By canceling Mega Man Universe and Mega Man Legends 3, celebrating Mega Man‘s 25th anniversary by giving us more Street Fighter, and driving its own talented creators to make a knockoff Mega Man game because they couldn’t make a real one, Capcom painted itself as a company that either hated its fans or had no idea how to run a business. Yet while Capcom had seemingly abandoned the Blue Bomber, fans were hard at work developing their own homebrew games; Nintendo’s inclusion of Mega Man in the latest Super Smash Bros. was met with great celebration; and Mega Man-inspired games such as Shovel Knight and the just-alluded-to Mighty No. 9 were garnering tremendous attention. If ever there was a time for the Titanium Titan to make a comeback, it was now.
Capcom took note, but I’m not sure the fans did. Little by little, rare and obscure entries in the Mega Man franchise became available for download, such as Mega Man V (not to be confused with Mega Man 5) and The Misadventures of Tron Bonne. To me, this was Capcom’s way of acknowledging the demand for more Mega Man while still gauging whether the financial risk of developing a new Mega Man game would pay off. But the fan responses I’ve seen usually boil down to, “ABOUT TIME. NOW MAKE A NEW GAME FOR US.” Buncha ingrates.
Capcom’s next move surprised many people, though not necessarily in a good way. A compilation of the first six Mega Man games is all well and good, but when those games are already available for individual download and were collected a decade earlier in the Mega Man Anniversary Collection—alongside four other games that are suspiciously absent here—it’s not unreasonable to start questioning Capcom’s business practices again. But the story I’ve read is that a company called Digital Eclipse approached Capcom and said, “Hey, we’ve got this engine that runs NES games; can we try it out on Mega Man?” So here we are with the Mega Man Legacy Collection.
If you want to introduce new players to Mega Man, give them the games everyone agrees on. Any true fan will tell you that at least two or three of the NES Mega Man games are outstanding, and that the worst of them are at least tolerable—good luck getting anyone to say the same about MM7-10. Throw in Achievements, a music player, a database and gallery similar to the Complete Works and Robot Master Field Guide books, a challenge mode that mashes up areas from all six collected games, and online leaderboards that capture replays of your attempts, and you’ve got a compilation that offers something to everyone, at a price ($14.99 at launch) that’s a fraction of what any one of its main attractions really costs. Make it available on Steam, and suddenly you’re reaching a demographic—PC gamers—that either never had the right system to play these games, or deprived you of a profit by emulating them.
Capcom gets more money, new players get a treasure trove that will keep them entertained for hours upon hours, and longtime players who already own everything there is to own will still find something worthwhile in the challenge mode. Everyone wins!
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