Fans and Pros Collaborate to Bring Back Legends 3 in 8-Bit

The Rockman DASH 3 Reboot Team, in conjunction with Get Me Off The Moon, made this surprise announcement yesterday at the Mega Rock Fan Festival. It is a fan game version of the Mega Man Legends 3 Prototype Version done in classic Mega Man style, with NES graphics. While it is fan made, however, it will have some professional assistance. Artist Hideki Ishikawa, one of the artists and character designers for the Legends games, will create the box design, and Makoto Tomozawa, the musician for Mega Man Legends, will contribute a couple songs.

The game is still in development, and the team is hoping to raise some money to help push things along. Right now the desired goal is $1,000. People who donate $50 or more will receive a physical copy of the game upon its completion (which is tentatively set as August, depending how things go) and get your name in the credits. Check out GMOTM’s post for donation details.

Nevertheless, a playable demo is planned to be released in one to two weeks, allowing you to try the game out yourselves. As I was fortunate enough to be present at the Mega Rock Fan Festival, I can give a brief explanation to what I saw after the break.

As you can see from the video, the game stars Barrett. While it may be based on classic Mega Man, Barrett actually has a number of moves. He can sprint forward, pull himself up over ledges and roll through enemies. He can also fire a variety of weapons, such as his standard buster, a spark-like energy ball and a powerful blast. Additionally the game has lock-on, letting him shoot at enemies from anywhere (similar to X7).

Barrett can also do his volcano kick to fly at enemies, and he can come in close and uppercut them, which will launch enemies into the air. After launching them, they can be targeted to chain on more attacks.

This all may make Barrett sound overpowered, but the truth is the enemies are pretty ferocious. Even the simple Horocco can launch a volley of bombs and do its spin attack, which makes it invulnerable. The enemies take a lot of hits, too. The demo featured a flat, arena-type field in the city where the object was to defeat 50 Reaverbots. It was not uncommon to have four on you at a time, so do expect some challenge.