Arika’s vice president has shared an image of a mysterious Mega Man design

The vice president of Japanese developer and publisher Arika has shared a mysterious image of a previously unseen Mega Man design.

As reported by Rockman Corner, Arika vice president Ichiro Mihara was responding on X to a message posted about Mega Man (known as Rockman in Japan) by manga artist Hitoshi Ariga.

Ariga had previously worked with Capcom on a number of Mega Man projects, including numerous manga comics.

“I used to draw Rockman manga and create encyclopedias and books with Capcom’s official artwork, so I know a little bit about Rockman,” Ariga wrote, alongside an illustration of Mega Man.

Mihara responded with a post he had redacted himself, saying: “I used to make Rockman’s ***, *** and **** official ****, so I’m a bit familiar with Rockman.”

This was accompanied by a close-up image of a Mega Man helmet which has puzzled fans, because the design of its panelling, the positioning of a bolt and Mega Man’s glowing eyes don’t fit with any previous game in the series.

Mihara was the producer of 2003 GameCube title Mega Man: Network Transmission, so some are suggesting it may be unused concept art from that game.

Others believe that Mihara’s decision to censor the post may suggest he’s teasing a future Mega Man project.

Last year Capcom said it was “considering how to approach” making new Mega Man games in the future.

While a number of retro compilations of older Mega Man titles have been released in recent years, entirely new entries in the series are few and far between, with only three major Mega Man games in the past 16 years.

Arika is currently developing Endless Ocean Luminous on Switch, and earlier this week SNK announced plans to work with Arika to revive its classic non-fighting game IP.