A New Mega Man Game?!
CAPCOM has not enjoyed the best relationship with its fanbase for the last year or so, especially with the Mega Man faithful. Following the cancellation of Mega Man Universe and Mega Man Legends 3, fans are feeling particularly sour. Some people look for any reason to be upset, whether it’s the inclusion of hilarious Bad Box Art Mega Man in Street Fighter X Tekken (which is so radical I’d buy the game just for him), the lack of Mega Man in Ultimate Marvel vs. CAPCOM 3 (the way he was butchered in Marvel vs. CAPCOM 1 and 2 makes me grateful he wasn’t in, to be honest), and the frankly lazy iOS port of Mega Man X. But some fans will be very justified in their dissatisfaction with CAPCOM’s latest announcement, Rockman Xover (pronounced “cross over”).
The concept made me excited beyond words at first. According to the translated description posted on sites like The Mega Man Network, the story goes: “It’s a world where all the worlds of Rockman have crossed over. The gulf of space-time has been closed thanks to the efforts of Dr. Wily, Sigma and other villains to Rockman and co.! Dr Light and Dr. Cossack work together in creating a new robot to oppose this crisis. A production model, this robot uses “battle memory” that has been scattered over the world, and possesses infinite potential to transform and increase his power. The player battles evil as this new type robot. Create your own Rockman, and battle with others to protect peace!”
A crossover game putting together every series in the Mega Man franchise? That sounds amazing! I would’ve loved to see all of the Mega Man characters team up to take down villains from the franchise. The description, however, leads me to believe that it isn’t really “all” of the games, but rather the classic and X series respectively, given the inclusion of Dr. Light and Dr. Cossack, as well as Sigma. What could possibly be so bad about this? Well, it’s a Social RPG for iOS. I can’t say I’m too excited for the idea. Actual game mechanic details are slim at this point, so it’s probably too early to make a judgment call, but I just can’t shake this feeling of disappointment. Some fans are obviously taking this too far, claiming that CAPCOM intends to kill the franchise intentionally–which is just silly and misguided. Hopefully more games will be announced as part of the 25th anniversary and this is just a taste of things to come, and for what it’s worth, this may end up being a fun and addictive little diversion.
As a quick disclaimer about compatibility, it will run on iPhone 3GS/4/4S, and iPod Touch models beyond generation 3. It is playable on iPad, but the game is not designed for the iPad’s resolution. The game is currently set for release in Japan this Fall. CAPCOM has already confirmed that this will be released in the US and European markets. Thanks to 4Gamer.net for posting the original story.
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Yeah this is strange. Capcom really seems to see the Mega Man series in a different light than the fans do. By limiting the release like this they’re targeting a completely different market than the hardcore MM fans. This doesn’t really instill confidence in me that Capcom has big plans for the series for this year. It is sure lookin like they’re going to let the series sit on the sidelines for the next few years before deciding what’s best for the blue bomber.
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If that’s the case they should let it rest. Yes it will tick off the fans, but at least it won’t do damage to the property. If they release games that end up hurting the series, or tick fans off too much, that could be a permanent problem. If they shelve the IP for a few years until someone fresh comes along with a clear vision for the series, that might make a world of difference.
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I’m planning on making a full article about this because my thoughts are kind of long winded. Mega Man is my favorite game franchise, so it really stinks to see it come like this, but I guess the signs are all there. I don’t think Capcom is intentionally killing the franchise. Why lose the chance to make money? If there’s even a minor chance of it, Capcom went ahead and made Mega Man games. They made a ton of them. That was the problem. There are 129 officially recognized releases in the franchise, one that’s 25 years old. To date, Mega Man sits at about 29 million sales. To compare, Monster Hunter, a much younger franchise, sits at 21 million and is growing rapidly. Resident Evil is over 50 million.
Mega Man has had three major high points. The first is obviously the classic era series, specifically Mega Man 2. Mega Man 1 was well received, but it was mostly word of mouth that spread the game’s popularity. 2 was the instance where everyone started taking about Mega Man. Capcom then rode that out to make 3, 4, 5, and 6. I loved all of them, and I actually prefer 3 over 2. 4 is one that I find incredibly underrated as well. But I can’t argue that 2 was by far the most influential. Mega Man 2 and 3 were the earliest million-selling Mega Man games. After 2, it went downhill.
Then the series was rejuvenated not with a direct sequel, but a new spinoff: Mega Man X. X was the next million selling game (there are only 5 million selling Mega Man games, out of all 129 official releases over 25 years). X is an absolutely perfect game. It took everything the classic series did and refined it, making it an action experience that was really unparalleled for the time. I’d say it’s my favorite action game on the SNES. It’s concise, tight, well-developed, and as Egoraptor pointed out, it made great use of cinematics and theming. Mega Man X was the third million selling Mega Man game. All of the X games went downhill in sales from there, though I personally think they maintained a very high level of quality throughout, X6 and X7 notwithstanding. X1-5 and X8 are all excellent action games, and X8 is a criminally underrated gem in the PS2 library.
Legends was not another high point of the franchise (sales-wise), though some fans will try to argue otherwise. Truth is, those games did not sell at all. Legends 1 has sold approximately 120,000 units globally in its entire lifetime, across all platforms. Legends 2 sits at almost 100,000. Rumor has it that these games, with their higher budgets, actually put Capcom in debt even after they made a crapload of money with the start of the popular Resident Evil brand. The next high point was the Battle Network series, which had the third and fourth million selling games, Battle Network Battle Network 3 and 4 were both million selling games. It brought new life and new attention to the series in a big way after X. Legends was not the shot in the arm the franchise needed, though they are excellent games. Mario had Super Mario 64 to bring him into 3D, but unfortunately for Mega Man, it didn’t work out. It just wasn’t lucky with the mainstream. While Mega Man never sunk like Sonic (where all of his games became awful and people wondered if it’d be better to kill him off), he’s struggled to come up the mainstream popularity again. I think the issue is that Mega Man never was a Mario or Sonic. He never reached their level of sales or popularity. Heck, even Shadow the Hedgehog, regarded as one of the worst Sonic games ever releases, sold on par with Mega Man X.
With all of that, once Battle Network started to wane (after six main entries with multiple versions, manga and anime adaptations, lots of merchandising, etc), Capcom had to reinvent Mega Man again. Their bets were on ZX, a follow-up to the critically acclaimed Zero series, and Star Force, a follow-up to the far more commercially successful Battle Network series. Both failed to do well. ZX stopped after two entries. Great games, just too far removed from Mega Man. Star Force stopped after three. They were basically the same thing as Battle Network, and it just got too old.
I still think the issue isn’t that the games aren’t of high quality–many times, they are. There are a lot of very good Mega Man games. Capcom hasn’t found a way to make them catch on and become successful. Fans expect Capcom to treat Mega Man like Mario and Sonic, but he’s never reached that level of mainstream appeal. He is well adored by a lot of gamers and as shown by the Legends 3 backlash, it’s a vocal group.
Right now, Capcom is faced with a dilemma. They can let the series rest for awhile and anger fans, but they can let it sleep until someone else takes the reins. They can prove they are willing to take a chance on it with a bold new direction (maybe release something classic to appease the fans, something new to usher in a new change for the franchise, and a collection disk for the anniversary). Or they can ride it out with small risk projects to bank on the dedicated fans. Unfortunately, as evidenced by the awful iOS ports of Mega Man 2 and Mega Man X and this Rockman Xover game, it’s looking like the third option. I just pray I’m proven wrong. Capcom has stated that there are still plans coming together for the 25th anniversary, and that announcements will be coming later this year, so I’m hopeful that something will be unveiled then. Even if I have to wait a year or couple years for a release, that’s ok. It’d just be nice to know that things are moving ahead.
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Based on what you wrote there Tim it would seem to me this is a logical business move for Capcom to make. If the series has only 5 million sellers out of 129 games, clearly that isn’t a high point to discuss during a board meeting. That said, I think Capcom will weigh their options carefully. They have one of the oldest franchises around, and there are fans out there, they just need to figure out how best to approach them, and figure a way to get the mainstream more involved. Then again, they can go ultra hardcore, so long as the budget falls in line. I thought the last two Mega Man games did really well via the PSN/WW/Xbox Live, etc.?
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Love the concept and an RPG has potential, but why limit this on the iPhone only? The social elements are obviously there for more money so they may be phoned in. And judging by the screenshots, they’re using the same assets of the Mega Man X iOS port, which is dumb and cheap. It’s like Capcom is 100% sure that Mega Man won’t turn them a profit anymore so they’re making it with minimal effort. :(