Well, yeah, but OSS was Japan-only.
As for Star Force, eh, partial credit. When Battle Network took off it was mainly because the whole card-collecting/trading thing, and didn't necessarily speak to the same audience as the "
Jump N' Shoot Man!" fans. The transition to Star Force severed what little aesthetic ties remained to bridge that gap. Legends at least has the same basic principle as the classic games going for it, just on a different kind of playing field.
Capcom is proving that they have no damn clue how to make a "golden age" character relevant to modern gaming again. They don't know how to do a New Super Mario Bros., a Kid Icarus, or even a Sonic 4 for that matter. They can copy the past pixel-for-pixel (see MM9), but when stepping outside of that, they are entirely too eager to uproot the entire aesthetic of the franchise (X8, Powered Up, Universe, is it any wonder we got tired of the "visual reboots" after a while?). Legends was EXACTLY what they needed: Fresh gameplay with a familiar face, not the other way around. Unfortunately, the valid point can be made that the audience is far more open to such "experiments" when they're struggling to find early showcase titles for their shiny new system. Missing the e-Shop launch was a terrible, terrible mistake, and as much as I want Legends 3 back, the longer it takes the more damage it's going to do to all parties concerned.
So far as the anniversary goes, I'm not at all surprised. I knew that the timeframe for any whole-assed game was simply not there. It was, in my mind, Legends 3 revival or bust. Once you realize that, it's pretty obvious where we'll most likely end up. Hopefully I can distract myself with the WiiU. The magical 25th birthday is just going to leave us exactly where we were 14 months ago: Mega Man is alive and well, as a licensing tool.
Oh yes, and if I may bore you all long enough, I have a cross-post of my own to share. It's basically my response to Capcom's continued requests that we "be patient", from one of the most recent
Ask Capcom threads on the topic:
You know, the fans are anything but patient. They are completely impatient. More than that, they're obnoxious, petty, and never satisfied. They don't appreciate anything they have, and you can't say a damn thing to please them. And you know what? Capcom, you brought it on yourselves.
My apologies to Sven; CoA has been the most sympathetic of Capcom's branches by far. I know what a "taboo" topic Legends 3 is. But all of the demands, all of the childish behavior, all of the complaining about Mega Man's absence from UMvC3, the backlash over Bad Box Art Mega Man in SFxT, and the constant whining that a cell phone game using a proven poor engine is IN NO WAY an appropriate celebration for a quarter-century franchise, we all know where it started.
Ever since the DS took off, Mega Man's been on a slow decline. ZX, Star Force, Powered Up, Maverick Hunter X, all "good enough" for us, but not quite hitting it off with the gaming market as a whole. They were "good" games, but the passion was lost. Capcom got a spark back with Mega Man 9, but they failed to maintain it. For as novel an idea as reverting back to the 1980's was, even fans of the golden age want a bit more than a new NES game.
And then we found it. Inafune and co. had only to say, "it's a game you've all been waiting for", and nothing else, they already knew our answer. Suddenly a dream from ages past was alive again, an unreal passion was ignited the likes of which the last hardware generation had never seen. Capcom asked for our help in making it reality, and for nine months we offered all we could, with nothing but good faith in return. We were told to be patient, even when the future was uncertain, with the promise that even if worst came to worst we would at least get a small glimpse of this dream before we had to lay it to rest once more. Then suddenly it was all taken away. Not just the game, but even the mere opportunity of the prologue, was ripped away from us with no word as to why.
That may be acceptable to employees of the gaming industry, who sacrafice their passion to the bitter realities in which they are immersed, in exchange for the roof over their heads. But to the fans who were invited along for the ride, who had only their trust in Capcom to keep them going, that doesn't cut it.
So the question on my mind, the question on every fan's mind ever since that day 14 months ago, is what do you, Capcom, intend to do about it? What do you intend to offer, what CAN you offer, that either of us can even hope will possibly compare to what was lost? Games get cancelled all the time, yes, but this was not just any game. Universe was cancelled, we got over it. Is that what you're waiting for? For us to "get over" Legends so that Mega Man can return to his usual mediocrity? Because the thought has occurred to us, and I think that's what frightens and offends us more than anything else. Legends 3 was an event over a decade in the making, it will not be forgotten so easily.
We're already been holding onto Legends with virtually no support for 12 years. If you're waiting for us to let go, then you will be waiting a long, long time.