays with the increase of available display colors and resolution, so why not use it?

[NWR_insanolord]

Nostalgia and space restraints.

[Rize]

I'm beside myself right now.  Although I somewhat prefer the Mega Man X series, I was a fan from the very first game, and MM2 is one of my favorites ever.  Putting this on WiiWare is GENIUS.

Yeah, I feel pretty much exactly the same way.  Mega Man 2 is awesomeness incarnate, but I prefer the X series (especially the first few) for the addition of wall climbing and the dashes and dash jumps.  I love that sort of high octane mobility in a game and it was executed so well in Mega Man X.

Mega Man 9 is very welcome though.

Since they're pushing it as a Wii Ware game, I assume that it will cost 10 to 20 dollars instead of the 5 that an already existing NES game costs.

I also wonder if they're actually doing the program on an NES (emulator), or if they're only going to imitate the limitations of an NES (which would allow them to subtly go beyond the real limitations of an NES in terms of numbers of sprites and things).

 

[Rize]

I don't know... I don't like the idea of making the graphics "similar" to the original. I would love to see more modern 2D games, but with enhancements. Sprites could look so good nowadays with the increase of available display colors and resolution, so why not use it?

It costs a lot more to create art in high resolution and high bit depth (artists of that calibur need to be paid more and more man hours are required).

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Goes to show Capcom can't be arsed to make anything new for Wii.

[Smoke39]

I don't know... I don't like the idea of making the graphics "similar" to the original. I would love to see more modern 2D games, but with enhancements. Sprites could look so good nowadays with the increase of available display colors and resolution, so why not use it?

It costs a lot more to create art in high resolution and high bit depth (artists of that calibur need to be paid more and more man hours are required).

And Mega Man is somehow not deserving of that expense?

[RABicle]

Megaman is ****. Always has been

There, I said it.

[KDR_11k]

There are some things that shouldn't be true to 8-bit though:

- Password saves just plain suck. Kill them, give us proper saves.
- Saving during the Wily stages needs to be possible. Hey, you can continue from a game over as often as you want anyway so why not allow a save? I suspect that was done because storing your weapon charges in a password was too much work.
- In Megaman X when you pick weapon energy up and have the buster selected it redirects the energy to a weapon in need. That really needs to be implemented here too, weapon switching before and after every pickup (especially when the weapon is one of the transport items) is just an annoyance.

[Spak-Spang]

The Mega Man series has always been one of my favorite series.

I loved the lighthearted approach to Robot Designs and the brilliant level design and game play of those games. 

I felt betrayed when Mega Man went to the X series, because although the game was still Mega Man I felt that the game's new art style and direction took the series in the wrong direction.  The Edgy Cool look was a horrible idea, even though it was the direction all games were going. It just saddened me to see my Mega Man go that direction. 

The X series almost made me give up on Mega Man...But Mega Man 8 and now Mega Man 9 seems to be heading in the right direction. 

Even after so many sequels I believe that the series can evolve and add new game play to the basic formula.

Here is what I would like to see.

1)Quick Select of Weapons.  Perhaps hold down B on Wii Trigger and selection wheel pops up for weapon selecting.

2)A Double Jump, or slight hover move for Mega Man.  I would love this for boss battles and targeting specific weak areas.  I think the hover might actually be more interesting than the double jump... Just tap Jump again and Mega Man will float for about a second or two.  (He can't move while hovering)

3)I have wrestled with the desire for Mega Man to shoot diagonal for years.  I have come to accept that Although it would be a natural progression of the series, that Mega Man should not naturally shoot diagonal.  Instead, I think the Robot Bosses Sub-Weapons need to take more of this sort of role.  Allowing for players to not just use weapons on bosses, but use their unique attributes in tough situations, like having an attack that can shoot straight up, or diagonal...or even dual shot forwards and backwards. 

4)Finally, I would love  bonus feature where you can actually play as the enemy Boss Robots.  I don't want Mega Man to turn into the bosses or anything...but like beating the game would allow you to run through the game as different boss robots with their unique abilities and skill sets.  Obviously, this could make the game have more replay value and harder as the boss robots wouldn't absorb abilities...and it would be about selecting the right robot for each level.

[KDR_11k]

Double jumping and 8-way shooting is Forte's (Bass) domain, 8 way with hovering is Axl. Diagonal shooting was possible with the metal blades at least, I think the Pharao Beam could do that too.

A completely developed "play as the bosses" mode would probably be too complicated to make since that would require 8 characters with different traits yet enough common ground that they can navigate all stages and all are useful... That's a hard enough task for the main game, to put that much work into a side game would be too much. I think Megaman Powered Up had alternative characters but I don't know how many.

[GoldenPhoenix]

The only MM game I did not like was MM6 which was beyond lazy, most of the levels looked the same and even the special abilities were pathetically generic. If I remember correctly though it was kind of pushed through.