Give me the Blue Bomber back! (F@#k you Capcom part 1)

The very first video game I ever recall seeing, and definitely first I ever played, was not the usual Super Mario Bros, but Mega Man 2.  Everything about that game set me up to be addicted to video games for the rest of my life.  You turn that game on, you're greeted by an opening way cooler than anything else out on video games at the time.  That slow rise, then the music and energy pumping up, and then Mega Man without his helmet just staring out onto the city, badass music going.  You know he's out to whoop some ass.

Bad-fucking-ass.

 

That game left it's mark on me, and I've been a huge Mega Man fan ever since.  I've got 3 of the NES carts, X-X3 on SNES, X4, 5 and 6 on PS1, and both the Mega Man regular and X collections on PS2.  MM9 and 10 are awesome as well (except Sheep Man).  To me, those games have always stood for the best parts about games; fluid awesome controls, very challenging gameplay, amazing music, and tons of secrets.  I'll never truly understand what drives people nuts about Mario, but I think what they feel for him is how I feel about the Blue Bomber.

You's a bitch, and so is your Aunt.

Almost as if Rock was growing up with me, as I reached adolescence, the game rebooted with the X series.  Just as I wanted something with a little more story and more maturity, they hit me with Zero, Sigma, and Vile.  That moment when you first see Zero and he blows off Goliath's arm, it blew me away.  It was soooooo damn cool.  You bust your ass to get strong like him, and when the time finally comes to fight Vile, Zero sacrifices himself for you.  I swear this was the first time someone ever died in a video game (I guess Final Fantasy II for the SNES was up, but I hadn't played it).  I was destroyed.  I was in love with how cool Zero was, and then he DIES?!  ARRRRGHHG;LGJH.  You then blow through Vile with extreme prejudice....and then the music.  My GAWD.  That exact moment is where Mega Man goes from a kids' game to something more.

While the rest of the series on the SNES carried the same amount of quality, it didn't go so well for the PS1 era.  I friggin loved X4; it had MOTHERFUCKING CUTSCENES!!!  All I thought was that if they kept up this pace, the games would be unstoppable.  Unfortunately I was wrong.  They were running out of ideas, and you could tell Capcom was pulling money from the projects.  Everything was rehashed and reskinned, and no more awesome cutscenes.  It might've been cool on the NES, but it's time to be a little more innovative after almost 15 games.

This shit was so badass back in the day.

Skip forward to today....what do we have?  Mega-fucking-nothing.  Why?  We had two games to look forward to, that were gonna bring new life to the series, and Capcom cancels both of them.  If you're unfamiliar, they were Mega Man Universe and Mega Man Legends 3.  I remember the online community being pretty excited, especially the people at Capcom Unity (I was visiting a lot at the time for MvC3 news).  Then, out of fucking nowhere, 2 cancels and Keiji Inafune "leaves".  I quote that because there's no way it wasn't Capcom's fault for dicking him out on his creativity.  The guy loves Capcom, loves Mega Man, and wants them to all be successful while keeping quality up (there's a Neogaf interview of him talking about how Japan's industry has turned to reward laziness instead of hard work) and Capcom shuts down Legends 3, for some bullshit reasons.  He even said that he was trying to contract with Capcom to make sure the game still sees the light of day, and they decided not to. Inafune wanted to keep Mega Man going!

So after all the fan support over the years, tons of time and money invested by people all over the world, Capcom is essentially killing the Blue Bomber.  Their own god damn mascot, ridiculous.  With all the Street Fighter on disc DLC bullshit, "Ultimate" Marvel 3's, paid demos, and insane cheapness they've been pulling lately, it's like they're daring people to hate them.  Maybe I'm just being a pessimistic fanboy....I mean, look what they're doing for Mega Man's 25th anniversary!!

Fuck you Capcom.  Fuck you for selling out.  Your company now has the image of a company that I hate; only out for money, fuck the consumer.  As every company should have it's number one priority in profits, that's about normal, but you guys cross the line.  You abandon icons so you can make more money on "guaranteed successes" and sell us incomplete products to nickel and dime your loyal fans for the unlock codes to the rest of their game.
Fire all senior management, get people in their who want to have a respectable company that's not detested by the industry and it's fans, and GIVE ME THE BLUE BOMBER BACK!