Ariga Talks Mega Man Gigamix

For those eagerly awaiting the North American arrival of Mega Man Gigamix, Comic Book Resources recently published an exhaustive interview with Hitoshi Ariga -- a read that'll surely keep you appetites whet. The interview covers practically everything one could ever want to know about Gigamix, from designs to plot lines. Also, what's an Ariga interview without some gnarly sample pages? They've got that too.

I usually post portions of interviews here, but there's simply too much to choose from this time! Head on over to Comic Book Resources and give it a read!

Mega Man Gigamix Volume 1 is expected to hit the U.S on May 18th, 2011. Thanks to Udon's own Matt Moylan for the heads up!

Legends 3 Devroom Goes On Hiatus

In the wake of the natural disasters that hit Japan, the Mega Man Legends 3 Devroom is going on an indefinte hiatus until further notice. Coming from Devroom web planner Kinako:

"Starting now and continuing for a little while, we will be taking a break from posting Devroom updates, including the Kinako Daily Reports. Events currently in progress will cut off according to original planned schedule (Twitter Event, etc), and I will let you know how things will proceed from there as soon as it's decided."

The decision to halt Devroom operations is due to the recent events currently taking place in Japan, namely, the disasters of the Tohoku and Kanto regions. It remains to be seen if the hiatus will affect the U.S side of things, which includes the Mega Man Legends Game Club and promo-contest.

On a related note, as of this writing, Capcom still intends to hold the public Mega Man Legends 3 demo event in Akihabara despite canceling a plethora of other events. I'll be sure to let you know if I hear otherwise, but at this moment, it's still a-go.

Hitoshi Ariga Shares Condolences For Quake Victims

After months of silence, Hitoshi Ariga, author and illustrator of Mega Man Megamix and Gigamix manga, returned to the blogosphere -- a return brought on by a sense of duty in light of Friday's catastrophe in Japan.

As a man who's spent much of his career drawing heroes, Ariga felt compelled to publicly share his condolences for the earthquake/tsunami victims, saying that the country bared witness to the rise of many heroes -- people, everyday people, being heroes in the hearts of others, especially in the hard hit areas of Japan.

Yet, there are some who found solace from the likes of fictional heroes -- heroes such as Mega Man. A young fan named Aya Takeshi sent Ariga a message following the events of Friday, saying he found comfort from Gigamix, more so, Mega Man himself. Inspired by the actions of the Blue Bomber, a selfless hero who fights for the weak and refuses to bow to the whims of injustice, Takeshi expressed his desire to protect the future from similar catastrophes. Ariga was, for lack of a better word, touched.

Takeshi's words helped Ariga escape a depression bought on by the destruction that ravaged much of Japan. Inspired, Ariga's asks those able to help those in need during these dark days; protect the young and old, help in whatever ways possible; become a hero in the heart of another. It is through through these selfless acts, he believes, that true progress to rebuild the nation can begin.

Realizing there are many people in Japan in need of a distraction, Ariga has chosen to hold a coloring contest with Megamix and Gigamix postcards as prizes. Though not explicitly stated, the contest appears to be aimed at children who need something to do to in order to stay occupied -- an escape from the harsh reality that surrounds them. Children can choose to color from three hi-resolution lineart images of Rockman Remix's front and back cover, each with a varying degree of difficulty (Easy, Normal and Hard Modes). You can check those out in the above link.

This is, undeniably, an immensely generous gesture on Ariga's part. Overseas fans cannot (and probably shouldn't) participate, however, it's an event that's worth some mad props, regardless.

Even in the bleakest of days, Mega Man can still remain someone's hero.

(Thanks, Rock Miyabi)

Mega Man Legends Game Club Is Live

Capcom Unity's first ever Mega Man Legends Club is streaming today, which began a short while ago. Viewers are encouraged to join in on the fun and chat with the Capcom crew via Ustream as they play through the first MML.

Further streams will occur every now and then, so do check the channel often!

They Call Him Pepsi Man

For the last year or so, PepsiCo of France has been seeking to find a talented individual to star in an upcoming Pepsi commercial. The contest, currently airing on TV, garners all kinds of musical talent from across the country. One such fellow, going by the name of Pepsi Man, chose to woo the judges with his rendition of Okkusenman -- the ever popular, Mega Man 2 inspired meme that refuses die.

If Pepsi Man, aka Jerome, wins the contest, he'll be singing Okkusenman on French TV later this year, in a commercial of his very own.

Maybe not the most talented, but the guy's got a lot of heart... that and he's a Mega Man fan. C'mon, how neat would it be to see Okkusenman forever immortalized in the form of a Pepsi commercial?

If you'd like to support him, simply click on the vote icon on the direct feed version here.

Thanks for the tip, Emmanuel!

Six-Year Anniversary of Rockman Theatrical Film

Six years ago today, the first (and currently only) Rockman theatrical film graced silver screens in Japan. Rockman EXE: The Program of Light And Darkness is nothing short of a series milestone.

The film, an adaptation of the Rockman EXE Stream television series, released in theaters back in 2005, billed alongside the Duel Masters feature film, Curse of the Deathphoenix. Original assumed to be a true-blue crossover, the movie is, for the most part, stand-alone, with a plot based heavily around the happenings of Rockman EXE Stream. As such, the film didn't see an international release as Stream was never dubbed nor syndicated outside of Japan by ShoPro/Viz.

Despite the lack of an (official) international release, the film was a moderate financial success domestically. By year's end, The Program of Light And Darkness went on to garner $7,606,77 at the box office, even beating out the likes of other populated animated features at the time such as Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: A New Translation. 

The film's success is due in part to a decent sized marketing campaign headed by Capcom. The publisher released a series of official goods and paraphernalia to raise awareness for the film, even going so far as to produce a limited edition version of the then-latest game in the series, Rockman EXE 5.  Dubbed, "Rockman EXE 5: Movie Edition", the game was a re-packaged version of Team Colonel, bundled with some nifty extra goodies, complete with an all new slip on on box cover. Today, the game remains as one of the most sought after collectibles.

For English speaking fans, an unofficial subbed version of the movie is widely available online via Torrent and video streaming sites. Interestingly, Capcom nor Xebec have not taken action against this freely available version. A quick Google search can yield to some surprising results.

Now six-years later, The Program of Light and Darkness proudly stands firm as the only official Rockman movie released in theaters. The lifelong dream for some of us, seeing the Blue Bomber on the big screen, finally came to fruition.  But, let's be honest, this isn't quite the film adaption many were hoping. When word originally hit the scene that Capcom was in the midst of producing a Mega Man film, many, and I mean MANY fans at the time were expecting something along the lines of a classic series movie. Alas, fate had other plans.

With Capcom gearing up to take on Hollywood once again with a new Resident Evil and Devil May Cry films, perhaps we may yet see the Blue Bomber's return to theaters.

Grab Those GBA Mega Man Games While You Can

Looking to snag yourself a used copy of Mega Man & Bass from GameStop?  Well, you might want to act fast -- the Game Boy Advance is on the way out.

With the Nintendo 3DS rapidly approaching release in North America, GameStop is preparing to phase out all GameBoy Advance-related content very, very soon.  Come April 2nd, the retailer will cease all trade-ins for GameBoy Advance systems and games; this according to sources at Joystiq.

The GBA is home to MANY Mega Man games -- sixteen titles, to be precise (that includes multiple versions).  Used copies of most are plentiful, but after April 2nd stock won't be replenished; once they're gone, they're gone.  That said, now might be a good time to run out and pick up any games you've missed in the past, especially those that don't have their own Nintendo DS collection counterpart (i.e Battle Network!).

There's also been some talk of a GBA clearance sale in the future, but nothing's official yet. In any case, it'd be wise to keep an eye out.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to secure a copy of Battle Chip Challenge.

Aero's English Voice Debut

For now, worry not about the fate of Legends 3. Instead, why not have a listen to some clips of Aero's English voice?

Tonight's Devroom update once again focuses on the voice recording session of series newcomer Aero -- this time, however, composer Reo Uratani discusses the process of sound mixing and editing dialogue. Headlining the post, brief samples of both Aero's English and Japanese voices, each fine-tuned to fit a number of different effects (echoes, radio-wave, etc.).

At the moment, I can't embed the samples in the post so you'll have to check 'em out at the Devroom here. Again, they're very brief, but long enough for us to draw comparisons between the two actresses' performances. Aero's English voice is... a little different than I expected. Don't get me wrong, it sounds great thus, but perhaps a little deeper than I imagined.

Capcom is still hush-hush on who exactly is providing the voice of English Aero, but I'm sure one keen-eared fan will probably narrow it down to a few individuals.

Full story at Capcom Unity!

Mega Man Legends 3 Facing Greenlight Troubles

Recently, the Mega Man Legends 3 staff have been very vocal on their quest to get the game green-lit, keying fans in on the trials and tribulations of the process. The "out-of-the-blue" nature of these posts, a general feeling of uncertainty about the game's future from the staff, took many by surprise as we were certain Legends 3 was a sure fire thing. This, however, isn't necessarily the case.

In an interview with Siliconera, Capcom USA's Seth Killian provided some insight behind these recent developments:

"It’s been really cool, but it’s been kind of scary in a lot of ways also. Just recently we had a post where the team talked about how the game hasn’t been greenlit," says Killian.  "They were saying like ‘well, we got an extension, so we’re going to keep working on the game.’ Does this mean it’s actually going to be made? Not 100% and that’s true. It’s kind of weird because we were talking about it internally and maybe we shouldn’t say that. It’s sort of a weird message or maybe it will upset some people. And it did actually upset some people."

[...]

"But, the team really does has this idea that they want to share things with people for real. And they did. There is a chance that we won’t see the game for real, but we are all crossing our fingers. That’s the real story of game development, they get canceled all the time."

I wholeheartedly believe if there was even the slightest doubt that things wouldn't turn out okay, Capcom would immediately cease all Devroom operations -- they haven't. And, hey, let's not forget the playable demo hitting Japan at the end of the month; if things were truly bleak, a highly publicized demo wouldn't be happening.

Still, this is unsettling -- scary, almost, as this is a project many have been waited 10+ years for (myself included). To get our hopes up then suddenly drop it all just like that would be nothing short of unfortunate -- a tragedy. But what can we, the fans, do from behind our desks and monitors? Alas, we can raise our voices; encourage the development team, show Capcom we really want this to happen. A little fan-support can go a long way.

Fingers crossed, folks.

New Mega Man Tees Arrive Just In Time For Spring

Word has it numerous pop culture-centric retailers are stocking two new Mega Man t-shirts this season, each themed after Mega Man 10. They look a little something like this:

Leftmost shirt is interesting; it was once an event exclusive item, given away at past E3s, Comic-con and MM10's launch event at Nintendo World last year. It has since become something of a collector's item, usually going for a pretty penny on Ebay and the like. Thankfully, this one is a lot cheaper! The other shirt continues the tradition of sprite-based apparel with the usual cheeky one-liner. Nothing too fancy, but it'll keep you cool when the heat begins to kick it up.

Where to buy? According to a couple readers, both shirts were recently spotted in-store at Hot Topic and Spencer's. When it comes to online retailers, it looks like MyTeeSpot's got your back, both available for $19.99 USD.

Thanks to Jeni and RockX for the tip!

Udon Shows Off Battle Network, Star Force OCW Preview Pages

For your viewing pleasure, here's a nice helping of preview pics of both Mega Man Battle Network and Mega Man Star Force Official Complete works, courtesy of the Udon Entertainment crew. I've also recieved word that the former, BN OCW, will finally release next week, March 16! Star Force OCW will follow soon after in May.

All the pics and official press release after the jump.

MegaHouse Prepping Rockman Figures (Update)

I know what you're thinking: more toys? Yes, MORE TOYS.

MegaHouse manufacturers are planning to release a series of irresistibly cute Rockman-themed figures later this year under their "Game Characters Collection Mini" line. A grand total of twelve 30mm figures are being produced including Rockman, Blues, Roll, a few Robot Masters, and color Rockman varients (UPDATE: all figures revealed). The twelfth figure, shrouded in mystery, looks to be a helmet-less version of Rockman or another character of similar proportions.

According to speculation, the line may indeed be trading figures, meaning you'll be purchasing them at random (unless you buy a boxed set). MegaHouse hasn't stated this to be the case; however, past mini game characters were released in a similar manner. (UPDATE: a recent listing for a box set of twelve does seem to support the theory.)

The figures are expected to release in mid-June in Japan for 399 Yen ($4.82 USD) per figure. No word on an internationally release but, if I'm not mistaken, some of MegaHouse's products have been sold outside of Japan in recent years.

Pre-order details should be surfacing soon. Stay tuned!

Credit: The Mega Man Network, Jimb0 for new images