Mega Man Universe Message Board

When Mega Man co-creator and former head of production at Capcom Keiji Inafune vacated his long-held position late last year, it was unclear what would happen with the two projects he had just fought to get going -- a long-awaited sequel in the Mega Man Legends series and an ambitious XBLA/PSN Mega Man mashup title. Despite a brief period of support from his former employer, the two games were eventually canceled. Inafune, however, was still fighting for the games after his employment ended. "I really wanted to finish those two projects, especially Legends," Inafune told me in an interview this past weekend at the Tokyo Game Show.

"It's really up to Capcom to let me do it or not, and for the moment I don't think they're gonna let me do it," he resignedly added. Apparently after leaving his position at his former employer, he requested to continue working on the project in some capacity as a contractor. Cacpom, however, wasn't interested in that idea. But rather than directly blame Capcom for canceling the two projects -- he's not into pointing fingers, as we already know -- Inafune spoke to his struggle even getting them going.

One cannot help but get the impression that Capcom isn't super into Mega Man these days. After cancelling Mega Man Universe back in March, all that was left on the franchise's development docket was Mega Man Legends 3, a 3DS sequel to the long-dormant Mega Man Legends action RPG series propelled heavily by community input.

Awww, I miss Servbot... =(

Today, Capcom threw a goose into that propeller, as it officially put the kibosh on the entire project. According to the company's official blog entry, "it was not felt [by Capcom management] that the Mega Man Legends 3 Project met the required criteria" to go into full production. Both the full game, and the Prototype version, have been entirely shelved.

Since the sequel was announced last year, Capcom had been taking feedback from enthusiastic community members on the content of the game. The Prototype version of the game was even planned for launch with the 3DS e-shop back in June. When that didn't happen, that probably should have been our first clue that something was amiss. Actually, come to think of it, series creator Keiji Inafune's departure from Capcom (and the project) back in November probably should have been our first hint (even though the blog entry proclaims that Inafune's departure had nothing to do with the cancellation). So, really, we had two hints. We really are thick-headed sometimes.

This latest cancellation does seem to leave the Mega Man brand between a Rock(man) and a Hard (Man) place. Capcom has nothing announced for the foreseeable future, leaving fans of the little blue robot boy bereft of anything to look forward to. Capcom's FAQ does state that, "Mega Man is still an important franchise within Capcom’s portfolio and we will continue to pursue opportunities to create new titles in the series," but exactly how long we'll have to wait for them to "pursue" those "opportunities" remains unknown.

Now excuse me as I pull out my copy of Mega Man 2 and sob uncontrollably for the remainder of the day.

Bummer news for Mega Man fans coming from Capcom this morning. According to a recent posting on the game’s official blog, Mega Man Universe has been cancelled. In addition to this announcement, the publisher also shot out a quick apology to those looking forward to the game’s once-impending Spring 2011 release across both XBLA and PSN.

Mega Man Universe was an updated take on the Mega Man formula that married user-created content to classic 2D Mega Man action. Capcom claimed that it was set to “deliver the most creative Mega Man experience yet” with MMU, allowing users to generate their own levels, create their own characters from prefab parts, and assign their own special weapons and items. There was also a touch of crossover appeal to the game--several classic Capcom characters such as Ryu and Sir Arthur were set to make an appearance in it.


The reason given for the cancellation of the project, according to an Andria Sang translation of the post, was “various circumstances.” One of those circumstances might have been the departure of Keiji Inafune, a creative lead on the project, but we'll probably never know for sure why Universe was cut.

Capcom has posted an apology and cancellation notice on the official Japanese website for Mega Man Universe, an odd DIY Mega Man game that was scheduled to launch on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network later this year. The retro-styled platformer was a cheeky amalgam of remade Mega Man 2 levels, customizable characters (including the crooked caricature from the North American Mega Man 1 box art) and user-created levels.

According to Capcom's notice, the decision to extinguish Mega Man Universe was given impetus by "various circumstances." Those may involve the departure of Mega Man creator and Universe conceptual lead, Keiji Inafune, who resigned from Capcom in October 2010. We've requested further comment from Capcom.

#rip Mega Man Universe was supposed to be out this year on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. It won't be. Capcom, the game's developer, is shutting the title down and ceasing development. Mega Man Universe has been canned. More »

#preview Because it is a Mega Man game, the upcoming Mega Man Universe will be tough. In New York, yesterday, a Capcom employee was willing to try only an "easy" level for our camera. His fear of failure is understandable. More »

Tucked deep inside Capcom’s Tokyo Game Show hotel suite was the first hands-on build of Mega Man Universe, the upcoming PSN title that gives players a comprehensive toolset to build their own custom Mega Man levels and characters. Watch the new trailer below for a peek at the total package.

DualShock 3 clenched tightly in my sweaty hands, I powered through several of Mega Man Universe’s pre-generated levels, which are based on the fan-favorite Mega Man 2. I quickly discovered that some things never change: Mega Man Universe is freaking hard, even on the allegedly Easy mode. The levels were riddled with tricky moving platforms, brutal jumps, lethal spike pits, and the requisite homing-carrot-firing rabbit robots.

Of course, the difficulty level can vary wildly depending on the prowess of your custom Mega Man, which you upgrade by cobbling together spare parts from defeated bosses and iconic Capcom characters — Street Fighter’s Ryu and Ghosts ‘N Goblins Arthur were shown in the launch trailer, and more classic Capcom characters are sure to come.

In the early build I played, each custom Mega Man also featured eight Special Weapon slots, four Chip slots, and four Item Payload slots for further customization. These equipment choices affect not only your appearance and abilities, but your jumping height, movement speed, attack power, and more. The custom characters in the Tokyo Game Show build were pre-populated with a selection of Mega Men, everything from “Bad Box Art Mega Man” to variants called “Gust Man” and “Chop Man,” each with their own hodgepodge of strengths, weaknesses, and special abilities.

The cornerstone of Mega Man Universe, the level creator, isn’t yet playable. But if LittleBigPlanet is anything to go by, it’s sure to be the star of the show.

There's one thing I'm sure of about Mega Man Universe: I want to like it. For one thing, it's a Mega Man game! I like it when those are good. For another, the concept of making your own Mega Man stages and playing them with cobbled-together heroes or other Capcom characters is a total slam dunk. I'm just ... not really sure about anything else.

The major hook for Universe is that you can build your own avatar out of various Mega Man, boss, and other character parts (Capcom wouldn't say exactly how you got them). The demo build included multiple premade Mega Mans, including one in the style of Keiji Inafune's drawings and one resembling the style of the dopey space ranger from the Mega Man box art. Each one has different attributes in terms of health, speed, jumping ability, etc. You can further augment these abilities by changing parts.

Famitsu has some new videos of Mega Man Universe showing off the game's character and level creation utilities. The videos demonstrate several custom Mega Men, each with different abilities, as well as a custom level being built. All in all, megafying your world looks pretty easy. See it after the break.

#tokyogameshow2010 The newest Mega Man game doesn't just limit itself to Mega Man. It's his universe. But does Mega Man Universe have universal appeal? More »

Mega Man Universe, seemingly a DIY Mega Man game with cameo appearances from characters across Capcom games, has been tantalizingly, tortuously mysterious since its splashy, stop-motion introduction. Finally, we found someone who knows a thing or two about the side-scroller: producer Akiko Ito. At TGS, we confronted Ito and begged her to give us any information possible. Well, actually we interviewed her in an appropriately professional manner, with our desperation just under the surface.

According to Ito, the game isn't "just" a Mega Man title with customizable levels and guest characters -- it's also based on Mega Man 2; containing faithful remakes of the stages from that game as its premade levels. Find out more about the game's origins, its development, and our shared dream of playable Ace Attorney characters in the full interview after the break.

Mega Man Universe, we surmised from the very beginning, is an amalgamation of familiar elements in a new presentation. According to producer Akiko Ito, it'll contain even more familiar elements than we've seen: the levels and bosses of Mega Man 2.

Ito told Joystiq during an interview, "The base story and the base game is taken from Mega Man 2, so players can experience Mega Man 2 through this game." She explained that these "default" stages don't have to remain in their original form, as well: "Basically, we're going to create the stages from Mega Man 2 faithfully in this new style, and you can play them as is, or you can customize different sections of them, or you can customize all of it if you want to, so pretty much you can do whatever you'd like with the stages."

We're calling it right now: the most popular player-created stage will be "Quick Man, but without those laser things."

The Blue Bomber meets his ultimate adversary: you.

#capcom It's a little less Dr. Light and a little more Dr. Frankenstein in Mega Man Universe, where you'll choose from a wide variety of pre-made parts to create your own personal Something-Man. More »

Customize your Mega Man.

Mega Man Universe Has Customizable Mega Men

We're learning more about what Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune is cooking up with his latest project, the downloadable Mega Man Universe for PSN and XBLA. In advance of next week's Tokyo Game Show, Capcom has delivered new screens and -- more importantly -- details, specifically where the ability to create your own Mega Man and stages is concerned.

According to Capcom, "you can create your own original Mega Man by assembling parts you like," indicating that "your abilities will change depending on the parts you choose." There will be "a wide variety" of these parts, leading us to believe that the "Ryu Man" featured at the end of the recent gameplay videos is one of these custom creations.

Sounding a bit like LittleBigPlanet, Mega Man Universe will also feature a full level editor for building your own stages, which can then be shared with others online. Of course, this means you can download and play through others' creations -- but it's a final bit of info dropped by the game's developer that we find most intriguing. "Aside from Mega Man themed stages, there are a variety of custom stage parts that will be revealed soon," Capcom says. Ryu Man running through a Ghosts 'N Goblins themed level with Mega Man gameplay, perhaps? Sure seems like something the original teaser hinted at.

Mega Man Universe will be playable at TGS, where we'll put together a juicy hands-on preview of it for all the loyal Mega-fans in the audience.

Mega Man Universe, which will be making an appearance at this weekend's PAX, looks pretty great. More »

The Mega Man Universe teaser trailer hinted at all sorts of cross-game franchise madness when it debuted earlier this year, and this first gameplay trailer does little more than stoke our curiosity all the more. The new teaser begins with an introduction from creator Keiji Inafune, and then launches into the character select screen of this prettied up side-scrolling Mega Man title.

After just a minute of Blue Bomber action, a final tease is revealed -- the character select screen pops up again, only this time it features a Megafied version of Street Fighter's Ryu. "No way!!!" indeed! Head past the break for the full clip, courtesy of 1UP.

Capcom announced its lineup for this weekend's PAX convention, and Mega Man Universe is in it. There's plenty of other exciting stuff, like Bionic Commando Rearmed 2, Okamiden, Ghost Trick, and Marvel vs. Capcom 3, but we admit we only noticed those things with great difficulty, after forcing our eyes away from the words "Mega Man Universe."

PAX will be our first opportunity to find out what exactly Universe is, something that has been weighing heavily on us since we saw that stop-motion trailer. Capcom promises "new, never before seen trailers and game levels." See the full list after the break, and find the list of swag you can get at Capcom's booth at Capcom-Unity -- including details on how to get your very own moustache.

During a Comic-Con panel, Capcom's Keiji Inafune offered a scant few details about Mega Man Universe, the Mega Man crossover game (or something) teased by an amazing stop-motion trailer, which you can see again after the break -- it's wonderful!

"We wanted to preserve as much as we can of the classic 8-bit Mega Man feel, while allowing players to project their own Mega Man onto the game," Inafune said. So it'll have an 8-bit look like Mega Man 9. "We wanted to create a platform where players can play as their favorite version of Mega Man, another Capcom character -- or maybe a different character completely," he added. "You'll be able to play as the Mega Man of your dreams."

The proposed cross-Capcom, cross-character play actually makes us think of another recent 8-bit game (unofficially) starring Mega Man, Super Mario Crossover. "The game will also unite Mega Man fans," Inafune said, "putting them together in one specific place."

The awkward, golden Mega Man from the original NES Mega Man 1 U.S. box art will even make an appearance, as he did in the teaser. "We talked about how crappy the original package art was, but there's somebody out there that loves that one and probably wants to play as him." (The trailer, by the way, was info-free for a reason: "We made the trailer purposely mysterious, because we wanted to play on the idea of what Mega Man is," Inafune explained, citing the changing face of the Mega Man series over the years.)

Finally, Inafune teased that another big Mega Man announcement was on the way soon, which would address an "oft-requested" desire from fans.

We still don't know what it is, but we've got some ideas.

#comiccon2010 The creator of Mega Man, Keiji Inafune, and producer on the recently announced Mega Man Universe, Akiko Ito, explained—as best as they could—just what the hell this mysterious game is today at Comic-Con. More »

Mega Man is back!

"Its official: classic gaming will never be same again."

#innovation Motion-sensing, camera control, thought control; it's all been done before, or has it? A team from Queen's University in Ontario has created a new way to play games using a bendable projection screen and a shoulder-mounted projector. More »

Hope you still have room for more Mega Man.