Review: Mega Man Unlimited

It's funny, how much longevity traditional 8-bit Mega Man games still have. For all the love and loyalty the original series gets from fans, the uninitiated might easily assume there simply haven't been any new installments in the franchise post-NES. Although there have been a ton of new titles since those days -- some stellar and some less so -- it's the classic, simplified approach that remains the most captivating for die-hard enthusiasts. Distilling this pure essence has become an art form in itself, producing games that synthesize the lessons learned from modern game design with "retro" limitations. Crafting a true-to-form experience versus resisting tired cliché can be a precarious balancing act, but it's a beautiful thing to play a game that really nails it. Mega Man 9 nails it. Rokko Chan nails it. And, I'm happy to say: so does the latest fan effort, Mega Man Unlimited.

Unlimited is an unofficial fan tribute, masterminded by Philippe Poulin a.k.a. MegaPhilX. Unlike Street Fighter X Mega Man, this is strictly an underground and unsanctioned fan game, created entirely without input or support from Capcom. You'd never know it, though -- MMU sits proudly alongside the best in the series. It follows the same "beat-8-robot-masters-and-steal-their-powers" format as any Mega Man adventure, but it polishes the gameplay to a mirror finish with an exquisite degree of challenge and ingenious stage designs. Rush the robo-dog joins the team, with his springboard-like Coil and high-flying Jet forms. Screws can be collected and traded in at Dr. Light's shop for energy tanks, extra lives, and upgrades. The old password system has been swapped out for a handy multi-slot save function. The slide move can be set to its own dedicated button, rather than the unwieldy "down + jump" combo. Special weapons can be cycled through on the fly, without the need to enter a separate menu screen. And best of all, no fuss over charging up a noisy, game-breaking Mega Buster!

Predictably, the story is the typical background fluff one expects from this series, rendered through brief dialogue scenes and cute stills. Robots are running amuck throughout the city, but this time the usual culprit Dr. Wily insists that he's not behind it. Wily promptly gets kidnapped by a shadowy figure, and Dr. Light sends Mega Man out to investigate. While the story remains very lightweight and is never the central draw, a handful of scenes are peppered throughout the game that develop things, and the ending actually offers a neat twist that leads into the future Mega Man X games.

Right off the bat, it's clear that a lot of work went into making this game as complete and full of character as possible. Both the graphics and sound are in keeping with NES-era Capcom, yet original enough that it doesn't feel derivative. The soundtrack's high points may not quite reach the bar set by well-known series favourites, but I caught myself rocking out at least a couple times while playing.

Visually, MMU is excellent, boasting a wealth of detail and animation in both sprites and environment backgrounds. While there are a few intentional references to familiar enemy types, most foes are original creations that really reinforce each stage's signature theme. Jet Man's stage features aviation and airport-themed scenery, forklifts that toss heavy crates, and my personal favourite -- a hurried traveler called Mr. Shin'iri who drops his luggage in a panic, releasing a flock of tiny birds for some reason. Glue Man's stage has sticky floors which prevent walking or sliding, and round Bulletraps that will absorb your shots and fling them back at you. Rainbow Man's stage is all about light, with several rooms that force you to move and think quickly in order to avoid instant-kill beams reminiscent of Quick Man's in Mega Man 2. These beams, however, can often be redirected or refracted through prisms to clear the way. Oh, also there are gold-tossing leprechauns, because RAINBOWS, am I right!?


Each stage is jam-packed with tricks, traps and interesting gimmicks to figure out, with hardly any wasted space. You have to be clever and careful to navigate this game, which ends up making each stage feel quite long. Some stages have hidden paths to alternate routes, where you may find one of four hidden letters spelling YOKU. Securing these letters grants access to a hidden, incredibly challenging stage guarded by Yoku Man, a master of illusion who gives up an optional bonus weapon. Extra touches like this, and superb level layouts, are what elevate Unlimited to the top echelon of Mega Man titles -- and even now, Philippe Poulin is actively preparing a future update that will add another stage and boss -- as if there isn't enough content already!

The bosses themselves put up quite a fight, often using the whole screen area to perform unique, characteristic attacks. Jet Man streaks across the screen, firing missiles and dropping bombs from above. Yo-yo Man tosses spinning projectiles that roll along the boundaries of the room before returning, all while swinging to and fro from the ceiling. Comet Woman harasses the player with pesky floating orbs that revolve around Mega Man himself like satellites, timed to crash into him unless he dodges at the last moment. Even the official, main-series MM titles sometimes had trouble inventing legit ways to represent its bosses' contrived themes -- a bewildering preponderance of plant life and yarn-tossing cats for Top Man's stage in Mega Man 3 comes to mind -- so it's refreshing to never have to wonder "What is this doing here? Whose stage am I in, again?"

Sometimes the game clubs the player over the head with the themes a bit too much, but it drives home how silly it all is, and the ability to laugh at what's going on is integral to enjoying oneself between fits of cursing and controller-throwing. A word of warning: Mega Man Unlimited is soul-crushingly difficult. It demands patience, precision and perfection from the player, and the punishment for a mistake is often a swift death. There seems to be an overabundance of instant-kill spikes and pitfalls, coupled with utterly inhumane enemy placements that offer a million ways to die.

That's not to say the difficulty in MMU is ever cheap, or unfair -- simply unforgiving. It is ultimately your fault, when you die -- and like in any great game, all challenges can be overcome with practice and skill. In fact, more than most Mega Mans, Unlimited often feels oriented around environment-based puzzles that demand wits over sheer reflexes. Trinitro Man's stage is especially taxing: tons of instant-death traps, jumps that require nimble movements and delicate timing, and platforms that explode when touched or shot at. As maddening as the incessant Game Overs might become, one can't help but grow to appreciate the meticulous craftsmanship in these deadly chambers. The fact is, every dilemma has an elegant solution waiting to be discovered. Getting better and better at the game, and finding these "Eureka!" moments, is incredibly satisfying -- and it's the essence of what makes Mega Man tick.

Unfortunately, the final sequence of stages in Dr. Wily's fortress ramps up the difficulty to an overwhelming degree. While this is par for the course for a Mega Man title, MMU arguably takes it a bit too far. The average player simply isn't going to be able to complete this game, even with a full supply of energy tanks, weapon replenishment, and extra lives -- at least not on Normal difficulty. Again, it's not that anything the game throws at you can't be tackled, but the marathon of flawless performance necessary to finally succeed is unrealistic.

There is an Easy mode available which softens the damage taken from hits, although it also artificially injects safety blocks that close the gap on jumps and cover over some of the spike traps, making it feel more like cheating than a natural toning down of the real thing. Still, this game's Normal often feels like any other game's Hard -- so at the risk of sounding like a "filthy casual" I might have to recommend Easy mode for most people, especially newcomers.

Despair-inducing endgame aside, there really aren't any glaring flaws to Mega Man Unlimited. Overcoming the game's challenges is fulfilling, with the glory of victory and the agony of defeat always feeling justly earned. The special weapons are unique and useful, and finding ideal places to employ them can make a desperate situation more manageable. There's a healthy variety of enemies and set pieces, all organized smartly with nothing feeling superfluous or redundant. Unlimited is a celebration of all the greatest aspects of the Mega Man series, a testament to how far the classic formula has come over the years, and a perfect reason never to abandon 2D, retro-style gameplay mechanics. Any Mega Man fans who have yet to appreciate this gem should rectify that immediately.

Living Myth Game Reviews Rubric

Mega Man Unlimited Official Page

Review: Street Fighter X Mega Man

A couple years ago, Capcom's acclaimed Mega Man and Street Fighter franchises both celebrated their 25th birthdays. Around this time, Singaporean fan Seow Zong Hui wanted to pay homage to these two classic series by means of a nostalgic mash-up -- a traditional, NES-style Mega Man game which pitted the eponymous boy in blue against a roster of Street Fighter characters in place of the usual "robot masters." Rather than remain content to quietly release the fan project as a risky, underground diversion beneath Capcom's radar, Zong Hui approached the company for their blessing. As a result, Capcom not only approved of his fan game but also cooperated through funding and promotional efforts. The completed project, Street Fighter X Mega Man, remains a highlight of the Mega Man section of the Capcom-Unity website, available to download and play for free.

As anyone familiar with the NES Mega Man titles would expect, this is a traditional 2D action platformer. You start with a selection of 8 characters to go after in the order of your choosing, each with their own themed stage and a signature ability to bestow upon defeat. After defeating all 8, Mega Man is whisked off to a final multi-tiered series of challenges culminating in a tense duel with M. Bison. For better or worse, Street Fighter X Mega Man follows the tried-and-true formula of previous Mega Man iterations, with few twists. Let there be no confusion about it: you'll get exactly what you are expecting with this one.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, SF X MM isn't on par with series high points like Mega Man 2, 3, or 9. I'm not sure it's even as good as the "just okay" titles like Mega Man 4 or 5. It's still a fun, smart game with a few of its own ideas to bring to the table -- but the novelty of the character cross-over gimmick is going to be what drives most players to completion.

Some unwise decisions keep this title from being as good as it could have been, not the least of which is the inclusion of the "Mega Buster" charge shot. It's extremely over-powered, and is the most effective way (or only effective way) to dispatch any regular enemies, and arguably most bosses as well. Sure, Ryu's fireballs can be reflected back at him using Urien's Aegis Protector -- but instead of bending over backwards to make it happen, it's probably simpler to just hop over the fireballs employ the Mega Buster. Nobody in the game isn't weak against it, and as a result there's little reason to experiment much with the earned special weapons.

Other quirks range from questionable to outright irritating. Life-restoring Energy Tanks seem more plentiful than in most Mega Mans, but won't re-spawn even after a Game Over. Stage intros suffer from a lack of character animation. Completed stages can't be re-played. Life and weapon energy capsules seem to drop too often, and weapon reserves fill completely with each death. If you enter a boss room with a fully-charged Mega Buster, but let go of the button while the boss does his intro animation, the charge is simply lost without firing anything. Scrolling between single-screen rooms is much more frequent than in most games, and the unusual ability to backtrack to a previous room results in unfortunate accidents that re-spawn defeated enemies. While the stages are generally well-designed and feature unique tricks and platforming puzzles, they can also feel oddly "un-Mega Man" at times, and lack polish. For someone who has played a lot of old-school Mega Man and knows its ins and outs, these transgressions can be irksome.

The controls are mostly spot-on during gameplay. Mega Man runs, jumps, slides and shoots as responsively as he does in the "real" games. The menus and "meta" aspects of the interface are uncomfortably fussy, however. All menu selections must be confirmed with the Start button. Even after assigning buttons on the gamepad, there is no way to quit the game without reaching for the Escape key on the keyboard. In fact, there's no way to reset the game to the title screen at all, without quitting and rebooting the program entirely.

On the positive side, the game looks and sounds great, for what it is. The visuals are 100% faithful to their NES inspirations, the level environments are distinctive and detailed, and the enemy sprites are cute and inventive despite a few too many cheap palette-swaps as stand-ins for "new" foes. The sprites used for the Street Fighter boss characters are probably as well-made as can be expected, considering they were never originally designed or proportioned for an 8-bit world. Some of them look suspiciously like Mega Man in cosplay, but perhaps it can't be helped.

The music is superb, with familiar Street Fighter character themes re-thought as 8-bit chiptunes. More than a literal transcription from one medium to another, each track takes the core melody of the original and rethinks it in a genuine style and instrumentation suitable for a Mega Man soundtrack. Dhalsim's stage music actually borrows heavily from the music of Snake Man's theme in Mega Man 3, becoming a clever and fitting tribute that marriages the sounds of both series admirably.

The standard sound effects of the Mega Man series are all here, with no real surprises. One creative touch that I really enjoyed was the digitized, squeaky half-speech the Street Fighter characters blurt out when performing some of their special moves. It's adorable!

It feels petty to criticize a free fan tribute game for lacking substance, but despite Street Fighter X Mega Man being a well-crafted effort it does feel like a spartan, bare-bones affair. For one thing, the game is quite short -- and for another, it's relatively easy. Experienced players will breeze through most stages, and likely defeat most bosses with minimal snags.

There's also no story to be had -- not just minimal story, but literally none. Granted, no one plays Mega Man or Street Fighter for the plot, but there's usually at least some facade that seeks to justify what is going on. When you start the game, you're immediately brought to the stage select. No intro, no explanation for why Mega Man would want to fight these people, no anything. Again, I feel silly for faulting what is essentially fan service, but the lack of even an attempt at a premise makes the game feel like cheap fluff that the designer didn't think was "worth it." Literally anything would have been enough.

Street Fighter X Mega Man is good, but not great. If you enjoy retro gaming or the Mega Man series at all -- but, like me, you passed this one up when it first surfaced -- it's definitely something you should try. The Street Fighter cameos alone make the experience worth it, but some well thought-out level designs and inspired aesthetics keep things engaging and addicting from start to finish. While there's nothing here that exemplifies the best of either series, I'd say it's a success as an old-school action game, definitely worth a few hours to plow through.

Living Myth Game Reviews Rubric

Mega Man  series page on Capcom-Unity

Rokko Chan Parties Like it's 20XX

I usually cringe at the term "fan game," but Japanese indie developer King Soukutu has treated retro gaming enthusiasts to a pleasant surprise with Rokko Chan. Skirting the line between homage and blatant rip-off, this 8-bit-styled, 2D action-platformer looks, feels, and sounds like the classic NES Mega Man series in every way. The justification? It also matches the fast-paced fun and challenge of the original.

While the game ironically features "original" characters and situations, that's little more than tongue-in-cheek window-dressing. The protagonist, Rokko Chan, is clearly just a female redraw of Capcom's blue, robotic mascot (Mega Man's name in Japan is "Rock Man," after all). The graphics, sound, controls, music -- everything in this freeware Flash game would be right at home on the NES. It's perhaps a little too faithful and familiar to be merely an "homage," but the imitation is as adorably self-aware as it is authentic. King isn't trying to fool anyone, and this game is essentially a good-natured tribute from a die-hard fan. It's like someone just dug up an old cartridge containing a lost Mega Man title that mysteriously never saw the light of day, until now.

Like Mega Man, Rokko Chan's plot is a simple, bare-bones affair: in the year 20XX, the wicked Dr. Mad has sicced six of his robotic creations on the unsuspecting populace. Upon learning of the wanton destruction, Dr. Sane's newest creation, Rokko Chan, decides it's up to her to put a stop to it. Each ridiculously-themed robot serves as the end boss of their respective stage, and you're free to choose the order in which you tackle them. Defeating each boss rewards Rokko Chan with that robot's signature ability, and each robot is weak against certain powers. Sounding familiar? Stop me if you've heard this before.

Just like in the old days, some of the bosses were sillier than others.
Hockey Man? Rolling Man? Are you kidding me?

Despite similarities, the amount of work King must have put into this game is staggering, and some of the high points are actually the original tweaks that have been made. For example, Rokko's jump is significantly higher than Mega Man's -- and there is an added dash move, lending the heroine a welcome boost of speed and momentum -- thus making this character noticeably more maneuverable than her NES inspiration. King has also taken advantage of the features of the Flash medium to incorporate subtle tricks that the NES system could never have pulled off, such as sprite rotation effects. Certain platforms in Rolling Man's stage, for instance, rotate the entire room around you, turning the world on its head.

Perhaps the most impressive feature is the music, which really sells the experience for me. Capcom's tunes for the NES Mega Man titles had an unmistakable sound and energy to them, and Rokko Chan's soundtrack captures that feeling so convincingly that I'd swear it was lifted directly (if I didn't know better). Composer ASAGEN's work is full of gung-ho, galloping beats and charmingly sincere, operatic melodies that would make even the cheesiest of power metal bands blush (but also wish they had written it). If this game had been released in 1988, old-school gamers would be lauding the first stage of Dr. Mad's castle as one of the NES era's greatest tracks, as they do now with Dr. Wily's theme from Mega Man 2.

The scale of the difficulty is roughly on par with stand-out examples like Mega Man 2 or 9. Each stage has its own quirks to master, and the bosses themselves can be real hard-asses if you don't have the right weapon for the job, but practice and perseverance will eventually get you through to Dr. Mad's castle. Keeping true to tradition, this multi-tier fortress of pain ramps up the difficulty considerably, culminating in a final encounter that promises to sweaty your palms, set your heart racing, and demand from you no less than everything you've got.

Rokko Chan reaches for the stars, in an all-too-familiar jumping posture

The only real snag that may prevent one from fully enjoying Rokko Chan is the bare fact that it's a Flash game, and by default requires keyboard controls. That might have been sufficient if we weren't talking about a full-fledged, fast-paced action game -- but anyone looking to play all the way through this killer gauntlet using only the keyboard interface is on a fool's errand. Fortunately, there's an easy fix for that in the form of a handy little program called Joy2Key. Basically, it allows you to map buttons on a gamepad to keyboard keys, and getting it running is fast and simple.

Fight, Rokko Chan! For everlasting peace!

King Soukutu is one of those indie game makers who gets it. It's one thing to hack a previously existing game and rearrange its elements into a clumsy pastiche, but quite another to master the underpinnings of quality design and make it your own. Rokko Chan was crafted lovingly, with the hindsight of someone who understands what worked -- and what didn't -- in those old NES platformers. It's also refreshing that the game's difficulty hasn't been dumbed down for modern audiences -- which may be a turn-off for some, but that much more of a pay-off for those who appreciate a serious test of wits and reflexes. If you're someone who's looking for a dose of 8-bit nostalgia, or even a youngin' curious to see what video games used to be like in the olden days, do give this gem a try.


* Extra! *
King and his team have also put together a virtual art book showcasing all the character designs that went into the game. It's pretty impressive in its own right!