Stuck In 2D: Mega Man
Over the years many iconic video game franchises have tried and failed miserably to enter the 3rd Dimension. Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we’re taking a look at the Megaman Franchise’s attempts to break from its 8-bit past.
Known to this day as Rock Man in Japan, due to his creator’s love for music, Capcom unleashed the industry shaking blue bomber all the way back in 1987 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Their mission was simple, to create a new type of skill-based platforming adventure.
Now, decades later Megaman remains the company’s most important franchise, and the mascot continues to make countless appearances across various video game platforms, most notably on the DS and PSP portable consoles.
Ironically, Megaman is probably the one vintage game with most potential to be properly converted to 3D. Unfortunately, all of his attempts have been mediocre at best.
His first and most famous entry into 3D came in 1997 for the original PlayStation console. Released as “Megaman Legends” the game was later ported to the N64 under the title of “Megaman 64”.
While initially promising to blow gamers away, the game just couldn’t hold a candle to its then competitor Super Mario 64, a game credited to be the pinnacle of technical excellence and faithfulness to the original source material.
Megaman Legend’s blocky graphics and waterworld inspired plot left much to be desired. It was just too far removed from the classic story of Megaman defending the world from the destructive creations of the evil genius Dr. Wily.
Unfazed, Capcom released “Megaman Legends 2” in 2000. And while gamers were eager to give them a second chance, the marked shift to the action RPG genre failed to make good on the franchise’s potential or rekindle the flame ignited back in the 80s.
Sadly, Capcom inexplicably gave up with only 2 mediocre attempts behind them and the series slowly began reverting back to side-scrolling with the 3D hybrid entry “Megaman X8” and Turn-based role playing game “Megaman X: Command Mission”. At the same time they flooded the market with portable spin-offs like “The Battle Network Franchise”.
Basically, they committed to producing as many side-scrolling adventures as possible for portable consoles and ignored the home machine until 2009 when they started producing download-only 8-bit releases with Megaman 9.
With no sign of the Capcom wishing to continue experimenting in 3D, we’re left wondering when Megaman will finally make the leap and re-invent itself properly. The best advice we can give them is to stay faithful to the original source material and gameplay-style of the original NES game.
