NES Streaming Live Tonight

While play Dwarf Fortress I've been listening to this list of the top 70 NES songs on repeat, and can no longer go another minute without playing some NES. The D0RFs will last, for now. Castlevania, Mega Man, and Adventure Island here I come!

Taking requests for games to play also.

It's live now @ www.twitch.tv/Robot2600

Where is Mega Man 11?

2008 saw the release of Mega Man 9, possibly the greatest installment in the entire classic Mega Man saga. Shortly after, Capcom followed up with Mega Man 10, which smoothed the formula even more.

Endless Attack modes in each provided an awesome new mode of platforming that has significant potential. You can already find about a dozen "endless attack" romhacks online. Proto Man and Bass provided the variety and challenge necessary for keeping the interest of the hardcore players. I still rank beating Mega Man 9 and 10 on hard with Protoman as some of my greatest gaming achievements.

Years later, however, I'm left wondering: where is Mega Man 11? Maybe the Wii is just coming to a close, or maybe Capcom is hesitant to continue the classic series without Inafune. Maybe that's it for Mega Man.

I recently purchased Mega Man X7 on a whim, but I've never really considered the MMX series all that great when compared with the classic NES and Wii 8-Bit adventures. 

I'm sure Starship Mega Man 55 or whatever else Capcom is putting out is equally good, but I just can't get motivated to play the other games in the series. The platforming always felt sloppy and the game always felt like it was marketed to younger kids or people seriously into techno and mohawks. Only with classic Mega Man does one need to be badass mother fucker to achieve victory, without the artificial dark and gritty "edge."

The edge comes from the game itself, and if you don't have serious nuts you might as well go cry at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

VG Music: Duane and Brando - Dragon Warrior

The Adventures of Duane and Brando were smash Internet stars for a few years. However, life, like so many other video games, got in the way. The two comedic rappers have sense gone their separate ways, but the LP of Devastation, a collection of songs using NES melodies, remains for all to enjoy.

Dragon Warrior is a perfect example of what these guys could do best: turn a classic NES song into a gangsta rap, cuss like hell, and paint a realistic portrait of what the attitudes of video game characters would be like if they existed contemporaneously.

If you like the song, check out their Zelda songs, Mega Man 2 rap, Final Fantasy rap, and just about anything else. It's all gold.

Nintendo switches downloads to Thursday, starts it off with a retro bang

Nintendo recently switched their download day from Monday to Thursday. Why? I have no idea and to be quite honest I don't really care. Lately Nintendo has been updating the VC every OTHER week (as opposed to the previous weekly updates) when they aren't busy releasing ancient tablet something-somethings.

Still, the downloads today are impressive enough for me to post about them.

First up is the Game Boy Donkey Kong for the 3DS, so finally owners of said system have something to play.

Next, Mega Man 5 hit the store today as well. Mega Man 5 is, without hesitation, my least favorite NES Mega Man. That's not an insult to Mega Man 5, that's just life.

Finally, BIT.TRIP FLUX, the final chapter in the epic BIT.TRIP saga; this WiiWare title is clearly the highlight of this week. The BIT.TRIP series is known for atari and 8-Bit aesthetics and making each entry in the series a totally different genre.

Thus far, BIT.TRIP Runner (the platformer), has proven to be an epic, instant classic. I've also played BEAT and VOID, and other entries, FATE and CORE, also exist (all together 6 games). The first entry, BIT.TRIP Beat, launched soon after I moved to New Orleans, and it's nice and symmetrical that the last part of this launched right before I move away.

Flux combines the gameplay from all other games, and hopefully finishes Commander Beat's story well. It's been nice watching all the BIT.TRIP game release, playing the ones that interested me (I just haven't had time for FATE), and watching critics appreciate and recognize good, innovative games.

BIT.TRIP probably did more for the Wii than people realize.

The entire saga is set to be released as a 3DS cart. Individual entries can also be purchased on Steam.

Start with Runner; it deserves a place in the plat-former hall of fame (as well as being the only music-based platformer I've ever played).

Commander Video's story is at an end, and with it: the Wii.

Original Mega Man Helmetless Hack

I already did Mega Man 2, so why not 1? MM1 is actually slightly harder to hack, but I think the sprite looks even better in this version than in the MM2 hack. I also changed the title screen in this one to reflect the fact that it is the Helmetless version.

Download the Mega Man 1 Helmetless rom.

Mega Man 8-Bit Death Match Secret Skins

Type the following commands into the console to unlock 5 rockin' skins:

skin megaman-hair
skin protoman-break
skin alien (MM2 Final Boss)
skin wilyskullsuit
skin auto

Mega Man 8-Bit Deathmatch Review and Download Info

Mega Man 8-Bit Death Match Review: best FPS ever. Done.

Experiencing classic Mega Man levels in 3D invokes nostalgia and awe.

Play for free, online against other players, or progress through a single player campaign mode. MM8BDM is the product of Cutmanmike and other dedicated players who clearly love Doom and Mega Man and mashed the best of both together. Cutstuff.net is the main page, but the resources are spread across a few pages. They launched a demo last summer, and the game has multiplied geometrically since then.

MM8BDM has all the potential to maintain a great longterm playerbase. This game does not get old quickly, and simple obliterates any $60 game currently on the market.

First, you need to download the main game (v1c). It's 100% free.

Although the game comes with about 80 skins, you should download a few of the more popular ones off of the wiki. Even if you don't use them, other people do, and if you haven't downloaded their skin, then they appear as Mega Man. Put all your skins into a folder "skins" under the MM8BDM directory.

Most people grab squidgy617's awesome sprite pack, he has a link in this topic to download them all at once!

Next, you probably want the I-Pack, by Ivory. It's the most recent blog post at the time of this article.

Finally, the Roboenza and Halloween expansions should get you everything you could need to play on the good online servers.

MM8BDM uses the Skulltag engine, based on Doom 2, so some of the default control setups are unintuitive. You'll absolutely have to customize your controls to use WASD keys, jump, use items, etc.

And the game is packed with all of the stages, bosses, music and items you could want from the NES Mega Man games. The rumor online is A Mega Man 9 expansion pack is in the works. Expansions and updates are released frequently. I'll post any major updates the as soon as I know about them.

I go by the handle Robot, so shout out in-game! Stop reading, start playing!