[Editor’s Note: We’re not just a (rad) news site — we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on ourcommunity blogs.]
Okay, let’s face facts, Capcom. TheMega Manfranchise is obviously a huge cash crop for you. You have a tendency to follow a formula and basically run with it until, well, you can’t anymore. Sure, you’ll up the ante when the market demands you move on to another platform, butMega Man 6was released for the NES in1995! You can’t tell me you wouldn’t have kept pumping out more and moreMega Man games in that style if people hadn’t moved on.
you may’t tell me because youdid exactly thatlast year, Capcom. Now, I don’t hate you for it. I don’t have a lick of animosity for that.Mega Man 9was exactly what I wanted as a gamer in 2009: a return to 2D, sprite-based graphics, with solid controls and a hearty helping of challenge underlying it all. It gathered us as gamers around the TV, passing a controller, grunting in frustration in unison as a damn Elephant nearly drains all ofMega Man’slife, or oohing in anticipation as we almost beat a Robot Master with the totally wrong weapon. The graphics and music were an invitation for anyone to join, but the tough-as-nails game design kept only the few and the brave in it until the end. I loved it.
For years this type of “NES” style game would be relegated to handhelds only.Mega Man 9would be perfectly at home on some descendant of the Game Boy. But Capcom had the balls to take the high road and release it on the main home consoles for a shockingly-cheap ten bones. There’s really something to be said about sprite-based graphics, especially those of the 8-bit variety. They’re representations of characters instead of accurate depictions; they have big, expressive eyes and simple but endearing animations; they’re fuckingcute, man.
And I’m real glad it was a success for you, Capcom. You did the right thing. And even though you made us pay extra for it, we still bought Proto Man, the Endless Level, the Hard Modes, and Fake Man’s level. Hey, at least you included like fifty achievements from the get-go. All of this stuff did really add to the value of the game and made it feel innovative — well, as innovative as an 8-bit Mega Man game in 2009 can be.
There are still a few missteps, though. As lovely as it is to finally see a lady robot, Splash Woman, her stage is alittleon the derivative side. (Okay, more than derivative, that bubble riding sequence is ripped directly fromMM5’sWave Man level.) Some of the Robot Masters bear some strong resemblances to past antagonists, as well: Concrete Man and Guts Man, anyone? Needle Man and Magma Man? Oh well. At least the majority of them had really cool levels with really cool music, and really cool weapons that didn’t disrupt the balance of the game anything like Metal Man’s blade fromMM2did. (However, I maintain that the Plug Ball is pretty useless!)
But whatMega Man 9really did for me was inspire somehope. It made me think that maybe more game developers would return to their franchises 2D roots, at least on occasion. It gave me some hope for arealnew 2DMario Brothers, a sequel toSuper Mario Worldthat we never got. (Yoshi’s Islanddoesn’t count, but is a masterpiece in its own right.) A new sprite-basedZelda. A new 2DNinja Gaiden. A newBlaster MasterorGuardian Legend. Maybe somebody would come along with some brilliant new IP.
But no. We haven’t really seen any of that. Nintendo continues to segregate its own 2D properties to the DS, even itsMarioRPGs. New IPs on downloadable services, even ones with 2D gameplay, almost exclusively continue to use 3D graphics, like‘Splosion ManandLost Winds. Remakes of classic games likeBionic Commando: RearmedandTurtles in Time: Reshelledhave gone the way of 3D graphics, and at least in the latters’ case, it didn’t really help a god-damn thing.
Hell, maybeyouwon’t rest on your laurels, Capcom. Maybe you’ll give theMM9-treatment toLittle Nemo, Dream MasterorChip n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers. Or maybe you’ll make an SNES-style franchise entry in theMega Man Xline. Maybe you’ll make the next 8-bitMega Manonline-capable with co-op play and levels designed to take advantage of that. Maybe it’ll have a level editor or a sprite-editor to modify characters. Maybe it’ll prove that as awesome asMM9was, there’s still a hell of a lot left to do to advance the series in 2010.
Or I guess you could just announceMega Man 10and tell us to expect more of the same.
Hell, it can’t be that expensive to develop, you’ve got an easy-ass formula to follow, and honestly, it’s gonna be pretty hard to muck up too badly. Hey, there’s aSheep Man, and that sounds pretty cool, right?
I mean, gosh dang it, we’re all going to buy it anyway.
