Development and release
Tokuro Fujiwara, who had been the producer for previous Mega Man titles, had left Capcom, so Keiji Inafune, who had previously played the role of artist for many titles in the series, became a producer for Mega Man 8.[2] He handed off many of the main responsibilities to Hayato Kaji, an artist he often considered to be his student. Inafune recounted, "This allowed me to take a very different approach to creating a Mega Man game. 'Seeing Mega Man from a distance,' I guess you could say."[2] 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.[10] The team enlisted the help of 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 stated that he was pleased with the outcome.[2]
The character Duo was created specifically for Mega Man 8, but was first made a playable character in the earlier 1996 arcade fighting game Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters.[11] Kaji 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 ushanka.[2] Like past games in the series, the Robot Masters were picked from design contests in Japan. Capcom received around 110,000 idea submissions.[2] For the contest, Capcom prepared drawings showing basic shapes for entrants to base their designs on, such as a bipedal top-heavy base with two heads; three of the final designs (Sword Man, Clown Man, and Search Man) were based on these.[12][13] 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."[2]
The musical score for Mega Man 8 was composed by Shusaku Uchiyama. It was the first project at Capcom that Uchiyama led himself.[14] 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.[15][16]
The two versions of the game 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.[8][17] Music tracks slightly differ in arrangement between the versions, with two remixes being added for the extra bosses and the music for Tengu Man's stage being completely different.
Mega Man 8 was released in Japan on the PlayStation on December 17, 1996, and the Sega Saturn on January 17, 1997.[2] It was published in North America on both the PlayStation and Saturn on March 1997.[3] The PlayStation version was initially not going to be released in North America, as it was a 2D game at a time when Sony was pushing for games with 3D graphics. Upon learning the game would be released on a PlayStation competitor, Sony changed its mind, approving the game's release in North American on the condition it have content the Saturn version lacked. This resulted in the first editions, branded as the Anniversary Collector's Edition, being enclosed with a 12-page full-color anthology booklet commemorating Mega Man's tenth anniversary.[18] In Europe, the game was to be published by Laguna Video Games, a German game publisher who released a majority of Capcom's SNES games in Europe, before Laguna's owner, Philips Multimedia BV, was acquired by Infogrames in July 1997.[19] The game was released in October 1997 exclusively for the PlayStation.[1]
In Japan, numerous pieces of tie-in merchandise were released alongside the game, including action figures, gashapon toys, stationery, vinyl records, and furniture.[15] A 43-track disc containing the instrumental music was released by Team Entertainment later in 2007.[20]
