MAGFest is the gift that keeps on giving, apparently. Why wasn't I there? Because reasons.
So there's this band, Bit Brigade, whose members I will now consider my close, personal friends for life despite never having met them, and they performed the Mega Man 2 soundtrack on stage. Not that special, you may say. Everybody and their dogs play Mega Man 2 music, you may say. Yes, but do those other guys perform in sync with a video of a person playing the actual game live? I didn't think so!
When Mega Man enters Flash Man's domain, the Flash Man theme is performed. When Mega Man gets a weapon, the "weapon get" theme is performed. And this isn't some half-assed run either, but a glitch-less speedrun with very few mistakes. It's damned impressive, if marred ever so slightly by the fact that the game is being played on easy mode. Pssssh!
Forty-four minutes of nonstop action, guys! All is forgiven! That payer performs with the confidence of a seasoned porn vet! A room full of glowing eyes ain't gonna break his stride!
Tony Ponce (aka megaStryke) is a culturally confused, Canadian-born Puerto Rican who grew up in Japan and South Florida ... yet can only speak English. He specializes in writing features and maintaining an immaculate goatee. Likes: Any and all things related to Mega Man, Contra, Castlevania, 2D, PB&J sandwiches, applesauce, and candy corn.
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@pedrovay2003 - When you're doing a speedrun, which he was, you use every damn thing you can that makes things go faster. Which, in MM2, pretty much means "spam Metal Blade." Why did they make that do such insane damage to everything, anyways?
Mega Man 2 is way WAY easier than Mega Man 9, -especially- on Easy mode. The only real difficulty is in the later Wily Stages. The crap in Heat Man's stage and in Quick Man's stage is annoying, but you quickly figure it out.
"According to Bit Brigade's site, they HAVE done this with Ninja Gaiden.
Incredible. You know, I've beaten Ninja Gaiden with only ONE death before. It took me years of grueling training, but I think I finally mastered it. Still, I doubt I could perform as part of a concert.... I mean, I beat Mega Man 2 on my iPhone, but NG is just something different.
@killias 2, this is for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHOQZ4-uYvU
And you guys have to understand, we do this thing in a strictly scheduled concert environment. Noah is basically required to get through the game absolutely as FAST as possible, that's the priority. Otherwise, it would take too long to beat for us to get on decent bills like the overall awesomeness that was all of MAGFest X.
-Jace, BB guitar stage right
@ScurvySee, no, i don't use a turbo controller. i think, like most people who visit destructoid, my thumbs have been training for this my whole life. i don't use any cheats when i play the games, and i try to use as little health and weapon power ups as possible.
@killias2, we have done ninja gaiden, contra, and castlevania 3. we definitely have more games in the works that we are thinking of, such as marble madness, punch out, the original zelda, super mario bros. 2 and maybe castlevania 1 as well. these performances take time and practice to put together though. glad you guys enjoyed the video, because it is truly fun performing for everyone.
-Noah, the gamer who apparently isn't man enough play the game on hard.
I love this kind of stuff! I haven't watched the video yet but it sounds phenomenal. I Fight Dragons did something similar recently when I saw them in concert -- Brian and Bill played Contra on their two enormous TVs while the rest of the band played the background music. They died at the first boss, but it was still a badass thing to behold. I can only imagine seeing the entirety of MM2.
@Retrofraction
yeah, i've died more than once during a live performance. while most of these games are very structured, there are random aspects, and sometimes if i don't time and jump right or i miscalculate a projectile i can easily get knocked into a pit and die. now as far as i remember i've never died from losing health, only from falling to my death. and i have definitely never gotten a game over during a show, that would make me sad indeed.
fun fact: i was behind the drummer in line to buy skyrim at the midnight release shindig. too bad i was too much of a socially awkward penguin to tell him how awesome he is.
these guys need to get their sweet tits back to athens and put on a show, be it bit brigade, contraband, megaband, ninjaband, castlebandia, cinemechanica, *powers, or whatever other musical conglomeration they've come up with.
Was just going to take a quick look at this yesterday (and save the full watch for later) but got completely hypnotized by the awesome and stayed for the duration. One of the coolest things ever, hats off to both band and player!
Can't really complain about not playing on hard; on stage with all the lights (and I couldn't tell if you were using ear plugs or earbuds, I suck at games without proper sound) is like the epitome of a distracting game environment haha. And the pressure! You are definitely a bad enough dude to rescue the president, Noah!
Would be amazing to be there but kind of unlikely considering how far away it is. Many thanks to whoever filmed this; perhaps there is more footage out there so we can see the other half of the band too (though the energy of the main two we could see was amazing! :D).
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Contest:
8:00 PM on 01.11.2012 | 
Oh, and for the record -- Real men play this game without using the Metal Blade as a crutch. Yeah, I said it.
@pedrovay2003 - When you're doing a speedrun, which he was, you use every damn thing you can that makes things go faster. Which, in MM2, pretty much means "spam Metal Blade." Why did they make that do such insane damage to everything, anyways?
Awesome in any case. I can't believe I watched so much of it, all things considered.
According to Bit Brigade's site, they HAVE done this with Ninja Gaiden.
Incredible. You know, I've beaten Ninja Gaiden with only ONE death before. It took me years of grueling training, but I think I finally mastered it. Still, I doubt I could perform as part of a concert.... I mean, I beat Mega Man 2 on my iPhone, but NG is just something different.
It amuses me greatly that you refer to her as the splashwoman. :D Yeah, MM9 is hard. I got stuck in the early part of Wily's castle and gave up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHOQZ4-uYvU
And you guys have to understand, we do this thing in a strictly scheduled concert environment. Noah is basically required to get through the game absolutely as FAST as possible, that's the priority. Otherwise, it would take too long to beat for us to get on decent bills like the overall awesomeness that was all of MAGFest X.
-Jace, BB guitar stage right
@killias2, we have done ninja gaiden, contra, and castlevania 3. we definitely have more games in the works that we are thinking of, such as marble madness, punch out, the original zelda, super mario bros. 2 and maybe castlevania 1 as well. these performances take time and practice to put together though. glad you guys enjoyed the video, because it is truly fun performing for everyone.
-Noah, the gamer who apparently isn't man enough play the game on hard.
Dude that is the normal controler the camera goes on it many times...
@gannondork
All of these night of me playing in my basement alone with my NES and I could have been doing it with a rock band... hats off to you man!
Though I do have a question. Have you ever died in a live performance?
yeah, i've died more than once during a live performance. while most of these games are very structured, there are random aspects, and sometimes if i don't time and jump right or i miscalculate a projectile i can easily get knocked into a pit and die. now as far as i remember i've never died from losing health, only from falling to my death. and i have definitely never gotten a game over during a show, that would make me sad indeed.
fun fact: i was behind the drummer in line to buy skyrim at the midnight release shindig. too bad i was too much of a socially awkward penguin to tell him how awesome he is.
these guys need to get their sweet tits back to athens and put on a show, be it bit brigade, contraband, megaband, ninjaband, castlebandia, cinemechanica, *powers, or whatever other musical conglomeration they've come up with.
Can't really complain about not playing on hard; on stage with all the lights (and I couldn't tell if you were using ear plugs or earbuds, I suck at games without proper sound) is like the epitome of a distracting game environment haha. And the pressure! You are definitely a bad enough dude to rescue the president, Noah!
Would be amazing to be there but kind of unlikely considering how far away it is. Many thanks to whoever filmed this; perhaps there is more footage out there so we can see the other half of the band too (though the energy of the main two we could see was amazing! :D).