MM25: Mega Man Rocks

I’m not sure Capcom knows what to do with the Mega Man franchise in the future. It’s looking a more than a little awkward, especially with Mega Man’s creator, Keiji Inafune, having left Capcom to found his own game company, COMCEPT. Which then triumphantly Kickstarted Mighty No. 9 with over 4 million dollars. Mighty No. 9 certainly proved the fan desire for more Mega Man and more than a little frustration with Capcom’s continued canceling of awesome-sounding Mega Man projects.

With 2013 marking the franchise’s 25th Anniversary, Capcom is demonstrating that while the Blue Bomber’s future might be hazy, his illustrious past is lovingly and fondly remembered. This week Capcom released two albums dedicated to Mega Man – an incredible 10-disc soundtrack collection, the Rock-can Sound E-can (it comes in an E-tank!!!), and MM25: Mega Man Rocks, an album filled with tributes from the many groups that have been inspired to make their own Mega Man rock operas, raps and hard rock covers.

While I’d absolutely love the E-can collection, the price point of $184US (plus importing, as it’s a Japanese-only release) is pretty steep for me, the $10 price for MM25 was perfect. The tracks are brilliantly chosen and feature some of the best material from The Megas, Mega Ran, The Protomen, Bit Brigade, Armcannon, and X-Hunters.

Some of the previously released tracks are rerecorded, which is a great draw of the album for the more established fan. I’m very partial to The Protomen and The Megas tracks on MM25. The Megas’s recordings of ‘Man on Fire’ and fan favorite ‘The Quick and the Blue’ sound excellent – I might actually like ‘The Quick and the Blue’ more now. The Protomen’s new mix of ‘Will of One’ is also superb, missing some of the distortion of the original version, which just makes Dr. Light’s plaintive pleading clearer in the background in my favorite part of the song (HOPE RIDES ALOOOOOOOOONE) – somehow it’s even more harrowing now.

Unsurprisingly for me (being a well known fangirl), the biggest draw was the long awaited Protomen track (‘Built to Last’) which was only previously available if you heard it live at PAX Prime, where it was amazing. It’s a great song, sounding just a little different from both Acts I and II, but glorifying the band’s favored 80’s heavy-synth and rock styles. There’s also some new recordings from Armcannon, which wasn’t a group I was previously familiar with but really found myself digging.

MM25: Mega Man Rocks covers a lot of great music but if you’re already pretty into Mega Man-style nerd rock, you have likely heard a lot of the tracks on this album. It’s worth checking out the tracklist and cherry picking the new or rerecorded tracks instead of shelling out for the whole album. If you haven’t listened to these groups before, I really recommend picking up the whole thing – MM25 is a fantastic introduction to acts like Armcannon and The Megas. Other groups sound fantastic, like Bit Brigade, but lose something without the theatrics of the performance – Bit Brigade usually plays the soundtrack while someone live speed runs Mega Man 2 on a giant screen, it’s incredibly fun to watch.

All in all, Capcom did a great job with this album – it really does rock. It’s a lot of fun and I’m happy to see these well deserving acts get buzz off of a project like MM25: Mega Man Rocks. I’ve always been really impressed with how Capcom has always been really great about working with and encouraging bands who do music based on their games, instead of sending out Cease and Desist letters like a lot of companies might. Capcom really understands what fans like as far as music goes, so why can’t they get it right with Mega Man games?

You can preview and buy MM25: Mega Man Rocks on Sumthing and other digital retailers.