The Tale of the Canceled Mega Man Game

There have been plenty of canceled Mega Man games over the years, from the Korean Massively Multiplayer Online game to Mega Man Universe, a “Mega Man Maker” of sorts that predated Super Mario Maker. And of course, we can’t forget the crown prince of canceled Mega Man games, Mega Man Legends 3. At this point, you’d be forgiven for thinking that we’ve heard all there is to hear about Mega Man games canceled by Capcom over the course of the Blue Bomber’s 30+ year history.

You’d think that. And you’d be wrong.

According to Protodude’s Rockman Corner and its source, The Shadow, a fourth entry in the Mega Man Star Force was underway at Capcom between 2009 and 2010, with official, authentic production art by Shinsuke Komaki for it presented here. However, the less-than-stellar sales of both Mega Man Star Force 3 and the crossover/remake Rockman EXE: Operate Shooting Star saw Capcom cancel the production — and thus the series — midway through development.

The story was aiming for a more mature tone, featuring a Geo Stelar who’s a little bit older and a little more hardened, complete with a new design (including new Visualizer) to reflect this.

More striking is his partner in crime, Kazuma — the kid on the left — who is a direct descendant of Lan Hikari (and, presumably, Mayl Sakurai).

And “partner in crime” isn’t just a figure of speech here. Kazuma’s is a genius hacker who crosses paths with Geo (perhaps the Operate Shooting Star crossover beforehand was meant to help facilitate this meeting in some way?), and the two become outlaw hackers on the run from the Satella Police. The bounty on their heads sounds pretty hefty — 8,000,000 Zenny each — but with how inflation works, who really knows?

The “hacking” aspect was said to play a key role in the game, similar to “Noise” from Mega Man Star Force 3. While The Shadow doesn’t recall just how it would have worked functionally, it’s probably safe to assume that it would be different and a little more over the top than how it works in real life.

Unfortunately, that’s all there really is to say about the game, at least for now. Maybe one day, we’ll hear more about this, or even other Mega Man games that were once in development. Who knows? Maybe there was even a Mega Man 11 in development before the one we got.

Thanks for the heads-up, Roberto!

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.

For a full list of places to find him online, click here.