#1 – Reintroduce Pixel Art Visuals
We personally really like the way 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 and 10 went with. There’s something instantly charming about that, isn’t there?
Games like Castlevania III, Super Mario World, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past hold up well to this day; arguably even better than its 3D counterparts, and the Mega Man franchise is no different, so we’d love to see a return to the 8- or 16-bit art style. However, in 2022, how sensitive will audiences be to a new Mega Man embracing pixel art? Especially after Capcom took the series in a fundamentally different direction with the eleventh iteration.
Our solution? Implement ‘HD-2D’ style aesthetics. Keep the core identity of the original NES titles, but enhance it with real-time lighting, depth and enhanced textures. We reckon it would look absolutely killer.
#2 – Restore Chiptune
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. Even so, while we were fans of some of the tunes featured in Mega Man 11, they simply pale in comparison to the iconic tracks found in earlier NES titles; hell, even Mega Man 9 and 10 had music that completely surpasses what’s in the latest 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, clean 8-bit theme that immediately gets stuck in your head.
Mega Man 2 “Doctor Wily’s Castle” theme.Mega Man 3 Theme “Man magnet”the Mega Man 9 ‘Galaxy Man’ theme (above)… They’re on the edge perfection. Bring back the chiptune, we say.
#3 – Change the gear system
Mega Man 11’s transmission system is arguably the biggest change compared to previous titles. It gave you the ability to either slow down time or power up your weapon in the blink of an eye. While it was a fun little gimmick that worked well within the confines of the game, its inclusion throughout whole experience arguably made some areas a little too easy, giving players a crutch to lean on whenever things get a little hairy.
Our solution? Gently pull its implementation. There are a few ways Capcom could go about 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 about when they choose to use them.
Other options include appearing in stages as a download or being introduced as an option if players die a certain number of times, like in modern Mario titles.
There is, of course, 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 the stages in Mega Man 11 are fundamentally built around their use, ditching them entirely here would be the wrong approach. Me As gear system; it just needs to be refined a bit.
#4 – Improve the story
Mega Man 11 certainly tried to introduce some semblance of a plot and technically succeeded in that. We wouldn’t go so far as to call it “good” though, 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 that the core Mega Man franchise needs to introduce threats of world domination or multiple protagonists of questionable morals, but when you’re this far into the franchise, you have to give fans more reasons to stick around.
We would have been very happy if Mega Man 12 simply introduced more environmental cues that hinted at the larger story, or even implemented some cutscenes to introduce the Robot Masters. Only something please give this universe a little more life Capcom.
#5 – Speaking of Mega Man X…
At this point, 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? Primarily, we’re thinking of a wall-hopping feature, which would add a further sense of verticality to the stages.
Other features include a plate (although it’s basically already available in slider form) and — dare we say it — a sword. Yeah, we don’t expect Zero to see action in Mega Man 12 or anything, but it would be cool if Mega Man got a timed ability to go super-powered and wield some sort of lightsaber for a few moments!
#6 – Restore Rush’s customization ability
Rush, Mega Man’s faithful robot dog companion, is a real delight and has appeared in almost every game since he was introduced in Mega Man 3. His core abilities, Coil and Jet, are great little additions that mix up the gameplay, but I would have liked the next sequel brings back Mega Man 6’s ‘Adaptor’ ability.
This effectively merged Rush with Mega Man, giving Mega Man an awesome red aesthetic and turning him into either Power Mega Man or Jet Mega Man. Power Mega Man could boost slashing attacks and destroy enemy shields, while Jet Mega Man basically gave him flight. What more could you want? [Power Jet Mega Man? – Ed]
We’d just love to see these abilities return in Mega Man 12.
Like the sound of any of those 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 got through this entire article without once calling it ‘Blue Bom—*the editor runs into the room, grabs the keyboard and smashes it into a thousand pieces*
Table of Contents
