Keiji Inafune, the co-creator of Mega Man and an outspoken critic of modern Japanese development, says things have gotten worse since he last bemoaned the state of the industry there.

“Ultimately, it's probably gotten worse than when I was talking about it before. And that's a shame,” Infaune told GameSpot via a translator. “But there are options out there. And there are many options that Japanese independent developers can pursue to gain more control, to own their own IP, et cetera.”

Inafune has launched and already successfully funded a Kickstarter campaign for a spiritual successor to Mega-man, and described the crowdfunding platform as a “fantastic” option.

“And so, one of the reasons why I was interested in doing this Kickstarter wasn't just because potentially being able to connect with the fans, but also potentially being able to show other Japanese independent developers that there is a way, that there are options.”

Called Mighty No. 9, Inafune's successful Kickstarter game is “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.