As disclosed in the latest issue of Famitsu, the game will be appearing not only on Nintendo's WiiWare service, but on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network as well.

Surprise!

Well, in addition to the E-Tank energy drink , they also got a sweet t-shirt and commemorative box. Plus they were served buy a guy in a short-order getup, complete with paper hat.

Capcom-Unity says the first fan they served had been waiting in line since 10 a.m. More than 200 boxes were given away. Did any of you get one? What did this stuff taste like? Or did you even drink it?

More pics through the link.

A Little Rain Can't Stop Mega Man! [Capcom-Unity]

The mod's levels employ 8-bit textures and sprites. "Mega Man will jump high and take damage recoil," says the creator, CutmanMike. "Weapons will behave exactly as they did back then, only from a 3D perspective. The plan is to eventually have all the levels and weapons from Mega Man 1-6 (and maybe 9). Obviously some weapons will have minor changes because there are a lot of clones throughout the series."

More info on the mod and a download URL is available at the link below:

Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch [Cutstuff via Game News HQ thanks Kevin]

The Kubrick/Bearbrick Mega Man set is actually a Rockman set, but I figured our North American readers might know him better by his bastardized name. Rockman looks vaguely pissed to be packaged alongside a clear blue Rockman fan-bear, but such is his lot in life. Not even swapping out his helmet for flowing hair seems to help.

The two figure set, which Capcom revealed back in October, is the first of two combo packs from Medicom, with a Proto Man set on the way featuring a similarly 1-Upped Bearbrick figure.

The Rockman set will begin shipping to fine toy importers in January. NCSX is currently accepting preorders, with $30.90 securing your 2.75 inch robot bear pair.

Rockman & 1-Up Bearbrick Set [NCSX]

On his Flickr stream, KodyKoala describes his Guts-Dozer as kit-bashed from the parts of a "Mech Hulk Top" and a "GI Joe vehicle that I used to have as a kid." I think that's the "Wolverine," the missile launcher that Cover Girl used to drive. Once again, I can't remember the formula for circumference of a circle, but I can recall that. And that's probably why I write about video games now.

As for HRH Hippo, I thought that 200-pounds-of-suet physique looked familiar. "I used a BLOB build [from the X-Men continuity] figure as the base, and unfortunately I had to make the legs not movable to make it look right."

Custom Guts-Dozer figure by Donald "KodyKoala" Kennedy [TinyCartridge via Go Nintendo]

Snow's blog on Capcom-Unity showcased the six jumpers, ironed on with Dark Void, a zombie from Dead Rising, Mega Man, Salamander from Lost Planet 2, and the adorable Street Fighter babies (although I don't think they're from this piece of work.)

You know, the guy is single, but, I should talk to Seth Killian. I literally haven't seen him in nine months ...

Capcom Baby Swag = Cuteness Overload [Capcom-Unity via Go Nintendo]

Says a Chronicle rep:

Unfortunately this book will not be published, but we are coming out with a Street Fighter book. I let the person who worked on this book know and she is going to make sure that the information gets taken off the website. Thank you for your concern.

Welp, guess there was only room for one Capcom franchise in this arrangement. Go Nintendo notes that this applies to "Complete History." There's something called "Complete Works" that still should hit the shelves next month.

Mega Man Complete History Book Cancelled [Go Nintendo]

...500 GB hard drive. That's according to a Russian Doll's worth of links that point to a company called seller on tech crafts site Etsy which sells hard drives that masquerade as NES cartridges. And they won't just do fake Mega Man cartridges for your $149. Any game's possible.

Mega Man Custom Hard Drive Enclosure - 500 GB USB [Via Capcom Community Blog]

A new piece of DLC has been released today for Mega Man 9 called "Superhero Mode". It only costs 80 MSP ($1), and will make the game a lot harder to finish, as it ups the number of enemies you'll face on-screen at any one time. For those keeping score, this isn't the first time you've been able to increase the game's difficulty via DLC.

Didn't really think there was much of a market for people that wanted a Mega Man game to be harder, but just goes to show, when it comes to DLC, there's a market for pretty much anything.

Pay $1 to Make Mega Man 9 Harder [IGN]

What we've got here is a chart by Capcom community blogger Snow, displaying the grand amount of Mega Man games released by Capcom during the last 23 years.

The horizontal lines represent years. The bunched columns represent lines of Mega Man games. The classic Mega Man games are shown in the left column.

Click through for the full-sized chart, but be warned that one of the reasons I didn't put it in this post (other than because I'm classy) is because it's enormous.

Complete Mega Man Game History [Capcom-Unity.com]

Shown off at the recent Wonder Festival in Japan, and crafted by Dimension Diver, there's exquisite Mega Man, Roll, Samus, Aegis & Metis figures on show. For reference, if you had wanted to buy one of these, they would have set you back between ¥7,000 and ¥12,000 (USD$75-125).

Dimension Diver [Tokyo Hunter, via Tiny Cartridge]

"People have found a ton of amazing stuff in the game that I didn't think would have been dug up for a long time," Killian says. But the "final secret" isn't among that. His questioners try to coax more details out of him, but Seth doesn't budge.

Last October, someone on the Capcom-Unity boards speculated that the last secret was a weapon, specifically a throwing weapon. S-Kill put the splat on that.

What the hell could it be? After nearly a year, we probably stand a better chance of, collectively, blindly guessing what it is rather than actually finding it. I say it's a Ghosts N Goblins Easter egg.

EVO 2009 - Seth Killian [YouTube via GoNintendo]

Final Fantasy was released yesterday. It's the PS1 re-release, which means it's the original with a few graphical tweaks and CG sequences, and is selling for ¥600 (USD$6).

Mega Man, meanwhile, is a little more complicated. See, Mega Man 9 has only just been released on the PSN in Japan, and to help kick things along, Capcom are running a competition. You win the competition, you get a copy of Rockman: Complete Works, which is a compendium of Mega Man 1-6.

If it helps any, there's no harm in praying to your God of choice that these will some day be released in the West.

In honor of Father's Day, we celebrate dads in video games: from the good to the bad to the "Luke, I am your father kind," that don't fulfill any fatherly duties beyond lopping off a limb. Join us now in separating the Bill Cosbys from the Darth Vaders.

Fathers in… Role-Playing Games
Much like mothers, fathers in role-playing games often are killed early in order to inspire the hero to leave home and avenge dear daddy (and mommy) and the rest of their destroyed village. However, there are some dads who stick around. When they do, they're usually playable support characters their son or daughter's active fighting party, or they show up in flashbacks and hallucinations to offer pep talks and parental criticism. Here are a few of these fatherly figures:

Jecht, Final Fantasy X – Father of Tidus: He's an alcoholic all-star blitzball player who insults his son to toughen him up. Instead, he winds up alienating him. Only after son and father find out they're dead do they make up with a manly high-five.

Kaim, Lost Odyssey – Father of Liram: Kaim believes his daughter is dead, but when he rediscovers her as an old, sick woman, he gets around to some parental duties like making funeral arrangements and babysitting the grandkids.

Pankraz, Dragon Quest V – Father of The Hero: Pankraz travels the world with his son and eventually sacrifices himself to save The Hero from monsters. Alas, he can't save his son from being sold into slavery from beyond the grave.

Walter, Suikoden Tactics – Father of Kyril: Walter goes into exile to protect his lover and bastard son but decides to keep Mommy's identity a secret. He gets turned into a fish monster and attacks Kyril before another party member puts him out of his misery.

James, Fallout 3 – Father of You: Daddy dearest ditches you in Vault 101 and goes to find a cure for irradiated water. When you finally catch up with him, he sends you on a deadly quest and then bites it in the name of science. And, uh, saving you – that too.

Uriel Septim VII, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – Father of Martin: Had several legitimate sons to stock the throne with heirs, but wisely kept a child out of wedlock just in case a Daedra Lord killed all of his other kids. Instead of fostering the boy to a vassal or something noble, Septim stuck Martin in the church to keep him out of trouble.

Best Dad… Pankraz, because, while he couldn't keep his son from being sold into slavery, he didn't hesitate to take on a horde of monsters to save him.

Worst Dad… Uriel Septim VII, because, really, it was bad enough for Martin to be born a bastard – even worse to have Daedra Lords come after you because of some dude you've never even met. Thanks for nothing, Dad!

Fathers in… Fighting Games
Fighting games have a high volume of fathers. Apparently, popping out a few kids is the thing to do after winning world martial arts tournaments. But no father in any fighting game seems to have thought the decision to become a father and a world martial arts champion at the same time all the way through: Either you're abandoning the kid at a young age so they invariably follow in your footsteps just to find you. Or – worse – you actively train them in your fighting style so they can grow up, follow in your footsteps and then kick your ass.

Raphael Sorel, Soulcalibur series – Foster father of Amy: Raphael got kicked out of his own family for killing some crazy noble and found the orphaned Amy wandering the streets of some French town. He took her in, raised her, trained her and went completely crazy trying to create a perfect world for her.

Frederick Schtauffen, Soulcalibur series – Father of Siegfried: Frederick left his infant son to go fight in the Crusades. While he was gone, Siegfried fell in with a bad crowd and wound up beheading his own father in a misguided act of patriotism.

Seong Han-myeong, Soulcalibur series – Father of Mi-na and wannabe foster father to Hwang: Teaches both children how to kick some serious ass, but winds up favoring Hwang with family heirlooms. When Hwang refuses Han-myeong's offer to adopt him, he tries to marry Mi-na to Hwang. Mi-na runs away.

Cervantes de Leon, Soulcalibur series – Father of Ivy: Somehow fathered the hottest thing in the Soul series and then tried to devour her when she comes looking for his sword, Soul Edge.

Heihachi Mishima, Tekken series – Father of Kazuya: Throws his son off a cliff to toughed him up, throws him down a volcano out of spite and basically does nothing but try to destroy his son for the entire Tekken series.

Kazuya Mishima, Tekken series – Father of Jin: He may not have thrown his son off any cliffs, but Kazuya's revenge aspiration against his own father eventually turns his son against him. Also, it turns his son into a flying demon thing.

Marshall Law, Tekken series – Father of Forest: Law sees more of the insides of restaurants than he does of his own son, but he stops at nothing to pay the hospital bills when Forest wrecks his motorcycle.

Lau Chan, Virua Fighter – Father of Pai: Abandons his daughter to fight in the World Fighting Tournament and has the nerve to act surprised when she devotes her martial arts career to kicking his ass.

Bass Armstrong, Dead or Alive series – Father of Tina: Two words sum up his entire parenting technique– over and protective.

Fame Douglas, Dead or Alive series – Father of Helena: Fame knocks up a world-famous opera singer and then doesn't marry her; but he does leave his daughter his effed up company, DOATEC, after being assassinated. Thanks, Daddy!

Raidou, Dead or Alive series – Father of Ayane: Raped her mother. ‘Nuff said.

Dhalsim, Street Fighter – Father of Datta: Dhalsim serves as a father to his entire village by entering the World Warrior tournament to raise money for them.

Best Dad… Bass, because he loves his daughter too much to let her dress like a slut – unlike Cervantes.

Worst Dad… Heihachi, because he throws his son off a cliff and into a volcano; and he imprisons his grandson. Somebody call Child Protective Services!

Fathers in… Action Adventure and Survival Horror Games
It's hard to feel warm and fuzzy about fathers in these types of games because they're almost always an antagonist. Even the well-meaning Dads who just want to protect their offspring usually wind up doing the opposite by turning evil, letting work consume them or by losing the family farm to a rival rancher. But, even if they're real jerks, they're still fathers and they deserve their due on this day.

Joe Hayabusa, Ninja Gaiden – Father of Ryu: Leads an entire ninja clan and raises a badass ninja son.

William Birkin, Resident Evil 2 – Father of Sherry: The guy's got no time for parenting – he's so married to his work he becomes the last boss.

Mr. Burnside, Resident Evil: Code Veronica – Father of Steve: Not only did he raise his son to be a whiny loser, but Mr. Burnside also thought it'd be a great idea to steal from the Umbrella Corporation, thus getting his wife shot full of holes and landing him and his son on a zombie-infested prison camp island. Great going, old man.

Harry Mason, Silent Hill and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories – Adoptive father of Cheryl and possibly Alessa, depending on which ending you get: Harry probably shouldn't have picked up a strange child on the side of the road, but damned if he doesn't do his best to hang onto her – even when the monsters start showing up to kill him.

King Zora XVI, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – Father of Princess Ruto: He loves his daughter, but is too fat and lazy to go save her when she goes missing inside a giant fish monster.

Talon, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – Father of Malon: Talon is a narcoleptic rancher who makes a good living for himself and his daughter on Lon Lon Ranch; but unfortunately, he has poor taste in employees. Pro tip: don't hire somebody with the hots for your daughter.

Deku King, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask – Father of Deku Princess: Overprotective doesn't quite sum it up – this is a guy who tortures small animals when his child goes missing instead of looking for her himself.

Bowser, Super Mario Bros. series – Father of Bowser Jr. and seven other Koopalings: He lets his kids run wild with pirate ships and magic zappy wands. Not exactly parent of the year material.

Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong series – Father of Donkey Kong Jr.: He'd rather hang out with his nephew, Diddy Kong, than his own son. What does that say about his fatherly reputation?

Kratos, God of War series – Father of Calliope: He's away from home a lot, fighting wars and when he does come back, he kills his kid in a God-induced rage. She goes to heaven and he tries to visit, but that would kind of break the world, so he leaves her be.

Kento Marek, The Force Unleashed – Father of Galen, aka Starkiller, aka Vader's Secret Apprentice: He escapes the Jedi purges with his wife and young son and hides out on Kashyyyk. Vader shows up, kills him and takes his son to train/raise.

Dr. Light, Mega Man series – Father of Mega Man: Okay, so he didn't provide Mega Man chromosomes; but Dr. Light built him and raised him. So he's like both father and mother to Mega Man.

Nate Harlow, Red Dead Revolver – Father of Red: If nothing else, the old man sure taught his son to shoot.

King of All Cosmos, Katamari Damacy – Father of The Prince: His binge drinking wiped out the world, and he sent his son to clean up the mess. What a role model.

The Mourning King, Prince of Persia – Father of Elika: He makes a deal with the dark god Ahriman to resurrect his daughter, sends his men to capture her and then unleashes pure evil by destroying the Tree of Life.

Best Dad… Harry Mason, because he could have adopted some other orphan, but no – he went through Silent Hill for his Cheryl. That's a dad who cares.

Worst Dad… Steve Burnside's dad, because, while Kratos might've killed his kid, too, at least his daughter went to heaven instead of a zombie-infested prison camp island.

Fathers in… Shooters
Dads are the stars of shooters. Even if they're not the main character, they very often drive the plot even from beyond the grave. This is probably because a lot of cultures have a manly mythos of the son surpassing the father and it's bled right into the manliest of video games. Even with all that testosterone, there's room for really great dads. And some really awful ones, too.

Eli Vance, Half-Life series – Father of Alyx: Eli lived the simple life of a scientist at Black Mesa Research Facility with his wife and young daughter. Then things explode as they often do in the profession and his wife dies. He eventually falls in love with another woman, but to his dying day, he never stops loving his daughter.

James McCloud, Star Fox series – Father of Fox: Clearly James did something right in parenting Fox; he inspired such filial piety that his son hallucinates him during boss fights.

Andrew Ryan, BioShock – Father of Jack: Andrew had Jack out of wedlock with stripper/dancer Jasmine Jolene and didn't get to spend any time parenting him. Mommy Dearest sold the embryo off to Andrew's enemy. Ryan Sr. might make a big fuss about a man choosing; but, the truth is, you can't choose your children.

Big Daddies, BioShock series – Father of Little Sisters: Big Daddies have no blood relation to Little Sisters and probably no soul, either. But they do what all good daddies do: protect the bejesus out of their babies with power tools.

Roy Campbell, Metal Gear Solid series – Father of Meryl: He lies to his daughter and says he's her uncle for most of her life, but then relents and calls her his "pride and joy" at the most inopportune moment. Later, he gives her away at her wedding.

Jack Raiden, Metal Gear Solid series – Father of Rose's son: To his credit, Raiden probably would have been a great dad if his wife had lied and said she miscarried the baby. But, since she did lie and tell him that, he let himself be turned into a high-tech version of a Ken doll and now his son is really going to have daddy issues despite his parents getting back together.

Big Boss, Metal Gear Solid series – Father of Liquid and Solid Snake: Daddy must be so proud of his clone sons. One of them is a chain smoker with a terminal illness and the other one keeps trying to bring about a nuclear holocaust. He probably should have spent more time raising them instead of trying to kill one or both of them.

Adam Fenix, Gears of War series – Father of Marcus: Supposedly he's some kind of genius and like James McCloud he must've done something awesome to inspire filial piety that borders on insanity. His son winds up in prison for abandoning his post to save Fenix Sr. during an alien invasion.

Sam Fisher, Splinter Cell series – Father of Sarah: Sam is so devastated by his daughter's death he spends an entire game avenging her. Drunk drivers and assassins beware a bereaved father, especially one who's a secret agent.

Best Dad… Eli Vance, because he loves his baby girl without smothering her independent spirit.

Worst Dad… Big Boss, because one lousy man-hug does not make up for the sheer number of times he tried to kill his son.

(Dis)Honorable Mentions
Shinnok, Mortal Kombat – He's only Raiden and Shao Kahn's dad in that awful movie, Annihilation, so he doesn't count as a video game dad.
Homer Simpson, Don Corleone, Darth Vader – They've all got a presence in video games, sure, but their status as good or bad fathers comes from the shows and films they're from, not from the games they appear in.
Dr. Tenma, Astro Boy – Father of Astro Boy and Tobio: Like a lot of Dads, Tenma was married to his work until the day his nine-year-old son Tobio died in a car accident. Then, he turned his work into his son, created Astro Boy as the son that would never die. Unfortunately, he wouldn't age, either – so Tenma sold him to a robot salesman.
You, Fable II, The Sims games and Harvest Moon games - Just as with moms, even if you play as an upstanding paragon of parental vigilance as a dad, you're going to be guilty of neglect at least half of the time.

That does it for dads this year. Think we missed somebody important? Drop a line in the comments. And don't forget to call your dad on Father's Day!

Capcom blogger CurlehMustache put these wallpapers together to celebrate the release of the new iPhone 3Gs Friday. Here's the instructions for getting them onto your phone:

If you find one that you like, save the enlarged non-iPhone image to your iPhone/iPod touch and set it as your wallpaper. They look fantastic shrunken down on the small screen. I made sure the dimensions were spot on so that there would be no need to move the image around when setting it.

If there isn't one you like, Curleh also has a thread for users to post their own. Check 'em out and let me know if anyone throws up one for Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers. Then I might actually get around to buying an iPhone — for real this time.

Custom Capcom iPhone/iPod Touch Wallpapers [Capcom]

Beware: This clip has clinking noises. If you are sensitive to clinking noise, might want to turn the volume off.

Keiji Inafune Signing 500 Servbot Mugs by Hand [Capcom Unity]

Not counting his first Japan-only forays on the Famicom and Superfamicom, Astro Boy has only appeared in one PlayStation 2 game and one GameBoy Advance game. The year was 2004 and both Sonic Team and Treasure Inc. (partnered with Hitmaker) developed games based on the 2003 anime remake of the original 1960s Astro Boy cartoon. Sonic Team's PS2 game, Astro Boy, was pretty lousy while Hitmaker/Treasure's GBA Astro Boy: Omega Factor was one of the best things to happen to handhelds that year. Since then, we've got nothing but a quietly-announced, never-demoed tie-in game to the upcoming CGI Astro Boy film directed by David Bowers.

Astro Boy's absence from video games could be due to many reasons – licensing, marketing, etc. – but two big ticket items ultimately tank any hopes of a serious Astro Boy gaming franchise: demand and need.

There's not enough demand for Astro Boy video games in the United States because we don't love him the way they do in Japan. The 1960s cartoon didn't even complete its full 193-episode run in the States when it originally aired in 1963; and it took decades before Dark Horse Comics to translate and publish the manga. Poor Astro Boy just wasn't on the radar as America's resident robot hero.

Back in 1960s Japan, when Astro Boy was first created, there was a desperate need for heroes. World War II had been over for more than a decade, but there was a loss of hope in the country and a profound fear of technology and nuclear weapons*. Anime and manga icons like Astro Boy and Ashita no Joe restored to Japan a sense of purpose and youthful optimism they'd lost in the war. Also, science-y things like Astro Boy put a friendly, rosy-cheeked face on technology, which helped the country cope with the devastating fear inspired by the A-bomb attacks.

In short, Japan needed Astro Boy and America didn't. Without the need for the robot boy hero, America never established a connection to Astro Boy that would inspire parents to make their children watch the 1960s cartoon. Later when the 2003 reboot of the anime series reached America, the show still couldn't find its audience and was canceled after spawning the hideous PS2 game and the wonderful GBA game.

That's not to say America can live without robot heroes.

We have one, in fact, and his name is Mega Man. Mega Man does most of the same stuff as Astro Boy – he even has the beam cannon on his arm – and he beat Tezuka's beloved boy robot to the US gaming scene by a good decade or more. He may not be as fleshed-out a character as Astro Boy, because Mega Man didn't start out with a manga or cartoon series to establish his back story. But he did have the whole filial piety thing going on with his creator, Dr. Light, which was similar to the connection Astro Boy had for his adoptive father figure, Dr. O'Shay (a.k.a. Dr. Ochanomizu, Dr. Packadermus Elefun, Professor Peabody, Jimmy Durante's nose-twin). So what if Mega Man wasn't about childlike wonder or youthful optimism; so what if he never did anything serious like address racism against robots. Mega Man was about kicking robot ass and Americans can totally get in on that.

So, alas, Astro Boy. We loved you in Omega Factor and we respect you as a cultural icon worthy of Mickey Mouse's company – which is why you're in the Robot Hall of Fame. But Mickey doesn't have a great gaming franchise and so far, you don't either. Maybe your upcoming tie-in movie game on PS2, Wii, PSP and DS will be good. Heck, maybe the film itself will be awesome. But in the meantime, we'll be sticking with Mega Man 9.

*The Films of Akira Kurosawa, Donald Richie

They're some kind of Korea-only promo item, and aside from the highly-coveted Servbot livery (and Inafune autograph), there's an adorable Mega Man sketch at the base of the mug, with which you can impress colleagues as you chug down your morning cup of joe/english breakfast.

サイン [Daletto, via Capcom]