Mega Man 8 - Development and Release

Development and Release

Keiji Inafune, the main character designer for the Mega Man series, became a producer for Mega Man 8. He handed off many of the main responsibilities to Hayato Kaji, an artist he often considered to be his student. "This allowed me to take a very different approach to creating a Mega Man game," Inafune recounted. "'Seeing Mega Man from a distance,' I guess you could say." Illustrators including Hideki Ishikawa and Shinsuke Komaki worked under the two veterans. Inafune recounted that the development team was often overwhelmed during the game's development because it involved some unfamiliar elements such as coordinating releases on two new systems and the use of anime cutscenes. The team enlisted the help of the animation studio Xebec to produce the animated cutscenes for the game. Inafune had wanted to include animated cutscenes since the very first game in the series and he stated that he was pleased with the outcome.

The character Duo was created specifically for Mega Man 8, but was first made a playable character in the 1996 arcade fighting game Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters. Kaji revealed that he initially designed Duo as a robot invented by the Mega Man 4 character Dr. Cossack. When it was decided that Duo would instead come from outer space, his appearance changed but still retained remnants of Russian traits, such as his headwear. Like past games in the series, the Robot Masters were picked from design contests in Japan. Capcom received around 110,000 idea submissions from fans for the game. Three of the Robot Masters (Sword Man, Clown Man, and Search Man) were even given base skeletons on which fans could add features. Ishikawa recounted, "The submissions we'd get for the boss characters were absolutely brimming with the youthful imagination of kids. I still remember how everyone had permanent smiles painted on their faces as we looked at each and every one of the submissions that came through." Tengu Man and Astro Man had already been designed by Capcom prior to the contest.

The musical score for Mega Man 8 was composed by Shusaku Uchiyama. It was the first project at Capcom that Uchiyama led himself. The Japanese version of the game features the J-pop vocal opening theme "Electrical Communication" and the ending theme "Brand New Way" by the group Ganasia. Mega Man 8 was released in Japan on the PlayStation on December 17, 1996 and the Sega Saturn on January 17, 1997. It was originally intended to only be for the Saturn, but Sony allegedly "demanded" the game, fearing it would give an advantage to its then-rival. The two versions of the game, however, are not identical. The Saturn version has two added bosses from previous Mega Man games and a bonus mode with official and fan artwork, voice and music tests, and a secret animation test for the cutscenes. Capcom celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Mega Man franchise with the release of Mega Man 8. Numerous pieces of merchandise were made available for purchase in Japan alongside the game including action figures, gashapon toys, stationary, and furniture. A 43-track disc containing the instrumental music was released by Team Entertainment much later in 2007. Mega Man 8 was published in North America by Capcom on both the PlayStation and Sega Saturn in January 1997 and in Europe by Ocean Software exclusively for the PlayStation in October 1997. Some limited edition, North American copies of the game were packaged with a 12-page color history booklet to commemorate one decade of the series.