A Look at the Mega Man First Person Shooter that Never Was, Maverick Hunter

Capcom's canned attempt at bringing Mega Man into the world of first person shooters has emerged for the first time today.

Revealed on Polygon, the project - codenamed Maverick Hunter - was pitched in 2010 as the contemporary spin to Capcom's iconic franchise. Designed by the concept artist behind Marvel's recent Iron Man armour, the game would have been a darker and grittier take on the once pixel-driven platformer.

Maverick Hunter would have followed a Mega Man X approach, in first person, but include the ability to dash, wall jump through nippy cut-scenes as seen in some of the development clips below.

Developed by Armature Studio (founded by some of the Metroid Prime team who left Retro), the concept was only in development for six months and given the chop after creator Keiji Inafune left Capcom, joining an increasingly growing list of projects including Mega Man Legends 3.

The story would have been set 100 years after the classic Mega Man timeline where both humans and robots known as "Reploids" live in harmony. However some of these robots would defile their programming and turn to crime, labelled as Mavericks. It's down to you, as a Maverick Hunter, to hunt them down together with Zero.

Before the project came to light, Inafune admitted that "I thought the people who grew up with Mega Man might like it. I felt that it (first-person shooters) would be a huge hit for Capcom."

The footage was intended to be a proof of concept, a playable pitch, and whilst it had strong support internally was scrapped in green-light meetings. Capcom responded to the project with the norm, "Mega Man is an important brand for the company and we will share news when it's ready."

What do you think of the Mega Man: Maverick Hunter concept - should Capcom revisit the concept?