Capcom always has a good presence at San Diego Comic-Con, and this year was no different. With Street Fighter V as their flagship title, it's no surprise that it was the main draw at both this year's E3 and Comic-Con. However, the only noticeable difference between the content shown at both shows is that the public got to play the game at Comic-Con, and there was also a tournament. Since GR has already covered Street Fighter V extensively, I decided to focus on Resident Evil Zero and Mega Man Legacy Collection.
I began by playing RE Zero, and it turned out to be a very quick playthrough. Perhaps that's due to my familiarity with the early RE games coupled with the short amount of content provided. Anyway, I immediately felt familiar with the game despite not having played the original RE Zero. It reminded me a lot of the original Resident Evil in terms of the color palette, overall visuals, gameplay, inventory, gunplay, items, and loading screens. It only took a few moments for all the memories to come flooding back to me and then I was blasting zombies with ease. It's like riding a bike, albeit a bloody, brain-splattered bike that won't let me go in reverse, but a bike nonetheless.
The demo starts at what appears to be the beginning of the game because S.T.A.R.S. Officer Rebecca Chambers is taken aback when she first sees the dead get up and lumber towards her. I made her whip out her pistol and fire a few shots, and it was both humorous and nostalgic to see her aim at the ceiling to get headshots on zombies. Then I brought up the inventory, which pauses the action, to combine ammo with her pistol for a “quick reload.” I spent the rest of the demo exploring train cars and picking up whatever items I could find. Then I met Billy Coen, who appeared to be injured, and the demo ended. The demo was definitely a blast from the past, but I'm not sure I could endure this archaic gameplay throughout an entire adventure.
Next I moved on to Mega Man Legacy Collection, which also brought back memories because I played all the Mega Man games until it moved into 3D. This collection offers the first six Mega Man games in all of their original pixelated glory, with the only change being analog stick controls. In addition to these games, there is a new mode called “Challenges,” which is a remix of different scenarios, including the most notorious boss of the series, Yellow Devil. This one is super-challenging, but you get all of weapons to use in the fight. Challenges mode is a great way to offer fresh content without tarnishing the experience of the original games.
This collection also has one of the most extensive databases I've ever seen! For starters, it shows every boss from all six games and also gives their weaknesses. Players can even go straight to a boss battle to acquaint themselves with the fight before undertaking it in the regular game. In Museum, there's a huge collection of artwork, which was used to make the characters and bosses in the game way back when. There's also artwork associated with the marketing campaign for each game as well as sketches for characters that never made the cut. One example of that is Smokeman, whose head resembles a giant cigarette. (Maybe someone will cosplay Smokeman at next year's Comic-Con.)
I decided to play Mega Man 2 out of the bunch, and I was immediately reminded how challenging these games are. It's funny how the mind tends to remember things in a better light than they actually were. Not only does this game have extremely outdated visuals, but the music is limited to early synthesizer beeps and sounds. It takes pixel-perfect pinpoint timing to dodge projectiles fired from the most basic characters, and it's also necessary to remember the correct route through every area. I progressed a bit and then got killed, and I was then returned to a checkpoint that was so far back it felt like I traveled back in time by days. When I finally made it back to the spot where I had died, half of my life bar was gone. It's not surprising that I didn't make it much further than that.
It was nostalgic to take a step back in time with these two games, and I'm sure both provide plenty of entertainment for retro-gamers. Mega Man Legacy Collection releases in Summer 2015 on Xbox One, PS4, and PC, and Resident Evil Zero HD releases later this year for PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.
