Capcom's Mega Man series has had a rough couple of years, including various canceled projects. At least one of them was scuttled without ever being announced, though: Maverick Hunter, a gritty first-person shooter reboot of the Mega Man X series. It was being developed by Armature Studio, a new developer composed of Metroid Prime talent.

Polygon reports that the project was only in development for about six months, but in that time Armature built a working prototype and had nailed down the general look and feel of the game. It was scrapped during greenlight meetings in late 2010, just before Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune left Capcom.

The character's armor was to be designed by Adi Granov, the concept artist behind the Iron Man films. Core concepts to the MMX series would have been reimagined, like replacing his X-Buster arm as a transforming handheld gun, and using the dash to finish off dazed enemies. It introduced new wrinkles as well, like the ability to combine weapons taken from enemies. It was to feature a reimagined version of Zero, along with a new human police officer character as a sidekick. The major plot points came from Inafune, but it was to be written by a western scenario writer.

If successful, the game would spawn a trilogy of Maverick Hunter games culminating in a third title starring Zero, as he fights against X, who had grown too powerful and intelligent to be controlled over the course of the series.

In only the last few years, Capcom has canceled Mega Man Legends 3, Mega Man Universe, and Mega Man Online. Scuttling Maverick Hunter brings that count up to four, of the ones we know about. Capcom recently announced a new Mega Man game is in development, but hasn't given any further details.

Hit Polygon for more videos of the canceled game in action.