Rockman X9

Remember the thoughtful efforts of our affiliates MegaManX9.com that would hint Capcom to make a sequel to the X series? It looks like it finally paid off!! Due to the success of Rockman 9, a new X series game is coming out... in Super Famicom (SNES) style! o.o

An anonymous tipster sent us an e-mail, hinting that a couple of screenshots was recently uploaded to a Capcom Press folder. Hard to believe, but the quality was so surreal and so amazing, we were at loss for words.


"I believe I can fly, I believe I can touch the sky..."


"Hidden treasure? Neat, I better take a look arOUND."


"Ugh, these platforms... Hey, I better not be facing some Spike Raptor boss in here...!"

We were also told, that the theme of the game, and the title, is focusing on the continued removal of old-generation repliroids. The title that was given to us was "Rockman X9: Repuriroido no Shimetsu!", which means "Repliroid Extinction!".

It puts us at the point where Rockman X8 ended with a mysterious shiny piece being infested on Axl's head circuits. Closing in on the year 22XX, after Axl's recovery, new threats started to arise, where the reproduction of copy chips are showing up at a tremendous rate, and thus being able to breed new generation repliroids to replace the old. Can X, Zero and Axl find out who's behind this and stop any irregular crimes in the process?

Some features that would show up is a Database showing off all the characters and bosses that has shown up in the X series so far, along with a Time Attack mode to show off your records on leaderboards.

And it's been mentioned that Life Ups, Sub Tanks and Capsule upgrades are coming back in their original form, without having to buy them from some kind of shop feature.

DLC has been mentioned as well. What they were exactly is yet unknown, but we hope it's the same treatments as Rockman 9 or something more surprising.

The game is rumored to come out on PlayStation Network, X-Box Live Arcade and Wii Ware. The release date and price wasn't mentioned, but we hope it will be ready before the big anniversary.

We'll keep in touch if more information shows up.

Turns out the screenshots were fake all along.







Forum Topic Discussions:
Our prayers are finally answered: X9 is coming!!
X: "I stepped into the capsule, then I screamed Hadouken!!"

... Well, how should we put it... our anonymous tipster fooled us. Way to go.

Thanks to you, the news got spread to these places:
Capcom Unity
Gamercafe (Chile)
MDRockman (Brazil)
Mega Man X9 Community
N-Philes
Rockman Network (Thailand)
Sonic Retro
Spriters Resource
Sprites INC
The Mega Mario Network

The tipster apologized and she sent us these messages from other authors.

* RMC at GoNintendo.com:
"I'm pretty sure it's an April Fools' joke, but I'll keep my eyes open for more details..."

* Jeff at MegaManX9.com:
"Hate to break it to you, but RPM does this every year for April Fool's day. Trust me I'd love it too!"

Maybe there was a reason behind this prank?

Quote from: 1UP Interview with MM9 producer Hironobu Takeshita
http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=0&cId=3172027

1UP: "Will we ever be lucky enough to get a Mega Man X9 -- but with Super NES era graphics and music?"

HT: "It all depends on fans' demand! We might see that day, as long as there is passion!"

Oh well, guess we'll never know. The important thing is that everyone who commented had some good manners for once.

The one who made the screenshots is blackbeltdude, with the following message.

"Well, I know this won't come as a surprise to everyone, but I'm the one who pushed the pixels!

Yeah, I know I said I wasn't the one behind it, but April Fools is the only time you're really allowed to lie.

It dawned on me near the beginning of March that April Fools was right around the corner, and I figured an X9 SNES mock up would be perfect. Perhaps predictable, but the intent wasn't really to fool anyone (though, that's always a nice side effect). I wasn't even counting on fooling anyone anyway; it was just something fun that I wanted to do, and I thought maybe some other people might think it's a neat idea. If anyone was upset at it, well, too bad. I was only doing it to have fun, and pleasing everyone isn't a requirement I have to meet to achieve that.

Still, overall, there's been worse reactions to pranks and hoaxes. To everyone who saw the fun in the idea, Vixy and I say "thanks!" Everyone who reacted in a sour way: "meh."

Yeah, something I need to point out is that Vixy was on board from the start. I told her about two weeks ago, before I even started to push pixels, about the idea. We actually bounced some ideas back and forth of what the levels could be, and that helped me come up with what I made. She also e-mailed the prank to other sites, which was awesome! And as always, typed up a very nice news post.

So, on to the sprites... In fact, take a look at the tiles:



(There's un-used stuff at the top).

The funniest stuff I read was about the sprites. First of all, I promise you guys have never seen that Axl sprite before, because I made it from scratch just for this hoax. The only person who saw it before anyone else, was Oakes (who gave some great crits). Axl is also NOT an edit. If you can't tell by looking and comparing, well, I don't know how else to explain that he isn't.

None of the backgrounds have reused tiles from other games either. Everything there is also made from scratch. Designing the backgrounds was probably the most difficult part; which is why there's un-used stuff. I was originally just going to make tiles to set up several shots of the same level, but then I realized that the parts I was dividing the level up into, might as well be levels themselves.

The only kind of notable thing to say about them might be Zero's screen. When I finished making it, I realized it was stupid to have spikes on the walls when there was no reason to go near a wall. So I made these enemies that shoot out tornadoes that would push you into them. I thought it kind of made sense, and then made that part seem more dangerous.


So yeah, I still had a lot of fun doing this hoax, and that's all I really care about. I hope it at least made you guys want to pick up a controller, and play some of the old MMX games, or hope for a new one! After all, with enough fan interest, we might get one...

Ah, and the sprites and tiles are PD."