In Hollywood's continued efforts to find success in video games, a new adaptation is coming from one of the most popular characters of all time. Game developer and publisher Capcom recently announced that the classic character Mega Man is being transformed into a live-action feature film from 20th Century Fox.
Mega Man was first released on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987 and featured the lead character, a robot, fighting against other robots, with names like Cut Man, Bomb Man, and Ice Man. Each boss robot had a special ability that matched their name, which Mega Man would obtain after defeating them. These abilities could then be used to fight the other bosses, with each boss being especially vulnerable to the ability of at least one other character. After defeating all the robots, Mega Man could go after the evil Dr. Wily, who had created all the boss robots. Several sequels and spinoffs would follow, making Mega Man one of the most popular video game characters in history.
Mega Man has been adapted into animated series before but this will be the first time the character will be seen in live-action. The basic gameplay of blowing up robots with an arm cannon and jumping from platform to platform certainly could be adapted into an exciting action movie, though most Mega Man games had a fairly simple plot so creating a compelling story is likely to be the difficult part of turning Mega Man into a movie.
The other bit of difficulty will likely come in the costume design. The image above is the most classic version of Mega Man and while the character has seen numerous redesigns over the years thanks to improved graphics, he's never exactly looked "real." It's hard to imagine how you would make a human actor look like Mega Man without him looking somewhat ridiculous. Certainly, a large amount of CGI will need to be used. There will probably be a significant change in the final design. I can see the big screen Mega Man looking more like Iron Man than his video game self.
Video games have been a popular source for film adaptation of late, with recent films being based on everything from the recent reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise to the classic arcade Rampage. Thus far these adaptations have received lukewarm critical support at best and decent box office, though there have been some exceptions in both cases. Rampage saw a solid global box office though it was unable to break the $100 million mark domestically. With Mega Man coming from the same era of video games, it's possible Capcom is hoping for similar success.
