Game Review: Street Fighter X Mega Man 79
If you haven't downloaded and played Street Fighter X Mega Man (you can find it at Capcom-unity.com/mega_man), well, just go do it now (be aware: the Capcom servers have been getting hit hard with requests for the game). It's Windows-only for the moment, and free.
As with Mega Man 9 and 10, the style is identical to the original NES series. While the name might lead you to believe this is a fighting game, it's actually a side-scrolling adventure in the mode of previous Mega Man titles. The main difference is that the bosses (or Robot Masters) are Street Fighter characters.
It's old school in ways both good and bad, but mostly good. And it's definitely hard — Nintendo hard, as we used to say. Death in early Mega Man games came from either the swarming enemies or the difficult jumps that sent your robotic avatar plunging into an abyss; while the jumps in this newest title aren't so hard, the enemies swarm you so incessantly it's often difficult to keep your health level up.
As with those previous games, charging up your Mega Buster by holding the shoot button is essential, as is proceeding through the levels in the correct order in order to exploit the rock/paper/scissors weaknesses of each boss (one recommended order starts with Ryu and then goes on to Chun-li, Crimson Viper, Dhalsim, Blanka, Rose, Rolento, and Urien.)
The game doesn't totally recapture the magic of Mega Man 2 (my favorite in the series), but its level design is such that you'll feel like you're playing a classic Mega Man game. The music is also reminiscent of the classics, with a twist — occasionally you notice that a character's theme from Street Fighter (Chun-Li's, for example) has been redone in that distinctive 8-bit musical style. Some of the bosses' fighting styles are also reminiscent of how they fight in Street Fighter, giving diehard fans a bit of a leg up in terms of strategy.
The game is so old school that there's no way to save your progress, not even with a password — one of the very few downsides, at least in my opinion.
But it's hard to complain about a game that's free. And here's another thing: a fan made it. Devoted Mega Man enthusiast Seow Zong Hui from Singapore approached Capcom earlier this year with a prototype of the game, and he and the company saw it to completion.
Street Fighter X Mega Man takes its place alongside Super Mario Crossover and Abobo's Big Adventure as one of the best fan-made homages to classic video games. Only this time it's being distributed by Capcom, which should be commended for helping a fan-made project flourish, instead of targeting the loyal supporter with a copyright lawsuit. It's an example I'd love to see other companies follow — and I'd also love to see this be just the beginning of a revival for Mega Man. In an interview with Polygon, Capcom Senior VP Christian Svensson said Street Fighter X Mega Man is "a bit of a mea culpa" to fans, hinting at more to come.
In conjunction with Monday's release, Capcom announced that the first six Mega Man games will come to the Nintendo 3DS's online store starting later this month. One request I'd make (and I don't think I'm alone) is for Capcom to do whatever it takes to get Mega Man into the next version of Super Smash Bros.
Nostalgia titles and crossovers may well end up being the best way to go for Mega Man. While Super Mario Bros., Zelda, Final Fantasy, and other classic series continue to push the boundaries of gaming technology, it's hard to imagine Mega Man in a fully modernized game — perhaps because we simply don't know what that would be like, or whether it would be as fun as the originals.
I like to think of Mega Man the way I think about aging rock bands like The Who. Sure, he hasn't done anything truly new in a couple of decades. But when he plays his old stuff, man, it's worth paying attention.
Works in Wine, sort of (Score:5, Informative)
The game sort of works in Wine. When it starts up, it appears full screen with loads of corrupted graphics in the borders and there's no sound.
The sound can apparently be fixed by installing dsound and directmusic via winetricks, but I haven't gotten around to that yet.
The keyboard controls didn't work for me (apart from Escape), but I think it's because the game detects the plugged in joystick and prioritizes that.
Apparently the game crashes for some users when they get to the boss, but I haven't gotten to one yet (because I suck at the game).
Kubuntu 12.04
Megaman didn't disappear. (Score:4, Informative)
The Megaman X series was still pretty good, and the Megaman Zero series on GBA/DS were good, too. Nothing ground-breaking, but still fun side scrollers. SFxMM is pretty much a direct follow-on to MM 9 and 10 in style and gameplay. The Megaman Legends series really didn't have anything to do with classic Megaman to begin with; at least no more than the relatively-current Megaman Battle Network games do. This review reads like it was written by someone who hasn't paid any attention to video games for the past 20 years.
And everyone harping on this game for not having a save function is silly. It has infinite continues and doesn't take that long to beat. If you really find it so onerous you can just mute it and leave it running in the background. My main problem is that with an Xinput controller it defaults to using the joystick instead of the Dpad for directional control, and puts the Start button function on the right stick button.
Anyway, it's a fun, classic-style Megaman game and anyone who loved those games should at least download it and run it once for the nostalgia/coolness factor.
Trailer (Score:4, Informative)
The Mega Man2-esque intro gave me chills, definitely one of my fav games.