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”

Matt Moylan Gives Us the Straight Dope on UDON’s Upcoming Mega Man Books

Last year, UDON Entertainment brought us Mega Man Zero Official Complete Works, a fantastic and rich artbook for the Mega Man Zero series. This year they’re stepping it up quite a bit, releasing both Mega Man and Mega Man X Official Complete Works, and on top of that releasing translated editions of some greatly sought after Rockman manga early next year. These will no doubt be heavily desired books for us Mega Man fanatics. To find out more we went straight to the source: Matt Moylan, UDON’s managing editor and all-around cool guy. In the following interview, we get the scoop from Matt about what to expect with the upcoming, and perhaps what might be yet to come.

TMMN: First off, Mega Man Official Complete Works has just been released, and Mega Man X Official Complete Works will be forthcoming in a couple of months. So for starters, please take some time to explain the contents of these books and what makes them so great.

Matt: Mega Man: Official Complete Works and Mega Man X: Official Complete Works are video game art books that collect all the official game art, character designs, sketches and more for the Classic Mega Man series, and the Mega Man X series respectively. One of the coolest parts is having all the character artwork for every hero, every enemy, every boss, and every Robot Master from all the games in one place, from Air Man to Yellow Devil and from Axl to Zero!

Mega Man: OCW covers the original Mega Man 1-8, the Playstation remakes, the Game Boy series, plus spinoff titles like Mega Man & Bass, Mega Man Soccer, Mega Man Powered Up and more. Mega Man X: OCW covers Mega Man X 1-8, plus the Xtreme games, Command Mission, and Maverick Hunter X.

Now originally, both these  were released in Japan as a single book: R20 Rockman & Rockman X Official Complete Works. What led UDON to the decision of splitting R20 into two books for its English localization?

There are a few reasons we split up the original R20 into two books.

First, it’d be a pretty thick book, and big chain book stores are unwilling to display books over a certain price point face out. Some won’t even carry a book over a certain price except in special cases. So, since we think that Mega Man has a lot of mass market appeal, we split the book in two to keep the price point down.

From the fans’ perspective, we also get the added bonus of spreading out the cost across two smaller purchases instead of one big one. Plus, I’m sure there are many folks who would love to have only the classic Mega Man, or only the Mega Man X book, so they have that option now.

Though Mega Man Official Complete Works has been released, Amazon is giving shipping estimates of one to two months. Has there been any delay in production, as Mega Man Zero Official Complete Works had, or is this perhaps Amazon’s miscalculation for receiving a new product? Are copies of MMOCW printed and ready to go?

Actually, neither of the two new OCW books has been released. We’re a little late for various reasons, but in the end it means that Mega Man OCW will be released at the end of November, with Mega Man X following in early December.

The books are all being printed now, so don’t worry, we won’t have a year-long delay like with the Zero book.

Months after R20 released in Japan, the game Mega Man 9 was released. Is there any possibility materials and information from that game made it into Mega Man Official Complete Works? Are any other special contents or features being added? Such as the shiny cover Zero OCW had.

We did ask about including the artwork of Mega Man 9 in the book, but unfortunately Capcom Japan wouldn’t allow us to include anything that wasn’t in the original book. We would also loved to have added artwork of Zero from the upcoming Tatsunoko VS Capcom North American release, but no-go.

We will be doing some special cover treatments, though. This time, we’re adding some 3D embossing to really pop the main character out on both art books; should look pretty cool!

Do you have plans to localize the Official Complete Works book for the MegaMan Star Force series that released in Japan earlier this year? And do you know if Capcom is planning to continue Official Complete Works with any other Mega Man series?

As soon as the Star Force OCW was announced, we made sure to get the ball rolling so that we could add it to our English art book library. We’ll wait until our current Mega Man art books are on sale, though, before announcing a date on that one.

Currently, we don’t know of any more Mega Man art books in the works, but I’d love to see a Battle Network OCW put together some time, or a book collecting all art of the the shorter MM series, plus odds & ends like Legends, ZX, MM9 etc.

Speaking on Mega Man manga, we know UDON plans to come out with Hitoshi Ariga’s Rockman Megamix, and Shin Ogino’s Rockman ZX. With all the Rockman manga that’s come out in Japan over the past two decades, how did you decide to start with these two? Do you have intentions to move on to other series, such as Yoshihiro Iwamoto’s Rockman X manga?

Yup, Hitoshi Ariga’s Mega Man Megamix is finally getting translated! If you’re going to begin doing Mega Man manga, there’s nowhere else to start than this 3 volume series. Fans have been dying to read this for years, and we’re glad to finally bring it to them.

The Mega Man ZX manga series was also an easy decision as the latest installment of the core Mega Man universe. That, and the artwork is simply gorgeous!

If these titles do well we’re certainly going to keep it rolling with other titles. The Rockman X and Zero mangas are a possibility. Ariga also has begun his new “Gigamix” series, which would be first on our list for new Mega Man manga.

How much involvement do the original manga authors have in the localization of their works? What are they like to work with? Any fun stories?

For Megamix, we went directly to Hitoshi Ariga to get the artwork files, to ensure our edition is as high quality as possible. He’s a very nice guy, and seems ultra excited to have his work released to a whole new group of readers.

We haven’t run into too many issues localizing it, though some of the changed names have had to be addressed. For instance, Ariga was curious how we would handle the fact all of Dr. Light’s robots have a giant letter “R” on their chest (since he is named Dr. Right in Japan). In this case we’ll be preserving the original art, and just add a note at the beginning explaining the Japanese VS English names.

As far as other projects go, how much of a possibility is there for UDON to put together a Mega Man Tribute book, like you did with Street Fighter and Darkstalkers? And what can fans do to help realize its creation?

A Mega Man Tribute would  be a great project, and is one of the ideas that has been batted around. Though, it is a much tougher project to get off the ground than our last two Tributes. With Street Fighter, we have worked with the property so long that Capcom trusts us whatever we do. Darkstalkers was pretty easy too since it is an inactive property. Mega Man though is an active and very tightly controlled property for Capcom, so I think we need to show them we can take care of Rock & friends with the artbooks and mangas first before we approach them on anything that big.

What fans can do to help is let Capcom know at conventions, through email, or on the official Capcom-Unity forums that you’d like them to let UDON tackle a Mega Man Tribute book. Helping make sure our current Mega Man books sell well couldn’t hurt either, so be sure to tell all your friends about them!

And finally, it really seems UDON is bumping up their Mega Man coverage this season, and of course we fans are thankful. Any final statement you want to impart with the fans or about UDON’s works? Maybe a little insight on anything else in the works?

We’re all very happy to bring Mega Man in as a bigger part of UDON’s regular publishing projects. There are a lot of big Blue Bomber fans at UDON, and part of choosing the projects we do is because we just want to read them ourselves!

As for future projects, maybe the fans would like to let us know what they want to see. If there’s a cool Mega Man manga or art book that you’ve heard of from Japan, or if you’d like to see UDON tackle an original Mega Man project, then please let us know any time at fans@udoncomics.com.

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Thank you for your time, Matt! We eagerly look forward to these lovely Mega Man artbooks and manga!

Mega Man Model-Mania (or, Rockman Model-Rama)

We’ve done our fair share of gushing over custom Rockman model kits in this space, and we aren’t about to stop now. Let’s face it, for a reasonable price, there is a lot of this stuff that almost any of us would buy if given the right opportunity.

And as Auto has revealed to us, it seems there is plenty more of it going on overseas. It can be found at a website known as FG, but the downside is that it requires registration. Sorry, but I can’t help you there, though maybe Heat can; I’ll ask him to edit this if he can figure it out.

(Edit: Well, close enough– check the second comment below.)

In the meantime, as that is being figured out, here is a sampling of some of the custom models and figures that have been shown on FG. Clicking on applicable images will open a larger version in a new window.

If she came packaged in a box, would that make it– actually, never mind.


Reminds me a little of the Ruby Spears version of X.


Hair that can pierce the heavens.


I believe we know these two gentlemen…


This one is quite lovely.


Special delivery! One butt-whoopin’, just sign here.


Mega Man is in one devil of a mess, but it’s a good thing he’s not yellow.


The heat is on… Ariga-style!


And last, but not least: I think this is probably closer to what the Repliforce scientists had in mind before they realized it just wouldn’t work.

Mega Man 9 is Highly Recommended by Nintendo Channel, But Most DS Games Not Included

Recently, Nintendo has updated the Wii’s “Nintendo Channel” with a new layout and new features. One such feature is the ability to make recommendations for DS titles.

However, there are two small problems here, where a site such as ours is concerned. The first is that so far, we have not been able to find a way for the Nintendo Channel to display what DS titles are recommended. This would seem to negate the purpose of the feature entirely, but given it is a newer option, perhaps they are waiting for more people to take advantage of it before displaying any results. We’ll give the benefit of the doubt on this one.

But more bizarre is that certain games are not “registered” with the Nintendo Channel, making them impossible to recommend. Curiously, we’ve learned that in terms of Capcom titles, many from the Mega Man franchise are unavailable.

To test this, we tried to recommend the following Capcom Nintendo DS titles: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations, Mega Man ZX Advent, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice for All, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Mega Man ZX, MegaMan Battle Network 5: Double Team DS, and MegaMan Star Force: Dragon. Of these, we could only register the Ace Attorney titles and MegaMan Star Force: Dragon.

An MMN reader who goes by the handle of “Enzan Chaud,” who tipped us off to this, noted that Viewtiful Joe was another title which could not be registered, while other older titles, such as Lunar Knights from Konami and Elite Beat Agents from Nintendo could still be registered.

We have reached out to Capcom to see if they could offer any insight or comment into this, but have not received any response on the matter. Despite this, it seems likely that much like releases on the Virtual Console, this matter may lie more in Nintendo’s hands than Capcom. I’m doubtful of our chances in getting anything solid out of Redmond, but we’ll give it a shot anyway.

In more upbeat news, however, Mega Man 9 is a title which can be recommended, and recommended it has been: the return of the original Blue Bomber stands proudly among the Wii’s “Highly Recommended Titles” with a Gold status. In the “All Recommendations” category, it has obtained fifth place, with the only other WiiWare title beating it out being World of Goo. Perhaps if we all unite to show our love of Mega Man 9, we can get it to rank even higher.

But even so, “Chaud” notes that “it’s more recommended than most other classics or popular games like Mario Kart Wii, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time” (sic). In fact, the only other games beating it out are Wii Sports Resort in first, Rock Band 2 in second, and Guitar Hero World Tour in third.

Mega Man 9 seems to appeal to males and females of all ages, with 89 percent feeling it appeals more strongly to Gamers and 92 percent viewing it as a hardcore title (sorry, Heat). In addition, 90 percent feel that the game is more fun to play alone than with friends

On WiiWare, the game was recorded as having been played 61,392 times over the course of 56,604 total recorded hours, as of this writing. The average per person is 9.47 times over the course of eight hours and 44 minutes.

This seems to be great news for Mega Man 9, but the answer to why other similar (or close enough) titles on the Nintendo DS are not registered to be recommended remains a mystery.

Edit: Double checked a few things, and made the necessary updated corrections from when the story was submitted.

Udon Reveals Covers for Official Complete Works Books, Announces Classic & ZX Manga

Udon was kind enough to pass along the news that they have made their official announcement of both the Mega Man Official Complete Works and its companion, the Mega Man X Official Complete Works art books. What’s more, though Amazon.com had the cover for the former leaked early, the latter was still nowhere to be seen. But now, we have both, and they are looking quite nice. See for yourself:

Click to enlarge

The announcement is as follows:

With more than 100 video games in the Mega Man series, the blue bomber is one of the most iconic figures of gaming. Over the past 20 years the diminutive blue robot has been at the head of Capcom’s most popular franchise. Now UDON has expanded the studio’s relationship with the property, and is gearing up to bring new Mega Man art books and manga to English readers.

Arriving Fall 2009, the Mega Man goodness begins with Mega Man: Official Complete Works. This 200 page book showcases 20 years of artwork from the classic and most well-known version of the hero, covering the core Mega Man games as well as little-known spinoffs and even rarer Japan-only titles. Fans will enjoy loads of designs of all their favorite characters like Proto Man, Dr. Wily, Roll, Rush, Bass & Treble and, of course, piles of evil robot bosses! Also within are never before seen rough sketches, rare promo artwork, and commentary from Capcom creators.

Shipping a few months later is Mega Man X: Official Complete Works. This artbook focuses on the original Mega Man’s successor, Mega Man X, who’s unique style and fast paced adventures have made him nearly as popular as his classic counterpart. Here fans will get to see all the dynamic designs of characters like heroes Zero & Axl, deadly villains Sigma & Vile, and all the wild robotic animal men who love to cause trouble for X and his crew!

Also this fall from UDON comes new Mega Man manga brought to you straight from Japan! Initial titles will focus on the adventures of the original Mega Man and also Mega Man ZX, the latest addition to the core Mega Man universe. More details on these and other titles will be coming soon.

So… anyone else stoked?

Source: Udon Entertainment