Following up my previous post, here is the actual video footage of my adventures in Mega Man 10′s stadium stage. The first two videos are the game’s normal difficulty, and the third is easy difficulty. You should also keep an eye on Takes On Tech, as Doug of that site also recorded my gameplay for his own reporting, and his camera looked a lot better than the one I brought!

I also have a little Q&A with Jason Allen of Capcom that I need to transcribe, but for right I’m just… so incredibly tired. Goodnight and enjoy the footage!

Update: Digital Chumps has some of their own footage that shows the stage in better color levels, and louder sound from the setup. It appears the spiked soccer balls actually aren’t instant death as I had suspected (but I didn’t wait around to get hit by them ;P). That being the case, however, means the stage demo featured no instant death traps at all. Is Inti Creates lightening up a little? Or perhaps they’re just pampering the reviewers.

I was able to play the Xbox 360 edition of the game. The only stage available for the trial was the stadium themed stage (unfortunately I’m not allowed to divulge the boss’s name now). The stage starts in a stadium field with pitching robots that lob baseballs at you, which sort of arch down at you and come back up. Soon, however, you head underground, facing small locker doors that open from the background and shoot at you, and enemies similar to the Springers from Mega Man 2 – when you disturb these guys, not only do they spring around wildly, but fire off shots as well.

Very soon you get to the game’s mid-boss, which is a large soccer goal-like structure with a robot head. A soccer ball flies in and bounces around the room, and then the robot goal post will try to smash you with its hands, and knock the ball around some more. This was easily the most frustrating enemy in the demo, and took me a couple attempts to beat.

You then face more of the above mentioned robots, along with basket-like robots that toss various kinds of balls at you, and you must head upward using platforms shaped like huge basketball hoops. As you progress upward, you’ll encounter soccer ball shaped platforms that will briefly rise into the air when you shoot them, and fall back down. But after you get back to the ground level, you’ll face against the same platforms but with spikes, lined up in long rows. You must continually shoot at them and pass under when they fly up.

Eventually you head back down and face the same mid-boss again from before, but this time parts of the goal post frame have electrified borders, and its fists have more complex motions. Being fortunate enough to beat this second incarnation of the enemy ends the demo.

I was also allowed to play through the stage in Easy Mode (which, I’ll pitifully admit, was the only way I could beat the last goal post enemy). Enemy placement differs somewhat here and they move slower and take less damage. The goal post enemy only used its fists in this mode. I was able to easily breeze through the stage in Easy Mode, and I can definitely see it allowing people less familiar with Mega Man games to easily get used to the gameplay.

Personally I found the 360 controller to be a tad cumbersome. Not owning a 360, I’m not really used to using it, and I had a tendency to accidentally slip my finger onto the right bumper, which changes your weapon (in this case to Rush Coil). That really messed me up the first time I faced the goalie enemy.

I was informed that Capcom expects Mega Man 10 to release worldwide in early March. However, all other details that weren’t explicitly available from the demoed stage were under lock and key, and try as I might I couldn’t budge any info out of their well-trained PR guys.

I will be updating this post with video footage directly from my gameplay as soon as Capcom’s PR sends out the OK for posting. I will also be writing up some of the discussion I had with Jason Allen, the man on hand to introduce Mega Man 10 to me. Look forward to it!

Driving to Vegas and back in a day is quite a tiring feat, but it was well worth it, even for a single stage. And there are a lot of people I must thank for making this happen. Much thanks to Jovith Gonzales and Jason Allen, as well as everyone on hand at the Capcom show for welcoming me to try out the game. You guys really rock! I must also give thanks to m’boss, BD, for arranging me to get to this shindig. Thanks to the guy at the suite who called out to me that he loves this site. I’m sorry I didn’t notice you ’til at the last moment, I was a little preoccupied. Finally, thanks to my long time friend Cheston for coming along with me on the trip, doing some of the driving and taking some great footage of the game.

I had a lot of fun with Mega Man 10, so definitely get excited for it!

From left to right, me, Joveth and Jason. Thanks you guys!

‘Course, if you don’t live in Japan, then uh… well… hey, did you check out this video with Turbo Man yet?

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.

As we reported just yesterday, a demo of Rockman EXE Operate Shooting Star was set to become available later this month. Well, today is later this month! Those with a Japanese Wii, primarily people living in Japan, can connect to the Everyone’s Nintendo Channel and download the demo onto their DS. The demo is the exact same battle demo that was available at Tokyo Game Show, except cut short at the battle with Star Force MegaMan. You can see the extent of the demo in the video above, and also check out screens and info at Nigoli’s Rockman Series Blog and COCOROG.

News Credit: Protodude’s Rockman Corner

Three playable demos were available.  A four person battle in the Rockman Star Colosseum or the “Rock Colo”, the main game up to until Netto’s (Lan) oven goes wild, and the battle type game where Netto and Rockman meet Meijin (Mr. Famous) for the very first time, and Meijin summons viruses, Fireman and even Shooting Star Rockman to battle with Netto and Rockman to see if they have what it takes to protect the world.  I had time to play the Rock Colo and the battle with Meijin, as well as while waiting in line, had a chance to watch the main game being played.

Unfortunately the demo for the main game only contains material that was, as far as I can recall, the same as that in EXE 1, aside from, of course, the map and the slight changes in the system.  For the most part the system aspects of the game are closest to EXE 2’s rather than EXE 1’s.  Aside from the opening video, Shooting Star Rockman does not seem to appear in this demo.

The battle with Meijin is where Netto meets Meijin for the very first time (as these events are before EXE 2), and Meijin gives the option to hear the basics of Net Battling or not.  I was in a hurry and already knew the basics, so I skipped that part.  Meijin then summons simple viruses, after beating them he summons Fireman, who has 300 HP.  Lastly, Meijin summons Shooting Star Rockman, who actually appears on the overhead map as well, and although he has nothing to say, his mugshot appears as well, with his eyes not visible through the visor (different from any we have seen before).  Netto and Rockman are surprised to hear that Meijin calls him Rockman as well, and then take it as SS Rockman being a fake version of Rockman.  Meijin says they are wrong and that SS Rockman is a hero from 200 years in the future and such.  But to test if Netto is worthy of protecting the Earth from an impending crisis, Meijin wants Netto to face SS Rockman.  Netto believes even if it is the hero from 200 years in the future, they will not lose.  The fight itself is still fairly easy, but SS Rockman will use his shield and War Rock Attack and Beast Swing often, as well as Rock Buster rapidly and Charge Shot and deal more damage than most enemies in single attacks.  I tested the strength of his shield by summoning Gutsman right in front of his shield when he was using it, but of course it did not break it or do any damage.  Although SS Rockman does not have Air Shoes or Float Shoes is one thing I can say for sure.  Anyway, you defeat SS Rockman and he falls to one knee (during the battle scene) and then Meijin congratulates you on being so powerful, and with a flash, he and SS Rockman vanish before your eyes leaving Netto to wonder about the mysterious Meijin and the mysterious SS Rockman and the impending doom.

You cannot play as SSR in either of those demos.  You can, however, play as SSR in the final demo, the 3 minute action battle mini-game Rock Colo, which had its creation headed by one of the younger members of the staff of this game.  You can play with four people, and although on stage they announced it allowed up to 6 people, they only had four DSs to use.  Also on the stage, they had shown a team battle, in which the EXE team (all players as Rockman EXE faced off against the Ryuusei team (all players SS Rockman), but in the non-team mode which they had at the booth, it was a single battle.  Also, to make note, you only need one game to play this mini-game with friends.  Even if your friends do not own the game, if they have DSs you can play with the wireless download feature.  Anyway, the game starts and you choose your character (Rockman, SS Rockman, or Blues) and your element (rock, paper, or scissors).  In the final version there will be many stages in which to choose from, but for the demo it was a randomized stage.

The stage itself is much like those in the Ryuusei 2 Sky High Colosseum, except that sometimes pathways will vanish, making it unable for someone chasing you to follow.  Not sure if they can vanish while you are on them or not.  The object of the game itself is to collect more stars than other players.  To do this you need to either pick up stars   or attack other players, which I will explain later.  There are at least two types of stars fallen on the map: the big stars count for one point, or the little ones with a number inside which count for the number inside the star.  Sometimes the stars are inside ice blocks and other obstacles you can destroy by attacking.  There are also warp holes that appear randomly around the map.  If you enter a warp hole, you will appear somewhere randomly on the stage with your element changed.

Rockman and SS Rockman play pretty much the same by shooting a shot out of their Rock Buster with the A button.  Blues swings his sword for closer range attacks.  It seemed to be that you need your element to be strong against the other in order to inflict damage on, or rather steal stars from the other players.  If you get hit too much and have no stars left, you get knocked out and warp to somewhere else on the map.  During the course of the game you can pick up rock, paper or scissors items and use them with the B button to change your element.  If you use two of the same element in a row, you will get an aura around you and be powered up.  But you still cannot go up against someone who has an element strong against yours.  Basically you want to always have a back up plan, be able to switch elements as soon as you find your opponents.  Aside from element switching items, there are also trap items such as pit holes, bombs and summons.  There is a black hole trap where you can set on the map, and if someone walks over it, you can attack that person continuously until the effect wears off.  The bomb you can place on the map where you like and will explode causing serious star loss to anyone around it.  It seemed some people also had bombs attached to them, which when exploded caused a loss of all stars to the attached person, and half the stars of those around that person.  The summons (or at least one summon) that I used cause Club Strong to appear and smash the ground.  When Strong appears the players who did not summon him need to go hide in the warp holes before the effect takes place, or else they will lose stars.  When the time runs out, the person with the most stars wins.  I was successful in defeating two kids and the father of one of those kids, and only felt a little bad about it.  Although, the opportunity for a come back in that mini-game is huge, so anyone could have won.

Aside from the previously mentioned, and what other people have mentioned already, Horiken announced on the stage that he wants to have events and downloadable chips for this game.  Likely, the same as with Ryuusei 3 though, even if you cannot go to the events, you can still probably get download chips through Wii channels or at DS stations.

Thank you for your report, Fireman!

Now here’s a curious one. This is a demo for an Atari 2600 version of Mega Man that was created by David Galloway to be presented at the 2007 I Am 8-Bit art show. The demo, which was created on a tight schedule, has five screens of Elec Man’s stage with Elec Man appearing as the boss at the end.

For those interested in trying the demo, you can download the binary for it here.

News Credit: GameSetWatch (via GoNintendo)

For instructions on how to download from the Nintendo Channel onto your DS, check out the second half of our last post.

In case you weren’t aware, you can access demos by going onto the Nintendo Channel on your Wii (it can be downloaded for free from the Wii Shop if you don’t have it), press the blue button that says “Find Titles for You,” and then press “DS Download Service.” Select Star Force 3, wait for it to transmit, and then boot up your DS and select “DS Download Play.”

News Credit: GoNintendo