Years from now we may refer to "doing a Capcom Anniversary", with a knowing wink and nudge. For example, in a parallel universe Nintendo didn't celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Zelda franchise by releasing Skyward Sword with a special CD and a game plot right at the beginning of the timeline, but sold us Link-shaped USB memory sticks instead. And figurines. And tissue boxes shaped like Epona. But no game.
That's what Capcom pulled with Mega Man, unfortunately, giving fans lots of memorabilia to buy but no new game in the series; no, Street Fighter X Mega Man doesn't really count. But still, if you are a fan of soundtrack albums and collectibles the Mega Man anniversary has been a feast, especially if you're willing to import from Japan. One example of genuinely outstanding fan service is the Rockman X Sound Box, which is a 12-disc album featuring 490 tracks and sound samples from the Mega Man X series of games. It costs over $120 USD and has to be imported, but it's an impressive set nevertheless.
Purchases like that aren't on the cards for everyone, however, and the folks over at Rockman Corner have taken four previous unheard tracks from these albums and uploaded them to YouTube. These are as follows:
The first piece is, assumingly, an unused stage select theme. This is followed by alternate/early compositions of existing themes: Chill Penguin stage (00:48), Maverick encounter (2:21), and Sigma stage 3 (3:00).
You can listen to them below, even if you can't enjoy the other 486 tracks in the video.
[source rockman-corner.com, via destructoid.com]
Comments 7
Not half bad, but I can kinda see why they didn't make it.
See this is cool and all but it's only for Japana and costs a fortune! You don't isolate a large chunk of the fanbase like that to celebrate a 25th Anniversary.
That said this is cool and I'm grateful to get something cool like unreleased tracks.
The Capcom Unity Megaman 25th Anniversary cases for 3DS XL (Not sure about 3DS I don't remember) were reasonably priced ($20) and high quality. Surprised they were never mentioned here to be honest. (But the overpriced stuff like the figure was).
I love finding out about unused material and betas from great games of the past! It's very interesting to see what could've been. Thankfully, the MMX stage select we got, and final theme versions were better than the betas in this video. Seems that this stage select (?) theme would've fit better in the classic Mega Man series.
I feel so old, realizing this month is MMX's 20th anniversary! I remember getting it around mid/late January, '94. Ah, 1994: The Mega Man X series was born, Mega Man in general was thriving, and Capcom was a 3rd party KING! Alas, things don't always change for the better.
On a side note, there are some great 20th anniversaries this year, besides Mega Man X: Super Metroid, Donkey Kong Country, Super Punch-Out!!, Final Fantasy VI (released as FF III outside Japan, of course), NBA Jam, Saturday Night Slam Masters, Super Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat II (w/blood & fatalities on SNES 😳), and Super Return of the Jedi! Note, these are console versions of some of those, and I know some, like FFVI probably dropped in Japan in '93. And this is coming from a Super Nintendo gamer. I'm sure there were some Genesis greats too, including ports of some I mentioned. 1994 was a great year for gaming! And now, thinking of that year, Sheryl Crow's "All I Wanna Do" will be stuck in my head all night. 😝
That price is just ridiculous.
I won't be importing this but it reminds me of the Castlevania soundtrack boxed set that I did import. Each of the discs had a letter on the front of its case and altogether they spelled out "Dracula the Immortal" and I think there might have been a bonus disc as well.
That's less than $0.25 a track. lol @ complaining about the price.
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