http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3159987
Mega Man Creator Dreams of Next-Gen Mega Man
Using the Lost Planet/Dead Rising engine!
By Sam Kennedy, 05/31/2007
In a recent surpisingly candid interview with 1UP's James Mielke and Jeremy Parish, Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune discussed the future of the Mega Man series. Our editors tried to press him on a next-gen version of Mega Man, to which he responded that he's worried about not being able to recoup the cost of development on such a game. "I'm waiting for a rich person to appear and throw money at me," he joked. "I'm not even saying it has to be Capcom money. It could be EA, actually. I should say a company we have ties with, so maybe Rockstar." (Capcom publishes some of Rockstar's games in Japan).
When asked if he could think about things not as a financially responsible producer and instead as a gamer, he admitted that he really would like to create a next-gen Mega Man Legends 3. "If I was able to make a sequel without having to worry about money in any shape or form, I think it probably would be Mega Man Legends 3. And that's not just me -- a lot of the original team members would also love to make a sequel. They talk about it. I talk about it sometimes. I know they love that series and so do I. If I were to say right now, I have a tiny, tiny, tiny dream that I wish I could realize, but I don't know if it's possible, it would be to do a sequel in the Legends series. The framework that we used for our next-gen titles, creating it was not easy -- it took talented individuals. One was the main programmer on Mega Man Legends. He said, while creating it, he was envisioning how Lost Planet would fit in it, and how Dead Rising would fit, and on top of that, now 'any time you want to make a Mega Man Legends game with this framework, it's ready. All I need is the go and we can slap Mega Man in there.'"
Inafune, how dare you tease us so! In any case, if you'd like to watch the whole interview, here it is. And for plenty more Mega Man stories, make sure to check out our Mega Manniversary hub that celebrates the blue bomber's 20th anniversary.
I say to Inafune, put Mega Man Legends on the Wii. If it's money and cost he's worried about, the Wii's the solution. Cheaper to make and a much larger user base in Japan and the west guarantees a best seller in the making. Graphics shouldn't be an issue, because there never was a last-gen Mega Man Legends. So the Wii graphics will be a significant upgrade from the first two installments and sufficient enough. Look at Resident Evil 4 or Metroid Prime? Need I say more?
So either way, graphics shouldn't be an issue because the game will look good...the gameplay on the other hand is another issue altogether. I mean, the original Mega Man Legends wasn't known for its good gameplay so if there's one thing Inafune and his team should focus more on is how to make this series more fun to play. Than he can think about what art direction to take it and so on. Because let's face it, the Mega Man Legends series wasn't so legendary when it came to being a good game...well, actually, the entire Mega Man franchise has been in the robot junk heap about now, hasn't it? :roll:
So I say to Inafune, dreaming and all that is good but if you're dreaming up another crappy console Mega Man game, not even next-gen graphics will make the dreams come true for everyone else, namely, the fans who are buying this game to play it. I'm a huge Mega Man fan and the original Mega Man game for the NES was my most memorable childhood experience. But Mega Man hasn't aged well and the franchise is almost dead right now. So if Inafune plays this smart and wise he should bring the series to the Wii and rejuvenate the series by thinking about ways on how to make the games more fun. I know that he wants to put the game on the Lost Planet/Dead Rising engine, which is cool. But who cares if there's potentially a lesser market by doing that? Will hardcore 360 owners play a game that's basically aimed for a youger audience? I don't know about that, but it does pose some risk. So by putting it on the Wii, the game will guarantee to sell significantly more. That's just how I look at it, especially since Mega Man is mostly a Japanese oriented game and since the 360 and the PS3 market in Japan is struggling, putting it on the Wii is the best way to make money and save money on both sides of the hemispheres. It's just common sense.
Third-person Mega Man with the Wii-Mote...now that's a dream I like to dream. 8)
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