Ripot’s Round-Up – 12/17/17 – Anniversary Edition

Man, the last couple of months have not gone as planned.

Throughout November, I knew I was going to be slammed with work that would keep me off my normal schedule here. Between that and starting to feel a bit of burnout besides, my plan was to write up a bunch of stuff ahead of time and keep it in queue to run on a regular schedule throughout the month. If you look back at the posting schedule for November, that clearly did not happen.

Part of the idea was to take that bit of time off and hopefully be recharged in time for Mega Man‘s 30th anniversary this month — I certainly didn’t expect the festivities to take place almost a full two weeks beforehand, however!

Suffice to say, there’s plenty of excitement in the air as we celebrate 30 years of Blue Bomber goodness going into 2018, which should provide plenty to talk about over the course of the year: We’ve got both Mega Man Legacy Collection releases coming to the Nintendo Switch, all eight numbered Mega Man X games coming to every major platform in some form or fashion, and to top it all off, the first new Mega Man game in seven years arriving at the end of the year!

And that’s just the stuff we know about! Throw in the possibility of some further news or announcement at E3 in June, or at some other part of the year, plus the upcoming Mega Man cartoon (which will no longer be our sole new source of material, which I’m sure is a comfort to some), and whatever may yet still happen with Fox’s Mega Man movie, and 2018 is looking like a potential banner year for the franchise!

But as everyone was wondering what Capcom’s next active move would be with the franchise, it was the fans who would keep it alive and fresh in people’s minds over the course of the last seven years. And so it is with that in mind that I am dedicating this special anniversary edition of Ripot’s Round-Up to you, the fans of Mega Man, who have kept the Blue Bomber’s spirit alive as we prepare to look forward to what 2018 may bring!

Oh, and in case you were wondering? Part of that work I’ve been caught up doing includes a pair of Mega Man-related reviews for the upcoming sixth issue of Mega Visions magazine, so please keep an eye out for that!

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Starting things off, we have an upload you might find a bit familiar. James “Angry Video Game Nerd” Rolfe of Cinemassacre has combined his reading of the Worlds of Power: Mega Man 2 novelization into a single hour and sixteen minute video for your viewing pleasure:

Not knowing any better or literally having anything else to go on at the time, I thought this book was official canon for the longest time, and treated it as such. Yeah, that led to some confusion later. I still have my copy, which also helped me to win an art contest way back in elementary school.

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One of the highlights of 2017 was the release of “Mega Maker,” and YouTuber Dookieshed opted to take a look at some of the levels fans created. Be warned of some Not Safe For Work language within:

Want more? You’re in luck!

I’ve yet to play this, but now that I finally have a shiny new Xbox One Design Lab controller to use, I should really see about changing that.

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Something I’d hoped to include as a part of the celebration of Mega Man X4‘s 20th anniversary earlier this year was the progress akiTONE has been making with an English redubbing of the game. Here’s a sampler which features the voices added for the different bosses:

As a bonus, here’s a little ad-libbing of X’s ending the crew put together:

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PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has been the source of a lot of buzz this year, but did you ever wonder what the concept would look like if other publishers were doing it? USgamer did, and one of those concepts just so happens to involve Mega Man Battle Network!

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Terminator 2: Judgment Day is cool. Mega Man 2 is cool. So what happens if you bring the sounds of the latter into the former? This:

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In a rare update from E-can Factory, we’ve got the background music and voices from a Japanese Rockman kiddie ride captured for posterity by Popo-Star San!

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Death Battle’s look at the Brazilian New Adventures of Mega Man comic book blew up the comments section earlier this year, and I’d hoped to include the following alongside my own thoughts on the series, but that got seriously sidetracked. While I hope to get around to that part at some point, here is a video from Acido Cinza about the book’s creation:

“The video basically outlines what went on – as far as we know – on the creative side of things for the (infamous) Brazilian comic, down to how much experience the guys doing the comic had with the franchise, to how much were they paid to do it, and a comic that never materialized using the same talent that – odds are – would’ve fared a little better.”

Thanks to Rodrigo S for passing this along!

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Renowned Mega Man lover and YouTuber The Completionist has looked at games from the Classic and X series before, but now he takes his first steps into Mega Man Battle Network:

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Curious about the Mega Man-esque game 20XX? So was Jim Sterling, and you can see what he thinks of it as he gives it a Not Safe For Work go right here:

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You might recall that following the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3, Capcom would go on to release a spin-off for another series closely tied to Keiji Inafune, that being E.X. Troopers from Lost Planet. What’s more, some have noted that it featured some elements which looked as though it had been lifted from the cancelled title. Did You Know Gaming’s “Region Locked” show takes a closer look at the resulting Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation 3 game:

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LEGO is awesome, and Mega Man is awesome, but what if they were brought together? That’s something that a fan going by the name “Brick Belt” would like to see, and you can find their video pitch right here while showing your support at this link.

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A fan animation project titled “Mega Man X: Corrupted Promise” is underway and looking for artists. You can check out the opening here, the pilot here, and the full Facebook page here.

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You may know the name “Lucas Gilbertson” as the voice of Zero and occasionally drunk Let’s Player of Mega Man X8, but have you ever wondered who he really is? If so, you’re in luck, as he’s made a video to explain just that:

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From the mind of Adam Arnali comes an 8-bit styled animated series which takes place between the events of the fan game “Mega Man Unlimited” and the Mega Man X series titled “Glitch Boy”. Be forewarned of Not Safe For Work language:

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Via a tip from Rockmace on Facebook, we have a video that’s a couple of years old and doesn’t seem to still be in production, but if you’ve wondered how a 3D Mega Man Classic game might look, then take a peek at “Mega Man Epicness”:

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Curious about how to improve the visuals on the PC version of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite? Then check out this video.

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MegaMan Volnutt may still be stuck on the moon, but thanks to WWE 2K18 and Handlebar-Orion X, he’s been given a reprieve and put in the ring.

Check out more of him alongside a Create-a-Wrestler of Roll Caskett in the Capcom Unity thread here.

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If you’re into Jiu Jitsu and want to show off your true blue colors, this limited edition gi may be just for you. Thanks to HotBloodedMachine for the tip!

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If you’re into RPG Maker games and the wait for a another Mega Man X RPG has been too great for you, then you might want to give Maddrex77’s “Mega Man X: Mavericks” a look. Thanks to Jacob for the tip!

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From Gundam to The Legend of Zelda, Fire Emblem, and Dragon Quest, there has been no shortage of licensed tie-ins to Tecmo Koei’s Warriors series. By way of GeminiSparkSP, here’s Josh Scorcher’s Top 10 list of candidates ripe for the picking, and of course Mega Man makes the list — but at what position, and how? Watch to find out!

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A bit over a year ago, I spoke of a Mega Man-esque game — or, more specifically, a Mega Man Battle Network-esque game called “Shanghai.EXE: Genso Network.” For those interested, Atom tells me there has been an update to the game, but due to the language barrier, I don’t have anything more than that at this time.

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Ooh, I wish I’d known about this sooner (though the way things have been, that might not have made a difference). This weekend was TeamBN’s Winter Festival 2017 marathon, and it’s still running through the early hours tomorrow if you want to try to catch some of it. You can find the full schedule here. Thanks for the tip, Tterraj42!

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And that’s everything for now! Of course, there are a few more recent items I’ve held back that I hope to get out in the coming days, so I hope you’ll look forward to that.

Happy 30th Anniversary to you, Mega Man, and to all the great fans who have helped keep hope alive! Here’s to 30 more!