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Clearly, Capcom's out of ideas with Mega Man. Where should they go from here?

I think a Mega Man X9 like MM9 and 10, with graphics like X 4-6, that's not play perfectly or die hard, would be pretty cool.

That's one of the biggest things I dislike about 9 as the entire game was essentially that. Mega Man 10 got rid of most of this and the difficulty was enjoyable, and they even added an easy mode.
 
People actually care about Mega Man lore? Wow...

And then some. I want to know this information pretty badly.
*says while rocking out to The Protomen whom he has seen many times in concert including the release show for Act 2*

Us Mega Man Fans have a dedication to the product that won't die. Remember that.
 
People actually care about Mega Man lore? Wow...

There are some elements that are pretty cool about it. I especially like that in the X series, the earth gets considerably fucked with each game. X1 starts off with a fairly innocent futuristic earth type of setting, but by X6 pretty much the entire human race has been wiped out and the whole place is a post apocalyptic wasteland, and the neat thing is that you see the decline constantly through the series, it's not like shit happened while you were away in between two games or something.

It's really too bad that the quality of the games themselves declined just as much.
 
-A Full 2.5D (3D models, 2D gameplay) console game.
-Each of the Robot Master's stages is expanded into its own whole world of themed stages full of the quality platforming the series is known for, with the Robot Master just being the boss at the end of the world (pretty much, think of DKCR's world map here).
-Just like the main games, these 8 worlds can be tackled in any order (the first level of each starts off unlocked).
-After all 8 are beaten, the final world, Dr. Wily's Castle opens up.
-Add an option for 2-Player co-op. You start off as Mega Man/your partner as Proto Man, but after you beat the game/fulfill achievements, you can unlock other characters.
-Due to the added number of levels, all kinds of secrets using the various powers can be spread out throughout the world.

Pretty much the same basic idea as your typical Mega Man game, but just more fleshed out and more meat to it.
 
Dr Wily creates a time machine. Now it's up to you to play the role as the villain. Playing each bot that was destroyed by Megaman and regain your lost power. Finally killing off Megaman and save him from the future blunderings of Capcom.
 
That's one of the biggest things I dislike about 9 as the entire game was essentially that. Mega Man 10 got rid of most of this and the difficulty was enjoyable, and they even added an easy mode.

9 really had a lot of "die to learn" style moments thinking about it now.
 
Sell the IP to Inafune. Sell it to Nintendo. Hell, sell it to Epic and let's have cover-based dudebro Megaman - I don't care.


Anyone doing anything with Megaman is better than Capcom's whole lot of sweet fuck all.
 
It really is difficult to find a way to pull off a 3-D Mega Man and have it still reach the major tenets of the original series. Imagining trying to jump to avoid an enemy attack while simultaneously firing back sounds like it would be a nightmare unless you include some sort of lock-on ability, but as was said that would also really screw with things and remove a lot of the challenge factor. There is no other way to accurately manage both movement and shooting in 3-D space though. I suppose you could go dual-analog controls and set the two shoulder buttons to shoot and jump respectively but I doubt anybody wants that.

I think it's probably best left as small-scale 2-D projects, weird as that is to think about. Otherwise you'd need a Legends-level shakeup of founding gameplay concepts, at which point I suppose you could do whatever you wanted as long as it still involved a guy in blue shooting things.

That's actually exactly what 3D Mega Man should be. Ratchet & Clank is a good starting point for inspiration in terms of controls and making a shooter/platformer hybrid. There's no reason they couldn't have a 2D classic/X series, and a 3D big(ger) budget series going at the same time. Outsourcing a 3D game to Insomniac is probably the best idea in this thread.
 
Just let it die. The character, the name, the stories, the world, the enemies, etc. are all shallow, dated, and silly. The games have been niche for years. The brand has little mainstream recognition. Better to put effort in developing something that's more relevant to today's gamers and doesn't have so much baggage.

Edit: beaten!
 
How about making new games and not canceling them or releasing them for iOS.

I dream of a Megaman 11/Megaman X9 game released for pc and consoles. :(
 
Go for a Ratchet and Clank cartoon aesthetic, make it fun, action-y and highly accessible with some devilishly difficult later levels.

Or go the Rayman Origins route and make a beautiful 2D hand drawn sidescrolling shooter with multiplayer.
 
Just let it die. The character, the name, the stories, the world, the enemies, etc. are all shallow, dated, and silly. The games have been niche for years. The brand has little mainstream recognition. Better to put effort in developing something that's more relevant to today's gamers and doesn't have so much baggage.

Edit: beaten!

Lol. You are so well informed. Tell me more.
 
Definitely agree with Mega Man getting sold to Nintendo or Platinum. Modern Mega Man should play like Ratchet & Clank, but if Platinum acquires him, I think their chaotic gameplay would go along with R&C-styled inventory system and it would be perfect.
 
I had 2 slight variations on the same theme for a megaman resurrection. 1 idea would take megaman X's basic gameplay but visually look closer to standard megaman - simplistic designs that are also more mature, instead of megaman looking like a little kid I"m thinking more like a teenager or something.

The very basic underlying idea would still be the same- platforming and shooting as well as gaining enemies abilities. The 2d version of this idea would play like a turbocharged megaman X, levels would be built around the idea of always needing to move fast and to that end you'd have tons of acrobatic abilities to make the platforming more dynamic, sliding, dodging , kicking off enemies. anything that sounds fun and looks cool basically. Furthering this goal , the bosses would be epic battles not yet seen in the average megaman title- instead of spending 5 minutes going through a stage and 30 seconds on the boss- you'd spend 5 minutes on the stage and 5 minutes on the boss, each boss fight occuring through an entire arena comprised of chunks of the level you just got through - I want people to work to kill these guys ! Something like a playable anime interpretation of a boss fight more then just dodge a few shots and hit them with their weak point. ON that note, instead of just killing them rapidly with their weakpoints, it would change the course of the fight to make them much harder to hit then before, perhaps they'd have new attacks too ?

My other idea would have many similar concepts but could probably work in 3d- each robot master layer would be split into 3 sub stages and some robot masters would have linked sub stages, so you could play through part 1 of bomb mans level and hop into elec mans part 2. At the end of each sub stage you'd have a short encounter with the boss , obviously ending the entire 3 part section would allow you face them once and for all , each time you defeat them you'd gain a small ability before finally getting their weapon upon destroying them. These small abilities would allow you to get different exits to accomplish the cross stage play. An expert playthrough of the game might see you skip 2/3rds of the levels and head right towards the main boss encounter of each stage , bosses would be easier the fewer times you face them - the more they fight with you the more attack variety they'd have- as though they had extra time to prepare because you took so long to meet them. Megaman would of course also have extra abilites the more sub stages he plays through. As far as working the gameplay in 3d, I'd suggest that pure platforming segments lock the camera and fully 3d sections would be reserved for sections more aimed at shooting stuff with minimal movement control. X7 tried something similar but I envision something that doesn't suck.
 
Maybe they could do something simple, like PUT MEGA MAN 9 ON PC YOU FUCKING ASSHATS
 
Maybe they could do something simple, like PUT MEGA MAN 9 ON PC YOU FUCKING ASSHATS

But then we may find out the "secret" that is hidden in both it and 10 that no one will tell us about at Capcom. I'd discredit it except Seth Killian says its real and that we are looking to hard for it.

I'd like to see a bunch more of these games BTW. 9 was one of the best they had done and 10 had a lot of extra stuff to play with after the game was done. Very nice additions to the old formula.
 
I can't see Capcom being out of ideas for Mega Man, I think they just need a strong refresh and they are too busy with other franchises right now to worry about it. Mega Man 9 and 10 were great games and it goes to show they haven't forgotten about one of their most recognizable characters.
 
Honestly, it was never that good/popular. Time to let go.

These comments are based on what facts? Certainly not how many sequels and spinoffs the character manage to successfully spawn that all generated their own following or the fact that he was popular enough to spawn multiple animated forms, merchandise, and was one of the most begged for cameos in Capcom fighters.

Please enlighten me as to how he is not popular or how any of his games managed to last so long as series if they didn't have at least a few good points in their game designs. Not all were perfect and some were bad but when you've had over one hundred titles thats easily to be expected.

Please let me know if your answer boils down to anything more than you not having an interest personally in the series and playing with like minded people too often.

Seriously though... over 100 titles and folks are actively up in arms nonstop over their not being any more made for us more means that this series has some of the longest brand strength of anything created in this industry. That kind of selling power should not be abandoned.
 
It's been thrown around a bit in here, but there's an opportunity to introduce a new paradigm for Mega Man as a platformer. For a decade and a half the "essence" of Mega Man platforming as introduced by Classic and X series has been arguably beaten to death. Create the next "quintessential" Mega Man game--with 3D platforming. It's too easy at this point to say that more Mega Man games in the veins of the old (MM9 and MM10) are tired and they're likely not going to play well with the current audience in the long run. It's part of the reason I was even resistant towards MM9 when it was first unveiled, although unfairly. I think there's room for these retro games, but chances are it won't end up as a flagship Mega Man entry. I'll probably play/buy/day one it, but I want more than just X9 SNES.

Obviously I love the X games, but I think that with the natural mobility options of Mega Man X, you have a character that would lend himself well to the essential combination of positional gunning and finesse of Mega Man games while placed in 3D environments. I've also entertained the idea of including some light dungeon crawler elements to take advantage of the mobility of Mega Man and place emphasis on combat while breaking away ever so slightly from the straightforward-ness of Mega Man for a bit of exploration. By dungeon crawler elements, I mostly mean longer stages, environment interactivity (not new, but whatever), and puzzles. And give the stages more distinct characteristics - like Dark Mantis and the theme of stealth, Cyber Peacock and the skill tests, etc.

Beyond the gameplay shake up Mega Man platforming needs, Mega Man games must be colorful and have good music. Major props to shaowebb because I can't make heads or tails of the camera predicament, though X7 and X8 are not the solution

I've mostly been speaking about platforming Mega Man, but other thoughts:

-Legends 3 should have been given a legitimate chance. Whatever Capcom's focus group or some shit thought, that could have been great today. Controls still seem slow, but...Legends formula is not fundamentally flawed.

-Command Mission 2 may be worth revisiting, but honestly I can't think of what would push the Command Mission series from being a well-made game to being a distinctly great game.

-I'd play Mega Man's Soccer 2. Multiplayer Mega Man's Soccer sounds great. This seems like something only Classic can pull off. Interesting gameplay system for that one, even if it was often abusable (in Single Player Competition, approach the goal post from one corner and kick the ball into the opposite corner, you'll almost always score a goal unless you're facing Wily.)

-I'd love for the Battle Network series to come back, but given its conclusion perhaps it's better to leave it be.

-Somewhere down the line, close the ZX series.

Don't see anything wrong with that statement, only the Battle network games had been able to achieve mainstream success. How many of the classic and X games sold really well besides 2,3 and X1?

Looking at Greatest Hits for PS1--MM8, X4, and Legends, apparently. Sales for 9 were good also, considering what it was. You should ignore OpenSource though, he's not really contributing anything here.
 
Megaman 11 which looks more like Megaman 8 and is awesome.
Legends 3. (for 3DS)
Battle Network (plays like 2&3, looks more like 2, except better and not on gba lol. online battling)

X 10 (more like x1-4)
 
I have to say, as a colossal fan of the series (figuratively and literally), that Mega Man was never really about ideas as much as exploiting tried-and-tested mechanics. I would be happy with Mega Man 11, Mega Man X9, a new Battle Network... anything would be nice right about now.
 
Vanquish the Platformer (dog armour concept returns!), but with cheery cel-shaded Megaman classic graphics. Essentially the third person shooter franchise for kids, like Ratchet and Clank but... artistically more cohesive and lovely. Ex Troopers is ironically getting close to what I mean, continuing the history of Lost Planet shit born out of Megaman Legend ashes.
 
Mega Man M, a new Mega Man that's part classic and part X.
It would be 2.5D with art style and color palette similar to the originals.
 
Honestly, it was never that good/popular. Time to let go.

I can honestly say that in the late 80's and early 90's, the Mega Man games were arguably the best games on the entire planet not made by 'Nintendo'.

And the games used to sell in the millions. So you can drop that 'it was never popular' schtick.
 
Y'know how Mario Galaxy let you use the pointer to shoot star bits whilst you played? They should copy that for a 3D Mega Man.

Make it a 3D platformer, where you use the pointer to shoot at enemies.
 
They should make Mega Man 11 just like 9 and 10.

Also, Vanquish should have been Mega Man. It would have been so awesome to fight Robot Masters like that.
 
So I think at this point it's pretty safe to say Capcom's got zero ideas on how to push the franchise forward in any kind of meaningful way. Canceled game after canceled game, weird projects that either never see the light of day or shitty iOS games that are just, well, shitty. Simply put, the franchise has lost its direction, but I think the problem right now is that the core concept of Mega Man is kind of outdated at this point, and I say this as a huge Mega Man fan.

Personally, I'd love to see a Classic Mega Man game make the jump to 3D, but I'm struggling to think of any kind of design that doesn't sound like absolute shit. How do you transform the classic Mega Man core gameplay of precision platforming/shooting into 3D without degenerating it into a giant mess? Is it even worth it to pursue that kind of transition and just pump out some new series?

What ideas to other folks have in pushing Mega Man forward? Or is the IP well and truly dead?

Give it to way foreward, Megaman X Mighty Switch Force crossover.
 
You guys are thinking small. Nintendo should buy Megaman and Platinum.
Platinum makes these over the top cool ass games. I don't think we'd get more Bayonetta, Vanquish or MGS Rising if Nintendo had too much control. I guess it's a better alternative than Platinum swaying in the wind.
 
Not that hard, guys. There's a complicated (my) way and the easy way, both of which work (because anything is better than nothing....hopefully).

My way goes like they forget Zero 4 happened, and then keep the MMZ story going. It was superior in many ways.

The easy way is MML3, MMX9, MM11, put him in SSB. If they REALLY want to get fucky they can put the brand up for sale. Lots of companies would eat their own shit to own MM.
 
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