Mega Man X

The Short

Pros
- Perfect evolution of the Mega Man formula from the NES
- New additions dashing and wall jumping add a whole new level to the series
- Stages are a perfect blend of difficulty and reward
- Replaying stages to find secrets is an absolute blast, especially since the stages are dynamic based on who you've defeated
- Controls just like the NES Mega Man games, which is to say...perfectly
- Absolutely incredible soundtrack
- Gorgeous graphics
- One of the finest platformers I'e ever played

Cons
- Stages can be a bit easy and short, while the final fortress is a massive jump in challenge
- Story is sort of non-existant
- Sigma's fortress can be a bit unfair at times
- What the heck is a "Kuwanger?"

Mega Man's back, baby! 

The Long

I have a very embarrassing confession. Despite my oft-proclaimed love for the Mega Man series, I never actually played a single Mega Man X game until only a few months ago. While I'd blitzed through all the Mega Man NES games and even the GBA Zero series, for some reason I'd avoided the Mega Man X bunch. Maybe it's because the later games looked so...weird that I avoided the whole batch all together.

I am an absolute idiot for that. 

You should listen to this during the review.

Mega Man X is a rare game. One that, all these years later, even a newcomer such as myself can only stand back in awe and sort of bask in its glory. As far as platformers go, it's one of the finest I've ever played in my entire life. As a gaming experience, it's almost transcendental. 

But enough of my flowery soliloquies and blanket statements, let's explain why Mega Man X is downright phenomenal and the very best Capcom could have done to bring it's beloved series to the 16-bit era.

Dr. Light's dead, long live Dr. Light. 

The story for Mega Man X might be it's only real weakness. Capcom made a big deal about it when developing the game and promoting it back in the day, saying they were "rebooting" the franchise with a heavier emphasis on story. In a sense, sure, there's a little more story here than the regular Mega Man games (which tend to just have an intro movie and...that's it), but in reality it still is hardly anything substantial.

Mega Man X takes place several hundred years after Mega Man 6. Dr. Light has long since passed away, and Dr. Wily isn't even mentioned. Light's final and greatest creation, X, has been revived because a new baddie, Sigma, hasa awoken and created several robot mavericks (aka Robot Masters) to cause trouble. X and his new ally Zero have to stop Sigma by sucking up the powers of the mavericks, yada yada yada.

There is maybe one or two cutscenes that deal with the idea that Light wanted X to be a friendly robot with the freedom to choose a peaceful path (though if he really did that I don't know why Dr. Light put a freaking GUN ON HIS ARM), but it doesn't get any deeper than that. Minus a few in-game scenes there is little to no plot, and the story seems just tacked on. It's nice it's there, but in truth it adds a minimal amount. 

Luckily, Mega Man X don't need no story to rock!

The core gameplay of Mega Man X is extremely similar to the NES Mega Man games, and anyone familiar with them will be able to jump right in and feel right at home. X moves at a very similar clip as Rock did, all the way down to jumping, fire rate, and charge time. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. But Mega Man X does mix things up in two very crucial ways: wall jumping and dashing.

Wall jumping is something you unlock from the start, and it completely changes the way the game is played. Rather than simply jumping and shooting, X can traverse walls and do tricky jumps by clinging and sliding off walls (as well as jump off them). This allows more levels to have trickier jumps, having more vertical-based stages that rely on climbing, and completely changes strategies for end level bosses. Being able to leap up boss walls like a monkey adds a whole slew of new strategies. 

The second ability, dashing, is also a rather dramatic change. Unlike wall-jumping you unlock it in a stage (though everybody does that particular stage first because it's the easiest boss anyway), and it in turn allows for a bunch of new changes. Dashing increases distance of jumps, can be executed any time you are on the ground (it's a short burst, not a prolonged run), and is necessary for many tricky leaps of faith. The only downside is that, since you have to get it, no stages actually require it until you get to the final Sigma stages, which feels like a slightly wasted effort. 

Plus you ride a giant punching robot suit. AMAZING. 

The stages are also different from the original Mega Man. In Mega Man, each level was broken up between sets of screens, each providing a unique but brief challenge before it would pan to the next one. This was obviously a design choice and not a hardware limitation (or so I'd think; games like Mario 2 had massive scrolling worlds), but it made the series unique. Mega Man X chucks this for a more traditional style of level: a long, streaming world to explore and backtrack. It does feel a bit weird at first, but it still has the boss doors (and you can still jump through them) so it's forgivable.

The expanded real estate also allows for yet another great improvement: replaying stages with new powerups to find secrets. As you progress, the powerups you get from bosses (and find in the world) allow access to new areas you might have missed before. Mega Man on the NES (specifically 2) did this (use Crash Bombs to get secrets) but it didn't allow you to replay it, and that wasn't part of the core experience regardless. In Mega Man X, replaying stages is almost completely necessary, as there are a plethora of secrets to find. This would be tedious in any other game, but Mega Man X plays so smoothly and the controls are so incredibly responsive it's an absolute joy to replay levels. Plus, you're all powered up, so you can stomp everything with your new weapons. 

Burn, baby, burn. 

I'm going to take a second to gush about something that's hard to express in words, and that's how incredibly good this game feels to control. Again, that's really something you can't describe but have to experience, but when a game gets it right the experience becomes so much more enjoyable. Mega Man X is probably the best controlling game I've ever played, hands down. It's so incredibly responsive, I never felt like I died or failed on a jump because of the game's fault. Jumping and falling all feel exactly how they should, momentum from your dash perfectly translating into far jumps, and wall slides are easy to master and darn satisfying when you do a tricky leap from one tiny spot to another. It's a Super Meat Boy kind of feeling, except perhaps even more so. After just a few minutes of playing I knew I was gonna love this game based on feel alone.

He's just mad 'cause he looks like a purple Boba Fett. 

The formula here is a standard one: burn through the game, kill mavericks, get their powers to kill other mavericks, replay levels to get secrets, face the final fortress. If there's anything I can complain about it's that the stages themselves (for the mavericks) aren't nearly as difficult as the ones found in the NES Mega Man games (Mega Man 2 excluded), and seem to have a weird variance in length. Some are super short, while the underwater stage feels like it drags on and on. Overall, however, they feel a lot shorter, which makes sense since they were designed to be replayed.

All this changes when you get to Sigma's fortress, which completely beats the everloving crap out of you. If you don't know the secret to charged Armored Armadillo's power, you are going to get very frustrated. Extremely hard wall jumps, plethoras of respawning enemies, and long checkpoints make it genuinely stressful to beat. However, it never reaches a point where I felt it was unfair, just challenging. Plus, if you've spent the time to prepare and find all the secrets, you'll feel vindicated as you plow through it without having to worry too much. It's several stages up in difficulty when compared to the rest of the game, sure, but the fortress is a good finisher for those wanting an old-school Mega Man challenge. 

In the year 200X, Dr. Wily created eight...hey, wait!

Graphically, Mega Man X is beautiful. It pushes the SNES to its limits with excellently designed enemies, stunning environments, and awesome effects. It does stutter a bit with framerate drops on some stages (specifically when riding the mine carts), but when it matters the game is smooth and looks absolutely incredible.

The sound design is also phenomenal, with punchy sound effects that really make you feel like you are making an impact with your mega buster. But the show-stealer is easily the fantastic soundtrack. It's just straight up insane how good this soundtrack is, rivaling anything released on the NES (even the show-stopping Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3's soundtracks). If I had any complaint it's that it is heavy on the midi-synth electric guitar (a sound I always felt the Genesis did better than the SNES), but that's really a very minor complaint for what is easily one of the best soundtracks on the system.

We're talking "Squaresoft" levels of music, here. 

As I said at the beginning, I can't believe I waited this long before finally picking up a cart of Mega Man X and giving it a spin. While it almost hurts me to say this, I really think it completely outshines the NES Mega Man games in nearly every aspect. While those games are still mind-blowingly incredible, Mega Man X is an evolution of that framework that does everything right. From the perfect controls, the satisfying levels, the gorgeous graphics and phenomenal music, Mega Man X is downright masterful. 

This is easily one of the finest platformers ever made, perhaps even the best. I'll be honest: writing this review right now I'm having difficulty thinking of one I would consider better. So, considering you can get this game at a decent price of around $20 for an SNES cart, or at the absolutely absurd price of $10 on the Wii's Virtual Console, if you are any fan of the 2D platforming genre you need to get this game.

It'll mega bust(er) its way into your heart. Yeah...I don't know what that means either.

Five out of five stars. 

"HADOKEN!"

Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters

The Short

Pros
- Fight through another batch of robot masters in a boss rush mode
- Wider arrange of masters mixed up better across multiple games
- Improved HUD and UI
- Masters actually get unique stages this time around, which is appreciated
- Enemies also get more advanced movesets when you knock down their heath, increasing the challenge
- New playable character Duo.
- Lets you actually pick the order rather than some pseudo-random thing from the first game
- Still playable co-op

Cons
- While a bit harder than the first game, it's still too easy
- Duo is stupid. Just...in general.
- Again, music doesn't match the stages
- Also again, I find Capcom's taste in robot masters questionable, as is some of their 32-bit redesigns
- Can beat the whole game in under 45 minutes

Bubble Man, your redesign is awful. 

The Long

I liked Mega Man: The Power Battles, despite giving it a low score. I mean, sure, it was a really easy game and didn't properly execute on it's awesome premise, but it's still a fun co-op romp. When I heard they made a second one (which, if I remember correctly, never made it to American arcades), I was excited to see what they'd changed between games. Maybe it would have X in it? Maybe it would actually be hard? Maybe they'd pick less stupid robot masters?

Well...Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters (great title, BTW. That was sarcasm.) is certainly a sequel, and it's certainly at least a little better than the original, but to be honest it still makes all the same mistakes. 

Those are totally the SNES sprites. 

First off let's go over the differences between this and the first Power Battles. Most everything is actually the same with a few minor nuances. Duo, that space...police...guy whose name doesn't have anything to do with music is now playable. He's bigger and slower and does more damage but has less range. Basically he sucks because he's a stupid character and besides...whenever you pick Protoman it plays his little whistle theme at the start of every battle. Why would you pick anybody else?!

Another key difference is the three scenarios. Rather than segregating the games into their own clusters, they just mix 'em all together across three unique campaigns. You can search for Wily, rescue Roll (seriously? Does she do anything useful?), or...search for parts. Um...yeah. Parts, Dr. Light? When all this other stuff is going on? Ok...

I'm just saying, the first two should probably take priority. 

Anyway, it's still just Mega Man 1-7 (no 8 here) across these missions, but at least they are all mixed up. You have a lot of recycled robot masters from the first game, but they also mixed in a few new ones this time around...and most are stupid ones. Centaur Man? Gyro Man? Bubble Man? At least we finally get Air Man up in here (aka the best robot master), but still, I find their taste in robot masters lacking. At least we didn't have Hard Man, and Pharaoh Man is finally in here. 

Heat Man...where you always that short?

There are a few other minor changes. The game lets you pick the order manually this time, while in the first one it just sort of randomly shuffled them. This actually makes the game easier if you know the boss order (or can guess, based on previous Mega Man experiences) because whenever you hit somebody with their weakness in this game it does an overblown attack animation letting you know that, yep, you got the right powerup. Game's about to get easy. 

Luckily they (sort of) compensate for this by having the difficulty continue as it moves on at a more dramatic climb than the first game. Robot Masters also have "desperation" attacks, meaning when their health drops below half they get a more powerful, more obnoxious batch of attacks that you have to work with. While not accurate to the original games, it certainly is a much appreciated increase in challenge.

More like Cen-tard man. 

The game looks decent, though some of the arcade redesigns look a bit dumb. Again, they recycled a lot of content from the first game but it looked fine to begin with so I'm not complaining. The new HUD is a bit better with an actual health bar and a cleaner interface, which is appreciated, and the backgrounds tend to be more exciting, colorful, and fit the characters you are fighting better. 

The music is also recycled with a few new remixes. They still couldn't bother to actually match the robot master with his song, but whatever...I'm past that at this point. 

Heat Man still looks like a tiny Zippo. 

I'll give Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters this: it's a bit more challenging, a slight improvement over the original, and still boasts fun two-player co-op. Aside from that, it's a very minor upgrade from the first game, so much so that I have a hard time discerning screenshots. The game is still way too easy, feels a bit unbalanced (in your favor), and only has a limited roster. As a sequel that should have offered substantial improvements over the original, this one just feels like a few minor upgrades.

I guess this is where I should insert a "Capcom Fighting Games Charging $60 For Next To No Upgrades" joke, but I'm tired and since I just explained it I guess that covers it...

As it stands, Power Fighters is technically better than Power Battles, but only by a small margin. However, the improved backgrounds, a better mix of robot masters, and overall minor improvements make it the arcade Mega Man fighting game to play, if you were in the market for one to begin with.

Three out of five. The game is also available on the Mega Man Anniversary Collection along with its predecessor, which is currently the only way to play this game in the US.

Duo is still stupid, though. 

Mega Man: The Power Battles

The Short

Pros
- Fun, arcade "boss rush" across robot masters and minibosses
- Covers bosses from Mega Man to Mega Man 7
- Three different batches of masters give you three different paths
- Can be played co-op as Mega Man, Protoman, or Bass
- Uses sprites from Mega Man 7 and looks pretty good

Cons
- Extremely easy...though for an arcade game this might be a plus
- Robot masters between different scenarios don't really change much
- Remixed music is nice but doesn't match the master you are fighting
- Mega Buster can wipe nearly everybody out. No weakness required.
- What should have been a hard challenge is more of a cakewalk
- They seriously picked some of the stupidest robot masters for this.

Ice Man...robot, or dude in a parka? The world may never know...

The Long

It's no surprise that I love the Mega Man games. The NES games provide a fantastic mix of difficult platforming, challenging bosses that each require unique strategy, and great graphics and music. But easily one of the most memorable parts of the game are the robot masters. Since a staple of Mega Man is killing people and taking their powers, knowing what weapon to use against who can help make near-impossible boss fights manageable, and you get a good deal of satisfaction by taking a guy down with his weakness.

So imagine, if you will, if you made a whole game just just forgoes the actual stages and skips you straight to the boss battles, a sort of "Mega Man Boss Rush" if you will. Sounds awesome, right? Yeah, I'd think so too. That, in a nutshell, is the idea behind Mega Man: The Power Battles, an arcade game that you can unlock as a bonus on the Mega Man Anniversary Collection on Gamecube and PS2. If you see this game in an arcade, is it worth punching a few quarters into and taking it for a spin?

Well, yes, but not for the reasons you might think. Read on! 

Wood Man has never looked dorkier. 

Again, the idea of a "boss rush" Mega Man experience sounds fantastic on paper. Take all the extreme challenge of boss fights from across Mega Man 1-7 and mix and match them in a "best of" experience...sounds awesome!

The setup is also pretty cool too. From the beginning you have have three options to start with, each associated with a certain collection of games' bossses. You can pick from a Mega Man 1-2 set, a Mega Man 3-6 set, or one that's just from Mega Man 7 (no Spring Man, though, so it's ok). This adds a bit of replayability so you'll see a fresh set of faces everytime you play...at least three times. 

Add to that the ability to pick three somewhat unique characters (Mega Man, Protoman, and Bass) and you have a lot of variability here. Everything seems set up to be an awesome, challenging boss rush experience.

The problem with Mega Man: The Power Battles appears after you actually start playing.

"Wax on, wax off."

This game is really, really easy. As in shamefully so. I think there's a reason the machines didn't take off in the states: they probably didn't make any money off of them. Anyone who has played any of the NES Mega Man games will easily cakewalk through this whole game, even without knowing the robot masters' weaknesses. The Mega Buster is absurdly overpowered when fully charged, both doing massive amounts of damage and knocking enemies out of their attack cycles. And while the masters get more life and deal more damage the further along you get, anybody with a remote understanding of the "slide" ability can easily get through most without taking any hits.

It isn't all bad. Each robot master faithfully follows their moveset from their respective games, and it's kind of cool to see them all in their arcade graphics glory using their signature abilities. I do have issue with some of the robots they picked. I'm guessing either I have awful taste in robot masters or Japan (or Capcom) likes different ones. Masters like Guts Man and Wood Man are fine, but why is Plant Man or freaking DUST MAN in this game? You seriously picked Dust Man over Pharaoh Man? Come on!

Even the infamous Yellow Devil isn't very hard. 

Another issue is there really isn't that much difference between the three different sets of masters (or characters, for that matter). Wood Man gives essentially the same power as Plant Man, who gives the same power as Junk Man. Luckily they fight you in a unique fashion, but the weapons gathered are all generally the same, which makes replays done in quick succession a bit repetitive.

The entire game can be played co-op, which is absolutely the best way to play it. While it makes an already easy game laughably simple, when were you last able to play with a friend as Mega Man and Protoman, side by side? Never, that's when! It's a lot of fun, if only they'd bothered making the game an actual challenge.

Cuttin' stuff with your head. 

Graphically the game looks good. the HUD is a bit stupid...why is the health bar this unreadable circle rather than...the usual line of life? Well, at least it's easy to read the robot masters' life. Most of the sprites look really similar to Mega Man 7, though I'll say they are a bit more colorful. The backgrounds are vibrant and fantastic, though there is one small problem which I'll address as I move on to music.

The songs are remixes of the most famous songs from the series, which is fantastic. However, I have one big annoyance: the songs (and their backgrounds) don't match the robot masters. Maybe this makes me a wonder nerd to know they are playing Flash Man's song when I'm fighting Wood Man, but it really irked me, especially since they recycle backgrounds and songs between the different sets you can fight through. 

Wily's Castle only has two stops. Way to underachieve. 

As it stands, Mega Man: The Power Battles is still a fun game...in small doses. A single run will usually last you only around 30-45 minutes at most, and odds are it'll only cost you two or three quarters. Play co-op and you might not ever die. A one-time run is a fun trip down memory lane, but burn through all three scenarios back to back and you start to feel the tedium. 

But what irks me the most is the lack of challenge. I mean, if you went through all the trouble to accurately represent each robot masters' attacks, and you have a freaking arcade game (which are designed to scarf quarters), then why would you make this game a total cakewalk? Make it really hard or at least challenging rather than absurdly easy!

All that aside, I still recommend checking it out if you are a Mega Man fan. It's a cheap investment for a playthrough if you manage to find an arcade machine at your local pizza place or something, or if you own a copy of Mega Man Anniversary Collection you can play it on that (and for free). Still, I can't help but think they could have done better here.

If only they made a sequel...(stay tuned!)

Two out of five for single player, but I'd say playing with a friend greatly increase the experience, so tack a star on if you play co-op. 

You made like eighty robot masters and none of them could kill Mega Man, dude. Why do you suck so bad?

Nathan vs Perler Beads Part 3: Square RPGs

Time for round three of Perler Armageddon! That's...not what I'm actually calling it, but whatever. 

Today we're gonna focus on what was once one of my most favorite developers ever (and sadly is not really anymore) that made some absolutely gorgeous and fantastic video games back in the NES and SNES era. I'm, of course, talking about LJN.

Ah, nothing but quality games out of these guys. 

Wait...my mistake, they were the exact opposite of what I just said! Ha ha ha, how did I mess that up? No, I was talking actually about Square (or Square-Enix now).

Or Squaresoft...you know what? Whatever. 

Anyway, Square(soft) was pretty freaking great back in the day. Aside from making 3D World Runner, which I love, they also made tons of RPGs on the side I guess? And now you know I'm just messin' with ya. Let's get on with the sprites. 

FINAL FANTASY

Suck it, Garland!

The first picture is a bit zoomed out, but you get the point. Garland is the first boss in FF1, and thus I figured we'd have our team fight against him. It's worth noting that this ISN'T the team I usually pick; I'd have a fighter in there and probably no thief. 

A wizard did it!

Fighter and Black Mage are instead confronting Sarda in a tribute to 8-bit theater. Seriously, that comic is hilarious (and actually ended, which is amazing).

Next up...FINAL FANTASY 4!

...

Uh, ok, so I actually haven't done these yet. I've been meaning to make a full party and a Fat Chocobo (and maybe a Garland once I have enough beads...) but I just haven't had the time. Maybe they'll be next on the roster? I did make Tellah but I don't have a picture yet...so let's move on.

On to my favorite game ever...FINAL FANTASY 6!

I have a lot of pictures of these, so bear with me. 

I LOVE Final Fantasy 6's sprite work. From the characters that convey so much emotion despite being so small to the absolutely gorgeous enemies, this is probably my favorite game in terms of pixel art. While I'll admit it isn't as straight up artistic as games like Chrono Trigger or the later Secret of Mana games, it has a style I just love, and making the sprites was fun.

What's tricky with perlers is having to modify sprites based on the colors available. For example, there are very few shades of dark gray, meaning making Shadow was almost impossible. Also Kefka, Banon, Celes, and Gau's hair is technically a sort of gray-blonde in the game, but since there was no way to properly do that we had to variate with different shades of brown. 

Let's take a look at them closer up.

Emperor, Kefka, and Magitech armor. 

The Magitech armor was tricky because, again, we didn't have the proper colors. I ended up ditching the original brown/tan scheme for a sort of gray/cream variant. This was because if I didn't there wouldn't be any contrast between the soldier and the armor he was in. Kefka's hair was also tricky (I switched out the colors probably six or seven times before finally coming to that conclusion) but it boiled down to the gray/blonde colors available didn't blend well and thus made the sprite look bad, so I ended up with a darker brown. Took ten years off Kefka, let me tell ya. 

And I want to make another with his fists up going "IDIOTS!" but I had to do the iconic laugh pose first. 

Esper Terra, Cid, Leo, and Banon. 

This is sort of the "Misc" group (and will be with the Chocobo when I finally get around to doing it). Esper Terra is probably my favorite sprite out of the bunch, despite being the simplest. She just looks...badass. I never really cared for Cid so I made him dull, and Leo didn't really have a lot of poses. Banon, again, should probably have grayer hair but whatever...blame Perler. 

Terra, Locke, Edgar, Sabin, Celes, Interceptor and Shadow, Cyan, Gau, Setzer, Strago, Relm, Mog, Umaro, Gogo. 

Nerd test! I put the playable characters in a certain order. Can you figure out what that order is?

If you guessed "order they were acquired" you would be correct! You win...points? I don't know. I was going to put them in order of my personal favorites, but scrapped the idea after it didn't look very good. 

Regardless, I tried to find a varied mix of poses for them all. Edgar is suave, Terra is distant, Locke is freaking out, Sabin is ready to go, etc. I really wish I'd done a better pose for Mog, but he was the one I did first so...it happens. Maybe I'll gift him to somebody and make another one...

That isn't it from FF6, because about half way through I lost my mind. I realized I wanted to do my favorite enemy from the game (aside from Kefka's final boss sprite) so I got on it...and this is what happened. We'll give you the step by step of...ULTROS!

A "dud" version that I eventually recolored. 

First off, that's SIX perler trays, so you get a sense of size here. Second, he is VERY tricky to do. Remember when I said I do outlines first and then go from there? Look at the black beads on this guy. There's no rhyme or reason behind it. It's super tricky!

The biggest issue, though, is the fact that there are only TWO actual purple shades in all of perler-dom. Because of that on my original run I tried shaded in too soon, meaning I ran out of colors that worked well together. I did an experiment on that colored-in tentacle to try and find a color scheme that worked, but it just looked awful. So what did I do? I went insane.

After I fixed him. 

I took out all the dark purples and replaced them with dark grays. Every. Single. One. With tweezers, one at a time, while staying true to the original sprite. I then replaced all the light purples with dark purples. I also experimented on the tentacle to try and find a better color mix and it ended up being much better. Just to point out: Ultros has something like six shades of purple, and I have only two shades of beads (and only three that really work well together). Because of that, some colors had to do double duty, so the sprite isn't as color detailed. It basically boils down to what shades best and still looks like the original sprite, which I'd like to say my background in actual pixel art helps in deciding. 

I love his teeth. Sorry this one is blurry. 

So you can see I used considerably less purples here. I also had to compensate for lack of teeth colors as well, as there's really only two shades of yellow and an off-color "creme" that I never use for anything. 

All finished! 

I ended up shading the purple into a purple-pink and then to a pink and to a white because it seemed to blend best. The pink still "pops" a little much, but it's the best you can get. The dark grays were actually dark purples in the sprite, but they really just make the shadows a little deeper when I'm fine with. I think he ended up looking really good, and an accurate representation of the original sprite. 

The famous opera scene. 

And this is him finished on the wall, with Maria/Celes. I really like the Celes sprite too. Ultros is pretty dang big, about as long as my forearm, and I had to use some clear on the curving back tentacle. He was also a mess to try to iron but my wife managed to pull it off. From a distance, he looks fantastic!

View of the wall leading to the video game room pt 1...

And from a slightly different angle. 

Alright, enough Final Fantasy 6. Let's quickly run through some other Square SNES games...like SECRET OF MANA!

By "quickly" I mean "one picture" 

It's a well known fact based on my review that I don't think Secret of Mana has aged very well. However, I still think it's a pretty game, and I have nostalgia for it. My wife actually made most of these sprites (I just did the princess/girl), but I really like the hero's hair and headband. I think the shading on that is just awesome.

Next up, what might be the best RPG ever made, CHRONO TRIGGER!

Some ironed ones, some in progress. 

These are also some tricky ones due to color schemes. Ayla ended up with some interesting hair shading (I wanted her to be blonde but didn't have enough yellows so some brown gets in there), Magus' cape and pants are actually a pretty lazy bit of pixel art (though I love his hair), and making Chrono's sword stand out when it's sheen is basically the same shade as his clothes was tricky. However, I think we ended up making it work out!

The finished circle of destruction. 

I love Ozzie from Chrono Trigger, if only because he's so absurd. I also love the cat sprite (as you can see we made one looking on) so we had to throw him in too. I figured we'd have everybody attacking poor Ozzie (who is in a jam) and that would be perfect. I really like Marle and Frog's sprites especially. 

Now I just need a Gato...who has metal joints...beat him up...you know where I'm going with this. 

That's currently it for Square RPGs! Hopefully I'll be back in the future with some Final Fantasy IV and maybe a few other games along the way (though I'm not sure which...) but for now, that's all I've got! So tune in next time for the penultimate reveal: Castlevania, Pokemon, and...some other stuff!

Nathan vs Perler Beads Part 2: Metroid & Zelda

Time for the next batch of perlers! This one, for the Metroid series, we have something nifty: a step by step walkthrough of me making both these sprites!

And by "step by step" I mean like two steps. Yeah...you'll get over it. Here's how I do 'em.

Metroid!

Can you tell who this is from just the black beads?

I don't use any grids or anything when doing the sprites; I just look at the original pixel art and go off it from there. In nearly every situation, I start by doing the black outline, which gives me a stable framework to design off of. In some cases, especially the SNES sprites, the entire outlines aren't just black. This can be a little trickier, but usually the next color in is just a dark gray or something. 

I also have to determine the sprite size before beginning. All trays a 29x29, so you'll have to do the math accordingly.

As you can see, Samus had some orange outline pixels. 

And a finished Samus. My math was off; I actually didn't need the upper right corner grid. In the original sprite there were something like four shades of gray for her arm-cannon. Since there are only two gray shades in perler (light and dark), you have to consolidate sometime, usually with the SNES sprites. You really can't tell, however, unless you put the perler side-by-side with the sprite.

And yes, you do have to put each bead down individually. It can take a while. I usually go color by color (black outline, then work inward), as this makes filling in easier. 

I put the SNES cart in for scale. 

In this one's case, I did the mouth part first, then did a dark green outline. This sprite had a lot of green shades, which meant I had to just use the greens I had (there's about four greens that blend good together). For those wondering, that's nine trays, which is 87x87.

Symmetrical ones like this are easier but kind of boring, as once you do one half you just mimic it for the other side. That's when having a good podcast or movie on helps. 

There's actually four shades of green here, even though it can be hard to see. 

Sometimes you don't know which color to use, and in that case I usually do a limited amount of the sprite in two different shades and see which "blends" better. I'd like to say my pixel art days helps me figure out which colors best substitute, but sometimes it's just random guesswork. If you do that you have to carefully remove every wrong colored pixel and replace it, which can be a pain. 

Finished Metroid!

This isn't actually finished yet; I filled in all the empty spaces with clear beads. If you don't, when you iron it the pieces will frequently break off, which sucks. I only use clears in rare instances, since they aren't completely clear. A project like this Metroid was done in two chunks, and was around four hours of work. 

Brain-sucking!

The finished metroid, sucking out all my life. Look how big it is! This one we couldn't sticky-tack to the wall; we had to actually nail 'em in. 

There's the Metroid ones! Now, next up we have another iconic Nintendo franchise...

You know, the one with that housecleaning mini-robot!

Zelda is a tricky one to perler, as a lot about those games are the epic environments. However, we still got a few done, and got a timeline thing going on!

Looks empty, huh? Zelda's a lot about the environments. 

We have a good representation from the first NES Zelda game, though I wanted to make a dungeon entrance to bump up the scenery. From Zelda 2 we have the iconic "P Bag," Link, and Error. I was going to make an "I Am Error" text box, but that would have taken something like 600 black beads so...maybe some other time.

Link to the Past, aka the best Zelda Game. 

Link to the Past's sprites look a lot cooler, though I swear Zelda looks mini. But not as mini as Minnish Cap Link! I think Minnish Cap Link is probably my favorite of all the Link sprites. If you haven't played that game you are REALLY missing out; it's absolutely beautiful and we are going to make more sprites from it. Seriously, really gorgeous game. 

That's all for today's installment! Tomorrow, we'll delve deep into what we have the most of: Square RPGs! Stay tuned!