Mega Man 9 producer talks about challenges of making an 8-bit game in 2008

In this great interview with Hironobu Takeshita at Gamasutra, the producer of the hotly anticipated upcoming Mega Man 9, the hardships and fun bits of developing an 8-bit game in the modern era are discussed. It’s as clear from this conversation as from all the shots and details leaked before that the dev team is in love with the old games and interested in exceeding them in ways that weren’t possible back in the NES days. For instance, they’ve included the sprite flicker that happened when there were too many enemies on screen — but you can turn it off in options. And while the graphics are decidedly 8-bit, the game wouldn’t fit on an NES cartridge — it has assets and extras they wish they could have included back then.

Basically, everything I see about this game makes me want to go out and buy a $200 Xbox 360.