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Keiji Inafune making spiritual successor to Mega Man via Kickstarter

The creator of Mega Man and former Capcom producer Keiji Inafune announced his next game at PAX Prime today. It’s called Mighty No. 9 and looks as close to an authentic spiritual successor to Mega Man as fans are ever going to get.

The Mega Man creator calls his game a classic Japanese side-scrolling action game, and it appears heavily influenced by his work on Mega Man and Mega Man X. In a video presentation played during Inafune’s panel, he expressed regret that he couldn’t complete work on games like Mega Man Universe and Mega Man Legends 3, games that utilized fan feedback to help design the game. He’s hoping to address that with Mighty No. 9, a game that will solicit feedback and design ideas from fans who help fund it.

Inafune and his studio Comcept are turning to Kickstarter to crowdfund development of Mighty No. 9 and solicit fan feedback. The fundraiser for Mighty No. 9, which has a goal of $900,000, kicked off today after a countdown (from the number nine) at Inafune’s PAX panel.

According to the recently launched Kickstarter drive, Mighty No. 9 puts players in the role of Beck, the ninth in a line of powerful robots who is resilient to a computer virus that has wreaked havoc on mechanized creatures. "Run, jump, blast, and transform your way through six stages (or more, via stretch goals) you can tackle in any order you choose, using weapons and abilities stolen from your enemies to take down your fellow Mighty Number robots and confront the final evil that threatens the planet!" the Kickstarter description reads.

Like Mega Man, Beck will be able to steal the powers of the enemy robots he defeats. But Beck will take the use of those abilities further, transforming parts of his body. "For example, his limbs might become giant magnets, enabling him to walk up walls or rip away enemy shields," the developer says. "Or maybe extendible spring-loaded hands would allow him to activate far-away switches or work as a grappling hook. Or he could have a tank-like body, easily crossing over spikes and pushing objects around the levels."

The game is being developed by "an all-star team of veteran Mega Man devs...and YOU!" according to the game’s Kickstarter page. Through surveys, polls and contests, the development team will filter fan feedback during the development of the game.

Mighty No. 9 is in development for Windows PC through Steam and DRM-free digital distribution channels, but developer Comcept says it will consider consoles, Mac and Linux a "high priority, but only if we can afford them via stretch goals."

The game is scheduled for an estimated release in spring 2015.