REVIEW: Street Fighter X Mega Man

It's time to charge up those Mega Busters and fire up those Hadokens as Street Fighter X Mega Man has arrived. Is this labor of love worth the hype? It's time to find out whether or not if this was worth Capcom renewing interest in the Blue Bomber.

If you haven't received your FREE copy go here: http://www.capcom-unity.com/mega_man

For those interested, the original soundtrack is available for download FREE as well: http://rivalrivalrival.bandcamp.com/album/street-fighter-x-mega-man-ost

Overview:

When you first load up the game, long time Mega Man fans will be shocked to look at the Stage Select screen replaced with the faces of several familiar faces from the Street Fighter series instead of the Robot Masters and Mavericks of previous iterations.

Each Street Fighter has a unique stage tailored to that fighter's own stage that they call home in the Street Fighter series, but in this case, it's with a Mega Man flavored twist on them.

Upon the defeat of each Street Fighter, Mega Man learns one of their special attacks and adapts it into a weapon of his own in typical Mega Man fashion. Some of these weapons are amazingly cool to use, while others just fall flat from the lack of creativity and use outside of using them on the Street Fighter(s) that is weak to that said weapon.

The boss battles are a pleasant treat outside of the norm, as each of the Street Fighters have a Super Meter that fills as they execute attacks and take damage. Once filled to capacity, they can unleash their Super Moves, which are equivalent to their Super Arts/Ultra Moves in the Street Fighter series. These attacks do devastating damage if they come in contact with the Blue Bomber.

Feel free to shoot those spinning orbs above
your head for a much needed gift.

After defeating the 8 Street Fighters, you are dragged down a trip down memory lane as Shadowloo's best aim to challenge you next. First up is Balrog (Boxer), followed by Vega (Claw), and last but not least, the evil M.Bison (Dictator) himself.

The Verdict:

I love the fact that this new Mega Man title came to the fans free of charge, but there's a few issues I have with in this game. 

The lack of Save/Password Option - Hitting the Esc button on your keyboard exits the game completely and upon reload it starts you all the way back at the beginning. This could prove frustrating for players who are trying to minimizing the window or looking to take a break. Without save option, you are forced to finish the game all in one sitting. Capcom has stated in an interview that they are looking to do an update that remedies this problem.

Not enough Mega Man series representation - I understand that this is a mash-up between series, but Street Fighter's cast got more love in this game than Mega Man's cast of lovable characters. Rush had a VERY brief appearance at the beginning of Rose's stage and afterwards we don't get any Rush power-up or vehicles to use at our disposal. The lack of Beat is sad too. His only appearance is on the World Map when you challenge the members of Shadowloo at the game's finale. Outside of that, there's no appearances from Dr. Light, Dr. Wily, Protoman, Roll, Auto, or even Eddy (Flip-Top).

Vega, I HATE you so damn much in this game...

The Robot Masters (Street Fighters) have completely random patterns - That was the main part of your mastery of previous Mega Man titles. Once you memorized that Robot Master's pattern, there was no way to that he could catch you off-guard. Here, each of the Street Fighters have no sense of logic to their actions as if they are trying to random you out in an actual match from Street Fighter. Sure, some of them are less random than others, but it's going to prove to be rather annoying for those skilled Mega Man players who seek to attempt a no-hit run. 

The game is VERY short - The first attempt through the game may take a few hours, but after encountering each of the stages' hazards a few times, players will be able to breeze through the game in roughly an hour or less. 

At the end of the day, this is still a Mega Man game. It has the Blue Bomber's charm - characters with personality, challenging platforming, and addictive gameplay. It made me rage at times, but laugh and smile even more at the Street Fighter references and cameos. I won't deny that I had a blast playing it.

I give this an 8 out of 10.