Mega Man?

[JunkerMike]

I've heard from various people that Mega Man or characters from it are in this series? This doesn't make sense, because obviously Mega Man was made by Capcom, and not Konami. Can somebody please explain this for me?

[Solidé]

hmm.. first time i heard about it ??:
But i haven't ever played megaman, so i don't know.

But i still doubt about this being true since it just doesn't seem to be right.
Besides would it even be possible to copy character from some other game nowadays, everything is officially registered and copyrighted and so on...

EDIT; But that's sure there is not any character in Boktai series that would look even a bit like megaman ;P

[JunkerMike]

I've heard a few people talk about it, and I was thinking about it just now, and it puzzled me. I don't even remember any of the people who mentioned it though. I think it was more than one though.

[Marc]

Yeah, there are some Capcom cameos in the Japanese version, but these, along with other features (like wi-fi play), were removed from the overseas version.

[JunkerMike]

Yeah, there are some Capcom cameos in the Japanese version

How is that possible????

[Marc]

Same way the Ape Escape monkeys are in MGS3.

[Henry Spencer]

I suppose Kojima and his team have a lot of contacts throughout the gaming community, since they are respected and that.

[Marc]

I think he's on at least an acquaintance-level with just about every major Japanese designer. Just look at all the guests he's had on his radio show since it began. Not just the games industry either. You could probably include the publishing and film industry too.

[Henry Spencer]

You're right, many admire him.

[Missing]

I can't think of his name, but I think I heard the creator of Megaman (who also created the Onimusha franchise) had a son who was a fan of the Boktai games -- or maybe it was the other way around, and Kojima's kid is a fan of Megaman. Either way, they decided to include cameos of each other's characters in one another's games, so Boktai gets Megaman and a few Megaman games got Django and Sabata cameos --I think. It's not like they didn't have one another's permission to do it, so it wasn't some huge issue securing rights or anything.

[87th]

Kojima's more friendly with some directors/producers than others. He seems to be really interested in Goichi Suda at the moment, so he's helping him out at the moment, so they've become friends because of that. He's also good friends with Keiji Inafune (the creator of Megaman), but I think that has more to do with their personalities than their interest in each others' games. Kojima has worked indirectly with Miyamoto before, but I think he feels a little scared of him, as he's such a big fan of his work (He says that Super Mario Bros. is his all time favourite game).

[Henry Spencer]

So where does the creator of RE come into all of this then (discussing the recent events at that conference)?

[JunkerMike]

And they're allowed to do that? Even though the characters are owned by entirely different companies? Boy, I'm really puzzled.

[87th]

The Japanese games industry is much more of a community than in the west. There's a very friendly sense of competition over there. Quite unlike the American market where lawsuits are commonplace.

[Henry Spencer]

Yeah, no Jack Thompson's over in Japan.

[originalcracker]

Capcom has been whoring themselves out for a while (in a friendly way). SNK vs. Capcom and Capcom vs. SNK, the RocKman (Megaman) Boktai crossovers, Namco X Capcom, Dante's (Devil May Cry) appearance in Sin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturn. I'm probably leaving a few out.

Anyway, Megaman first appeared in Boktai 2, and Django and Otenko appeared in Megaman Battle Network 4 (Rockman exe 4). Here is a break down:

US: Boktai 2, Megaman BN4, and 5, 5 DS(?)

JPN: Boktai2, 3, DS, Rockman exe 4, 5,5 DS, 6, Ryusei DS

Boktai 2, and Megaman 5 was the first Crossover Battle. One player played as Django, the other played as Megaman. Both fought against Shademan (vampire boss from Megaman BN 4) in their respective environments. Whoever could beat him the fastest, or cause the other player to lose, would win. Points were obtained and players could use them in there respective games to buy special crossover items such as Megaman armors in Boktai 2 and Boktai themed battle chips in Megaman BN 5 (which happened to be some of the best chips in the game). The only way to do this was to have the wireless adapter for the GBA. Boktai required a code to unlock the mode, Megaman just needed the adapter to be inserted.

Boktai 3 and Megaman 6 had the same thing, only with a different boss (The Count, or Hakushaku from the Boktai series). Same kind of rules apply here.

Megaman 5 DS was a little different. It could not connect to the wireless adapter, so it could not connect to Boktai 2. But it retained the crossover items (Battle Chips) as well as gave a special version for Megaman, Sol x Rockman (I believe) if you double slot-in a Boktai cart before you boot up Megaman 5 DS. This may have been removed from the US version. I don't remember and I don't want to check right now.

Boktai DS and Ryusei DS (Newest Megaman DS game) also connects but in a different way. This time it is called Brother Band. You can connect to each game using WiFi and send each other specific items, as well as your stats (why?, just because they can). Rockman makes a side story quest appearance in Boktai. You get Warrock (Rock's cyber animal gaurdian thing) as a terrenial, like Otenko and Nero. I don't know what Rock gets yet, other than itens and chips. I haven't made it that far into the game yet. This was also removed from the US version.

Remember I said Django made a appearance in MMBN4? Well it was a short quest, with a no-name boss. You also get Boktai themed battle chips.

Stemming from this, there are also the toys. Rockman toys of course. Battle chips (Gun Del Sol 1, 2, 3, EX, Django), Shademan figure, the card game had a Gun Del Sol card.

Umm, more questions?

[Junker Gear Snatcher]

Yes. As far as permission is concerned it is entirely possible to borrow and cameo characters in another's product.

Characters like Dante, Megaman, Django, Solid Snake, they're intellectual property of the person that created them.. Not the company they appeared in.

It depends on the grounds I believe, for example, Venom in a Marvel copyright, but is not the property of any of the artists that drew him. Todd McFarlene is believed to be somewhat responsible for the character, but does not have the right to decide what Venom appears in. (Or so I've been led to believe)

The thing that puzzles me the most is how a character can be cameo'd when well.. he's an example:

Tetsuya Nomura drew many Square Enix characters, such as Squall, Cloud, etc etc. And yet when say Cloud was created, he wasn't "created" by Nomura, but Nomura, being the artist at the time of the project, has the copyrights for the character's design, get my drift? Although as far as I know, as long as you have Nomura's say-so, that's all you need.

Speaking personally, I love cameos, and if I was a game designer/producer and had any say so, I'd be offering characters to just about everybody. As long as the credits say something like "Special thanks to - - for allowing the use of - -" I could care less about the political, legal or 'why' of it all. I consider such things to be an honor.

As a writer, if any company approached me and asked permission for one of my characters to cameo, it depends on the circumstance, people like Kojima I find are the same way. Look at the Altair costume in Metal Gear, it's a "Hey, this could be fun.. *calls Ubisoft* I think this'd be fun." "Sure let's do it!" "Alright!" type situation. To me, that makes the industry seem VERY attractive.