Inafune Would Like to Make Mega Man Game with the Fans, Responds to MM9 Mystery

As promised, Capcom has come through with the second batch of questions for Mega Man mastermind Keiji Inafune, as posed by members of the Capcom Unity.

6) Snppls asks:

What is your stance on fan made material? Like fanart, sprite comics, remixes, fangames or the Rockman movie currently in production in the US. Do you like it that fans are so into your creation or does it bother you that they are using copyrighted material? Do you watch it sometimes or sometimes even get ideas from it?

Inafune: I totally welcome all sorts of Mega Man-inspired-art created by the fans. I really would like to create a game with the fans. I have had the desire since the Robot Master Contest, and the fans’ Mega Man art come from the same inspiration. In reality, there are copyright issues and that puts me on a tough position as a member of a company, but I truly believe that Mega Man has come this far with warm supports from the passionate fans and their creative art work.

7) Samuel asks:

Will there be a new megaman anime series from the Starforce side, Battlenetwork side, or the megaman operate starforce? (Please answer I’ve been waiting for some new megaman animated goodness)

Inafune: I am ready to witness exciting Mega Man action in the animation, too. I would love to try it out when I have a chance, and in fact, I have been thinking about specific ideas on this, too. I will do my best to make this happen and hope to surprise you with the news. We will definitely need your support to make this happen!

ibehv asks:

Why is zero’s appearance in megaman zero different from his appearance in megaman x?

Inafune: Zero is one of the most important characters for me. Initially, Zero was created for the Mega Man X fans as well as for fans new to the series. But rather than making a game with Zero as a main character in the established storyline, we wanted to create a brand new storyline for him with a completely new game design. Thus, Zero you all know now was born. The story of the Mega Man Zero game also tells you the secret behind the Zero’s appearance change. So if you haven’t played the game yet, please try it out!

9) The Blue Badger asks:

What direction would you like to see the Mega Man franchise go in the future?

Inafune: I’ve never stopped thinking about the future of Mega Man series! I want more people to get to know Mega Man and fall in love with it. And I am always thinking about the best way to attract more people to play the game. But instead of us guiding you the direction where we go, I would collaborate with the fans and decide where we go. It would be fantastic if you and we can together create a new direction for Mega Man.

10) Monochrome Twist asks:

What are the chances of us seeing a Mega Man Powered Up 2?

Inafune: Many people have asked us about that. I too feel very passionate about making it happen. But as a reality, there are so many things I want to do and Mega Man Powered Up 2 is one of the projects that is still patiently waiting for its turn…

11) Zepper asks:

It’s been 1 year since the release of Mega Man 9, but until then, we’re inside an endless quest for something “extra”. Even with a lot of recorded gameplays, tricks and so on, it’s said there’s still an undiscovered secret or a little surprise. Could you point us to a certain direction?

Inafune: Well, let me think… I am guessing that most of the tricks and secrets have been discovered by now as there are so many good players out there and they have revealed their great Mega Man 9 skills. So I would rather love to see you try it out and surprise me with your cool techniques and hidden elements! Very looking forward to seeing that!

Hmm, so even Inafune himself doesn’t know. Very curious, indeed.

Inafune Answers Your Questions… Finally!

Perhaps you remember that back in December, during Mega Man’s great 22nd birthday hurrah, Capcom*Unity was hand picking questions from Unity members to be answered by the Mega daddy himself, Keiji Inafune. I have to admit, I actually forgot about it myself! Of course Mr. Inafune is a busy guy, but not one to pass up a promise. The answers to the selection questions have finally come. Here are the first five, straight from Capcom*Unity.

1) Bigopinion asks: Inafune-san! Rockman is getting pretty old! Thank you for sharing such a wonderful franchise with the world for all these years!! If you could take the Megaman franchise into any new direction — away from the 2D sidescrolling action adventure we have grown to love through the years — where would you go with it??

Inafune-san: Thanks to you for many years of your support for Mega Man! You are right, the Mega Man game is known for its 2D side-scrolling action. But we are also constantly seeking for a new direction. We don’t want to do just something new in a random manner. It’s got to be not just new to the series but something completely original, something you have never seen when it comes to Mega Man. I hope I can share exciting news with you sometime in near future. Till then, stay tuned!

2) Overdriveostrich asks: I was wondering, why did you choose to make another 8 bit original series MegaMan with MegaMan 10? Did you consider doing a MegaMan X9 with 16 bit Super Famicom(SNES) graphics?

Inafune-san: One of the biggest reasons for going with the 8bit style was the success with Mega Man 9. MM 9 succeeded beyond our wildest expectation. We had initially thought of bringing back to the series the feel of the NES to create a sense of nostalgia with MM9. Receiving the great reaction from the fans over it, we decided to establish the style as the game genre for Mega Man. In line with this concept, reviving the 16 bit game style in the series seems like a great idea. We certainly would like to consider trying it out in future when there’s a chance.

3) Akuknives asks: Inafune-san, are you thinking of brushing off the old Robot Masters contest? and have you thought about other contests such as a Stage Theme Music submission contest? With 8-bit music being so popular these days, surely there are plenty of musicians with tracks to submit, don’t you think?

Inafune-san: Unfortunately this time, we are not able to hold the Robot Master Contest. But we want to bring it back in near future if an opportunity arises. What I hope to do with the Robot Master Contest is to create Mega Man together with all the fans. The Stage Theme Music contest sounds really interesting so I would love to setup a system for the fans to submit their music and make it happen.

4) Manson asks: Was there any overarching theme when choosing boss robot ideas for each of the classic RockMan games? If so, could you give us some examples?

Inafune-san: Mega Man has had many unique boss characters throughout the series. What I work hard most on in creating these characters is to come up with a design that clearly represents each character’s not only physical features but its personality and battle style. We make variations in illustration details by series, such as making the design further simpler or adding more lines depending on the series, but the fundamentals of Mega Man character designing is focused on creating distinct and imaginative art that tells a story of a specific character to the players.

5) Rockmasterx asks: Hello Keiji! I’m from Spain and a Megaman/Rockman fan, I have aprox. 57 original megaman games in my collection and my goal in life is complete this collection! xD Well here are my questions:(sorry for my bad english) Is there any possibility that you make the next Megaman X with graphics style of “odin sphere” or “muramasa: demon blade”? I think that is a good 2-D Style and the gameplay of megaman X-X6 can be restored.

Inafune-san: 57 of them!? That is amazing!! And I should thank you for that. I think Odinsphere and Muramasa are really good games, but we probably would not mix Mega Man X series with those styles. We would love to work with brand new 2D game ideas rather than borrowing one from elsewhere.

More Inafune answers will be posted on Unity tomorrow, and later on we’ll get some answers to questions asked to manga artist Hitoshi Ariga. Stay tuned!

Everything Becomes Zero… Again

I have a confession to make.

I’ve seen people clamoring for a Mega Man Zero Collection, a compilation of the four Game Boy Advance games in the series, for some time now. But ever since Rockman.EXE: Operate Shooting Star turned out to be a port of the original Rockman.EXE title with minimal changes (similar to Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney), I’ve been something of a killjoy on the matter. If it was brought up, I would tend to respond that Capcom was more likely to release them all individually, possibly with some added content. But a collection? Highly unlikely.

And I am not afraid to tell you here today that I was more or less wrong; of course, “highly unlikely” doesn’t mean impossible, but evidently, the possibility was greater than I had imagined.

In other words: yes, there is going to be a Rockman Zero Collection on the Nintendo DS. Capcom of Japan has opened the site for it, which you can view for yourself here.

Information seems to be scarce at the moment, suffice to say that it seems to contain all four parts of the Rockman Zero saga. The release date is soon– very soon, in fact, with a date of April 22nd, 2010, and a price of 3,990 yen (roughly $43.83 USD).

One should also note that above the center “Z” logo (which moves to the left when the central image of Zero appears) when the site begins to flash scenes, there is an opening for a logo (?) that is unaccounted for. It may simply be an oversight on my part, but what could that space be for?

Naturally, it’s a touch too soon to hear about a U.S. release date just yet, though I’m sure we’ll hear something by E3 in June. Until then, stay with us as we bring you the latest regarding the Rockman Zero Collection– no doubt some of our crew will import it upon release and tell you whether it’s worth getting more hyped for than Operate Shooting Star.

Thanks to fellow MMN staff member Mainfinger for bringing this to my attention.

Mega Man 10: A Blast from the Past, in More Ways Than One?

We all know that a large part of Mega Man 10’s hook is that it’s a retro-styled title, a blast from the past, made in the style of the 8-bit NES titles which brought the Blue Bomber to prominence. But it appears that the game gets a little more oldschool than we thought… or perhaps even more than Capcom intended.

Odds are, many of you reading this are only too familiar with the Nintendo Power Robot Master Design Contest held many years ago, with the results shown in the very same issue which covered Mega Man 5 for the NES and Mega Man 4 for the Game Boy, all as part of one huge collective Mega Man blowout. Scans of the contest feature have been posted across various parts of the internet for years, and of course, two winners not shown in the feature went on to be bosses in the sixth and final NES Mega Man title: Knight Man and Wind Man.

Now, years later, it appears that the contest had two more unexpected, belated winners… that is, assuming that Capcom themselves are even actively aware of it.

EmCeeGramr of the NeoGAF recognized two of the newly-revealed Robot Masters for Mega Man 10 as bearing an uncanny resemblance to two of the contest entries, and made a post illustrating them side-by-side:

While it appears that Capcom took inspiration from these two entries from long ago, Producer Keiji Inafune told Nintendo Power “this time around, we invited young designers to design bosses in hopes of giving them a chance to grow from the experience. I supervised their work and provided direction to maintain the MM universe.”

Admittedly, there are only so many ideas to go around, but even then, this seems rather odd– particularly in Blade Man’s case (as RMC of GoNintendo notes, they’re even the same colors). It’s a most peculiar circumstance, and we will try to learn more as we try to figure out who will be receiving credit for these Robot Masters.

News Credit: GoNintendo

Mega Man’s Birthday Live Stream – Chat Live with Us! (Updated with Show Footage and Inafune Q&A)

What’s better than watching Mega Man’s 22nd live stream birthday party? Watching it and chatting about it with us Mega Man nerds! We’ll be goofing around as the show goes on, and then update afterward with show highlights. So sit back and enjoy!

UPDATE: The live chat is now over. Thank you everyone who came in and participated! It was very fun, maybe a little weird. Comments are now open for this post. We will post media and info from the show below.

Ariga’s slice of Mega Man birthday cake, as seen on the Spiceman blog.

Update 2: Seems we forgot to include this in here, but Inafune did answer some questions presented to him from the Capcom*Unity, though for the two hours the show took, this portion was disappointingly short.

The first question was, naturally, about MegaMan Legends 3. Inafune jokingly responded that “if Ben Judd (one of the English co-hosts for the evening) would produce it, we could have a sequel.”

Another question involved another possible move for Mega Man into 3D, which Inafune said would be difficult due to the different expectations which would be had by fans of 2D and 3D games. He added that there were some elements of 2D Mega Man which simply would not translate well into 3D. (If anything, X7 seems like proof of this to some degree.)

Asked about creating a new 16-bit Mega Man game in the style of Mega Man 7 for the Super NES, Inafune responded that 8-bit is where Mega Man was born, and he hasn’t done everything that he wants to in that style yet. But in the future? He’ll have to see where the series takes him.

Naturally, once Legends 3 was out of the way, a question regarding Mega Man X9 was inevitable (they should have simply combined every series into a single question). Inafune professed his love for the X series, but noted that he was quite busy at the moment, and has some different things he would like to do with Mega Man before heading back down that road.

Asked about the popularity of Mega Man 2 making a Mega Man 2 Powered Up possible, Inafune did not commit to the idea, but expressed a rather surprising amount of confidence toward the possibility of it happening.

Someone suggested the idea of Inafune creating a Mega Man game which uses hand-drawn artwork as Vanillaware’s Odin Sphere and Muramasa: The Demon Blade do, and while he did like the idea to some degree, he said he would not wish to simply imitate that idea.

And shortly after that, the show ended. Capcom says they are archiving the video, however, so we’ll post/link to it when they have it up.

Got Questions? One Man May Have the Answers

There is usually no shortage of questions that members of the Mega Man fan community would love to ask Capcom mastermind Keiji Inafune. The opportunity to actually ask those questions, on the other hand, tend to be in rather short supply. Fortunately, such an opportunity is just around the corner.

The Capcom*Unity invites you to leave your questions for Inafune in their comments, and who knows? Maybe yours will be chosen to be asked to the man himself live on the air when the celebration commences on December 16th at 9pm PST.

“Just as a reminder,” they note, “the webcast will translated live into English for NA and European audiences, so no need to brush off those Japanese to English dictionaries!”

Ariga Enters the Fray for Mega Man’s 22nd Birthday

Guess who’s joining the festivities for the celebration of the 22nd anniversary of Mega Man?

ProTip: We’ve already told you, but here’s a bigger clue, with some further information on the event:

So, it appears to run for two hours, and there will be a chance to chat interactively with the crew. This should prove most interesting.

News Credit: Capcom*Unity

Mega Man 10 in March, Commando Man, Yashichi, and More

with an assist from LBD “Nytetrayn”

So, remember that issue of Nintendo Power? It’s out, along with Inafune’s interview.

The interesting part? A new Robot Master! Meet Commando Man, and see what he’s all about here.

Picking up from where we left off before with new stages, you can expect a new ice boss in charge of the glacier stage. It’s filled with snowmen with exploding heads and ice blocks which break if shot or touched. A sewer stage is filled with slug-like Mets, while a stadium features foes of different sports, including baseball-throwing robots and soccer ball platforms that rise when shot, plus a soccer goal mid-boss who acts as its own goalie.

The desert stage features what is said to be one of the toughest obstacles in the form of vision-obscuring sandstorms that can push you into unseen spikes and walls. That is, unless you manage to eke out a safe spot during the storm. There is also a computer themed stage which even has mouse pointer-like enemies.

For those who find developer Inti Creates’ efforts to be on the verge of overwhelming, they will find salvation in a familiar face– or rather, symbol. Capcom’s iconic Yashichi returns from way back in the very first Mega Man game, ready to refill the Blue Bomber’s Life and Weapons energy in its entirety. Need more? Then visit the between-level shop and stock up on the items you need, just as in Mega Man 9.

As alluded to before, Mega Man 10 features difficulty settings. Easy mode is said to make the game’s difficulty more in line with Mega Man 2, but a Hard mode is there for those who want and can take the punishment.

Nintendo Power notes that the game will also contain multiple modes, in-game achievement-style challenges, online ranking, and downloadable content. But unfortunately, there will be no female Robot Masters this time out; instead, Producer Keiji Inafune allowed the developers a chance to create their own bosses for the Blue Bomber’s latest venture. Hopefully Mega Man can hold up, as he’ll be sporting the same move set as last time; that is, no sliding or charge shots. Better call on the bigger bro if that’s your need.

Finally, the most important item of note is the release date: get your weapons ready for a very Mega March in 2010.

In addition to screens of the new game, volume 250 of Nintendo Power features a full interview with Mega Mastermind Keiji Inafune. So what are you waiting for? Go out a buy the issue!

Special thanks to The Red Priest for the tip!

Mega Man 10 (Update)

Capcom’s big birthday surprise for Mega Man’s 22nd birthday may have just been spoiled.

Nintendo Power has posted a preview of their next issue, volume 250, aka the 2009 Holiday Special, and within comes a big surprise for fans of the Blue Bomber:

Just as Mega Man 9 was before it, Mega Man 10 will be an 8-bit styled game made available as a WiiWare title, which could easily mean that Xbox LIVE Arcade and PlayStation Network versions will also be on the way, but that remains unconfirmed for now. Only two pages of the preview (which is also mentioned on the magazine’s cover) have been revealed, but here is what information we’ve managed to get from it:

In Mega Man 10, the story involves fighting to find the parts of a vaccine-making device needed in order to cure the world’s robots of Robotenza, a virus which causes those infected to overheat and go out of control (and Maverick Virus speculation begins… right… now).

Mega Man won’t be fighting alone, however; number-one son Proto Man is also willing to do his part to help out, and not only is he a playable character this time out, but he’ll be available from the outset, bringing with him the ability to slide, charge shots, and deflect enemy attacks with his shield. And if that wasn’t enough, there is a third playable hero that Capcom isn’t saying anything more about yet.

Stages include a computer-themed backdrop, complete with monitors, microchips, and mouse-shaped enemies. It also features obstacles such as conveyor belts and blocks which disappear shortly after being touched. Another stage uses lava pools in a vertically-oriented setting, with conveyor belts obstructing the way and block-shaped enemies appearing as quickly as they can be disposed of.

Finally, there is the Robot Master revealed: Sheep Man. Sheep Man is capable of turning himself into four “clouds” which hover overhead and attack with lightning. This attack is known as the “Thunder Wool,” which floats at an angle before releasing a burst of electricity.

Capcom*Unity reveals that the above image will be the cover subscribers will be getting in their mailbox. Retail will have the issue on December 22nd.

We’ll bring you more news as it develops. But for now, take comfort in the fact that we can now legitimately tell anyone who insists that Mega Man X is Mega Man 10 to shut it.

For the sake of convenience, here is a look at the article. Click to go directly to the preview:

Update: Courtesy of the Capcom*Unity, we can see that Mr. Inafune is happy with the subscriber version of the new issue:

In addition, we missed a caption for one of the pictures which reveals those who thought Mega Man 9 might have been too difficult will get a reprieve this time out, thanks to an Easy Mode.

Mega Man’s 22nd Birthday is a Bigger Deal Than We Thought

A few days ago, we reported that Capcom of Japan and Famitsu were planning a Web TV celebration involving none other than Keiji Inafune himself. However, we never imagined the true scope of Capcom’s plan…

That is, until today, when the following was posted on the Capcom*Unity:

That’s right– they’re going global with this one! 22 is such a peculiar number to hold such an event at, even for a character as great as Mega Man. Perhaps they really do have something big in store for us.

As it says, details are forthcoming, and we’ll be sure to keep you updated here. The event occurs at 9pm PST on December 16th, meaning folks on the East coast will have to be up at midnight to find out what’s going down. On the bright side, since Mega Man’s birthday falls on the 17th, it means they’ll be the ones celebrating in the most timely manner.

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