Happy Birthday, Mega Man! Plus Site News

After letting Heat Man have his time with his departure, now seemed like the right time to touch on a few things here.

Of course, the big thing is that today marks the 26th anniversary of Mega Man. Sadly, there isn’t much going on unless you’re on the Japanese side of things, particularly with regards to Rockman Xover, and you can read all about that stuff over at Protodude’s Rockman Corner.

Over here, we aren’t without anything, though. Specifically, there is a two-day sale currently being held on the Nintendo eShop through December 18th in which you can purchase Mega Man X on Wii U and Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge for $2 each. That is, if you’re in the United States; despite a nice concentration of Canadian Blue Bomber fans north of the border, we can apparently just go sit in the corner unless we want to pay full price. Thanks, whoever made that call!

That said, I don’t want this to be a big, negative post, so I’ll just say that hopefully this week will see the eShop updated with some of the six Game Boy Mega Man games we were told (Edit: Correction, “thought”– my apologies) would be released last year (“last year” being the 25th anniversary, rather than simply 2013, for the record). And we would be remiss if we didn’t mention that the Mega Man Board Game from Jasco Games met its Kickstarter goal and is now going for stretch goals. Of course, that’s all something to look forward to more in the future.

Oh, and of course, there’s Super Smash Bros... sometime.

Sad as it is to say, that’s all there really is on that front. With that and Heat’s departure in mind, plus the general/relative lack of updates on The Mega Man Network, you might be wondering what’s going on around here.

First, I’d just like to say that we aren’t going anywhere. The staff isn’t anything like what it once was– far from it, truth be told, as only Tabby, Lanceheart, and myself remain– but as long as I can help it, The Mega Man Network will live on. In addition, we still have part-time contributors such as Erico, James, and BluesDriveBuster to continue providing content.

Nonetheless, everything comes down to a matter of time, and that is just something we find ourselves lacking in the same quantity we used to. Each of us have our own lives outside of The Mega Man Network, just as Heat Man does, and other obligations are taking more of that time.

What this ultimately means, at least for the time being, is that we’re still covering Mega Man news (and we’ll cover Mighty No. 9 more, when that becomes more of a thing to cover). Specifically, we’re trying to keep on top of the more official happenings, but we might not be able to cover as much of the fan scene as we used to, much as we’d like to do so.

I am looking at different options to keep things up around here, though, one of which being a way to accept more user-created content. That is to say, stuff written and submitted by you guys. There would be a template of sorts involved, and I’d handle editing on the posts, but it might create a more involved feeling for some of you.

How to solicit these pieces, though? That is something I’m still working on and looking at, among other things. I have an idea, rudimentary as it may be, but we’ll see where it goes. Of course, it would help knowing if there is an interest in taking part in this approach, too (so if you are, leave a comment below).

For the artists out there, we’re working on trying to get Weekly Gift Art back into the swing of things. In addition, we’re looking at getting a new art contest going, but that largely depends on whether or not a potential partner for the contest is interested in contributing.

This is pretty much where things currently sit for us. Incidentally, while we aren’t able to dedicate as much time to full, proper posts here, I do remain rather active over on The Mega Man Network’s Rock Tumblr. It’s kind of quick ‘n dirty, but it does the job of providing a nice bit of Blue Bomber-related content each day, including fan art, classic images such as ads and other things, and other odds and ends, like updates on Archie Comics sales and things going on with Jasco Games, plus some choice bits from other Mega Man-related Tumblrs.

To keep up with all that fun, you can Follow on Tumblr, or just keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter, as links to every new post from both the main site here and the Tumblr go to those sites as well.

We here at TMMN know as well as anyone that it’s been rough as of late and that the 25th anniversary fell well beneath a lot of fans’ expectations, but if you’re reading this, we thank you for sticking with us. While there may not be much to look forward to on the game front, it isn’t all bad, as we’re getting some of the best figures the franchise has ever seen, there is finally enjoying a great comic book presence, and there are other things still to come. With any luck, it only gets better from here!

LanceHeart