On a very special ninetieth episode of “Barrel Roll! A Video Game Podcast”, the dolphin doctor is in, and he has a prescription for a fun blast.

What we’ve been playing this week involves Kirby in his many forms, dolphin doctor included, in Kirby’s Epic Yarn (not Yam, as Jesse would have us believe). We also talk a little about Fallout: New Vegas, Super Meat Boy, Vanquish, and DJ Hero 2.

The new Kinect games are discussed, as well as the other new games this week, and in the news Jesse and Adam’s hearts are broken by one Keji Inafune leaving Capcom. All this and much more on the latest podshow.

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Show Notes

New Games This Week

Too Many to Type. Check this out.

News

Keiji Inafune quits Capcom

Shinji Mikami to develop games for Bethesda

No X360 or Wii for Back to the Future

Mario Collection coming stateside with extra goodies in tact,  Coming Dec 12th

ShmusicUp, Shmup that generates bullet patterns based on mp3s

Music

Intro Music – “Fortuna (Star Fox)” by Main Finger

Middle Music – “Can O Salt” from Super Meat Boy by dB soundworks

Outro Music – “Fortuna (Star Fox)” by The OneUps

"Watch me outrun this van!"

Every gamer seems to be familiar with Mega Man, especially since the original series was finally rekindled with the release of Mega Man 9. Fewer, however, are familiar with his transition into the third dimension, and even out of those who did play one, or both, of the games contained in the Legends series (known as Rock Man Dash in Japan), only a portion of them responded to the game positively, while the rest weren’t able to accept such a complete and total change to the established Mega Man formula.

Needless to say, the fan-base for these 2 gems is unfortunately small in comparison to all the other games featuring the beloved “Blue Bomber”. But most of those who do appreciate it do so to a very high degree; begging for a third entry. So what is the deal with Mega Man Legends, and why should you care?

Mega Man Legends plays almost nothing like any Mega Man game before or after it (aside from the sequel, of course). If you took Mega Man and combined it with The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and a Saturday morning cartoon, this is probably what you would get. Rather than being divided in to short stages with a boss waiting for you at the end, the game has an action/adventure structure with a few RPG elements to keep things interesting.

The first game takes place entirely on Kattlox Island. Above the surface there are towns with lots of people to interact with, stores, wilderness to fight enemies in and plenty of extra areas and buildings to explore, some of which are entirely optional. While on the surface, you’ll find many entrances to underground ruins. Underground, there are numerous paths to explore. At first they feel like Zelda dungeons, even containing treasure chests in secret rooms. However, as you gain new abilities, like drilling through walls or higher jumping, the underground sections give off more of a Metroid vibe, due to the fact that each and every dungeon is actually interconnected into one massive map. Also, not all treasure is in easy to spot chests. Some treasure is hidden in cracks in walls and other hard to spot places. These treasures can be money, items, or seemingly random objects that when combined can make new weapons or equipment.

You control Mega Man from a third person perspective. You’ll start off with his trusty Mega Buster. Throughout the game, you’ll be able to buy, find and even create enhancements for it. Only a limited number of enhancements can be equipped at one time so there is a lot of customization that can be achieved to suit both your play style and the needs of the situation. Also, there are sub-weapons. You can only equip one of these at a time, but there is a nice variety to choose from, including a machine gun, bazooka, sword, laser and shield to name just a few. Rather than changing colors, Mega Man’s right arm changes to the appropriate weapon’s shape (the Mega Buster is on his left arm). Each sub-weapon can be upgraded allowing for even more customization.

Though the hardware of the original Playstation is now quite dated, there are a lot of aesthetic values that really shined. The game has an anime art style and the characters show a variety of facial expressions, especially during the many in-game cut-screens that help move the story along. There is a surprising amount of voice work in the game as well. The voices aren’t the best, but this is where the “Saturday morning cartoon” aspect comes into play. In other words, rather than making me cringe, it just comes off as endearing in its own silly way.

One of the things that make Mega Man Legends 1 & 2 such great experiences is that there is never a shortage of things to do. Both games have a plethora of side-quests and optional hidden areas to get to. There are basic dialogue trees for interacting with some of the townsfolk, allowing you to be Mr. Nice Guy or a total jackass. There is a very simple “good or evil” stat just for fun that makes your body get progressively darker colored as you engage in such activities as kicking stray dogs in the old part of town (I’m dead serious). In the first game there is even a battle early on where a boss will destroy buildings if you don’t stop it and you will have to donate your money throughout the game to be able to do any of the quests in the buildings you let be destroyed.

The people that want Mega Man Legends 3 to be made, myself included, want it BAD! Part of this is due to the fact that the second game ended on a cliffhanger. Mostly though, it’s just sad to see such a fun series only have 2 entries. It’s been brought up many times to Keiji Inafune (creator of Mega Man), but it’s just not looked at as something that would be profitable enough to justify.

Enter the Wii. Wii games (depending on circumstance, of course) can be about a third of the development cost of a ps3 or x360 game. The graphical style wouldn’t require advanced hardware to pull off successfully. It would be much easier to turn a profit, not to mention the advantage of the large install base. In order for the game to do well, however, they would have to actually put money into marketing, considering most people are unfamiliar with the previous games. Fortunately, you don’t have to be a Mega Man fan to enjoy this series. If the intro had a bit of a recap of the last 2 games, a large audience would be able to enjoy the new entry unhindered.

The controls could also benefit greatly from the Wii’s unique input devices. Aiming could be handled via pointing with the wiimote with movement being mapped to the nunchuck. Dodge rolls could be handled via a flick of the nunchuck (à la Battalion Wars 2) with a basic Z trigger lock on mechanic for circling your enemy. And with MotionPlus on the way, there are even more possibilities.

It’s hard to say whether or not Capcom will ever finally decide to continue the series. Either way, if you haven’t already played the first entry or its much improved sequel, do yourself a favor and find out for yourself why it needs to be continued.