Super Adventure Rockman
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is a 1998
interactive movie Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but ...
/
rail shooter Rail shooter, also known as on-rails shooter, is a subgenre of shoot 'em up video game. Beginning with arcade games such as the 1985 '' Space Harrier'', the gameplay locks the player character into a set path, only allowing for limited or no di ...
video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
developed by Kouyousha and published by
Capcom is a Japanese video game company. It has created a number of critically acclaimed and List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil'', ''Monster ...
for the
PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...
and
Sega Saturn The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it is the successor to the succes ...
; it is a spin-off of the ''
Mega Man ''Mega Man'' (known as in Japan) is a video game franchise developed and published by Capcom, featuring the Mega Man (character), protagonist of the same name. The Mega Man (1987 video game), original game was released for the Nintendo Enter ...
'' series and follows Mega Man as he attempts to stop an ancient alien supercomputer called "Ra Moon" from taking over the world. The game only saw a Japanese release and hasn't been re-released since. Considered darker than most Classic series games, ''Super Adventure Rockman'' has been met with mixed reception from media critics;
Keiji Inafune is a Japanese video game producer, character designer, game designer, and businessman. In 2009, he was chosen by IGN as one of the top 100 game creators of all time. Starting his career at Capcom in the late 1980s, his job was as an artist and ...
, who worked on the series up until 2010, has also disowned the game, considering it one of the worst ''Mega Man'' games across the series.


Plot

The plot of the game centers on an ancient alien supercomputer named "Ra Moon", which was rediscovered by Dr. Wily in the ruins of the Amazon. Wily uses Ra Moon to revive his Robot Masters from previous games in the series. Wily also discovers Ra Moon's ability to cease almost all machinery and electricity in the world, as well as causing an invasive virus to spread across all technology. Roll is affected by the virus, with Dr. Light immunizing
Mega Man ''Mega Man'' (known as in Japan) is a video game franchise developed and published by Capcom, featuring the Mega Man (character), protagonist of the same name. The Mega Man (1987 video game), original game was released for the Nintendo Enter ...
and his brothers to prevent them from being infected. With Roll in trouble as well as the rest of the planet, Mega Man sets out to stop Wily and Ra Moon before it's too late.


Gameplay

''Super Adventure Rockman'' is an
interactive movie Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but ...
video game based on the ''
Mega Man ''Mega Man'' (known as in Japan) is a video game franchise developed and published by Capcom, featuring the Mega Man (character), protagonist of the same name. The Mega Man (1987 video game), original game was released for the Nintendo Enter ...
'' universe. It revolves primarily around the player watching pre-recorded animation cutscenes depicting the storyline. The game is divided into three different disks, each presenting itself as an anime episode and containing roughly a half-hour of video footage. Certain points allow the player to select a branching path, which can either lead them to helpful items left by Dr. Light to help Mega Man, or an ambush by enemies, sometimes utilizing quick-time events that will cause Mega Man to take damage if failed. If the player is ambushed, they are transferred to a rail shooter-like minigame where they must point an on-screen cursor onto enemies and shoot them. Some of these fights feature Robot Masters from earlier ''Mega Man'' games, particularly ''Mega Man'', ''
Mega Man 2 ''Mega Man 2'' (stylized as ''Mega Man II'') is a 1988 action game, action-platformer, platform game developed and published by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in Japan in 1988 and in North America and PAL region ...
'', and ''
Mega Man 3 ''Mega Man 3'' (stylized as ''Mega Man III'') is a 1990 action-platform game developed and published by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the third installment of the original ''Mega Man'' series and was originally released ...
''.


Development

''Mega Man'' artist and producer
Keiji Inafune is a Japanese video game producer, character designer, game designer, and businessman. In 2009, he was chosen by IGN as one of the top 100 game creators of all time. Starting his career at Capcom in the late 1980s, his job was as an artist and ...
claimed that ''Super Adventure Rockman'' was developed during a time when Capcom was attempting to branch out the series by "selling tto the lowest bidder". Although he had little involvement in the game, he was assigned to finish it after the project leader suddenly quit towards its completion. Inafune exclaimed, "The ultimate unspoken rule about making a game that is geared towards children is that you simply cannot kill anyone, but here you have military helicopters falling out of the sky and people dying in droves. If it had been up to me, I would have at least made it so they all 'got away safely' via parachutes or something. Then as if that wasn't bad enough, Roll dies... and to top it all off, the whole world is destroyed! I was like, 'Did they really need to go that far?!'". In September 2018, a listing appeared on Yahoo! Auctions Japan for the design documents of a scrapped interactive movie titled ''Rockman X Interactive''; it was confirmed by the seller that the game, which was in development between December 1995 and 1996, influenced the development of ''Super Adventure'', however the listing was eventually deleted before anyone could purchase it.


Reception

Upon release, Japanese magazine ''
Famitsu , formerly , is a line of Japanese Video game journalism, video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly f ...
'' gave both the PlayStation and Saturn versions a 27 out of 40 score. Brett Elston of
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included the game in his retrospective on the series for the sake of completeness. "It's a bizarre animated/FMV/first-person game that doesn't really fit anywhere in the main series," Elston stated. "But is so damn weird it has to be pointed out."
GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
writers Christian Nutt and Justin Speer summarized the game as "an intensely boring and unplayable excursion into timed button pressing".
1UP.com ''1Up.com'' was an American entertainment website that focused on video games. Launched in 2003, ''1Up.com'' provided its own original features, news stories, game reviews, and video interviews, and also featured comprehensive PC-focused conte ...
editor Jeremy Parish thought the game may be acceptable for those who understand Japanese. Inafune has apologized to fans for the alleged low quality of the game.


Other media

The game was adapted into the
Archie Comics Archie Comic Publications, Inc. (often referred to simply as Archie Comics) is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the village of Pelham, New York. The company's many titles feature the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Jug ...
''Mega Man'' comic, and set between ''Mega Man 2'' and ''Mega Man 3''. As a result, the ''Mega Man 2'' Robot Masters are here recreated by Ra Moon, while the ''Mega Man 3'' set is created by Ra Moon from blueprints on a computer owned by Dr. Wily. Proto Man—-going by his ''Mega Man 3'' alias of Break Man—-also joins Wily's forces while he is based in the Lanfront Ruins, and is accidentally responsible for damaging Roll prior to the planet-wide blackout.''Mega Man'' #28 One of Mega Man 3 bosses, Shadow Man, who in his game of origin was originally an unidentified alien robot, is in the comics revealed to be a creation of Ra Moon who served as its escort when it traveled to Earth. Only a few of the original Mega Man game Robot Masters appeared in the adapt as allies of Mega Man, who is also joined by Break Man and the ''Mega Man 2'' bosses to battle Ra Moon and the mind-controlled ''Mega Man 3'' bosses. Ra Moon is also revealed to be the creator of the Stardroids from ''
Mega Man V ''Mega Man V'' is an action- platform video game developed by Minakuchi Engineering and published by Capcom for the Game Boy. It is the fifth game in the handheld series of the '' Mega Man'' franchise. The game follows the adventures of the ...
'', and sends a signal reporting its demise to them after it is defeated by Mega Man.''Mega Man'' #29-32 Worlds Collide (which crossed over into ''
Sonic the Hedgehog is a video game series and media franchise created by the Japanese developers Yuji Naka, Naoto Ohshima, and Hirokazu Yasuhara for Sega. The franchise follows Sonic the Hedgehog (character), Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battle ...
'') occurred in between the comic's adaptation of SAR, and included a moment of Ra Moon being interested in the blue
Chaos Emerald is a video game series and media franchise created by the Japanese developers Yuji Naka, Naoto Ohshima, and Hirokazu Yasuhara for Sega. The franchise follows Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battles the evil Doctor Eggman, a ma ...
, only for Wily to demand he makes a Met rice cooker. Additionally, Wily and
Doctor Eggman Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik is a Character (arts), character created by the Japanese game designer Naoto Ohshima. He is the main antagonist of Sega's ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' franchise. Eggman is a mad scientist who seeks to steal the mystical Cha ...
used many of their resources including Ra Moon to create both the Skull Egg Zone and the Wily Egg air fortress.


Notes


References

{{Mega Man series 1998 video games Full motion video based games Japan-exclusive video games PlayStation (console) games Rail shooters Sega Saturn games Video games developed in Japan Video games set in South America Mega Man spinoff games Single-player video games