January 5, 2005
Okay, so I couldn’t resist. In fact, I’m sure that if I overlooked this, my regular visitors would view it as downright odd. Do note, however, that a product’s packaging has no impact on the actual product, so when I critique a game’s advertising, it doesn’t mean the game is bad. But this is amusing.
Capcom’s marketing for Mega Man X8 contained some of the following bullet points (you can see an example of this here on Capcom’s website). What makes this so unbelievable (and downright funny) is that the back of the game box actually labels its feature list with “NEW IN THE SERIES” (when 3 of the 5 bullet points are not in any way new). At least the back of the box has a slightly better “features” list, batting 2 out of 5, unlike the website. Here are the bullet points on the website:
- Enhanced tag team action: switch between characters at any time
The tag-team isn’t new. It was first done in its current form in Mega Man Xtreme 2. Yes, a Game Boy title. Granted, the tag-team feature is indeed “enhanced” in X8, what with the Double Attack, the Tag Assist, and so forth, so I’ll give them that. If this was the only bullet point, I wouldn’t even be writing this, but it gets better... - Ability to use weapons obtained from defeated bosses
Uh... This has been a staple of the Mega Man series since the very first game... - Collect valuable power-up chips or “metal” from enemies
In other Mega Man games you don’t collect “metal” exactly, but previous Mega Man games do involve collecting P-Chips or Bolts to build items, which amounts to the same thing. This is a nice feature, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not new... - Multiple endings & hidden items
Check. I’m not going to try to name the first Mega Man game that had multiple endings or hidden items, but there are quite a few...including most all of the X series titles. - Complete the stages and sub-quests in any order
Another classic Mega Man feature that’s been there since Mega Man (1).
I think what this shows is that Capcom’s marketing people haven’t actually played their own company’s games. I suppose this isn’t really a huge surprise, since playing all of Capcom’s titles would be a full time job all in its own. But still. You know, Capcom, I love you guys, but I couldn’t let it pass. On the other hand, I trust that my poking fun at your marketing won’t cause you to lose any sales, since who buys games for the features list anyway? And besides, they’re all cool features—they’re part of what have made Mega Man games so good to begin with, so why not buy the game for those reasons, right? 
- The MegaMaster