What was to be a celebration of decades of Mega Man is now to be merely a footnote in the series' history, as Capcom has announced that downloadable platformer Mega Man Universe has been cancelled.

An announcement on the game's official Japanese website, noticed by Silicon Era, cites "various reasons" as the cause for cancellation. Capcom offers an apology.

One such reason may be the departure of Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune, who quit Capcom in October 2010. Inafune was designing Universe and had been the public face of the project.

Based upon Mega Man 2, Universe was to offer a wide range of playable characters from the series' history, including the infamous Mega Man from the original game's North American box art. It also packed customisable characters and a level editor, all wrapped up in unattractive new graphics. The game was announced for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network in July 2010.

For one last look at the game we'll never get to play, here's a trailer from the Tokyo Game Show last year: