Recap: Mega Man Zero Collection event at Capcom

The Capcom-Unity event had about 30-40 guests gather for its pre-Mega Man Zero Collection event this past Friday, giving fans the chance to sample the DS game days before its release.

The event, which was held at the Capcom offices in San Mateo, was equipped with a room of about 11-12 TVs all running Mega Man games from their anniversary collection in celebration for all things Mega Man.

The center table, which was decorated with Mega Man Zero fan art, was devoted entirely for Mega Man Zero Collection playable on 4-5 Nintendo DSes.

There was even a small theater setup to play a staffer’s Netflix queue of Mega Man: Upon a Star anime, which, despite the dubbing and dated animation quality, was a pretty decent portrayal of the blue bomber.

Food and drinks were provided for fans, including the Mega Man E-Tank drink, a red-bull-tasting energy drink that was a very dedicated shade of Mega Man blue. While it wasn’t exactly like the E-tank drinks sold in Japan, the cans were still theme-appropriate and well accepted.

There were plenty of opportunities to win raffle prizes throughout the event, and the host was playfully reminding everyone that most of them were donated from Seth Killian’s Mega Man personal collection. These included many toys and figures that, frankly, I wasn’t even aware were out in the market at all; the Battle Network electronic toys were something I thought were never going to make it from Japan. There were even some Mega Man vinyl figures (like decorated Munny figures), and even some Japan-exclusive Mega-Man-themed Kubrick figures.

But the most coveted prize went to the winners of the Endless Mode competitions for both Mega Man 9 and 10. Players survive through a random gauntlet of enemy-filled screens with all weapons unlocked and available to them, with only one life to use. Top scores are measured in how many screens you can survive through. The player with the most screens won a Mega Man 9 press kit (the faux NES box and cartridge) and T-shirt. And boy did they compete. The winner from the Mega Man 9 Endless Mode competition was doing so well not dying that the host had to tell him to manually stop due to time constraints, forcing his hand at after 41 screens and still strong.

All attending fans also got a free Mega Man Zero T-shirt of the winning design from their recent contest, which will be mailed to them at a later date.

Overall, the Mega Man event was a living embodiment of the franchise’s strength and lasting power. For a company to be able to “reboot” their series at its 9th installment AND create not one but FOUR successful branching titles using a side character AND still remain strong says a lot about their game, their quality, and their fans.

Mega Man Zero Collection is out for the Nintendo DS now for $29.99.