Monday, September 5, 2022

SAGE Expo 2022 Brings 'Mega Man X8 16-Bit' Demake and More Fan-Games


The annual Sonic Amateur Games Expo is in full-swing, bringing fans together to share fan-made games, demos and mods. Outside of the usual Sonic the Hedgehog offerings, there are a handful of Mega Man-inspired projects to see and play. Here's a small sample:

Mega Man X8 16-Bit Demake (by AlyssonDaPaz)  - It's Mega Man X8, re-imaged as a SNES game! This project is being developed in Godot Engine 3.5. True to its 16-bit inspiration, the project aims to be a "vanilla" X1-X3 experience with X as the only playable character, no Metals, shops or retry chips.

Mega Man Zero Online (by Warrior555MainsGanon) - This online multiplayer brawl lets you square off against your friends as different characters from the Zero series. Current build includes Zero and Harpuia. In active development. 

Mega Man Four Hounds (by DeMontropolis) - An original fan-game set in the classic series. Players can choose to play as Mega Man, Proto Man or Bass each with their own unique play-style. Four Hounds aims to up the ante from what you'd expect from a typical classic series entry. 

Mega Man Shattered Diamonds (by Team_Circadia) - A NES-inspired romp featuring high-quality sprite animations! Play as Mega Man or Bass and take on three original Robot Masters. The soundtrack really, really bops too.

There's plenty more Mega Man (and non-Mega Man) games to check out! See them all at the SAGE 2022 digital gallery here

20 comments:

  1. ayo thats my fangame in 2nd (epic harpogia moment)

    ReplyDelete
  2. The demakes always intrigue me, but I've yet to play one. A demake of X4-X8 would be cool to play some day.

    On this case, I'm not a big fan of cutting it down to just X. Zero was in vanilla X3, after all. What would be more interesting is giving the playable navigators actual story dialogue. But they can make the game they want to make. I don't even know where to begin to make one.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I prefer SNES graphics over PSX as far as the X games.

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  4. All of these are actually worth following as they bring something interesting am looking forwards to the x8 thing

    ReplyDelete
  5. Not gonna lie… The most exciting thing I've seen from this year's to-do is easily Pulseman: AMABILIS. It takes everything that was amazing about the original Game Freak game and improves upon it ten-fold! The demo, alone, was enough to blow me away. The graphics… the voices… the presentation… It's all just… perfect! Meanwhile, not a single one of those Mega Man fan games has my interest.

    In this day and age, good Mega Man fan games are a dime a dozen. We're really spoiled for choice. And unfortunately, these Mega Man games are just kind of… more of the same stuff? The refreshed "NES-style" graphics for those two classic-era games don't do it for me and that X8 demake absolutely loses all of the charm from the source material, for me. And, uh… that "versus mode" Zero fan game? Eh. I didn't buy into Arena, I'm not gonna buy into that'n.

    Honestly, the only showcased Mega Man fan project that I have much interest in is The Sequel Wars – which is mysteriously absent in this list, I notice. I really hope they can fix the jank audio in that homebrew. It looks quite good and seems to play pretty well, so far!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I personally heavily disagree on the X8 demake - whatever charm the original game might have had was hidden behind how absolutely horrible it looked, both in terms of art style, the environments and even the model/texture quality itself, and I certainly don't miss most of the cut mechanics (such as the shop, the combos, the X8-specific control quirks and all that). I really hope it gets finished, since so far it just seems to be X8 but without all of the bloat and bad decisions.

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    3. @Gary Daniel
      I mean... to be fair, this is a fan project, not an official one. Making PSX-styled visuals is already a way bigger task that would take a very, very long time, especially since the fan project doesn't collect any sort of donations and is ran out of pure enthusiasm. I do agree that the SNES style is a bit odd (though I'd still take that over how X8 originally looked) nowadays, but I'd say the bosses and the stage itself look way better in the demake than they do in the original.

      Delete
    4. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    5. You forget X4 was made in the 90s. Graphics mean absolutely nothing. They really do. I would rather play a 8 bit retro metroidvania than a AAA pretty snoozefest.

      If you've ever done sprite work, you know that the difference is years worth of work. It is not easy in any way, especially for hobbyists teams of one, regardless of software.

      Delete
    6. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    7. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    8. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    9. I've done both 3d and sprite work. Not for a MM game but for other projects. Its not quick and its not easy. PC software isnt magic that does it for you. You have to make every single asset. Think a bit.

      No offense, but graphic snobs are infuriating. They ruined the fun of games. Now we have an entire generation of large beutiful broken at launch games that are boring as hell. So thanks for that, I guess. Just because something is new doesnt mean its better or progress. MM11 was a step backwards, not forwards, you know. Its not on anyones list for best of the bunch for a reason.

      Delete
    10. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    11. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  6. bro its so good!!!

    ReplyDelete

Keep it friendly. Disparaging, belittling and derogatory comments are not permitted.