TMMN Review of Mega Man 10

When Mega Man 9 came out, it caused quite a stir. As games continually strove to push the boundaries of graphics, story and budget, Mega Man 9 had the nerve to be a simple action game with a retro presentation. It was the first milestone in what we now consider console retro revivals, including New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Konami’s ReBirth series, Blaster Master Overdrive, the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 4 and more. After Mega Man 9 released, we could debate its merits and flaws to no end, putting aside its 8-bit appeal. But one thing was certain: if there were ever a Mega Man 10, it wouldn’t get the same advantage. The whole “retro shock” angle would be used up, and Mega Man 10 would have to rely on more.

I can say with some certainty now that Mega Man 10 is a game that equals, if not surpasses, Mega Man 9. With Mega Man 9, producers Keiji Inafune and Hironobu Takeshita looked back on what gave Mega Man 2 its popularity and longevity in order to make a Mega Man game that could surpass it. While this was a good idea for research, it’s difficult to surpass a game that you’re trying to mimic. While I can’t argue that all of Mega Man 10 is completely original, it really does feel like a fresher game; that at the very least the developers didn’t limit themselves to one game to gain inspiration from. In Mega Man 10, there is definitely a greater attempt to “wow” players, and sometimes it works very well.

    

 

In Mega Man 10, a mysterious virus dubbed Roboenza has plagued robots around the world, leaving humans helpless, who had relied on robots so much. Things only get worse when the infected robots go berserk and start attacking humanity. In a twist, Dr. Wily himself pledges his support to Mega Man and company, claiming to have been working on a machine to discover Roboenza’s cure before being attacked by the robots. Mega Man is also joined by his enigmatic sibling Proto Man in order to stop the wild robots and get back the parts to Wily’s machine. It’s your typical Mega Man story, albeit with a couple small twists thrown in. It also has one of the most tender moments I’ve seen in a Mega Man game for a pretty long time, but compared to game stories it’s still pretty basic. Like Mega Man 9, however, this game has quite a few story scenes for what’s supposed to be a retro remake, and the game’s introduction is easily the longest ever for a Mega Man title. For as simple a story as it is, I get the impression that Inti Creates can’t help but lavish with the character scenes.

The gameplay, of course, is your typical Mega Man fare. You get to select the stages in whatever order you please, run and gun your way through them, beat the boss at the end and get his weapon. This time around, however, there are two major new additions: Proto Man and Easy Mode. While Proto Man was available as downloadable content in Mega Man 9, he is now included with the main game and you can play as him right from the get go. Proto Man still has his same abilities: he can charge his buster for a more powerful shot, he can slide, and he can use his shield while jumping. Conversely, he takes more damage and recoil than Mega Man does, and can’t have as many shots on the screen. I do think they scaled down the amount of damage and recoil he takes compared to Mega Man 9, which made him nearly unplayable in my opinion. Despite this, I still don’t find Proto Man much “better,” since I’m so used to playing as Mega Man I hardly remember to charge and slide. But to those who are used to the later Mega Man games, he may be more enjoyable to use.

For those who feel too daunted by the difficulty levels of Mega Man (especially the kind of difficulty Mega Man 9 often pushed), there is now Easy Mode. This mode makes the enemies and bosses a bit tamer, has Mega Man take less damage, and adds support platforms to water down some of the trickier jumps. While I know a good deal of my fellow Mega Man fans have lauded Easy Mode as ridiculous and insulting, I’m really glad they included it, as I think as many people as possible should be able to enjoy and beat the game. As a test to determine if Easy Mode really “worked,” I had a good friend try it out who hasn’t played a Mega Man game in well over a decade, and pretty much only plays FPS games and Rock Band now. Despite some difficulties, he did manage to beat all eight of the Robot Master stages, and I could even tell he was starting to pick up some skill near the end of his play. I can’t exactly say he enjoyed the game, but it definitely proved that Easy Mode works in making the game more accessible to gamers unfamiliar with Mega Man.

    

 

Truth be told, though, even Mega Man 10’s Normal Mode feels a little more forgiving than Mega Man 9. While there are many awful obstacles, like sand storms that cover the entire screen, huge truck robots that will run at you at wild speeds, and lots and lots of the trademark spikes, it doesn’t feel like Mega Man 10 has so many cheap deaths. In fact, so far as I can recall, Strike Man’s stage has no instant death traps whatsoever. Conversely, beating the game unlocks Hard Mode, so if you feel even Normal Mode isn’t offering enough challenge, Hard Mode will definitely test your mettle. Unlike Mega Man 9’s downloadable Hero and Superhero Modes that just made enemy placement even more cheap, Mega Man 10’s Hard Mode makes the enemies a lot more aggressive and lets the bosses perform new attacks. So far I’ve only been able to beat Chill Man!

Another significant change up is Mega Man 10’s challenges. In Mega Man 9, there were 50 challenges that could be completed by clearing certain conditions in the main game. Mega Man 10 only has 12 of such challenges, but 88 more that are actual challenges of skill. The first 37 of these are mini-stages, which typically involve getting to the end or destroying all the targets. The other 50 are boss battle challenges. Many of them require you to clear them with no damage to perfectly complete the challenge (i.e. get a gold rank instead of a silver). One of the great things I found about the boss challenges is that they doubled as a means to practice boss battles, letting you get better without having to go through the stages again and again. However, I do wish there were more than just 37 of the mini-stage challenges. Those are a lot of fun.

One of my larger complaints about Mega Man 10 is the weapons. The biggest problem is that they consume so much energy, and not allowing you to get good use out of them. In fact, only three of the weapons just use one unit of energy per shot. Furthermore, while a lot of the weapons are pretty creative, I don’t think they’re as useful as similar weapons from previous games. Take Water Shield, for example, which is this game’s barrier weapon. While a little more unique for the barriers, the shield doesn’t deflect shots and it gets broken up as it takes hits. Compare this to Mega Man 9’s Jewel Satellite, which deflected shots, never wore out, and used just as much energy. Chill Spike reminds me a little of Mega Man 9’s Concrete Shot, except it freezes enemies instead of making platforms. Not entirely useless, but it would have been nice to be able to walk on frozen enemies.

Additionally, three of the weapons need to be used “indirectly” so to speak. The projectiles for Chill Spike, Commando Bomb and Thunder Wool hardly damage enemies, but it’s their resulting actions that do (Chill Spike creates a bed of spikes when it touches the floor or wall, Commando Bomb has a wave-like explosion, and Thunder Wool sends a bolt of electricity straight down). If you end up hitting the enemy with the projectile instead, you’re pretty much wasting the weapon – and this is rather difficult with Commando Bomb, which will move twice with commands from the directional pad. Better make sure you don’t have to move when you use it. But there are still some great weapons, like Wheel Cutter which follows along the floor and walls, and lets you climb up walls speedy fast, and Triple Blade, which has a wide range and hits enemies multiple times up close. Rebound Striker is pretty nice too, but using two units of energy per shot you have to use it a little conservatively. It may seem like I’m being a bit hard, but the weapons in a Mega Man game are one of the most important features, and I do think that Mega Man 9 had better weapons overall.

    

 

Next let’s take a look at the game’s sound and music. Mega Man games generate a lot of high expectations for music, and Mega Man 10 has spawned many diverse reactions to its soundtrack. I’ve seen comments from people who love it and those who think it’s grossly inferior (at least compared to the recent Mega Man 9). But I’ve been most surprised to see a lot of people share the same sentiment I do: they’re a little put off by it, but they find it grows on them. And like its reviews, Mega Man 10’s own music is indeed all over the place. Some have even said some songs sound like they belong in other games altogether. This actually isn’t so surprising when you take a look at the people who composed for the game. Manami Matsumae (Mega Man, Mega Man 2), Yasuaki “BUNBUN” Fujita (Mega Man 3, Mega Man 4), Minae “OJALIN” Fujii (Mega Man 4), Mari Yamaguchi (Mega Man 5), Yuko Takehara (Mega Man 6, Mega Man 7), Makoto Tomozawa (Mega Man 7), Shusaku Uchiyama (Mega Man 8), Akari Kaida (Mega Man & Bass) and Inti Creates sound team who worked on Mega Man 9 before: Ippo Yamada, Ryo Kawakami, Hiroki Isogai and Yu Shimoda. Pretty much someone from all of the main series games.

With this many people, it’s no surprise that the game’s soundtrack is so diverse, and I do think it’s a bit over-ambitious. Maybe they wanted to make sure that the game’s music would represent everyone’s favorite game in some regard. But I feel like it’s hard to justify thirteen composers for a game like this. It creates a huge canyon of inconsistency, and for the people who aren’t grabbed by the music, I think what’s really troubling them is how all the themes don’t really fit together. Most if not all of Mega Man 10’s music is skillfully compose and a pleasure to listen to, but the gulf of disparity is a little jarring when you actually play.

Some final other touches I really enjoyed include the stage layouts, which I think are better than Mega Man 9’s, although I didn’t take much issue with Mega Man 9’s stage designs. A lot of this is due to less cheap stage design, granted, but there are some other cool things, like a few stages which have branching paths that give the game a little more replay value. I also found some of the stages thematically more interesting than 9’s. Two that really stand out are the first fortress stage, which has a somber entrance but kicks it up very fast, and the final fortress stage, which is just so weird. I don’t think I’ve felt such a sense of trepidation since Mega Man 2’s final stage, where you begin by falling down a huge cavern. I also like that they added the ability to create and send in video replays of your time attack ranks. Admittedly I’m not good enough to be in any of the top lists, but watching other peoples’ incredible playing is a lot of fun. However, like Mega Man 9, the online rankings still often time out when you try to load them. I can look at the rankings for maybe one or two stages, and then I constantly get the “connection has timed out” message. This gets pretty frustrating, and I don’t know what makes loading a mere list of names and times so demanding on the system.

    

 

All in all, I think Mega Man 10 achieves what it sets out to do. While Mega Man 9 was trying to be a literal reproduction of an NES game, Mega Man 10 doesn’t even bother with imitating things like sprite clipping and sound channel limitations. Mega Man 10 is not an imitation NES game, but just a game that uses NES-like presentation. It’s as fun as Mega Man 9 if not more, a little more forgiving, a bit more interesting and a lot more value up front. It’s troubled by an inconsistent soundtrack, weapons that are good but use a little too much energy and are tricky to use, and fairly long (albeit skippable) story scenes that don’t contribute much to the game’s finale. Fans of Mega Man 9 and action platformers/retro games in general ought to enjoy Mega Man 10 a lot. People who aren’t into classic Mega Man games so much will definitely find it accessible with the Easy Mode, but being able to progress in it doesn’t necessarily mean being able to enjoy it. By no means perfect, but without argument a strong followup to Mega Man 9, and the series in general.

Game reviewed based on WiiWare version of Mega Man 10. Played game for roughly eight hours over the course of a week and a half.

Getting Geeky: Mega Man 10 Image Analysis

A few days ago IGN posted some new videos and screens of Mega Man 10. One of the things about the screens is that they featured borders which will fill in the dead space on 16:9 aspect televisions. As it turns out, though, these borders reveal a bit of information when you look at them up close! Namely, it shows off quite a few, if not all of the game’s stage enemies in one of the borders (not including midbosses). Here is the image in question:

Using my geeky Mega Man powers, I intended to analyze each of the enemies, showing which stages they appear in, which previous robots they may be based on, and pointing out the enemies we still haven’t seen in previous media. Afterwards, I’ll point out a couple more interesting images. This post may get a little weird with its layout, so please forgive any strange text formatting. Now, let’s get geeky!

For the first batch of images, we have the pitching robots from Strike Man’s stage. Both will lob a baseball at you that arches downward and back up. However, a trait unique to the blue variety, the ball will fly at Mega Man after arching. Next we have a couple of Joes, who appear to be modeled after MM9’s Machine Gun Joe, but now they are green and blue instead of red. It’s unknown if they act any differently, and from screens we know the green variety appears in Nitro Man’s stage. Curiously, the blue one seems to have no shield! Is this a more aggressive Joe that doesn’t bother to defend itself? Or is it possible now to separate the Joes of their shields somehow? Finally we have the ball basket robots also found in Strike Man’s stage. The blue ones launch normal, spherical balls, while the red ones launch more oblong, football-like balls which have a more unpredictable bouncing pattern.

In this next set, we have the much expected return of the Metall (or Met, Metool, Mettaur, what have you). Given its stance, it appears to be based on Mega Man 2’s Neo Metall. So far we know these appear in Commando Man’s stage. The purplish robot appears to be a descendant of the Springer enemy line. This one fires shots erratically when it springs, and we know it’s found in Strike Man’s and Blade Man’s stages. Next is a shrimp-like enemy that’s probably based on 2’s Shrink. It’s in Pump Man’s stage. Then we have the annoying parachute bombs that have been seen flying out of pits in Commando Man’s stage. Finally, a never before seen enemy. This drill-like robot appears to be based on 2’s Mole enemy.

In this image we we appear to have a new Adhering Suzy, spotted in Chill Man’s stage. It’s unknown yet if it has any differences to the original. The beetle enemy next to it appears in Commando Man’s stage. These seem to drop bombs on mines which open pits in the stage’s quicksand. The enemy next to it appears to be an overgrown Telly, which shows up in Pump Man’s stage. From screens and videos, we can tell that these try to affix themselves into pipes, and then spit the sludge flowing through them at you. In the below row is a hopping ax enemy called Merserker (perhaps a combination of massacre and berserker). This shows up in Blade Man’s stage. The next enemy is possibly related to the Gabyoall, and appears in Solar Man’s stage. From MM10’s promotion trailer, we see that it fires guided missiles. Finally we have a cannon enemy, which in video footage appears to function exactly the same as 9’s Classical Cannon. It’s design is a little different, however.

Here we have a handful of new enemies, but we’ll start with the known ones. Of course Shield Attacker makes its return. This green model has been seen in Commando Man’s and Chill Man’s stages, with a blue variety in Sheep Man’s stage. Next we have a mine like device, which as mentioned above can be exploded by the flying beetle enemy in Commando Man’s stage. I believe footage shows it can also detonate by touch. Next is this odd purple block enemy, which appears in Solar Man’s stage. According to Nintendo Power, these apparently re-spawn incessantly, making them annoying to deal with. The remaining three enemies are all never before seen. The swallow-like enemy on the top which appears to be holding some kind of capsule is likely based on the Pipi line of enemies. The other two, however; just looking at them doesn’t give me a clear idea on what they are or what they do, so they’re largely a mystery for now.

Here we have a couple more Metalls. Metalls couldn’t fly until 3’s Metall DX, so I’m curious if this is still of the same variety seen above. These flying Metalls are seen in Nitro Man’s stage. Next we have the slug-like Metalls, which were mentioned back in Nintendo Power. These appear in Pump Man’s stage, and shoot sludge that slows you down. From IGN’s Pump Man gameplay video, their attack timing seems a little more tricky. The red claw-like robot appears in Commando Man’s stage. It’s what’s at the bottom of the pits that can be blown into the quicksand, and it will continually spit out projectiles if uncovered. The strange face robot we’ve seen plenty now, it’s a locker door robot that appears in Strike Man’s stage. The flying cannon enemy appears in Blade Man’s stage. From the recent IGN footage, we know it fires at you the moment you appear in its line of sight. And the mouse cursor robot, which is definitely one of the more unique enemies, appears in Sheep Man’s stage.

Finally we get to the other side. Going down the first line, we have a fairly hard to make out enemy. However, this seems to be a miniature version of the large crusher enemy (shown later). You can see it very briefly in the MM10 trailer in Chill Man’s stage. Below that is a spider enemy that seems similar to 9’s Deispider, but it’s a little smaller and moves a lot faster. It appears in Pump Man’s and Blade Man’s stages. The cannon roader enemy I’ll get back to. The next enemy in the middle appears in Sheep Man’s stage, it looks kind of like a flying brain. What’s interesting about this enemy is that it can latch onto equipment. Below it’s in a mechanism that can fly around erratically and drop bombs, as seen in the 22nd anniversary special. It also appears to have a gunner form, though this wasn’t shown previously. The last column has the soccer ball platforms from Strike Man’s stage. The thing at the top, however, hasn’t been identified before. I’m not really sure if it’s an enemy or another kind of platform.

Let’s get back to that roader enemy, that appears in Nitro Man’s stage. Here we can see it doesn’t have the cannon, but below that is a small flying cannon enemy, which reveals this enemy’s trick: the cannon can be separated from it. It is probably possible to destroy one or the other, which appears to be why Mega Man is attempting to avoid it in the footage we’ve seen so far. Below that is an enemy that appears in Chill Man’s stage, which creates snowman-like heads it can throw. In the middle is a flower-like cannon which has recently been seen in screens of Solar Man’s stage. It appears to charge up and fire a laser. Below that is a large, security-like robot. It has been seen in Nitro Man’s stage though I’m not really sure what it does. Next is this strange pink ball. This has not been seen before, so it’s a wonder what it might be. But below that we have the return of the beloved Count Bomb, which appears in Nitro Man’s stage. Three are shown (including the next image), having a timer of 5, 3 and 0. Does this mean there are Count Bombs that explode as soon as you jump on them? That’d be devious.

And our final enemy image. here we have the tower-like enemies from Sheep Man’s stage that fires rebounding sound waves. It can also be used as a platform. Below that is the tried and true Changkey, which has been making a recent comeback in MM games. This appears in Solar Man’s stage of course. Next we have the typical giant crusher enemy that tries to jump on you. So far these have been seen in Commando Man’s and Chill Man’s stages, but I imagine they’ll be seen a lot more. And finally the large truck enemies, which appear in Nitro Man’s stage. These appear to be used as platforms if you can jump on them fast enough.

The next image we analyze is the border that seems to appear during regular gameplay, that shows numerous sprites of Mega Man and his pals. Incidentally, I suspect this border will change to Proto Man sprites if you play as him instead.

There’s really not much to read from this board, but two of the sprites in it really stand out. Here they are:

It’s kind of hard to fix the color, since there’s clearly a blue tint on them. But it’s easy enough to make out that Tango is there. Having made a sole appearance in Mega Man V for Gameboy (and Rockman & Forte on Wonderswan, if you’re in Japan), could this cat finally be coming back? If so we can finally see what those Gameboy sprites would look like in color, officially. Now to Tango’s left is something I didn’t even notice until I was cutting out the Tango sprite. Here we have a sprite of Mega Man, who appears to be sneezing. If anything, this may be indicative of a plot twist wherein Mega Man himself gets infected with Roboenza! Or, maybe he’s just allergic to cats.

Finally, one last image just for fun, since I bet a lot of you figured this one out already.

Here’s the cityscape from the opening of Mega Man 10. Did you ever notice that the building on the far right is the same building Mega Man is standing on in the opening from Mega Man 2? Probably, but if not, consider your mind blown!

The Five Things I Hope to See with Mega Man 10

The month of January has passed, and that means we’re one month closer to the release of Mega Man 10. Chance are you’re getting your hopes up, because I certainly know I am. So much so, in fact, that I took the time to write down some of my biggest hopes for Mega Man 10 in this here little article. Kind of like I did before with Legends 3, except this time it’s a game we know is coming. Now without further ado, internet opinions!

#1: Endless Mode

Endless Mode was by far one of the greatest things to come out of Mega Man 9. What better a way to increase a game’s replayability than to have a stage that’s always different, and doesn’t end until you do? Endless Mode was easily the best downloadable content Mega Man 9 had to offer, and was so liked that ROM hackers started making their own endless versions of other Mega Man games. Of course there is still room for improvement, as I feel that Mega Man 9’s Endless Mode didn’t offer enough variety. It featured, I would guess, roughly 40 to 50 unique stage segments, not counting the boss rooms. After a while you got to know them all, and that’s just inevitable. But what’s more, it didn’t utilize all the obstacles Mega Man 9 had to offer, like Galaxy Man’s portals, Tornado Man’s magnetic platforms, and Jewel Man’s swinging beams.

Even if it is downloadable content again, I’m pretty confident Mega Man 10 will feature its own Endless Mode. It had better anyway, because it’s incredibly fun.

#2: All New Music

Mega Man 9’s return to its retro roots featured a return to some great sounding chiptune music as well. However, in an effort to relive the wonderment of the renowned Mega Man 2, Mega Man 9 directly borrowed some of its music, and this seemed just a bit strange. Granted, while most of the reused music was little jingles and such, people still prefer something new in all aspects. You can’t recreate the awesomeness of Mega Man 2 by trying to copy it exactly. The worst offender is menu theme, which uses Mega Man 2’s password theme. This little song can quickly get grating if you spend any decent amount of time navigating the menus. It’s especially true when looking up online rankings, which still don’t seem to load that well even a year after Mega Man 9’s release.

I will note that during my hands-on with the Mega Man 10 demo at CES, I did hear that the jingle for the stage start theme is the trademark jingle from Mega Man 2, but it’s a fresh arrangement that gives it some more pizazz. So I am hopeful of the rest of the music having its own unique qualities if it ends up being borrowed from other games.

#3: More Mega Man on Virtual Console

When Mega Man 9 came out in 2008, we didn’t just get Mega Man 9, but the first three Mega Man titles on the Wii’s Virtual Console as well. It was a great way to get people geared up for the new Mega Man 9, and I’d hoped they’d do it for Mega Man 10 as well. I even tried to find this out during my trip to CES, but Capcom’s PR wouldn’t comment here nor there on the matter. Of course, wouldn’t you know it, just as I’m considering this for the article last week, Rockman 4 gets announced for Virtual Console in Japan! And it ought to get to us as well. I’m sure there are also expectations for Mega Man 5 and 6 as well, and while I think those two are kind of weak Mega Man titles, they are still pretty decent NES titles, so I do look forward to them.

Incidentally, do you know what I’d love to see on Virtual Console? Mega Man X. Sure, some of you are probably thinking it’s being held until Mega Man X9 gets announced, but I don’t know if I can wait that long. Mega Man X is not just a great Mega Man game, it’s one of the best Super Nintendo games, period. Get this one out there, Capcom!

#4: A New Kind of  Final Boss

Since Mega Man 4, it’s been kind of a tradition that the last boss of a Mega Man game is the Wily Capsule – an escape capsule-like ship Dr. Wily operates that appears and disappears while attacking Mega Man. I’m all for tradition, but there are some things that I don’t see as needing to be a tradition. While it was appropriate for Mega Man 9, which was more focused on being a revival, I’m hoping we’ll get something a bit new in Mega Man 10, something not so predictable. I’m not saying the last boss shouldn’t be Dr. Wily still – c’mon, you know he will be. But let’s have him try something new for his last-ditch effort to stomp Mega Man. The Game Boy line of games tend to have fairly unique takes on the last battle, so there’s definitely to do something different than the Wily Capsule.

#5: Zero

We know the Mega Man series and Mega Man X series eventually— Hahaha, I’m just kidding you guys.

#5: Doc Robot

One of the most unique concepts of Mega Man 3 was an enemy known as Doc Robot. These guys emulated the Robot Masters from Mega Man 2, so it was basically getting to fight them over again, and they appeared in revamped versions of the stages you previously beat. This was a really cool concept, and I’m let down that it really hasn’t been reused in other Mega Man games (except Mega Man V for Game Boy, to a degree). Of course, it’s not so much about Doc Robot itself, but about expanding the game. It would be great to have more stages than the eight Robot Master stages and then Wily Castle. Let’s have some more in between. And how cool would it be to face the Robot Masters from Mega Man 9 again in some form? Or heck, how about various Robot Masters from all the earlier games? If you want to please Mega Man fans, then more stages and more bosses is definitely one of the best ways to go.

You know, while I might sound kind of complainy in each of my topics, ultimately these complaints center around the same thing: wanting more. And when it comes to a video game, that’s the best kind of complaint someone can have!

What do you want to see with Mega Man 10?

The Decade in Review: 200X – 200X

About a week ago, Heat Man came to me and said “you know, it’s going to be the year 20XX soon. You should write something reflecting that.” And then he went and wrote his own article, so now you get two of these things.

With that said, let us take a look back on the decade that was, and all of the many wonderful and bizarre turns of events which took place.

The Robot Revolution

The new millennium got off to an amazing start, as in the year of 200X, roboticist Dr. Thomas Light kick-started the robot revolution, advancing the practice a thousandfold and creating robots to help assist mankind throughout their everyday lives. In addition to robots designed to fulfill nearly every purpose you could think of, he also created a series of six special “Robot Masters” which would lead other robots in fields such as demolitions, antarctic exploration, and more.

Reports state that there were originally eight of these mechanical marvels, but that the last two had been recalled due to issues of ethics, including some allegations of racism. Dr. Light denied any malevolent intent on his part in the designing of any of his robots, shortly before the ill-timed appearance of Roll, his housekeeping robot, who was designed to resemble a pre-pubescent schoolgirl.

Such controversy would have to be put aside, however, as in the year 200X, one Dr. Albert Wily took control of the Robot Masters and the many legions of robots that had made themselves a part of our everyday lives, and threatened to use their combined might to take over the world. The American press made attempts to paint Wily and Light as partners, though this would later be refuted as it was revealed the two doctors in fact shared in a longstanding rivalry, one in which Light was said to always come out on top in.

As such, the rivalry would continue as Dr. Light would repurpose his robotic lab assistant. Giving DLN-001 “Rock” a suit of body armor, a helmet, and an arm-cannon capable of launching compact balls of plasma at high speeds over great distances, Dr. Light christened his champion as “Mega Man,” and sent him straight into the heart of the invaded territories to bring down Wily’s armies.

Amazingly, the plan worked, as Mega Man was able to infiltrate and defeat the six robotic overlords and their master, who hid away in his multi-leveled fortress of terror. Some say he would not have found success without the ability Dr. Light gave him to obtain the abilities of his fallen foes. The fighting was over, but the peace was not to last.

Some would blame the revolving-door nature of our prison system, while others would point the finger squarely at the administration in charge of the government at the time. Regardless of the cause, Dr. Wily found himself a free man in the year 200X, and began his effort to rule the world once again in earnest. This time, he created eight war machines of his own design and sent them out into the world. And once more, Dr. Light deployed his “super fighting robot,” Mega Man, to combat the threat.

The battles were long and difficult, but Mega Man triumphed once again in what many would say was his greatest conflict as he brought Wily’s empire to its knees once again.

In an astounding turn of events, the year 200X would see Dr. Light and Dr. Wily make peace at long last as the two decided to collaborate on an enormous peace-keeping robot known as “Gamma,” which would be energized by crystals obtained from eight mining colonies. How such a creation would actually manage to keep the peace was never fully-disclosed, as a new robot revolt would occur on the mining colonies.

Once more, Mega Man was sent to quell the revolutionaries and retrieve the energy crystals necessary to power Gamma. Upon putting an end to the final Robot Master and sending back the last of the crystals, eight new overlords appeared to wreck the mining colonies, leading to Mega Man taking further action to put an end to the conflict. It was during this time that Dr. Wily would reveal his true colors as the mastermind behind the revolt, turning on Dr. Light and stealing Gamma away to a newly-constructed fortress.

Once finished with his business in the mining colonies, Mega Man would give chase and hunt Wily to the depths of the villainous Skull Castle, where Wily would turn the full force of Gamma on Mega Man himself. Mega Man would persevere and triumph in the end, though wreckage containing robot parts and what some believe to be recycle-friendly video game cases rained down, crushing the mad scientist once and for all.

A tragic end, but at least the world may finally know peace from robotic terror.

The Dot-EXE Boom

While the internet has existed since 19XX, it is in 200X that it began to take the world by storm, as networks connecting people, places, and information would come to criss-cross the globe, making communication easier than ever. Unfortunately, the World Three (aka “WWW”), a fiendish terrorist organization determined to rule the world, began to use the networks as a way of committing their various NetCrimes as they worked toward a greater plot known as the “EndGame.”

The Official NetBattlers, a body established to help quell such crimes as those committed by the World Three, refused to disclose publicly how the full scenario played out. One Official NetBattle, Eugene Chaud, did make a remark to the effect of “@#$ing kids,” however.

Three months later, the absence of the World Three would give rise to a new organization that would strike fear into the hearts of web-denizens, the NetMafia Gospel. This organization would prove itself to be short-lived, but unfortunately, the following month would also see the return of the World Three. It was not long after staging a fake NetBattle tournament that the organization would once more be put to rest.

Things took a turn for the worst five months later, as it was discovered that a meteor was on a trajectory with the Earth. A new NetCriminal organization known as the Nebula Crime Syndicate would attempt to interfere as officials sought out a capable NetBattler to infiltrate the bizarrely-composed meteor and stop it before it could strike the planet, causing untold devastation. Fortunately, they failed in their efforts, but the syndicate’s ringleader, Dr. Regal, may have escaped after a faked suicide attempt in which no body was found.

More Games and Merchandise Than You Can Shake a Stick At

In addition to all of the excitement of the past decade, many video games were made to celebrate the adventures of the Blue Bomber. They are listed as follows:

• The Misadventures of Tron Bonne (200X)
• MegaMan Legends 2 (200X)

• Mega Man Xtreme (200X)
• Mega Man X5 (200X)
• Mega Man X6 (200X)
• Mega Man Xtreme 2 (200X)
• Mega Man X7 (200X)
• Mega Man X: Command Mission (200X)
• Mega Man X8 (200X)
• Mega Man X Collection (200X)
• Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X (200X)

• MegaMan Battle Network (200X)
• MegaMan Battle Network 2 (200X)
• MegaMan Network Transmission (200X)
• MegaMan Battle Network 3: Blue/White (200X)
• MegaMan Battle Chip Challenge (200X)
• MegaMan Battle Network 4: Red Sun/Blue Moon (200X)
• MegaMan Battle Network 5: Team Protoman/Team Colonel (200X)
• MegaMan Battle Network 5: Double Team DS (200X)
• MegaMan Battle Network 6: Cybeast Gregar/Cybeast Falzar (200X)

• Mega Man Zero (200X)
• Mega Man Zero 2 (200X)
• Mega Man Zero 3 (200X)
• Mega Man Zero 4 (200X)

• MegaMan Star Force: Leo/Pegasus/Dragon (200X)
• MegaMan Star Force 2: Zerker x Saurian/Zerker x Ninja (200X)
• MegaMan Star Force 3: Black Ace/Red Joker (200X)

• Mega Man ZX (200X)
• Mega Man ZX Advent (200X)

• Mega Man & Bass (200X)
• Mega Man Anniversary Collection (200X)
• Mega Man Powered Up (200X)
• Mega Man 9 (200X)

And these are just the American releases!

200X was also a special year for some super heroes to get back to their roots; for Spider-man of Marvel Comics fame, this meant pawning off his marriage to the devil in order to return to a 40-year old status quo. But for Mega Man, it simply meant dialing back things to 8-bit and getting back to basics in graphics, sound, and gameplay. Both were bold moves, but time will tell as to which one pays the greater dividends.

In addition to a plethora of games throughout the past decade, there has also been a ton of merchandise made, including (but not limited to):

• Action figures from Jazwares based on the Classic, X, and Zero series.
• Action figures, PETs, Battle Chips, and other toys from Mattel based on NT Warrior, the Viz licensed version of Battle Network.
• NT Warrior anime, DVDs, and manga by Viz.
• Trading cards based on the Classic, X, Zero, and Legends series by Artbox.
• A four-issue comic book series based on the Classic and X series by Dreamwave.
• DVDs of the Classic-based Ruby-Spears animated series from ADV.
• The Mega Man: Upon a Star DVD from ADV.
• “Official Complete Works” art books based on the Zero, Classic, and X series by UDON Entertainment (with the last two arriving in just the nick of time).

Plus, as the decade closes out, we know that 20XX will kick off with a bang, as Mega Man 10 has been announced for March, plus not one but two manga series are in the pipeline for an early 20XX release from UDON: Hitoshi Ariga’s Mega Man Megamix and Shin Ogino’s Mega Man ZX. And if that wasn’t enough, there is also a triple-threat cameo of Zero, Roll, and MegaMan Volnutt in January’s Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars.

All in all, the years of 200X to 200X have been pretty good to fans of Mega Man, and with any luck, 20XX will be just as good– maybe even better. After all, there’s a lot more 20XX to work with.

–LBD “Nytetrayn”

So Long 200X… Hello 20XX

If you’re anything of a Mega Man fan, the ambiguous dating system of the series should be very familiar to you. For example, the Battle Network series takes place in 200X. The X series occurs through 21XX. Star Force kicks in at 22XX. Legends… honestly, I don’t really know; I think they used the Mayan Long Count in that one, or something.

Now, returning back to the original Mega Man, we have the first three games taking place in 200X. Then starting with Mega Man 4, the games moved into 20XX, much like we’re doing now. Why the change in the games? Perhaps once Capcom got to working on 4, they realized there probably wouldn’t be cute, child-shaped robots running around by the year 2000.  I am pretty let down myself. Instead of Mega Man, we got ASIMO. Instead of Robot Masters, we got smartphones. Instead of Dr. Wily, we got Bernie Madoff. Man, real life is never as interesting – though I do think we should still keep our eyes on Dr. Weil (no disrespect sir).

But now that 200X is wrapping up, we need to look forward to 20XX. Capcom is definitely pledging to start things out on a high note be delivering us Mega Man 10. I really have high hopes for this game. While Mega Man 9 was largely an effort in reverse engineering the earlier Mega Man titles to see what made them fun, I think Mega Man 10 will serve as an opportunity to really implement the lessons they learned. Furthermore, while not exactly a Mega Man game, the fast approaching Tatsunoko vs. Capcom will allow us to jump into some insane brawls as Roll, Zero and MegaMan Volnutt. Should be a game that fighting fans with a warm spot for Mega Man won’t want to miss.

I did consider a list of my picks for top Mega Mans in 200X, but lists are often made to get criticized and picked apart, and then you end up forgetting some things. Furthermore, the New Year is about looking forward, not looking back. And being the dreamer that I am, here are some games I think would really rock in 20XX.

• MegaMan Legends 3 – I’m gunning for this pretty much because it’s all people seem to ask Inafune about anymore. Actually I did write an article some time back predicting that Legends 3 would be announced by the end of the decade, though I think I meant the end of 2010. Either way Capcom is making me look like a sucker on this one. But I know it’s coming. There’s no way Inafune will be able to retire without getting to this game. The series has a following that seems to grow more with each year. Games have progressed enough technologically that Legends 3 could be much more effectively made. And c’mon, MegaMan got left on freakin’ Elysium. Don’t you feel awful yet?

• The ultimate Mega Man game – I’m more than happy with classic Mega Man’s revival on the downloadble scene. I love the simplicity, I love the 8bit, I love the tight, arcade action. But why not just cut to the chase and dump it all in one, magnificent game? All the Robot Masters, all the weapons, tons of stages. The disc based games of today can hold gigs of content. Could have some more modern graphics, though it doesn’t have to be anything cutting edge. And to top it all off, how about some local multiplayer? How great would it be for friends to be blasting through stage after stage together? Could throw in lots of playable characters: Mega Man, Proto Man, Roll, Bass, Duo… maybe even some new guys?

• Zero in motion – Some of the other TMMN guys don’t agree with me on this one, but I totally think Zero is ready for his Motion Plus debut. The Wii has more than enough proven to be an entertainment phenomenon by now. Why let Nintendo run away with all the one-to-one swordplay action with their next Zelda? A 3D, action Zero game with Motion Plus hack and slash action would be extremely awesome. There are definitely enough Zero fans out there, I know that much just from the reaction he got in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. Even Inafune regards Zero as one of his most beloved characters. How could this go bad?

I can always wish, anyway. 20XX is only going to be around for 90 years, so I guess we’ll see what Capcom has time for. Regardless, I’m sure they already have plenty of ideas stewing for Mega Man’s upcoming 25th and 30th anniversaries that will greet us this decade (and thinking of those makes me feel very old).

This may just be the passing of another year for some, but to me, entering 20XX is a big deal. Among my resolutions for this brave new decade, I resolve to actually learn Japanese and stop making up the news. I also resolve to say 20% less demeaning things to Tabby. But most of all, I resolve not to let Mega Man have it any easier.

Thanks for the inspiration, Mateo.

More Merry Mega Man X-mas

In the spirit of the day, here’s a little more bizarre Mega Man Christmas joy for you to partake in from the OAV mini-series Upon a Star, which is now available on iTunes:

As it turns out, Protodude had the same idea I did, though he took it to a rather north polar-extreme, and has posted frosty clips from the Ruby-Spears Mega Man animated series, MegaMan NT Warrior, and even MegaMan Star Force! You can check those all out here.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Let’s Go Racing! It’s Mega Man Funny Car Madness!

It’s been quite some time since Mega Man last took to the race track in Mega Man Battle & Chase; over a decade, in fact, in a game which North America never even got to lay its hands on until 2006’s Mega Man X Collection for the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube.

Since then, Capcom appears to have been rather reluctant to put the Blue Bomber back on the racetrack, but his fans have shown no such hesitation in the beta for Sony and United Game Artists’ ModNation Racers for the PlayStation 3. This game has several highly-customizable features, including the tracks you race on, the cars you drive, and even the drivers themselves. As you can see to your right, Mega Man is among the many creations people are making with the beta’s more limited options, with others including the Mario Bros., Metal Sonic, Master Chief from Halo, Kratos from God of War, Old Snake from Metal Gear Solid 4, Clank from Ratchet & Clank, and many more.

For more of these creations, you can check out galleries at Destructoid, SCRAWL, and the NeoGAF. Then, you can wonder what (and who) might be possible with the final game’s fully-realized feature set.

As an aside, I am well and truly surprised that we haven’t seen a new Mega Man racing game in all this time. In fact, I thought one version was a shoe-in.

Does anyone remember the “The NetMobile Grand Prix!” episode of the Rockman.EXE/MegaMan NT Warrior anime? Each NetNavi (or group of NetNavis in some cases) had their own unique vehicles, including MegaMan’s race car, ProtoMan’s motorcycle, and the World Three’s locomotive. For items? Battle Chips, of course. And the CutMan Brothers even appeared on the scene to try to thwart MegaMan’s efforts to reach the finish line.

An episode like that simply screamed for such a title to be made, and yet, it never came. And as bit as MegaMan Battle Network was for Capcom, it’s really quite a surprise. A lot could be done with the concept, and since Capcom is more or less rebooting the Battle Network series with Operate Shooting Star, perhaps there is still hope. Perhaps once Capcom has whatever they’re planning for game ideas in place.

Oh, and for those who think other Mega Man titles should perhaps have the honor instead, I submit that the original series has had a turn, and it doesn’t seem as though it would fit the scenarios of X, Zero, or ZX’s worlds very well. But nothing says there can’t be “special data” found to unlock such racers in a Battle Network game.

But for now, at least we can see what racers, cars, and perhaps even tracks inspired by the Mega Man franchise fans come up with for ModNation Racers.

Source: Kombo

Identifying Mega Man 10’s new Robot Masters

With the new Mega Man 10 trailer we’ve now seen sprite silhouettes of the eight new Robot Masters. So then, it’s time to get speculatin’! Of course, we already have positive IDs on two of the new Robot Masters thanks to Nintendo Power. These are Sheep Man and Commando Man.

But how about the rest of the guys? Here’s where the fun begins.

This guy is the boss of the stadium stage, though if I didn’t know any better I’d say he’s Air Man. He seems built like a football player, though his stage is designed more around baseball and soccer. I really like the locker doors that flip open and shoot down at you. For now I’m going to say this is Sports Man, though given the embarrassing names Robot Masters sometimes have, maybe Ball Man.

Boss of the sewer stage. His head seems to have a bulge and them some kind of little tail, almost like a slug or something. However, the image here seems to imply a blue color scheme, so that moves me away from saying Slug Man or Snail Man. He could possibly be Poison Man or Toxic Man, though having a pipe-centric stage as well, perhaps Pipe Man or Plumbing Man.

Not really sure what to say about this guy. It’s a little hard to say what his stage is, some kind of city district or maybe a truck depot. He also seems rather small and nondescript. It kind of looks like he’s wearing a bandanna or a backwards cap, but that also could just be an antenna. Still I’m stumped. Splashman says he’s probably Road Man. I’d guess something like that, or Drive Man or Truck Man.

Well your typical fire stage. Blaze Man, Flare Man, Lava Man and the like are all fair game. Though I’ll admit, with the conveyor belts and stuff in this stage I get kind of an industrial vibe on top of the typical hot stage with lava pools. So it’d be interesting to see something like Steel Man, perhaps. It’s hard to tell what’s going on with his head.

And the typical ice stage. The silhouette doesn’t lend too much detail either. He looks a little like Jewel Man, maybe with a big ice shard for headgear instead. So, Snow Man? Chill Man? Tundra Man?

Wow, is that a big sword you’ve got or are you just happy to kill me? I want to say Blade Man or Knife Man with this guy. Splashman feels this castle stage seems Japanese themed so he’s betting on Katana Man. Personally I think the stage seems more Russian or Arabic, but then I’m not terribly cultural either.

So, what do you guys think? Let’s hear your speculations!

Review: Rockman EXE Operate Shooting Star – The Case for Content

Rockman EXE Operate Shooting Star, Capcom’s “plus alpha” remake of MegaMan Battle Network for the Nintendo DS, was released in Japan last week. Having had the chance to play the game and try out its new features, I’m here to give you my impression of this title. I must warn, this review contains a fair bit of spoilerish information concerning the game. I’m normally not this candid about a game that has yet to release in North America, but considering the kind of game Operate Shooting Star is, it’s hard to get around. Regardless, if you don’t want to be spoiled you should not read on.

Now, there’s something I want to make clear right away about my impression of Operate Shooting Star. It is not a remake of MegaMan Battle Network. It IS MegaMan Battle Network, with some additional features thrown in. If you have played MegaMan Battle Network before, you have essentially played this game already. “Plus alpha” is a Japanese expression that roughly means “a little something extra,” and in Operate Shooting Star’s case the emphasis is on “a little.” I can’t say this is a bad game though, because I do like the original MegaMan Battle Network. But I cannot understand why this game needed to be made. It is truly disappointing just how little new content was put in this game when you consider the whole package.

Since the game essentially is MegaMan Battle Network, I’ll only bother to discuss the game’s new elements. The largest new addition, of course, is what gives the game the subtitle of “Operate Shooting Star.” Capcom has made a lot of effort to hype the game as a crossover with MegaMan Star Force, a “dream collaboration” between both MegaMans. Star Force MegaMan, aka Geo Stelar, even makes a large, mysterious looking presence on the game’s box design.

In actuality, though, the Star Force connection this game has is incredibly weak. It amounts to little more than a side story about Geo needing to go back in time 200 years to stop ClockMan, an out-of-control experimental Net Navi who has kidnapped Harp Note. You first get the gist of this story in the game’s prologue, which curiously is separate from the game itself – you can only watch it from the title screen, and return to the title screen when it’s finished. Aside from that, this involvement only plays into a single additional scenario, where Geo finally does arrive in the past to stop ClockMan, who has taken Roll as well. The event itself is pretty fun and feels fresh, though it’s fairly short. The banter between Lan, Geo and Omega-Xis is very entertaining. What’s truly surprising, however, is that the event doesn’t take place until after the ElecMan scenario, which is well three fourths into the game. By this point you’ve probably forgotten that this game had any connection to Star Force, especially since the previous scenarios are exactly the same. What’s more, once the Star Force scenario is done, it’s back to Battle Network as usual. The event makes no impact on the rest of the game’s story.

Of course, after this event you can choose whether you want to play as BN MegaMan or SF MegaMan in battle. SF MegaMan generally has all his abilities from his own series. He charges automatically and rapid fires when you hold down the B button. Pressing Y generates his shield, and pressing X enters his lock-on mode, which lets him warp in front of enemies to perform chip attacks. This is way better than BN MegaMan, who doesn’t have such an easy time with short ranged attacks, although using X to lock on is a little cumbersome. SF MegaMan’s demerits are that he cannot use Program Advances, and if he’s hurt in the middle of a lock-on attack he’ll become paralyzed for a few crucial seconds. As much fun as he is to battle with, the game is nearly over by the time you get him.

The other major new feature is the Star Colosseum minigame. This is also available from the title screen, and can be played with up to six people wirelessly using just one copy of the game. The main competitive mode of this minigame plays out in the style of the game’s overworld view. Players, who can use either BN MegaMan, ProtoMan or SF MegaMan, compete to gain the most stars in either a free-for-all match or a team match. Stars appear on the overworld to be collected, but you can also steal stars from opponents by attacking them. The catch is, every player has a rock-paper-scissors attribute, and your attribute has to best theirs (i.e. if you have rock, you can only steal stars from people who have scissors). Aside from stars, other items appear on the field that can be activated with the B button. You can only carry one at a time, and there are items that can change your attribute, give you a temporary advantage, or set traps for other players.

Additionally, there is also a Vs. Bass cooperate mode. Instead of collecting stars, all players must work together to defeat Bass by using bombs on him. Bass is capable of knocking players out in one hit, though knocked-out players can be revived if another player comes to touch them. The game is over if Bass is defeated or if all players are defeated, but Bass is definitely challenging, as he continuously hunts players down, and becomes faster as his HP decreases.

I was only able to try the Star Colosseum mode with one other friend, but we both had a bit of fun playing it. We definitely enjoyed the Vs. Bass mode the most, and though we tried about seven or eight times we couldn’t defeat him. The star capturing competitive modes are a little more complex but just as frantic. I don’t think my friend got into as much, especially since he couldn’t read Japanese, so he wasn’t sure what was happening all the time. But it was still fun, and I imagine it can get extremely exciting and chaotic with six people. The matches are short but sweet, lasting roughly three to five minutes.

There are other additional features in the main game of Operate Shooting Star. The internet areas now have maps in the lower screen which can be helpful, though personally I think it would have been more helpful to make different areas of the internet have a different visual style, as all the successive Battle Network titles did. The game’s battle system takes a few elements from Battle Network 2, such as the inclusion of * coded wildcard chips, limitations to the amount of same chips in your folder, and the amount of chips you can gain with the add button. There are also a few new chips, a couple new program advances, and slight graphical updates here and there (mostly some new character mugshots).

All in all, though, Rockman EXE Operate Shooting Star is largely identical to MegaMan Battle Network of the Gameboy Advance, and I can’t really feel that its new features justify the game’s existence enough. The story is the same, the graphics are the same, the music is the same and unarranged, aside from the title theme (the Star Force event and Star Colosseum use music directly from the Star Force games as well). All this sameness makes for a rather tepid attempt at an exciting new game.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s not a big issue that what they did use from Battle Network isn’t updated at all. I can accept the same graphics and same music. Some believe they make the game feel dated, but I don’t think this is a major concern. What is a concern to me is, since Capcom did just port over so much of Battle Network’s content, why did they not very much new content? Why couldn’t they throw in more new scenarios, or switch up the game’s events a bit? Why couldn’t they add more new Navis and new enemies? As I’ve mentioned before, enemy characters are one of the biggest draws to Mega Man games, and having more new Navis would have made this game much more appreciated. As it stands, the only new Navi really is ClockMan. And I’ll give it to OSS that ClockMan is a pretty cool new character, if not very unique at the least (his personality is quite eccentric). But if you knew that Operate Shooting Star were to only include a single new Navi, would ClockMan really be your first choice? I didn’t think so.

There has been some comparison of this game to Ace Attorney on the DS. After all, it’s the same game as the Gameboy Advance version, with the same characters, same graphics and same music, with a single new scenario and other minor new features. However, this argument is rather flawed. First of all, just because Ace Attorney does it doesn’t necessarily make it a fine practice. But more importantly, before its DS porting, Ace Attorney was only available in Japan. While the new features in the DS port were to test features they intended to include in the series’ fourth installment, it was also to see how well the game would sell in North America and Europe. Of course, the game was eagerly enjoyed in those regions, which prompted the more hasty porting of the second and third titles for the DS as well. Still, I cannot imagine Japanese consumers had much reason to purchase these ports (although the original port did have a new scenario, and an additional secenario in a game like Ace Attorney amounts to much more new content than does an additional scenario in a game like Battle Network). Since MegaMan Battle Network has already been released worldwide, it will not enjoy this same advantage the Ace Attorney games had.

Additionally, people have also argued that this is a typical Capcom “cash-in;” that it’s a simply made game to maximize profits. However, I disagree with this argument as well. While I can’t imagine this game did take a whole lot of effort to make in a year’s time, I also can’t see it being that profitable since I think most Mega Man fans will realize there’s not much new going on here. Imagine this. Capcom could have instead made a brand new entry in the Battle Network series, with new characters and events, and still had a Star Force crossover and the Star Colosseum minigame. They could have still used many assets from the previous games, such as character and environment graphics, combat systems and other engines, and so on. But the game would be much more attractive for having actual new content. Such a game would not take too much more effort to create, but would easily be much more profitable because people ultimately buy (and don’t buy) games for their content.

So I cannot honestly understand the purpose this game was made. It’s hardly original. It’s a poor excuse for a cash-in. And I don’t feel Capcom had a need to make a game just to gauge how much people are still interested in Battle Network. The strong worldwide sales of Battle Network 6 should alone prove that. The only conclusion I can draw is that Capcom just needed to buy time as they work on the direction they really want to go for Mega Man’s future. I can only hope whatever they’re working on is worth it for this disappointing excuse of a remake. With the excitement that Mega Man 9 created in 2008, 2009 will look pretty pitiful in comparison with this being Capcom’s only offering for Mega Man.

In the end I can only recommend Operate Shooting Star to people who have never played the original MegaMan Battle Network, or to fans who are just really excited over Geo and other Star Force characters entering the game, however briefly it may be. And again, it’s not like Operate Shooting Star is a BAD game. It’s just hardly a new game, and I don’t think it lives up to the hype Capcom of Japan drove up for it. I just want to make sure you understand what kind of game you’re getting if you do decide to purchase it once it comes out in the western regions.

The “music” of Operate Shooting Star

Of all the discussion about Rockman EXE Operate Shooting Star, one of the biggest topics is how much of the original Battle Network material it uses. Yeah, the graphics are all ported over, but the music would be arranged at least. Or would it? Truth be told, from what was in the demo the music of OSS was sounding pretty identical too. Were they really just porting over the music directly from the GBA version? Well, have a listen to these recordings from the demo yourself.

Internet theme (used as the title theme in the demo)
Virus busting
Boss battle

Clearly the music isn’t straight GBA music, but seems to be “ported,” as if the music were moved over to the DS infrastructure and given similar sound samples to replace the original GameBoy chip noise. Either way, it’s definitely not what people would respect, given the likes of Battle Network 5 DS. However, I have a feeling this is all place holder music. Granted, I can’t say the final music will be that different. What gives me this notion, however, is the internet theme, specifically the last portion of it. The synthy piano kind of part is completely flat, whereas in the original tune it had a little more shape. If you compare the two versions you’ll see what I mean. This gives me the impression that the music was quickly thrown together for the demo (though it’s probably something Splashman could explain better).

It’s my guess that the final product will have more arranged music (after all, we have heard a nice rendition of the game’s main theme in the message from Takeshi Horinouchi). But it’s still a little uncertain until OSS is finally out. I just don’t feel these tracks will be representative of that.

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