#1 – Reintroduce Pixel Art Visuals
Personally, we love how Mega Man 11 looked: it’s clean, it’s colorful, and it’s bold. But we’d be lying if we said we didn’t miss the “classic” aesthetic of old Mega Man games that Mega Man 9 and ten went with. There’s just something lovely about it, isn’t there?
games like Castlevania III, Super Mario Worldand The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past holding up very well to this day; arguably 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 or 16-bit art style. In 2022, however, how receptive will audiences be to a new Mega Man who embraces pixel art? Especially after Capcom took the series in a very different direction with the eleventh iteration.
Our solution? Implement a ‘HD-2D’ style aesthetic. Retain the core identity of the original NES titles, but augment it with real-time lighting, depth, and improved textures. We estimate that it would look absolutely like killer.
#2 – Bring Chiptune back
This one kind of goes hand in hand with our first point and we’re not really sure you can have one without the other. Nonetheless, while we were fans of some of the tracks 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 stepping away from chiptune music and trying something a little more ambitious, but with Mega Man there’s something truly magical about a simple and 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 back chiptune, we say.
#3 – Change the Gear System
Mega Man 11’s gear system was arguably its biggest change from previous titles. It gave the ability to slow down time or power up your weapon in the blink of an eye. Although it was a fun little gadget that worked well within the confines of the game, its inclusion throughout the entirety experience arguably made some areas a little too easy, giving players a crutch to fall back on whenever things got a little hairy.
Our solution? Take a step back on its implementation. Capcom could do this in a number of ways: 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 use them.
Other options include having them appear in stages as pickups, or having them appear as an option if players die a certain number of times, like in modern games. mario securities.
There’s of course also the option to ditch the gear system altogether, but we’re not sure we’re fans of that idea. While there’s no doubt that Mega Man 11’s stages were fundamentally built around using them, abandoning them altogether would be the wrong approach here. We As the gear system; it just needs a little refinement.
#4 – Improve the story
Mega Man 11 certainly tried to introduce some semblance of a plot and technically succeeded in doing so. That said, we still wouldn’t go so far as to call it “good” and it certainly wasn’t a patch on everything you’d see in the spinoff series. Mega Man X.
Now, we’re not saying the mainline Mega Man franchise needs to introduce threats of world domination or multiple protagonists with questionable morals, but when you’re this far into a franchise, you need to give fans more reasons to stick around.
We’d be very happy if Mega Man 12 simply introduced more environmental cues pointing to a larger storyline, or even implemented cutscenes to introduce the Robot Masters. Just Something to give a little more life to this universe please, Capcom.
#5 – Speaking of Mega Man X…
At the moment, Capcom doesn’t seem particularly interested in reviving the Mega Man X brand, so why not implement some of its key gameplay features into the main series? We’re mainly thinking of the wall jump feature, which would add an extra sense of verticality to scenes.
Other features include the dash (although it’s already available as a slide) and – dare we say it – a sword. Yeah, we’re not expecting Zero to jump into action in Mega Man 12 or anything, but it would be cool if Mega Man had the timed ability to become superpowered and wield some kind of lightsaber for a few moments!
#6 – Bring Back Rush’s Adaptability
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 great little additions that mix up the gameplay, but we would love to see the next installment brought back Mega Man 6‘capacity ‘Adapter’.
This effectively merged Rush with Mega Man, giving Mega Man an awesome red aesthetic and turning him into Power Mega Man or Jet Mega Man. Power Mega Man was able to charge punches and obliterate enemy shields, while Jet Mega Man basically allowed him to fly. What more could you want? [Power Jet Mega Man? – Ed]
We would just like to see these abilities make a return in Mega Man 12.
Like the sound of any of these ideas? Do you have better ones? 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 went through the whole article without once calling it the ‘Blue Bom—*the editor bursts into the room, grabs the keyboard and smashes it into a thousand pieces*