USgamer Explores the History of Inti Creates

The year 2015 marks the 20th anniversary of Inti Creates, a company formed out of previous Capcom employees who had not only worked with the Mega Man franchise with the second installment of the Mega Man X series, but also helped to shape its future with the Mega Man Zero series, the Mega Man ZX series, and the last two games in the Mega Man Classic series. In the time since then, they’ve gone on to work on new Mega Man-esque titles such as Azure Striker Gunvolt and the upcoming Mighty No. 9 from Comcept.

USgamer’s Jeremy Parish has taken this opportunity to talk with some of the minds behind the relatively small studio about their early years in the industry at Capcom, the true reason behind their decision to form their own company, and plenty of other interesting topics. See the Japanese-exclusive fruits of their first labor in the PlayStation title Speed Power Gunbike, how they came to work with Capcom again on the Mega Man series, how they worked around Capcom’s decision to continue with the X series after Mega Man X5, how they came up with the way to end the Mega Man Zero series, what Azure Striker Gunvolt means to them as a project that’s entirely their own, and much more.

Speaking of Azure Striker Gunvolt, there’s an interesting bit on how its difficulty is different from Mega Man Zero‘s, and what they were trying for:

“The Zero series and Gunvolt are based on two very different concepts,” says Tsuda. “When we created the Zero series, our mission was to create a difficult action game — a really satisfying, difficult action game. So we had items like the Cyber Elves that would help you out, but using them would incur penalties. So basically to be able to accomplish the game, you have to become a better player… a good action game player.  

“However, with Gunvolt, I deliberately changed the concept. We added game systems that would make it possible for anyone to clear the game. My image for the game was that people who can play halfway through Super Mario Bros. could clear this game. That’s the difficult level I was shooting for. However, I also wanted skilled players to be satisfied, so that was a secondary goal.

“But maybe it didn’t come through that way. Maybe it turned out to be a difficult action game. The whole team, everybody, we all love Mega Man. We’re fans! So as we were working on Gunvolt, it just became more and more difficult. I had to be the one to try and pull them away from making it too difficult.  

“But at some point, I kind of gave up. It was like, ‘OK, that’s what the guys want to create, so let’s just do it that way.’ I think because everyone loves Mega Man, if you don’t tame them, they end up basically just creating another Mega Man game! So really, my role with the team was pull them away from just making a Mega Man game,” Tsuda jokes.

To read the full article, which is full of several interesting bits of information for both fans of the company and their Mega Man output, just click right here.

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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