
Has the Rockman finally come back... to Nintendo consoles?
December 6, 2007 | 11:08 AM PST
This one remains a Rumor with a capital "R," but given the strange sort of way that Rockman (and hence, Mega Man) news tends to trickle down in the strangest of ways before an official announcement is made, it's not too hard to believe this to be true. On the other hand, it IS considerably more rare for the US "Mega Man" interation to get first mention, so get equipped with "Grain of Salt" before reading further and challenging Rumor Man.
Rockman Synergy Commons, via NeoGAF and C3 News, has come across an interesting tidbit in the form of a purported Retailer List featuring a number of new Capcom games. Among no-brainers such as MegaMan Star Force 2 for the DS and not-unexpected titles like Zack & Wiki 2 for the Wii lies one new yet familiar gem, shining amidst the other titles like a diamond in the rough: Mega Man Scramble Battle.
However, as RMSC notes, sites that have hosted the list have had to take them down, but at least one seems to have defined the genre of this new title: "Action/RPG."
This leaves a number of questions, not the least of which is "what series will it fall under?" Fans have clammored for a new entry in the X, Legends, and "Classic" series for some time now, while Zero and Battle Network have concluded their business and moved on to new iterations in ZX and Star Force, respectively, which have been the current franchise focus going into Mega Man's 20th anniversary.
But, knowing Capcom, it's entirely possible that this game won't be a part of ANY prior series, instead launching a new series in the franchise, as they're more often wont to do rather than putting an established series at risk.
The rumor has the title set for a Q4 2008-Q1 2009 release, which seems like just about the right amount of lead time between the public finding out about a new title and its impending release.
While many of the most recent non-portable Mega Man games have found homes on Sony's PlayStation and PS2 consoles, the Wii format for a new game fits in with what Producer Keiji Inafune stated in an interview, wherein he proposed that PS3 owners are likely to be those with more money, and not necessarily suited for the Mega Man series, whereas the Wii has some potential, and is a platform wherein the target audience could embrace the series.
RMSC attempted to verify this pseudo-announcement with Capcom themselves, but alas, "they do not comment on rumors." Big surprise there.
The funny thing about these Mega Man announcements is that often, some small clue gets out (ZX started with a pair of small screenshots with little information from Jeux-France, for example, before the internet started exploding with the info) and then it's not very long at all before Capcom comes forward with the news themselves. So if this info does indeed hold any truth, there's a decent possibility that we will hear more within the coming weeks.
source: Rockman Synergy Commons
Editor's Take: A new Mega Man game for Wii? Sounds interesting... and "action/rpg," that sounds similar to what Legends could be described as. One doesn't dare hope, though...
On the other hand, to some it could also describe the Battle Network series fairly well, and between all the installments that got, plus Star Force, I think I'd rather see something different on the Wii.
Some sort of return to the Classic timeline would be welcome as well, but again, do we dare to hope?
And while "action" wasn't so much the name of the game, I can sort of draw a line between the title of X's "Command Mission" and "Scramble Battle." Again, does one dare to hope?
















