Friday, January 6, 2012

Should WayForward Make A Mega Man Game?

Responsible for some of the finest 2D games in recent years, WayForward Technologies seem like a perfect fit for Mega Man. But is this dream collaboration within the realm of possibility? Vice-president of Strategic Planning & Business Development, Christian Svensson, stepped in to field the inquiry:

"I'm also a WF fan and I'm familiar with their work. I'll never say never but there'd be a million approvals before a MM title could ever be produced in the West."

It would certainly be an interesting change of pace to see a Mega Man project outsourced to the West. And, really, there's no better candidate than WayForward.  The developer has an immense respect for the conventions of traditional 2D platformers, going so far as to incorporate a smidgen of Mega Man elements in a number of their titles. Bloodrayne: Betrayal, specifically, pools inspiration from Mega Man X.

For now, though, don't get your hopes up. Still, it's fun to image what WayForward could do with the property.

A penny for your thoughts?

Source: GoNintendo

32 comments:

  1. What happened with Inti Creates?

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  2. Eh, I don't know. It would have to be a team that really cares about it to make not only a good game, but a good Megaman game.

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  3. Megaman is like a 40 year old whore to Capcom. They're gonna use her till she drops and when they can't use her anymore, nobody will.

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  4. I don't know, Im kinda burnt out of 2D Megaman games so..

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  5. Mighty Switch Force felt extremely Mega-manny. It would be interesting to see, but generally western games aren't as good as eastern ones. I have to say I was very impressed with MSF and MMW, and I'd buy it first day.
    But it is unlikely to happen, and I'd rather have Inafune work on, say, Legends 3.

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  6. Anyone but Capcom please.

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  7. Capcom wanted to appeal to the western market more. What better way then to get Wayforward to create a new Mega man game. I think they would be incredible at creating a game in the style of Zero/ZX.
    Wayforward is freaking amazing and I concider them the new "old Capcom" They even have a history what with Capcom publishing the original Shantae and what not.


    Hey Capcom! You listening? Cause this is real easy.
    Get Wayforward to create a new Mega Man game and let CyberConnect work on Legends 3. All you have to do is publish these titels and watch the money rollin.

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  8. It's not like Capcom hasn't licensed Mega Man to other companies in the past. Heck, Rockman Online is a licenced game.

    I'm sure it would be possible if WF wanted to pursue it and the two companies could come to terms.

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  9. I think that megaman creator should get it instead.

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  10. Roll would be playable!
    ...and a bit older...
    ...and on the title screen... ;)

    Having just finished Mighty Switch Force, I could DEFINITELY see them making it, although I'd like to see some veterans help them make sure they get it right. Even then, if a Megaman 11 is the goal, just give it to Inticreates.

    Speaking of which, let's see...
    Countless spinoff games
    Arika
    IntiCreates
    NeoWiz

    Come on, what the heck do you have to lose, at this point? Hell, somebody western might actually know how to make Megaman relevant these days.

    (Protip: You already made him relevant with Megaman Battle Network, but killed that.)

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  11. Ok this new is from 2 days ago:

    Capcom confirms support for SOPA!!

    http://www.newshubtoday.net/exclusive-capcom-confirms-support-for-sopa/7633


    CAPCOM + SOPA = FUCK YOU CRAPCOM!!

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  12. Way Forward? Hm, lemme think carefully-

    EFFING YES!!!

    Outsource Megaman to the West Capcom. I can think of a hundred different studios that can handle this franchise better than you have. Way Forward is no exception.

    Oh and kotipeltox? Get that s*** out of here. The damn thing was voted down, and we are not discussing it. Stay on freaking topic.

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  13. @Mugen:

    It was NOT voted down. The vote was delayed to 2012.

    It's true; Capcom supports the bill.

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  14. @Anonymous

    Hm you're right, it was merely delayed; disconcerting. But my latter point still stands: What does SOPA have to do with WayForward, Megaman, Capcom, and outsourcing to the west?

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  15. at this point any company would be better than capcom for making a new megaman game, capcom is notorious for cancelling games and not just megaman games either.

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  16. Aw man, I liked the old layout better. :( All the bloggers use this one now, and it's less clean, I think.

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  17. It'd need "a million approvals" before a Western MM game could be released? That's encouraging...

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  18. If its mora like Shantae and less Bloodrayne Betrayal yes...

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  19. Eh...I kinda vote Yes and No...

    Let me explain. Yes, as a fan I'm certainly interested to see what WayForward can do, in terms of artistic presentation and nostalgic loving. No, I do not believe that WayForward could rejuvenate the franchise in the way that Mega Man needs.

    My stance is based largely on Contra 4. This my main basis for what happens when WayForward jumps into a classic, beloved franchise: they give a gorgeous modern presentation with a retro feel to tickle older gamers, but also many technical flaws that lose the finer points of gameplay from the era they're referencing. Contra 4, specifically, has a poor field of vision and enemies that spawn directly next to the player, creating a very frustrating and inaccessible experience. The game was supposed to be difficult, obviously, but anyone who's taken a long, hard look at level design of NES/SNES gems (Egoraptor's Sequelitis - MM Classic Vs. MMX is an outstanding example of this) knows that challenge and fairness are not mutually exclusive terms. That's a mentality that many game developers, and I believe WayForward included, don't seem to understand.

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  20. If wayforward made a megaman game, everybody would be too focused on the music and graphics to make a game with substance.
    At least, that's what i gather from playing mighty switch force.

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  21. As much as I like way forward, I don't think they're ready to take on something like megaman.

    A lot of their games have design issues that lessen the experience and their vision often lacks scope. While they can be original when they want too, I'm not sure Wayforward would be able to bring any originality to megaman to make it special.

    I like megaman, but if all we can get out of it is more retro games I'd rather pass. Zero was like X, but it was fresh enough that it didn’t feel like doing the same thing over.

    I'm also worried they would buckle to a hard deadline and push out a product that’s not the best it could be. After all they don’t own megaman, so they would have to do what Capcom say and as a result would have less time and less freedom.

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  22. To be honest, I wouldn't really want WayForward to make a Mega Man game. I like the Mighty series on DSiWare and now 3DS, but I don't find them amazing. The Batman platformers they made and Bloodrayne are good, but I'd rather have IntiCreates do something. I just don't find WayForward's games all that amazing I guess. Even though I really like Contra 4, I don't find it nearly as good as the original, Contra III The Alien Wars, or Shattered Soldier.

    If Capcom worked with another company on developing a Mega Man game, I'd much rather see Treasure take a stab at it.

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  23. @ HyperSonic.EXE

    How did "they" kill EXE? It just ran its course. Popularity peaked with MMBN4 and then went downhill. They tried another stab with the Star Force series and that did rather poorly. The only Mega Man series to do really well at retail were Classic, X, and Battle Network, and even then, they were far more modest successes than something like the Sonic franchise.

    As Mega Man fans we really need to understand that the series has NEVER been as commercially successful as Sonic, Mario, or other franchises like those. Mega Man has only had a handful of "million" seller games, most of which are in the past (only two are post 2000), and even then, the series has had trouble finding its way for the past decade.

    I love Mega Man. I've purchased every Mega Man game released domestically new upon release. But the series is not the golden entity we make it out to be; it hasn't been Capcom's prime seller for a long time and it's not their prime asset. They (Capcom) share fault of course. They've been comfortable to just ride on past success, make safe releases, and ride on the dedication of the fanbase. The downside is now we've reached a point where we don't know how to make Mega Man relevant to the mainstream, because it'll be difficult to make him as prolific as he was in the late 80s/early 90s.

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  24. Hey, Inafking said goodbye to Capcom, so it won't be odd for Mega Man and his series to say goodbye to their company for trying to kill him completely. I don't know anything about WF, but if its for supporting our favorite Blue Bomber to stay alive, maybe its time to resign Capcom for good.

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  25. @that last anon

    They killed it when MMBN4 and 5 didn't do very well (they sucked, frankly), and then MMBN6 came along and did gangbusters, but killed it at 6. Yes, they wrapped up Lan and Co.'s story, but after finding out BN6 was back to standard, they could've made a BN7 that went on with Lan's kid.

    But somehow Capcom said RADIO WAVES ARE RELEVANT LOL, and made Starforce. Weird as hell.

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  26. If WF made a Mega Man game, I would buy it, it would certainly be a good idea!

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  27. "Bloodrayne: Betrayal, specifically, pools inspiration from Mega Man X."

    What? How do you figure? Looks more like it draws from Castlevania, and the hack n slash genre

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  28. any company would make a better megaman game than capcom at this point.

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