In my previous post, I briefly touched on my frustration with Capcom's upcoming Mega Man Universe, however it would seem many of you -- myself included -- wanted a bit more. To be honest, I originally felt that what little footage you may have seen would really speak for itself, but I get that it would probably help if I really explained my own experience and reasoning.
Join me after the break.
As I mentioned before, Capcom has a penchant for taking their classic games and attempting to reinvent them with varying degrees of success. With Mega Man Universe, they've rebuilt their classic platformer from the ground up -- and that means having to recreate the original gameplay with a new and "improved" engine.
Upon sitting down to play the demo, I immedaitely noticed that the jump response seemed a bit lagged -- which any Mega Man fan could tell you is integral and can lead to any number of untimely deaths. I originally chalked this up to the controller, but later found that others had experienced the issue on other set ups through out the show.
In addition to being unresponsive, the jump itself lacked the precision control that the original games were known for. Instead of having the ability to modify the height of your jumps through the length of a button press, you're relegated to either a full jump or a very short hop. This made judging the distance which one would need to jump a bit more annoying. Adding to the annoyance would be the fact that the platforms would have undefined edges -- what would have allowed you to land on the edge of the platform in the original 8-bit games would instead cause you to slide off the edge and fall to your doom.
The gameplay issues are one thing, but I also found the visuals a bit offensive. I know it might seem a bit silly to some of you, but I honestly feel that Capcom didn't show enough care when designing them -- which honestly blows my mind. Keiji Inafune even spent an hour the other evening telling a crowd that he wants every game to have that classic Capom feel, like it came out of Japan. They often gets on Capcom USA's case for not living up to their expectations, but this title is being developed in Japan.
Frankly, their previous remakes for the PSP looked a million times better. Why they couldn't just use the same engine or build upon it is beyond me, but again, it's like they're reinventing that wheel in some kind of lame attempt to pull on our nostalgic heartstrings. And, if my previous experience with their classic remakes holds true, what they've shown us in development will likely remain largely unchanged in terms of gameplay. In short, I'm not expecting any changes for the better. Let's hope I'm wrong.
Contest:
7:25 PM on 09.17.2010 | 
MM8's graphics are almost as bad as MM7's. I'm glad 8 out of 10 main games in the series have been 8-bit.
As far as the aesthetics I personally think they look pretty solid. I don't have a problem with the various megamen. The stages, enemies, etc. everything I've seen so far looks the same as it did in MM2. The wood panel walls look just like they did in Wood Man's stage those yellow line bricks look fresh out of Crash Man's stage. I'm just not sure how simple 2D 8bit sprites are supposed to translate into anything but simple 3D sprites.
Lets not forget that this is a made for download title with an emphasis on player created content. It needs to be graphicly simple to keep the dl size down and easy for players to build levels with minimal headache.
In six months if the game looks and plays identical to what we have now then maybe it would be a good time to start writing up articles of concern about the direction it's taking.
I fixed it for you blogger dude.
I'm really hoping they fix these things and use the original controls.
I'm totally hyped for this and stuff
In response to that: FFFUUUUUU-
That sounds very not good. Jump control's got to be solid. The latest Canabalt did the same exact thing, where jump height was either fu or hop, where it used to have varied control. It's a small difference; and for Canabalt, it's nearly negligible. But for Mega Man, it's breaking a finely crafted system.
I'd say there's still hope there. There's just got to be a few fans on that dev team that understand the nuance involved in good 2d Mega Man platforming. This is a first playable build, and I hope HARD that control tuning is at the top of the bug queue.
The look and everything, I'm still fine with that. Looks good, and I couldlive with the 2D 3D mashup. So long as they reign in the control issues, this could still be decent.
YOU BITE YOUR TONGUE!!!
MM7 & 8 weren't bad, but.... who am i kidding the sucked as MM games. If you want "updated" or "nicer" graphics go play Megaman X or any of the other Megaman (insert letter) games. Straight up Megaman NEEDS to be 8-bit.
That said, I hope they polish the gameplay issues overtime.
That, or I'll be very angry when I buy it regardless of reviews :D
The first Dead Rising wasn't very good from a design standpoint, looks like he is having trouble staying relevant.
Like Sonic 4, though, this game still looks like fun. Hell, it's Mega Man. I can't see how it wouldn't aside from the jumping mechanism you mentioned.