I am fans of both series, but I'm a fan of the Mega Man series longer. I liked how Megaman X4 looked last time (that was my first Mega Man game), and my favourite Mega Man series by far is the Megaman Zero series. With the exception of the Legends and Starforce series, I've played (and beaten) at least one game from every Mega Man series.
So, when I saw who developed this title, it was no surprise to me. I subscribed to a Youtube channel called 'Cross Counter TV', which is a channel formed by the team Cross Counter, and is mainly about fighting games. While most videos from them are from CC US, some of them were from CC Asia, a subgroup consisting of top fighting game players in Singapore. At one point, they had a CC Asia intro, which was an 8-bit Mega Man-like style of animation with chiptune music playing at the background. This intro was done by the same person who did SFXMM - Seow Zong Hui, a Singaporean. He's also responsible for the 8-bit remix of EVO Moment 37.
For a Mega Man game made by a fan, it's actually quite good in my opinion. The jumping, shooting, and sliding all feels like Classic Mega Man games, and the fan did all the physics of the game by himself. The roster for the eight bosses also feels right, having at least one representative from every main Street Fighter series.
One thing unique about the boss is that they have a Super meter next to them that builds up when they get hit. And when it's full, the boss could execute their super where the camera zooms in to them like when a character does an Ultra Combo in Street Fighter IV.
Defeating all bosses will automatically take you to the final boss stage, where the first battle is with Balrog (Boxer), followed by Vega (Claw). Next, the boss rush, and finally, a final battle with M.Bison (Dictator). However, if you have gotten 4 perfects or more (by having full health when the boss is defeated) from bosses prior to entering the boss rush stage, you'll encounter Akuma/Gouki, who will kill of M.Bison while you're fighting him halfway, and the sentence 'Here Comes A New Challenger' appearing on the screen.
While I have not fought Akuma before, I know that his super meter is always full, and his super, Wrath of the Raging Demon (or Shin Shungokusatsu) will kill Mega Man in one hit. It's cool that they have a secret boss in a Mega Man game since this is a Street Fighter thing.
Anyways, I should have a brief summary of what I think of the game.
Pros:
- Unique boss fights. Bosses in this game have a much more different attack pattern that can't be abused that often. Just like a fighting game, no characters will to the same attack over and over again.
- More flexible ladders. In the Urien and Vega stage, we get introduced to ladders that we can use to ascend, but in a more flexible way (as in we can move left and right since the ladder is wide).
- Balrog's fight. It's a first in the Classic series. Instead of fighting the boss in the end, you encounter him in the beginning, where you must run away from him or he'll one shot you with his punch. The method of winning him is unique too (though it seemed too cheap and easy), which is to let him fall into a pit.
- It has plenty of secrets. Like Mega Man able to do the Hadouken without getting Ryu's power, getting Yang's Seiei Enbu Super (also known as V-ism in SF Alpha) permanently, changing the stage's them to Guile's theme, or even making Mega Man helmetless. This game has some hidden secrets here and there.
- It's a crossover game. Fans of both series will get to enjoy it.
- It's free. Also, if you like the soundtrack (which is pretty good), you could also get it for free.
Cons:
- You can't save. So if you want to beat the game you have to beat the game in one sitting.
- Stages may be glitchy. E-tanks are sometimes found in random places in the stage that doesn't make any sense.
- Difficulty spike from stage to the boss battles. This is mostly because the bosses does not have a proper attack pattern and some of their moves deal a lot of damage. While an experienced gamer might be able shrug it off, novices can't. Also, the Vega boss fight is one of the hardest in the game.
- The controls. Some people think that Classic Mega Man games should be played on consoles as using a keyboard to play the game feels weird. The good news is that if you have a PS3 controller or any controller that has a USB port, you could use it instead of a keyboard. For me, I have a PC gamepad by Logitech, so I don't really experience this.
Overall, SFXMM is a really good game, considering that it started off as a holiday project by Seow Zong Hui. I would highly recommend this to any Mega Man fan. It's worth playing if you have the time.
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