Here's what a new Mega Man game would look like if the Owlboy artist made it

Whether you like the Mega Man games or not, most have a lingering fondness for their bright and vibrant pixel art. Simon Andersen, the creator and artist behind Owlboy, is no different. Lately he's been experimenting with Mega Man, and it's interesting to see how one of the industry's best pixel artists approaches the series (if you don't believe he's one of the industry's best – you haven't seen Owlboy).

His approach is orthodox but the art is beautiful.

Some mockups from my little Megaman DOS project. Remade the old Megaman 1/3 PC/DOS games into one game using NES restrictions (or close to.) Made for a fun challenge. It's mostly only mockups. pic.twitter.com/c5QhGTr1uNDecember 5, 2017

Later Andersen posted a short video showing a working, playable Mega Man prototype. It's just a pet project ("I am not making a promise to make anything. It's just something fun to mess with during my weekend," he wrote) but it's still cool to see in action. "Unless Capcom comes knocking on my door with a reasonable deal, I am not making a Megaman game," he later tweeted.

"I might make a few changes to a few established tropes," he wrote. "Definitely weapon selection and assist item use. Though I'm very tempted to break NES limitations further and allow parallax scrolling and potentially widescreen."

I wanted to see if I could. Apparently I can.I am not making a promise to make anything. It's just something fun to mess with during my weekend. And yes, you can do a slide shot. pic.twitter.com/RGDBQyr0OcDecember 10, 2017

And just so you're 100 per cent not under the impression Andersen is making a commercial Mega Man game, here's another confirmation: "Yes, I could do a MM8 style game, but I'm currently just messing with old sprites I have for fun, MM11 is already in production, an X project is a better fit, but most importantly: I'm not doing that amount of work for free. I'm not insane."

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Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.