Xoverboard

Let's get right into this. Mega Man, or Rockman for the purists out there. Gaming icon. I really don't have to say much about this that you can't Google or YouTube or whatever.

There's been a number of things going on that kinda tug me this way and that related to Mega Man. The lack of an official 25th anniversary celebration from the company he represents.. The social RPG app-thing.. MIGHTY NUMBER-FREAKING-NINE HELL YEAH!

One thing that kinda strikes me is that the love seems to be fading or gone already. This comes after looking into Rockman Xover for a bit. Granted, I did jump on the rage train at first.. I think? But yeah, I did find it odd that Capcom would decide to take an overly action-oriented series of games and turn it into Super Mario Bros. on auto-pilot. Minus any kind of platforming. Gameplay is like winding up a toy car, setting it down and watching it go across the room while you stay a step ahead and pick up any obstacles it'd otherwise hit. It even appears to have an auto-play feature so you can watch the system do everything for you, effectiveness be damned. The game stars a new entry in the line of Mega Man heroes named Over-1, and now that it's really sunk in, that's not the first point where I'm not feeling the love, but it is a big point.

See, Xover's story states that Over-1 is a mass-produced Reploid. The design of Over-1 is interesting; it's like taking Mega Man X, giving him a Mega Man.EXE or Shooting Star Mega Man pattern, and the fur lining makes me think of Castlevania's Soma Cruz. Maybe some love went into his design, but as a character, Over-1 appears dull, without personality or soul, certainly much more lacking in character than any previous Mega Man. Even his name suggests his facelessness.. Over-1? Not even Mega Man Over-1? Or maybe that's implied (poorly). Just, I've never seen Over-1 addressed like he's even a Mega Man, not even in the sense of how the title of 'Mega Man' got tosssed around in Mega Man ZX Advent. Celebrate your mascot's 25th with a game that stars a character that looks like a version of him, but isn't even formally called 'Mega Man'?

It's truly sad.

I could also speak on Mega Man Legends 3 and Mega Man Universe, but hey. God gave us Google, so get to it.

I'm sure the gaming industry boasts jobs that are not easy, and there are plenty of things that the general public are not aware of. It just hits home here because these were projects announced way too early, and possibly before they were financially feasible for the company. The fact that there was no proper checking and balancing means the world got all hyped up and then slammed face-first into the wall. Besides Legends 3 and Universe, there appear to be many other cancelled Mega Man games. Possibly. For me, I guess it's a bit jarring because I'm not used to hearing about other favorite franchises having cancelled games. I'm sure it's happened, but ignorance is bliss.

Keeping up appearances is probably the safest route for Capcom at this point, but it seems to mean that they can't safely talk about Mega Man other than not outright speaking ill of him. I have no idea what's going on within the company, but personally speaking (OH GOD HERE IT COMES), I don't like Capcom very much after the dick move I feel they pulled with Marvel VS Capcom 3. Did you also buy the special edition only to have ULTIMATE MvC3 release a few MONTHS later and render your game useless because your online buddies all own Ultimate?

Capcom's struck me as lazy company over time, or at least one that recycles like hell. Capcom Fighting Evolution? Characters and assets pulled straight from respective games without any kind of polish to make them have all have some kind of uniform style. The classic Mega Man series isn't a bad series of games, but if you think about it, Mega Man himself has had the same four/five frame run animation for EIGHT games (1-6, then 9 and 10). The Battle Network/Starforce crossover on DS is basically Battle Network 1 without the refinements added to the series despite being made AFTER the SIXTH game in the series. And this is just stuff I've seen/experienced.

It might be nitpicky but in light of things like.. Okay. Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, and 3. The North American releases, I mean. Mario and company all have different looks per game. Yes, it's a small detail, but this kind of stuff can illustrate how characters develop and become more fleshed out over time. Metroid: Zero Mission takes the first Metroid game and retains it, but gives it a polish without destroying what it established way back on the NES. SNK's crossover fighting games with Capcom? They create the assets for the game rather than cut and paste from a bunch of old sources that wouldn't gel together.

All of this was spur-of-the-moment; this post/rant/whatever wasn't planned. I guess it just sat on my mind enough until I had to say or write something, so bam.

In the meantime, while I don't like Capcom (damn, almost wrote 'Crapcom' there), I continue to enjoy old Mega Man games I own. I had hoped that Mega Man would eventually hit Steam, but until this Mighty No. 9 project that blew me away, I'd settled on A.R.E.S.: Extinction Agenda instead.

Speaking of Steam, I'm all out of it for this post.