We have, for all intents and purposes, run out of ways to ask the team behind Capcom’s impending return to simpler times, Mega Man 9, what their inspiration and goals are. It’s been damn well covered in the past month. Keiji Inafune, Capcom, and Inti Creates wanted to get back to the series' roots. They wanted to give something special back to the fans. They want to see if they can best Mega Man 2. The journalistic soil, as it were, has been tilled. But it would seem that the team has not exhausted their supply of interesting answers to the questions. Christian Nutt ran an excellent interview with Mega Man 9 producer Hirnobu Takeshita yesterday that covered much of the same territory but revealed two fascinating tidbits about the game. The first is that, though the game looks, sounds, and gives a solid impression of being a bonafide NES game, it isn’t one. It is, according to Takeshita, “too big”. The most exciting part of the interview, though, comes later when Nutt asks how far the team has gone to emulate an NES-style game:
Nutt: You talked about how people were trying to graphically exceed the capabilities of the Famicom, but what about the temptation to exceed some other capabilities, such as flicker, slowdown, sprite limits, and stuff like that? Was it really hard to get people to stay within the confines of what they could have done, if this had come out after Mega Man 6 in 1993?
Takeshita: Yeah, there were some things, like you couldn't have more than three enemies on the screen at once, so we had to make sure that that's how it stayed in our game. In the part with the dragon with the flame, [there should be] flickering, and whatnot. In the options of this game, you can adjust that, unlike the old games. We purposely put some of those old-school bugs into this game, so it does recreate that feel.
Mega Man 9 was already a shining beacon pointing towards one of popular game design's most exciting new trends. That is, using the limitations of older platforms to re-examine and revitalize old play styles. Taking it to this extent is more than encouraging. Something I discuss with my misanthropic colleague Mr. Smith on a regular basis is the fairly rigid design found in modern games. Developers often polish their creations to the point of excising the exploitable glitches that made many of yesteryear’s games so fun to explore. Takeshita, Inafune, and Inti Creates have recognized one of classic gaming’s greatest lessons: sometimes making a mess of your work makes for better art. Now we’ll have to wait and see if other developers follow suit. Intentional slowdown ho!
Related links:
Mega Man 9 Box Art is Further Proof That Inmates Have Taken Over the Capcom Asylum
Don’t Call It Retro: Mega Man 9 and Design Resurrection
The Ten Greatest Classic Mega Man Levels, Part 1
The Ten Greatest Classic Mega Man Levels, Part 2
The Ten Greatest Classic Mega Man Levels, Part 3
Mega Man 9 Goes Back To Your Roots. Way Back.
New Mega Man 9 Trailer: I'm Drowning in My Childhood
Don’t Call It Retro: Mega Man 9 and Design Resurrection