After Mega Man went back to his 8-bit roots with Mega Man 9, more than a number of fans had hoped that Capcom would pump out an SNES-styled Mega Man X9 in turn. That didn’t happen, and considering the Blue Bomber’s current “situation,” I doubt that will ever happen. Thankfully, JKB Games’ Mega Man X: Corrupted looks to carry on the torch.
I don’t think we’ve posted this on Dtoid before, but chances are you might have heard of this project. Corrupted is a Flash game that has been in production since 2007. It is modeled after the SNES era of X titles, and it contains the requisite eight Maverick bosses, but it doesn’t follow the standard series gameplay template. See, Corrupted is a Metroidvania, and though the ZX games on DS flirted with the open-world format, the videos of this fan game paint a far more freeform picture.
The video above, released just a few days ago, showcases a boss battle against Warfare Milodon (ought to be spelled “Mylodon“) at both the normal and very hard difficulty levels. Hit the jump for more juicy videos as well as how to follow the game’s progress.
Though it may look like an SNES game, a lot of robust features have been incorporated to bring the game into the modern age. Each of your weapons have multiple functions and can be enhanced via a skill tree. For example, the Neuro Spike can create drone satellites that protect you, hack enemies to turn them into allies, and even summon pieces of junk to form a makeshift ride armor!
Zero is also along for the fun, equipped with sword techniques derived from the PlayStation era. Then you have a variety of armors for both characters, dynamic musical changes, massive environments, and so on. It’s pretty damn impressive even by official standards.
Every time I see a new video of this game, there are new sprites, new tilesets, new music, and plenty of extra polish from time spent in the oven. Just watching these demonstrations, there is a clear understanding of the everything that makes the X series classic, from the spot-on physics to the ridiculous artillery. Add to that the enhancements to the series formula and you’ve got a game that feels more like an evolution than anything Capcom has done in recent installments.
There is no demo planned for Mega Man X: Corrupted and the launch date is unspecified, so try to contain your excitement. If you want to follow along to the game’s progress, subscribe to JKB Games’ Facebook page or follow the YouTube account. For now, let’s sit tight for and continue to be thankful that Capcom has gone on record stating that it tends to leave amazing fan projects such as this well enough alone.
