Mighty No. 9's star is an important character to creator Keiji Inafune
Mega Man's spiritual successor Mighty No. 9 is currently crowd-funding on Kickstarter, care of Keiji Inafune's studio Comcept. The developer has shed light on how the passion that exists for Mega Man has led to the game's creation, and that the lead character Beck is important to him.
We reported on the Mighty No. 9's Kickstarter campaign here, and at the time of writing the project has amassed $826,252 of its $900,000 goal with 29 days to go.
Speaking with Polygon at PAX Prime, Inafune explained that despite not working at Capcom any more, fans would often meet him and ask for a new Mega Man game. "After I left Capcom, I would go to lots of different game events and almost always fans would come up to me and ask me about Mega Man, Dead Rising and the wide variety of franchises I was attached to when I was at Capcom. No matter how many times I would explain to them 'I don't work for Capcom anymore,' their passion would totally overwhelm that knowledge."
When asked why he went down the Kickstarter route, Inafune replied, "When I thought about Kickstarter, which is a system where you're basically putting your money where your mouth is. You say 'I will take that financial responsibility and burden with you, the creator, and we'll work together to make this thing come true.' It's not like posters who will just post on a message board and say 'Where is Mega Man? Where is this? Where is that?' That's easy.
"These are people who are willing to take the plunge with the creator to make something they love. That was what really led me to think this is really perfect for doing something new that I know the fans have been asking for for a long time."
Mighty No. 9's lead character Beck is one of a line of robots unaffected by a deadly computer virus that has caused robots all over the planet to go haywire. In true Mega Man fashion there will be six stages initially that can be tackled in any order, and of course, it's a platformer.
On Beck, Inafune continued, "When you're an artist or a designer, you have your own style. The style of character that is Mega Man is, that is my spirit. When creating Beck, I wanted to create something that had that spirit, but was an original character. Trying to balance that isn't easy. If you say, 'We can't make this look like Mega Man' then you're going to get something that doesn't have my spirit or my art style."
He added, "For me, this is a very important character for me to give birth to. The important thing to know is that right now, at this stage, nothing is locked down. Nothing is finished. We have confidence in what we've been able to build so far, but one of the key approaches to Kickstarter is you need to work with the fans and get their feedback. There's still quite a ways to go with the design."
What do you make of The Mighty No. 9 so far? Are you glad to see Inafune making a spiritual successor to Mega Man? Let us know what you think below.
The game is pegged for PC release through Steam in Spring 2015.