Megaman 10 Announced

[DaMadFiddler]

Get your weapons ready! The latest issue of Nintendo Power features some mega news -- specifically, the upcoming release of Mega Man 10 on WiiWare.

The new installment, like the brilliant Mega Man 9, uses an NES-style aesthetic, and features wacky new bosses like Sheep Man. Sheep Man! Proto Man returns as a playable character (this time immediately, and not as time-delayed DLC), along with a third mystery character! The extra character's identity: just one of the details, like the release date or whether or not it's on other platforms, that we're just going to have to wait to find out.

An image in the writeup also reveals an Easy Mode for the game, which we can imagine being welcome for a lot of people not accustomed to the uniquely painful experience of trying to complete an NES Mega Man title.

This does sound fun, and I'll definitely get it. Megaman is one of those games they could rehash forever and I'd keep playing. However, it would be nice if they actually used the opportunity to try something new (like the fan project Megaman 2.5D). However, they do at least seem to know their audience. It's built on the same engine as Megaman 9, and they recruited an artist from the "i am 8 Bit" art show to design the retro-horrible promo art.

[Smiley]

Ill defo be playing this...mega man 9 is one of few wiiware titles that I still play..and Im obviousy a fan of the graphically challenge nes mega man games...they kind of remindme of old 2600 titles...relying havily on gameply rather than graphics.

[Specially Cork]

Saw this coming a mile off. Novelty retro flash-back game becomes routine cash crapper. 9 was great as a one-off cheeky 8-bit classic. I just wish they'd move on now.

[Christuserloeser]

Quite the opposite here: I hope that this would serve as an example for other developers, proving that it's possible to sell new games for retro hardware like NES, Mega Drive / Genesis or PC Engine / TG-16.

I think that Sega of Japan actually were among those to pioneer this concept with Fantasy Zone 2 Deluxe.

[Juan]

proving that it's possible to sell new games for retro hardware like NES, Mega Drive / Genesis or PC Engine / TG-16.

What?

[Specially Cork]

Quite the opposite here: I hope that this would serve as an example for other developers, proving that it's possible to sell new games for retro hardware like NES, Mega Drive / Genesis or PC Engine / TG-16.

So you want developers to realise that instead of spending millions of dollars trying to push the industry forward, they should just not bother and jump back a couple of decades instead? I know I've moaned about the state of modern gaming recently - I'm all for classic gameplay - but there's no way I'm going to be satiisfied with pixelated sprites and miditunes in a 2009 videogame beyond novelty value. The videogame industry thrives off creativity. I see no upside to making developers think that there's no need to bother anymore because they got it right 20 years ago.

I certainly will not be paying anything for new games based on old hardware.

[Christuserloeser]

proving that it's possible to sell new games for retro hardware like NES, Mega Drive / Genesis or PC Engine / TG-16.

What?

I meant something like this: Megaman's success proves that even major studios can make good money by selling games that look like they're made for twenty year old hardware - either by mimmicking the style (as Megaman 9 did) or by actually using the original hardware (as SFZ2 Deluxe did). I expressed my hopes that others might recognize the game's success and perhaps follow with their own takes on this concept.

I see no upside to making developers think that there's no need to bother anymore because they got it right 20 years ago.

I certainly will not be paying anything for new games based on old hardware.

You don't have to. - It's not like I just came up with some elaborate plan to halt progress in technological advancements on a worldwide scale once and for all. All I said was that I wish that there would be other developers (aside of the Megaman team) who realize that there still is a market for professionally produced Neo Geo, Mega Drive and NES games. - But even if there would be a couple more games "with pixelated sprites and miditunes"; I am pretty sure there would still be at least a few other multi-trillion dollar productions with loads of unskippable cutscenes and bad voice acting every now and then.

[mrandyk]

I can wait for Mega Man X

[Specially Cork]

All I said was that I wish that there would be other developers (aside of the Megaman team) who realize that there still is a market for professionally produced Neo Geo, Mega Drive and NES games. - But even if there would be a couple more games "with pixelated sprites and miditunes"; I am pretty sure there would still be at least a few other multi-trillion dollar productions with loads of unskippable cutscenes and bad voice acting every now and then.

Every single aspect of games like Megaman is the way it is because of hardware limitation rather than vision. It's a product of constraint and I don't like that. I'm not going to fool myself into thinking all those 80s games don't have unskippable FMV and bad voice acting because developers correctly thought they sucked and have since lost their way. They aren't there because they couldn't do it - plain and simple. I don't want developers forcing themselves back into that. If cutscenes and voice acting are shit, find a way to improve them or remove them - don't backpedal.

[Matt MC]

Nice, Mega Man 9 is still one of my favorite games! Looking forward to Mega Man 10.

[Luriden]

All I said was that I wish that there would be other developers (aside of the Megaman team) who realize that there still is a market for professionally produced Neo Geo, Mega Drive and NES games. - But even if there would be a couple more games "with pixelated sprites and miditunes"; I am pretty sure there would still be at least a few other multi-trillion dollar productions with loads of unskippable cutscenes and bad voice acting every now and then.

Every single aspect of games like Megaman is the way it is because of hardware limitation rather than vision. It's a product of constraint and I don't like that. I'm not going to fool myself into thinking all those 80s games don't have unskippable FMV and bad voice acting because developers correctly thought they sucked and have since lost their way. They aren't there because they couldn't do it - plain and simple. I don't want developers forcing themselves back into that. If cutscenes and voice acting are shit, find a way to improve them or remove them - don't backpedal.

This.

And Megaman 9 was only fun for a level or two. The charm wore off quickly. If they want to make more sidescrolling games in the series, they should make more in the style of Megaman 8 minus the terrible voice acting and anime cutscenes.

[DaMadFiddler]

This.

And Megaman 9 was only fun for a level or two. The charm wore off quickly. If they want to make more sidescrolling games in the series, they should make more in the style of Megaman 8 minus the terrible voice acting and anime cutscenes.

Your argument might work better if not for the fact that 8 was the worst game in the series

That said, I still think it would be neat if they took the retro engine as a foundation and found ways to subtly play with it, especially since a fairly simple 2D engine like that should still leave them plenty of available processing power, even on the Wii. I would really love to see something like Megaman 2.5D actually come out of Capcom.

[Luriden]

This.

And Megaman 9 was only fun for a level or two. The charm wore off quickly. If they want to make more sidescrolling games in the series, they should make more in the style of Megaman 8 minus the terrible voice acting and anime cutscenes.

Your argument might work better if not for the fact that 8 was the worst game in the series

Worst? You're out of your goddam mind! Megaman 8 is my absolute favorite Megaman game, maybe even my favorite Capcom game overall. Megaman 4 comes in a close second though.

[DaMadFiddler]

This.

And Megaman 9 was only fun for a level or two. The charm wore off quickly. If they want to make more sidescrolling games in the series, they should make more in the style of Megaman 8 minus the terrible voice acting and anime cutscenes.

Your argument might work better if not for the fact that 8 was the worst game in the series

Worst? You're out of your goddam mind! Megaman 8 is my absolute favorite Megaman game, maybe even my favorite Capcom game overall. Megaman 4 comes in a close second though.

4 will always be special to me, because it was my introduction to the series. I actually owned the cartridge when I had an NES. I used to play it hooked up to an old black and white (actually, green and amber) Apple ][ monitor in my closet, because my parents wouldn't let me have a TV in my room. The entire time I owned an NES, I played it in black and white.

But as far as 8 is concerned: honestly, it felt like they just got so caught up in what they could do with the new hardware that they spent too much time playing with voice and video and special effects, and kind of neglected gameplay. I wasn't that crazy about 7, either.

As far as favorites: I like all the NES games (though 5 was a little too easy), and I really liked the first Megaman X game. I'd have to say Megaman X was my favorite... but once the X series left the SNES, it turned to garbage.

[Lartrak]

Every single aspect of games like Megaman is the way it is because of hardware limitation rather than vision. It's a product of constraint and I don't like that.

I don't agree. What do you think the game would have been with unlimited hardware?

As far as creativity and vision goes, sometimes having more limited resources can lead to interesting developments. At the very least, it lowers the budgets so much they can take greater risks.

Besides, retro game development like Mega Man 9/10 is always going to be a sideline deal. It's not like they can't do BOTH a few retro-styled games and more modern games on current hardware. The retro stuff is a drop in the bucket in every sense. Which is one reason DLC for it is completely ludicrous. Blah.

On another note, I'd be far more interesting in projects like Megaman 9 if they actually released them on NES carts. But, I'm also a collector and like that sort of thing. Regardless though, from my understanding Megaman 9 is actually too complex to run on real NES hardware anyway.

[DaMadFiddler]

Every single aspect of games like Megaman is the way it is because of hardware limitation rather than vision. It's a product of constraint and I don't like that.

I don't agree. What do you think the game would have been with unlimited hardware?

As far as creativity and vision goes, sometimes having more limited resources can lead to interesting developments. At the very least, it lowers the budgets so much they can take greater risks.

Example: Okami only adopted the Japanese brush-art style for which it was so acclaimed after the developers decided that the PS2 wasn't powerful enough to push the realistic graphics they were originally shooting for. Not that cel shading is never used as a cheat (in fact, I've noticed a lot of that on both Wii and DS), but in this case the decision to switch graphics styles as the direct result of a technical limitation actually helped give the project focus. From Wikipedia:

The art in ÅŒkami is highly inspired by Japanese watercolor and wood carving art of the Ukiyo-e style, such as the work of Hokusai. ÅŒkami was originally planned to be rendered in a more photorealistic 3D style.[31] However, Clover Studio determined that the more colorful sumi-e style allowed them to better convey Amaterasu's association with nature and the task of restoring it.[32] The change was also influenced by limitations in the PS2 hardware to render the photorealistic 3D graphics.[33] As a result of the switch to the watercolor style, the idea of the Celestial Brush came about.[29] Atsushi Inaba, CEO of Clover, noted that "Once we fixed ourselves on a graphical style and got down to the brushwork, we thought 'Wouldn't it be great if we could somehow get the player involved and participate in this artwork instead of just watching it?' That's how the idea of the Celestial Brush was born". Original concepts for enemies included the use of dinosaurs, but the designs settled onto more demon-like characters.[34]