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Keiji Inafune: The Guy Who Built Mega Man
by Steven Kent for Gamers Today
Capcom entered the Nintendo Entertainment System era (1985-1990) with a library of popular arcade games such as 1942 and Ghosts and Goblins, and quickly became one of Nintendo's strongest third-party licensees. While translations of arcade games helped Capcom rise above its competition, the company also released several popular original games. The most successful of these original properties was Mega Man, a series of games about a small robot defending the world against robots.
Mega Man games featured amazing graphics by NES standards, and some of the fastest and most creative side-scrolling action of any the 80s. Mega Man is the creation of Keiji Inafune, who is also the general manager of department 2 in Capcom's research and development division. I met with him in Japan while on assignment with GameWeek Magazine. This is what he had to say:
Gamers Today: You created Mega Man, whom I believe is known as "Rockman" in Japan. Was Rockman your first project after joining Capcom?
Keiji Inafune: Yes.
GT: What were you doing before joining Capcom?
KI: I was a student. I went to an illustrations school [graphic arts]. I was drawing pictures.
GT: Did you play a lot of video games growing up?
KI: No. I started playing video games just before I joined Capcom. It was when there was the Nintendo eight-bit, the Famicom [released as the Nintendo Entertainment System in the United States] became very popular in Japan.
GT: What games caught your eye?
KI: Dragon Warrior and Dragon Quest.
GT: RPGs? That's a very different style of gaming than Mega Man. Where did you get the idea for Mega Man?
KI: I got the idea from the robot animations that I watched as child. There is a cartoon called Cashon... Maybe you know that one? It's like a little cutesy robot that appears on some shows. It has a white costume...
Also, Super Mario Brothers was very popular at that time, and I wanted to make a game that could compete with a Super Mario. All you do in Super Mario Brothers is keep trying until you clear a stage, right? You just have to keep making efforts, otherwise you can't proceed.
GT: Mega Man has more kinds of fighting than Super Mario Brothers-style jumping.
KI: You can find [special] weapons, but they're only effective against specific opponents. So you have to find the right combination. What is effective against this guy? One weapon is effective against this boss, but it is not necessarily effective against other bosses. So you start playing this stone, scissors, paper thing. You know, a stone is weak against paper but strong against scissors, right? So if you find an effective weapon, you can get through this section. Even though maybe you are not such a good player, still you can get through. I thought that by doing Mega Man that would appeal to all kinds of players.
GT: Later, Mega Man games had codes that let you access partially completed games, but you always had to play the original Mega Man from the very start. Do you like players being able to store their progress or was the game better when you always had to start with nothing?
KI: I felt that the original Mega Man was just about right. It was my understanding that the game wasn't too hard, but after I released it, people complained that it was too hard. I changed my design and I also added quite a few items such as energy tags and those stuff. Maybe I was just too selfish on that [in the first game].
GT: Which is your favorite game in the series?
KI: I am satisfied with all of the games, but I like Mega Man 2 the best.
GT: Have you done any projects that didn't have Mega Man?
KI: A couple of Disney games--Ducktales and Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers. I'm working on a new game using the Resident Evil engine now.
GT: What can you tell me about the game?
KI: It's about a samurai warrior. He goes into this castle, and it's infested with evil monsters and warriors, and the atmosphere is like that of a Kurosawa movie. (Akira Kurosawa, director of The Seven Samurai, Ran, and Dreams.)
GT: I've got the DVD of The Seven Samurai.
KI: Oh, right. The entire atmosphere is pretty close to that.
I'm still wondering if I should add the projectile weapons. Right now you're only using the sword, but by adding different elements to the sword, you can turn it into a flaming sword or a lightening sword and slash opponents so that they catch fire or lightening strikes them.
GT: Will this game go on sale in the U.S. at the same time as Japan?
KI: No, there will be some difference between the games, and the U.S. version will be released a little bit later. The characters actually speak in this game, so we need to dub it in English. That takes a while.
GT: When is it coming out in Japan?
KI: It should be released this winter. At least, I hope so.
GT: I've been told that you have another project in the works as well?
KI: You mean Tron? Would you like me to explain about that game?
Tron is a character from Mega Man Legends (a 3D Mega Man game released in 1998). She is one of the enemies in the game. She is mischievous, like a little girl. In this game, she is on a mission to help her brother who is in grave debt for several millions dollars. So, she's going to help him by stealing stuff.
As she does that, she uses these cutesy little robots called "serbots." There are like 10 or 20 of them. You do not let them take any action yourself, you instruct the serbots to work for you. As you communicate with those serbots, they grow to your liking. They can learn things from you and their intelligence level is going to go higher as they grow up. After they grow, they can give you the hints to help solve problems, so you feel more like they are your friends or your companions.
