Capcom Answers Your Questions About Street Fighter X Mega Man
Okay, so this one is a little late in coming.
When Capcom revealed the trailer for Street Fighter X Mega Man, we noticed there were a lot of questions and a lot of confusion surrounding the anniversary release. To help alleviate this, we went around and gathered as many of the most frequently-asked and burning inquiries we could find about the game, and brought them before Capcom in the hopes of delivering to you the ultimate Street Fighter X Mega Man FAQ.
The only problem? Well, the game was released right as we were headed into the heavy holiday vacation season, and things got sidetracked– that is, until now. Thanks to Senior Community Manager Brett “Brelston” Elston, we have answers to 16 down-right fierce questions that the community (these all came from you guys around the web; we’re just along for the ride this time) have posed.
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1) Is this really an official Capcom product, or just a fan game?
BE: It’s true that Zong Hui began work on this game years ago as a passion project. But due to schoolwork and other obligations, it took years to even get a few bosses done, so when he approached Christian at EVO this year, our partnership made timely completion of the project possible. Zong Hui and his small team collaborated with us at Capcom USA, making this a true merging of fan game and official title. It’s not the first time the Mega Man series has gone outside Capcom as well; Inti Creates largely handled MM9 and 10, as well as the entire Zero/ZX series. This is just another partnership with a team – just so happens they’re “civilians,” haha.
2) Did Capcom have anything to do with this besides buying it?
BE: As mentioned elsewhere, we provided financial assistance, as well as ongoing feedback regarding bosses, gameplay and other issues. Given the tight dev window, we know there are a few rough edges left, even with a dozen people looking at this. To that end, we can say we’re working on a V2 that will release soon and hopefully address some of those known issues. It’s not adding content, but we’ve been reading responses and can “tighten up” a few things before the end of the year.
3) Another NES-style game? Will Capcom ever move away from this and show some effort?
BE: I’d object to the word “effort,” but the point is taken – we’ve done the 8-bit approach three times now, and even as someone with NES Mega Man coursing though his veins I’m eager to see something fresh. That gets into the whole “What’s Next?” discussion that Christian has mentioned before… we’re constantly talking about this brand and its future. Can’t say what the future is, but know there IS a future.
4) Is this really how you plan to end Mega Man‘s 25th anniversary?
BE: Like we’ve said, this is the start. Japan led up to December, while in the US we had so much Street Fighter 25th Anniversary activity we had to focus on that. With that concluded (spectacularly, if I may toot our Grand Finals horn for a moment), we can kick off MM25 with SFxMM, the Avatar outfits, the 3DS ports and so on, and then come back in 2013 with more fun stuff. We’re not done.
5) Why is it “Street Fighter X Mega Man?” Wasn’t it originally “Mega Man X Street Fighter” before you got a hold of it? You’re just trying to push more Street Fighter on us over Mega Man!
BE: There’s no one major reason for the change, but rather a few small things that added up. One, we liked the idea of beginning with SF leading into MM, as that’s how the anniversaries play out. Also, ending with “Mega Man” feels like it puts more emphasis on him, as it’s the last thing you say when discussing the (literal) title.
6) Is this game canon to the Mega Man series? / Is this the official explanation for Dr. Light’s inclusion of the Hadouken & Shoryuken upgrades for X?
BE: Not canon, not explaining the MMX Street Fighter moves (which were in the same fun spirit as SFxMM).
7) Mega Man must obey the First Law of Robotics! So why can he just go around shooting people? / Is Mega Man fighting SF robots? I don’t want to kill Chun Li!
BE: Again, it’s not meant to sit and think about the “why,” it’s just a fun token, a special present for fans as we head into MM25. But for the sake of argument, the ending of Mega Man 7 sure blurs the line as to how far Mega Man can be pushed before harming a human 
8) Can I use a controller instead of my keyboard?
BE: Of course, though trying to use virtual controllers can introduce problems. We’ve heard some reports of issues with certain controllers, and we hope to address some of that with the upcoming V2 of SFxMM, which is set to come out later this month. It’s not adding content, but should address a handful of performance issues.
9) Why is this PC-only? Why aren’t you releasing it for Mac, Steam, XBLA, etc.?
BE: PC is the easiest way to deliver a free game. Open platforms are made for this. Bringing it elsewhere requires all sorts of approvals, submissions and so on, which affect price and timing. Furthermore, once it’s out for free, how many would buy the same game on a console when it’s identical? Could we add more stuff and charge for a different take on SFxMM? Possibly, but there are no plans at this time.
10) Is this all we’re getting for Mega Man‘s 25th anniversary? Do you expect this to “make things right?”
BE: There’s no denying the hard year Mega Man fans have had. As a lifelong fan myself, I feel it too, but do hope SFxMM scratches the itch. It’s not meant to be the best Mega Man game of all time, to make everything completely cool with the community, but rather a chance to elevate a fan effort in celebration of both franchises turning 25. I believe it succeeds on that front, and that Zong Hui made a super fun (to play and to see) product.
11) Will Capcom be doing this again with other fan games, like that Mega Man 25th anniversary game or “Mega Man X Corrupted”?
BE: As Christian’s said before, SFxMM was a very organic process, and an extremely special case. It does open the door to some interesting conversations, but right now there are no further, similar plans.
12) You said that how many times the game is downloaded could affect the direction of the franchise; can you explain how? What if I want to support Mega Man/a particular MM series, but don’t want more 8-bit Mega Man? And you’re not going to just take this as a show of support for Street Fighter and ignore Mega Man instead, are you?
BE: The traffic to Capcom Unity on 12/17 was insane. Broke the site. That’s a pretty clear sign of interest in the character and brand. But the many different versions of Mega Man get back to that “What’s Next?” question; there were so many SKUs coming out rapid-fire, doing different things and hitting a similar (but slightly different) audience that it’s extremely hard to make a modern Mega Man plan that addresses everything and everyone. The 8-bit gimmick is nice, and that sprite is iconic and never going away, but I’d also speculate that’s not all we want to do in the future.
13) Will the special moves be performed like Street Fighter moves (i.e. D, DF, F+Attack for Hadouken)?
BE: The boss weapons are triggered like normal MM weapons, but there’s one SF-style move that people have discovered…
14) Does this mean we can get a Street Fighter x Mega Man crossover comic from Archie?
BE: Considering Sonic and Mega Man are meeting in 2013, surely Ryu meeting Mega Man could happen too. But nothing on the Archie front at the moment, that I’m aware of.
15) Why is it free? There has to be some sort of catch.
BE: I suppose the only catch is you can accidentally hit ESC and close the program, haha (and yeah, that’s something we’re looking at for V2)
16) Is this the best we’re going to get for Mega Man‘s 25th anniversary?
BE: When we say we’ve concluded MM25, that’ll be for you guys to decide 
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Thanks to Brett Elston for taking the time to answer these questions! Feel free to discuss what’s been said here in the comments below.
Tags: Brelston, Brett Elston, Capcom, Capcom Unity, Mega Man Classic, Street Fighter, Street Fighter X Mega Man
Filed under: Mega Man News
One good reason for the name to be Street Fighter X Mega Man, rather than the other way around, is to reduce confusion regarding whether this involves Mega Man X in any way.
Its good to know that they’re aware the 8-bit fad has run its course, kinda makes me optimistic…kinda.
I’m so skeptical with this “is only the beginning of the 25th”, it sound like a desperate claim like SFxMM was a desperate move because they had nothing to celebrate the 25th, but I recon that they are trying.
it really does look that way. this looks like capcom grasping at straws to appease its megaman fans
I’m quite pleased to see some upfront ballsy questions were asked such as if capcom basically just planned to spam the 8 bit retro look,no offence i know some people love the retro look but capcom was using it as cheap labor games we need something new and by new i mean next gen,I noticed they dodged an answer to question 12,and with that notion there is no way they were telling the truth,theres no way they can tell which direction to take the megaman series based on how many people downloaded this game,rather it was a way for sure for them to keep advertising streetfighter,and sure enough it worked.The end of question 3 basically implies their still discussing the future of megaman which means no “Decent” (note that word) megaman games will be made and hitting stores for a long while,and with megaman no longer selling he is going to be a relic,capcom needs to stop bullshitting around and simply make a quality megaman game,recommendation is to go back and make legends 3,make a new diverse megaman x series,or start thinking up a 2 player megaman series something like battle network
Trying is better than not doing anything at all.
Like the answer to the “first law of robotics” question.
Speak for yourself..
so, what’s wrong with the 8-bit look?
everyone seems to think it needs fixing. Does it look bad? I would say no, it looks fine. does mega man need to be in high res? doesn’t 8 bit get the job done?
is the game any weaker for the graphic style they choose to implement?
I don’t see what the problem is with the 8 bit look. it doesn’t hurt the game, but everyone insists that it needs to go. Let me guess, the 2D has to go too?
if you want more pixels in your mega man, just play X/Z/ZX!
I’m not against something different, but I don’t see anything wrong with 8 bit… what’s the big problem?
Graphics have never been a thing for me. Game play, Music and Story are higher to me than Graphics. Graphics does showcase advancement and what a system is capable of yes ,but I not saying to stun growth either at some point that’ll change 8-bit is and will always be good times and every era of gaming for me will have its good times even if its not graphically up to par with the specs of current generation council or the next generation specs.
I am not saying a game series should be held back either because Megaman has been held back for quite some time sure we get the occasional 2.5 3D graphics like MMX8, MHX, MMPU, and then we have the full 3D games like the Legends series and MMXCM (Not sure to count MMX7 or the Starforce battle system because both well starforce uses sprites and MMX7 switches between 2D to 3D, I guess I could count it as 2.5 3D…)
And looking at vast majority of megaman games all of them were done with styles of spriting fitting for the time or were for the creativity of the system they were available on. Granted I do believe a nice push would help ,but we already saw a trip up which was rectified when X8 was made.
Going back to this game, it is a rare thing to see a fan game get taken by a game publisher granted its a branch of the main company ,but its suiting for what it is and if this is what the fan who made it wanted it to be than that’s all milk and honey from there. Granted I bet there is complaints on it and flaws ,but its labor of love that made it to the hands of other people who would enjoy it for its worth to them,
I suppose a few of you can argue with the time is money concept or well capcom is lazy don’t won’t try to do anything worth while in advancing in anything. I can argue that megaman games are notoriously short so short most of the side scrolling titles and or 3D titles can take an upwards 1 to 3 hrs for side scrolling, 4 to 7 hrs to play through a 3D title mostly legends. (X7 can be beaten in less time than a Legends game.) I am not sure how to gauge the time to play through BN series, Starforce Series and MMXCM can take because they have tons of RPG elements in those games this is of course you grind like crazy or farm something for hours on end.
So really with the exceptions of trying 3D elements not a whole lot goes into game length which could also mean not a whole lot gets upped in graphics when in development. And I am not an expert on it just putting out a decent or possibly far off guess here. To kinda satisfy my stupid habit for probably over looking everything in too many details when really it could be a lot simpler or on topic.Granted I probably get overlooked or ignored again anyways.
Certainly, there’s nothing wrong with it for a fangame. However, considering how easy it is to make NES-styled sprites, it does come across as fairly low-effort for a major commercial release, which was my beef with Mega Man 10. I really wish that they had done something to use current hardware power to its advantage, and I don’t think I’m alone on that sentiment.
However, for a game like Street Fighter x Mega Man, it works well. I’ve always been interested in seeing other video game characters represented as Mega Man sprites, and it’s not a super-big commercial release or a new major instalment of a series.
I’m certain it also boils down to the reason why Mega Man Battle Network: Chrono X won’t be released for Apple systems. It’s incredibly costly to have a development kit for Apple, and there’s no profit coming in from this game’s release. If they were to charge money for it, that would also be alienating Apple users since they wouldn’t be getting it for free, though I guess they’re more accustomed to paying more for things, anyway. The money that they’d get would also have to be used to pay royalties to the game’s original creator, and the game itself would have to be reworked to fit Apple products.
Since Windows-based systems are more readily available and widely-used, it’s currently the most feasible option that Capcom has. Besides, Macs can run Windows emulation anyway, and an Apple version might be coming out when the game’s next revision swings by.
well, it’s easy to make NES styled sprites, yes, so they pass the savings in cost down to us. I’m happy with a $10-15 Mega man 10 retail release. I’d love 10 more $10-15 Mega man games.
Not to say that I wouldn’t mind a $50-$60 Mega man game, but I don’t mind cheap minimal FUN games.
Also, they could very well use the hardware’s power to it’s advantage without making hi-def 3D renders with detailed cinematics, they could simply put their budget in programming. Instead of working on the look of the game and using that as the end all be all determinant of the game being a quality game or not, simply increase the scope of the game… more levels, more intricate maneuvers.
I can see the issue with 8-bit retro style games where the game is made to feel like it was made in 1992, but there is nothing wrong with an 8-bit retro aesthetic.
Well nice to know I get a dislike. I guess someone read my post. I guess that’s a start.
I also feel that the 8-bit fad has overstayed its welcome, but Capcom’s answer in regard to it was, of course, noncommittal so as to keep from alienating proponents of either side of the issue.
I won’t begrudge fans for using 8-bit sprites in a fangame. In fact, if I see a solid, playable fangame I won’t complain because it meant someone put in an effort of love — also, hey, who doesn’t love free games? I will, however, state that 8-bit games made by professional gaming companies in this day and age is effort at its lowest.
Yes, I know, pixel art is still art, no dispute there, but even the staunchest defender of the medium has to admit that reusing 25-year-old art assets is the opposite of progress.
Stop biitchin BIITCH
If someone didn’t have a PC, yes. They would pay for a game that’s free elsewhere simply because that’s how they’d be able to play it. That’s not an acceptable answer.
Yeah, most people won’t buy a game they got for free, but look at Cave Story. That was free, yet tons of people have bought the DSi, WiiWare and eShop ports. Some bought all of them. Yes, they added stuff, but they bought them just to show support and because they want to play it on their consoles/handhelds.
Megaman fans would CERTAINLY pay to support a Megaman game, regardless how it was made. And like I said, it alienates all the people without a Windows-based PC for whatever reason they may have.
8-bit aesthetics being beautiful or ugly or anything in between, bad or not is completely subjective. You are speaking for yourself. I’m not gonna turn this into a “thing” by the way.
Lol at the 8 bit/NES question. I don’t mind 8 bit style, but I don’t want Capcom to regulate Megaman to 8 bit
Having a good day sir or miss?
DIPSHIIT
WUT ABOUT U BIOOTCH?
DIPSHIIT
Great day at work granted slow day cashiering. And you?
Great day at work granted slow day cashiering. And you?
SHIITDIP
SHIITDIP
HAVIN FUN DROPPPIN THE SOAP I SEE
DIKBUTT
HAVIN FUN DROPPPIN THE SOAP I SEE
DIKBUTT
ARE U A CASHIER? IT’S LATE
ARE U A CASHIER? IT’S LATE
I guess you are having good day then.
I guess you are having good day then.
Yep that’s my job.
THAT’S COOL. MY JOB IS BEING AN INTERNET TOUGHGUY. DOESN’T PAY WELL BUT THE BENEFITS ARE NICE
Wow, those “fan questions” certainly sounded… hostile. “This isn’t all you’ve got, is it?” was asked pretty much three times. Damn son, keep a leash on it.
What this sf-style move on question 13? Aand can i use it