Capcom Answers Your Questions About Street Fighter X Mega Man

LanceHeart

January 3, 2013

Okay, so this one is a little late in coming.
When Capcom revealed the trailer for Street Fighter X Mega Man, we noticed there were a lot of questions and a lot of confusion surrounding the anniversary release. To help alleviate this, we went around and gathered as many of the most frequently-asked and burning inquiries we could find about the game, and brought them before Capcom in the hopes of delivering to you the ultimate Street Fighter X Mega Man FAQ.

The only problem? Well, the game was released right as we were headed into the heavy holiday vacation season, and things got sidetracked– that is, until now. Thanks to Senior Community Manager Brett “Brelston” Elston, we have answers to 16 down-right fierce questions that the community (these all came from you guys around the web; we’re just along for the ride this time) have posed.

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1) Is this really an official Capcom product, or just a fan game?

BE: It’s true that Zong Hui began work on this game years ago as a passion project. But due to schoolwork and other obligations, it took years to even get a few bosses done, so when he approached Christian at EVO this year, our partnership made timely completion of the project possible. Zong Hui and his small team collaborated with us at Capcom USA, making this a true merging of fan game and official title. It’s not the first time the Mega Man series has gone outside Capcom as well; Inti Creates largely handled MM9 and 10, as well as the entire Zero/ZX series. This is just another partnership with a team – just so happens they’re “civilians,” haha.

2) Did Capcom have anything to do with this besides buying it?

BE: As mentioned elsewhere, we provided financial assistance, as well as ongoing feedback regarding bosses, gameplay and other issues. Given the tight dev window, we know there are a few rough edges left, even with a dozen people looking at this. To that end, we can say we’re working on a V2 that will release soon and hopefully address some of those known issues. It’s not adding content, but we’ve been reading responses and can “tighten up” a few things before the end of the year.

3) Another NES-style game? Will Capcom ever move away from this and show some effort?

BE: I’d object to the word “effort,” but the point is taken – we’ve done the 8-bit approach three times now, and even as someone with NES Mega Man coursing though his veins I’m eager to see something fresh. That gets into the whole “What’s Next?” discussion that Christian has mentioned before… we’re constantly talking about this brand and its future. Can’t say what the future is, but know there IS a future.

4) Is this really how you plan to end Mega Man‘s 25th anniversary?

BE: Like we’ve said, this is the start. Japan led up to December, while in the US we had so much Street Fighter 25^th Anniversary activity we had to focus on that. With that concluded (spectacularly, if I may toot our Grand Finals horn for a moment), we can kick off MM25 with SFxMM, the Avatar outfits, the 3DS ports and so on, and then come back in 2013 with more fun stuff. We’re not done.

5) Why is it “Street Fighter X Mega Man?” Wasn’t it originally “Mega Man X Street Fighter” before you got a hold of it? You’re just trying to push more Street Fighter on us over Mega Man!

BE: There’s no one major reason for the change, but rather a few small things that added up. One, we liked the idea of beginning with SF leading into MM, as that’s how the anniversaries play out. Also, ending with “Mega Man” feels like it puts more emphasis on him, as it’s the last thing you say when discussing the (literal) title.

6) Is this game canon to the Mega Man series? / Is this the official explanation for Dr. Light’s inclusion of the Hadouken & Shoryuken upgrades for X?

BE: Not canon, not explaining the MMX Street Fighter moves (which were in the same fun spirit as SFxMM).

7) Mega Man must obey the First Law of Robotics! So why can he just go around shooting people? / Is Mega Man fighting SF robots? I don’t want to kill Chun Li!

BE: Again, it’s not meant to sit and think about the “why,” it’s just a fun token, a special present for fans as we head into MM25. But for the sake of argument, the ending of Mega Man 7 sure blurs the line as to how far Mega Man can be pushed before harming a human 😛

8) Can I use a controller instead of my keyboard?

BE: Of course, though trying to use virtual controllers can introduce problems. We’ve heard some reports of issues with certain controllers, and we hope to address some of that with the upcoming V2 of SFxMM, which is set to come out later this month. It’s not adding content, but should address a handful of performance issues.

9) Why is this PC-only? Why aren’t you releasing it for Mac, Steam, XBLA, etc.?

BE: PC is the easiest way to deliver a free game. Open platforms are made for this. Bringing it elsewhere requires all sorts of approvals, submissions and so on, which affect price and timing. Furthermore, once it’s out for free, how many would buy the same game on a console when it’s identical? Could we add more stuff and charge for a different take on SFxMM? Possibly, but there are no plans at this time.

10) Is this all we’re getting for Mega Man‘s 25th anniversary? Do you expect this to “make things right?”

BE: There’s no denying the hard year Mega Man fans have had. As a lifelong fan myself, I feel it too, but do hope SFxMM scratches the itch. It’s not meant to be the best Mega Man game of all time, to make everything completely cool with the community, but rather a chance to elevate a fan effort in celebration of both franchises turning 25. I believe it succeeds on that front, and that Zong Hui made a super fun (to play and to see) product.

11) Will Capcom be doing this again with other fan games, like that Mega Man 25th anniversary game or “Mega Man X Corrupted”?

BE: As Christian’s said before, SFxMM was a very organic process, and an extremely special case. It does open the door to some interesting conversations, but right now there are no further, similar plans.

12) You said that how many times the game is downloaded could affect the direction of the franchise; can you explain how? What if I want to support Mega Man/a particular MM series, but don’t want more 8-bit Mega Man? And you’re not going to just take this as a show of support for Street Fighter and ignore Mega Man instead, are you?

BE: The traffic to Capcom Unity on 12/17 was insane. Broke the site. That’s a pretty clear sign of interest in the character and brand. But the many different versions of Mega Man get back to that “What’s Next?” question; there were so many SKUs coming out rapid-fire, doing different things and hitting a similar (but slightly different) audience that it’s extremely hard to make a modern Mega Man plan that addresses everything and everyone. The 8-bit gimmick is nice, and that sprite is iconic and never going away, but I’d also speculate that’s not all we want to do in the future.

13) Will the special moves be performed like Street Fighter moves (i.e. D, DF, F+Attack for Hadouken)?

BE: The boss weapons are triggered like normal MM weapons, but there’s one SF-style move that people have discovered…

14) Does this mean we can get a Street Fighter x Mega Man crossover comic from Archie?

BE: Considering Sonic and Mega Man are meeting in 2013, surely Ryu meeting Mega Man could happen too. But nothing on the Archie front at the moment, that I’m aware of.