With the launch of Mega Man Battle Network in North America today, Nintendo brings us some very good Virtual Console news. Coming from today's press release: "If you like Mega Man, then you’re in for a treat - a classic Mega Man game will release every Thursday in August in the Nintendo eShop on Wii U!"
That's right; it's Mega May all over again! In August! Capcom Unity has the lowdown on which games we can expect: Mega Man 5, Mega Man 6, Mega Man X3, and Battle Chip Challenge. The release order, however, will be a mystery... so you'll have to wait until Thursday to find out which one came out.
Naturally, we'll keep you posted. Until then, go and enjoy Battle Network!
Source: Nintendo Life
Mega Man X3? Awesome, but why isn't Mega Man 7 listed anywhere?
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing special about re-releasing games :(
ReplyDeleteThere is never anything wrong with making something commercially available again for younger Mega Man fans who missed said games the first go around, years and years ago.
DeletePreserve the classics, I say.
Yeah, that's a lame excuse. Younger fans think most of these old games are relics. Sonic, Mario, and Pokemon know how to pull in the a new generation of fans, as well as keep the core, because they adapt to their times.
DeleteSonic Generations: old fans + new appeal = major profit (in terms of fans and money)
New Super Mario series: old fans + new appeal = major profit
Pokemon: major profit regardless, it's unstoppable
Mega Man 9: old fans = eh, a couple of extra bucks on the side hardly any newcomers
Megaman 10: old fans = less than before old fans start to disagree on quality and then start playing favorites.
Megaman 2 rerere-release: old fans wow my favorite game OF ALL TIME!!!! Take my money Capcom!!!
Megaman 2 rererere-release: old fans NO Capcom NO! = no profit, none at all. Except for that one family that got a video game console for the first time from charity, and it happens to be a new one. Nope not even them, they bought DuckTales remastered instead with the little money they had.
And you have no source for any of that "sales data", do you?
DeletePlease. Kids will see Mega Man is Smash, want to know more about him, and then hit up the eShop. That's how it works.
The fact that I can't find a copy of BN1 with a working battery would like to disagree with you. Only reason I've never beaten that game. Battery storage may last a decade, but digital storage will last a lifetime. If I'm paying for the game again, as far as I'm concerned I'm paying for the infinite battery life.
Delete^ Kids already have seen him in Smash & there are a lot of people online just getting into the franchise with these Virtual Console releases, on message boards & forums you see the usual question of "wanting to get into this series, which game should I start with?" & if nothing else some are getting into it out of curiosity of where the character came from, again after seeing him Smash. At least we are getting something, heck Europe didn't even have a legit home console release of Mega Man 6 until last week & the GBA games have never been available on a home console before .... It comes to something when "fans" are complaining that we are getting games ... fair enough they aren't new ones, but is there really any harm in going through a game series you like again?
DeleteIt's hardly a lame excuse. As someone who used to babysit a kid next door, he very much liked what he saw of the Mega Man games I'd bring over to play. He's a teenager now, and I'm sure when he gets his hands on a Wii U he's going to want to be able to buy those games for himself if he's so inclined.
DeleteI like that this option exists. There's nothing lame about allowing commercial access to the backlog, when so much of the backlog consists of quality and fun games. (Otherwise, why did we become fans of it?)
You may have gotten your fill, but for some people, it's going to be their first time seeing what's even up with Mega Man, and I think they will be very pleased with what they find.
I know cause, a developer on Sonic 4 that was a fan of MM stated that at booths in expos, he noticed that MM9 and MM10 really only gravitated towards older fans that grew up on the older games. He even stated that it was a major factor in mind for creating the Sonic games to appeal to the new and old.
DeleteIt doesn't work like that, kids don't see MM in Smash and auto associate with the character. Smash is Smash, MM2 is MM2, or whatever old game you'd like to compare. Some people to this day love playing Marth in Smash but dislike FE as a series of games, I know this, some of them are close friends or people I've associated with online.
Not to mention the change in market. Older games were usually much harder than newer ones, and there was really no alternative. Nowadays most gamers want to be spoon fed with convenience, and instant gratification, most new generation gamers aren't gonna take the time to master what they consider to be inferior looking, sounding and harder games over the next best thing that is currently up to date, and accessible. For one example.
There is one thing I've personally experienced tho. I had a 6 year old little cousin that visited me for the first time recently, and I put on Street Fighter Alpha 3 and had on Street Fighter 4 and MvC3 on two separate TV sets. I let him play them and asked which one he liked most, he replied this one (pointing out SFA3). I asked why, and to my shock he said SFA3 looked cooler and was easier to play. This got me thinking maybe at a certain point, sprite work was timeless. So I popped in X4, the kid was speechless and hooked, I thought in this day and age these games still impress kids. So there is that.
@Vhyper1985
DeleteActually, Mega Man 6 was released in Europe for the 3DS Virtual Console last year in June. Or were you talking about home console releases, specifically?
Yeah I thought I'd made that clear in the comment but yes I was meaning home consoles not 3DS, even so that's still a long ass time before most people over here have even played it for the 1st time.
Delete@Anon .. You've gotta remember that Mega Man 9 & 10 would have resonated more with older fans at time of release due to the series not getting the attention that it has had since A) The cancellations which brought a LOT of attention to the series for better or worse & B) before Smash featured him as a character & I'm sorry but people (especially the younger audience) are curious to see what the series is about after seeing him in the Smash trailers, sure Smash is it's own thing & that sales of that game may not equal huge sales of any one specific franchise but there have been a few articles out there as well as comments on Nintendo sites where people are buying these Virtual Console releases because they want to learn more about the series! Would Fire Emblem Awakening have sold as well as it did without people having some idea who the characters are or that the franchise even exists? If you had asked someone about Fire Emblem before Melee was released I bet you wouldn't find many western fans... Would Kid Icarus have had another game if people weren't interested in the character? I will agree with you that sprites & even 8-bit graphics despite some people being graphic whores in this day & age have a timeless charm to them, kids I know have been impressed even by 8-bit Mega Man titles & loved the characters & the strategy to it, even if they aren't the easiest of games, point is that these games should be re-released for the younger generations to experience, in the same way Mario & yes even Sonic (seriously how many times has Sonic 1-3 been re-released at this point?) have been re-released over the years .... I don't know how people can be so down about these games getting released, it's certainly better than nothing & I know i'll be enjoying them again!
Vhyper1985: Hmm... So you're one of those people that completely move on to new consoles every so often, or do you mean you will be enjoying the ones you already own again? If the former, I have all these games at my disposal and feel no need to purchase them again, for the, in this case 3rd/2nd time. I even have the GBA adapter for my GC to play them on TV if i wanted, and save states aren't a strong incentive, I'll beat them the proper way.
DeleteTo answer your question about Fire Emblem, I absolutely believe awakening would have sold as much as it did, for three reasons. 1. It was stated by the publishers that if the title did not preform well commercially, it would be the last entry in the series, which I believe would encourage the predominantly Japanese fandom and audience to support the title more so than ever. In which they did, as the majority of sales came from Japan. If the franchise was truly helped by Smash, it would have never been in the position of discontinuation in the first place, due to lack of commercial success, as it was localized in western regions long before Awakening. 2. It arrived in an open handheld market, which at the time, it had very little competition. 3. It was heavily publicized and marketed in Japan, and added many fan serviced features, such as classic well known characters, settings etc.
The reason you wouldn't have found many western fans of FE before Melee, is because there were no FE games or anything FE released in the west before that point.
I also believe Kid Icarus if presented the way it had in Uprising would have done well, as well. It was one of the few primary games advertised for the 3DS near launch. It looked really good and also had little competition on that console at the time.
If these two games truly were help by Smash and not themselves, how do you explain Star Fox, Mother/EarthBound, and even Metroid? Which have yet to see announcements or new releases, since their respective latest underperformed titles. Heck I have a strong feeling that Villager is the new replacement for Ness as a primary cast member of Smash.
Everyone saying kids are learning about Mega Man through Smash just further cement in my mind Nintendo should buy the IP. They have done more promotion for Mega Man outside of Japan with Smash than almost anything Capcom has done in the entirety of the franchise's life, if not more.
Delete@Sure: I hardly see any kids interested in Mega Man through Smash. Also Putting MM in Smash is Nintendo's contribution to MM's "advertising" right? OK tell me this, is putting MM in a game with an internet released CG trailer that most newcomers to Smash have, more advertisement than licensing 2 TV series, and television commercials? Is putting him in smash more advertisement than putting him on covers of various artbooks, adding him to many high profile crossover titles such as MvC, 1 and 2 Tatsunoko vs Capcom, referencing him in games like Street Fighter, Power Stone, Dead Rising and more?
DeleteYou guy's are seriously overstating what Nintendo has done for the series. SSB as a series sales on average above 4 million units, regardless of what genre you consider it, it is the best selling of its kind at over 11 million units from its latest entry, higher than any single Capcom released game and most of Capcom's franchises. You're talking about a series that previously contained two of the biggest mascots in gaming (Sonic/Mario), two of the most successful video game franchises (S.Mario/Pokemon) and icons representing the game all over. Of course people are gonna notice MM for the spur of a moment, but to truly appreciate the series you have to like it devoid of Smash, and once that happens most people would gravitate toward MM's competition. I still believe MOST (with few exceptions) kids would more than likely pick up Super Mario 3D World or Sonic Boom or something like that, then grow to love those series on their own, and pick up Sonic and Mario Virtual Console games over MM. MM has to help itself.
@Anon "Hmm... So you're one of those people that completely move on to new consoles every so often, or do you mean you will be enjoying the ones you already own again? If the former, I have all these games at my disposal and feel no need to purchase them again, for the, in this case 3rd/2nd time. I even have the GBA adapter for my GC to play them on TV if i wanted, and save states aren't a strong incentive, I'll beat them the proper way."
DeleteNo I still own all my consoles going from Atari 2600 & 7800 all the way to all 3 new 8th gen consoles, problem is I can't have all of these setup all at the same time (I currently have 7 consoles setup) due to space constraints.. sad but true! So i'll still be downloading all of these virtual console titles to enjoy again regardless as it's always good to have some Mega Man games at your fingertips instead of having to spend what little time I have outside of work hooking a console up & then disconnecting it all again at the end of an evening. Secondly I'm a huge fan of the series, it's my favourite one out there so I want to support the franchise that's give me hours of entertainment. You may say I'm wasting my money or time but I really couldn't care, I enjoy the series & i'll support it.
As for the whole Smash Bros influence I think that's open to debate & I agree that the series does need to be able to stand on it's own without just relying on help from another franchise but at the same time some publicity that gets people to notice the series is never a bad thing! Heck there was that video a while back of everyone cheering Mega Man on in Smash with the hype announcer & then there are stories like this: http://www.themmnetwork.com/ & that's just one example not including various forum topics I've seen online with people wanting to get into the franchise so it is having some effect.
I'd love to see new games as much as the next person but I still don't see the need to complain about Capcom putting these re-releases out for the people who either haven't played them before or want to experience them again...
I would never say that you are wasting money on MM (well maybe sometimes), it too is my favorite series. Feel free to support it, I have no problems with that. I on the other hand don't feel the need to get the games again. I currently have my PS2, 360, and Wii on deck. I have MMAC on PS2 as well as many other collection games, such as Sonic, Metal Slug, Street Fighter, and such, making it my primary console to this day. I also own MMXC, although I still have the PSX copies of the PSX games, so I just prefer to play those on PS2 instead, I generally just love PS2's library of games. All the games I truly feel like returning to from the N64 was ported to the GC like OoT or NDS like SM64 (although I prefer the original) which I play on the Wii along with Wii's VC library. I play GBA and DS games on DS. Man I'm blabbering, long story short I have what I need without too much clutter.
DeleteAbout supporting the series. Without going into it too much, I truly don't feel me shelling out a couple of bucks for a game I had many years ago, will help anything. I know from experience, I think what needs to happen is strong support from many, as well as a supportive publisher/developer.
"Mega May in August" ... so, Megust?
ReplyDeleteBCC before 2 and 3? Geezuz Capcom, at least get the order right...
ReplyDeletewhy is BCC before MM7, MMZ1, MMBN2 and 3 especially BCC is considers one of worst mega man game of all time.
ReplyDeleteI would assume they're bringing in BCC earlier because they're doing that in Japan as well.
ReplyDelete