Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Sneak Peek of Mega Man in the Upcoming Brawlhalla Crossover Event

Following the reveal a few days ago, we now have a glimpse of Mega Man in action for the upcoming crossover with Brawlhalla.

The developer has uploaded a new trailer showcasing Mega Man with "Rush Boots" and iconic weapons like the Metal Blade and Leaf Shield. He can also use the classic Rush Coil to launch aerial attacks. Extra gameplay footage was captured during a Livestream, which is available above. You can also catch the developers discussing the collaboration and showcasing more content on Twitch.

Mega Man joins Brawlhalla on September 25th, and you can play for free on on PC, consoles, and mobile devices.

52 comments:

  1. I do think megaman being in this game is a bit weird, considering it's filled with western franchises that feel kinda odd with megaman, but still cool. I'll take any megaman attention I can get at this point. Plus the animation on the trailer was pretty cool and I like that they kept the mm11 art style.

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    1. Castlevania, Tekken and Street Fighter are not western franchises.

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  2. To put it short in in terms of Brawlhalla gameplay: He's a skin for Vivi.

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  3. Might as well just play Smash Bros instead at this point.

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  4. …Eh, the way they reinterpreted Leaf Shield is kinda cool. That’s about the nicest thing I have to say, haha.

    Man, even if we’re stuck with Mega Man 2 weapons, is it too much to ask for better Air Shooter representation? Underrated weapon, imo.

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    1. It would be nice to see some of the other weapons.

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    2. @Jack Spore
      Was that supposed to be Air Shooter? I thought it was Top Spin. Versions of Flame Sword and Power Stone appear to be in there, too.

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    3. There was no Air Shooter, that’s the point. They even showed the U Air, the same move it was in Smash, and it’s just generic shooting!

      And I think Power Stone is just a taunt, unless it was interrupted by Top Spin As a Dash Attack Again.

      IDK, its just Mega Man in a game like this is like Kirby in Smash, where there’s so many other attacks and abilities throughout the series, you could easily make several other characters’ worth of move sets just from official games. It’s why Gooey was one of my favorites in SSB Crusade. So, it’s disappointing that this looks mostly like a SSB4 retread as far as weapon choices go.

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  5. I was thinking about this yesterday. It's just Megaman? No Protoman? No Bass? No Roll? (I can dream.) This is really cool and all, still, but… only the one character?

    Well, maybe in a later patch…

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  6. It has been repeated that all these dlc/app collabs and merch is part of a multimedia marketing strategy to increase exposure and generate greater interest in Mega Man but I just can’t help but feel this approach just doesn’t make sense. If multimedia exposure is the plan it has to have a bigger footprint.

    I just saw the new trailer for the Devil May Cry Netflix anime. That’s the kind of juice Mega Man needs if you want people to see him. Capcom already employs this approach with a ton of the other IPs. They could just do something like that I feel. Is his appearance in Brawlhalla really gonna move the needle much?

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    1. It’s just Capcom being out of touch as usual with their ways to “generate interest”, all of the legacy collections and 11 selling well didn’t even get them to see there is still demand for Mega Man games. What more do they expect at this point?

      I agree with you though, a proper well made animated series that stays true to the source material would really give the series more exposure but Capcom doesn’t want that.

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    2. I have to agree unfortunately.

      There's nothing wrong with these kinds of collabs, but by themselves they can only do so much, barring crossing over with something that is huge and generates a lot of attention on its own like Smash. But there aren't many things on that level, and even then they didn't exactly do a particularly good or timely job capitalizing on that.

      It feels like their efforts are kind of... sporadic? For lack of a better term. That and if they insist on going through with the live action project for Mega Man that was announced years ago while Devil May Cry is the series to get an anime, I feel like there may still be a disconnect between Capcom and understanding the strengths and appeal of Mega Man. Could be wrong about that though.

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    3. The large assumption being that Capcom is driving the Colab. And not Ubisoft or whomever requesting characters for their product line.

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    4. Capcom are the ones who approve it in the end.

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    5. So? Thats standard for every IP ever, unless you want a lawsuit.

      If they were pushing it as some massive blitz marketing campaign, Capcom would initiate the crossover.
      If they just wanted to make a quick buck, they would allow the crossover per Ubisofts request OR initate the crossover. Your still operating on alot of assumptions. Sometimes a cameo is just a cameo.

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    6. @shrap

      You’re making a mountain out of a mole hill and changing the subject at the same time. It doesn’t matter who requested it. MM is in it. It is exposure regardless. The original commenter already said it has been communicated (repeatedly, since everyone gets into an argument about it every time it’s brought up) that Capcom is engaging collabs like this on purpose as part of a broader marketing strategy for the IP. It is not unreasonable to assume Capcom would consider “IP exposure” as one of the pros to a collab like this.

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    7. @OP
      It keeps being repeated because it is a delusion. It all boils down to just "Trust me, bro". They try to make it seem like there's this huge marketing push when in reality nothing different from every year or month has happened. There isn't a single official statement from Capcom for such a push or at the very least, the possible evidence of a push for multiple merchandise and crossover deals happening in the same month, but even then in this case it would be speculation. I mean, crossovers? Those aren't that uncommon to any game franchise. And merchandise? Do you know of a single franchise that doesn't have merchandise? These copers don't care about the franchise, they just care about their stupid cope theories and claim they were right if they ever turn out to be right. When the next month or the next game convention comes and inevitably nothing happens, they proceed to project their disappointment attacking fans especially if they're engaging fans with the most minimal of complaints and blindly defend every single decision Capcom has made as if they are infallible or couldn't simply trying to make a quick buck. They are lying to themselves.
      "You have done that yourself."

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    8. "MegaMan will appear in various forms" - Capcom, literally two months ago to INVESTORS.

      There's your official statement. And again, we have all the sales numbers to back up the giant push. You have four million plus selling MegaMan games under five years-- that has never happened before.

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    9. You straight up made up that quote. This is what was actually said:
      "Mega Man is one of our highly-valued IPs and we are considering how to create games for it
      on an ongoing basis."
      Nothing about appearing in various forms and slightly related but just because they are considering it doesn't mean there's anything in development, in fact, it doesn't even mean they have an idea set in place.

      There was a another question, but it wasn't Mega Man specific:
      "Will the results of the Capcom Super Elections influence what titles you develop in the
      future? I would like you to consider releasing new titles in popular series, not just remakes of
      existing games."
      "We value all our IPs and are thinking of ways to utilize them not only in games but in other
      media as well. As games, we think the gameplay and specific appeal that an IP holds are
      important and we take a multifaceted approach to our games, including not only new titles
      and remakes, but also ports and collections as well. Going forward we will continue to
      consider how to leverage our IPs, working so that a wide range of players can enjoy these
      games worldwide. Thank you for your valuable opinion."
      Which again the marketing has been no different that the previous year.

      A marketing push doesn't have to be related to sales numbers.

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    10. An actual investor who attended the event said that Capcom said that: https://x.com/ponkotsu_s_taro/status/1803738302731935892?t=gazmYpdWtnOUmX6aYlV6vg&s=19

      The Capcom investor press statements leave out information that doesn't get right to the point. They sanitize the public reports and leave out things that they feel won't make an impactful statement when publicized.

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    11. Protodude has also tweeted about Capcom’s IP exposure strategy and method on twitter as well.

      Again, the original commenter isn’t asking IF the marketing is happening at all. They’re asking whether this method (multimedia collabs and merch) is effective. So far most of us agree it isn’t.

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    12. But that's the point. It has been effective. Cross promoting MM into other properties has exposed it to bigger audiences, hence why most of the MM games after Smash have been million sellers whereas everything before has been 200,00 to 30 thousand units alone. It's the sales data that matters, that's the point. And the point that people continue to gloss over is the exposure directly related to the sales of MM games over long periods of time, hence they keep selling even after release. It's the back catalog strategy, even without new games, the constant exposure drives interest in people to buy the back catalog.

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    13. @3:48 PM Just give it up bro. The pessimistic "Capcom will never make another game" crowd have their hands clasped over their ears and blindfolds on. They're living in their own little world where they believe garbage like Capcom hating Mega Man and fans of the series and are deliberately doing everything in their power to spite us. They hand wave away the mountain of evidence to the contrary based on their own subjective standards backed by nothing but their own emotions. Quite literally, X9 could be announced tomorrow and these people would come up with reasons to say it doesn't count as a real game because it's not exactly what they wanted, and that somehow actually we're still waiting for a "real" new game to come out. They've already decided they're never going to be satisfied with this series ever again and do everything in their power to drag the rest of us who still have optimism for the franchise down to their level.

      It feels like dealing with the Sonic fanbase immediately after Sonic 06 all over again.

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    14. Mega Man had million sellers before Smash. In the same series that all the million sellers have been in after Smash as a matter of fact. Classic, X, and Battle Network. Don't get me wrong, I definitely think something like Smash helped get eyes and attention on the series, but hardly anything can compare to Smash in scale. Saying the cross promotion has lead to a bigger audience seems like a bit of a stretch. For example I don't think appearing in a game as poorly received as Funko Fusion has done anything for the brand. Anything positive anyway.

      Especially since a lot of these things are happening now when there aren't any new games to buy to gauge how effective these things are. Thinking about what started the brief resurgance that the series had, what else aside from Smash happened around then that could have really contributed to the sales of the Classic and X Legacy Collections and 11?

      As long as it keeps working out, it's fine. Mega Man has always had potential to be a consistent million seller that Capcom has only tapped into from time to time in the past.

      But at some point Capcom has to actually do something with the franchise themselves. You can't release one new game every decade, pump out merch and let anyone who wants to license the thing have it, and call that a strategy until the well dries up. I mean, you can. But I don't think it's a great strategy for the long term health of the franchise.

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    15. Million sellers in the past, but YEARS between. We're talking within five years, every piece of software has hit a million or more. MMBNLC sold over a million in two weeks! That's the growth we're talking here, representative of spacing out releases and growing mind space in people to get interested in the character. You better believe Capcom will stick to one new, NEW game in a while because it works for all their other major IPs.

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    16. Honestly, 4:29 is right. It’s total corporate desolation, but it’s true.

      Just, like, could you guys make a *new* game every now and then? That’s actually something I like about SEGA’s current strategy with Sonic: good variety of main series, outsourced games, and *occasionally* an overpriced collection (though honestly, Sonic Origins makes the LC’s look like bargains, haha).

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    17. The Zero collection didn't hit a million. That series also never hit a million in the past.

      And again, where did that growth come from? Smash alone? There wasn't really much else going on with Mega Man at the time. Smash was basically the one bit of good news in that wave of cancellations and Capcom talking about potentially being done with the series for good.

      I'm more inclined to believe the audience was always there and largely rallied themselves, because there's not much reason for those early games during the resurgance to have sold as well as they did otherwise.

      Also I don't know about that last claim. Resident Evil has seen yearly releases for a while now, and while there are remakes thrown in there, it would feel disingenuous to not call at least one of those new. Games like Street Fighter and Monster Hunter get constant content updates in place of new games. If Capcom wants to do something like that for Mega Man I'm all for it as well. Better than the nothing going on now.

      There's taking your time to pace things out, and then there's releasing one new game in 15 years. That's hardly comparable to the time between their other major IPs. At some point, it feels less like a long term strategy and more like cope for neglect.

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    18. I'd say Mega Man actually sold better in the past (pre Smash) considering. One, since there were less platforms for its million unit sellers to perform on. Two, the gaming landscape was much more niche especially in regards to games like Mega Man, with a cartoony anime aesthetic (which itself was less popular back then on account of lacking global mainstream status) that wasn't necessarily universally casual family approachable (like something like Super Mario). Lastly but most importantly the games were full priced games that were treated like major tent-pole releases, not lower priced budget entries even though their budget wasn't all that big to produce in the first place.

      Heck, Mega Man 2 was basically bonus profit for Capcom, since they put next to no budget in the development (treating it more like the team's side passion project) and made a huge return on it.

      With the inflation of not only currency but the gaming industry and many more competing games, selling slightly better than older games at reduced prices or with multiple volumes to cross the million unit mark... doesn't sound all that promising. Don't get me wrong, it could be worse, Mega Man is not Castlevania, Goemon, DarkStalkers or something levels of dire, it's just no Monster Hunter, Splatoon or Legend of Zelda levels of healthy either.

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    19. @12:49

      I get what you're saying, but I don't know how much merit there is to that sort of "relative" thinking, for lack of a better way to describe it.

      I do think people underestimate how well Mega Man has sold in the past, given the budget the games had for development and promotion (or lack thereof). It feels like some people put blinders up to anything that doesn't sell one million or more, regardless of scope and scale. Seeing how many people compare things to the sales of things like Nintendo's franchises as if that is an easy bar to reach is a misconception I feel comes up too much in those kinds of conversations.

      That said, I wouldn't undersell how well recent Mega Man games have sold either. The first Legacy Collection is the go to I think of. There's no reason that game should have sold as well as it did, when you consider what it is, how it was promoted, and the way Capcom was handling the series at the time. But it did anyway. To me when you look at that AND how the games of the past have sold, it feels like there's a lot of potential with the series (and again, if you ask me, potential that it had always had).

      Whether Capcom will actually do a good job of capitalizing on that potential remains to be seen. Unfortunately if you look at Capcom's history with that, well... I wish there was more reason to be optimistic.

      Also as a small aside I've never really thought to compare Mega Man to Castlevania before. That's interesting. I would say Castlevania has had bigger games than Mega Man in the past, but as to which one has a more promising future, I can't really say.

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    20. Both Mega Man and Castlevania are begging for new games. They’re both beloved legacy franchises and they deserve that.

      To circle back to what the OG commenter said about exposure via animated show: Castlevania actually has a current animation tie-in and it’s well received. At the very least, the general public has an avenue of visibility into what Castlevania is and can see how cool it is without having to make sporadic collab/merch licensing deals all over the place. It definitely seems more effective plus just watching the show is self serving. Just watching the show I think can convert non-fans into new fans easier than what Capcom is doing.

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    21. @2:00
      If that account is a legit investor and what he wrote down is verbatim then it is not looking good. Those are notes wrote by him.
      ロックマン新作は? →色んな形で出してるで、これからも大事なIPよ
      It translates roughly to:
      "Is there a new Rockman work?" Work does mean game in this context.
      "It's been released in various forms, and it's an important IP from now on."
      It doesn't say that it will be released in various forms, but that it HAS BEEN released in various forms. It's also very concerning when they were asked about a new game they changed the topic to various forms of media instead because it means that all those past anons from months/years back that stated that Capcom cares more about the marketing aspect than the games themselves were right all along. If they would've said something like "there will be more works and in addition the IP will be released in various forms" it would've been much less concerning. You can tell they are notes because of this:
      →適切なプラットフォームで出していく(←たぶん スペックの問題なんかな?)
      "→Release it on the appropriate platform (←Maybe it's a spec issue?)" The parentheses part is him guessing.

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    22. Personally I'm holding out hope for something being announced for the first year of Switch 2. If Mega Man doesn't show up then, I'm throwing in the towel.

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    23. I'm curious about that "Switch 2"... It's about the only system I am interested in anymore.

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    24. @1:00 pm, we don’t even know what kind of system Nintendo is eventually going to announce within the next year or two. As things look now, you are just going to end up disappointed keeping that hope for a new game, Capcom has no idea what to do with the franchise anymore.

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    25. @12:39pm

      It makes sense since as another commenter mentioned; these collabs seem a bit sporadic. It doesn’t FEEL like all these licensing ventures are really building up to anything. It’s been so long it really does just feel like brand leverage for extra cash.

      @1:00pm

      I’m in an adjacent boat. I figured based on the ransomware leak schedule we’d get a MM announcement soon since it seems like most of the games have more or less been releasing in order they were listed (despite the actual dates being delayed due to Covid). Taisen was listed on the release timeline in and around the time Dragons Dogma 2 was supposed to come out. So I was expecting Taisen to get announced next but I’m biting my tongue on that now lol.

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    26. I'm a huge Castlevania fan, and I think that Netflix show is a huge bastardization of the source material. It took people a while but the general sentiment is starting to shift toward seeing that now. In the long term I think that show will end up damaging the brand more than helping it, especially long after the normie honeymoon phase is over (it's already causing a fracture).

      Also I wasn't comparing Castlevania to Mega Man per say, I was just giving some examples of games that are in worse and better positions.

      "I would say Castlevania has had bigger games"

      They use to have Castlevania: Lords of Shadows at 1.77 million units and the Original at 1.56, but in general Mega Man outsells Castlevania, It has higher average sales and more peaks with much more million unit sellers.

      Also worth mentioning Castlevania: LoS was a monumental project with a huge budget and push relative to what it sold. While Mega Man 11 at 2 million units right now got there with a budget price, it also got there with a budget development and marketing.

      I am not dogging on Castlevania BTW, it is my second favorite video game franchise right after Mega Man. To me sales figures are only a means to an end when it comes to evaluating my favorite things. In other words it doesn't inform me of my personal perception of its quality, it just lets me know somewhat what I can reasonably expect from it in the future in terms of developments.

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    27. AnonymousSeptember 23, 2024 at 1:55 PM
      All hints are that it's a Switch with juiced up specs. I don't expect anything that extravagant.

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    28. @AnonymousSeptember 23, 2024 at 3:20 PM
      Oh I stopped watching after Season 2. The first season was good. The 2nd was a HUGE disappointment. I wont watch the rest.

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    29. @3:20

      FWIW, I took “bigger games” as “games with more budget/marketing.” Like, Castlevania 3 is undoubtedly more epic and polished than Mega Man 3, arguably the same could be said for CV2, even though it’s crap. Not to mention the Japanese versions were even fancier with extra sound capability and saving. Compared to NES Mega Man, which overall was “quantity over quality” and bordered on shovelware at times, CV releases were more like events. CV 4 was even a launch title for SNES, doing everything it could to show off the new graphical power.

      Though it’s not all apples to apples. Like sure, Castlevania didn’t use the same character sprites for 6 games, but it didn’t have to come up with 8 new weapons every year either (good 10 years before they added new weapons after CV1, maybe sooner if you count the spear dude in Bloodlines). And Castlevania strikes me as a series more popular in the west than Japan, if adopting the American name in the GBA era is any clue.

      …This is very off topic.

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    30. @Anonymous September 23, 2024 at 3:20 PM
      Figures that it was a bastardization all along. From the few scenes I've seen it came off as mocking the games(the characters particularly) and more like a subversion. Netflix alone was a huge red flag so I've never fully checked it out and honestly the only thing they had their hands on that wasn't horrible was that Invader Zim one off.

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    31. I think the whole Smash thing is exactly backwards. Companies are allowed to get their IPs to cameo in Smash because they were already popular and their owners were willing to pay a hefty price to be able to get a part of the profits from the sales.

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    32. @1:55 PM
      I'm aware that may be true, but I'm willing to accept that. That's just where I'm going to personally draw the line. If they don't take advantage of the Switch 2 launch they will have missed too many opportunities for me. That's not to say the series won't have more success or continue to grow in the future, but at some point I'll just be left thinking about where it could be, rather than where it is.

      @3:20 PM
      Oh, I'm sorry. I should have specified. When I said "bigger" I meant in terms of scope, production, things like that. Not raw sales. Though I appreciate the information, and I agree about your point on the profitability of the games relative to their budgets.

      @6:37
      I think that's fair to a point, after all Mega Man got into Smash because he was the 2nd most requested 3rd party character after Sonic. If it had been up to Capcom, I don't doubt they would have picked someone like Ryu before Mega Man.

      With that said, I think the idea is more focusing on the added exposure side of things, rather than focusing on making something unpopular into something popular.

      Mega Man may have been a popular enough choice to get in already, but there are still plenty of people who play Smash who may have never really known or thought about Mega Man before his appearance in it, for whatever reason. Ultimate has sold over 34 million units at this point. That's a lot of eyes and probably got at least a few people interested. How big the effect has been is pretty much impossible to gauge though.

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    33. Castlevania has its fair share of reused assets, but I don't think that's necessarily bad in any case. It's more important if the context makes the reused assets look lame or lazy more than reusing assets themselves. For example MMx6 resused the least amount of assets between X5 and X6 yet people still think X5 is the more quality product.

      Mega Man 3 is one of my favorite games and I don't think any of the NES Mega Man games border on shovelware. Mega Man games on NES in general are some of the best and most fun I have on that console. The only thing reused in the NES MM games were Mega Man, Mets (I think) Wily's human sprite.... And that's it. Even then they had added features like Rush Armors, extra animations, new machines etc etc everything else from stages, music to bosses and weapons were all totally from scratch.

      Super Castlevania IV is eventful sure, but not enough to say it was quality over quantity against Mega Man X-Mega Man X3 which are both quality and quantity. Not to mention Dracula X (which is a mishmash of Rondo) and Bloodlines in comparison to Mega Man 7 (which happened the same year as X3 and shortly after X2) and Rockman&Forte.

      My point is Mega Man has been keeping up with the quality of Castlevania while also producing more games. It's not either or. Both had their share of excellent titles and mediocre to bad titles but overall I am a Mega Man fan first and foremost, so I might be biased in accessing this.

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    34. There's still no correlation between 11 and smash.

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  7. Not gonna lie, I think he looks kinda weird in this. Particularly when he has the really beefy Mega Buster. I'm not really sure how I feel about the aesthetic of Brawlhalla in general.

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    1. I was waiting for someone to say that. Yeah, I feel the same way. Looks visually unbalanced.

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    2. Like he'd fall over if he had that while just standing. It's weird looking.

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    3. I don’t like how he looks in this either.

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  8. This looks really bad. Not sure how anyone can defend this. I know how Brawlhalla works and all but this just doesn’t make sense too add Megaman too.

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    1. Agreed, I'd rather just play Super Smash Bros Ultimate.

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