What would you like to see in a ‘Mega Man 12’?
#1 – Reintroduce Pixel Art Images
Personally, we love how Mega Man 11 looked: it’s clean, colorful, and bold. But we’d be lying if we said we didn’t miss the “classic” aesthetic of the older Mega Man games that mega man 9 Y 10 went with. There’s something instantly charming about it, right?
games like castlevania iii, super mario worldY The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past holds up well to this day; possibly even better than their 3D counterparts, and the Mega Man franchise is no different, so we’d love to see a return to an 8-bit or 16-bit art style. However, in 2022, how receptive will audiences be towards a new Mega Man that embraces pixel art? Especially after Capcom took the series in a significantly different direction with the eleventh iteration.
Our solution? Implement an ‘HD-2D’ style aesthetic. Maintain the core identity of the original NES titles, but augment it with real-time lighting, depth, and improved textures. We think that would look absolutely killer.
#2 – Bring back Chiptune
This one goes hand in hand with our first point and we’re not really sure you can have one without the other. However, while we were fans of some of the tunes featured in Mega Man 11, they simply pale in comparison to the iconic scores found in previous NES titles; Heck, even Mega Man 9 and 10 had music that completely surpasses what was found in the last title.
There’s nothing wrong with straying away from chiptune music and trying something a little more ambitious, but with Mega Man, there’s something truly magical about a simple, straightforward 8-bit theme that instantly gets stuck in your head.
mega man 2 Theme ‘Dr. Wily’s Castle’mega man 3 Theme ‘Magnet Man’the ‘Galaxy Man’ theme from Mega Man 9 (above)… They’re borderline perfection. Bring chiptune back, we say.
#3 – Change the gear system
Mega Man 11’s gear system was undoubtedly its biggest change compared to previous titles. Granted the ability to slow down time or power up your weapon in the blink of an eye. While it was a fun little trick that worked well within the confines of the game, its inclusion throughout the whole Some of the experience arguably made some areas a bit too easy, giving players a crutch to fall back on whenever the going got a little tough.
Our solution? Go back a bit in your implementation. There are a few ways Capcom could do this: our preferred option would be to keep them available at all times, but perhaps limit their use to two or three times per stage, forcing players to be a bit more selective when deciding to use them.
Other options include having them appear in stages as pickups, or presenting them as an option if players die a certain number of times, like in modern games. Mario Titles
Of course, there’s also the option to ditch the gear system entirely, but we’re not sure we’re fans of that idea. While there’s no doubt that the stages in Mega Man 11 were fundamentally built around their use, getting rid of them entirely would be the wrong approach here. Us I like the gear system; it just needs a bit of refinement.
#4 – Improve the story
Mega Man 11 certainly tried to introduce some semblance of plot and technically managed to do it. That said, we still wouldn’t go as far as calling it “good” and it certainly wasn’t a patch on anything you’d see in the spin-off series. mega man x.
Now, we’re not saying the main Mega Man franchise should introduce world domination threats or multiple protagonists with questionable morals, but when you’re that deep into a franchise, you need to give fans more reason to stick around.
We’d be very happy if Mega Man 12 simply introduced more environmental cues that hinted at a larger story, or even implemented some cutscenes to introduce the Robot Masters. Only something to give this universe a little more life please, Capcom.
#5 – Speaking of Mega Man X…
Right now, Capcom doesn’t seem particularly interested in reviving the Mega Man X brand, so why not implement some of its core gameplay features into the main series? Mainly, we are thinking of the wall jump feature, which would add a greater sense of verticality to the stages.
Other features include the dash (although this is basically already available in slide form) and, dare we say it, a sword. Yeah, we don’t expect Zero to go into action in Mega Man 12 or anything, but it would be great if Mega Man got a timed ability to basically have super powers and wield some kind of lightsaber for a few moments!
#6 – Bring back the adapter ability from Rush
Rush, Mega Man’s trusty robotic dog companion, is an absolute delight and has appeared in almost every game since his introduction in Mega Man 3. His main abilities, Coil and Jet, are neat little additions that mix up the game, but I would love for the next installment to bring back mega man 6‘Adapter’ ability.
This effectively fused Rush with Mega Man, giving Mega Man an amazing red aesthetic and turning him into either Power Mega Man or Jet Mega Man. Power Mega Man was able to charge up punch attacks and obliterate enemy shields, while Jet Mega Man basically allowed him to fly. . What more could you want? [Power Jet Mega Man? – Ed]
We’d just love to see these abilities return in Mega Man 12.
Do you like the sound of any of those ideas? Do you have any better ones of your own? Let us know in the poll below, and feel free to celebrate 35 years of Mega Man in the comments. You can also celebrate that we managed to read the entire article without once calling it the ‘Blue Bom—*the editor bursts into the room, grabs the keyboard and smashes it into a thousand pieces*