Mega Man creator Akira Kitamura has a new Patreon entry that looks back at the untold planning stages of Mega Man 1, when the schedule was set for developing a game for the Famicom Disk System. At the start, the “team” was only two people: Kitamura himself and background artist F (YASUKICHI), and the post gives a really cool sense of how small and uncertain everything still was at that point.
A major turning point comes when programmer Mr. M (H.M.D.) joins the project. Kitamura describes an early temporary player character Mr. M built that moved with Mario Bros.-like inertia, resulting in movement that was incredibly smooth, fluid, and already polished enough to swap in immediately. The problem, Kitamura explains, is that Mega Man wasn’t meant to control like a momentum-heavy platformer. Because the game’s design demanded tighter, more precise input for aiming and shooting, the team had to wrestle with whether that inertia was a feature worth keeping at all.
Later, the team expands again when two new designers arrive: Keiji Inafune (INA/INAFKING) and TOM PON. Kitamura touches on how they began standardizing the workflow, essentially creating “rules” for how character and background designs should be built under 8-bit limitations, to keep everything consistent as more hands joined the project.
If you’d like to read the full story with all of Kitamura’s details and firsthand commentary, please consider subscribing to his Patreon here! It's an invaluable source of Mega Man history!
Wonder if that evolved into the Ice Man Stage ice physics.
ReplyDelete>early temporary player character Mr. M built that moved with Mario Bros.-like inertia
ReplyDelete>Mega Man wasn’t meant to control like a momentum-heavy platformer
Funny because MM1 is often accused of feeling "slippery" and there *is* such thing as inertia in the game as Mega Man will not come to a full stop when letting off the D-pad, as well an extra frame whenever Mega Man lands on the floor.
MM2, while far more responsive than 1, also has this inertia and I personally I think it greatly adds to the "game-feel" (kinesthetic) and it's a big shame how every game after MM3 (ironically when AK left) removed this element.
Is that why Mega Man 1 and 2 have inertia? I agree that Mega Man's design demands more precision, and in general, I am negative towards inertia in action games, but this is still very interesting. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteTo this day I cannot beat the NES Mario games. Mainly due to Inertia. Kudos to those who can. It's not worth it to me.
DeleteYeah, I never liked the inertia in Mario. You generally want loser, less precise gameplay to accommodate that (IE Sonic). Mega Man is almost better suited for that than Mario (more forgiving health system, more ways to deal with enemies), and it’s still better for those games to have the tighter control.
DeleteOh, so it's not just me that blows at the NES Super Mario Brothers game. That's a relief.
DeleteMM does feel a bit easier for me, come to think of it.
I was able to pretty much 100% Super Mario World (or pretty close to it, I cant recall if I got that last secret or not) but NES Mario? Nope. I don't have the patience nor energy to try again.
DeleteSMW was fun.
DeleteI'd pay to get a CD copy of the soundtrack to SMW and LttP... Alas Nintendon't exercises artificial scarcity. They are so bloody greedy they DON'T sell their stuff. Brilliant.
Delete