Following hot on the heels of the franchise’s retro revival from one year ago, Capcom is releasing a 10^th game in the classic Mega Man series. Just like Mega Man 9, which was saw life on the Wii, X-Box 360, and PlayStation 3, Mega Man 10 is going to go with the same NES-era aesthetic for all of its graphics and music in an effort to capture the gameplay of the originals. Also revealed is the fact that there will be multiple characters playable from the start, as well as a Robot Master named “Sheep Man.” Mega Man and Proto Man so far have been revealed as playable characters, with a third mystery character. Likely characters include Roll (who has been earning fighting experience in Tatsunoko vs Capcom) and rival Bass (whose schematics could be seen in the ending of Mega Man 9).

Of particular note is the hilariously bad box art which pays tribute to the cover designs of old. Originally known as Rockman, localization in the west brought with it a desire to erase anything Japanese-looking in the packaging material, and so a cute and chubby Rockman became a wrinkly and angry Mega Man that probably scared more kids away from the game than attract them to it. Looking back from 2009, it’s amazing to see the change in attitude towards Japanese-style cartoon art, especially now when half of gamers seem to be in love with “anime” style and the other half want it out of their lives forever.

Source: Nintendo Power