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Stepping backwards
Newest Mega Man does it old school
By Darin Kwilinski
Games like “Far Cry 2” or “Crisis” clearly show that developers have enough power to create worlds that eerily mimic our own. With that in mind, I refuse to believe that a great 3-D Mega Man (or even a good 3-D Sonic) can’t be made.
With the powerful technology of today, it’s truly amazing that 2-D gaming still exists. Many famous characters who got their start in 2-D have made successful transitions to the third dimension, likely never to look back at the days of left-to-right side-scrolling levels.
Yet as it turns out, those colorful sprites are tough buggers to kill, and it’s even safe to say that with the newest Mega Man game, 2-D gaming isn’t going anywhere. Ever.
If you haven’t heard, “Mega Man 9” is going old school. Real old school…like before some of you were born old school. The Blue Bomber is taking a two-decade leap backwards to his original home of 8-bit graphics, complete with NES-style music and sounds. As an avid gamer I have mixed, yet mostly negative feelings about this.
Before I continue, let me say that I love Mega Man. He’s been my favorite video game character since I first picked up an NES controller. I loved “Mega Man X4” on the original Playstation, and even enjoyed his first 3-D game, “Mega Man Legends.”
The PSP remake of “Mega Man X” (entitled “Mega Man Maverick Hunter X”) was a great way to reintroduce the series, dropping Mega Man into 3-D but keeping the side-scrolling aspect alive.
In the end, most of Mega Man’s forays into 3-D garnered mixed critical and player reactions for various reasons. None of them were quite ever in the league of Mario or Samus’ turns with new technology.
You were still playing a Mega Man game, but they were on average just that: average.
Now, remember how I was talking about how we have a lot of powerful technology today? Games like “Far Cry 2” or “Crisis” clearly show that developers have enough power to create worlds that eerily mimic our own. With that in mind, I refuse to believe that a great 3-D Mega Man (or even a good 3-D Sonic) can’t be made.
The choice to bring Mega Man back in 2-D seems like a major cop-out to keep the Blue Bomber perpetually in our peripheral gaming vision. It’s as if instead of attempting something new, Capcom wants to stay tethered to the ultimate tried and true method of NES glory days.
If the “Metroid,” “Super Mario” and “Ninja Gaiden” franchises can all make super-successful leaps to the third dimension, why can’t Mega Man or Sonic? Why not try to make a first-person shooter Mega Man on the Wii, a la “Metroid Prime?” Same conceptual character (a blaster for an arm), different world…
Or how about continuing the “X” series along the lines of the PSP remake, but for consoles? 3-D graphics in a side-scrolling setting are fun, pretty to look at, and nostalgic all at once. “Bionic Commando: Rearmed” recently went the way of “Maverick Hunter” by keeping the side scrolling element, but also gave the graphics that much needed 3-D boost. So far, it’s also scoring similarly as well.
There’s no doubt that 2-D games are a staple of video gaming history. The recently released “Castle Crashers” on Xbox Live reminisces kindly of the good old days of satisfying 2-D co-op the likes of “TMNT: The Arcade Game,” or “Double Dragon.” Yet, because of the marginal success of 3-D Mega Man games, it seems as if Capcom decided to resign themselves to the comparatively small nostalgic gamers market. What’s next, a new Street Fighter installment that looks like “Street Fighter II?” Oh, wait, HD remix. Right.
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