Mighty No. 9 for Xbox 360

Mighty No. 9, a spiritual successor to Capcom’s Mega Man series, will blast its way onto Xbox 360 sometime during the spring of 2015. The side-scrolling action-platformer being developed by Mega Man co-designer Keiji Inafune along with a collection of other series veterans, has hit its console version goal of $2.2 million on crowdfunding website Kickstarter.

Players will take control of Beck through a minimum of six stages — more will be added if stretch goals are hit — that can be played in any order. Beck is described by developer Comcept as “the 9th in a line of powerful robots, and the only one not infected by a mysterious computer virus that has caused mechanized creatures the world over to go berserk.” Beck’s boyish appearance, arm cannon and ability to steal enemy attacks and use them for himself are all design elements lifted directly from Mega Man.

The Blue Bomber-starring series that inspired Mighty No. 9 is Capcom’s most popular of all time, having sold 29 million units as of June of this year. Things have been mostly quiet on the Mega Man front since Mega Man Legends 3 was canceled in July of 2011. Fans hungry for new Mega Man content and excited by the involvement of Inafune funded Mighty No. 9‘s initial $900,000 goal within just a few days of the game’s Kickstarter campaign’s beginning on August 31.

Inafune is serving as the project’s lead at Comcept, but he isn’t the only former Mega Man developer attached to the project. Comcept says that “veteran Japanese game creators with extensive experience in the genre, and with Mega Man in particular” have been charged with creating Mighty No. 9 in its entirety.

Speaking with Joystiq at PAX Prime, Inafune gave some of his reasons for choosing to fund his latest project through Kickstarter. “It allows us to see how excited they are, what they really want, how vocal they are about certain parts and it allows us to, reflexively, adjust some of what those stretch goals are,” he said. “What we can say is we’re always listening and seeing what they say, but it will forever – and this is the way Kickstarter has to be, unless you’re going to be lying to the end user which is what we will absolutely not do – it has to be a balance of what the production realities are and what the fans want.”

In addition to its Xbox 360 version, Might No. 9 will also be released on PC, PS3, Mac and Linux. Xbox One and PS4 versions are also a possibility, but only if the game’s backers pledge enough funds over the next 14 days to bring its total Kickstarter funding to $3.3 million.

Sources: Kickstarter and Joystiq