NYCC 2013: Dustforce

For four days, people came to the Javits Center in New York City to experience one of the largest conventions on the east coast: New York Comic Con 2013!  Fans of comics, movies, television shows, and toys came together to revel in their hobbies, and with them came video game companies to show off their wares for the upcoming holiday season and beyond.  We here at 3RM attended a few of those days, and we have impressions and video to provide from our experience!

-----

Tony:

At Capcom’s booth there were a number of downloadable titles on display, and one of them was the console port of Hitbox Team's Dustforce, a combo-heavy platforming game about dust and ninja janitors.

Dustforce stars four unique janitor ninjas in their effort to clean the corrupting filth of the world. The team consists of a blue janitor with his broom, a red janitor with her push broom, a short purple janitor with feather dusters, and an old green janitor with his vacuum cleaner. While each have similar controls, they each have slightly different movements, such as jumping a touch higher or attacking faster. The point of the game is for these ninja janitors to race through each stage and clean up as much mess with as much ninja skill as possible. Playing the demo I got to try out a forest area covered in leafs in need of sweeping. Racing into the stages, my janitor would run along walls, across ceilings, and clean off any leaf-covered animals in the stage all while avoiding multiple hazards.

The gameplay of Dustforce was very reminiscent to N+ and other wall-running platformers. The largest difference Dustforce brought was its focus on cleaning up the stage while racing through them. As I ran through the stages, I would clean off the surface I touched, be it floors, walls, or ceilings. Besides wall-jumping, the janitors could also quickly dash forward, double-jump, and even super clean the entire screen once they accumulated enough of a combo meter. Occasionally, I stumbled onto enemies made up of dust or animals turned evil by the dirtiness. By attacking these airborne enemies, I not only freed them from the clutches of messiness but also my janitor earned the ability to jump again to reach higher enemies or more leaf-covered flooring. The major emphasis of this title was to clean off all the surfaces without stopping in order to keep the combo score increasing. At the end of each stage, I was ranked based on my time, how much I cleaned, and the combo score.  Clearly this game was designed more about mastering the combos than beating the stages, as they were nowhere near as frustrating as other indie platformers out there such as Super Meat Boy. However, I did have some difficulty judging my jumps and accurately using my cleaning skills. In order to clean a wall or ceiling, I had to move the joystick in the direction of the mess before I got there. This tended to throw me off, but it could have just been poor reflexes.

The game’s graphical style was a unique blend of colorful geometric forms. Rather than represent each character and leaf with realistic detail, everything was simplified to simple vector forms of color, designed as if everything was toon-shaded. The game also ran at a silky smooth framerate with fluid animations, which complimented its fast-paced action. As for the game’s audio, I sadly wasn’t able to make it out in the noise convention hall, so I will have to judge that at another time.

Dustforce, the ninja janitor platformer, was a joy to play, but I could see that mastering each level is where this title is going to push players. I do hope that the other regions in the game offer unique platforming gimmicks to keep it fresh in order to stand out from all the other challenging indie platformers. With its unique style and premise, I look forward to give this title another go when it comes out on consoles.

Dustforce is available now on PC, Mac, and Linux, and it being ported to XBLA and PSN this upcoming January.

NYCC 2013: Strider

For four days, people came to the Javits Center in New York City to experience one of the largest conventions on the east coast: New York Comic Con 2013!  Fans of comics, movies, television shows, and toys came together to revel in their hobbies, and with them came video game companies to show off their wares for the upcoming holiday season and beyond.  We here at 3RM attended a few of those days, and we have impressions and video to provide from our experience!

-----

Alex:
This year, Capcom's New York Comic Con booth focused mostly on upcoming downloadable titles from the publisher, and the big game front-and-center was Double Helix's Strider, a re-imagining of the arcade original.  I will admit I have never played the Strider games before this, but I can say that what I played at Comic Con was a smooth and intriguing experience.

Strider is a side-scrolling action title in which players control Strider Hiryu, sent to Kazakh City in order to hunt down and defeat Grandmaster Meio.  Getting to Meio is problematic, however, as he has many followers and soldiers at his disposal.  Within mere moments of nearing the city, Strider is shot down from the sky, leaving him at the outskirts of the city, still hot on his mission.  The city is massive in scale and the enemies numerous and ferocious, but thankfully for Strider, he is only going to get stronger as he makes his way into the city to face Meio.

The new Strider game is set in the sprawling Kazakh City, allowing players to explore and gather power-ups and secrets at their own pace.  As players rush through the landscape, slashing enemies with the help of Strider's Cypher, the world's large map updates and spreads out, much akin to a Metroidvania title.  In fact, this game's camera and action sequences feel very much like Chair Entertainment's Metroidvania game Shadow Complex.  At the beginning of the game, Strider has plenty of basic attacks, but in order to progress past certain obstacles, the player has to find special powerups for him or Cypher hidden around the city.  For example, there are a number of grates that are too small to cut through, but with a found ability, Strider is able to slide-slash right through the grates and out the other end.  Paying attention to where these air ducts are located will also provide health upgrades and other helpful powerups in the midst of the adventure.  Even with this example, it is clear that backtracking will be a large element in the game.

Graphically, the game looked crisp.  The color in the world was somewhat muted by a monitor overlay, complete with scanlines, but this only seemed to enhance the style of the game rather than muddle it.  There is distinct bloom from the glowing lights around the complex, helping to emphasize the stark contrasts of the shadows across characters and locales throughout the game.  The animation and framerate seemed very smooth, a good sign for a demo of what is to come.  The gameplay was kept frantic and active, and loading was kept to a minimum throughout the excursion.  My only concern about the graphics is the environments; I hope we get to see more interesting worlds as we venture further into the city (although the introductory screen had a pleasant background to see, for sure).

Those worrying about difficulty will know that while it started easy, the game became increasingly complex and difficult as the demo progressed.  Strider would run through enemies, swiftly cutting the lesser minions in half with relative ease.  This would change once I encountered larger, stronger warriors; at one point I faced an enemy who attacked unfazed by my attacks and ended up dying because of it.  The boss at the end of the demo, a large dragon robot, was equally armored and made for a hectic showpiece in the game.  I feel that considering this is the early portion of the game, the difficulty and complexity in combat will only grow and keep in time with what fans are looking for from the arcade action franchise.  Whether it will exactly match the difficulty of the older games, however, will have to wait until it is released.

The gameplay mechanics were as smooth as the graphics, quick to the point and in constant motion. Platforming was also swift, trying to maintain the hectic speeds expected of an arcade action adventure.  Upon colliding with a ceiling or wall, Strider immediately grabs hold of it, allowing for great maneuverability in rooms or in floating platforms throughout the world.  There were a couple instances when I would grab hold of a platform when I did not want to do so, but I imagine I would get used to the wall-grabbing mechanic further into the final game.  On the offensive side, even though I started with a number of powerful attacks, new upgrades piled on very quickly early on.  This makes me wonder whether the game was going to give that many upgrades so early in the game, but it could also be indicative of how many abilities will be given over the course of the final game.

Strider was a fun experience and ran very smoothly.  I cannot say how it compares to the earlier Strider games exactly, but from an outsider, it felt like a solid experience to look out for. Strider is set for release in 2014 for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PC.

PAX East 2013: DuckTales Remastered

Perhaps the biggest surprise coming into PAX East 2013 was the announcement of DuckTales Remastered, a full graphical remake of the original NES classic DuckTales.  Developed by the famed Wayfoward Technologies and published by Capcom, this adventure is expected to bring back the old school gameplay that the game was known for while also providing a greatly improved presentation.

DuckTales Remastered is a full remake of the original NES title developed by Capcom.  Of course, the game has plenty of additional elements to it that is expected of games this generation.  The world environments have been fully modeled in 3D, and the sprites themselves have become fully cel-animated, a style that fits Wayforward's pedigree (see A Boy and His Blob, BloodRayne: Betrayal, and Mighty Switch Force for examples on their sprite animations).  Furthermore, the game features additional story elements to better explain the situations in the full game, and the audio has been completely redone, complete with the original voicecast of the series!

Unfortunately, we did not get to play the game at the showfloor, thanks to the continually capped line to the game, but we did get some footage for us all to enjoy.

DuckTales Remastered is expected to release this year for XBLA, PSN, Wii U eShop, and possibly PC.

PAX East 2013: Lost Planet 3

Tony:

Among the playable games at Capcom’s PAX East booth was Lost Planet 3 for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Having never played the first games in the series, I decided to try it out. My playtime was limited so I was unable to experience the entire demo, leaving out certain mechanics such as Mech battles against larger monsters. My experience was limited to a third person segment of me traveling though an abandoned laboratory of some sort.

The game takes place before the events of the first Lost Planet game on the still frozen planet, E.D.N. III. Our main character, Jim Peyton is sent to the planet by the corporation NEVEC in order to mine resources for the Earth by using a massive mining mech. As he continues his mining, he finds pockets of heat energy that melts away the snow and begins to uncover details about NEVEC and the ferocious monsters that live on the planet. During my playthough, the game would occasionally cut from the action to a cutscene where Jim is recording a video to his wife, explaining his job and the wonders he sees. It is an interesting way to describe the game’s background and to create contrast in Jim's character, from being cheerful on the video to becoming worried and violent when moving the frozen landscape.

The part I played in the demo felt what could have been the game’s first mission, as the main character seemed surprised by various events taking place. After melting one area, he found a facility beneath the ice and snow, questioning why it was there. Entering the dark, frozen complex, my immediate thought was how much it reminded me of Dead Space 3. The persistent darkness, mounting numbers of dead bodies, and ominous noises from the air vents were all things I had seen Dead Space do before. At one point, I had to force open a door that I knew it would lead to a monster attack. Sure enough, after pressing the X button to force open the door, an insect jumped on top of me. Once the bug had jumped on me, the game prompted me to press the X button rapidly. But after that, two reticules appeared on screen, which I assumed had to be aligned. After three tries ending in failure, I learned I had to press the right trigger once they had been matched up. This bothered me, as there was plenty of button prompts everywhere else in the demo but here.

After that event, I was able to move about a large generator room where I got a good look at the game’s emphasis on lighting. A large glowing mechanism lit up the room while large panels rotated around it, creating moments of darkness. If there was one thing Lost Planet 3’s demo did well, it was the lighting. Shortly after entering the room, I was attacked by more alien insects. Much like in other third-person shooters, I had to aim my shotgun toward them as they approached. However, I quickly found that to be rather difficult as the camera moved in too close to Jim, making it hard for me to see the targets, not to mention that the aiming sensitivity was too high, causing me to often over-shoot the monsters. While sensitivity might be customizable, I am not sure about the camera work, which made fighting the smaller monsters challenging. Another thing I noticed was the lack of any run button. I tried a variety of buttons and could not find the sprint button. In a game with monsters, running is important as I tried to keep my distance form them. It is possible that my trouble with controls could have been fixed with customization or by simply playing the game more.

My time with the demo ended with me turning off the generator to get through a locked door. In order to turn it off, I had to hold the X button down for several seconds as the generator slowed down. I felt this was a foreshadowing of events later in the game where Jim might have to turn something on or off while hoards of monsters try to stop him. As expected, once the generator was turned off, a bunch of insects entered the facility prompting another battle but this time with much less lighting. It was here that my playtime ended.

Lost Planet 3 may take place before the first game in the series, but my experience made me feel closer to what I had seen of Dead Space 3 more than the Lost Planet series. While I hear there are other additions as wel' as mech battles, I sadly did not get a chance to play them so my impressions are limited. The close aiming camera, lack of running, and the promptless quick-time events were my biggest frustrations of the game, while its lighting and environment were definitely its strengths. I hope the other portions of the game outweigh the parts I had trouble with, or else this game will have trouble standing out from other games using the same style of aesthetic. Keep an eye out for more of this game when it comes out for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC in June.

3RM @ NYCC 2012: Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate Impressions

Note: While we did not record ourselves playing the 3DS version of the game, please check out here for our Capcom videos for footage of the Wii U version!

Alex:

For almost a full year, people had been wondering: when was Capcom bringing over their latest Monster Hunter game to the US?  Thankfully, Capcom unveiled that by March 2013, we will be playing Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on both 3DS and, surprisingly, Wii U.  Capcom showed off both versions of the game in New York Comic Con, and I got to play a mission from the 3DS version.  Let me put it this way: screw the great sword.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is a remixed version of the Wii release Monster Hunter Tri.  Originally released for 3DS in Japan as Monster Hunter 3G, 3 Ultimate adds many more monsters and multiplayer modes unseen on the Wii original.  The new Wii U edition allows players on the Wii U version to play each other online or play with up to three 3DS players in ad hoc multiplayer.  The Wii U version has been given a graphical boost, and the GamePad screen displays what the bottom screen displays on the 3DS, a map control and item selection menu.  However, I only got to play the 3DS game, so my impressions deviate there.

The goal of every Monster Hunter mission is to chase down and vanquish a gigantic monster, ranging from dragon-like beings to massive, hulking electric sea monsters.  It is imperative to select the right weapon, armor, and items for the job before going on the hunt, or else the fight will end quickly and in favor of the beast.  Thankfully, a camp provides you with your item stash to help stock up before making your next attempt into the wilderness.  Being defeated by the monster does not end your mission, so you will have the ability to stock back up and make strategy changes over time until you can take the monster down; however, you do have a time limit to eventually defeat the monster or fail the mission.

Each environment is split up into multiple rooms, sometimes filled with smaller monsters which can attack you as well, but the first goal of each mission is to find the monster in the area itself.  Once a monster is found, the real meat of the game begins, and for me, it was when the difficulty reared its head.  The key to fighting a monster is learning its attacks, because if you just run in head-first, you are going to get beaten down quickly.  In my scenario, I fought a Lagombi, a large arctic saber-toothed wyvern, and I had chosen the great sword.  The great sword, by the way, is a hard-hitting two-handed sword, but its trade-off is in speed.  Other weapons, such as the sword and shield, attack faster but with less damage, and weapons such as the bowguns require more distance and preparation with special ammo.  When multiple players are working together, using the right weapons together can result in a straightaway into victory, but when playing alone, you may need to work a bit harder to kill the monsters ahead.

In my experience, fighting the Lagombi was no easy task.  The time it took to actually swing the great sword was so long that the Lagombi would most likely leap out of my way and subsequently dash back into my side.  After watching its movements for a while, it became more obvious how to attack it without sustaining damage every time, and I also considered using a number of offensive items, including explosive barrels, to aid me in the confrontation.  The battle was not entirely solitary, too, thanks to two helpers who helped cast spells on me and bother the Lagombi from time to time.  Unfortunately, even with these elements on my side, the saber-toothed beast took me down with ease.  I could have continued, but with a growing line of people behind me and a basic idea of the game’s single-player experience, I ended my play session there.

Having played the Monster Hunter Tri demo years ago, I can say that 3 Ultimate is no different, although the 3D display is not a bad addition to the experience.  Control-wise, it will confound newcomers, but with the right time invested and perhaps assistance from veterans, they (as well as yours truly) will be able to vanquish monsters with ease.  Or, at the very least, we might actually be able to defeat a monster.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate releases this March, and I am not sure I’ll make it out alive.

---

Tony:

With the announcement that Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate was coming to the US for the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Wii U in March 2013, people were excited to hear both would be playable at New York Comic Con. Sadly, long waiting lines and long demos made it difficult to play the Wii U version. However, after entering a small room away from the main floor of the show, I got my first hands-on with the 3DS version.

The demo had me hunting an amphibious lizard that was lurking in a body of water. On land, I used the circle pad to move the hunter around and held another button to run. To use my weapon, in this case the fast-paced Dual Swords, I had to press one button to arm my character and then press the buttons again to attack. Depending on your weapon of choice, you would have to disarm your character in order to run again. You also have to disarm in order to use items, and using items takes time. One challenge I had was learning how to effectively use items without getting hit, especially with the long animations. However, my biggest frustration was with the game’s camera. In order to look around, I had to use the 3DS ‘s d-pad or a d-pad on the bottom touch screen, both of which are hard to use in the heat of battle. Knowing this game uses the Circle Pad Pro, this issue is more than likely resolved with the added circle pad. Sadly, that was not available at the show so I had trouble keeping the action in view.

After avoiding a number of smaller monsters on land, I finally found the body of water with the monster in it. Once I entered the water, the monster became well aware of my presence and swam towards me with a spinning bash attack. Luckily, I managed to swim out of its way, which was impressive since the game’s controls changed considerably once I hit the water. While the circle pad still moved my hunter around, I had to “aim” my hunter through the water using the difficult camera. The other major change was that as long as my weapon was out, I could hardly move around at all. This meant I had to disarm my character in order to catch up with the large lizard, often time resulting in it swimming into me or past me. Whereas on land I only had to worry about what was behind me, underwater I had to worry about being attacked from above and below, which combined with the poor camera controls to make for a tough battle. Once the monster had enough of me, it quickly swam towards a beach area, where it moved on land to use electric attacks. Thankfully, my small AI partners were able to distract it so I could get on land and deal some damage.

However, after about seven minutes of this, I had enough. Clearly the monsters are designed for group battles so single player battles feel long and draw out. Without any sign of progress via a health bar or from the monster itself, I couldn’t tell if I even dented its health or I almost killed it. This game was definitely designed with online multiplayer as its main focus, although this version will not have online on its own, which I feel hurts the experience.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is one of the better-looking 3DS titles, pushing graphics that rival the original Wii version. The characters, monsters, and environments have vivid textures and are both colorful and detailed. Despite all the action on screen, I did not see any slow down during my playtime and I found the 3D effect both pleasing and effective in judging distance in the various monster encounters I had. The audio stays true to the series with intense music playing during battle and calming music playing went not. Monsters roar and hiss as the hunters holler and yell battle cries much like other entries in the series. Without a doubt, this sounds like a Monster Hunter game through and through.

Although I did not defeat the monster, my hands-on showed that Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on the Nintendo 3DS plays and feels like a true Monster Hunter. Lush visuals, challenging monsters, and a variety of gear to hunt were are all there in the game. However, the frustrating camera mechanic and lack of online multiplayer without the Wii U version makes this a hard pick over the Wii U edition, which also happens to be HD. While the Circle Pad Pro might solve the camera issue, the lack of on-the-go online feels like a missed opportunity. I might have liked what I saw on the 3DS, but I will have to see how it is when compared to the Wii U version in March.

 

3RM @ NYCC 2012: Capcom Videos

We have decided to lump together all the Capcom contents into a single article, mainly because we only got to play one Capcom game playable at this year's NYCC: Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate.  Check out for impressions soon!

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (Wii U Version - Not played by us, in case you were wondering)

Darkstalkers: Resurrection (complete with Ono appearing for autographs)

DmC (some off-screen footage from outside the line waiting for demos)

PAX East 2012: Crimson Dragon and Steel Battalion

At PAX East, Microsoft's booth was surrounded by large Kinect setups, demonstrating a number of games that had just come out such as Kinect Star Wars and games that are on the horizon.  We were unable to get any interview or direct playtime with these games, but we do have two gameplay videos for you to enjoy.

NYCC 2011: The Miscellaneous Montage

Our adventure into this year's New York Comic Con was not exactly as peachy as we would have liked, but when is a convention not stressful? We were only able to attend the Thursday and Friday events for both economical and physical reasons, but we got a handful of videos and impressions to make for you all.

---

Just under a month after New York Comic Con 2011 finished, we are winding down with a few more videos to finish off the event and look out into 2011's holiday season (which has already started, thank you, Modern Warfare 3).

This video is dedicated to the remainder of game footage we took over the course of the day-and-change we were at the convention. We talk about our impressions or thoughts on the games while we show clips of our scraps. We felt the footage shown here was not up to par with fitting into individual videos and put them together right here!

The games covered are as follows:
Resident Evil: Revelations
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3
Final Fantasy XIII-2
Rayman Origins (with some Just Dance 3)
Fusion: Genesis (out now on XBLA!)
Prototype 2

Stay tuned for our postmortem, in which we discuss final impressions and the games we did not even cover this year!

NYCC 2011: Dragon's Dogma

Our adventure into this year's New York Comic Con was not exactly as peachy as we would have liked, but when is a convention not stressful? We were only able to attend the Thursday and Friday events for both economical and physical reasons, but we got a handful of videos and impressions to make for you all.

---

Capcom's booth was among the most active of the show, which made recording footage and grabbing any brief interviews hard for us on Friday. Fighting games such as Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Street Fighter X Tekken were crammed in the middle of the booth, while other adventures, such as Asura's Wrath and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, were available for play around the outside. Asura's Wrath in particular drew crowds due to the Rage Booth, but in the chaos, we decided to take a look at Capcom's next large franchise: Dragon's Dogma.

Dragon's Dogma takes place in old medieval times, and the player's created hero becomes the unfortunate victim of a large dragon. With the hero's heart removed and held by the dragon, the hero should be dead but is instead revived as an "Enlightened One," driven to find the dragon and get vengeance. The game is prepped to be an open-world adventure, full to the brim with massive monsters and large, sprawling lands to travel.

I don't know about you, but I think that adventurer is about to be Hydra food.

The actual demo was located in a small alcove with four demo stations facing each other, and in those demos, I had the choice of a dungeon or field-based scenario. There were not many people at this game, and after playing the demo for a short while, I realized why that may have been the case.

In the field scenario, my hero was with a group of NPCs, including an archer and a wizard, as they approached a number of monsters wrecking a small convoy. Without much hesitation on their part, the group rushed toward them, and I found myself in a bit of a bad situation. I was being thrown into battle with barely any knowledge of how the game played.

While this scenario was loading, I was met with a gargantuan, complex control screen. It seems I had missed out on some pivotal information, as my progress fell flat early into the demo. I tried to find a way to run and could not, and I quickly found my attacks to be less effective compared to those from my entourage. Before I could really get a grasp for my inventory, I was met with a greater foe: a massive griffin who had a taste for adventurers.

Had I been better, this might have been the outcome.

This was when the battle went from cumbersome to chaotic. I could attack the large monstrosity with my short blades easily, but in the air, I was met with difficulty. A wizard informed me that his flames would hurt the griffin greatly, and the archer let me know to attack its wings with my bow and arrow. Without any prompt or hint of how to use my bow, I started to pull it out, only to completely miss or mess up with my attacks. Less than a minute later, I was informed, yet again, from my NPCs. I got some more hits in, but still the others called out to me as if I was failing greatly. Shortly thereafter, convinced I was getting nowhere, I ended my playthrough.

They are helpful, but the others are also quite annoyingly verbal.

Was Dragon's Dogma bad? No, it was probably more the environment and lack of knowledge toward the game's control that threw me off than anything else. However, if this game is coming out early 2012 (which it is), there needs to be some level of polish in how the characters act and how the game flows. The graphics look nice in stills but chugged along way too slowly, and the controls were certainly not more accessible, despite what the director said in the past. Hopefully the final product will deliver better than this demo did.

See below for the video of my experience. Dragon's Dogma is slated for March 2012.

NYCC 2011: Get Me Off the Moon!

Our adventure into this year's New York Comic Con was not exactly as peachy as we would have liked, but when is a convention not stressful? We were only able to attend the Thursday and Friday events for both economical and physical reasons, but we got a handful of videos and impressions to make for you all.

---

Capcom was full of life at this year's NYCC, complete with a large booth showcasing new franchises such as Dragon's Dogma and new games in old franchises such as Resident Evil and Marvel vs. Capcom. However, despite this, there was one major franchise that Capcom has been keeping quiet, and there are some people out there who want it to come back with a loud bang: Mega Man Legends.

At New York Comic Con, a group known as GetMeOfftheMoon was located near the Artist Alley on the showfloor, with one major purpose: let Capcom know that Mega Man Legends 3 can be completed without the fear of losses. We got to interview one of the group's big representatives, Dashe Troxon, but before we show that, let's give a rundown as to WHY this is even here.

For those not in the know, Mega Man Legends 3 was announced for the Nintendo 3DS as the final chapter in a trilogy originally created back on the PlayStation. Mega Man father Keiji Inafune had been wanting to make this game since the second game was released, but it was not until just before he left Capcom that the hope of such a game arrived. Announced as Mega Man Legends 3 Project, the idea was to get every fan of the series behind its creation by submitting boss designs, choices of characters, and other inputs. This meant that when the game was finished, fans of the series could play something that the whole community had made together.

One of the first fan-inputs: the new heroine design.

Unfortunately, it was eventually disclosed to everyone that the project was not yet greenlit by Capcom executives. According to them, Mega Man was a dying franchise and was not liked by American audiences, thus restricting the company interest in the blue bomber. Inafune's influence was enough to let the developer create a prototype for approval, and from there, the community project was born. In the end, a Prototype Edition was to be released via Nintendo eShop, showing off some missions and even allowing a look at alpha stages of later areas. If sales of this were high enough, Capcom would greenlight the full game.

This boss was but one fan creation set for the full game.

Except Capcom did not even greenlight the Prototype Edition. The game was cancelled, and there was no Mega Man Legends 3 in any form. The reason? Not enough participation, even when the announcement trailer said people did not need to participate.

And now they are participating alright, just in another venue: Facebook. The GetMeOffTheMoon movement is a Facebook group aimed toward gaining 100,000 likes on Facebook in order to prove that Mega Man Legends 3 should be released. Like Operation Rainfall, a Facebook movement to get Nintendo to publish North American versions of some of its Japanese (and now European) products, it has become the center of spreading word to gamers and to the companies involved, hoping their voices bring actions.

For more information on the group and what it is doing, check out the interview below and visit the official home page.

Capcom Gets Twisted

Capcom Mobile, a division of Capcom focusing mostly on smaller titles on iOS, is reported to have taken a large majority of ideas from Twisted Pixel's Splosion Man in its most recent release, a game titled MaXplosion.

Late Summer 2009, Twisted Pixel released its second IP, a platforming adventure titled Splosion Man, in which players control a wild living explosion who uses explosions to jump off walls, destroy obstacles, and attempt an escape from the laboratory in which it is created. This month, Capcom Mobile released MaXsplosion, a platforming adventure game in which players control an out-of-control creature who uses explosions to make jumps, destroy obstacles, and escape the laboratory in which it resides. Sound close enough for you? Heck, even the music style is extremely similar (see the videos below).

Twisted Pixel noticed swiftly, and a large amount of tweets arose surrounding the ordeal, many of which you can see in the sources below.

Not sure what to say about MaXplosion. Pisses me off.

- Michael Wilford, CEO, Twisted Pixel

Borrowing is great. Hell, we do it all the time. But that game is a complete theft.

-Mike Henry, Programmer, Twisted Pixel

According to Wilford, the company had originally submitted Splosion Man's concept to Capcom and was rejected, which makes the scenario all the crazier. However, Twisted Pixel will not be suing Capcom, mostly because the developer cannot afford to fight against a much bigger publisher over game design similarities. Also, the lawsuit would detract from actual game development, which would hurt its current projects, too. Instead, Wilford claims that the team should fight fire with fire, producing a game on the mobile space to greatly outdo what Capcom Mobile has created.

We'll just have to make our own mobile game and I'm hopeful that Capcom will see that robbing our s*** wasn't worth it in the long run. We'll let you know when we have something on the mobile front to talk about, but now we have added incentive!

-Michael Wilford, CEO, Twisted Pixel

Capcom Mobile has made an official statement regarding the matter, too.

While Twisted Pixel did have discussions with our console game team about publishing 'Splosion Man' on game consoles, Capcom Mobile is a different division of Capcom with separate offices and as such, had no prior knowledge of any meetings between the console game team and Twisted Pixel. 'MaXplosion' was developed independently by Capcom Mobile. Nonetheless, we are saddened by this situation and hope to rebuild the trust of our fans and friends in the gaming community.

- Official Statement, Capcom

The game has not yet been removed from the App Store and most likely will not be removed without any particular claim from Twisted Pixel. Furthermore, responses from Twisted Pixel regarding the above statement are not necessarily improved, either.

Speaking of Splosion Man, it will be the first IP from Twisted Pixel to get a sequel. The developer is currently developing Ms. Splosion Man for XBLA this upcoming summer. No doubt it will be a bit harder to copy this product without a lot more red flags in the air (if there are any more to raise).

Videos (Splosion Man, then MaXsplosion)

SOURCES: PocketGamer
Joystiq / 2