The co-creator of Mega Man is looking to fund a spiritual successor on Kickstarter.

Mega Man co-creator Keiji Inafune and “an all-star team of veteran Mega Man devs” are hoping to crowdfund Mighty No. 9, “an all-new Japanese side-scrolling action game that takes the best aspects of the 8- and 16-bit era classics you know and love, and transforms them with modern tech, fresh mechanics, and fan input into something fresh and amazing!”

According to the game’s Kickstarter page, the player character is Beck, the ninth in a line of powerful robots, and the only one not infected by a mysterious computer virus that has caused mechanized creatures the world over to go berserk.

“Run, jump, blast, and transform your way through six stages (or more, via stretch goals) you can tackle in any order you choose, using weapons and abilities stolen from your enemies to take down your fellow Mighty Number robots and confront the final evil that threatens the planet!” reads the pitch.

Beck has the ability to reconfigure his body into new shapes, so his limbs could become giant shield-removing magnets, or extendible spring-loaded hands, or a grappling hook, for example.

Mighty No. 9 is being developed for Windows PC with gamepad support, and will be made available through Steam and other DRM-free digital distribution methods, said Inafune.

The developer said other platforms including consoles, Mac, and Linux are “a high priority, but only if we can afford them via stretch goals”.

At the time of writing, Mighty No. 9 had raised US$621,079 of its US$900,000 goal, with 30 days to go.