TMMN Archive: TGS 2006: CAPCOM® INTRODUCES A “WAVE” NEW WORLD WITH MEGA MAN STAR FORCE™ FOR THE NINTENDO DS™

CAPCOM® INTRODUCES A “WAVE” NEW WORLD WITH
MEGA MAN STAR FORCE™ FOR THE NINTENDO DS™

-Blue Bomber Celebrates 20th Anniversary with a New Series Debuting in Three Versions-

TOKYO – Sept. 22, 2006 — Capcom® today announced Mega Man Star Force™ for the Nintendo DS™, the first game in a new Mega Man series making its debut in three versions – Pegasus, Leo and Dragon. Mega Man Star Force introduces all new characters and a fresh storyline with interspatial themes of astronomy and electric wave signals. Developed by the team behind the popular Mega Man Battle Network series, the game marks the start of a new era for Mega Man, which celebrates his 20th anniversary next year. The first playable demo of the game will be available in the Kids Corner at Tokyo Game Show 2006. Capcom plans to release Mega Man Star Force in fall 2007.

The year is 22XX. Viruses and cyber crime have been eliminated from the net and technology has advanced to an unprecedented level. The world of tomorrow is one where people use mobile computers called “Trancers” and are able to change various navigation systems into electromagnetic waves (EM waves). These EM waves are known as the Wave Road. The Wave Road exists in the real world, however it is only visible to those from the mysterious planet FM and the game’s hero who, through a twist of fate, transforms into EM waves himself.

Mega Man Star Force introduces a new lead character, a boy named Subaru Hoshikawa, whose astronaut father has disappeared after a mysterious incident at the satellite station. Fond memories of spending time with his father have inspired Subaru’s interests in the stars and what lies beyond. One day, Subaru heads to the observation deck and puts on a pair of “visualizer” glasses that had belonged to his father. These allow the wearer to see all the electric connections that exist between spaces. When he puts on these special goggles, a specific wave is triggered, summoning the presence of a mysterious alien life form named Warlock who had escaped from the planet FM. Dangerous creatures from that planet have come to attack Earth, so they must join together in order to defeat these menacing forces. Combining with Warlock enables Subaru to transform into Mega Man and enter the Wave Road.

Mega Man Star Force includes the following features:
• Two coexisting worlds – players can navigate the real world as Subaru and transform into Mega Man to travel across Wave Road
• Three stellar versions call upon the power of the elements to offer distinct advantages
o Pegasus – based on the water element, Ice Pegasus can instantly freeze an opponent with its special Ice Slash
o Leo – turning up the heat, Fire Leo uses a special Flame Burner attack that can incinerate enemies in its path
o Dragon – the ferocious Green Dragon draws upon the power of wood with a Wood Shot move that fires a cluster of razor sharp leaves to slash enemies to bits
o Star Force Big Bang – under special conditions, each form can unleash a devastating super move that draws upon their respective element
• Elemental power chain
o All battle cards have one of five elemental characteristics: fire, water, wood, electricity or neutral
o Each star force’s elemental attribute is stronger than one and weaker than another; double damage is dealt against a weaker element while double damage is received from a stronger element
o Wood bashes electricity, electricity shocks water, water puts out fire, and fire burns wood
• New battle system
o View the action from behind MegaMan in a new third person perspective
o Cyber “wave battles” now take place in a three by five grid with no boundaries between the player and the enemies
• Dynamic Brother Band system – add up to 6 friends that also have the game in order to gain powerful advantages in battle and help power up each other’s abilities
o Favorite cards – each player has 6 registered favorite cards which are part of his profile; by using a friend’s Brother force card during battle, one of these 6 favorites is picked at random for use during the battle
o Link ability – these can offer a boost in HP, higher attack level and more
o As a player levels up and the more Brothers they have, the link ability and other Brother card data get boosted as well
o Best Combo – combineBattle Cards to unleash consecutive attacks; players can also use a Brother’s Best Combo as well
o Connecting with others that have the same cards in their folders can boost the power of those cards for a player
o Brothers are encouraged to link up frequently to ensure they have the latest and greatest data
o By default you can transform into the version of Mega Man related to the version of the game you have; however, if you have a Brother with a different version of the game, you can transform into that Mega Man as well
• Each player has a personal page where they can edit their profile, organize their folders and more
• Fight against updated versions of familiar foes as well as exciting never before seen enemies

Capcom is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment. The company develops its products for all popular game systems, PC and wireless devices. Founded in 1983, the company has created world renowned franchises including Resident Evil, StreetFighter, Mega Man, Devil May Cry, Onimusha and the newly released Dead Rising. Headquartered in Osaka, Japan, the company maintains operations in the U.S., United Kingdom, Germany, Tokyo and Hong Kong. More information about Capcom and its products can be found on the company’s web site at www.capcom.com.

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Capcom, Mega Man, Resident Evil, Onimusha, Devil May Cry and Dead Rising are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Capcom Co., Ltd., in the U.S. or other countries. Street Fighter isa registered trademark of Capcom U.S.A., Inc. Nintendo, GameCube, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS are trademarks of Nintendo. All rights reserved. All other marks are the property of their respective holders.

Assets

First twelve screenshots (posted on December 1st, 2006 without an accompanying press release)

Wow! As you can see, when they first revealed the game in English, they clearly hadn’t quite settled on the entire localization yet. How many differences can you spot?

In addition, courtesy of XenoGuard on YouTube, here’s the TGS trailer for the game:

You might also note the discrepancy between the trailer stating the games would be released in Winter 2006 and the press release stating Fall 2007.

This marks just the beginning! As we get closer to the release of Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection, I am going to try to have more of these going up for each game in the series!

Thanks for reading! I have a lot of Mega Man and related press releases, but not everything, so if you think you can help, feel free to drop me a line at the.mega.man.network (at) gmail.com, and we can compare notes! If I don’t have it and you’ll be so kind as to share, I’ll give you full credit when it’s posted!

And in case you haven’t heard, re-upping our hosting for the next few years took a big bite out of our bank account, so if you like what we’re doing here, would like to see us expand our breadth of content (such as with projects like this post), and can kick in a few bucks to our Patreon or buy us an E Tank on Ko-fi, we’d greatly appreciate it!

LBD "Nytetrayn"

David Oxford, or “LBD ‘Nytetrayn’,” as he is sometimes also known, is a freelance writer of many varied interests who resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

For a full list of places to find him online, click here.