Capcom on how it approached Mega Man 11, what makes a Mega Man game
Mega Man 11 is the first core entry in the series since 2010. How do you come back to the series and where do you start? That’s something producer Kazuhiro Tsuchiya addressed in a new interview with Polygon.
On the topic of how the team got started, Tsuchiya mentioned:
“We wanted to see what fans were saying. We wanted to do some more marketing research and figure out, ‘OK, what do the fans want? What kind of Mega Man game would they like to see? What about people who know of the brand but haven’t played the game? What kind of games do they play and what are they interested in? If they were to play a Mega Man game, what kind of aspects of the franchise would they find fun?’ And on top of that, I mean just the fact that there hasn’t been a brand new Mega Man game in a very long time. Would it make sense to kind of throw a curveball and make a brand-new Mega Man that no one’s aware of?’
So, in commemorating the 30th anniversary, we felt like it made the most sense to create a numbered classic Mega Man game, but a game that would not just tap into the nostalgia of the franchise, but to also jumpstart it and kick it forward.”
Tsuchiya and director Koji Oda also shared their thoughts on what they believe makes a Mega Man game:
“For me. I think it’s having simple actions. Having actions that have a one-to-one responsiveness between what the player wants to do and it appearing on screen, so that they’re able to have that satisfying level of gameplay where you can feel that like, ‘Oh, I am definitely getting better at this.’ And pairing that up with charismatic characters.” – Oda
“For me. I think it’s having that iconic blue character represent that hero that every kid wants to be. I think that’s what really represents Mega Man.” – Tsuchiya
