Now this is unexpected. You remember Mega Man Soccer, yes? Do you also recall how it was actually sold as an unfinished game? Amidst a number of missing elements, the final game is notorious in that it does not have an ending. Or does it? Thanks to a little hex editing, the long lost ending cutscene has been revealed...
Sprite rippers, you've got a job to do!
And there you have it: Mega Man Soccer's ending. Years worth of speculation and debate final comes to an end. To see the ending for yourself with your own copy of Soccer, check out the video's description here. Thanks for the tip, Mac!
UPDATE: Well, well, an unused unused Proto Man cutscene has surfaced too. I've no idea where this might have fit in... maybe attached as an epilogue thing? Chalk this one up as another MMSoccer mystery.
I love how similar the character graphics were here to those used in WILY WARS...The models also show how the MM4 bosses would have looked if they had made that in WW.
ReplyDeleteGreat video, and great find!
Always foigured it was in there somewhere. Interesting to see Beat used at the very end. Was this supposed to advertise MM5 in a way? Beat's also in the background of MM's field ... although the proportions might be different.
ReplyDeleteSprite rippers ... start ripping!
That has to be one of the most awkward MegaMan and Proto Man 16bit sprites ever.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note the graphics are practically identical to their NES counterparts which isn't bad thing gives a nice what-if feel to an SNES Megaman game *Not counting 7 which is no way a bad game*,
Huh.
ReplyDeleteHow odd that it was a mix of NES and SNES style sprites. Even the teleporting.
This is a milestone for the fandom right here. Cheers, everyone.
ReplyDeleteWe have completed a MM game by ourselves. Next step: finish Mega Man 3.
Make a wish, everyone. What's gonna be mine? The same as always! Legends 3's completion, of course! :D
Aww... some sprites are missing. Bubbleman didn't show up at the Credits. :(
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable how this wasn't included. I mean, why not? Really? Sure it was that extravagant, but it's better than not having an ending at all. Capcom has been ridiculous throughout history lol.
ReplyDelete@RockmanPR: The characters shown all had one thing in common - they had their own selectable field/team on the stage select screen. That's why there was no Bubble...or Toad, Gemini, and others who were still playable characters.
ReplyDeleteGlad to know there was actually something truly intended for the end. I finally have the closure I have been missing for 17 some years.
Soccer ending,...you...complete me. ;_;
It still kinda boggles me why they didn't bother to include it if it was in the programming the entire time...
ReplyDeleteI don't think time restraints makes a good explanation.
The game came out right around the time of MM6 in the US, right? I was just curious as to why more things from MM5 at least didn't make it into this game, or is that simply because it wasn't "finished" upon release?
ReplyDeleteIt's sort of funny, if I remember right, there's nobody from Megaman 5 in the game, but the stage select music is the same as MM5. Not much of an homage, but...
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't get is why they would rush the game. Was it released around christmas or something? Because doesn't really seem like the kind of thing a lot of people would be fervorously waiting for
ReplyDelete@Dr. Jerk:
ReplyDeleteThe usual "Capcom is lazy" answer. :P They should be more like Udon, better late and good than never or hastily. Mega Man Legends 3 is very late...
There's no MM5 because this was supposed to advertise MM5, I think. Why else would Beat feature so prominently at the end? Other than to say "who is this mysterious new character? Buy the latest game to find out!"
ReplyDeleteWith that in mind and seeing how much was left unfinished, I think this game suffered a lot of internal delays that led up to it being released before it was ready. I think Capcom just threw up their hands and said "good enough, let's get this game out already."
That Protoman ending is really nice. Were time constraints really that rough with this game? They should have definitely included it! Which leads me to wonder...if all the characters had ending scenes or whatever scene this is?
ReplyDeleteOh and *wasn't in my last post.
I doubt that's Protoman's ending. It's probably something they'd show just before you fought Protoman. After all, Proto's the first of the boss fights, right? Makes sense to give him a scene.
ReplyDeleteThose of us in a creative sort of work can understand that time constraints and stupid delays happen.
By the way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I37p1cINu4
Lost staff roll. WTF!?
@Gauntlet: I thought this game came out in April 1994, so one month after MM6 came to the US? You'd think they'd want to throw in some MM6 references as well if that were the case.
ReplyDeleteWhat we REALLY need is a ROM hacker to go and re-create the ROM with the ending patched in. We know it's there now, if they can get Mario in an 8-bit version of Sonic 1, and all the other crazy stuff I see the ROM hackers doing, we can fix Soccer to have the ending and distribute it as a ROM like Dr. Cossack did with Rockboard and his translation. Who's with me?!
ReplyDelete@Allahweh
ReplyDeleteThat may be when the game came out, but that doesn't mean it was started after MM5. I think the game was stuck in production Hell for a loooooooong time.
This came to my mind when seeing the unused Proto Man scene:
ReplyDelete(Protoman whistles.)
Judge: Hey, I'm the judge, I'm the one that whistles here!
Protoman: ...
Very interesting find indeed. it's still a bad game, but now i have a shred of respect for this game after seeing this ending. may not be the best, but at least it is something.
ReplyDelete