Lucky Star PSP Game Features Mock Mega Man

Here’s yet another story where I’m not terribly knowledge of the source material. However, you weirdo anime fans will probably know exactly what it’s about. This past December a PSP game in the popular Lucky Star series called Lucky Star: Net Idol Meister came out in Japan. Why am I bothering to post about this here? Well, the game seems to feature a mini-game that, for all intents and purposes, is a parody of Mega Man!

Called “Mega Konatan,” the game appears to be a pretty faithful parody of classic Mega Man games, aside from some weirdness and the main character being one of the Lucky Star people. What I find very amusing, though, is all the “comments” plastered over the screens. This to is a parody of the site Nico Video, a Japanese service similar to YouTube which lets users upload their own videos, and then other users may comment on them. These comments will actually roll over the video at the time in the video the comment was left. It fits the theme of the game, which seems to be about becoming the greatest internet idol. How do the Japanese think of this stuff? Edit: Actually, the comments themselves appear to be the platforms you stand on. Very interesting.

I guess if you’re jonesing that bad for a classic MM fix before Mega Man 10 comes out, you can go import this Lucky Star title. Just don’t get mad at me if it turns out to be totally weird and bizarre!

News Credit: 2chan

So How Is Tatsunoko vs. Capcom?

The release of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars has finally come. While many (myself included) never thought the game would come over here, Capcom thankfully proved us wrong. What does this have to do with Mega Man? Well, as you probably know by now, TvC features not one, but three playable Mega Man characters; each from a different series: Mega Man Volnutt/Trigger (Legends Series), Roll (Classic Series), and Zero (X Series), not to mention Frank West’s “Real Mega Buster” Hyper Combo.

But is the game any good?

Capcom was nice enough to send me a copy so that I could review it on the site I primarily write for, WingDamage.com. As for the Mega Man specific stuff: Zero is everything I want him to be and more, Mega Man Volnutt feels very different than Mega Man Classic (featured in Marvel vs. Capcom) in a good way, and Roll is adorable. You can find my full, detailed review of the game here.

And before you throw tomatoes at me for linking my own review, you should know I was asked to make this post.

News Credit: WingDamage

Ippo Yamada Working on Zero Music… To What End?

Ippo Yamada, the primary musician for many Inti Creates titles, including the Zero series, ZX series and Mega Man 9, appears to be working on arrangements of music from the Zero series – but for what purpose we can’t really say. On Ippo’s Spiceman  blog, a collaboration between himself and manga artists Hitoshi Ariga and Yoshihiro Iwamoto, Ippo opens a blog post from this Monday with the following statement: “Tonight I’m planning on an all-nighter working on Zero melody arrangements.” This is the only mention he makes of it, and regrettably the remainder of the post concerns the passing of Japanese voice actor Daisuke Gouri, whom Ippo held in high regard.

But the question remains, just why is Ippo working on Zero music, especially all night long? Perhaps for the Mega Man Zero Collection? Perhaps a new album in the works? Perhaps just for his own enjoyment? Hopefully the answer will come our way soon.

News Credit: Spiceman @ Blog

How Tough are NES Games?

This doesn’t relate to Mega Man directly, per se, but given that the Blue Bomber has had six releases in the Classic series released on the original 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System, that seemed like a good enough reason to look at the latest video by Rinry of the blog Rinry Game Game as she puts a number of NES game cartridges (all Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt double-game carts) through a series of tests to see just how tough they really are:

All in all, these games are surprisingly durable. Of course, this can only be a good thing for those who are seeking to fill in the gaps their collections possess with some of the oldest titles in the series.

It’s too bad newer games aren’t more durable, and that grabbing a copy of Mega Man 8 for the SEGA Saturn needs to be accompanied by extra scrutiny. On the other hand, with the growing prominence of things such as Flash memory, perhaps a return to a more durable standard isn’t so far off.

Putting the Brakes on Turbo Man

They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but if the dog did something you never knew of? Imagine my surprise when I was (as usual) watching a skillrun of Mega Man 7 on Youtube.com and the player pulled off a rather amazing trick with the fight against Turbo Man. Upon seeing it I just HAD to give it a try myself and after some practice…

…oh poor Turbo Man, life is most cruel to you.

So go on, try it yourself. Celibrate the release of Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen on DVD by smiting Mega Man’s very own Decepticon, except without having to put up with Shia LaBeouf.

~Ryudo

EDIT: It’s not just Turbo Man you can pull this off on, though he IS the easier one to do it on;

Yellow Devil Comes to Life

Generally speaking, we’ve all had our nightmarish encounters with the various Devil robots of the different Mega Man series, be they Yellow, Green, Shadow, or Rainbow. Thankfully, they’re all just make believe, and nothing like that exists in real life.

But, that might just change soon enough, as iRobot reveals its first steps toward realizing a morphing “blob ‘bot.” See for yourself:

One would think they would at least have the sense to develop a working Thunder Beam first, in case the project gets out of control.

Thanks to Dr. Neko for the find.

MMN Presents the “What am I Fighting For?!” Contest (Updated w/ Prize Picture)

It is a cry which has echoed through the years among the fans of Mega Man, living on in infamy long after the words first passed the lips of a frantic Zero as Iris passed away in his arms in Mega Man X4. But despite the serious and dramatic intent of the writing, it has gone on to be the subject of jokes and parody.

And even today, the question still stands: “What am I fighting for?!” Well, MMN readers, we are going to tell you here and now exactly what you are fighting for.

Thanks to our associate Jaxel and Lucas Gilbertson, who provided the voice of Zero in Mega Man X Command Mission, Mega Man X8, and Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X, we are proud to give you the chance to take home a piece of Zero. Specifically, the picture of Zero you see at the top of this article, autographed by none other than Mr. Gilbertson himself with the memorable line.

So, what must one do in order to stake their claim to this unique collectible? We are so, so glad you asked.

The answer lies in five little words: “What am I fighting for?”

You know the scene; you’ve likely seen it dozens of times, if not more. You’ve seen it remade by Mr. Gilbertson, you’ve seen it parodied, you’ve seen it hacked, and you’ve seen it in other contexts. Now, it’s your turn to give us your take on it.

We want you to give us your own take on the infamous scene. You can make submissions by YouTube videos, or just send us an MP3 of you (and perhaps some friends) re-enacting Zero’s tragic moment.

You can be dramatic. You can be humorous. You can remake the scene with startling detail, or you can put it into another context entirely. Be creative. Just reusing the original sound-byte (or Gilbertson’s) isn’t going to do it, unless you compensate for the recycling in some other way. Woo us, impress us. Make us laugh, make us cry. In costume or out, or some other way. The sky is the limit.

The chief condition is simply that you must use the line “what am I fighting for?!”, or at least some close variant. If you’re unsure whether or not your concept will count, mail us at mmncontest (at) gmail.com. That same address is also where you will direct your entries, or links to those entries; just use the subject line “What am I fighting for?!”

The contest begins now and runs until midnight PST on Friday, November 20th. The plan from there is that we will judge the entries over the weekend, and depending how that goes, have Jaxel send the winner the prize on Monday, before Black Friday and the holiday season sets in and mail becomes a nightmare.

Now, get to it, Mega Man Network fans! Show us what you’re fighting for!

Update: For those of you wondering, international shipping is a go.

Update 2: Added picture of the prize, as provided by Jaxel.

Update 3: Contest deadline has been extended to January 15th.

Update 4: A reminder brings one last small extension, so entrants can take advantage of the weekend to finish their entries.

Mega Man musicians and more join “Video Game Sound Creator’s Alliance”

Destructoid is reporting that 40 Japanese video game artists are banding together to form the “Video Game Sound Creator’s Alliance.” Who’s joining exactly? So far it has the likes of Akari Kaida (Mega Man & Bass, MegaMan Battle Network, MegaMan Battle Network 5), Seiko Kobuchi (Mega Man X7, Mega Man X Command Mission), Shinji Hoseo (MegaMan Network Transmission, Rockman 1~6 Techno Arrange Ver.) and Ippo Yamada (Mega Man Zero/ZX series, Mega Man 9). There’s also quite a bit of impressive non-Capcom talent, including Manabu Namiki and Michiru Yamane. Furthermore, one of the site’s supervisors is Hally of VORC, who played a large role in organizing Chip Tuned Rockman. So what’s the site about? Well, we don’t really know yet, but we’ll likely know when the page fully launches on October 19th. With that much talent on board, whatever they’re working on is bound to be good.

Thanks to Dark Napalm for the tip off.

Xtreme Wave Fan Illustration Book

If you pay attention to the fanart scene, you’ll know there’s something very popular in Japan called “doujinshi”. Basically, comics or illustration books done by fans. You’ll also know that outside of Japan, it’s very rare to see a doujin. If you’re one of the lucky few, you get one, but alas, it’s in japanese. Not many of us can read japanese. So, we get to oogle the pretty pictures.

Today’s our lucky day. Some of the talented fan artists of the Rockman fandom have made their own little doujin/illustration book.The best part? It’s in English!

Not only is the artwork just beautiful, it’s a good way to show our local fan artists we appreciate the work they do.

Those artists are teatea, JoyS , and Galou.
With guest artists Hwa-si, kaiten

The cost for this book is a nice $15 USD for a B5 size, 32 pages in full color. And not only do you get the book, you get a nice random postcard.
For an extra dollar, you get both postcards offered.

If you would like to order one, you can visit teatea’s site with the order form, or click here to go straight to the order form.

Game Center CX Vs. Rockman: The End of Arino!?

As I’ve mentioned before, Game Center CX is one of my favorite television shows about games. Starring Shin’ya Arino, a Japanese comedic personality, who does various game related segments such as talking to game developers and visiting game centers. But the most popular segment, which became the focus of the show, is Arino’s Challenge, which involves Arino clearing a set goal in an old game, usually clearing the game and seeing its ending. While the show appears meagerly produced, its main draw, which I believe sets it apart from so much other gaming related programming today, is that it prominently features the responses of Arino, the player. He shows the sudden and impassioned joy and despair one feels while playing a game, especially a fun game. Arino constantly comes up against difficult struggles, which the show presents in a tight-rope walking, “will he make it?” style. This is what I think is so great about gaming, the fun of playing, and those sudden moments of not knowing if you’re going to make it. Phew, rather than describing more, feel free to learn more about the show on Wikipedia.

Anyway, challenging numerous “retro games” in the show’s six year run so far, Arino has of course had his hand with Mega Man (Rockman, of course). He faced Mega Man 2 in the second season, the original Mega Man in the seventh season, and Mega Man 3 in the latest 11th season. Today I would like to share his challenges against Mega Man 2 and 3 with you (unfortunately footage of the original Mega Man is not currently online, that I’ve found). The episodes are purely in Japanese, so they may not be fun to follow along if you can’t understand anything, but I think you still feel a very strong understanding with Arino’s trials. Furthermore, TV-Nihon is working on subbing season 2, so the Mega Man 2 episode should be out before long (not to mention, you can always go on YouTube and see subbed episodes for other classic games). Anyway, without further ado.

Mega Man 2:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Mega Man 3 (a challenge so great, it takes two episodes!):
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Incidentally I also want to mention, Game Center CX has spawned two DS games, the first of which has been localized in the west as Retro Game Challenge. If you don’t have it already I highly recommend it!

Much thanks to Auto for cluing me in on the videos.

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