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Street Fighter x Mega Man 25th anniversary Review
Whoa!? A new Mega Man game!! Well not exactly, alright at least Capcom released it….oh wait that’s not true either. WELL, at least we got a new Mega Man game for his 25th Anniversary all right!?
Street Fighter x Mega Man is a simple game paying homage to the 8-bit Mega Man using gameplay mainly consisting of Mega Man 4 (as you can charge and slide), with the occasional slips of other classic Mega Man elements. As in all Mega Man games you fight off on eight bosses, in which after you travel to fight three additional bosses, do a boss rush mode, and of course fight the final boss. Alas, it is different in this Mega Man game as Dr. Wily is no where to be found in this game, for the special is the Street Fighters have come out to play.
Story: As Mega Man is ready to kick back, relax, and enjoy his anniversary; Ryu and his fellow Street Fighters over here this as their anniversary is coming to an end and would like to do one last battle before they officially close the books on theirs. Now, Mega Man must take on the Street Fighters request and enjoy a friendly duel between Capcom icons….or is there more?
Gameplay: Well to compare to old Mega Man’s is a bit of stretch, as though it may look and sound like classic 8-bit Mega Man, gameplay wise it falls a bit short. First off, compared to recent Mega Man games (Mega Man 9 and 10) the difficulty is ridiculously easy, it took me an hour to beat the entire game. Secondly, there is hardly any Rush, just the beginning of one level where you use him as the Rush board. Third, the levels feel a lot shorter than classic Mega Man games and in addition there is no save function, so its playthrough or quit.
- HADOKEN
Other than that the game does adopt to any Gamepad put in the game, as long as you reconfigure it in the start menu, which I had no problems. Jumping and shooting, aka the premise of the game, flows smoothly, although occasionally sometimes when you want to jump with your controller/gamepad it will slide. All the powers added in the game, after you defeat each boss, are wonderful, from your Hadoken, to your…watermelons!? (Mega Man 8 soccer power homage). The visual is clear and crisp, the designs of each level are fantastic, it’s just missing the Mega Man “argh” factor.
Music: Fantastic. The music is mainly original but some of the tracks have some of the scores from the original games (like Dhalsim stage has the Snake Man intro).
Replay Value: Depends. Seriously its not very high but its not very low. You can try all the hidden easter eggs in the game or you can do a Mega-Buster challenge only and best of all you can try to get the secret boss!
Overall: 7.5/10- Good
While SF x MM isn’t the best Mega Man game I’ve played (obviously) nor is it the worst, but I respect the game for what it is. A fan-made homage to the Mega Man series with a unique twist. The addition of Street Fighter characters was an awesome element and I really had fun playing this game for about the 3rd time now. The game is free to download as well, so my money was well spent (in this actuality it was time).
Now Capcom we’re waiting for a real Mega Man release, because we all know this doesn’t cut it!
- BISON!!
- _
Michael Troina writes features and reviews Nintendo games for Analog Addiciton. When he’s not writing or playing games or sports, he’s out at his job at the Daily Bugle taking pictures as the web-slinger we all have come to love…either that or he’s getting sandwich saving one world at a time. Find him anywhere with this flavors.me/michaeltroina
Why You Need to Know The Protomen
Oh, rock operas. Is there nothing truly better? All the heroic beats of pounding drums and hard, spectacular riffs of electric guitars that come with the rock genre plus the immersive and enchanting narratives of opera. I’ve always had a thing for a good story, and who doesn’t love it when a particularly strong melody sends chills through your slouching spine? Rock operas provide for the void in our souls that we so desperately try to fill with pop music and doritos; they feed the avid story junkie in all of us in ways that only hard, soulful music can provide.
It was for these reasons that when I was first introduced to the Nashville, Tennessee based rock opera band, The Protomen, not only were the spinal chills surging throughout my entire being, a void in my heart, a heart devoid of truly inspired music, was being filled past the brim.
This, ladies and gentlemen, readers of Analog Addiction, is why you need to know The Protomen.
The Protomen are, to make things short, a band more or less dedicated to telling their own darker, more tragic and character driven version of Mega Man. Using the narrative format of rock operas, as well as abandoning (at least for their first album) the conventions of having clean music and instead having a grungy, dirtier sound, The Protomen have crafted the tale of a hard working scientist, determined to create robots who would do the most dangerous jobs, such as the mining job that robbed him of his father. Doctor Thomas Light and his college friend, Doctor Albert Wily, worked tirelessly together to create the first functioning artificial intelligence, named Proto Man.
The story goes on to feature Wily’s struggle for power over the common man, Light’s regrets for not being able to stop his friend, and the persecution of Light for his creation, Proto Man, having killed his love, Emily. But that’s just the second album (which was a prequel). The first album, the only one to feature Mega Man, tells the story of how Mega Man came to rally the citizens and go on to defeat his older brother, Proto Man.
I was first introduced to it when I stumbled across a music video on Newgrounds, created by the talented KarmaKimmy7.
After watching that video years ago, it was a long while before I rediscovered the band. They had already released two albums and were working on their third since I last saw them, and after buying both of them and listening to them near endlessly (I still blast it in my car), I can definitely say that I’m hooked.
The powerful chords and poetically deep lyrics are definitely the highlight of the band’s performances, but what really captivates me is how well it tells its story. Just by listening to ‘The Good Doctor” from their second album, the tone of the music and the way each character talks and emotes paints an image in your head with the vigor of a well directed film. The confrontations and arguments of Light and Wily feel so characterized and genuine; Wily is absolutely power starved, ravenous for the chance to take back all that he’s worked for while Light really feels like a heart-on-his-sleeves champion of the common man.
The Protomen have created such a unique piece of modern art that, hopefully, will remain through the rigors of time and society. They certainly deserve it.
If I have failed thus far to convince you that The Protomen not only deserve all of your money, but all of your respect, then I am sorry for my poor writing talent. But I’m even more sorry that you somehow have chosen to remain ignorant of this fabulous band.
I’m not good at talking about music. I prefer to talk about videogames, but dammit, this band is fantastic and deserve to be heard.
If anything, I’ll let the music speak for itself:
In the end, call me a crazy fanboy, but you should really get to know The Protomen. It’s definitely worth your time.
You can check out their official website here. And, yes, they have an album of Queen covers!
Frank Margarella has his own crappy personal blogs here and here. You can follow him on twitter @Fuhjem.
Mega Man X4, X5, and X6 reviews
It’s been two weeks hasn’t it? So that means I’ve at least beaten a game or two….or maybe three. And the lucky game is: the Mega Man X series (again!?) but this time for the Playstation 1 our very own Mega Man X4, X5, and X6. Mega Man X4, X5, and X6 play similar to its predecessors on the SNES except for the fact you can now choose to play as Zero (in X4 the whole game but in X5 and X6, you can select per mission). Another fact is this is Mega Man X5 is the first game to allow you to unlock multiple armors, in addition, to that of not allowing single armor equips and giving Zero an armor. This series still sticks its root with the action-platform genre with 3D character models and shades, with 2D adventure.
Story: In Mega Man X4, the story revolves around the Maverick Hunters (Mega Man or Zero) and an army called the Repliforce. The Repliforce are Maverick Hunters such as yourself, but when the incident of “Sky Lagoon” happens and rumors of the General of the Repliforce meeting with a mysterious cloaked figure, the Maverick Hunters declare the Repliforce and are forced to fight them. The story alters a bit choosing between the two characters (as you fight a different sub-boss before Sigma), but all in the all it’s the same ending.
In Mega Man X5, Sigma is revived again (spoiler or shocker….but not really) but this time, he changes his plan. Instead of going after the hunters and trying to eradicate mankind, he creates a virus dubbed the ‘Sigma Virus’ and uses it to try and unlock Zero’s true potential. Mega Man X5, utlizies alternate scenes and endings to the max. Beginning with Enigma, a large laser to stop a colony from falling on Earth, (it either fails or succeeds, you can’t determine that), then depending on who you play as you fight either X or Zero, but there are 3 forms of Zero. Maverick Zero, regular Zero, and truly awakened Zero; which in turn leads to many different scenes. In addition, there is a good and bad ending.
In Mega Man X6 (fun fact Keiji Inafune wanted the series to end at X5 but Capcom decided to make an X6 anyway), Zero is proclaimed dead since he has been missing ever since the end of Mega Man X5. In addition, something new called the “Zero Nightmare” is spreading chaos around the world and X goes to research this Maverick and restore his former comrades name. Once it is found out that researcher named Gate was the one using this title and X and (a recovered) Zero go to stop him.
Gameplay: The easiest part of the review, the gameplay! In Mega Man X4, X5, and X6 the gameplay is similar to the SNES predecessor. You can still dash, wall jump, charge shot, gain special abilties etc. The difference in these games besides receiving various armors, is Zero can also learn moves as well. While, most of his abilities do revolve around sword movements, he can sometimes use his seldom used Z-buster. The ultimate armors, are only a cheat code able to used in the beginning of the game (except for X5 you can actually unlock it). Both in X5 and X6, you can find two set of armors besides original X and whatever Armor you start from the previous game (so in X5 its Fourth Armor and in X6 it’s falcon). Also, in X5 and X6, you can equip ability parts, to allow your character to move faster, shoot faster (i.e. Speed Shot), have more life, and much more.
Graphics: Graphics and animation are very smooth in this game. From its nice 3D landscapes or platelets (X and Zero) to its 2D backgrounds. There are no glitchy areas, no over-vibrancy of color and best off, blowing up bad guys is just as fun to look at.
Music: As usual, the music for Mega Man games are great. The themes go with most of the levels and bosses, they are catchy, and really never annoying. While in X4, they use the hilarious FMV and english dub and Mega Man sounds like a 10-year-old girl, you learn to live the AHH and more AHH’s to love the game.
Replayability: I’d say all these games have very good replayability. In Mega Man X4, you definitely will want to play both ways (obviously to see the other cutscreens). In X5, you will love seeing all the alternating endings and scenes, because at first the story is pretty confusing. Lastly, X6 may be the least likely to replay, but the game has so much to offer and the usual two endings (Zero and X) you may just give it another go.
Overall:
Mega Man X4: 8/10
Mega Man X5: 9/10
Mega Man X6: 8.5/10
Mega Man X4 receives the lowest score, because I felt it was the weakest of the three (in addition to being the funniest for the wrong reason). The game X4 didn’t change that much from X-X3 and actually felt dumbed down from X3. Mega Man X5 is the best in the series, smooth gameplay, alternating Zero-X option, a lot of secrets, and heck the multiple scenes was actually addicting in this game, Mega Man X6 I really enjoyed because it is one of the tougher Mega Man X’s. Levels were a bit longer, there were a lot more spikes (to my streaming watchers Gate’s Lab Level 1 when i was blade armor Mega Man) and not to mention tougher bosses. Seriously, Nightmare Mother was hard as crap but Gate’s no pushover either.
I thought Mega Man X’s for the PSX/PS1 was a great game and if you’re bored and looking for a new game to play, this game may fill that need.
_
Michael Troina writes features and reviews Nintendo games for Analog Addiciton. When he’s not writing or playing games or sports, he’s out at his job at the Daily Bugle taking pictures as the web-slinger we all have come to love…either that or he’s getting sandwich saving one world at a time. Find him anywhere with this flavors.me/michaeltroina
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