Monster Hunter World isn’t the only standout in Capcom’s latest financial results. While it is the biggest performer, it seems Capcom’s efforts to revive the Blue Bomber, their mascot Mega Man, bore fruit last year too. Without going into specific numbers, Capcom reported that series revival Mega Man 11 ended up selling “well” last year.

“In addition, Mega Man 11 (for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and PC)… reported strong sales,” their fiscal report says. They also add that the Mega Man X Legacy Collection ended up selling well too, which should come as good news for fans since Capcom has previously stated that a new game in the Mega Man X franchise is contingent on fan reception to Mega Man 11.

“Mega Man X Legacy Collection, Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 and Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1+2 (for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and PC for all three titles) performed well thanks to a dedicated fan base and strong brand capabilities,” they noted.

This is excellent news, because it suggests that Capcom will not retire Mega Man for as long as they did for the last few years. While it’s clear that Mega Man will never sell as much as Monster Hunter or Resident Evil, at least we can be assured that it will sell well enough for Capcom to continue investing in the franchise.

Capcom’s Monster Hunter World was already a stellar success when it was available only for consoles. However, thanks to the PC release in August, the title has gone on to ship over 10 million units, according to the company’s recent earnings report. Though Capcom already confirmed the 10 million figure in August, it recently revealed that this was the first title in the company’s history to achieve this feat.

Net sales saw a 28.5 percent increase from the first fiscal half of 2018, hitting 43.3 million Yen for the six months ending September 30th. The company’s operating income hit 10.5 million Yen, the highest in company history for the end of a second quarter. Besides Monster Hunter World, Capcom also reported profits from Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch.

Furthermore, the company reported that titles like Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection and Mega Man X Legacy Collection are also performing well. The latter is good news for Mega Man X, fans and could potentially catalyze the release of a brand new Mega Man X title. Overall, Capcom’s forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31st 2019 is the same as its projection announced in May 2018.

Capcom’s been relatively on fire with its Mega Man releases lately. We say “relatively” because even if Mega Man X Legacy Collection is just a repackaging of older titles, the company is still making much more of an effort to promote the Blue Bomber than before. That’s also apparent with the upcoming release of Mega Man 11.

That being said, the real question on everyone’s mind is: What about Mega Man X9? After all, Mega Man Legacy Collection did well, and now we have new Mega Man titles. Could Mega Man X9 follow the same trend? Mega Man 11 producer Kazuhiro Tsuchiya recently spoke at a press conference about the same. Additionally, he also talked about Mega Man 11 utilizing the MT Framework engine and serving as a benchmark for new series entries in the next decade.

Regardless, concerning Mega Man X9, Tsuchiya spoke to GNN (translation by Rockman Corner) and said, “Right now we need to complete the development of Mega Man 11 and gather feedback after it has been successfully released. Regarding the massive spread rumours that Mega Man X9 is in development, there is no such thing.”

Are there currently any plans for Mega Man X9, at least? Tsuchiya replied, “I understand everyone is looking forward to the birth of an X9, but right now there is no way to verify. Of course, we can’t say we have been doing nothing; we are actively and carefully monitoring the reactions from our gamers.

“Actually, Mega Man 11’s birth is the result of the volume of voices from our gamers. The collection that came before it got very good results and feedback. This is a very convincing point, and helps back us up in striving for the approval of a new game development project.”

So long story short, if you want a new Mega Man X, picking up the Mega Man X Legacy Collection and letting Capcom know your thoughts is the best way. As for Mega Man 11, it’s out on October 2nd for PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PC.

While the story in the Mega Man X games is actually far more emphasized than in the originals – the games saw the transition to the PlayStation (and later, the PS2), and the eventual inclusion of (rather terrible) voice acting, (poorly directed) cinematic cutscenes, and other storytelling aspirations – ultimately, any Mega Man fan knows that the plot is just an excuse for the action.

Of course, the Mega Man X series actually puts its increased storytelling focus to some good use. For instance, rather than throwing the player to a stage selection screen right away, they have you play through a intro level, which acts as a simple sandbox to come to grips with the game’s mechanics, with a boss fight to boot, before using the story setup to present you with multiple stages for you, disguised as story objectives, that you can pick and choose in any order. In that sense, Mega Man X games are, much like Capcom intended, the original game, just evolved.

"The Mega Man X series actually puts its increased storytelling focus to some good use. For instance, rather than throwing the player to a stage selection screen right away, they have you play through a intro level, which acts as a simple sandbox to come to grips with the game’s mechanics, with a boss fight to boot, before using the story setup to present you with multiple stages for you, disguised as story objectives, that you can pick and choose in any order. "

In other ways, the Mega Man X games actually were a bit different from the original series. They added the ability to dash through stages, and to wall jump, both of which led to faster paced progression through levels, and a bit more forgiving design than the original games. They generally also hewed closer to action than pure platforming, resembling run and gun style gameplay a whole lot of times. But where they didn’t differ from the original games, at least the first four Mega Man X games, was in their mastery over great design and tight control, that makes the player feel directly responsible for everything that they do in the game, success or failure. When you die stupidly on screen, you know it’s because you didn’t jump at the right time, or didn’t manage to attack the boss the way you should have. When you succeed, you know it’s because you’ve mastered the controls and the game itself, as well as its patterns that it asks you to memorize and consider in a far subtler and more organic way than the original games often did with their more overt reliance on getting the player to master their patterns.

If you’re a Mega Man fan, you already know all this. You know what to expect from these games, in fact, that’s why you love them. The question on your mind is whether or not this collection is worth your time. The answer to that, very simply, is yes, it is. If you are a Mega Man fan, the Mega Man X collection is a loving homage to these games of the 1990s that managed to reinvent the Blue Bomber for a new era.

As with the Mega Man Legacy Collection, the Mega Man X Legacy Collection is split into two parts. The original part includes the first four games, and the latter half contains the other four. What this means is that this collection is incredibly front loaded- the first four games are the ones that fans like, with the series generally considered to have declined sharply starting with the fifth game. Sure enough, Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 includes Mega Man 5 and 6, which are at best tired imitations of the far superior original four games, Mega Man X7, a clumsy and misguided attempt at trying to reinvent the series in 3D, and Mega Man X8, which I don’t want to talk about. Meanwhile, the first collection includes the original game, which is a veritable classic (if far harder than I remembered), X2 and X3, which are great extensions, and Mega Man X4, a game that holds up, and is, far better than a lot of fans would give it credit for.

"This collection is incredibly front loaded- the first four games are the ones that fans like, with the series generally considered to have declined sharply starting with the fifth game."

The quality of the games themselves aside, however, these collections are equally worthy- they are both loving emulations of the games, with minimal lag and a collection of great extras fans will love, including a concept art gallery, a boss rush mode that is structured like an arcade game, the ability to play through the games’ entire soundtracks, animated shorts, and more. The fact that some of these games, such as Mega Man X3 are so hard to come by these days for anything even remotely resembling a reasonable price, makes these collections that much sweeter.

Retro game aficionados will find more to love in these collections as well- you are given a lot of options to make your experience as authentic as possible. You can play through the games in their original 4:3 ratios, or stretch them out to fill out the full 16:9 screen you are likely playing these collections on (don’t do that), you can play them with a “cleaned up” look, or with a CRT filter in place, you can even select the background wallpapers that show up to fill the side of your screens if you play the games at a 4:3 ration. For those retro game enthusiasts who find the games are far harder than they remember, or for newcomers to the series, Capcom has even included a “Rookie Mode” across all the games, so you can play them with far easier difficulty than the original titles- something that you may need if the at-times brutal difficulty of the SNES era is not something you want in your games.

"The quality of the games themselves aside, however, these collections are equally worthy- they are both loving emulations of the games, with minimal lag and a collection of great extras fans will love, including a concept art gallery, a boss rush mode that is structured like an arcade game, the ability to play through the games’ entire soundtracks, animated shorts, and more."

There’s not a whole lot to complain about here- Capcom has even gone ahead and split the collections up so you have a choice of which set of games to get. The titles hold up well, especially, paradoxically enough, the earlier games, and remain some of the best games Capcom as ever made to this day. The games look great, sound fantastic, control like a dream, and the collections capture and recreate that amazingly well, with some great extras thrown in to boot as well. If you are a fan of Mega Man, the Mega Man X legacy collections are an unhesitant yes.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

Back in December, Capcom had announced that along with a new entry into the Mega Man X series, all eight of the existing games in the series would be released for the PC, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One in 2018. What we didn’t know however was how these games were going to be released.

Now, the Australian Ratings board has rated Mega Man X Legacy Collection and Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2. This suggests that the eight games will be split among these two collections and won’t be released as part of a single collection. Additionally, it remains to be seen  whether these two collections will release on the same date or not.

There’s a lot to be excited for if you’re a fan of the Mega Man series with a new game on the horizon and these collections of the older games. For now, we’ll just  have to wait for official information from Capcom to know more about their plans for these games.