Capcom’s Considerations on Real-Life Mega Man 10 Stages

We hope you enjoyed April Fools this year. Some question the validity of our reporting on this day. Was it really made up? We’ll never tell you…

Instead, we’ll focus on Inside Games, who came up with this very amusing article about Capcom of Japan teaming up with Maeda Corporation, a nearly 100 year old construction company, to consider what it would be like to create real-life version of the stages from Mega Man. The article contains much practical discussion of who would theoretically purchase such stages and for what purpose. It was concluded that Dr. Wily himself was the one buying the construction of the stages.

If Dr. Wily is the buyer, then the next issue is one of budget. Just how does he raise the essential costs for construction? It seems like just the cost of the stages he (presumably) provides the eight Robot Masters every time around would bankrupt him. Where does he raise the money from? Perhaps the reason Wily can’t make very good robots is because he spends too much capital on the stages.

We recall in the previous game that Dr. Wily falsely accused Dr. Light of wrongdoing, and solicited for donations to stop the evil robots. Perhaps this is how Dr. Wily was able to leverage his costs this time around.

Next, Maeda Corporation looked at some of the stages to see what kind of issues they’d bring up in a real life construction scenario.

How a game player and a construction company looks at things is very different. For example, in Blade Man’s stage the gimmicks like spikes and pitfalls are what’s troublesome to the player. But for a construction company, what’s troublesome is the idea of repairing an old castle. Blade Man is a guide robot for a World Heritage site. Therefore it’d reason that his stage is that World Heritage site. Naturally, making repairs on a World Heritage site is a huge issue.

After all is said and done it’s a piece of human history, and it can’t just be given weird modifications arbitrarily. What kind of laws and ordinances are there? It’s definitely complicated.

The next stage of interest to Maeda Corporation is Commando Man’s. This is a desert stage. Here the interests of the player and the construction company are the same: the sand is a hindrance to them both. Sand is bad on machines. Even the most amazing construction equipment is weak to sand. Also, since the terrain is sand the foundation would have to be struck pretty deeply in order to assure stability. This would be very costly. Adding onto that, deserts often have underground water, this becomes an additional problem for stability. Furthermore, the stage would have to make use of a sunken caisson for the buildings created above ground, since building structures in the sand is very difficult. This too would be very costly.

A third stage of interest is Nitro Man’s. A stage based around a freeway is something in the realm of possibility for the Maeda Corporation. During Japan’s bubble economy, there were times where double-decker freeways and bullet trains were considered, but this stage is a four level structure. However, this may not be technically impossible.

There was also discussion on how certain gimmicks in Mega Man stages would work, like the Boon Blocks (disappearing and reappearing blocks). It was considered that realistically, these blocks would be sliding out of the wall from the background.

Mr. Nagamatsu of Maeda Corporation reasoned “Couldn’t it be a hydraulic hack or a linear motor?” Hydraulics are suited for moving heavy objects, but can’t performs speedy movements. It could perhaps be a linear motor. Truly the modern mechanisms scatter throughout Mega Man’s world are amazing.

Also under further examination are the spikes, seen here and there in stages, and having the ability to fell even Mega Man, weighing roughly 271 pounds, in a single hit. Would kind of special design could be used for this. It is perhaps some special kind of metal alloy. During the discussion, it was also considered that they could be strengthened by running an electric current through them or coating them with a toxic substance.

TMMN Staff