You can read about it here!

http://wii.kombo.com/article.php?artid=12136

And here comes my reaction. It won’t be nice though.

Times sure have changed. A few years ago I could read the news about a new Mega Man game, and my entire day would be devoted to speculate about it, look for fan reactions around the world, read every single comment dissecting every single detail about it. But now everything goes so fast, and unless the news are huge, I just quickly pass it as any of the other many news I want or have to check. New episodes to queue for download here, new announcements there, products, innovations, reports, rumors, vaporware, more and more hype.

But well, I still can make an exception for Mega Man 9.

Unfortunately, for what I’ve seen so far, I’m kind of disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to see Mega Man 9 finally. It doesn’t bother me much that Capcom probably won’t even suggest any hint of the X series in this game. This is Capcom we’re talking about, after all. But from the technical stand point, it really is a letdown.

The 8-bit style may look stylish, and retro. But for me it looks cheap. And lazy. I mean come’ on. This is Mega Man 9. We have a gap of ten years of technical achievements and the best we’re going to get is this look? I can’t wait to see it in motion. I really hope the still screens are misleading and in motion this will look beautiful, as 2D Disney cartoons with pixeled character designs. But the comments so far seem to lead to an authentic  NES experience.

“We’re not just giving you Mega Man 9, we’re giving you a new NES game”

NES game? Do you mean like four frame running animations and stuff? And probably no connection at all with the X series, right? Can’t you guys make this game even more unremarkable? Capcom knows they can get away with this by placing the huge 9 number next to the mega man name to get enough coverage and hype for this game anticipated for 10 years. Try calling this ‘Mega Man 8-bit-out-of-continuity Lost Tales 1″ and probably no one would be expecting anything  else than a quick rehash of an old code base. I could have mocked it on its time, but even looking at Rockman Rockman’s build mode I could take some pride.

I guess the major reason I feel such I letdown it’s because apparently I won’t be able to look at this game for inspiration for my own developments. Here I am, taking the old sprites of the beloved games I played in my school days, making Flash games with them, trying to push them to their limits, reading about graphics post-process effects, beautifying maps with gradients,  glows and smooth transitions. Experimenting with classic gameplay using MP3’s for a experience with improved music, and opening the option for players to create their own levels, besides the many crazy things I have on hold. It’s really hard to look at this Mega Man 9 and share the hype. So bear with me on this one.

All in all, I’ll keep checking the further developments of this game. Probably the storyline will make it up for the graphics.