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Published on 25th July 2011 by Anthony Gibson - Has had 283 views
Mega Man: The End of an Era?
I'll admit straight away that I wasn't an early Mega Man gamer. In fact, my first foray into the world of the famous blue bomber was the Battle Network series on the Gameboy Advance and those games were amazing experiences to behold.
The underlying issue is since those games, Mega Man has been in severe decline. The newer Mega Man 9 and 10 titles on XBOX Live Arcade and Playstation 3 have failed to catch on and the Mega Man Star Force series wasn't enough to bring back the masses. Group them with the cancellations of Mega Man Universe and Mega Man Legends 3... it doesn't look good for the Capcom mascot.
Then there was the strange ommision of Mega Man in Marvel vs Capcom 3 where Capcom have cited that people didn't want him in the game. That in itself is rubbish as he was a highly anticipated character with people from the Capcom Unity site voting him up for addition to the game.
The sudden leaving of Keiji Inafune in 2010 has affected the series greatly. He was the original creator of Mega Man and helmed each game to success during his 23 year tenure at Capcom. According to reports, he managed to ruffle a few feathers in the Japanese games industry when he declared that every game coming out was garbage compared to western titles.
I just find it fishy that they cancelled two Mega Man games in quick succession. The fans are understandably annoyed and have begun many petitions, facebook pages and are calling for Capcom to relinquish the rights to the blue bomber to Keiji and his new company, Comcept.
I think that there's something going on here which we're not being informed about. I believe that Keiji leaving was damning to Capcom and they are now taking their rage out on the series he created and nurtured. Capcom certainly seems to be on a self-destructive path when it comes to the series at this point.
It's just a damned shame to see the series that basically made Capcom a leading developer worldwide being treated like complete garbage. They seem to have no respect for their fans and all of the cancellations have just driven a stake through the heart of a beloved icon.
I now believe that without Keiji on-board to run the inner workings of the Mega Man franchise, we're now seeing the demise of the series.
I guess now, I can only ask Capcom to prove all us Mega Man fans wrong. If they're not set to put the work in, I'd rather they let the series die gracefully. While I'd miss the blue bomber, I hate to see a series and it's fans being shot down at every chance of there being light at the end of the tunnel.
