Remember that story about the Mega Man X iOS remake? At the time, it was only confirmed for Japan, but now comes word that it will arrive in the West... today. That's right. You can buy it tonight for $3.99.
But will you want to? Let's watch the video above to see what "enhancements" this port brings.
Hmmm... strong choice of font. Nice cut-to-black screen transitions, too. It's cool how the zoomed-in view makes it so that Vile looks like he's dropping down from space rather than from a flying warship. The music that plays during X and Zero's heart-to-heart is tossed out so that Zero's theme can keep looping. The unnecessary loading that was never there in the SNES game only adds to the anticipation of the battles ahead. And look! You can also buy all the weapons and armor upgrades with real money without having to acquire them the proper way!
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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This looks freaking terrible.
And this is honestly why I can never see the iOS as a legit gaming medium. Maybe for casual time killers, sure. But not for anything truly serious.
Also, now I fear the day when console/PC games start having huge facebook/twitter buttons plastered in the main menu and throughout the game. It's gonna happen and there's nothing you can do to stop the horror.
Capcom has been doing some incredible trolling with Megaman this year. Seriously the things they've done this year, you can't make them up. First they canceled Mega Man Universe. Then they got fans heavily involved in Legends, and then canceled it. They denied him a slot in UMVC 3, and then they released him as a payed alternate skin to zero, and now this.
I won't buy any ios game with in-app purchases for things that can be gotten in the game by actually playing the game, or added into a game that never had them to begin with, like this. I do it out of principal. I despise where the industry is headed. I despise publishers for not thinking things through, and how they are going to be pushing people away, not making new gamers.
I despise the industry when I think where we might be in 10 years. All digital games, no retail copies. Publisher controlled prices that will rarely see price drops since the middle man like EB Games won't be able to control pricing anymore. Completely overpriced games, DLC, the works now that publishers will control pricing.
Short, gutted games with a ton of DLC that will end up costing you double what you pay today in order to have the full game. Online passes that no longer block out multiplayer content only, but also lock out single player content for those few games still at retail. I could go on and on. You know it will happen. Just look at what has been happening over this current generation.
If I had told you during the PS2 era that you would be paying more for shorter games, and being forced to pay $15 for DLC packs if you want the full experience, would you have believed me? If I had told you that publishers were locking out multiplayer and single player content if you rent a game or buy it used, would you have believed me? If I had told you that digital versions of retail games would cost the same, and often MORE than the cost of the retail version, would you have believed me?
Ok, so the visuals are redrawn, but is it me or does the actual animation look worse than what's on the SNES version? Also, there was a cool 3D remake of X on the PSP a few years back. Why not port that?
I just played through Mega Man X the other day and this hurts really bad. Breaking the level into sections kills the flow of the game, cutting off the top of the screen gives a feeling of claustrophobia and seeing how he kept getting cars dropped on his head I have no idea how you could deal with levels like Boomer Kuwanger's that have a lot of vertical elements.
And their is a challenge to do 10 wall jumps in a single level? I'm likely to do over 100 on a single boss fight. Either the challenges are incredibly lame, or wall jumping is much harder in this game which would be the big final nail in this games coffin.
Why is Capcom treating one of their greatest franchises with such irreverence? Did Inafune's departure make way for all this nonsense? This sort of behavior seems akin to the really weird decisions like Tekken X Street Fighter & Street Fighter X Tekken though.
Holy shit ... That menu and that font ... is just so unprofessional looking... Like someone made it in Photoshop ... Not to mention the horrible redrawn version ... This is why I don't play games on IOS devices...
It's harder to add monetization options to a SNES/PSP port...
Megaman X was one of my all time favorite games growing up, and Maverick Hunter X brought me back to a story I knew all too well, and grew up and loved as a kid. This is an open handed slap to the face, but really, did anyone not see that coming from Capcom, especially in this generation?
"This looks freaking terrible.
And this is honestly why I can never see the iOS as a legit gaming medium. Maybe for casual time killers, sure. But not for anything truly serious."
Discounting the entirety of iOS gaming due to some shitty, cash-grab ports (from a company known for making shitty, cash-grab ports) is no better than saying the Wii is worthless because some companies make shovelware for it.
There's plenty of good gaming to be found on any console, you just sometimes have to look a little harder.
I really don't see how they managed to do this. I didn't think it would be that hard to port a single SNES game to an iOS device, but man, did whoever is doing this prove me wrong. @sewerraccoon, that's exactly what I was thinking. The walkers that come out of the bee helicopter have clumsy animations as well as Vile's mech suit. Hell, I don't even care that they re-drew the portraits to reflect the art style later in the X series, they at least could have not failed so hard with the animations.
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Contest:
9:30 PM on 12.20.2011 | 
And this is honestly why I can never see the iOS as a legit gaming medium. Maybe for casual time killers, sure. But not for anything truly serious.
Besides that, the graphics don't look horrendous in motion, but any other criticisms you could come up with would pale in comparison to the controls.
Not okay.
I despise the industry when I think where we might be in 10 years. All digital games, no retail copies. Publisher controlled prices that will rarely see price drops since the middle man like EB Games won't be able to control pricing anymore. Completely overpriced games, DLC, the works now that publishers will control pricing.
Short, gutted games with a ton of DLC that will end up costing you double what you pay today in order to have the full game. Online passes that no longer block out multiplayer content only, but also lock out single player content for those few games still at retail. I could go on and on. You know it will happen. Just look at what has been happening over this current generation.
If I had told you during the PS2 era that you would be paying more for shorter games, and being forced to pay $15 for DLC packs if you want the full experience, would you have believed me? If I had told you that publishers were locking out multiplayer and single player content if you rent a game or buy it used, would you have believed me? If I had told you that digital versions of retail games would cost the same, and often MORE than the cost of the retail version, would you have believed me?
oh wait it's the mobile market
carry on then
One question, did the IOS realy need so many end screens? (sorry people, i can´t find anywhere the name of this).
Mega Man isn't dead, but if things keep going like this, I bet a lot of us will be wishing he was.
And their is a challenge to do 10 wall jumps in a single level? I'm likely to do over 100 on a single boss fight. Either the challenges are incredibly lame, or wall jumping is much harder in this game which would be the big final nail in this games coffin.
Beat it.
Megaman X is still a fucking shitty game.
Where's Battle Network online, Capcom?
It's harder to add monetization options to a SNES/PSP port...
Megaman X was one of my all time favorite games growing up, and Maverick Hunter X brought me back to a story I knew all too well, and grew up and loved as a kid. This is an open handed slap to the face, but really, did anyone not see that coming from Capcom, especially in this generation?
*Yawn*
Yup that was it, your troll Epic, was not met.
"This looks freaking terrible.
And this is honestly why I can never see the iOS as a legit gaming medium. Maybe for casual time killers, sure. But not for anything truly serious."
Discounting the entirety of iOS gaming due to some shitty, cash-grab ports (from a company known for making shitty, cash-grab ports) is no better than saying the Wii is worthless because some companies make shovelware for it.
There's plenty of good gaming to be found on any console, you just sometimes have to look a little harder.
Fucking hilarious.
Well done Crapcom, well done. You never cease to amaze me.
Also, Epic is part of the cancer.