Well, Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 was announced earlier this week, answering the first question everyone asked with the original Legacy Collection was announced: Where are the rest of them? Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 includes Mega Man 7, Mega Man 8, Mega Man 9, Mega Man 10, and… Nope. That’s it. Have a look.

I don’t want to disparage this collection because in the end, you’ve got one heck of a compilation there. I adore Mega Man 7, Mega Man 8 is what it is, Mega Man 9 is spectacular, and Mega Man 10 is pretty darn good as well. Having this stuff all in a single package, theoretically with extremely high-quality emulation, is a great thing, and I’m very glad Capcom is doing their part of preserve these games. The problem is there are still several classic Mega Man games missing from this set, and if I don't miss my guess, Capcom's saving stuff for the inevitable Legacy Collection 3.

If you look at any of Capcom’s social media, you’ll see their comments sections filled past brimming with people asking two things. First, where’s the Switch support? (More on that in a bit) Second, where’s Mega Man & Bass? If you’re unfamiliar, Mega Man & Bass is a Super Famicom game that takes place between Mega Man 8 and 9, and has yet to see a proper release here in the US. There was a Game Boy Advance port made and released worldwide, but it’s vastly inferior to the original. It's got 6 new robot masters (and 2 reused ones from Mega Man 8, for some reason) and the game's final ending sequence is even referenced in Mega Man 9’s Wily showdown. This game is important to the Mega Man universe, so it stands to reason Capcom has some plans for it.

But if Mega Man & Bass is the headliner for Legacy Collection 3, what else goes in the package? What’s left of the original Mega Man series is Mega Man I-V for Game boy, Mega Man for Game Gear, the two Mega Man arcade fighting games, Mega Man Battle & Chase, Mega Man Soccer, The Wily Wars, Street Fighter x Mega Man, Mega Man: Powered Up, Wily & Right no RockBoard: That's Paradise, and Super Adventure Rockman. And if you really wanted to get crazy, there’s Mega Man and Mega Man 3 for PC, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say those probably aren’t in any danger of getting the “Legacy” treatment.

That's 16 more Mega Man games to potentially land in Legacy Collections. I'm going to go out on another limb and say there's a better chance of Dr. Wily actually reforming than Capcom stuffing all those games on a single collection. So let's look at this from a different angle. First, I wholeheartedly doubt Capcom's localizing RockBoard and Super Adventure Rockman. They might find their way onto the Japanese versions of future collections, but there's no way they're putting in the time and expense to do that. So my guess is this.

Mega Man Legacy Collection 3:

• Mega Man & Bass
• Mega Man in Dr. Wily's Revenge
• Mega Man II
• Mega Man III
• Mega Man IV
• Mega Man V
• Street Fighter x Mega Man

Mega Man Legacy Collection 4:

• Mega Man: The Wily Wars
• Mega Man (Game Gear)
• Mega Man Powered Up
• Mega Man: The Power Battle
• Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters
• Mega Man Battle & Chase
• Mega Man Soccer

That makes 7 games per collection, and seeing as Capcom only put 6 on the first one and a mere 4 on this second one, maybe this is some serious wishful thinking on my part. Then again, both of the previous collections had some big-name Mega Man goodness on there. Anything going forward is sitting firmly in the "obscure" category, so I think that warrants some extra titles per collection, eh? Of course, that assumes Capcom would even bother giving all these games the Legacy treatment. Powered Up hasn't even made it onto PSN for some strange reason, Mega Man Soccer has never showed up on any download services, even Nintendo's Virtual Console, Street Fighter x Mega Man is technically just a fan game, even if it is officially licensed by Capcom, and Mega Man for Game Gear just isn't very good. Even still, if you take those games off of these theoretical collections, those are still fairly viable, especially if they put the Japanese games on volume 4 and only release it in Japan. Would that suck? Absolutely. Is it something Capcom would do? Definitely.

Sure would be cool if this showed up in a collection someday...

But I can't talk about Legacy Collection 2 without bringing up the Nintendo problem. I wrote a whole post about this back when the Disney Afternoon Collection mysteriously skipped Nintendo platforms, but this is Mega Man. This is a different story. Mega Man is in Smash Bros. for crying out loud. He was in the Captain N cartoon. Mega Man 2 was a big selling point for the NES Classic Edition. Mega Man has a bigger history with Nintendo than any other platform holder, and Nintendo fans are more than willing to buy Mega Man games of any and all flavors. So, again, why isn’t any variety of Mega Man Legacy Collection landing on Switch? Why isn't Legacy Collection 2 hitting 3DS? Exactly what in the name of sanity is going on over at Capcom? So far, their support of Switch consists of a criminally undercooked version of Street Fighter II for $40, and the announcement of a port of Monster Hunter XX. Despite that not even remotely being a good deal, Street Fighter is selling very well, and it's safe to assume that anything Monster Hunter will print money in Japan, so by all accounts, things seem pretty rosy for Capcom and Nintendo. Heck, in the last year or two they've released some crazy stuff on the Wii U Virtual Console like Mega Man 7 and Demon's Crest, and if there was ever a console to not release stuff on because of a low install base, it's the Wii U. It's not like they're completely ignoring Nintendo platforms, but this kind of selective support is downright bizarre. If they’re still testing the waters with Switch, I get that. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but I get it. But how much more of a sure thing could there be than a well put together compilation of Mega Man games? It’s got low risk written all over it. Is it the future Virtual Console thing? Did Nintendo decline these games for some reason? The good folks over at GoNintendo actually got Capcom to comment on the subject. Check this out.

"There are no plans for a Nintendo Switch or Nintendo 3DS version at this time. Right now we’re focusing on developing the game for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC."

Boy, that sure clears things up. Not exactly what I'd call an explanation, but there you have it. Thanks's Capcom! Demand is there from the Nintendo camp, so where’s the supply?

Nintendo's got a very rich history with Mega Man, even recently. So what gives?

Again, at the end of the day, Legacy Collection 2 is a good thing. It gets Mega Man 9 and 10 off of PSN, WiiWare, and Xbox Live stores and packaged with the rest of the series. Not sure if it’s the Saturn or PSX version of Mega Man 8, (hopefully some amalgamation of the two) and the emulation of Mega Man 7 wasn’t so hot on the Anniversary Collection, so maybe this will iron that out. As for the rest of Mega Man’s legacy and his home on Nintendo platforms, I guess time will tell.