At Long Last: The Conclusion of the “What am I Fighting For?!” Contest

It has been a long, bumpy road since first announcing The Mega Man Network’s “What am I Fighting For?!” Contest, but finally, all the pieces are in place and we can bring this thing to an end.

When Jaxel first told me about the acquisition he had made for us to use as a prize in a contest of some sort, a picture of Zero autographed by Lucas Gilbertson (who portrayed the Wily’s crimson creation in Mega Man X8, Command Mission, and Maverick Hunter X), I knew I wanted to do something special, something different. We had done trivia contests before, and I thought perhaps fanart, which had also been done before, would be too limiting.

So in the spirit of Mr. Gilbertson’s remake of Zero’s most (in)famous scene (and arguably the franchise), we decided to take advantage of this new “YouTube” thing, which all sorts of people have made really fantastic creations with. Alternatively, we were also willing to accept non-YouTube videos or even simple sound recordings.

And in the end, when the submissions were counted, there were seven, and they are as follows (note to the entrants: contact me if you want your name changed):

JuVeNiLeJRoCKeR:

The Link:

Rockman 2900:

lucariotrainer16:

RockEsper:

CLShadow5114:

And finally, the winner, as chosen by a panel of judges from The Mega Man Network’s staff, SuperWittyName’s “Astronomic Gentlemen X Four Cinematic:”

I should add that these are not the seven finalists, but that there were seven submissions, total. Admittedly, it was a little disheartening. Nonetheless, lesson learned (hence the more traditional contest for Mega Man 10).

With that being the case, I’m sure there are any number of you wondering what the hell took so long. Besides dealing with numerous… personal circumstances, let’s say, I made it my mission to procure a small prize for each contestant who did not win the big prize– runners-up, shall we say.

So while SuperWittyName will get to take home the grand prize Zero/Gilbertson autograph, each of the other entrants will receive one Mega Man E-Tank Energy Drink as a way of saying “thanks for taking the time to enter; we really appreciate it.” Thanks go out to our staff member MainFinger for obtaining some of the cans, while JGonzo from the Capcom Unity generously donated the remainder. We will have those prizes sent out shortly.

Thanks once again to everyone who participated, and congratulations to SuperWittyName. This was a fun little experiment, and perhaps we’ll try something new again sometime. And once more, I apologize for the lengthy delay in announcing the winners, and hope you understand.

Zero Contest Note

Just wanted to post a quick update for those of you wondering about the results of the “What Am I Fighting For?!” contest: we haven’t forgotten about it, but some things of a personal nature have recently come up, which has derailed the timeline a little bit.

We’ll have the winners posted for you soon, and we thank you for your patience.

Reminder: The “What am I Fighting For?!” Contest Nears Its Close, With Slight Extension

Okay, folks, we’re down to our final week of The Mega Man Network’s “What am I Fighting For?!” Contest. We last extended the contest deadline to January 15th, so that people would have the Christmas/New Year holidays to work on their entry, plus a little more time.

In doing so, I freely admit I really should have looked at a calendar. Having done so, I’m extending the contest by two more days– you have until the clock strikes Midnight PST on the night of Sunday, January 17th to submit your entry to mmncontest(at)gmail(dot)com, thus giving you the weekend to finish things up.

And honestly? I don’t want to divulge numbers yet, but there have not been a lot of entries thus far. Ergo, if you enter, your chances may still be pretty good. Click here for the rules and a reminder of what you are fighting for.

“What Am I Fighting For?!” Update

Just a quick note, a reminder of sorts to those who kept up with our last post about the contest: we have decided to extend the contest deadline indefinitely to allow for more people to enter and have time to work on and polish up their entries.

I have not heard back from Jaxel regarding any preference as to when to end this, but I’m hoping that with the Christmas and New Year holidays and vacation coming up, that it will be enough time for people to do what they would like to do. As such, I figure ending the contest a little into the new year– I’m thinking at the end of the second week of January– should hopefully give people the extra time they need.

And for those who have already submit entries to the contest, you are more than welcome to adjust, fine-tune, or otherwise work more on your entries and send them to us again, if you wish. We still have the originals if those are what you prefer to stand with.

Remember, entries and questions go to mmncontest(at)gmail(dot)com.

Thanks, and I hope we’ll see more of your best inquiries into the reason for which you are engaged in conflict.

MMN Contest Update: What Are You Waiting For?!

One month ago, we informed you of our latest Mega Man Network contest, the “What am I Fighting For?!” contest. This is just a reminder that the contest deadline is at midnight PST this Friday, November 20th.

And on that note, despite a lot of enthusiasm for the contest, we have only received a scant few entries. As a result, I just wanted to throw the question out to you all of whether or not the contest deadline should be extended. Let us know in the comments if you need more time, and if there is sufficient demand, then we will extend the deadline past this Friday.

Questions and contest entries can be submitted to mmncontest (at) gmail.com, and we hope to see plenty more entries!

MegaMan vs MegaMan, Place Your Bets Now!

WARNING: There will be spoilers here for Rockman.EXE Operate Shooting Star. I advise hitting BACK on your browser now if you wish to avoid spoilage.

Anyway, Operate Shooting Star has been out for a couple days now and seeing how it’s almost exactly the same as Battle Network, you can bet it doesn’t take long to progress through the game (the BN Guide written by Magnet for example helps tremendously when you don’t know Japanese). That being said one of the most frequently asked questions has been when does the Star Force stuff happen and when do you get to kick the tar out of Geo Stelar?

After the ElecMan scenario actually, so it’s almost right before the end for those keeping track. Following ElecMan’s defeat Mayl is harassed by Count Zap and Madoi and calls Lan over. Some talking ensues and you Jack into the net and come across an imposter MegaMan that you gotta chase down through Internet-1 and 2.

Shortly past the Shop area you pin down Geo and…

After this some scenes happen and you get to use Geo in battle. Y Button brings up a shield, X activates the lock on attack on the first thing in your line of sight and your buster is overall weaker than MegaMan.EXE’s. Random battle music is replaced with the Virus busting theme from Star Force while boss fights use the Star Force 2 Wave Battle theme.

I was kind of hoping for some Star Force 3 songs myself. Anyway this is as far as I’ve gotten, so I’ll go back to slugging away at this now.

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;

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.

Capcom on Star Force 3: Noise Kaizou Gear is Out, DLC is in

So Star Force 3 has been out for a bit, and I’m certain many are enjoying this vastly superior entry in the series (I know I am). However as some who have played the Japanese version may know, certain things are not available in this game, notably the Noise Kaizou Gear, Rezon Cards andSecret Satellite Server Brothers. These features were much like Wave Command Codes in that you could input a series of taps on the Touch Screen to power yourself up in various ways. For reasons “unknown” these were omitted from the North American release of the game and not surprisingly, there was great rage among the fandom (somewhat justified since this’ll have been what, the 3rd time that a game in the BN/SF series had some major things removed from the North American release).

Long story short, this was brought up on the Capcom Unity forums in a thread that Seth has graciously taken the time to not only answer, but look into things regarding the manner. After a few days he was able to give us some answers;

Here is the info I received from Japan. It’s a bit of a game of “telephone” where my original questions have mutated a bit in translation, but hopefully you can get the gist of it.

- Noise Kaizou Gear
This is a set of licensing item (cards), so it’s not available in US territory.

* But, we’re distributing “White Cards” (one specific kind of cards available in this Noise Kaizou Gear) on our official website.

– Rezon cards
This is a part of “Noise Kaizou Gear”, so it’s not available in US territory.

* We’re not planning to distribute them on our official website.

- Secret Satellite Server

This is a booklet published by Capcom Japan, and it’s not available in US territory.

* But, we’re distributing some of the “Cipher Codes” (which are included in this booklet) on our official website.
- Meteor Server

If this means the “Meteor Server” which the powered up boss appears after collecting certain number of stars on title menu, it’s available in US version, too.

For the record, nobody on the US side made a decision to remove any content–it seems to be a licensing issue. There will be some additional free content coming to Wii-ware soon, as well as more website content, but that’s the best info I could get at the moment.

best,

Seth

He also mentions that there will be extra cards coming to the Nintendo Channel that you can download using your Wii.

There you have it. Capcom of America didn’t remove these features out of pure spite, but didn’t have any choice in the matter due to Licencing issues. They are however going the extra mile and giving downloadable content, though I imagine this won’t be quite satisfying to some people. Reminds me of the missing Boktai features of BN6 (Konami of America wanted them out, so Capcom removed them and as compensation inserted side quests that required the use of an E Reader in Japan), but nowhere near as drastic.

Keep in mind however that NONE of these features are required to finish the game or access hidden areas. You can visit each map in Star Force 3 provided you meet the conditions for them (Standard Complete, etc). That said, get off their backs already.

So, Just How Much Do You Like Ciel?

Recently uncovered in a Yahoo! Auction is an ultra-rare piece of merchandise in the form of a Rockman/Mega Man Zero telephone card. It features an original picture of Ciel by series artist Toru Nakayama that you are probably not going to find anywhere else (and if you do, for the Master’s sake, share with us!), and only 200 were made and distributed at Capcom’s Yamagawa festival. No word on if there were other designs available.

The price then? ¥10,000. No word on how many minutes that came with.

Now, the seller is apparently willing to part with this ultra-rare piece of merchandise, but the cost is dear. Very dear. How dear?

¥98,000. Or $1,088.00 US dollars. Ouch. And for the heck of it, I decided to see what it would be in Canuck-bucks: $1,351.57. Yikes.

It’s things like this that can make you take pause, look at your pile of Mega Man/Rockman merchandise, and ask “What am I collecting foooooooorrrr???”

Finally, I have to know: Who here is going to go for it? Don’t be afraid to share, as I don’t think you’ll face much competition. Or just tell us after the auction is over, if you wish.

News Credit: Protodude’s Rockman Corner

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