Capcom and Digital Eclipse will bring “faithful reproductions” of the first six Mega Man games to the Xbox One this summer, the two companies have announced. Digital Eclipse will develop Mega Man Legacy Collection, and Capcom will publish it on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo 3DS and PC.
In addition to the first six numbered Mega Man titles that originally released between 1987 and 1993, the blue bomber’s collection will feature new Museum and Challenge modes. Challenge Mode will remix gameplay sections from all six games with a scaling difficulty level. Museum Mode will showcase the series’ history through high-res art and original concept pieces.
“Every time a game gets re-released as a quick, easy cash-in, we devalue our heritage a little bit more,” said Digital Eclipse Head of Development Mike Mika. “We think games deserve better than that, and we suspect that the market is going to prove us right.”
Xbox gamers may recognize Mike Mika as the man behind Other Ocean Interactive’s #IDARB, which was a Games with Gold title in February. Though Digital Eclipse was originally founded in 1992 as a studio focused on arcade game emulation and handheld releases, it merged with ImaginEngine in 2003 to form Backbone Entertainment. An additional studio, Other Ocean Interactive, was formed in 2007. Backbone’s last release was 2012’s Midway Arcade Origins on Xbox 360 and PS3.
Now the company is back producing content under the Digital Eclipse name, with a focus on restoring classic games, and Mega Man Legacy Collection is its first new project. Joining Mika in heading up Digital Eclipse is Frank Cifaldi and original studio founder Andrew Ayre.