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Keiji Inafune, Other Mega Man Staff Hold Kickstarter for Mighty No. 9 Game

A Kickstarter campaign for a Mighty No. 9 game by Mega Man (Rockman) designer/producer Keiji Inafune began collecting funds to develop and produce the game on Saturday. After a little over one day, US$863,890 of the US$900,000 goal has been pledged by 14,722 fans. The campaign is hosting a video featuring Inafune:

Although the protagonist Beck of Mighty No. 9 looks similar to the titular hero of CAPCOM's Mega Man franchise, "it's 100%, top-to-bottom an all-new property that shares no characters, code, fiction, or anything else besides its genre with Mega Man." The staff emphasizes, "So while some of us are ex-employees of CAPCOM, and all of us are big fans of their games, this project has nothing to do with CAPCOM or Mega Man."

Inafune is planning for the game to be a side-scrolling adventure that has a classic feel, but new, revolutionary elements. Inafune is also accepting fan input in order to improve the game even further. Should the fundraiser succeed, the game is planned for release in spring 2015 for the PC with gamepad support. If additional monetary goals are reached, there is a possibility that the game will also reach Macintosh and Linux computers. If US$2.5 million is pledged to the campaign, the game will get a PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii U release.

Donation amounts range from US$5 to US$10,000, and rewards include being able to attend backer-only events, a physical game box, beta access, an original signed sketch, having the backer's face appear in the game, helping to design an enemy, and finally, the top donor's prize of dinner with Inafune (airfare and hotel fare in Japan not included).

The story of the game revolves around Beck, No. 9 in the Mighty robot series. His fellow robots have been "infected by a mysterious computer virus that has caused mechanized creatures the world over to go berserk." Uninfected by the virus, Beck must take out the other robots and face the evil threatening the planet.

Alongside Inafune, Naoya Tomita (Mega Man level design, Mega Man 2 stages, Mega Man 5 & 8 character designs) will be designing the game, and Takenori Kimoto a.k.a. "Kimo Kimo" (Darkstalkers 3, Vampire Hunter 2 character design) is designing the characters. Original Mega Man soundtrack composer Manami Matsumae will be providing the music.

Update: Kickstarter link fixed. Thanks, configspace