Mega Man 2.5D

[dave_littler]

Fascinating stuff here!

A lot of people have taken some rather cheap, and, I think rather ill-informed shots at past attempts to bring the Mega Man franchise into 3D (I make no bones whatsoever about my great fondness for the Mega Man Legends series, including the prequel, The Misadventures of Tron Bonne). Nevertheless, I am, I think, largely in

Comments

[dave_littler]

I think on some level it depends on whether or not they could produce music and sprites which even approach the level of quality of the old Mega Man material. In all liklihood, they would not be able to do so; after all, the professionals are so for a reason, and Mega Man 2 and 3 in particular are sort of timeless classics. In that case, you're almost certainly right.

On the other hand, if we grant for the sake of argument that they could produce music and graphics of comperable quality, they might do okay; they really do seem to have a quite solid grasp of level design from what we're seeing here, and 2D side-scrollers are experiencing a bit of a renaissance right now. Mega Man 9 and 10, Sonic the Hedgehog 4, Super Mario Bros Wii... There's a real hunger for a return to that format right now. I would be shocked if someone in Konami were not presently working on a new 2D side-scrolling Castlevania for the PS3.

The big question is whether or not this return to the format will produce any new successfull franchises or series, or if all of these are built on a foundation comprised entirely on nostolgia.

I say if the answer is yes, then these guys probably could produce a well-received game under the right circumstances. If the answer is no, then all we really can expect is an endless succession of new iterations of game series which have their origins in the 1980s.