Jumping! Jumping! Sliding! Sliding!

So, this supposedly-leaked screen of Mega Man 9 Nadia has reported on: For reals, or for shame?

I actually think it could be authentic! A fake screen would, in all honestly, probably be a bit more stylish than this. Fans like to jazz things up, ya know? What I see here is something just crappy and awkward enough to be an authentically slapdash effort on Capcom’s behalf. (You can check out the original image here.)

If nothing else, this is a nice litmus test to see how low our expectations for this franchise have sunk.

Edit: Mercifully proven fake. No doubt the real MM9 will be crummy in an entirely different way.

25 thoughts on “Jumping! Jumping! Sliding! Sliding!

  1. I was going to say something, but I know at least a few people who would yell at me for judging a game’s visuals by a single blurry screenshot from a beta test.

    I’ll just say this, then: That single blurry screenshot from a beta test looks pretty crappy.

  2. What we’re missing is the high def, bloom-tastic particle effects when the enemies die. That’s awesome, right? BOOM!

  3. “What I see here is something just crappy and awkward enough to be an authentically slapdash effort on Capcom’s behalf.”

    You mean you can actually make out details in that shot?

    Don’t you think you’re being a bit too pessimistic here?

  4. It’s the snake tail that makes me suspicious. It looks like it was pulled straight from Snake Man’s stage in Mega Man 3, with orbs replacing the rectangular segments.

    I don’t know, though. It would be nice to have a proper send-off for this series, as Mega Man and Bass had a rather unsatisfying ending that distanced itself from the core mythology of the series.

    Stop stringing us along, Capcom. Did Wily really invent Zero? What led to Mega Man’s burial and subsequent revival as X? It’s been twelve years since the last game in the original Mega Man series was released, and I think it’s time for some answers.

  5. Yeah, I had the same thought about the snake tail. What actually kind of convinces me this might be legit is the crummy pose Mega Man is in — he has that look of cheap, interpolated 3D that’s so common in the recent X games.

  6. Looks horrible. And its not tbe graphics, because the shot could not be any more blurry. Its the dimensions, Megaman is too big for the screen. Looks like MM7 all over again.

  7. Actually, if you read the link, the beta tester claims it’s all done in 8 bit sprite-style. Which is kinda disappointing. If it’s going to be in 2D, it better be lush.

  8. IIIII’m going to play the hopeful fan and say that it’s really too soon to judge the game through one blurry screenshot that may or may not be way early in the development process.

  9. One of these days, I’m going to sit down and play that copy of Magaman II on my shelf…

  10. Maybe the “8-bit sprite” thing tries to refer to 2D and 2D gameplay, not the actual graphical style? Doesn’t look too hot, anyway. I think 10 years should give us some bolder stylistic choices than Megaman 8 redux.

  11. I like that it looks like a mix between the wolf guys from MM2, and the snakes from MM3. Everything else about it seems odd. Cautious optimistim for this game.

  12. I’m kind of impressed by how much you guys can get out of this. Personally, I lost the ability to distinguish between Megaman games about ten years ago.

  13. Let’s get a few things straight and start using actual words that actually mean things:

    “Beta testing” is something PC games do to the public. This is either from a “focus test” (it’s not, because those are a few hours), or from QA Testing, which that letter implies this is. Console games do not have employees of the company “beta testing.” Yes I know HE used the word beta testing – doesn’t make it right, but it’s important later.

    Second, if this is from a test, it is not “really early in development.” Companies don’t have people playing a game every day if its “early in development.” Also, if this really is the beta state of the game (as he implied), it is not “early in development” because beta is the final state of the game before it’s fixed for release. “Beta” would imply this game is already done.

    Sorry, pet peeve of mine when people start throwing “Beta test” around in situations that are not beta test related. We’re all smarter than that.

    As for “8-bit sprite style” I wouldn’t put too much stock in that. The general public has kind of lapsed into this mental state where anything not 3D “looks like an NES game.” They said Contra 4 looked like the NES version when we focus tested it. So I really wouldn’t take that statement as damning Megaman 9’s graphics.

  14. Backbone, eh? Those guys are like a one stop shop for desecreating childhood memories, aren’t they?

  15. Something, somehow — maybe it was this MM9 image — has made me jump back into the debugger to get Abuse’s network code working once again.

    Hurrah for inspiration, even if it ultimately comes from false hope and lies.

  16. “Sorry, pet peeve of mine when people start throwing “Beta test” around in situations that are not beta test related. We’re all smarter than that.”

    And I would wholly understand your irritation if we were all banging into each other screaming, “GUYS, THIS IS 100% REAL!!!” but that wasn’t the case: we were speculating. Thanks for the info, though.

  17. ManekiNeko> The answers are “yes” and “he wasn’t,” respectively, at least by all evidence on that second one.

    As for the Snake, even though this is fake, if that’s the best anyone has to debunk this, then that’s sad, as enemies have been reused quite a bit over the years. Also, the body is turned a completely different way from the Hot Dogs in MM2. Here, it’s more profile while there, it was more 3/4 turned.

    And, it was all from scratch, anyway.

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