Has the Time Come for Mega Man to Get a Pinball Game?

A week ago, I posed the question about whether there would be interest in Capcom developing a unique entry in the arcade beat ’em up genre around Mega Man. Now, following a playful tweet from gaming historian Frank Cifaldi about a “Mega Man Legacy Collection 5,” the question has arisen about the Blue Bomber entering another genre largely unfamiliar to him: Pinball.

The concept isn’t entirely foreign, however; the screen shot at right comes from Mega Man Pinball, a mobile title released only in Japan and Europe, and one of several such titles Cifaldi suggested for the hypothetical collection.

As nice as that would be, however, Matthew Green of Press The Buttons is thinking a little bit bigger. For some time now, he’s been a vocal proponent of the idea that the worlds of flippers and tilts should cross with Busters and jet sleds, and that the developers of Zen Pinball should create a special Mega Man table for their digital recreations of the genre.

And why not? Zen Studios has already collaborated with other game developers to create pinball versions of Plants vs. Zombies, Ninja Gaiden, and even Capcom’s own Super Street Fighter II. The groundwork of a relationship is there, it’s just a matter of getting the right people to talk and agree on it.

Incidentally, as awesome as Zen Studios’ virtual tables are, there’s just something so uniquely cool about a real, tangibly physical pinball table that you can interact with. While Capcom coming together with a major pinball manufacturer such as Bally Manufacturing seems a bit less likely for any number of possible reasons, that hasn’t stopped one Kevin Richardson of Well Fed Games from working a little customization magic on a 1979 Flash machine by Williams to achieve the same end:

According to Richardson, Flash is an ideal candidate for repurposing, as “[t]hey made a ton of them, it plays great, and the artwork is horrible.”

But what do you think? Are you a fan of pinball at all? Would you like to see Mega Man get his due with a real or Zen virtual pinball table, or even a port of Mega Man Pinball? Or do you think that a real table is the only way to go? Sound off in the comments!

Edit: And since I’m already seeing blowback on Twitter of the “Capcom should make a regular Mega Man game first” sort — even though the above hypothetical would seem to largely leave them out of expending much in the way of resources on it — I’ll reiterate what I said in last week’s question of the sort: “And assuming that you’re going to say ‘no, they should just focus on making regular Mega Man games first,’ let’s say they do that, and all is well. Would you be interested then?”

LBD "Nytetrayn"

David Oxford, or “LBD ‘Nytetrayn’,” as he is sometimes also known, is a freelance writer of many varied interests who resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

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