Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Remember that Mega Man 9 boxart/shirt we featured last week during E3? Of course you do, how could you ever forget its magnificent image? Apparently, I Am 8-bit artist Gerald de Jesus was commissioned for the homage to Mega Man's packaging designs of yore.

The shirts were originally created exclusively for Capcom's staff, including director Hironobu Takeshita and producer Keiji Inafune, with a limited run of four. But after seeing fan reactions to the astounding apparel, the publisher has decided to make t-shirts with the Mega Man 9 cover art "available for purchase soon" in the States. Oh, wondrous day!

Let's all hope Capcom decides to make a lot more than just four shirts this time!

A new Pikmin sprouts!		Animal Crossing: City Folk confirmed
The Conduit will use WiiSpeak		Wii Sports Resort announced (and Wii MotionPlus!)
Mega Man 9 feels more like a 10		Wii Fanboy bats-on with Mario Super Sluggers
Animal Crossing to support keyboards, save fruit-picking time		Wii Fanboy hands-on with Wii Sports Resort

Ultrasound graphics synthesis! 8-bit fidelity engine!

We have always been of the opinion that even downloadable games should have boxart. Capcom agreed, putting together this mix of the original Mega Man game's North American packaging and Mega Man 2's PAL cover. The resulting Mega Man 9 art showed up at the publisher's E3 booth on what looked like an iron-on transfer shirt.

Unfortunately, only a few of the shirts were made for internal staff, and Capcom doesn't intend to give any away. At least we have this photo (taken by 1UP's Jeremy Parish)! Check out that huge M on his belt!

Today's choice for Virtually Overlooked seems fairly obvious. Now that Capcom has made WiiWare worth talking about, the gaping absence of any sort of Mega Man game on the Virtual Console is even more noticeable. Europe already has Mega Man and Mega Man 2, and they'll be released in Japan starting this month. It's safe to say that we'll have our chance to be gouged on those two games soon enough.

No telling when or if they'll ever get around to the other "Mega Man 9."

Do you want to know everything there is to know about Mega Man 9, or, uh, Neopets? If so, it's time to send hugs and kisses to Capcom. The company officially announced what it's showing at E3, and, guess what? Those titles made the cut. Now you have more reason than ever to try and get on Capcom's invite list.

For Wii owners, the Capcom Belle of the Ball is definitely going to be (a playable) Mega Man 9, a game that we just can't shut up about. Those of you who aren't impressed by the awesomely retro, 8-bit goodness might just come away from E3 feeling better about the project (/hypnotic stare). The rest of us who are already in love can commence happy dancing, as we wonder what Mega Mannish goodies will come out of the convention.

Oh, and Neopets! Can we get a woot? ... No? Okay, well, we tried.

Want to check out Capcom at next week's E3, but don't have a pass? Fear not, for they are extending an invitation to you, fine reader, to check out their wares for free. Instructions on how to pounce on this opportunity can be found here.

This is all well and good, but we have one thing to say to any of you out there expecting to take advantage of this: if Mega Man 9 is playable, you better back off the machine. We're totally ready to spend a night in jail for beating up some chump that tried to play Mega Man 9 before us. We loves us our Mega Man, you know.

[Via Joystiq]

When someone leads off an article like that, it's hard not to highlight it. 1up's Jeremy Parish thinks Mega Man 9 is a great idea, but not just because it looks neat, and not because of nostalgia. In his estimation, the return to the style of Mans 1-6 signals an admission on Capcom's part that NES-era technology suits the series best in gameplay terms. Mega Man X and other spinoffs worked well on other systems, but Mega Man is best on NES. "The inescapable truth is that Mega Man, at least the incarnation represented by a plucky little Astro Boy knock-off fighting googly-eyed robo-critters, works best as an 8-bit game."

He admits at one point that the 8-bit design could simply be an appeal to nostalgia or a budget-saving tactic, but it's a lot more fun to believe that Inafune et al. are doing what they're doing for an artistic reason. Even the ugliest Wii games are attempts to represent games in a "modern" way -- generally the best 3D that the budget will allow. While No More Heroes uses 8-bit elements for flair, the idea of intentionally regressing, of making a game look "worse" than the technology will allow in the interest of gameplay, seems bold and clever. Of course, some people happen to think the style of NES Mega Man games is every bit as attractive as any modern game on its own merits.

Here's a little confidence-builder for all those developers out there wanting to go in the opposite direction of technological progress. Huzzah, the entirely new Mega Man 9 for WiiWare is essentially an 8-bit game, with terrible graphics, sound and animation. And it's awesome. Evidence is right there in front of you -- the first "man, we totally want it" footage.

It's an uber-short video, and there's a giant Rockman 9 logo in the way, but we still get the gist of what's going on. Mega Man himself is jumping around, shooting stuff and just being generally mega. Sit back, relax, and let the blips and bloops of the soundtrack put you into a dream-like state until the game's Japanese release in September -- though we have high hopes for a short North American waiting list.
[Via Siliconera]

In an effort to help build anticipation for Mega Man 9, and probably to prepare new players who don't realize how brutal Mega Man games can be, Capcom announced that the first two games in the series will be released on the Virtual Console in the two months leading up to the September release of the new WiiWare game.

Rockman will be released this month, according to both Capcom and Nintendo, whose VC lineup page has been updated to reflect this surprise announcement. Rockman 2: Dr. Wily no Nazo (Mega Man 2: The Riddle of Dr. Wily) will come out in August.

Both of these games have been out in Europe for quite some time, so the real surprise isn't that they're being released in Japan, it's why they haven't been released yet -- and it would seem that we have our answer now. Capcom was waiting until they could start promoting Mega Man 9.

Chances are, you already know how we feel about Mega Man 9's appearance, but in case we haven't sufficiently conveyed our reaction: DOCTOR WOWEE. For us, it isn't about nostalgia. It's about the fact that, done properly, 8-bit is a beautiful art style that shouldn't be abandoned. And few games did it better than the Mega Man series. As nice as Mega Man 8 looked, the style of the NES games is much more distinctive.

Do you agree? Is the NES-esque presentation a wonderfully bold visual choice, or pandering to retrogamers?

We're trying to think of words to describe how we felt when we saw the Mega Man 9 screens at Games Radar, but there's just too much emotion to articulate. As if the scans weren't legendary enough with their retro, 8-bit goodness, the screens just make us downright giddy. There's not much else to say, except that we're so in love with Capcom right now.

Games Radar has some delightful details on the game, too, which just add some extra oomph to an already oomph-tastic game. For one, beloved Mega Man designer Keiji Inafune was especially involved in the making of Mega Man 9, even creating the bosses this time around. As for the story, it still revolves around our favorite villain Dr. Wily, but this time he has the public on his side, convincing them that Dr. Light is the bad guy. Silly public.

That's not all, though -- according to Games Radar, this game is hard. Not this hard, but still difficult. We say, bring it. You know what else it has? A lot of music from Mega Man 2, also known as one of the best video game soundtracks of all time.

Lastly (but not least), Games Radar has the skinny on Mega Man 9's bosses, including one that's a woman robot named Splash Woman. Others include Galaxy Man, Jewel Man, Hornet Man, Tornado Man, Concrete Man, Maga Man, and Plug Man. Man alive, that's a lot of mans.

Now you can stop reading and look at the screens (just click on the "Source" link or post image, as per usual). You might want to have some tissues handy, because they may just bring tears of joy to your eyes.

[Via NeoGAF]

Famitsu's article about Mega Man 9 features the same beautiful screenshots we got in Nintendo Power last week, with one exception: the small image seen here, featuring a greyscale Mega Man next to the real one. The article wonders if this could be a playable character, although in the infobox at the top of the article, Famitsu identifies Mega Man 9 as a single-player game. It could be an alternate character, or just a costume choice, or a new weapon-based color scheme, or even an enemy!

The infobox also says that Mega Man 9 is scheduled for September. If this really does follow the NES games, then minimal translation will be necessary (and hastily done), so we can look forward to jumping through boss doors soon!

As part of GamesRadar's Mega Man retrospective, created to celebrate the announcement of Mega Man 9, the site obtained a gigantic archive of Mega Man artwork from Capcom. From Mega Man through Mega Man 8, every Robot Monster is portrayed, as are most of the weapons Mega Man obtains from them. Through these artworks, you can follow the Blue Bomber's evolution from pudgy, stumpy robo-boy to jarringly muscular, stumpy robo-boy to, uh, less pudgy. You can also see how much the Robot Masters have changed over the years, from Fire Man to Heat Man to Napalm Man to Flame Man.

MESSAGE FROM DR. LIGHT! These would be totally excellent as wallpapers. Get equipped with adequate hard drive space!

It appears that a game called Mega Man 9 is coming out for ... some platform ... in Australia ... at some time. For the purposes of our discussion, we'll pretend that it's totally going to be a Wii game. How do you think it should work? Should Capcom reinvent the series for the Wii, with Mega Man's boss-given attacks assigned to motions? Should it be absolutely faithful to the 8-bit iterations of the series, to the point of sideways-Wiimote control?

Do you want new features and new experiences, or are eight Robot Masters and a new iteration of Dr. Wily's Castle enough?

We'd have a hard time thinking of a more exciting title to see listed in a ratings board database than Mega Man 9. There hasn't been a new game in the real Mega Man series since 1999's Rockman & Forte: Challenger to the Future on the WonderSwan -- which we never got (its prequel, Megaman & Bass, was released on the Game Boy Advance in the U.S in 2003). There hasn't been a numbered Mega Man game starring the iconic Astro Boy ripoff since 1997's Mega Man 8. The spinoffs are okay, but they're not Mega Man.

Suffice it to say, then, that this Mega Man 9 (which is listed as "multiplatform," though that's the OFLC's catchall) is probably awesomely huge news. Unless it's a port of Megaman & Bass, in which case it's ... still pretty neat.