Results tagged “mega man”

Despite being announced a little before the Comic Con in mid-July, and despite the Comic Con passing with Capcom attending the event, we finally received our first look at Mega Man Universe today, on the advent of this year's Penny Arcade Expo. Actually, that should be "looks," because Capcom cleverly sent different gameplay videos to various websites, namely IGN, Gamespot, and 1up. They're all prefaced by an introduction by Keiji Inafune and tease Ryu (from Street Fighter), but contain different gameplay with different iterations of Mega Man. And the game looks...well, it's something, to put it lightly.

The game resembles what a lot of people feared Mega Man 9 was going to look like prior to its unveil: a cheap, low budget 2.5D platformer with mediocre animation. That's not to say I think the game will turn out bad, of course. Mega Man Powered Up for PSP had a similarly repelling art style with mechanics that weren't quite as tight as the original, but it was nonetheless a pretty enjoyable game with a great level editor. In fact, this game's art style is the complete antithesis of MMPU's. People made some good levels with that, and if this game is a spiritual successor to that game, then more power to it.

The Mega Man's used are the most hilarious aspects of the trailer. The Gamespot version uses "Bad Box Art Mega Man," an SD version of the dude shown on this cover. He's pretty hideous, yeah, but that's intentional. He could be a fun novelty to have as a playable character. 1up's version uses "Rockman" which is the Mega Man (Rockman in Japan) you've come to know and love. The IGN one uses "Mega Man" which I guess is the western interpretation of what Mega Man looks like, as evinced by Mega Man 3 and 4's NES covers, i.e. not taken to the extreme like Mega Man 1 and 2's covers. He also has some big eyebrows, which make him look pissed. Angry Kirby Syndrome lives on!

The appearance of Ryu (No way) is likely a hint that there will be plenty of selectable characters. How many there could potentially be is unknown, but Capcom has themselves a guaranteed sale of Morrigan makes it in. Heck, maybe they'll let you make your own characters.

Capcom's still being awfully secretive about what MMU actually is, so maybe they'll elaborate on it more either over the weekend or at the Tokyo Game Show, which begins in precisely two weeks. The first look here makes me a little pessimistic as to how it'll turn out, but I'd like to think Inafune has our best interests in mind. Then again, sometimes I don't know about him.

Image stolen from NeoGAF.

On Friday, we finally found out what that mysterious trademark from Capcom a while back was all about. Fortunately, it wasn't for a localization of the Mega Man-based Korean MMORPG, but it was for something else entirely. The catch here is that who knows what that "something" is at the moment, as the trailer -- despite being wonderfully nostalgia-inducing -- and press release told us absolutely nothing about the game. But it did drop some vague hints.

It looks like Mega Man Universe, due for release on both Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network, is a LittleBigPlanet-style game where people create their own levels and share them online, kind of like an expanded version of what was found in Mega Man Powered Up. I'm willing to bet it will probably have some levels developed by Capcom as well, some of which might be homages to levels from other Mega Man games. This has the potential for greatness, provided this hypothesis is anywhere near accurate.

It will also seemingly avoid primarily using the big-headed characters prevalent in Powered Up, though they might be in there as a template. The trailer (seen at the link above) shows Mega Man, characters from other games like Ryu (Street Fighter) and Arthur (Ghosts & Goblins), in CG Tim Buckley-esque forms. But it also shows 8-bit Mega Man and a CG rendition of the version of Mega Man depicted on the original American cover. It looks like you'll have the choice to play a plethora of characters. Characters like Zero, Proto Man, and Roll are a given (unless Capcom likes to see fan riots), but hopefully we'll see characters like Strider and R.A.D.D. Spencer.

A pity that it's definitely not a new Mega Man X or Mega Man Legends game, which is bound to sink a few hearts. Especially in the case of the latter, despite creator Keiji Inafune constantly expressing desire to make another one. I wouldn't be surprised to see their templates in this game, but the chances of them starring in another game looks more and more bleak as time goes by.


We'll find out what this game is sometime during the San Diego Comic Con this upcoming weekend. Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono also has an announcement to make this weekend. Super Street Fighter IV Turbo? Namco vs. Capcom? New Darkstalkers? Time will tell, but Ono's been teasing on his twitter.

Recommended Soundtracks is a feature where we, uh, recommend soundtracks. Some of us are bound to come across soundtracks that likely no one aside from a lucky few have heard. But we're not a selfish bunch. We intend to bestow that knowledge of its existence to anyone reading, in the hopes that more listeners bask in its apparent quality compositions.

You can always expect a Mega Man/Rockman game to have some great music, barring some exceptions. Even though it's a venerable franchise, it still has installments that tend to go unnoticed by the majority of gamers; that's including fans of the series, too. Mega Man 7...well, kind of fits this criteria. It was the first game whose style represented a big departure from the first titles in the main series, and the first made for the Super Nintendo. This meant that the colors were much more vibrant, and the sound and music were upgraded to 16-bit standards.

It also meant an underwhelming game. The change in style represented the unfortunate departure of the pixel-perfect mechanics found in the NES games. With Mega Man 7, everything felt off a little, especially shooting and jumping. The level designs also weren't up to the standards of the best NES games. The robot designs also didn't show the ingenuity of its predecessors -- though Junk Man's design is pretty great due to how bizarre it is, but some of the others couldn't be more unoriginal. But there were also already Mega Man games on SNES: the Mega Man X games. Those were, essentially, what the evolution of Mega Man should be on a new console. But Capcom was intent on continuing the original franchise, which made MM7 feel like a dated experience compared to X.

While I can't defend the game in comparison to its pedigree, I will defend its excellent soundtrack. MM7 has a track that fits the mood of every stage, with music so catchy that it made cruising through the stages that much more tolerable. Perhaps the best and most fitting track is Shade Man's stage music, which consists of the perfect amalgam of Mega Man-style vibrant and haunting.


Not only do I like Junk Man due to how different he is from every other robot master the franchise -- which is also why a lot of fans don't like him -- and I also happen to be a big fan of his stage music. Surprisingly, it's not junk...or something.


Burst Man's stage is also incredibly fitting, sounding like the right track to make you go and search a mysterious Science lab. It's also one of the tougher stages in the game.


All of MM7's tracks are upbeat, fitting them in with the overall jovial tone of the game -- that's compared to the more gritty X titles. Also, just because I said the game is underwhelming doesn't mean it's necessarily bad. It's a good game; it's just that it's below the standard set by Mega Man's 2 & 3 and feels like a regression after getting a handle on X. Also, be sure to check out the fan-created NES version for an iteration of the game without the sluggish controls. But hey, enjoy the soundtrack!

Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X is a remake of a game born in a time where games weren't judged on the length of their respective adventures. It was a game among games that challenged you to find the best way through them, a strategy detailing how to find everything that made the game's challenge a bit easier to bear. Mega Man games are known for their secrets and their replay value, but they're also known for their bitter, nail-biting challenge; and therein lies the force that drives you to strive for the former two appealing factors.

Maverick Hunter X does its best to recapture the appeal of the original SNES classic Mega Man X. And it succeeds! Well, mostly. There are times where remakes of older titles don't quite capture the spirit of the original in every way, but the good thing is that Maverick Hunter X captures most of what it had. It doesn't do it on quite the same level that a game like Bionic Commando Rearmed does, and it's definitely not on the same "better than the original" level that Metroid: Zero Mission does, but it does a good enough job that almost anyone who has or hasn't enjoyed the original will like and replay it.

The remake has many of the same levels that the original had, all of which are mostly preserved in their original form. Anyone who's played through the original multiple times will find incredibly familiar territory here, as the level layouts, and even some of their exploitable glitches, are still mostly intact. But it's important to say that they're "mostly" intact, as veterans will find a curve ball thrown at them. Many of us played the original so much that we knew where each power up was located, and by the end of the game we had X powered up to his final, fully armored form. For this one, Capcom took it upon themselves to shuffle the locations of most of the power ups, so anyone expecting them to be in the same place is in for a surprise. They're not really harder to find, though.

For the most dedicated fans how care about the world and characters of the Mega Man franchise - and you'd have to be incredibly dedicated to actually be concerned about it, because even they'll admit that it's far from the most riveting material - there's much more exposition for it this time. Most of the conversations between characters play out differently, and all of them contain full voice acting. And fortunately, it's pretty good, unlike what the atrocities the franchise was previously known for. Also, all of the additional story material is done with anime cut scenes, which look very nice on the PSP's screen.

The game itself also looks quite nice, much better than any kind of screen shot can show. But anyone who thinks the game doesn't quite look like the original is...well, they're actually right. As nice as some of the 3D polygonal models and backgrounds look, they don't have quite the same amount of aesthetic appeal of the original's 2D sprite work.

The transition from 2D to 3D - or 2.5D, if you want to be really specific - has also created some gameplay setbacks. During this process, it's difficult to make everything feel as perfect as the pixellated version, namely the platforming. The transition for jumping across platforms wasn't perfect, and it's actually made leaping over platforms a little harder than it was in the original game. It's nothing that can't be adjusted to, however.

There have also been numerous balance changes made to the game, which make the game both easier and harder. Many of these affect the end game, whose final level in the original required you to make it through it in one sitting; this was one very long section that required you to face all eight bosses (known as "Mavericks" here, because, you know, you're a "Maverick Hunter") and a few other boss characters, along with some of the toughest platforming in the game. All of that challenge hasn't been removed from the main game itself, but it's nice that what was one long level has been split into four parts, which allow you to save in the interim between them. You can also save right before the final boss! Though, to compensate for that, they're harder than they were in the original.

Just as you'd expect, all of the music has been remixed, and your old and favorite tunes have been redone very well for the remake. They may lack some of the appeal the original had, due to its music being so good while utilizing lower quality technology, but their catchiness is still completely intact. It won't replace the original's soundtrack on your iPod's playlist, but it'll wedge itself right next to it to complement it.

(What, you don't have video game soundtracks on your iPod's playlist.)

And a complementary piece is also what Maverick Hunter X serves as. The quality of the overall product isn't quite up to the experience of the original, but that would be impossible given how this isn't an original product. Its itinerary is to tinge your senses of nostalgia that you either have for the original, or games like it.

And I sincerely wish that I could be saying the same thing for the rest of the games. Series creator Keiji Inafune once expressed that he wanted to remake Mega Man X1-X6, which would've happened if this game hadn't bombed horribly (especially in Japan). That's a shame, because I sure would've loved to see if they could make Mega Man X6 into a tolerable experience. Bummer.

Edit: Thanks to Drew for reminding me that I totally forgot to mention a mode where you get to play as fan-favorite villain Vile, which gives an entire new dynamic to its gameplay style (he's very different from X). What were you expecting, a playable Zero with his MMX4 moveset? Pfft.

Mega Man 9 is coming next week, the Official Capcom Blog confirmed today. It will hit WiiWare, Playstation Network, and Xbox Live Arcade on September 22, September 25, and October 1, respectively.

Why 360 owners have to wait a week later is beyond me, but it could be because Capcom thinks Duke Nukem 3D (which comes to XBLA next week) would murder it or something (though Wipeout HD is OK). That, or they're giving you time to purchase the Mega Man Anniversary Collection from their online store so you can have all of the games finished by then.

In case you haven't heard yet, Mega Man 2 was released on the Wii Virtual Console yesterday. Great news, since the game is considered by many (if not all) to be considered the best in the main series. Fans are speculating that the recent release of this game is in anticipation of Mega Man 9 gracing the presence of WiiWare soon. That, or they're just speculating to keep their mind off of the fact that Japan and Europe have had the game for months; or that this is the only VC game released this week, reminiscent of the one-game-a-week summer doldrums while the Japanese and Eropean VC didn't stagger at all.

But they could be correct. This is coming off the news that the game was given a definitive Japanese WiiWare on September 24th. So it's possible that the US might see the game release as early as next Monday. The aforementioned prospect is overwhelmingly positive, though, and positivity is something that owners of the Wii console haven't had towards Nintendo for a good while. At least in America.

Also, earlier this month, the press received their review copies of the game. From that, you might conclude that it really is coming soon. Hopefully that's true, though they get an extra bonus we most assuredly won't be getting, and that will probably go for a high price if someone decides to hock theirs on either ebay or a similar marketplace. That package looks so fantastic that I might even pay top dollar for it! Even though it really isn't an NES game per se. Ah, to be so weak willed.

A release date for Mega Man 9 in territories outside of Japan will definitely be announced very soon. Keep in mind that while it's only hitting WiiWare in Japan, it's also hitting Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network.