Capcom offers its sincerest apologies to everyone who participated in this first beta test.  While the purpose of a beta is to work out these type of issues, it was very clear that the issues we faced were more severe than we were prepared for.  After three days of testing, while we were making progress and collecting valuable data, we felt the majority of players were not having a good experience, and the best course of action would be to take the servers offline for extended maintenance.  We will be postponing our first beta phase until we believe the experience is going to be a positive one for players. 

UPDATE: There seems to be concern from some players who were unable to connect to the beta, that they would not be able to get the in-game incentive we mentioned.  We are still working out the specifics on the incentive, but can confirm that connecting to, or not being able to connect to the initial beta, will not be a factor in receiving this incentive. 

To be clear, this first beta test attempt will not count toward our previously announced beta test allotments.  There will still be at least three full beta tests prior to the game’s launch.  So for those in the Americas that feel disappointed that they were not able to experience their pre-order incentive, there will be plenty of opportunities prior to launch to experience the game. 

Additionally, we are working on a worthwhile in-game incentive for the players that participated in the first beta test.  While we can’t confirm specifics just yet, we will have more details on this in the coming weeks. 

To all of the European and Asian players that felt like they were missing out on the beta since we limited it to North America on Friday and Saturday, we apologize for the inconvenience. Due to the state of the server issues, we had to limit the numbers to a smaller pool in order to identify issues and potential solutions. Either way, we will still be providing these players with an incentive as well, as all territories were inconvenienced.

To all of the players that participated and supported us through this initial phase, we cannot thank you enough.  We understand how frustrating it is to be so close to playing the game you are excited for, and to not have it working.  The whole team here is very disappointed that we were unable to deliver a proper beta experience this time. Thank you so much for your continued support, and we promise that we will have a better experience for you with the future betas. 

We will be sharing more details when available, but for now, we appreciate your patience as we work on solutions to offer the experience that we had intended.

Tune in to our Twitch channel today at 4pm Pacific (7pm Eastern) for another awesome Monster Hunter Mondays live gameaply session! Who knows you can even join us for a quest or two! Also, if you’ve missed last week’s show, we now have it up on YouTube :

See you soon!

Number: DWN-023

Weapon: Spark Shock

Weakness: Shadow Blade

Possesses twice the electrical power of Elec Man . That said, his programming makes him somewhat scatterbrained.

Seemingly designed as an industrial ‘bot destined to replace  Elec Man, Spark Man instead becomes a powerful weapon in Dr Wily’s latest bid to take over the world.

That said… his impressive spec sheet leaves out how all that raw power affects his combat ability. Instead of a nimble, bolt-tossing ninja a la Elec Man, we get a hefty hopping robot that’s taken out fairly easily.

Defeating Spark Man earns you the Spark Shock, which fires a small ball of electricity. I suppose it’s a very dense, powerful burst as opposed to Elec Man’s wide, dispersed beam… but at the end of the day I kinda prefer the Elec Beam ! It has a great crackling, raw-power kind of feel, while the Spark Shock is more of a typical projectile.

Spark Man does have an interesting design though – the spark plug look is distinct and makes it easy to understand his purpose even before you hear his name.

There’s still time to enter our Mega Man Legacy Collection art contest! The goal is to re-imagine the cover of one of the six original Mega Man games in a way that better represents the actual gameplay. Or at least  looks  like Mega Man this time 😛

CONTEST RULES: From now until August 14th, you can email one entry to  contest@capcom.com  (labeled MMLC ART CONTEST) and be entered for a chance to win one of six copies of the game. We will notify winners by September 4th, 2015 at the latest. Please submit an entry that depicts your ideal Mega Man box / key art, choosing one of the six Mega Man games collected in MMLC.  Please also read the full contest rules.

There is no min/max size but it’s generally nice to have art that’s high-res (i.e. not like 300 pixels wide or something)  and  if you’re taking a photo instead of scanning, just make sure the image is clean and it shows your work in a positive light.

And to keep the ball rolling, I worked with artist Chamba to re-imagine the MM1~6 covers. This week we’re debuting MM4, and here I wanted to have a cover that actually showed Mega Man using one of his stolen powers. The “Blue Bomber” aspect is lost, true, but given that this is number four in a series you can expect fans / kids of 1991 to recognize the name at least.

Dunno, that’s what I thought about for MM4 ( and MM3 was last week ) but we really want to see what  you have in mind!

Mega Man 5 image coming next Friday!

Round 1 of the Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition Style Tournamentbrought us some very impressive and creative Nero play, and the voters have spoken! Hit the jump for Round 1’s voting results as well as the rules for Round 2, which starts now!

This round was a close match with several strong, technical, and innovative contenders, and the vote turned into a bit of a tug-of-war. In the end, Serj Angelo came out on top, securing 33% of the electorate. Trailing just behind with 30% was DelusionaryKiller , with GarudaPSN coming in third with a respectable 19%.

Congratulations to Serj, and we hope to see all of our other contenders return in the coming rounds!  

Now then! Onto the rules for Round 2!

First, be sure to check the initial tournament post for important information about how to submit. 

FULL CONTEST RULES

Round 2 Rules: 

Character: Dante

Difficulty: Son of Sparda

Modifiers: Turbo Mode is optional! No Super Dante allowed. You may choose the costume of your preference. 

Mission: 12

Fight: “Meeting Room” fight, against the Mega Scarecrows. You do not have to perform the entire fight in 60 seconds, but the clip itself must be limited to a 60-second (or shorter) piece of the fight. It may, of course, be shorter than 60 seconds.

Deadline: Monday, July 27th @12:00pm (noon) PDT

Good luck, and may the most stylish player win!

Number: DWN-022

Weapon: Search Snake

Weakness: Needle Cannon

Like a tenacious snake, he steadily drives his prey into a corner… He moves about a lot, so stand still and attack.

At first glance, Snake Man doesn’t seem to follow the usual “industrial robot turned bad” format of many other bosses. However, the reason he’s designed after a snake is because his original purpose was to explore other planets and scurry around in search of raw materials. With that in mind, I can kinda see it – much better than a clumsy rover!

But – Wily turned him into a battle ‘bot like so many other Robot Masters, and he became one of the more iconic MM3 bosses.

After sending Snake Man to the scrap heap, Mega Man gets equipped with the Search Snake. True to its original purpose, the SS hugs the ground to track the lines and curves of the environment. It also happens to deal solid damage to Gemini Man :3

Snake Man’s stage is without a doubt my favorite of the MM3 lot. Obviously the giant snake enemies are cool (and v impressive by 1990 standards) but it was also such a themed-up stage in a game where the relationship between boss and stage isn’t always clear. Plus having a robot based on another living creature is an interesting angle.

We’ll finish up Mega Man 3 next week and then it’s off to Mega Man 4!

If you missed our latest post about the game’s extra features, check that out too.

Number: DWN-021

Weapon: Top Spin

Weakness: Hard Knuckle

Spins at high speeds and has a shield system that renders incoming attacks ineffective. He’s popular at New Year’s, because he can produce toy tops from his head.

Originally built to search for extraterrestrial components needed to build a massive peacekeeping robot, Top Man eventually fell to Dr Wily’s programming and became a fighting robot like his MM3 brothers. How he was meant to succeed in this mission, armed with just tops and the ability to spin fairly fast, is still a mystery :3

The fight against Top Man, however, is one of my favorites in MM3.  He has an enjoyable pattern that easy to understand and fun to practice. Easy with a buster, and cake with the Hard Knuckle!

Gaining the Top Spin  allows Mega Man to SPIIIIIN slam into enemies. It’s perhaps best known as the weapon to use against the aforementioned peacekeeping robot who… uh, is not used for peacekeeping. Someone set this thing to evil!

If ya like that art, don’t forget about the MMLC contest that runs for the next few weeks!