... are the confirmed US names for the soon-to-be-released PSP MegaMan games (more info here), which are actually more than simple remakes of previous titles. More like remixes. Redesigns. Cool redesigns. KnowHUtamean?
If you don't, here's an interview with Tatsuya Kitabayashi and industry legend MegaMan creator/kid-at-heart, Keiji Inafune:
GameSpy: A lot of people seem to think that Mega Man: Powered Up is simply a straight port of the original NES Mega Man game with some graphical enhancements. Could you please elaborate on what's new in this version?
Keiji Inafune: Of course, having the great, classic gameplay on top of that shell of new graphics isn't enough if you're going to remake something, so one of the key points of Powered Up is the creation system. Mega Man is a game where creators can learn about the basics of making a game, and would-be creators or gamers themselves can learn what it's like to design and develop a Mega Man game as far as timing, placement of objects, what kind of enemies to put in, and the balancing that goes into it. By that rationale, having the creation mode in the game is fantastic because it's a learning experience for the gamer as well as for us, the creators.
GameSpy: So was the original intent of the creation mode to be a simple tutorial for future game designers?
Inafune: There's something about Mega Man games and 2D side-scrolling games in that they have a very natural, intuitive feel about them in the timing and the movement that 3D games nowadays seem to be losing. We want to focus on this natural feel with the creation mode. Imagine that you're watching a baseball game, and as you're watching, you say to yourself, "Wait a second. This player should be stealing a base right now" or "That player should have bunted instead of trying to hit a home run." You're sort of a backseat driver for the baseball game, right? Well, now's your chance to be a backseat driver for a game. You can sit there and say, "Aw, if I were making this game I would have put three enemies here" or "I would have made this enemy much harder." Now you can experience what it's like to actually put your ideas in the game. You can see what it's like to stand in the creators' shoes, so it's something that's very suitable for this Mega Man game.
GameSpy: Well, anything that keeps 2D gaming alive, we're all for.
Inafune: The other thing that's really great about this creation mode is that you'll remember that the original Mega Man game had six stages plus the Dr. Wily levels. This version itself is going to have two extra stages. So now, you'll have the classic eight stages plus the Wily stages that appeared in the other Mega Man titles. We at Capcom did our best to make the eight most interesting stages that we could think of, but now it's your chance, as the consumer to make the interesting stages that you want to create. The best part about it is that you're not just limited to eight. You could try making 100 different stages. You could try making 200 different stages. It's only going to be left up to how much time and energy you want to put in it and how much fun you want to have. That's what makes this creation mode so cool.
GameSpy: You mentioned the two new stages. In the game's trailer, you show the silhouette of the two "mystery bosses." Were these new bosses created specifically for this game or are they cameos from other characters in the Mega Man series?
Tatsuya Kitabayashi: We were just going to make this new game like the original with only six stages. Then one day, even though I'm the producer of the project, Mr. Inafune came up to me and gave me character designs for two new characters. He said, "Put these in your game," and I said, "What?!" And Mr. Inafune was like, "Ah, just put 'em in the game." So I'm explaining to him, "You don't understand. Now I have to design two extra stages, and even worse, there was a delicate balance between which enemy's weapon would beat which enemy. So now you throw in two more, and how do they relate to all the other bosses that are already there? Are they strong; are they weak?" Luckily, Mr. Inafune had already thought that out, and was able to tell me what weapons worked on each of the bosses. But yes, the two extra bosses are new and designed by Mr. Inafune. So he literally went back to the drawing board for this game.
GameSpy: The new art style for the game is really, really cute. What prompted the new style?
Inafune: Believe it or not, what you're seeing on the PSP is what I originally intended Mega Man to look like. But as I was making the game for the NES, there were limitations on the hardware and the graphics, so he ended up looking how he looked in those games. Now that I have hardware that has far fewer limitations as far as the graphics, I can finally show the true Mega Man that I wanted to show.
GameSpy: That sounds a bit like George Lucas and his special edition versions of Star Wars. After the new technology became available, he was able to go back and creating the vision that he originally intended.
Inafune: Well, I haven't changed any of the timing or the action elements of the game. It still feels almost one hundred percent like the old Mega Man that you've played down to the timing and the jumping. That's because a good game is a game that will not get old. If you go back and play and old Mario game or an old Mega Man game, it's still gonna "feel" fun. It's still gonna feel intuitive and natural. So there really was no reason to change the gameplay itself.
GameSpy: Yeah, I noticed while playing through the "Old Style" Cutman stage in the game's demo that all of my old strategies still worked. I was able to get through the stage just as well as I could on the NES version.
Inafune: It's funny, you not only have a visual memory, but also a memory of touch. So when you play that old game, and you then play the new one and it feels the same, you naturally smile because you feel like a kid again playing that exact same game. It feels better than just watching an old video because you're doing the exact same motions that you used to do. I've noticed this reaction from people on playing the game here at TGS, and I had that reaction myself when I first played the new game.
While I do want people who have never played the original Mega Man to try out Powered Up, more than anything, I want those people who have played the original to smile when they play it because they think that, "Yeah, this is the Mega Man that I remember as a young child." That's gonna make me happy. That's what I want this game to be -- a sort of present to all the old, retro gamers who can now come back and remember that small bit of our childhood. If we can make those people smile, then this will be a successful game for me. Mega Man really is a classic game, and if I can get the old people to come back and remember what makes it so great, then that will make me the happiest guy in the world. And on top of that, if people watching you play suddenly want to play, and it becomes infection, then that would be great, too. That would be showing these new gamers what old, true gaming roots are about.
GameSpy: Is this going to be a one shot deal, or is the plan to eventually have, say, Rockman 2 Rockman 2 and Rockman 3 Rockman 3? Will you remake the other games in the series?
Inafune: This is going to be something that's largely dependant on how popular Powered Up is. There's no room for a game that only sells a few hundred copies when it costs so much to make. Personally, I would love to create a remake of Mega Man 2. Whether I decide to make it like Powered Up or whether it would have even more original content would largely depend of the users' reaction to this title.
GameSpy: Regarding Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X, what prompted the idea to do a remake of Mega Man X?
Inafune: In the X series, we've gotten all the way up to X8, and the question came up, "Should we make X9 or not?" About the time when we were talking about that, the PSP had come out, and we thought that it was a really sweet piece of hardware. So we decided that instead of going the X9 route, let's go back to the series' roots and rediscover what makes the X series so classic. We felt that the best way to do that would be to make an X remake. And once again, if this remake is really popular, a remake of X2 or X3 could also be in the cards.
GameSpy: So is this revisiting of the classic Mega Man games a way for the designers to remember and then use some of the older design sensibilities to create Mega Man X9 or (and I'm crossing my fingers here) Mega Man 9 that much better?
Inafune: As more and more Mega Man games came out, they started to lose what made Mega Man so great. I personally was only involved in the X series up until X4 and then after that, other people took direction of the series. Making these remakes and showing what make the originals so fun will help the designers learn a lot about what makes Mega Man so cool. What makes him tick, so to speak. They can then use that knowledge on X9 or perhaps 9.
GameSpy: Between this remake of X, the remake of the original Mega Man (enhanced though it may be), and the recent Japanese re-releases of the two Mega Man Legends titles for PSP, are you at all afraid of people thinking that the PSP is becoming merely a place for ports or rehashes of Mega Man games?
Inafune: These remakes are supposed to symbolize me trying to get the consumer, as well as the designers in Capcom's Research and Development, to understand what Mega Man is. So by going back to the series' roots, people will play and think, "Wait, this was a lot more fun than I thought." Then maybe it will prove that making Mega Man X9 or Mega Man 9 would make sense. If these new games are not supported, as much as I dislike the idea, then it wouldn't make sense to make those sequels. The game industry, of course, is run on money. It's not like I'm making these games just for my own benefit -- we have to make a profit. If we do make a profit, and it proves that Mega Man is still popular, then I would love nothing more than to continue the series to X9 and 9. Maybe if it sells a lot in America…
GameSpy: One last question. Now that you've gotten a chance to see Nintendo's Revolution controller, do you have any ideas brewing about how you can use it for future Mega Man games or any other new games in general?
Inafune: When I first saw the Revolution controller, I have to saw that it was an amazing surprise. You know that you want to use it in some way, shape or form, but you don't know how exactly. So whether I'm able to directly use it for a Mega Man game, I really can't say right now. But I can say that it definitely makes you feel potential for not only Mega Man games, but any game.
I urge everyone on the planet to buy ten of each game, or at least Powered Up. Not only for the coolness and nostalgia, but... I mean... MEGAMAN 9!!!
THINK OF MEGAMAN 9!!!!!!!!
If you don't, here's an interview with Tatsuya Kitabayashi and industry legend MegaMan creator/kid-at-heart, Keiji Inafune:
GameSpy: A lot of people seem to think that Mega Man: Powered Up is simply a straight port of the original NES Mega Man game with some graphical enhancements. Could you please elaborate on what's new in this version?
Keiji Inafune: Of course, having the great, classic gameplay on top of that shell of new graphics isn't enough if you're going to remake something, so one of the key points of Powered Up is the creation system. Mega Man is a game where creators can learn about the basics of making a game, and would-be creators or gamers themselves can learn what it's like to design and develop a Mega Man game as far as timing, placement of objects, what kind of enemies to put in, and the balancing that goes into it. By that rationale, having the creation mode in the game is fantastic because it's a learning experience for the gamer as well as for us, the creators.
GameSpy: So was the original intent of the creation mode to be a simple tutorial for future game designers?
Inafune: There's something about Mega Man games and 2D side-scrolling games in that they have a very natural, intuitive feel about them in the timing and the movement that 3D games nowadays seem to be losing. We want to focus on this natural feel with the creation mode. Imagine that you're watching a baseball game, and as you're watching, you say to yourself, "Wait a second. This player should be stealing a base right now" or "That player should have bunted instead of trying to hit a home run." You're sort of a backseat driver for the baseball game, right? Well, now's your chance to be a backseat driver for a game. You can sit there and say, "Aw, if I were making this game I would have put three enemies here" or "I would have made this enemy much harder." Now you can experience what it's like to actually put your ideas in the game. You can see what it's like to stand in the creators' shoes, so it's something that's very suitable for this Mega Man game.
GameSpy: Well, anything that keeps 2D gaming alive, we're all for.
Inafune: The other thing that's really great about this creation mode is that you'll remember that the original Mega Man game had six stages plus the Dr. Wily levels. This version itself is going to have two extra stages. So now, you'll have the classic eight stages plus the Wily stages that appeared in the other Mega Man titles. We at Capcom did our best to make the eight most interesting stages that we could think of, but now it's your chance, as the consumer to make the interesting stages that you want to create. The best part about it is that you're not just limited to eight. You could try making 100 different stages. You could try making 200 different stages. It's only going to be left up to how much time and energy you want to put in it and how much fun you want to have. That's what makes this creation mode so cool.
GameSpy: You mentioned the two new stages. In the game's trailer, you show the silhouette of the two "mystery bosses." Were these new bosses created specifically for this game or are they cameos from other characters in the Mega Man series?
Tatsuya Kitabayashi: We were just going to make this new game like the original with only six stages. Then one day, even though I'm the producer of the project, Mr. Inafune came up to me and gave me character designs for two new characters. He said, "Put these in your game," and I said, "What?!" And Mr. Inafune was like, "Ah, just put 'em in the game." So I'm explaining to him, "You don't understand. Now I have to design two extra stages, and even worse, there was a delicate balance between which enemy's weapon would beat which enemy. So now you throw in two more, and how do they relate to all the other bosses that are already there? Are they strong; are they weak?" Luckily, Mr. Inafune had already thought that out, and was able to tell me what weapons worked on each of the bosses. But yes, the two extra bosses are new and designed by Mr. Inafune. So he literally went back to the drawing board for this game.
GameSpy: The new art style for the game is really, really cute. What prompted the new style?
Inafune: Believe it or not, what you're seeing on the PSP is what I originally intended Mega Man to look like. But as I was making the game for the NES, there were limitations on the hardware and the graphics, so he ended up looking how he looked in those games. Now that I have hardware that has far fewer limitations as far as the graphics, I can finally show the true Mega Man that I wanted to show.
GameSpy: That sounds a bit like George Lucas and his special edition versions of Star Wars. After the new technology became available, he was able to go back and creating the vision that he originally intended.
Inafune: Well, I haven't changed any of the timing or the action elements of the game. It still feels almost one hundred percent like the old Mega Man that you've played down to the timing and the jumping. That's because a good game is a game that will not get old. If you go back and play and old Mario game or an old Mega Man game, it's still gonna "feel" fun. It's still gonna feel intuitive and natural. So there really was no reason to change the gameplay itself.
GameSpy: Yeah, I noticed while playing through the "Old Style" Cutman stage in the game's demo that all of my old strategies still worked. I was able to get through the stage just as well as I could on the NES version.
Inafune: It's funny, you not only have a visual memory, but also a memory of touch. So when you play that old game, and you then play the new one and it feels the same, you naturally smile because you feel like a kid again playing that exact same game. It feels better than just watching an old video because you're doing the exact same motions that you used to do. I've noticed this reaction from people on playing the game here at TGS, and I had that reaction myself when I first played the new game.
While I do want people who have never played the original Mega Man to try out Powered Up, more than anything, I want those people who have played the original to smile when they play it because they think that, "Yeah, this is the Mega Man that I remember as a young child." That's gonna make me happy. That's what I want this game to be -- a sort of present to all the old, retro gamers who can now come back and remember that small bit of our childhood. If we can make those people smile, then this will be a successful game for me. Mega Man really is a classic game, and if I can get the old people to come back and remember what makes it so great, then that will make me the happiest guy in the world. And on top of that, if people watching you play suddenly want to play, and it becomes infection, then that would be great, too. That would be showing these new gamers what old, true gaming roots are about.
GameSpy: Is this going to be a one shot deal, or is the plan to eventually have, say, Rockman 2 Rockman 2 and Rockman 3 Rockman 3? Will you remake the other games in the series?
Inafune: This is going to be something that's largely dependant on how popular Powered Up is. There's no room for a game that only sells a few hundred copies when it costs so much to make. Personally, I would love to create a remake of Mega Man 2. Whether I decide to make it like Powered Up or whether it would have even more original content would largely depend of the users' reaction to this title.
GameSpy: Regarding Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X, what prompted the idea to do a remake of Mega Man X?
Inafune: In the X series, we've gotten all the way up to X8, and the question came up, "Should we make X9 or not?" About the time when we were talking about that, the PSP had come out, and we thought that it was a really sweet piece of hardware. So we decided that instead of going the X9 route, let's go back to the series' roots and rediscover what makes the X series so classic. We felt that the best way to do that would be to make an X remake. And once again, if this remake is really popular, a remake of X2 or X3 could also be in the cards.
GameSpy: So is this revisiting of the classic Mega Man games a way for the designers to remember and then use some of the older design sensibilities to create Mega Man X9 or (and I'm crossing my fingers here) Mega Man 9 that much better?
Inafune: As more and more Mega Man games came out, they started to lose what made Mega Man so great. I personally was only involved in the X series up until X4 and then after that, other people took direction of the series. Making these remakes and showing what make the originals so fun will help the designers learn a lot about what makes Mega Man so cool. What makes him tick, so to speak. They can then use that knowledge on X9 or perhaps 9.
GameSpy: Between this remake of X, the remake of the original Mega Man (enhanced though it may be), and the recent Japanese re-releases of the two Mega Man Legends titles for PSP, are you at all afraid of people thinking that the PSP is becoming merely a place for ports or rehashes of Mega Man games?
Inafune: These remakes are supposed to symbolize me trying to get the consumer, as well as the designers in Capcom's Research and Development, to understand what Mega Man is. So by going back to the series' roots, people will play and think, "Wait, this was a lot more fun than I thought." Then maybe it will prove that making Mega Man X9 or Mega Man 9 would make sense. If these new games are not supported, as much as I dislike the idea, then it wouldn't make sense to make those sequels. The game industry, of course, is run on money. It's not like I'm making these games just for my own benefit -- we have to make a profit. If we do make a profit, and it proves that Mega Man is still popular, then I would love nothing more than to continue the series to X9 and 9. Maybe if it sells a lot in America…
GameSpy: One last question. Now that you've gotten a chance to see Nintendo's Revolution controller, do you have any ideas brewing about how you can use it for future Mega Man games or any other new games in general?
Inafune: When I first saw the Revolution controller, I have to saw that it was an amazing surprise. You know that you want to use it in some way, shape or form, but you don't know how exactly. So whether I'm able to directly use it for a Mega Man game, I really can't say right now. But I can say that it definitely makes you feel potential for not only Mega Man games, but any game.
I urge everyone on the planet to buy ten of each game, or at least Powered Up. Not only for the coolness and nostalgia, but... I mean... MEGAMAN 9!!!
THINK OF MEGAMAN 9!!!!!!!!
Comment