Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Mega Man Universe Is Alive, Undergoing Changes

In response to fleeting concerns regarding the status of Mega Man Universe, Capcom's Christian 'Sven' Svensson stepped in to field a question that's been on the minds of many: "is Mega Man Universe dead?"

After four months of silence, we finally have ourselves a small, albeit reassuring update:

"Unfortunately, I have no new news to share on the project. It's not dead though... and it's changed a lot."

What kind of changes? Sven could not specify, leaving us only to speculate. However, if we look at the criticism the title has received thus far, it's not hard to imagine just what these changes could entail.

Controls and mechanics is the big one. This has been a common complaint coming from those who played an early build of the game at the Tokyo Game Show, Comic Con or Capcom's New York event this past fall. Controls have been cited as being unresponsive, stiff, and generally inaccurate when attempting to perform precision-based jumps (1Up, Joystiq). These issues are apparently magnified when playing as the custom characters, namely Metto Man who jumps a tad higher than the rest.

On the other end of the spectrum, there's criticism regarding the game's art direction. This is an issue that many, many fans have been vocal about. According to the general consensus, the art style strays too far from the series traditional anime/manga influenced aesthetic.

Universe's graphics themselves have been met with an equal amount of criticism, often being cited as bland, dull and generally uninspired. Sure, the game is intentionally paying tribute to the 8-bit look and feel of the classic NES games, but I think we can all agree that there's something missing. I don't know what it is for sure, but when I look at Universe I get this sense of "emptiness."

Finally, there's this issue which may or may not have affected the game's current development: a Wii version. It feels a little strange that Universe, a homage to the NES Mega Man titles, isn't appearing on a Nintendo home console. However, its absence is justifiable: WiiWare file size constraints. It's possible Capcom is taking extra time to secure a Wii version, crunching or modifying the game to meet that 40 to 50MB standard. After all, Capcom has previously expressed interest in a Wii version.

While we're all entitled to our opinions, it goes without saying there are issues and concerns shared by many. Thankfully, it appears Capcom is taking these concerns into consideration. This long period of silence from Universe is likely attributed to the game's extended development period. Extra time and effort will no doubt pay off in the form of a higher quality product.

Hopefully, we'll be hearing (and maybe seeing) from Mega Man Universe sooner rather than later.

Source: Ask Capcom

50 comments:

  1. inb4... something. Whatever. Someone'll complain about something.

    If it's because of a Wii version, I am totally happy to wait.

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  2. Getting rid of that shitty artstyle would be a good beggining. Bad Boxart Megaman too, but I guess that would be asking for too much

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  3. I just hope we eventually start moving away from the "everything is MegaMan 2" mentality...

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  4. Oh, so there's going to be a Wii version now? Big whoop. That still doesn't change my opinion on this game in even the slightest. I think Mega Man Universe is guaranteed to be garbage, regardless of which platform it's on.

    Unless they change pretty much, well...everything (which I know for a fact isn't going to happen), then I want as little to do with this game as possible. In fact, like I said before, this game has me on the verge of giving up on the Classic series entirely.

    Man, I sure do miss the days where there was actually something to look forward to in the Classic fandom.

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  5. Why not just do a disc-based release? I hate download-only titles. If you wanna do both, that's fine, but don't force me to digital only.

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  6. Get rid of that retched art style! Here here!

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  7. Mega Man Universe is the Sonic 4 of Mega Man.

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  8. Actually, the art style isn't so bad... if it were changed, the current style art posters would fetch higher prices... ;)

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  9. I don't understand all the hate for the artstyle. It's all good as long as it plays well and has polished graphics!

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  10. @turianx9:

    Oh, believe me. It's FAR more than just the art style that I hate.

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  11. Wanna share that, KM?

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  12. I don't see why people hate the art style. I don't think that's a valid complaint, imo, because it's exactly that-- opinion. I do hope they keep the custom characters aspect and the stage building. Those were the best parts.

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  13. I do think the file size constraints on the WiiWare games is a bit strange. After all, most people end up putting their downloaded games and goodies on an SD card, so unless it's 10GB or some huge size, I don't see why it's an issue, other than Nintendo wanting to save some server space? X_X

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  14. Thank god. This is exactly what needed to happen. Everything, from the art style to the in-game graphics to (apparently) the controls and just the overall feel of the game was wretched. Almost felt like they were TRYING to destroy Mega Man as much as possible.

    I really hope it's been reworked from the ground up and looks nothing like the abomination we saw before. It would also be nice if they changed the whole being based on Mega Man 2 thing, but I won't hold my breath.

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  15. On topic: Nice to hear this game's passing thru some changes. Let's just hope they're just core gameplay tweaking/art style modification changes. The whole "make your own playable char/stage" idea was not bad at all.

    KM, are you somehow implying you hate the traditional way of playing MM? Like, play as MM2 Mega Man, traverse thru a plain ol' stage, beat a number of bosses, win a number of weapons, beat a couple more stages and beat Wily? That old, NES gameworld, where there's almost no replay value, 'cept for *stuff*-only runs?

    Or are you implying the old "MM2 is stalling the Classic series's originality" argument?

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  16. So Krazy Monkey still hates the game because it has elements from MM2. Big whoop.

    Oh yes I did went there. I'm probably going to sound incredibly rude right now, but I find Krazy Monkey's whining to be even more overrated than MM2 and 3 combined.

    Don't get me wrong, I'm sure everyone knows that I too am not all that fond of 2 or 3 either, but... still. <_<

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  17. I couldn't care less about the art style, but the controls are a major concern and I fully recommend rectifying that complaint.

    A Wii version sounds not only ideal, but a must-have as well. Why piss this project away on PoS3 and 360 and not the one console that it should be intended for.

    Then again, if MvC3 and Legends 3 are any indication, then it's a fair bet that Capcom has fallen into another one of it's "let's do everything we can to screw with the MegaMan fans" phases.

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  18. Don't you know what happened to Super Meat Boy? They out right GAVE UP on a Wii version because they couldn't make it fit the size guidelines and Nintendo refused to budge on it. A Wii version of this game ain't happening, deal with it.

    This was Inafune's pet project, seeing how quickly Capcom gutted it just to save face is kind of sad.

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  19. Ugh... As always, I could never express my opinion about anything on this site without having people on my back about it. Honestly, like I always say, had anyone else said anything remotely close to what was in my post, then it wouldn't have been given a second glance. Believe me, I've actually seen it happen.

    @Dr. Jerk:

    I don't hate the game for simply containing elements from Mega Man 2. If that were the case, then I'd also hate Mega Man 3-10, as well as Mega Man & Bass and the X series. X5, especially, and that happens to be my favorite in the series, alongside X3.

    @MusashiAA:

    Yeah, it's the latter. Capcom definitely mislead everybody when they claimed that Mega Man Universe was going to be something new and original, but as everyone can plainly see, it isn't. What's worse, is that people actually have the audacity to label this piece of crap as "Mega Man: Powered Up 2", despite having nothing in common with it, other than a level editor.

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  20. Anon1:

    I get that, but MM Universe had some pretty glaring mistakes. I just hope it's not too late to correct those.

    I don't mind this new artist too terribly much, but it's an awful art style to try and be making Mega Man "relevant".

    And with all those lines? Might as well have made a 2D Anime Megaman that looked something more like Metroid Prime or Tron. Though not a cold machine or something, but as far as armor styling and general construction.

    Anyway, this sounds good. Looking forward to it, now.

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  21. I don't REALLY understand the hate on the art style... I kinda like it, though I may be biased since the art is like American style where everybody's angry/frowning (ok, not everybody but---you konw what I mean) and I got used to American comics first before Anime and Manga. So I guess that rules my opinion out. But still, I DO like the art. Just not crazy over it.

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  22. I'm skeptical that this game is even going to happen.

    Remember what Inafune was saying about the gaming industry and his job before he left Capcom? Maybe he pulled a Dave Chappelle on Capcom by walking away from big projects (if any of you Chappelle fans know what I mean).

    Something to get you guys thinking about.

    Back to the topic, I'd rather see another MM11 or MMX9 than this game. Doesn't really appeal to me much.

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  23. All right then! I hope Megaman Universe needs to change... a lot! Yeah. It's going to change, so we can be happy to see Megaman in action, not a retro-thing like that Megaman who looks angry.

    Please, don't lose our faith like Niitsuma lost ours.
    :(

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  24. Since some of you don't seem to understand I'll clarify a bit for you, yes the Wii can run things off of the SD card but it does that by temporarily copying them to the games internal memory, which guess what is 40 MB.

    This is why Nintendo has a flat maximum of 40 MB as anything greater cannot run from the SD card, and with the Super Meat Boy example mentioned earlier Nintendo doesn't have problems turning publishers away for not meeting it.

    In conclusion, if you expect a Wiiware version of Universe be aware it would HORRIBLY compressed to even make that limit or the game would be toned down greatly from what we've seen.

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  25. Honestly, I think people need to leave Krazy Monkey alone. He has as much of a right to dislike this game as anybody else. I've been following quite a few articles over the months, and I happen to think the points he's made are very valid. Mega Man 2 definitely gets far too much attention over all the other games in the series, and I don't think that's fair at all. Mega Man 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and Mega Man & Bass are just as important as Mega Man 2 is, since they've also brought new and interesting things to the series.

    I also think it's unfair how quick everyone is to jump on Krazy Monkey for saying anything about Mega Man 2 that's even the least bit negative. Oh, and another thing, he's right; there have been tons of other anti-Mega Man 2 comments that other users have left on this blog, and no one pays them any mind. Then as soon as he does it, it's a huge issue. Why is that, exactly? I don't think he deserves this kind of treatment. Sure, he's made a lot of rage-induced posts, but I've never seen him out-right disrespect anybody while doing so.

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  26. @Axem White: It's just that he comes off as really pretentious--as if he KNOWS it's going to be a complete failure based on the scant amount of actual news and footage we've actually seen. He sounds really spoiled and ungrateful, and that's what pisses me off.

    In a way, he's become an icon of the anti-MMU demographic simply because he is frequently vocal about his disdain without regard to the safety of anonymity.

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  27. I hope they include playable bosses in this game because that would be awesome in my opinion.

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  28. @Axem-White:

    lol that's not gonna happen. People can get easily butthurt about people dissing MM2.

    @Last Anon:

    Based on scant amount of news and footage?

    -We've seen the art style. Americanization of the Rockman series, with iffy artwork. Americanization in MAH Mega Man? After more than 20 games? Don't think so.

    -MMU's producer or someone along those lines stated in an interview that the game was pretty much based on MM2. Story-wise, gameplay-wise, in-game graphics-wise. With MM9 using MM2 as it's base game, MM10 continuing the same trend, and looking at the mainstream opinnion of MM2, you just CAN'T deny that MM2 is indeed overrated, to the point of actually starting a creativity hiatus, gameplay-wise. GAMEPLAY, a key element to MM games. Instead, Capcom's stuck in a nostalgia-based, "MM2 is cruise control for successful MM game" phase. Do not want.

    -People played a demo of MMU. The main consensus was unresponsive controls. Stiff controls in MAH Mega Man?. WRONG.

    Pretentius my ass. He's right.

    Random anon: About the ox, too?

    Me: About the ox and everything else, dammit!

    Well... except for not taking in account the customization feature. I love that shit. In fact, that's the only reason I like this game.

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  29. I could have sworn I posted earlier, but I guess it didn't go through. What a shame. Ah, well. Whatever. I'll go ahead and make another.

    @MusashiAA:

    It's the latter, actually. Capcom mislead everyone into thinking that Mega Man Universe was going to be something new and original, but as everyone can plainly see, it isn't. When Mega Man 10 was released, I thought they were finally going to start acknowledging what other games brought to the series, but apparently, I was wrong. At least from what I've seen so far.

    @Dr. Jerk:

    I don't hate the game for containing elements from Mega Man 2. If that were the case, then that would also mean that I hate Mega Man 3-10 and the X series, which I don't. Out of all the games in the X series, X5 contained more references to Mega Man 2 than any of the others, and that happens to be my favorite in the series, alongside X3. Containing elements from Mega Man 2 is no big deal. Having yet another game centered entirely around it is another story.

    Also, I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I don't actually hate Mega Man 2. At least not entirely. As a matter of fact, I played the game again a couple of months ago, and as much as I'd hate to admit it, I actually found it kind of enjoyable. Not as much as I used to, but still somewhat enjoyable, despite the crappy level designs and broken weakness cycle.

    I used to enjoy Mega Man 2 a lot. It was actually my favorite game in the series at one point, alongside Mega Man 7 and Mega Man & Bass. It wasn't until late 2008, during Mega Man 9's release, where I became so biased against it. This interview is what did the trick:

    http://www.gamesradar.com/f/mega-man-9-exclusive-interview-with-the-mind-behind-the-machines/a-2008070217152878013

    The message I got from that interview, in a nutshell, was that Mega Man 2 was the only game in the series that mattered. Basically, "to hell with what the other games brought to the series" is the vibe that I got from it. I haven't felt the same about the game ever since. It forever changed the way I look at Mega Man 2 and its fanbase.

    Again, Mega Man 2, as much as I'd hate to admit it, is not a terrible game. It was definitely revolutionary, and it did wonders for the rest of the series, but give me a break, though. Not every game has to be like it.

    Also, once again, Axem White speaks the truth. I have every right to not be happy about the direction that Mega Man Universe is going in, since history seems to be repeating itself again. I also hate how this game has pretty much killed any slight chance we might have had of getting an actual Powered Up sequel. And before anyone says anything, no. Mega Man Universe isn't "Powered Up 2". It doesn't have a thing in common with it, aside from a the level editor.

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  30. @AxemWhite: I personally never did say that I praise MM2 like a god. I in fact also find it to be terribly overrated, along with MM3.

    It's just that, like everyone else, I'm sick of constantly expecting his posts to be about MM2, whether directly or not. It's pretty much the only thing he posts about, or so it seems.

    I tried to tolerate it, but it became too much.

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  31. Now that "Tales of Graces F" has been announced and I have reason to get a PS3, I think I'll be paying more attention to this one...

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  32. @Dr. Jerk

    Well, Krazy Monkey has his own opioions and we should keep our opioions to ourselves. Man, I know Amir's gonna get on me for this, but he used to rant about how god awful MegaMan Zero Collection will be, well guess what? It got good scores and people liked it.

    Again, I'm entiled to my own opioion.

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  33. I'll tell you what was wrong with the art direction; the whole thing just looked like a Flash game or a cheap iPhone game. Big, empty backgrounds with ugly gradients everywhere, overly simplistic tile graphics, Cartoon Network-inspired character designs... shall I go on?

    Just make it look like the 8-bit games but in much higher resolution, that shouldn't be so hard, should it? And hire some talended backdrop artists who won't make a sky consisting of nothing but a gradient.

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  34. Your friendly neighborhood metall (Archie Andrews for MMU)February 3, 2011 at 10:30 AM

    Is one of the things they're changing the mindless, useless crossovers? Because, honestly I see no use of them being playable characters (Cameos as a boss inspired by them; i.e a Karateman RM taking insparation from Ryu would be ok in my book however.).

    I mean, the original trailer, and I think some of the early developer comments pointed to this being a chance where you can use your own dream Megaman. And honestly, I can accept having MM, RM and Bad Box art MM as characters; as that would fufill the dreams of kids, purists and internet fanatics respectivly.

    Speaking only from my viewpoint, I do not think most peoples MM dreams invole Ryu, Sir Arthur, or the Japaneese equivalent of Barney the dinosaur. You can choose not to play as them, yes, but the sheer addition shows that the blue bomber isn't enough to hold his own game anymore. And that's sorta sad.

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  35. @MusashiAA: a trailer an interview and a demo

    WOW WE HAVE SEEN THE WHOLE GAME

    not to mention they are aparently overhauling a bunch of stuff too

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  36. @MusashiAA and Krazy Monkey:

    Gotta say, I disagree with you guys about Mega Man 10. Mega Man 9 basically being a Mega Man 2 emulator is why I was slightly disappointed with it, but I felt Capcom actually did go out of their way to make Mega Man 10 feel more original in nature and not like another copy of Mega Man 2, which is why I liked it more.

    I mean, MM 10 had more unique music (not better, necessarily, just more unique), a more eclectic set of Robot Masters (rather than the mostly element-based ones of 2 and 9), and Wily Castle elements that had never been seen before in the series (the 1-9 Robot Master emulators and crazy final stage twist), in 2 or otherwise.

    So I dunno, I'm right there with you guys in thinking that 2 is highly overrated, but I don't think 10 was the 2 rehash that 9 was. I feel it definitely stands apart from 2 as its own, fairly unique experience.

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  37. @HeroManX:

    Dude, review scores don't equal that a game is automatically good. If you've actually read them or know the people who did reviews for MMZ Collection, you'd see right off the bat that these people aren't hardcore Megaman/Rockman fans at all, and are part of the "Everything except MM2, MM9, MM10, X1-5 and Zero 1-4 is crap" group of Megaman 'fans'.

    They didn't elaborate on the mis-advertised features of the game, the screwed up button-customization, the lack of any actual new content (something that all the other MM Collections did, in some shape or form), and the really bad screen-compression. (which looks even worse if you're playing on a DS phat or any kind of DSi)


    And the funny thing is, notice how nobody talks about that game anymore EXCEPT YOU, showing that it dropped off the face of the Earth after it's first 2-3 weeks of release and straight into the $4.99 bargain bins at your local car wash, like I predicted it would.

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  38. As for this game's so-called "changes", I hope they're for the better.

    Cause honestly, what they originally showed was... not too great.

    The customization features sounded nice, and I personally liked the Pop N' Music-esque art style, but literally everything else looked really bad.



    Also, hoping there's X, Volnutt, EXE, ZX and SSR Megaman available for this game.

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  39. @Your friendly neighborhood metall: so it's impossible to have any sort of crossover without having it feel like the blue bomber is somehow insufficient? last i checked, this isn't megaman 11 and ryu isn't replacing megaman as the main character.

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  40. @Krazy Monkey: I hope that the changes they are making to MMU are extensive, and I hope they are essentially retooling the previous MMU into MMPU2 (or is that MM2PU?). I'm not holding my breath, but I am being cautiously optimistic.

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  41. @Ash Paulsen:

    I think you misunderstood me. I meant that Mega Man 10 was more than a Mega Man 2 clone, as it actually acknowledged what later games brought to the series. I was saying that I thought they were going to continue going in that direction with future installments, instead of paying attention to only one game in the series.

    @The Anonymous that replied to MusashiAA:

    Did you even read the whole post? It was more than just that one trailer. Back in September, there was an article where the producer admitted that Mega Man Universe was nothing more than another Mega Man 2 circlejerk. You know, the very same one where like, fifty people left idiotic comments like "inb4 Krazy Monkey"? Yes, that one.

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  42. @Amir

    again, no one cares on what you think cause you tried to use your so called facts and preditions

    According to Gamestop/ EB Games, it's still on sale of 29 dollars and preowned for 19 dollars, so your so called 4 dollars and drop off of the face of the earth has been proven wrong like all your proven wrong facts. *Smirks*

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  43. Aside from all of the things that have been mentioned before, I hope they change the retarded looking jumping animation. God, that looked really bad...

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  44. the "it's megaman 2-based so it sucks" argument is getting really tiring. megaman 9 and 10 were both based heavily on mm2, and last i checked, those were great games. i'm gonna be a little more positive and trust that they can deliver another fun experience along those lines rather than whine about how awful its going to be.

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  45. "he "it's megaman 2-based so it sucks" argument is getting really tiring. megaman 9 and 10 were both based heavily on mm2, and last i checked, those were great games."

    Except some of us hated MM9 and 10. Your opinion, not ours.
    On the upside, I'm glad I'm not the only one who isn't interested to downright loathing Universe.

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  46. The art style of the game doesn't bother me. It's just something new and different. It's not a main series Mega Man game, so why should it look like one? As someone who's been following the MM series since MM2 and has been online since 1994, I'll tell you something...

    People HATED the art style of the Legends series before it came out. You would not believe the amount of pissing and moaning there was on the video game boards and web sites that there was over the Legends art style. People absolutely loathed it. Until the game came out, and then they liked it.

    There's always going to be people who don't like radical departures from an established art style. And they will be vocal. If the game is good, they'll play it anyway and the art style will grow on them and no one will care.

    As far as problems in the game itself such as stiff controls and lack of background details... I do hope those are fixed.

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  47. @kobun37:
    Legends was a radical departure in design, not in art style. Yes, there's a difference.
    Take a look at this drawing by Hideki Ishikawa http://migre.me/3OxI9, the same guy who did the art for the Legends series. Megaman is still recognizable there, unlike in Universe, where he looks like a reject from a american cartoon trying too hard to be hardcore

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  48. As much as I want a Wii version, I kinda cringe at the thought of what may be crunched/removed to make it fit the system's rather asinine size/network restrictions.

    So, I'll put this out there: 3DS? Nintendo's selling it out of the box with a 2GB card, in itself 4 times the Wii's internal storage. Maybe some of the Wii's network structure has been "frozen" in place, but I get the vibe that Nintendo is trying to make bigger (and long overdue) strides with its upcoming hardware in the online department.

    Could always pray for a PSP version as well, seeings how the visuals to the game are nothing special.

    And yeah, I played the demo at NYC Comic Con, and the lack of precision was very noticeable. Characters seemed to near always walk in half-block increments (meaning you cannot "inch" around into that perfect spot the way many of us NES players do). This is NOT a good thing when you're jumping across single-block platforms over spikes, which the game sees plenty of.

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  49. The whole art style thing is basically "Celda" (Wind Waker) all over again. Totally freaking out, saw more of it near the end, more people end up loving it than hating it, game is good.

    I'm sure a lot of us figured the game was going under retooling, hence being so quiet about it. Wasn't it originally slated for a Q1 2011 release? We would have heard something by now if it wasn't going under some major overhauls. I doubt the art style changes, maybe slightly, but not enough for haters, but whatever, haters gonna hate, its nothing new. No game is universally appealing.

    About the MM2 stuff. Yeah it was mentioned that the main/story mode, was more or less MM2, but I really see that as being a starting point. I'd be very surprised if we didn't see "MM3 - MM8 + MM1" (maybe 9 and 10) DLC packs bring elements over from those games like stage tiles/BG, bosses, even chip upgrades for things like charge shots and sliding (if they don't exist already in the main game).

    Universe really seems like an easier way to continue the powered up series, by just stacking the games on top of each other until we have MMPU 1-8 The Game, plus more (with the Ryu and other cross-over stuff), rather than selling individual titles.

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  50. I for one desperately want a NEW NEW NEW! classic mega man game. Mega Man 8 was the very last one we got and that came out in 1996-97. Have you seen games like warioland shake it and the new ray man game? That is what the new mega man game should look like. Beautifully hand drawn 2d sidecroller. Keep the anime style seen from mega man 7 to marvel vs capcom 2. That is the mega man we all know and love.

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