Number: DWN-016

Weapon: Leaf Shield

Weakness: Atomic Fire

Like Guts and Air Man before him, Wood Man is hefty ‘bot with a commanding presence. As he prepares for battle, he beats his chest like a wild animal and then engages Mega Man with a powerful barrage of razor-sharp… leaves??

What’s really great about Wood Man is that he actually IS primarily composed of wood. Sure he’s got some metal parts in there, but by and large he’s a very “natural” machine that still has one foot in the wild. An interesting mix!

After defeating Wood Man, Mega Man obtains the Leaf Shield, which circles the Blue Bomber and protects him from most incoming harm. However, the moment you take a step, the shield will fly off in that direction. It’s the first “shield” type weapon that we’d see again in Skull and Plant Man.

In addition to having some excellent music, the Wood Man stage is also a blast to play. The fire-breathing Friender dogs were very impressive sprites back in the day, and the stage itself goes from woods to underground to open sky in a short time. It’s a treat to play!

David Oxford, The Mega Man Network

In what could only be described as a fun and amusing coincidence after naming Cut Man my favorite Robot Master from the first Mega Man, Wood Man would prove to be my first conquest in Mega Man 2. It’s such a shame I couldn’t bring the Rolling Cutter with me to my first Robot Master encounter of the sequel; after all, what better way to take down a robot made of wood than to use the tool of a timber-felling robot?

Besides the rocking jungle theme, Wood Man also rocks a much more impressive version of the Leaf Shield than what Mega Man ends up with. Bigger, badder, and it rains additional terror from above! Without the Crash Bomber , Metal Blade , or Atomic Fire , it’s enough to make you want to make like a tree and get outta there!

Outside of the game, I’ve enjoyed how he’s been characterized, particularly in Archie’s Mega Man comic book. Seeing the care he shows for the robotic animals which occupy his woodland stage just warms my heart.

When we last shared screens and footage of this summer’s Mega Man Legacy Collection, it was an early version of the game. Today we’ve got some new screens and details on the game’s various features – plus a live stream planned for Thursday, July 16 from 4 – 5pm Pacific Time!

Challenge Mode: At E3 we had six challenges ready to play. The final game will have more than 50 challenges, each with their own leaderboard and video replay functionality. During Thursday’s stream I’ll run through a few new ones just to show ’em off, but for more examples take a peek at the screens above and below.

A certain amount will be open from the start. To access more, you’ll need to obtain at least a Bronze medal in a handful of challenges. As you can see, the above challenges are not available until I S T E P  U P.

Museum: The exhaustive museum is loaded with MM1~6 art, acting both as a great bonus feature and as a form of digital preservation. That actually ties into the “philosophy” behind MMLC – focus on the original six titles and get them running in a beautiful format, then surround them with of-the-era art and fliers to really complete the “time capsule” feeling.

While I do have a special place in my heart for MM7, it and the 32-bit MM8 aren’t part of MMLC’s goal to archive and preserve the 8-bit titles that started it all. Their uniform look and late 80s/early 90s tech make them great candidates for Digital Eclipse’s preservation efforts, while the 16- and 32-bit entries would require different techniques. Instead of using typical emulation, DE is “rebuilding” these six games in the Eclipse Engine using original source assets.

Flicker/Slowdown: For the most part, much of the original flicker and slowdown is still present in MMLC. The games have software-level flicker/slowdown that was programmed into the games, and continuing with the philosophy of developing this title, the games are being historically preserved as they were originally coded and designed. However, certain hardware limitations that were not part of the code have been addressed, such as life bar flickering during the Copy Robot battle in Mega Man 1, or Mega Man flickering when two horns rise up from the Goblins in Air Man’s stage. Visual hiccups like this weren’t part of the code, and were instead restrictions imposed by the hardware.

It’s hard to tell from the screen, so if you come check out the stream on Thursday you will get a better look at this.

Filters: While one of the biggest draws of MMLC is the crystal clear picture, we’ve also enabled some Tube TV-style filters that can metaphorically teleport you back to the days of crappy screens and blurry… everything! So if you’d like to experience the games with scan lines and some ghosting effects, go nuts!

Screen display: At E3 we streamed the game in its “Full” format (see above). Since then we’ve added an additional viewing mode called “Original.” We also have a 16:9 stretch mode just to round out the options for folks who want to play that way.

Original: The sharpest possible image that maintains the original game’s intended aspect ratio. Sharp as a tack!

Full: The Original picture stretched to fit the screen vertically. This is how the game was presented at E3, which is still quite clean but the “stretch” does introduce a minor blur since this is not its native form.

Borders: We showed this at E3 but didn’t post screenshots, so this may be the first time some of you see optional borders that will fill the sides of the screen. They’re themed for each Mega Man game! The top screen is in “Original” mode, while the bottom is “Full” – since the Original screen takes up less space, the more of the border is seen.

Database: Each game has its own database that contains enemy images, descriptions and flavor text. From here you can also battle each of the Robot Masters using any weapon from the respective game as sort of a “practice run” that lets you get their patterns down before tackling them in the full game.

Music player: And finally, all six soundtracks are included via a handy music player! Some of gaming’s greatest OSTs, without a doubt.

We’ll stream the latest build on Thursday 7/16 from 4-5pm Pacific Time (that’s 7pm Eastern/6 Central). Until then, check out our art contest and life-size Mega Man helmet !

Number: DWN-015

Weapon: Atomic Fire

Weakness:  Bubble Lead

An exceptionally heatproof robot that can control fire at will. Be sure to jump and dodge his tackle attack.

From the charred ashes of Mega Man 1’s Fire Man rose the almighty Heat Man, an upgraded design and even more powerful embodiment of the very concept of heat. Heat Man can spew fire from his mouth, hurl volleys of flames with his hands, and create an impervious shield of fire which he uses to charge Mega Man at high speeds.

Heat Man has been described by onlookers as “unenthusiastic about his job,” “hot,” and “actually a lighter.” Indeed, Heat Man is one of the few Robot Masters to distinctly resemble a real-life appliance, suggesting he might have originally been designed with some noble, utilitarian purpose in mind (like setting stuff on fire).

Heat Man’s stage is one of the most dangerous in Mega Man 2 thanks to some tricky “Appearing Block” segments and a heaping helping of insta-death bottomless pits and lava pits, so you may want to save his stage for last.

Smart use of Bubble Man’s all-powerful Bubble Lead will make short work of Heat, rewarding Mega Man with the Atomic Fire weapon. Word has it the Atomic Fire can produce fire bursts at up to 12,000 degrees Celsius (over 21,000 degrees Fahrenheit).

H.M.D., Mega Man 1, Mega Man 2 (programmer)
“When I created Heat Man as written in the game design document, it wasn’t fun at all. When I made changes to how each of his moves connected based on the director’s instructions, it instantly became very fun to play. I learned that I wasn’t thinking about how fans would actually play the game when I worked on programming first. Similarly to the Yellow Devil, Heat Man taught me an important lesson about the depth of game creation.”

Adam “Heat Man” Anania, formerly of The Mega Man Network
“I guess it’s not too surprising that I’m pretty keen on Heat Man, considering I used him as my online persona for so many years. He was one of my favorite Robot Masters as a kid, although the reasons why elude me anymore. I just have very vague memories of drawing him on a Denny’s place mat. I also made a Heat Man costume for Halloween one year, seriously. Here it is.

“But I know I chose him as my avatar because he was one of the more unique looking boss characters, and he seemed to be more laid back than the rest of them (despite that he tries to incinerate you and his stage is a huge pain without Item 2). It felt like a cute idea; everyone else usually used cool characters like Proto Man, Bass, and Zero, but here was just this boxy guy with a goofy look on his face.

“I’m sure most people know this trick by now, but when you go fighting Heat Man, try whittling his health down and then shooting a Crash Bomber at him to see what happens. Not many Mega Man games feature weird stuff like that!”

*Sigh* it’s good to be back! For those that don’t know, I’ve been on the road for the last two weekends (+ a good number of weekdays) attending Anime Expo AND San Diego Comic Con.

Both events were awesome in their own ways and, while I take some more time to sift through the dozens of pictures from Anime Expo, here are some of the Monster Hunter cosplay photos I took at SDCC 2015:

Finally, here’s some awesome cosplay in the making; they’re not in full armor but if the level of detail in the guy’s gauntlet is any indication of what to expect, I bet it’ll be amazing:

I know I missed a couple of cosplayers, but like I said, I have dozens of photos from Anime Expo so please look forward to those in the next few days.

Number: DWN-014

Weapon: Time Stopper

Weakness: Metal Blade

Equipped with a system that can stop time, at least for a little while. He’s not a strong attacker. Fight in the middle of the arena and his attacks will be easily dodged.

OK, so, Dr Wily builds eight of his own robots to take down Mega Man, right? One shoots bombs, another makes big gusts of wind and so on. But one of them, ummm what if he could just like, freeze time? Would that be useful at all?

YES. As a kid I didn’t worry much about the ‘real world’ implications of the Robot Master’s powers, but even back then I was like, Dr Wily has invented a device that freezes time! Surely this fight against Light would be over in seconds – or basically zero seconds, right?

/rant – Anyway, Flash Man hops around his room, stops time briefly and then fires some shots your way. He’s one of the easier fights and thus a great first boss to tackle. Love that running animation!

Mega Man’s version of the Time Stopper is essentially the same – it freezes enemies – but it can’t be deactivated once it’s going! That means once you fire it, you better have a plan. That plan is usually either Quick Man’s stage (for the one-hit-kill beams) OR Quick Man himself.

Like we did with Metal Man last week, we’re gonna offer up another keychain for y’all commenters! We’ll pick someone with a fun, insightful or informative comment about ol’ DWN-014 and send you a Unity PM before the week is out.

Number: DWN-013

Weapon: Crash Bomber

Weakness: Air Shooter

A robot with a sturdy body. He’s barely even phased by most explosions. He’s not too bad as long as you can dodge his Crash Bombs.

No, those aren’t drills on his arms – they’re pointed ‘crash bombs’ that speed across the screen and detonate with a huge area of effect blast. If that wasn’t bad enough, Crash Man also retains some of the agility that allowed Bomb Man to leap across his lair like a bomb-tossing Hulk.

Now, sure that sounds formidable, but if you’re armed with his weakness (Air Man’s Air Shooter), he drops pretty fast. Shoulda spent more money on those defenses, Wily!

The Crash Bomber gives Mega Man the ability to fire his own pointy bombs. You can only have one on the screen at a time though, so you gotta make those shots count! This is especially important during a late-game boss battle…

I think it’s pretty natural – especially as a kid – to assume the pointed objects jutting out from his hands were drills. This made for a great surprise when you entered his chamber and BLAMMO, they’re not drills at all!

Number: DWN-012

Weapon: Quick Boomerang

Weakness: Time Stopper

By far the most mobile of Dr. Wily’s robots. Can you match his speed? Use the terrain to your advantage when attacking.

Based on some of the tech that helped make Elec Man a standout Robot Master, Quick Man is faster than most other bosses and resists most of their weapons. Even his primary weakness – the Time Stopper – won’t finish him off before running out of ammo. He’s not too bad once you get a feel for the room and how he moves, but until then… what a boss!

This, combined with one of the toughest / well known stages in Mega Man history elevates Quick Man into top tier Robot Master status. Completing his stage takes time, as does besting him in combat… he’s truly an adversary worth defeating!

And for all that trouble, you get the Quick Boomerang. It’s not without its uses, but in the grand scheme of things it’s far from the best weapon in the series. Great against the Mecha Dragon and (assuming you don’t have the Metal Blade) Metal Man , but probably not something you use moment to moment.

Like many kids of the 80s/90s, I gravitated towards Quick Man as a personal fave. That design is too cool (like Elec Man, it’s very comic book-y) and watching him zip around the screen for the first time was a great moment I’ll always remember. I also really liked his depiction in the Megamix comics!

Adam Anania, The Mega Man Network

“A lot of the classic Mega Man games have that one ‘cool guy’ Robot Master. For Mega Man, it was Elec Man. For Mega Man 3, probably Shadow Man. For Mega Man 4, I’d say either Pharaoh Man or Skull Man. But for Mega Man 2, it’s definitely Quick Man. He’s so cool the frame on the stage select can’t even contain his boomerang decoration.

“Quick Man’s stage is super iconic. Of course, those dreaded death beams stand out as one of the feared gimmicks in any Mega Man game. Clearing that drop without the Time Stopper is kind of a rite of passage. Also, the one section where the Changkey Makers illuminate the environment is really cool too. Quick Man himself is a tough fight, as he tends to jump around erratically and block you in with his boomerangs. He can even flat out blocks certain special weapons with his fist!”

David Oxford , The Mega Man Network ( +Robot Master Field Guide )

“How can anyone not love Quick Man?

“Pretty easily, it turns out, as the successor to Elec Man has one of the most formidable stages in the entirety of Mega Man 2, littered with Force Beams that have been commonly come to be known as the ‘Quick Man Beams’ which bring instant death to anyone who touches them.

“This is part of why many a player would leave Quick Man’s stage for last, which helped cement his status as Mega Man’s early rival — a role emphasized further by his being the only Robot Master in the game whose Stage Select mugshot extended beyond the borders of his respective frame.

“Funnily enough, the stage proved to be much tougher than DWN-012 himself. While he certainly lives up to his name, he doesn’t quite pack the same wallop as his predecessor nor his eponymous traps. Even if you don’t exploit Wily’s design flaw by using the Time Stopper to drain half his energy, a sufficiently evasive player can use either the Crash Bomber or Mega Buster to bring him down pretty darn… quick.”

It’s generally agreed that MM2~6 fared much better, with art that eventually became on-model and truly indicative of Mega Man’s adventures. And this wasn’t a North American-only event – Europe too had its share of wacky images.

Now’s the time to sort of “re-imagine” those original six covers by submitting your very own version!

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.

As a way to grease the inspirational wheels, I’ve worked with artist Chamba to dream up six new pieces of art that could act as “new” key art for Mega Man 1~6.

Mega Man 1

For Mega Man 1, I wanted to show an actual weakness being exploited, since that’s a key feature of the game and one that’s rarely referenced in art. If this were 1987, perhaps a young Brelston would have noticed Cut Man’s look of terror as Guts Man’s Super Arm hurls a rock his way. Why is Cut Man in Guts Man’s stage though? Shhhhh….

Mega Man 2

Quick Man was present in the classic North American box art (where Dr Light is ordering Crash Man to fight Mega Man??), but here we can see him zipping around his laser-filled lair. Metal Man and Crash Man – two other favorites – are also swooping in.

Here’s a clean version of the logo, too:

Now – let’s see some of yours! Submit an entry to contest@capcom.com by August 14. P lease read up on the full, official rules as well . This is open to NA and EU!

Next Friday – a look at Mega Man 3!

Contest entry period is over! Stay tuned for the announcement of the winner in the coming days. Thanks to all those who participated! =)

UPDATE: Good news! Due to the number of entries submitted in the last day and requests for more time, we are extending the deadline to 11:59pm (Pacific Time) of August 6th; right before the August DLC pack goes live. =)

If you’ve already submitted your entry, nothing changes; you don’t have to resubmit it. This is a way to give more people a chance to enter.

Remember those awesome life-size weapon replicas we took around to events to be used as photo-ops? Didn’t you wish you could just take one of them home? But wouldn’t be even better if we made a replica of YOUR favorite weapon? Enter the #HowDoYouHunt contest and you may win just that!

That’s right: the winner of the #HowDoYouHunt contest will receive a life-size replica based on the in-game models of their favorite weapon from Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate! By now you must be thinking “How can I enter?” or “Shut up and take my entry!” It’s actually pretty simple; here’s how you do it:

The main entry must be a video, less than 60 seconds, of yourself talking about your favorite weapon in MH4U – please be specific here; we’re asking about your absolute favorite weapon, not just the weapon type; so entries that just talk about the Lance are too general and won’t qualify. Also, make sure your entry talks about a weapon that is an original Monster Hunter creation (i.e. not from any collaboration DLC).

Then upload said video to YouTube or Instagram and share it on Twitter with the hash tag #HowDoYouHunt , and you’re good to go!

The video itself could be anything, so feel free to get creative. You can shoot it in cosplay, write a song, perform sock puppet theatre, or just get in front of a camera and speak from your heart. After all, it’s your favorite weapon you’re talking about, right? Ultimately, we want to hear why you chose that weapon as your favorite. And it’s also important that YOU’RE the one doing the talking.

The only thing I wanted to ask of you was to pass the proverbial torch along to your fellow hunters at the end of the video, saying “how about you? How do YOU hunt?”

Now I know you’re eager to submit your entry, but please take a moment to read the full contest rules . You have until July 31st, so good luck!

CONTEST RULES

The Resident Evil series is long-standing, with myriad diverse entries spanning a variety of subgenres, dating all the way back to the very first installment in 1996. But there are a number of unifying elements which have remained prevalent throughout the series’ legacy: themes of bioweaponry and corporate conspiracy, firearm-based combat, inventory management, creatively hideous monster design, and of course, the bonus costumes.

No RE game would be complete without an array of alternate costumes — some zany, some coo l— with which to adorn the protagonists. The upcoming Resident Evil Zero (early 2016) will continue this tradition, but the team has also cooked up something extra special this time around — and they want your ideas.

Today marks the beginning of the Resident Evil Zero In-Game T-Shirt Contest . Over the next several weeks, fans will be able to submit designs and vote for an in-game T-shirt. A number of winning designs will ultimately be selected, created in-game, and distributed to players, ready to be worn by plucky protagonist Rebecca Chambers. The content will be FREE to anyone who votes at least once during the course of the contest, so be sure and check it out!

↑Rebecca will be able to sport the winning designs.

Round 1 of the contest begins now! Head to the official contest page to learn more and participate! That URL is www.residentevil.com/tshirt

For years now you may have seen some fuzzy video of an old 1999/2000 version of Resident Evil 0. With the HD remaster coming out in early 2016, we thought it would be a great time to unearth that footage – in high quality, for the first time – and share it with SDCC goers during our annual World of Capcom panel. But now that the panel is over… you can see it yourself!

This footage shows scenes from those early days compared to final version that released in 2002, and then compared once more in the upcoming HD remaster. Looks great!

The HD remaster releases early next year on PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC.

And in other RE0 news, check out the Design A T-Shirt Contest !

Hey everyone!

Hot off the presses, the latest character in the Street Fighter V roster was just announced at the annual Street Fighter panel at San Diego Comic Con. We present to you: Ken!

With many of the series’ mainstays having already been announced for SFV, a lot of people were wondering if the master of the flaming Shoryuken would make it back this time as well. We are happy to inform you that he’s back in full force with a brand new look and a burning desire to light up the competition! Employing a wide variety of fast moving, long range attacks, players who enjoy an aggressive in-your-face style of gameplay will feel right at home with Ken, with his flashy combos and big damage.

V-Skill: Quick Step

Ken runs towards the opponent, closing the distance in an instant. Ken can also choose to step kick or input another attack closer to the end of his run!  

  V-Trigger: Heat Rush

Ken channels flames through his entire body for a short period of time, which powers up his special attacks, by increasing their number of hits and improving their trajectory, allowing him to perform even more damaging combos.

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Also, just a quick reminder that the first online beta program for Street Fighter V will be PS4 exclusive and begins on July 23rd (18:00 PT)/July 24th (03:00 CEST/10:00 JST), running for 5 days. In North America, fans who pre-order the game through select retailers or PSN, will be granted automatic access to the beta. In Europe and Asia, anyone who would like to take part in the beta should head over to www.streetfighter.com and sign up for a chance to join the fight!

While the Spring 2016 release date is still a ways away, stay tuned as we’ll be making more Street Fighter V announcements very soon. Maybe as soon as… next week? J Be sure to tune into www.twitch.tv/capcomfighters next weekend (July 17~19) as we hit the road for the biggest fighting game tournament in the world, EVO 2015!