Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune turns to Kickstarter

Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune has turned to Kickstarter in a bid to fund a new side-scrolling platform game -- and he's already been rather successful with the crowdfunding approach. The Kickstarter campaign for Mighty No. 9 launched over the weekend with a funding goal of $900,000, and the comcept title is very close to reaching its target already. The game appears to be very much in the same vein as Inafune's classic Mega Man series, with running and gunning the key. The main character Beck is also able to transform into numerous different shapes to overcome obstacles. Inafune plans to be very hands-on with the title, acting as project lead. The Mighty No. 9 team consists of plenty of Mega Man veteran designers, including Naoya Tomita, a level designer on the original Mega Man and Mega Man 2 games, and Manami Matsumae, who produced the soundtrack for the original Mega Man. This move to Kickstarter is no doubt fueled in part by the cancellations of Mega Man Legends 3 and Mega Man Universe back in 2011. Notably, the former was going to take input from fans -- utilizing Kickstarter, Inafune can now explore the full potential of this idea. The comcept team aims to release Mighty No. 9 for Windows PC in the first half of 2015. Console versions of the game are included as stretch goals, although whether the $2.5 million goal will prove too high remains to be seen.