Sooo... does this guarantee he'll be back?

_{[Image by Christoper Hastings]}

The fan-made, freely distributed, Capcom-backed mashup Street Fighter X Mega Man has crossed one million downloads, according to the game's creator, Seow Zong Hui. If it were to be counted as a full retail release, it would be only the fifth entry in the Mega Man franchise to achieve platinum status.

You can view this news two different ways depending on your level of optimism. On one hand, it could prove that there is still a sizable fanbase jonesing for more Mega Man goodness. On the other hand, it took a free game nearly three months to hit a target that c??ertain paid games hit in?? much less time.

Back when SF X MM was first revealed, Capcom Senior VP Christian Svenesson said, "[I]f we get a million downloads of [Street Fighter X Mega Man], and certainly I think that's the floor I hope to see -- it's free, it should hopefully do more than that! -- that just helps raise awareness for the brand across the board and creates fertile ground for things to happen regardless of which direction that it kind of comes in." He seems to consider a million as the lowest acceptable performance, but I suppose there's still room for growth as long as the downloads remain active.

Might as well?? give the experiment a thumbs up, regardless. Let's see if this translates into a renewed effort on Capcom's behalf.

@SonicZH [Twitter via Rockman Corner]

The post Street Fighter X Mega Man score??s one ?million downloads appeared first on Destructoid.

Ha-PEW-PEW-ken!

Capcom's treatment of the Mega Man franchise these past couple of years has been atrocious. When Street Fighter kicked off its 25th anniversary, Capcom clearly laid out its plans for the coming year, which included key software releases like Street Fighter X Tekken. All that the company is offering up for Mega Man is a free game that it didn't even make, and it's quite likely that the only reason we are even getting that is because of the Street Fighter connection.

That being said, Capcom could have done much worse than throw its support behind a fan game. For years, folks suc??h as myself have cham?pioned the cleverness and resourcefulness of fans who made the games that the big developers were unable or unwilling to create themselves. Not bound by the direction of uptight men in ill-fitting suits, independent creatives are free to express their passion in the purest way possible. And for Capcom to officially sanction such a project sets a precedent that I only hope sends ripples through the industry.

As for Street FIghter X Mega Man, it's quite enjoyable and filled with wonderful ideas, even though the execution? prevents it from being the best it can be.

Street Fighter X Mega Man (PC)
Developer: Seow Zong Hui
Publisher: Capcom
Released: December 17, 2012
MSRP: Free

Unless you've been living under a rock, Street Fighter X Mega Man is a traditional 8-bit Mega Man platfomer that replaces the Blue Bomber's usual motley crew of Robot Masters with eight World Warriors from the Street Fighter universe. If you ?are looking?? for any context as to why Mega has gone rogue and taken to hunting humans, you won't find any.

Seriously, don't worry about it.

Instead of taking the easy route and incorporating just the combatants from Street Fighter II, the game pulls from the entire series roster -- Ryu, Chun-Li, Blanka, Dhalsim, Rose, Rolento, Urien, and Crimson Viper. Each warrior rules over an appropriat??ely themed domain, such as the rooftop of an ancient Japanese castle for Ryu or the electr?ic eel-populated Brazilian jungles for Blanka.

My personal favorites are Urien and Viper's?? stages. Urien holes himself deep in the mountains, where you have to traverse unstable platforms before they fall and fight enemies that can reflect your buster shots right back at you. Viper awaits in a S.I.N. building, guarded by insta-kill security corridors and a new model of Sniper Joe equipped with massive laser cannons.

But the stages are merely preludes to the main events. Even though the bosses have been re-imagined as NES sprites, they retain all their signature abiliti??es. Ryu of course breaks out the Hadoukens, Shoryukens, and Tatsumaki Senpukyakus; Dhalsim teleports, breathes fire, and stretches his Gumby-like appendages; Viper launches a flurry of electricity-enhanced punches and kicks; and so on. Also, I think it's safe to say that Rolento's pogo stick bounce was intended to conjure images of certain rich, pants-less fowl hailing from Glasgow.

They may not be machines, but the World Warriors will whip Mega's blue ass 'til it turns purple. They naturally follow predicable patterns in true Mega Man fashion, but as is always the case, simply knowing the pattern is no guarantee of victory. You have to react accordingly and make generous use of the charge shot, slide, and acquired weapons. In fact, not even a boss' weakness is a caveat-free "instant win" card. There are always risks associated with the weapons that must be taken into acco?unt, such as Chun-Li's Lightning Kick that requires direct contact with your opponent.

The other big element of the game aside from the bosses is electronic musician A_Rival's soundtrack, which consists of NES demakes of Street Fighter jams albeit with a Mega Man twist. You'll hear Ryu's theme mashed up with Flash Man's theme, Dhalsim's with Snake Man's, Rolento's with Heat Man's, and so on. Even the piece that plays when you select a boss is a blend of both series' iconic "Game Start" jingles. Other tracks don't directly sample Mega Man tunes take certain Mega Man-ish cues, most notably the pulsing drumline out of Mega Man 2. It's very cool, and like the full game, it's free to download.

In addition, there a bunch of little nods and Easter eggs sprinkled throughout. Most notable is Dan Hibiki, who plays the role of punching bag as Mega tests out a newly acquired power. There is a secret boss who seriously isn't that much of a secret to anybody. And though Guile was excluded from the roster, his "goes with ever??y??thing" theme song can replace any level's music with but a simple code punched in at the pause menu.

But as I hinted in the beginning, there are a bunch of issues that weigh down the entire experience -- some that drastically impact gameplay and others that will really only bother super Mega Man aficionados.

Right off the bat, there is no save option. No biggie, you may think, since the NES games didn't have save functionality either. Yeah, they used a password system... which Street Fighter X Mega Man also lacks. You can't tell me it would have been difficult to come up with a traditional password grid as in years past. So you'll have to plug through all in one sitting, which no one has been required to do since the very first Mega Man.

Speaking of keys, I hope you like playing platformers on a keyboard. Street Fighter X Mega Man technically has gamepad "support" in the loosest sense of the word. I plugged in my Xbox 360 controller and discovered that I couldn't use the D-pad for movement and that the start button was mapped t??o the right analog stick click. Really? REALLY!?

There's an ??in-game key remapper, but that only works if you enter the game, choose a boss, pause it, and press F2. Even then, i?t doesn't allow you to customize everything. Should you choose to use a third-party controller remapper like Xpadder, the game still forces analog stick movement. To play the way I wanted, I had to plug in the controller, set up Xpadder, start the game, use the sticks to select a level, enter the pause menu, then press F1 to switch the device from "gamepad" to "keyboard," and also remember to repeat those steps in the future if I want to play the game again.

Some levels are very clever and fun, but others are flat and boring. Chun-Li's stage in particular is just a straigh?t run while dodging cyclists on the road. Other levels are filled with large expanses of nothing. Most egregious, however, is that background assets are often so poorly defined that they clash with the character sprites and their thick, black outlines. There are splashes of artistic genius, but typically the environments come off as crude MS Paint doodles, which makes it difficult to determine which platforms can be stood upon.

Beyond that, there are tons of little bits that, while nothing super serious on an individual basis, give an impression of sloppy work when taken as a whole. Mega's jumping is slightly stiff, Mega jumps in front o??f the life bar rather than behind, items that spawn from defeated airborne enemies drop too quickly, the continue screen doesn't give you the option to restart from the current level, the "Stage Clear" jingle is played at a volume much lower than the rest of the audio, etc. And why does it seem as though a certain boss was left out of the endgame levels?

Street Fighter X Mega Man feels like... well... it fee??ls like it was made by a single person. More accurately, it was made by a single person and rushed to meet a December 17th deadline.

Now, I'm not one to knock an honest-to-God passion project by a small team -- many of the best games these past few years have been ??from teams of as few as one lone dude. I wouldn't mind the sh?ortcomings as much if this particular game had been released quietly without the backing of a massive publisher.

But when Capcom said it would publish Street Fighter X Mega Man, there were promises of extra funding and QA testing, I took that to mean the company was making a concerted effort to bring the game up to?? the series' lofty quality standards. Sadly, it does not, and I wonder exactly what Capcom has been doing these last few months. But it's still a fun game, and it truly does set a precedent f??or publishers to take a more constructive approach towards passion works from fans.

Street Fighter X Mega Man is not the best or most polished Mega Man game around, but it's solid effort by a very dedicated fa??n. I hope it does it well enough to convince Capcom that there is life yet in this franchise. In the meanwhile, just enjoy the crossover fun for its cleverness and not its missteps.

The post Review: Street Fighter X Mega Man appeared first on Destructoid.

Capcom "may" provide an update

The post Svensson responds to lack of passwords in SF X MM appeared first on Destructoid.

Bleep boop boop bleep

Have you downloaded Street Fighter X Mega Man yet? Why not? It's free! Not only is the game free, but so is the OST which just got released! DOUBLE FREE!

The original score was created by the talented A_Rival, and features Street Fighter tunes masterfully merged with classic Mega Man jams. While it is free, you could throw some money to A_Rival if you were feeling nice. Otherwise go give it a listen over on his Bandcamp page.

P.S. Go check out our boss guide for Street Fighter X Mega Man.

The post Street Fighter X Mega Man OST now available appeared first on Destructoid.

Strategies for all eight [robot] masters and more

A brand new Mega Man game came out yesterday, ??so of course, Tony Ponce and I are alre??ady hard at work destroying it.

Tony will have a full review for you in the near future, but for now, I decided to help people out with some strategies for all eight (?they're-not-really-robot) masters, which I'll refer to as "Fighter Masters" henceforth.

Since I didn't want to spoil the secret stages (or the secret boss) so close to launch, I'll provide another guide for that later o?n, after people have had enough time to get acclimated to it.

A bit of history:

My first ever foray into game writing was in middle school, when my best friend and I launched a now defunct website -- www.megamanassault.com. I provided combat guides for every robot master and Wily boss for every Mega Man game released at the time.

Naturally, I'm excited to go back to my roots, and muse on Street Fighter X Mega Man as much as possible. Let's go!

Starting out:

To clarify, I beat the game twice yesterday -- once with a ??????????????????????????full Mega Buster only run, and another so I could discover the applicable weaknesses. If you're not using weakness weapons, the order real?ly doesn't matter.

If you need all the help you can get though, starting with Dhalsim is a good bet, and I'l??l tell you why: he's one of the three easiest bosses in the game, and it's the s??econd shortest path to Rose, who will give you the coveted S. Satellite (one of those extremely useful franchise-staple shield weapons).

You'll also have the added benefit of snagging the T. Hazzard from Blanka pretty early, which is not only a formidable weapon, but also helps you reach secret areas. If you desire a differ??ent starting boss, feel free to tackle Chun-Li or Blanka first, and just follow my guide, which is in sequential order (loop around when you get to Viper).

Every boss in the game has a super move (just like newer Street Fighter games) -- so watch the second ba?r next to their health, and be?? aware of the fact that a super is imminent when it reaches full capacity.

Dhalsim - Weakness: Optic Laser (Mega Buster is fine at the start)

Dhalsim is a bit ??of a pushover, as he's extremely slow, and his weakness absolutely rocks him. Just be ready to slide whenever he teleports (as he could use his yoga punch downward), then hit him with your Laser once in the air, and again when he lands. If you're aggressive with the Optic Laser, he'll go down in seconds.

If he's using his yoga fire, just go to the opposite side of the screen and blast him -- make sure to keep your distance, so you don't get c??aught in the corner with a Yoga Inferno blast (keep an eye on his super meter and don't get cornered).

With the Mega Buster, this is also just as easy. Charge up as much as poss??ible, and just blast him in the air after he teleports, and again when he lands. The only other attack I didn't mention is his spin drill from ab??ove, which is incredibly slow and really easy to slide under.

Keep sliding when Dhal??sim teleports, and put some distance between you and him. ?It'll be over before you know it.

Blanka - Weakness: Y. Inferno (Obtained from Dhalsim, and so on below)

Just like the AI tends to do in Street Fighter games,? Blanka gets a bit aggressive, making him one of the harder bosses in the game without practice (which is why I recommend Dhalsim first).

Always have your buster charged, and look for an opening (after his rolls). If you get too close to him, he'l?l use his slide punch attack almost instantly, which is really hard to avoid on the fly. Be aware that he could use his horizontal or vertical roll at any time, which you should jump or slide under accordingly. If you back off, he should give you enough of a telegraph to ensure you choose the right move.

As soon as Blanka uses his super, hesitate for half a second, then immediately jump. It may take you a few time??s to get the timing down, but sometimes if you don't jump ?perfectly (i.e. too early), you'll land in his electricity trap.

Oddly enough, he may use this super more than once in a row -- in which case you should let your charge buster fly right ??as you're landing so you can get some hits in. Be aggressive with Y. Inferno if you're using it, and he'll go down faster.

The neat thing about Y. Inferno? is that you can redirect? it using the up and down direction buttons, even while you're in the air -- try it!

Rose - Weakness: T. Hazzard

Rose is one of the trickier bosses in the game, especially when you consider the unconventional nature of her weakness -- a ball that essentially drops on the ground. It took me a few fights?? to catch on to her most formidable move: the teleport. When Rose teleports, she'll slide kick you in whatever direction you're facing. Use this to your advantage, by setting up a T. Hazzard "trap" that she can slide into.

I've found that kicking it doesn't really contribute as much to the outcome as dropping it on her head, so stick to the drop if you can.?? When she's done sliding, you can also drop some T. Hazzards on her as well -- just don't over do it, as you don't want to waste your weapon energy hitting her on invincible frames. The T. Hazzard also has another use: when she uses her super move, you can jump on it to avoid the satellite beams that corner you.

As a general rule, as long as you can get her teleport move down, that's all ??you really need to worry about. Charge your buster, a??nd when it looks like she's going to teleport real fast, you can mash your regular shot to get a few hits in before she peaces out.

Make sure you don't get cornered, and keep in mind that you may need to make some wide jumps to ??avoid her satellite shield. Don't be afraid of using the non-charged shot to take her down due to her quickness. If you have room, sliding away from her teleport-slide and blasting her works.

Rolento - Weakness: S. Satellite

I'm biased here, as Rolento is in my top five Street Fighter characters of all time list, ?but I think he's one of the more fun f??ights in the game.

Rolento will go vertical a lot. If you aren't used to your slide move yet, you will have to acclimate yourself, as it's the best way to avoid pretty much everything he does. When he rolls around and throws grenades, you can jump over him, and land in-between the grenades -- just jump over and get really close to the farthest grenade to ensure you miss subsequen??t blasts.

When he uses his super, if you can, jump over him, and then get ready for him to drop some grenade??s down from the air for some splash damage. Ma?ke sure you're not in a corner when he does this, so you can actually avoid the blast.

Keep in mind that he only does his baton twirl during his super briefly, so if you're on the other side of him, just let him do his thing and whiff his grenades in the middle of the screen. Using the T. Hazzard is an option here as well, to get some vertical dista?nce between the blasts.

When you're using the S. Satellite, the actual shield part is what does the most ?damage to him. Get in close and bull-rush him and he'll be down for the count. When you can't get close, using the Satellite's beams is fine too -- just remember that you can switch weapons and still keep your shields up.

Urien - Weakness: M. Sweeper

Besides the fact that Uri??en is a really odd choice in a? game filled with more popular fighters, he's also one of the trickier Fighter Masters at first glance.

Since his weakness, the arc-heavy M. Sweeper, is pretty finicky, it's best to s??hoot it off when he's in the corner, or, when you perfec??t your aim, anywhere in the arc. His super is pretty easy to avoid -- he'll drop to a corner and use his Reflector weapon, then shoot a blast.

When he uses his super, stay in your corner initially?? and don't shoot the Reflector -- often times he'll aim it high, so just shoot him from the ground, then switch sides as soon as possible? and start blasting him in the direction without the reflector. He also has a move where he charges at you, which is easily choreographed by readying his fist.

When he jumps, he is always going to use ?his diagonal knee attack in the direction that he's facing. Use this to your advantage and blast him with a charge shot or the M. Sweeper. Regularly, he'll use two knee attacks in a row, so keep this in mind as you'l??l get two easy shots on a consistent basis.

It took me a while to remember that he uses the knee drop constantly, but once you get that down, he's not so hard.

Ryu - Weakness: A. Reflector

Odds are, you'll probably have the more trouble with Ryu than any other Fighter Master. The most obvious reason is when he uses his Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku (hurricane kick), he is invincible -- which would be fine, if it weren't for the fact that he can us?e it multiple times in a row, sometimes after firing off a projectile.

It also doesn't help that his weakness isn't really a pure weakness per se. When you use the A. Reflector, it'?s basically just a m??irror that sits there. If you put it in the middle, he'll just hurricane kick past it, meaning you have to get in close. In order to really damage him with it, you need to either hit him square in the face (which gets you dangerously close to him), or reflect his hadokens back at him (which is frustrating, as he'll launch multiple projectiles that cancel each other out).

If you're opting to go for the Ref?lector route, try and set it up about one Mega Man length away fro??m each wall, and keep repeating the cycle. Ryu will usually stop at the edges (or near the edge) of each side, and launch hadokens -- leaving himself open for the mirror to reflect them back at him.

His super (the Shinku Hadoken) is laughably easy to dodge, but keep an? eye on his super meter anyway, as it's easy to get caught in a corner with it.

Also try not to get extremely close to him, as he can spring his Shoryuken uppercut at any time. If you'r?e at a distance, it's extremely easy to watch out for, and you can get free two charge shots on him.

Keep y??our charge shot ready constantly and look for an opening. Always make sure that when he's using hadoken spam to keep the fierce punch (orange) faster hadoken in mind, as it can easy catch you off guard.

Blast his hadokens to keep them from mucking up the playing fiel??d should he hurricane kick to your side. ??You have to act fast, as he can hurricane kick at any moment and negate your charge shot. If you're daring, you can slide under his kicks.

Chun-Li - Weakness: Hadoken

You really can't go wrong starting with Chun-Li, as she's up there with Dhalsim as?? the collective two easiest bosses in the game.

To add insult to injury in this fairly weak fight, since the Hadoken weapon is? extremely uninspired, you're basically just fighting her the same way you would with the Mega Buster. Charge constant??ly, and fire when there's an opening, with either weapon.

Keep out of the corners so you don't get hit by he?r Kikosho projectile, and like Blanka, be aware that you may need to  jump over her spinning bird kick at a moment's notice. Chun-Li telegraphs her moves so slowly that you really shouldn't need any help with this fight.

Just keep your ?distance, charge, turn, and fire. Easy.

Viper - Weakness: L. Kick

Wow, what a fun fight! Viper keeps things mixed up, and has a few split-second timing moves to spring on you if you're not carefu?l. Even so, with a bit of practice, she's not that tough.

The key is that you basically always need to ??be ready to jump a??t a moment's notice. Her Optic Laser move will basically trigger instantly, and only gives you a half second of a choreographed tell.

When she's standing still, always assume she's going to blast you, Cyclops style, and jump ove??r it. When she readies her fist, she's going to charge horizontally at you -- jump over it, and get off a shot before, and after she charges.

At some point, Viper may start pounding the ground and causing shockwaves beneath your feet. Use this opportunity to get off a charged shot after jumping or dodging each bl??ast. You may be tempted ??to rush her down, but if you elongate your jumps, you can "trick" the blasts and get off another charged shot per blast.

Viper's super is really easy to dodge -- just jump over her, and get out of the middle to avoid her downwards blast. Keep in mind that the vertical reach for this super bl??ast is incredibly high, so just stick to the sides. The blast will also always be in the middle.

The kicker (pun intended) is that if you go the weakness route, you'll have to get in close to use the L. Kick (which reminds me of using Top Man's weapon against Shadow Man in Mega Man 3).

It makes the fight a lot more intense than solely using the Mega Buster, so even if you're going for an all-Buster run, you should try it at least once. Be rea?dy to jump at all times (which?? basically allows you to dodge all of her attacks), and you should be fine.

Extras:

• Blanka's T. Hazzard weapon is very much like Mega Man 8's Mega Ball. It can give you an edge in boss fights, and rocket you to secret areas or E-Tanks. Make sure you pay attention to the verticality of every stage.The ball can be used in multiple ways -- up+shot kicks it up, down+shot kicks it down, sliding into it arcs it, and of course, jumping on it boosts you upwards.

• As a side note, E-Tanks do not respawn. To use them, press start, press up on the direction pad, and then the shot button. It looks confusing, but the E-Tank icon will light up.

• To unlock helmetless Mega Man, highlight Ryu on the stage select screen, hold the shot button, and press right, right, right, left. Repeat it to revert back. When you beat the game, this code shows up after the credits.

• To use a special Hadoken without beating Ryu, hold the shot+jump buttons at the title screen for around six seconds, then use the generic QCF+shot motion to drum up a Hadoken in-game. You can charge this move.

• By using the same title screen code as the Hadoken, you can also press the shot+swap weapon 1 buttons in-game to initiate the Sei'ei Enbu super. [Credit: Spootz]

• You know how Guile's theme works with everything? He may not be in Street Fighter X Mega Man, but by way of a code, he is in spirit.In-game, press start, hold the jump button, and press up, down, down, down. The music will change to Guile's theme. [Credit: TekkenKazuyaMishima]

• Feel free to use the S. Satellite in every boss fight, then switch to the applicable weakness -- the Satellite shield portion will stay up, giving you a few extra hits when they get close (or in the case of Ryu's fight, some projectile-soaking capabilities). The length is also based on time, and not damage, giving it a huge edge over past shields.

• If you beat four Fighter Masters with a "PERFECT" rating (by having full health at the end), then you'll face off against the final secret boss right before the end of the game. You can "cheat" this by just using an E-Tank before the last hit, and you'll get a "PERFECT" anyways. Try going for this on Dhalsim, Chun-Li, and Blanka.

• Street Fighter x Mega Man does have that Wily-esque "beat every boss again" room near the end. Like most games, after each fight, you can recover a bit of weapon power and energy by blasting the structure in the middle.If you're particularly bad at a few boss fights, make sure and do them first will full health -- that way if you lose too much energy, you can then do the easy fights (without fear of dying) and work your way back up to full health slowly by grabbing the power-up at the end of them. Then do a difficult fight again, and repeat.

  For reference, the order of capsules, from left to right, bottom to top, is: Ryu, Dhalsim, Blanka, Rolento, Rose, Urien, Chun-Li, and Viper.

• In the initial final stage (after you defeat the first eight Fighter Masters), keep running to the right at the end (over the gap) for an extra E-Tank.

• There is no save or password function. You have to beat the game in one full sitting (or just leave your PC on).

• Press F4 to switch between different windowed and full-screen resolutions. In order to use a controller, Capcom recommends that you plug it in before you boot up the game. To map custom buttons, press F2 during the pause menu in-game.If the controls aren't to your liking, or the d-pad doesn't register, you can use a program like Joy2Key or Xpadder to map custom controls that override the game.

Spoilers below for everything past the eight Fighter Masters

Enter at your own risk!

Balrog - Weakness: Optic Laser

After you take down the last Fighter Master, the Shadaloo [Wily] levels start. Sadly, there's no Sagat stage. The only explanation I can thi?nk of is that he, in canon, is no longer part of the Shadaloo organization -- bu??t then again, how much of this game is canon anyways.

Anyways, this first encounter is a very weird, unconventional stage. At first it seems like you're thrown into a boss fight with Balrog -- but it's actually a side-scrolling level. Balrog will try and rush you from the left side of th??e screen, and will kill you instantly if you touch him. Thankfully, the stage is incredibly easy, and as long as you stay on the right side of the screen, you won't be in any danger of an in?stant kill.

The Optic Laser will damage Balrog, but he doesn't really have a weakness, per se. All you have to do is use the S. Satellite to block enemies while you?? get to the end of the stage (roughly less than a minute). After that, Balrog just falls in a pit and dies. Keep sliding to the ri?ght after the gap for an E-Tank.

Aga?in, this isn't a limitless stage, so just keep goi?ng.

Vega - Weakness: L. Kick (M. Sweeper can work, but I prefer L. Kick)

Vega is easily th??e hardest boss in the game, because his attacks do so much damage, and are so accurate.

It took quite a few runs until I finally figured out a strategy -- just bull-rush him and stay aggressive with the L. Kick. It's tempting to want to dodge his attacks constantly, b??ut resist the urge -- instead, ju??st rush him down and L. Kick him over and over.

Before submitting to this strategy, you may have only gotten off one kick, but staying aggressive will get you two or three good hits in before he damages you. If you can dodge most of his attacks, trading blo?ws will s?till get you the win.

Of course, with the amount of damage he does (especially his super), sometimes this isn't enough, as you have to dodge his attacks from time to time. So, when he engages his super, sli?d?e out of the way.

When he jumps off the fence, try moving a direction right before he dives, and then slide the othe?r way to "trick" him. The problem is this attack homes in on you in a pretty cheap way, so it may t??ake time to get the timing down. If he's diving in the center, try climbing the fence as well as high as you can.

You may need an E-Tank or two -- it's ok, I won't judge. In fact, this is probably the only part of the game where you really need one unless you??'re planning on fighting the sec?ret boss.

M. Bison - Weakness: Optic Laser

Sadl?y, as cool as Bison is, this is one of the easiest fights in the game. Almost all of his attacks are heavily choreographed, and nearly everything can be avoided by jumping.

When he jumps, he's probably going to use his flipping downward punc?h attack, so watch the fake out and just slide toward or away from him, depending on h?ow much room you have.

Bison will tend to move from left to right constantly (like Ryu) -- so just be ready to jump over him, turn, and blast. Whe??n he uses his palm projectile attack that splits into four pieces, get closer to him immediately ??and jump to avoid all four parts.

When he uses his super, all you have to do is jump, turn, and blast him with a ??Charged Shot or the Optic Laser. This is nearly instant, so you don't have to hesitate a second like Blanka??.

If you run out of Optic Laser, M. Sweeper works fairly well, as you can "trap" the edges of the screen with blasts when he returns from a psycho crusher. This fight is really cool looking, but it's really, really easy. If you're aggressive with the Optic Laser and don't miss, you can knock him  out in less than 30 sec??onds.

Just be ready for the real fi??nal fight if you got a "PERFECT" rating on four or mo?re bosses.

Akuma - Weakness: Hadoken

Outside of Vega, this is Street Fighter X Mega Man's true test of skill.

At the start of the fight, Akuma will go for an instant kill with one of my favorite Street Fighter moves ever, the Raging Demon (Shun Goku Satsu). Be ready to immediately jump over it. Keep in mind that his super is the same exact thi?ng (which is more obviously choreographed) -- so just jump over it when he intermittently gets his super every thirty seconds or so.

Again, it's important to always keep an eye on his super meter, because you don't want to get caught mid-jump in an unavoidable Raging Demon (which is easily my favorite thing to do in Street Fighter). On the flip? side, Akuma doesn't always use his super as soon as he ??gets it, like other bosses in the game may do.

Like a number of b?osses in this game, Akuma can get really aggressive. Always be ready to slide away from him or jump over him at all times, and don't stay in the sa??me place for very long. You also may need to master the art of the quick jump (tap jump for a smaller leap) to quickly vault over his many projectiles.

The best way to combat hi??m is to charge the Hadoken or Mega Buster, pl??ay keep-away, and take advantage of the times when he constantly fires off projectiles. When he starts getting aggressive, slide under his jumps or jump over him to get to the other side of the screen -- don't let him corner you with aerial projectiles that you can't avoid.

There are a few weapon tricks to make Akuma easier. Pause the game, select the S. Satellite, and engage it -- then switch back to your weapon of choice. When he's throwing his Hadokens, switch to the A. Reflector, put up a mirror or two, then?? switch back to your Hadoken weapon. A charged Hadoken can also cancel out his smaller projectiles.

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Download the free game from Capcom-Unity

Ummm... you still here? Go on! Get to steppin'!

And be mindful of the long download times for the 34 MB file. The site's getting ham?mered.

The post Street Fighter X Mega Man is out NOW appeared first on Destructoid.

From fan game to official game

As we found out this past weekend, Street Fighter X Mega Man is a free, officially backed Capcom game created entirely by a fan off both franchises. Capcom has been catching flack for their treatment of the Mega Man franchise over the last tw?o years, but this crossover title is looking to be the rekindling of the Blue Bomber.

Seow Zong Hui is the man responsible for Street Fighter X Mega Man and has been working on his mashup since 2010 in his spare time as he studied for his engineering degree in Singapore. While there was strong buzz at the beginning, Seow went off the radar with his project until EVO 2012. It was there that he a??pproached Christian Svensson, Senior Vice President of Capcom USA, with a laptop and simply said, "I want to show you something."

How Capcom teamed up with a fan

Christian played the game, and it's as if the stars had aligned for him. "In my head, we were in the middle of our 25th anniversary celebration of Street Fighter," Christian told me. "We had started planning the Mega Man stuff a c??ouple of months earlier, but we didn't have a good opener."

After playing the game, Christian got a copy from Seow and took it to Capcom's Senior Online Community Manager, Brett Elston. "I know Mega Man, but I don't know Mega Man like Brett," Christian explained??. "I asked him, is this something that fans are going to like or are they going?? to throw up all over this thing?"

"There were four levels available at the time," Brett told me. "I played through and I only got maybe halfway through the first stage I played, which was Blanka at the time, and even halfway through I was just like, this is great. It feels right, the philosophy of the level design is right. The physics, the jumping -- everything f??eels just like it should. I immediately said? go for it."

Once Brett gave the all clear, Christian immediately started work on the business side. He had to sell the idea to Capcom Japan, and once they were on board he went about funding the project, providing QA testing, sorting through the legal stuff (Capcom USA owns the Street Fighter rights while Capcom Japan owns the Mega Man rights), and provided creative input.

Christian was determined to make the official reveal happen this past weekend at the finals of the 25th Anniversary Street Fighter tournament as a way to bridge the two 25th anniversaries together. "We knew the tournament was going to happen here and that this was signifying the end of the 25th celebrations [for Street Fighter], and [December 17] is Mega Man's 25th anniversary.

"We really wanted to have the release of the game on the 17th," Christian went on. "Purely serendipitous that the right concept came at the rig??ht time that we could actually get it done in time. It's something we've worked on very? very hard over the last six months to complete it."

Gauging success

I feel like it needs repeating, but yes, Street Fighter X Mega Man will be a free downloadable on the PC. You'll be able to download the game through Capcom-Unity, and I suggest you only?? download it from them as it will be the? easiest way for Capcom to track how the game is performing.

"We'll be using this as one of many means of gauging where we're going," Christian told me. "One of the challenges that we have is figuring out what is the path forward in terms of, you know, Mega Man has five brands: Classic, X, ZX, Battle Network/Star Force, and Legends. Some of these things are in the same ballpark as one another, and some of them are completely different. That's part of where the, I'll say, the disagreement comes in -- a non-unified vision of where Mega Man s??hould live on exists within our?? own company as well as it does in the market.

"I would argue that if anything, if we get a million downloads of [Street Fighter X Mega Man], and certainly I think that's the floor I hope to see -- it's free, it should hopefully do more than that! -- that just helps raise awareness for the ?brand across the board and creates fertile ground for things to happen regardless of which direction that it kind of comes in."

The shaky grounds of the Mega Man franchise over the last two years is one of the main reasons the crossover title will be free. "We would hope this is, on our end could sort of make good [to fans]," Brett explained. "Making it free, making it available to as many people as possible, helps us get back on the right track with the brand. This is just the beginning of the 25th anniversary of Mega Man, this isn't the end-all, be-all that we have to? say. We're hoping the free status of the game shows that we're listening and that we care. We want to get this character, this brand, back alive."

What the future may hold

There are plenty of World Warriors that Mega Man could go up against, leading to the possibility of sequels very easily. Were a sequel to happen, it would all depend on Zong Hui's availability. Additionally, the game could be released on other open platforms, but closed platforms like the consoles are very doubtful due to their cost-prohibitive nature. You can always hook up your PC to a TV, and it ??does look great on a TV screen as well, according to Brett.

Were a sequel to happen, though, it would more than likely not be free, in turn possibly o??pening it up to a lot more devices. For now, Christian and the team are just going to take? things one day at a time and see what the fan feedback looks like before thinking about the future.

Check out my hands-on preview of Street Fighter X Mega Man for more on the game.

The post How Capcom got invo??lved with Street Fighter X Mega Man appeared first on Destructoid.