Legends 3 In Developement

So I gotta say, I'm incredibly disappointed Capcom is continuing this series on another hand-held. The 3DS to me, looks pretty much like a big gimmick in the making, with more games coming out that focus on the graphics than the gameplay. It also sounds like limiting yourself so much when you've got to design a game for this little tiny screen instead of something out there for the consoles. I find it so frustrating that the only damn Mega Man games that come out on the consoles are essentially Mega Man 2 remakes, while the franchise continues to advance slowly on the hand-helds.

That said, the announcement finally got me to look at the 3DS, and at least from the screenshots I've seen, it looks like we've got the power of a gamecube coming to our hands in the least, which should be more than enough for this game. Sure, I just complained about games based on graphics, but I'd at least like to see the game advance past the Playstation 1 days. I don't need to see the individual hairs on the monkey's ass here, but the 3DS should make Legends 3 a pretty game.

With all my complaints about the game being on a hand held, it's hard to watch Inafune come out like this and not get excited.



You can feel the enthusiasm in his voice. You can see the excitement in his eyes as he stumbles over his words. And you can see that the man has been humbled by an audience that has basically given him the mandate, support, and opportunity, to create this game that's been ten years in the making.

Right now I'm not worried that Legends 3 will be a bad game. Inafune looks to be really fired up over this. I mean, he decided to break the news over Youtube and through Capcom's website. This is a relatively big news story in the games industry. Capcom could have easily sold this story to a magazine like Nintendo Power, or a website like IGN or GameSpot, but I don't think he could have waited any longer to get out there and say, "Hey guys, it's finally happening!"

Legends isn't particularly one of my favorite series in the franchise, but it has always been a fun series to play through. Having never seen a 3DS in action, and seeing Inafune as fired up as he is, I think it's very possible that Inafune decided to release this game on the 3DS as soon as it was given the green light.

Let's keep in mind that the series was far from incredible though when it came out, so lets not hype the game out to its grave. If Inafune wants to make his Magum Opus here, he has to surpass everything he's done so far and pour it all into this. He's been green-lighted by the fans, and now finally Capcom itself is on board, so lets wish him luck, and hope Legends 3 will be the pinnacle of the entire Mega Man franchise.

The Universe is a Bit Calmer

As more details come out about Mega Man Universe, my fears are being eased, slowly. While I still think the trailer is incredibly disappointing to look at, just knowing that custom characters, levels, and the like are going to feature different styles of play has slightly picked my interests back up into the title.

I really hope Capcom pumps as much juice into this game as possible though, because they really have a chance to get lazy and rely on user generated content, which would be a huge mistake if you ask me. Aside from the fact that millions of fan made levels are pure shit (just try Little Big Planet, or even Mega Man Powered Up), they're usually limited to the tools the developers give us to play with.

I personally, also don't feel like making my own levels. I'm not looking at a set of Legos, I'm looking at playing a Mega Man game. So please Capcom, don't skimp out on the professional content here.

As more news for this game comes out, I have a feeling I'll personally be more pleased and interested in playing it. I really want to see some other Mega Man protagonists make the cut here, at the very least X. If Capcom is smart though, they're going to play this slow and make the fans anticipate whats coming next.

Belated Zero Collections Review

There isn't a hell of a lot to add about this game that I haven't already said in my Zero 1, Zero 2, Zero 3, and Zero 4 reviews. The games for the most part are exactly the same, so I'm going to approach this review from a different angle. The question is, if you already own the entire Zero series, should you pick up Zero collections anyway?

If you look at the few things that are exclusive to Zero Collection, you won't really find much. The gameplay is exactly the same, the story is exactly the same (barring a few script alterations), and the games are for the most part the same. So what Zero collections has in its corner is Easy Mode, slightly customizable controls, and a gallery of new and old art. Inti Creates has also built in the E-Cards that were associated with Zero 3, but more on that in a moment.

Easy mode allows the player to venture through the series, one title after the other, playing with full upgrades for Zero. You get all the cyber elves, all the forms, and you take no penalties to your score for using them. This mode takes the challenge down from the Zero games to a very casual level, and it's not a bad way to spend an afternoon if you're not looking for too much of a challenge. Annoyingly, you can only have a single saved game of easy mode going on at a time, and you can't choose which title to start with. If you want to play Zero 3 on easy mode, but you haven't finished Zero 1 and 2, you're out of luck.

Aside from easy mode, the main games are all selectable from the start with very minor, if at all noticeable tweaks. The developers went out of their way to take any instance of the word "death" out of the script, and a few parts of the game have arranged music. I think there was a mini game or two removed (one of the multiplayer minigames unlocked after finishing one of the titles) and of course, you don't get the Z-Saber card for Battle Network 4.

In addition, the extra X and Y buttons are mappable to whatever other button on the controller you want them to emulate. This makes the game a bit more widely, compared to playing it on a Gameboy Advance, or through the GBA slot on a DS.

Lastly are the mod cards. In Japan for Rockman Zero 3, Capcom released cards for the e-reader peripheral. These cards add mostly aesthetic changes to Zero 3, with the occasional power up and new character, but they don't change anything too important. In Zero Collections, you can unlock a deck of these cards after you finish one of the four titles. You can apply these cards straight from the main menu.

There is also a gallery showing off various artwork on the bottom screen. You unlock these pictures through normal gameplay. A majority of them are old concept pictures that have been floating around forever, but it's still a nice touch.

With all the new features out of the way, I'll return to my original question. Should you buy this game if you already own the GBA series. It really depends on if any of the above additions appeal to you, or if you just want quick access to the whole series through your DS. However, if you don't own any single game of the series, collections is a must have for the Mega Man fan, and you should give it a shot if you thought the series was too hard to get into as well.

There really isn't any reason to hunt down the GBA copies over the collection either. Aside from maybe some idiotic puritanical devotion to seeing Harpuia say "kill me" instead of "finish me." But remember that what you see with Zero collections is what you get. Don't expect to unlock Misadventures of Tron Bonne or something if you finish all the games. Luckily in this collection's case, that's certainly more than enough.

My Mega Man Universe

For all we know, Mega Man Universe could still turn up awesome. It's a possibility anyway, but I can't say my hopes are up for the moment. Right now we know the biggest draw Capcom is pushing for this game is the ability to play as other characters, with enough footage of three different re-skinned Mega Mans, all sharing the same moves and abilities. But we've also got to assume some characters will play different at least, being as touted as Ryu is in all over the trailers. If we ignore the characters who are simply reskins, we could be possibly sitting on something here.

I'd like to share with you for a moment my vision of Mega Man Universe. You turn on the game and are presented with a few scenarios at the screen select. Story Mode, Custom Mode, Challenge Mode, and maybe a few others after some thought put into it.

I'll get to the others in a minute, but for now, lets go with custom mode. A character selection screen pops up, but instead of being robot masters, this time it's for characters the player can choose. In it exists a huge cast of Mega Man characters spanning nearly 25 years of games. We can choose a character, and then we're given the option to choose a game. One of the games from over the years, of any of the series.

Well it'd be ludicrous to have Capcom to recreate each game with new characters and jam pack it all into this game, so instead, this mode choose from some of the best moments of a given series. We set ourselves to a randomly assigned game and suddenly we end up with something like this...
Or how about we fiddle with the options a bit more, and get something like this?
Suddenly we've opened up a whole new world of possibilities! How would you like to relive some of the best Mega Man moments, with the character cards shuffled a bit? Wouldn't be awesome to go back to say... X5, and for the X versus Zero showdown, instead we're playing as say... Bass?

How about running a digger scenario from Legends with Geo and Sonia? Let's get real ridiculous and face the final boss of Zero 4 with a servbot! How about taking 8-bit classic Mega Man, and putting him in his level 7 and 8 games? How about we can walk into this thing, and have it randomly choose the characters and setup for us, so we can be surprised by the constant different gameplay.
Why stop there even? Why not celebrate all of Capcom with us? Have Dante show up in Mega Man Star Force, play as the bionic commando Mega Man 2, and since Frank West already has the X-Buster, why not let us play a level of Dead Rising as X?

Going through story mode should be something akin to the story mode of Super Smash Brothers Brawl. A big, nonsensical epic tale of Dr. Wily working with Sigma and Dr. Wiel to really screw up the space time continuum. All of our Mega characters work together, and the player unlocks new characters as we go along!

Challenge mode sets us up in preplanned unusual scenarios, like using Tron's Gustav to beat up Chill Penguin or something, or buster dueling Mega Man Juno with Mega Man classic. Completing these, and in fact, completing a large list of scenarios, unlocks more characters, more levels, and more modes.

Imagine a Wario-Ware style mode, where the player quickly shuffles through random setups and goals. I really see potential in celebrating the blue bomber this way, and I think going this route would encourage new fans to seek out some of the other games! Mega Man Powered Up proved to me that Mega Man can be fun as hell with new characters, so lets see Mega Man Universe really push the envelope with this, instead of being another rehashed Mega Man 2!

The Mega Man Universe Trailer

Alright, so we got our first look at the new Mega Man Universe trailer. I think it's fair to be disappointed by the footage, and even skeptical of the upcoming title, and that's because what's in the trailer isn't innovation, it's just homage.

Let's get a few things straight. There's no way I could possibly argue that I'm not an over-interested fan in the series, to put it lightly. When the game comes out, I won't hesitate to buy it and play it no matter how bad it is. I've got a Mega Man collection that nearly includes every US released game, and at this point, what difference is $10-$50 going to make for a new one? I don't believe there's any special kind of integrity or wholesomeness that comes with sticking to the series, any more than being some sort of intellectual connoisseur that avoids mediocre to bad games. It's a stupid hobby, and I feel like continuing it because I get a satisfaction out of it, and more power to the people who skip this game if it turns out to be a big pile of rehashed shit that it's leading us to believe so far.

So Mega Man stars in another 2D platformer, but this time with modern ugly graphics, and extra playable characters that nobody really asked for. The trailer hovers around Mega Man 2 styled enemies and levels, and I get the impression this is the game Inafune wants to live up to Mega Man 2. To put it bluntly, I believe Inafune is jerking off to a fan fest of his Magum Opus.

I'd like to quote Yahtzee from Zero Punctuation, who I believe sums up my thoughts exactly.

Fans create sequels that hold up the predecessors as something to live up to, rather than something to improve upon. And that's not the right mindset to take. If you're not going to try to be better, what's the point? To give something to all the other fans? They won't appreciate it. The more fan-oriented an installment becomes, the more holes they find to pick in it. Some kind of Un-fan-ny Valley effect, perhaps. But give it to someone who isn't a fan and they'll force it to change, and evolve. The fans will like it even less, but frankly, fuck 'em.

Inafune is looking more and more like a fan of his own work everyday, and while there's still a chance something special is going to come out of this, the trailer doesn't get me excited. So the game looks like Mega Man 2... so what? I have Mega Man 2 and have played it already. So the game lets you play as Ryu and Arthur. So what? I didn't buy Street Fighter IV or Super Ghouls n Ghost because I didn't give two shits about playing either of those games, give me some better reasons to play these characters besides a big Capcom circle jerk.

We're reaching another stagnating point of Mega Man's career, and that frankly just sucks. Why can't we have a real new innovative Mega Man game? Why can't we have brand new graphics, an amazing new innovative gameplay, and maybe even an interesting story? Why isn't Mega Man coming out with new games like Mario Galaxy, or Metroid Prime, or other games that try to push the series forward? Even Sonic the Hedgehog, with his terrible array of shitty games is at least trying different things!

The biggest step towards anything different this series ever took was with Battle Network and Star Force, and now we've been reduced to re-releasing those games while we go re-hash a 22 year old formula to play it safe. Is this game going to suck? It's still to early to say, but which trailer excites you more?

This gameplay trailer of the same old shit

More Mega Man Universe Info

or this fully animated cutscene trailer of somewhere the series has never been?

I know next to nothing about either of these games, but I know my interest is at least sparked with Rockman Online.