What Happened to Mega Man?

I've always had a severe soft spot for Mega Man. I have many fond memories of playing the original ones, particularly "Mega Man 2", on the NES in my youth. I never had a Super NES while it was being supported, so I missed out on "Mega Man VII" and the first "Mega Man X" games until years later. "Mega Man 8" I played the shit out of on PS1, and I was never that bowled over with "Mega Man Legends". In the years to come, I ended up playing all the ones I'd missed, beating most of them as well. So yeah, I fucking love Mega Man.

A few years back, Capcom finally decided to give the fans what they wanted, and released the long awaited "Mega Man 9" and "Mega Man 10" as downloadable titles in the classic 8-bit style. They were mostly awesome, but goddammit, we still want more. What have we gotten? Jack shit is what we've gotten. There were a number of various Mega Man games that Capcom had in development at one point or another, all of which got shitcanned. That in itself is a damn shame, but the true shame about all this is that it looks like Capcom is just burying the whole franchise. Other than letting him appear in the recent "Super Smash Bros." game as a playable character, there's no new Mega Man-related game on the horizon at all.

Well, unless you count "Mighty No. 9", which is going to be ultra mega tits when that finally comes out, but that's another story.

Anyway, there was a time when Mega Man was the only real franchise Capcom was really known for by a majority of people. Before "Street Fighter II" ruled arcades and before "Monster Hunter" ever came around, Mega Man WAS Capcom. So why bury it? There's obviously still a desire and need for classic, challenging, 2D side scrolling action. I just don't fucking understand why they'd bury it like they have.

And oh yeah, I know there's been some re-release of the first six games of the series that literally just came out, but that doesn't count. The old Mega Man games have been repackaged and revamped so many times that it's just become redundant at this point. Get your shit together Capcom, for the love of fucking Gawd, get your shit together.