Capcom is Really Missing a Trick with Mega Man X DiVE

As I was watching the latest Mega News Roundup (go give it a gander, if you haven’t already), a few thoughts crossed my mind.

One was, “Dang, I really need to get that impressions piece for Mega Man X DiVE on Steam done.”

Another was “Oh boy, this is just the kind of Mega Man X DiVE event I love!” Not because I care about the new character’s design — I really don’t, I am very indifferent — but because it’s a period in which I get to just sit back and bank Element Metals until something I do really want comes along.

But the main one that stuck with me was when ShadowRock says “when are we going to give chances to more characters to have seasonal alts?”

And that’s when it hit me. As cool as some of the seasonal and other alts for events that Capcom Taiwan has come up with are, why not give fans a chance to submit designs for their favorite characters from across the Mega-verse for these events? Or heck, even for some of the characters original to the game (you know who I’m talking about).

Think about it: Capcom could basically tell us what they’re looking for, give some examples, and let fans go crazy. Heck, they could take the fan interaction a step further by letting fans vote on their favorite designs, with the winners getting some sort of in-game prize (a free pull of the character they designed being a good start).

Furthermore, I imagine some fine-tuning by Mega Man X DiVE artist Keisuke Mizuno would be an expected part of the process — they could sweeten the deal by giving the winners a print or something of the official Capcom rendition of their design, as it would appear in the game. What true Blue Bomber fan wouldn’t love to have something like that in their collection?

This would be far from the first time Capcom has done something like this. Granted, fan involvement hasn’t always gone as well as we would like, but it has nevertheless been a longstanding tradition in the franchise that dates all the way back to the beginning, as you can see in the advertisement looking for boss designs over on the right here.

And it hasn’t always been limited to Japan, either. As many longtime fans know, a western version of the contest was held by Capcom and Nintendo Power magazine way back in the day, giving us two of the Robot Masters that appeared in Mega Man 6, Knight Man and Wind Man. (For more on that, be sure to read Press Start’s interview with the creator of Knight Man here.)

It hasn’t just been Robot Masters that Capcom has held contests for, nor for just the Classic series. This entry on the Mega Man Knowledge Base shows that The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, Mega Man Battle Network, Mega Man Star Force, and Rockman Xover have all had their own contests for fan-submitted ideas.

That said, there may be a very good reason for why we haven’t seen this sort of community outreach from Capcom with Mega Man X DiVE. In the writing of this article, ShadowRock pointed out to me that they actually did have such a contest prior to the game’s original release, albeit for a weapon.

As ShadowRock recalls, the first place winner had allegedly been caught stealing the design from another person and modifying it into their own thing. They were subsequently disqualified, and their rewards revoked. This, he posits, might be why we haven’t seen another such contest since.

For what it’s worth, Capcom Taiwan has done contests along the lines of what I’m suggesting here, such as with the “Burning Bride of June” event. However, that did not end with any of the winners’ designs making it into the game, making it a fun exercise, but maybe not as impactful as it could have been.

With that said, one would hope that one experience with an alleged bad-faith player going sour wouldn’t be enough to completely derail a longtime Mega Man tradition, and that Capcom will allow those who love Mega Man the most another chance to leave their mark in Blue Bomber history.