Slashdot Mirror
Game Review: Street Fighter X Mega Man
If you haven't downloaded and played Street Fighter X Mega Man (you can find it at Capcom-unity.com/mega_man), well, just go do it now (be aware: the Capcom servers have been getting hit hard with requests for the game). It's Windows-only for the moment, and free.
As with Mega Man 9 and 10, the style is identical to the original NES series. While the name might lead you to believe this is a fighting game, it's actually a side-scrolling adventure in the mode of previous Mega Man titles. The main difference is that the bosses (or Robot Masters) are Street Fighter characters.
It's old school in ways both good and bad, but mostly good. And it's definitely hard — Nintendo hard, as we used to say. Death in early Mega Man games came from either the swarming enemies or the difficult jumps that sent your robotic avatar plunging into an abyss; while the jumps in this newest title aren't so hard, the enemies swarm you so incessantly it's often difficult to keep your health level up.
As with those previous games, charging up your Mega Buster by holding the shoot button is essential, as is proceeding through the levels in the correct order in order to exploit the rock/paper/scissors weaknesses of each boss (one recommended order starts with Ryu and then goes on to Chun-li, Crimson Viper, Dhalsim, Blanka, Rose, Rolento, and Urien.)
The game doesn't totally recapture the magic of Mega Man 2 (my favorite in the series), but its level design is such that you'll feel like you're playing a classic Mega Man game. The music is also reminiscent of the classics, with a twist — occasionally you notice that a character's theme from Street Fighter (Chun-Li's, for example) has been redone in that distinctive 8-bit musical style. Some of the bosses' fighting styles are also reminiscent of how they fight in Street Fighter, giving diehard fans a bit of a leg up in terms of strategy.
The game is so old school that there's no way to save your progress, not even with a password — one of the very few downsides, at least in my opinion.
But it's hard to complain about a game that's free. And here's another thing: a fan made it. Devoted Mega Man enthusiast Seow Zong Hui from Singapore approached Capcom earlier this year with a prototype of the game, and he and the company saw it to completion.
Street Fighter X Mega Man takes its place alongside Super Mario Crossover and Abobo's Big Adventure as one of the best fan-made homages to classic video games. Only this time it's being distributed by Capcom, which should be commended for helping a fan-made project flourish, instead of targeting the loyal supporter with a copyright lawsuit. It's an example I'd love to see other companies follow — and I'd also love to see this be just the beginning of a revival for Mega Man. In an interview with Polygon, Capcom Senior VP Christian Svensson said Street Fighter X Mega Man is "a bit of a mea culpa" to fans, hinting at more to come.
In conjunction with Monday's release, Capcom announced that the first six Mega Man games will come to the Nintendo 3DS's online store starting later this month. One request I'd make (and I don't think I'm alone) is for Capcom to do whatever it takes to get Mega Man into the next version of Super Smash Bros.
Nostalgia titles and crossovers may well end up being the best way to go for Mega Man. While Super Mario Bros., Zelda, Final Fantasy, and other classic series continue to push the boundaries of gaming technology, it's hard to imagine Mega Man in a fully modernized game — perhaps because we simply don't know what that would be like, or whether it would be as fun as the originals.
I like to think of Mega Man the way I think about aging rock bands like The Who. Sure, he hasn't done anything truly new in a couple of decades. But when he plays his old stuff, man, it's worth paying attention.
The game sort of works in Wine. When it starts up, it appears full screen with loads of corrupted graphics in the borders and there's no sound.
The sound can apparently be fixed by installing dsound and directmusic via winetricks, but I haven't gotten around to that yet.
The keyboard controls didn't work for me (apart from Escape), but I think it's because the game detects the plugged in joystick and prioritizes that.
Apparently the game crashes for some users when they get to the boss, but I haven't gotten to one yet (because I suck at the game).
Kubuntu 12.04
Summation 2
The Megaman X series was still pretty good, and the Megaman Zero series on GBA/DS were good, too. Nothing ground-breaking, but still fun side scrollers. SFxMM is pretty much a direct follow-on to MM 9 and 10 in style and gameplay. The Megaman Legends series really didn't have anything to do with classic Megaman to begin with; at least no more than the relatively-current Megaman Battle Network games do. This review reads like it was written by someone who hasn't paid any attention to video games for the past 20 years.
And everyone harping on this game for not having a save function is silly. It has infinite continues and doesn't take that long to beat. If you really find it so onerous you can just mute it and leave it running in the background. My main problem is that with an Xinput controller it defaults to using the joystick instead of the Dpad for directional control, and puts the Start button function on the right stick button.
Anyway, it's a fun, classic-style Megaman game and anyone who loved those games should at least download it and run it once for the nostalgia/coolness factor.
I played it last night, it definitely brings back memories of the old NES days. 8-bit remixes of Street Fighter themes in Mega Man style is exactly what melts the hearts of old school gamers.
It took me a second to realize that my keyboard wasn't working because my joystick was plugged in (the game loads gamepads/joysticks before keyboard, so disconnect any unwanted input peripherals before starting the game) but after that, I went on to beat Chun Li and Ryu before I had to shut it down for the night and head to bed.
This is what games are supposed to be -- fun, crisp controls, frustratingly difficult in some areas yet keeps you interested and entertained, and most importantly, developed for GAMERS and not SHAREHOLDERS.
I love Mega Man games, have since I was 12, one of things I liked was being able to pick up the action later using the password system (in future versions, there was a memory card / save)
In this game there's no save, which is frustrating.
I know you can probably sit down and finish it in one go but saving is a must, especially when the app is a little unstable.
crazy dynamite monkey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61-OMrOxyso
The Mega Man2-esque intro gave me chills, definitely one of my fav games.
I don't think Capcom knows what to do with Mega Man since they fired Keiji Inafune. Re-releases of old titles are still coming, but there's no sign of anything new since Mega Man Legends 3 was axed midway through development.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
A fan makes an awesome thing based on IP from a major company, tells that company about it, and their response is to help? Rather than suing the pants off the guy? What has the world *come* to?!
The game has a few great Easter Eggs as well. The only one I've tried and confirmed so far is the Guile's Stage music trick. In any level, pause, hold down jump, and press Up, Down, Down, Down. You'll get Guile's Theme in place of all background music until you reenter the code. There are also some codes out there to remove Mega Man's helmet, and to always have Ryu's Hadoken even if you haven't beaten him yet, but I haven't tried either yet. You can also face Akuma if you manage to get 3 Perfects.
Megaman was a fun game in its time, but it has not aged well for several reasons.
Megaman was very close to being part of the genre known as Metroidvania, with exploration, upgrades, and platforming action, but for a variety of reasons, Mega-metroidvania never came to pass. I think part of the problem is that a lot of what originally worked in Megaman and our memories of the game, do not translate well to the modern style.
Megaman is known for several reasons, and chief among them is its difficulty. However, difficulty in itself is not a virtue, we played the hell out of the original games because they were really all we had available. They were great games, and that is why we look back fondly on their difficulty, rather than with disdain. In addition, its linear nature just isn't as fun as it once was now that we have been exposed to Metroid and Symphony of the Night.
So it isn't so much that Megaman couldn't work today, but that it gets squeezed out of the market. Nostalgia alone isn't enough for us to want to play an oddlooking robot platformer game when we have the option for so much more variety.
If they want to bring Megaman back, they need to look into incorporating more of the exploration playstyle, more upgrade variety (hell it doesn't even need to upgrade, different is ok as long as it is fun). But a simple side scrolling shooter with marginally situational upgrades isn't going to hold modern gamers' attentions.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
I had to give up modding posts to put this up, but it NEEDS to be said how cool Capcom is for supporting this. You could have legally sued this guy's ass, but instead you didn't and thanked him for his efforts.
Capcom - I am a 33 year old living in Manhattan (i.e. target demo). I was not planning to, but now I will *specifically* purchase a Capcom game as my next purchase as a way of letting you know that I support these measures. Maybe Resident Evil 6.
He shot his dick off the first time he tried masturbating. Such a shame.
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.