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