PixlBit

Matt is PO’d again, and the house of Mega Man is in his sights.

If there was one video game company during the NES era that seemed to almost one-up Nintendo in terms of quality games, it was Capcom. Whether it was releasing games starring the blue bomber himself or making great licensed Disney games, they could do no wrong. They continued this with the SNES, the Playstation 1, the Gamecube, the DS – and people loved them.

You may have noticed in the list of systems that I skipped over a few. For everything they do right, Capcom does something wrong, and boy do they make it count! Remember the Capcom 5? I sure do! Nothing felt better as a Gamecube owner to see Capcom screw you over. Only one title out of the five remained a Gamecube exclusive, one got cancelled and the rest got ported to the PS2. Karma, however, is what I call a bitch. The released Capcom 5 games flopped, with the PS2 versions selling worse than the Gamecube versions. Okami and God Hand? For a system that had a huge user base, those games sure had sales that stank!

Okami’s PS2 sales were way below what the game deserved, this being on a game system that was more popular than the Wii.

But enough about bad memories and broken promises, let’s talk about Mega Man Legends 3! The development team is getting fan input on how the 3DS game is going to be designed and so forth. Great idea! After all, its been about ten years since the last Mega Man Legends game, though having never played the Legends game myself (or the underappreciated MisAdventures of Tron Bonne), right now the released screenshots show a very charming game.

Its just too bad, because it seems that Capcom’s board of directors is run by people who don’t know anything about video game development or giving their fanbase what they want. Mega Man Legends 3 was going to launch a “Prototype Version” demo on the Nintendo eShop, but the game has been delayed to god knows when. Now, in some ways this is a smart idea; launching with the eShop were Link’s Awakening and Super Mario Land, two great games that will be stiff competition. Link’s Awakening is worth the price of admission alone (and is it ever!), but I would’ve dropped some money for the demo… oh wait, no I wouldn’t. I don’t pay money for a demo.

Yes, you heard me right, pay for a demo. You can bitch about how Nintendo was being lax with eShop details, but a demo! I have to pay for a demo?! I was willing to pay for Link’s Awakening easily because it is a fully developed title that has been around for more then fifteen years (and partly because my original Game Boy cart is dying), but a demo for an unreleased game! Sorry Capcom, I don’t want to-….too bad you are not giving me much of a choice in the matter. The following links are from Siliconera’s news stories reported around March of this year. If you are a normal human being, which is surprisingly what some of Capcom Unity’s staff are, Mega Man Legends 3 not being green lit and Capcom Japan thinking Mega Man isn’t popular in North America seems to have even made them a bit confused and shocked.

This type of consumer gouging would be shocking coming from companies that don’t embrace the DLC craze (which in and of itself is another editorial for another time), but this is Capcom. I still have fresh memories of Resident Evil 5, and boy was she a beauty! Three missions that could easily be placed on the main disc, but no, more money is needed! Then you have the guts to re-release RE5 with the DLC already attached. Seriously Capcom, why are you making it so easy for me to dislike you so much?

Yet, at the end of the day, I may have to swallow my pride when the MML3 Prototype Demo is launched and pay for it. I, for one, do not want to see this game cancelled since it looks like an immensely enjoyable game with a lot of charm, and the developer’s room is a very nice idea; I would probably feel awful if my input was thrown in the trash because some company execs don’t think a game is popular enough to warrant a release.

Too bad Capcom doesn’t seem to care.