Zero Collection Site Gets Another Revamp (Update)

It appears Capcom Japan have gone ahead and revamped their Rockman Zero Collection website for a third time; the new page is a lot cleaner and, frankly, a bit more user friendly than previous incarnations.

Sections are now represented by a series of Resistance member's rooms:

• Ciel's room consists of storyline summaries and a streaming trailer.
• Cerveaus's room offers bios for various characters, weapons and Cyber Elfs. 
• The Game Info room details Zero Collection's latest features such as the gallery mode, mod cards, customizable controls, etc. Pretty much a summary of everything we've known about the game.
• The Download room offers nine downloadable desktop wallpapers at varying sizes. 
• The final room, Alouette's, is currently inaccessible. It's contents are unknown.

Also new to the site are special messages from the game's staff members, namely, Takeshi Horinouchi (producer), Ryota Ito (planner) and Masaya Suzuki (character designer). Hopefully, someone will get to translating those shortly! Update: Sensei Hanzo has provided a translation of the developer's messages. You can read the transcript here.

Thanks, Nemomon Nemo!

Rockman Trading Art Figures Available Now

Contrary to the June 6 release date on E-Capcom, the Rockman trading art figures are actually available now: PRC reader Ryan sends word (and photos) that his local hobby shop has already started selling the figures:

Both the individual and set of 12 figures were readily available for purchase, says Ryan. Online shops who plan on selling the figure, namely, Big Bad Toy Store and Entertainment Earth, aren't shipping them out to customers just yet, it seems. I imagine you'll be getting a shipping confirmation any day now.

In related news, Japanese consumers have begun snapping photos of the individual figures, which reveal a surprising lack of paint job quality when compared with the figures' advertised counterparts. Thought not a disaster, it's pretty surprising to see just how strange they turned out. Read up on that story over at The Mega Man Network.

Handy Dandy Rockman Card Sleeves

E-Capcom have begun taking pre-orders for a collection of 8-bit themed card sleeves, designed to keep all your business cards, trading cards and the like nice and organized.

Rockman Card Sleeve Collection Vol. 1
Rockman Card Sleeve Collection Vol. 2

Two volumes are being produced with 50 sleeves in each. Both sets are going for a cheap 525 Yen, or roughly $5.76,and are slated to ship out to customers August 6th. While the sleeve collections is currently exclusive to Japan, don't be surprised to see these pop up on import shops or even Ebay in the near future.

Happy 2 Million Hits!

I'm thrilled to announce the blog received its 2 millionth page view tonight, a milestone that deserves a big thank you! Mad props to everyone: from all my affiliates and readers and tipsters, to the folks at Capcom who've graciously featured the blog on Capcom Unity this past year; all of you guys have my sincerest thanks. A special thanks goes out to my old friend Flash Man and the late Rockman Synergy webpage, where I got my start four years ago. This is truly a combined success.

I hope to keep chugging along here every day, sharing with you the latest in Mega Man news and random cool stuff that comes my way. I've got some pretty big plans for the blog in the coming months, including a new layout (will be needing some help on that; mail me for details!), new affiliates and a couple surprises.

Thanks again. Here's to another million!

Pre-Order Bonus For Zero Collection

Capcom's giving away a series of collectible Mega Man Zero buttons when you pre-order Mega Man Zero Collection from their online store. Twenty three in all, you get two (at random) when your order ships June 8. At the moment, this looks like an online only deal and might not apply to retailers like GameStop or EBgames.

Check out all the buttons and pre-order your copy here.

Zero Collection Time Trial Event In Japan

If you happen to be in Japan, specifically Nihonbashi, Osaka on June 6 or June 10, stop on by the local Sofmap to participate in a special time trial challenge event for Rockman Zero Collection. The event has guests attempting to beat the Rockman Zero 2 "bomber" time attack mode as fast as they can. The winner receives an exclusive Zero Collection poster signed by the development staff alongside a bunch of other nooks and crannies like stickers and pens. You'll even get a Capcom branded notebook just for showing up!

If you don't live in Japan...guess this is meaningless! But hey, at least we got confirmation that Zero 2's multiplayer mode will remain intact for Zero Collection.

Source (via CapKobun)

Mega Man ZX Vol. 1 Out Next Wed; Battle Network Official Complete Works In November

Couple of announcements coming from our good friend Matt Moylan at UDON Entertainment:

First off, Matt sends confirmation that the much delayed Mega Man ZX volume one manga will be in stores next Wednesday, June 2. Online retailers should follow suit shortly after, but comic book shops are guaranteed to have it on the 2nd.

Second, UDON has officially announced Mega Man Battle Network: Official Complete Works. The art book, a compilation of official and conceptual art from the Battle Network series, is slate to release in November 2010. Press release below:

"Mega Man Battle Network reinvented the classic Capcom franchise as an exciting action-RPG, and reintroduced Mega Man to a whole new generation of gamers. Mega Man Battle Network: Official Complete Works collects the stunning artwork of all 6 Battle Network games, as well as Network Transmission and Operate Shooting Star. Inside you'll find character designs, promotional art, rarely seen pieces, and plenty of creator commentary. Mega Man Battle Network: Official Complete Works is a must have addition to any Mega Man fan's collection."

As a bonus, Matt has passed along the tentative book cover.

Many thanks to Matt for keeping us in the loop and UDON for bringing us more Mega Man goodness.

MvC3 - Another Look At Cattelox Island

Capcom released a handful of high resolution Marvel vs. Cacpom 3 screens today, a few of which offer a MUCH better look at the Cattelox Island stage from Mega Man Legends.

A couple observations:

• The youngest member of the Bonne family, Bon Bonne, can be seen floating in the water wearing his inner tube from the ending of Mega Man Legends 1.
• Looks like our previous speculations were right: Teisel and Tron are sitting on top of the Balcon Gelede mech.
• In the third screen, you can see the Gesselschaft flying by in the background.
• The tower in the background is definitely the first Ruins from MML1, although I don't remember it being that close to Cattelox.
• Third screen, there's a poster of Tron hanging off the side of a wall.
• Servbots are holding flares or something.

Again, because Tron is a background character here, her chances of being playable are slim. Traditionally, background characters in Capcom fighting games are usually limited to cameos and not necessarily playable.

Thanks, Jeff.

Logan Zawacki's 200X Product Catalog

The above blueprint is but one of 20 being featured in the 200X Product Catalog, an upcoming book by artist Logan Zawacki that compiles "cyanotype prints of Mega Man blueprints, completely bound in a format similar to what you’d find in an industrial catalog listing all the characters as if they were for sale." The prints, all illustrated by Logan, are based off of a number of Mega Man robots, specifically, various Robot Masters. Here's a little more information in Logan's own words:

"My series pays homage to Mega Man by creating blueprints inspired by the characters from the video game franchise and displaying them in the same vernacular as a common product catalog. Each character reflects the current trend in the world’s economy that employees are expendable and machines are expected to be multifunctional. The inclusion of statistics and facts with each character further enhances the propaganda-filled experience with a clearly Pro-cyborg agenda. The main goal of my series is to make people think about the current state of the economy as well as the future state of industry. If companies begin experimenting with mechanical enhancements on people, will they then own those people as an investment? Can they sell and control these mechanized people like products? At what point does an employee become a machine? Or are all my references to man-machines simply metaphors for the way we’re already treated, due in large part to the current state of our economy?"

Seems like a fascinating project, if you ask me. You can check out a couple more sample pages at Logan's official site here (click the Portfolio tab and scroll down to the catalog). The book is due out June 1st, limited to only 50 prints. You can order a copy of your very own directly through Logan's blog here.

Thanks for the tip, Stu.

Mega Man Marathon For Alzheimer's Association

Beginning June 4th at 6pm CST, The Returners will embark on a 72 hour Mega Man marathon to raise money for the Alzheimer's Association, a group that promotes research, care and support of Alzheimer's patients and raising awareness on brain health.

While the playing is happening, you'll have the opportunity to view a live stream of the action on UStream. They'll be playing through a total of 22 Mega Man games, spanning across classic, X and Zero series. Viewers are encouraged to donate funds during the marathon.

Learn more about the marathon and The Returners at their official website here.

IGN Goes Hands-On With Mega Man Zero Collection

IGN has posted up a preview for Mega Man Zero Collection and while it pretty much covers everything we've known for quite some time, it does include some spiffy new screenshots.

More screens here

The article goes on to confirm that the bottom screen will primarily be used to display relevant artwork during gameplay:

"Because these are all GBA games, the bottom screen goes completely unused. It shows some nice artwork wallpaper of the game's characters, though. And the wallpaper changes as you progress through the game. Each new one you see gets unlocked to a gallery that you can browse later."

For more details, read the full report here.  Thanks, Klavier Gavin.

Summer World Hobby Fair Dated; Will A New Game Be Revealed?

It's that time of the year again. June 19th marks the opening day of the Japanese summer World Hobby Fair, and according to 4Gamer, Capcom looks to be one of the event's main sponsors. As such, one wonders if Capcom will be following the tradition of revealing a new "Hobby-style" Rockman game at the show.

Last year, the summer WHF played host to the unveiling of Rockman EXE Operate Shooting Star. The year before, Shooting Star Rockman 3. Before that, Shooting Star Rockman 2 and so forth and so on. Taking this pattern into account, it's possible we're on the verge of the unveiling of a new EXE/SSR styled game, but this is merely speculation; don't get your hopes up just yet.

Coro Coro Comics also follows a similar tradition in that they tease forthcoming WHF Rockman announcements prior to the actual event. They haven't done so yet, but perhaps we'll hear something from latest issue, which ships mid June just before the show. Again, all speculation.