Mega Man 10 charging up

Mega Man's main power is his ability to adapt, incorporating the abilities of his fallen foes into his own arsenal. Despite that, Capcom appears perfectly content to leave the blue bomber's blueprint unchanged for the newly revealed Mega Man 10.

In the January issue of Nintendo Power, the magazine previews the next installment of Capcom's long-running action franchise, which looks to remain as slavishly faithful to the original NES classics as its critically acclaimed predecessor. Mega Man will once again fight through a succession of eight levels in any order, each with a correspondingly themed robot boss (for example, Sheep Man). Upon beating each boss, Mega Man will receive a version of their powers to equip and use in the remaining levels.

Not everything will be the same, however. Players will be able to swap out Mega Man to play as Proto Man from the start or a third, as-yet unrevealed character. The standard Mega Man plotline is also getting a bit of an overhaul, as players will be trying to find parts to make a vaccine for a robo-virus called Robotenza.

Excerpts of the issue released online only mention a WiiWare version of the game, which is not surprising, considering the platform-specific nature of the magazine. (Mega Man 9 was released on the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live Arcade, as well as WiiWare.) Also absent from the sneak peek is any mention of a release date for the game.