Developed by programmer Philippe "MegaPhilX" Poulin and his team of 5, Mega Man Unlimited is a fan game that makes you wonder if Capcom should have picked this game, rather than Street Fighter X Mega Man, to take over and reproduce under their label. And considering how many reproductions of this series have been created, it's quite a statement when I say that this is one of the shiniest gems in the fandom.
"Megaman Unlimited is a Megaman fan-game in the classic 8-Bit NES style both in sound and visuals. It is similar to Megaman 3 and Megaman 9-10 in design philosophy. MMU is made by fans for fun. It is not related to the official series’ canon. We are not making money with this project, as the Megaman brand is the property of Capcom.
This project has been under development for roughly 5 years, working in our free time after work nearly every day.
While in the NES 8-Bit style, Megaman Unlimited is made using currently existing technology and thus won’t work on an NES or on an old computer. Our goal was to have fun making this game and not necessarily following every technical limitations of the NES."
Check out the trailer below and tell me that this does not look like the real deal.
This project began production over 5 years ago after the debut of Capcom's Mega Man 9 and was completed and released July 13, 2013 for Windows and Mac computers. Mega Man Unlimited initially began as an unofficial sequel to MegaMan 9 before an actual Mega Man 10 was made by Capcom. And if you didn't know any better, you would think this game was part of the series.
Review
Mega Man Unlimited has a little bit of everything:
Game Play: Sticking true to the series, the game pits Mega Man through 8 levels with a powerful Robot Master at the end. After defeating all 8 and getting their signature powers, Mega Man begins the arc in pursuit of the final boss battle. He'll be running, jumping, sliding, and shooting new and re-imagined baddies along the way.
Graphics: The classic 8-bit graphics and beautiful backgrounds are flawless. All of the Blue Bomber's animations are flawless; running, climbing, even taking damage all look natural. The background of each level adds depth to the environment with very clear graphics.
Sound: The sound track of this game is completely unique with each level having its own theme yet it still sounds like it's right out of the world of Mega Man.
Characters: The game features the regular major characters - Mega Man, the Doctors, and Proto Man are shown in the intro. There are 8 completely original Robot Masters (Trinitro Man was originally Nitro Man but had to be adjusted when Nitro Man was created by Capcom in MM 10). The game also uses the same sound effects from the true series. Support characters like Rush and Beat are usable in the game. There are also many new and re-imagined enemies that litter each stage.
Controls: This game can be played using both they keyboard and compatible USB controllers. Controls can customized in the options menu. There's also an option to set Mega Man's slide as a separate button. It is worth noting to point out that Mega Man does not have the ability to charge up the Mega Buster which is hinted at by the severed arm cannon on the title screen.
Difficulty: Unlimited has the famous difficulty seen in games like Mega Man 1 and Mega Man 9 - it's HARD. Game play isn't unfair to the point where the game becomes unplayable, but it isn't a walk in the park like most platforms in this day and age.
Per request of fans, 2 new game modes were added with update 1.10. "Easy Mode" decreases the amount of damage that Mega Man takes from hits and also nerfs some enemies making them slower or not perform certain attacks. This was also seen in Mega Man 10. Another difficulty added is referred to as "Insta-Kill Mode" which is what it sounds like - any sort of damage taken is a lethal hit for the Blue Bomber.
Issues: There is one questionable decision made by the developers that does make the game crushingly difficult. Rather than having checkpoints at major transitions in each level, there is only one checkpoint at the halfway point. This makes deaths in the game severely punishing as a lot of timely progress can be lost in an instant. So as if Mega Man games weren't frustrating enough, you're gunna need plenty of patience if your skill aren't up to par.
Overall: Unlimited is a solid game that made good use of it's 5 years in development. Bugs and glitches are almost non-existent and the game plays very smoothly even just on a standard lap-top. The visuals have that updated 8-bit feel like 9 and 10 and the music fits very nicely. The new enemies are very well done and the robot masters are quite impressive. For a 5 year project made my 5 people, this is an impressive turn out.
Considering that version 1.10 was just released, there is still plenty of reason to believe that this game many continue to be updated and improved in the near future.
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