Street Fighter X Mega Man

A 2D crossover title, uniting the worlds of Mega Man and Street Fighter, this fan-made platform-fighting game was released for free on Capcom Unity in 2012. It’s available worldwide for play on the PC. The game maintains the structure of most Mega Man games in that there are eight levels, each with a boss whose weapon will prove useful in defeating another boss. Only this time around, the bosses are fan-favorite characters from Street Fighter and the levels blend theming from various Street Fighter characters and Robot Master stages.

Seow Zong Hui, creator of Street Fighter X Mega Man

Let’s start from the beginning. How did you start with the project?

It was a programming practice at first. I was Building a Mega Man game for fun, learning to code and to draw 8-bit graphics. I was pretty active in the fighting game scene in Singapore, a part-time pro-gamer, participating in various fighting game tournaments. Being active in the local fighting game forums, I created various 8bit Street Fighter Gif so my friends could use them as avatars. As the game was developed further, I’ve decided to use the images I created for the avatar; it fits right in a Mega Man game.

Did you have any help?

After posting the development video on Youtube, A_Rival (Luke Esquivel) offered to help me with Music. He is an amazing DJ/Musician/Programmer from the USA. The game would not be as successful without the awesome music. Back then, it was just an unofficial fan-game, it was amazing for him to offer help to the game. Another friend named Geo helped me with some of the background sprites.

Enter Capcom

In 2010, I submitted the game video as an entry in Capcom-Unity’s fanart contest. It got first in the contest. That kind of gave me the confidence to develop the game further. In 2012, I was attending the biggest Fighting game tournament in Las Vegas (EVO), I was eliminated early so I spent the rest of my time, pitching to various Capcom staff.

After failing several times, Christian Svensson, Vice president of Capcom USA at that time, brought the game back to the office to give it a try. After a few months, the game was greenlit and Capcom assigned a producer on the project.

Was there still a lot of work to be done?

I was very new to the game development industry at that time, Capcom looked into various issues from legal matters to game physics. I had great help from Christian and Michael Evans and the game development went smoothly. Michael Evans is still doing well in Capcom. Many staff members were involved; 8bit avatars were created for some of them too, in the credits of the game. It was a pleasure to work with them; I hope we cross paths again someday.

Did this launch your career in gaming?

After developing the game, I became really well known in the local game development scene, finding a job was not an issue despite having an unrelated engineering degree. It is kinda surreal that the game actually happened.

Any word on a sequel?

As for a sequel or spin-off, that is something that is always on the back of my mind; I would love to work on it in the future once I gain more experience. I would be happy to work with Capcom again if they are keen.

Tell us about your love of Mega Man

The Mega Man series is amazing to me because anyone could play them. I started playing them before I could read. I’ve played all classic Mega Man and Mega Man X series. Amongst them, my personal favorite is X4.

Metal Blade and Nova Strike are my favorite weapons. As for bosses, Yellow Devil and Magma Dragoon are the best.

In Street Fighter X Mega Man, my favorite is Tropical Hazard, and the Secret Last boss.

What level stands out the most?

The level that stands out the most to me... Jump Jump, Slide Slide, the sounds still haunt me up to today. If you have played it, it plays in your head forever.

Seow Zong Hui, Creator

Twitter: SonicZH YouTube:www.youtube.com/user/Sonic88

Luke Esquivel, Musician

Twitter: A_Rival YouTube:www.youtube.com/user/ARival