Street Fighter X Mega Man, also known as Street Fighter X Rockman in Japan, is a
crossover platform game created by Singaporean fan developer Seow Zong Hui.
Initially developed as a fan game, Street Fighter X Mega Man later received
support from Capcom, who assisted in the production of the game. The game was
released as a free download from Capcom-Unity on December 17, 2012, and
celebrates the 25th anniversary of Capcom's Mega Man and Street Fighter
franchises, mimicking the design of classic Mega Man games with Street
Fighter characters substituting as important enemies encountered in the
game. The game received mixed to positive reviews by critics, with some
common complaints relating to lack of a save feature and other bugs. In response
to the complaints, an update was released on January 28, 2013 titled
Street Fighter X Mega Man V2, which added a password save feature and other
fixes. Premise and gameplay
Street Fighter X Mega Man mimics the appearance and gameplay style of Mega
Man games released on the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game's premise
and plot centers around its status as a crossover video game and the respective
anniversaries of both franchises. Having fought countless robot masters over the
years, Mega Man is ready to lay back, relax and enjoy his 25th Anniversary.
Getting wind of this, Ryu and his fellow Street Fighters want one last battle
before they let their own anniversary finish. In terms of gameplay, Mega Man
uses the same set of moves featured in Mega Man 4. Instead of using stages
based on Mega Man and using Robot Masters as level bosses, the stages
share influences from the Street Fighter franchise stages and characters such as
Blanka, Chun-Li, and Ryu take the place of the Robot Masters as the end of level
bosses. The Street Fighter characters use their signature moves as attacks; in
addition, they have their own Super Meters that build up when they take
damage during the boss fights and allow them to launch a powerful attack at Mega
Man once filled. Like other Mega Man games, defeating each boss earns Mega
Man a new weapon based on the characters' attacks; such as Ryu's
Hadouken and Chun-Li's Hyakuretsu Kyaku. After clearing the eight main levels,
the player then moves on to face the final set of bosses. Clearing certain
conditions unveils two secret hidden bosses at the end of the game.
Development The game began as the private
development of Seow Zong Hui who presented an early build to Christian
Svensson, Capcom's Senior VP of planning and business development, at EVO 2012.
Svensson showed the build to several staff members in the Capcom office, and
Capcom later decided to assist in the development of the game. While Zong Hui
continued to develop the game based on his original design, Capcom took over
tasks such as funding, marketing, and quality assurance. Capcom decided to
distribute the game on PC instead of gaming consoles because Zong Hui did not
have a license for console development. Svensson has noted that Capcom will
consider console releases in the future, but chose to initially distribute the
game on PC to keep the game free for fans and meet its December 17 target
release date. Zong Hui noted several concepts that
were scrapped during development. Yang was originally planned as a boss
character but was ultimately replaced by Chun-Li. His special weapon is still
included in the game via cheat codes. Zong Hui also wanted to include
alternate costumes for boss characters and a second playable character from the
Street Fighter franchise. Following release, there were several
complaints about the game crashing, having a vague user interface, and
lacking any save system. In response to these complaints, Svensson noted that a
patch was being discussed with the development team to address these issues
in a future update. The update boasts an improved user interface, better
controller compatibility, bug fixes, a password save system reminiscent of the
original Mega Man games on the Nintendo Entertainment System, and an additional
boss character. The updated version was released on January 1, 2013 under the
name, Street Fighter X Mega Man V2. = Music =
Chiptune artist Luke Esquivel composed the music for the game. Esquivel became
involved when he approached Zong Hui via YouTube and requested to being full-time
musician for the game in 2009/2010 after comparing his music with Zong Hui's
previous musician. When composing the music for Street Fighter X Mega Man,
Esquivel combined Mega Man themes with Street Fighter themes on certain songs.
In other songs, he would use elements from various Mega Man songs in order not
to break the cohesion of the original soundtrack. Esquivel based most of the
sounds on the first two Mega Man games, but had also used sounds from Mega Man
3, 4, and 5. Esquivel also added original compositions within several
songs including two completely original compositions: "Willy Map Theme" and the
beginning of the "Ending" theme. The soundtrack blends popular themes from
both franchises together. The official soundtrack titled Street Fighter X Mega
Man OST was released for free on Esquivel's website on December 18, 2012.
An EP with a total of four tracks titled Street Fighter X Mega Man X-tended Vol.
1 was released on February 8, 2013. anchor
Reception Two days after release, Capcom employee
Christian Svensson commented on the official Capcom website, Capcom-Unity,
that the game has exceeded his personal expectations in terms of downloads, but
no exact numbers have been released. Capcom's Senior Community Manager, Brett
Elston, noted that the amount of downloads during release was enough to
cause significant strain on their servers. By March 3, 2013, the game had
been downloaded one million times. Street Fighter X Mega Man has been met
with mostly mixed to positive reviews. Cheat Code Central gave the game a 4.1
out of 5, praising the nostalgic feel the game has, but criticized the lack of
a save feature. Game Informer gave the game an 8 out of 10, summarizing that
"Street Fighter X Mega Man pales in comparison to the rest of the classic
entries, but it’s still a wonderful test of the waters for newcomers and a
charming experiment for lifelong fans." Inside Gaming Daily gave the game an 8
out of 10, stating, "Though it’s short and strays away a bit from traditional
Mega Man games, Street Fighter X Mega Man is a great play that you honestly
have little reason not to experience." IGN gave the game a 7 out of 10, noting
that "The end result is a fine game that Mega Man fans will enjoy once or twice,
but one without that special something that would allow it to rise to the
greatness Mega Man so regularly reached in its heyday." Destructoid echoed
similar opinions stating, "Street Fighter X Mega Man is not the best or
most polished Mega Man game around, but it's a solid effort by a very dedicated
fan." Game Industry News gave it a 3.5 out of 5 with mixed review stating, "It
combines two of Capcom's greatest games in history into one nostalgic mash up
that is sure to take fans on a trip down memory lane while still feeling fresh.
Unfortunately though, the lack of challenge or the ability to continue
progress after shutting down the game only hinders Street Fighter X Mega Man
from being the perfect jewel it could have been." Edge however gave the game a
5 out of 10, noting "inconsistent level design and limited functionality" as the
game's biggest flaws. References
External links Capcom Global website
Mega Man brand page on Capcom-Unity Official Japanese website