Is Mega Man Dead?

In recent days Capcom has broken many hearts. First Mega Man Legends 3 was cancelled and today it was revealed that Rock nor his X iteration will be included in the upcoming cashgrab, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. This is personally upsetting on many levels. One of my earliest gaming memories is renting Mega Man 3 and scribbling down the continue passwords in hopes of beating it one day. At about the age of ten, I experienced Mega Man X, and found it to be one my favorite games on the SNES (and it continues to be to this day.) Later I would love the Mega Man Legends series and the Mega Man Zero series on GBA. This is not to mention my retro collecting of the original series and the X series. I even own the Mega Man Complete Works art book and a model kit of Rock Man from Japan. I love the Blue Bomber.

 Earlier this year, Capcom canned Mega Man Universe, a downloadable game which gave players the ability to make their own Mega Man game Little Big Planet style. Many speculated it was due to the product being low quality, so I sucked up that lame excuse and carried on. I kept holding out for Mega Man Legends 3, knowing in my heart, Capcom wouldn't cancel something that so many people wanted for so long for (and still do.) How wrong I was...

MML 3 was using fan input to decide how characters worked and what type of cast the game would have; the project seemed like a labor of love right from the start and inspired me to take an interest in the creation process, even swearing to buy a 3DS when the Prototype version emerged on the eShop channel. However, long time Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune left Capcom last year, and things started to unravel. He despised the top guys at Capcom for their incompetence and lack of fan appreciation, and left to form his own studio. Without Inafune, suddenly everything Mega Man started to come an end, with the final nail in the coffin being MML3's cancellation which could be due to a lack of 3DS sales or an intentional stab at Inafune's legacy from spiteful corporate assholes.

The series hasn't sold too well in the past few years, with the exception of Mega Man 9. However, many fans (myself included) feel like Mega Man is the mascot for Capcom. It would be like Nintendo cancelling all of their Mario titles, fans would certainly question what the hell is going on in the corporate office. Capcom of Europe is blaming MML3 fans for the cancellation, citing a general lack of interest among gamers...I call bullshit on that excuse. For me, today's leak of the entire roster of UMvC 3 confirmed that Capcom no longer cares about the Mega Man franchise. Capcom ran polls on their site to see which popular characters should make into the MvC sequel, and Mega Man X ranked 2nd overall. This didn't seem to matter to Capcom who decided Frank West is a better character to have in the game, when no one really gives a shit about him.

Unlike Capcom, I will say farewell old friend. It has been a good ride, Rock. I will continue to throw in Mega Man 2 or Mega Man X whenever I need a good action game to remind me of why I love video games in the first place.

RIP MEGA MAN
December 1987-March 2010