Capcom Celebrates Birthdays with Street Fighter X Mega Man (and it's FREE!)

Editor's Note: Capcom, you have been redeemed...for now. 

You know that friend that always seems to disappoint when they have something to do (school project, for example), but then when they actually put effort into something their finished product is truly great? Seems Capcom has become that friend as they announced a crossover I don't think anyone saw coming: Street Fighter X Mega Man. This morning Capcom Unity posted up a trailer for the upcoming computer-based side scroller.

The trailer shows the Blue Bomber facing off against multiple characters from Capcom's flagship fighting franchise. Ryu, Blanka, Rose and others will be facing off against Mega Man in what looks to be some of the best fan service since Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

"Now, that's all well and good," you say. "But what about the price?" you ask. Well friend, according to Capcom, you'll be downloading this celebration of retro for about zero dollars and zero cents.

In other words, IT'S FREE!

Not only that, but they even gave a release date: December 17, the official release date of the original Mega Man on the NES. That's only a little over a week, so we don't have to wait very long!

According to Capcom employee "Brelston" on his Capcom Unity Blog, here's how this became a thing: A big Capcom fan from Singapore named Seow Zong Hui approached Chris Svenson with a prototype for the game on his laptop at this year's EVO tournament. Svenson was very impressed, so the project became official.

The music is being composed by Luke Esquivel, a.k.a. "A_Rival," who has apparently mixed classic Mega Man tunes with Street Fighter character themes.

Let me put that in bold for those of you who skimmed over that: 8-BIT MEGA MAN MUSIC MIXED WITH 8-BIT STREET FIGHTER MUSIC. CAPCOM, SHUT UP AND TAKE THE MONEY YOU AREN'T ASKING FOR!

Anyway, some boss's behaviors in SF will also be used in SFXMM. "[I]f you know how Blanka and Rose behave in SFIV, you'll have an idea how to approach them in SFxMM," Brelston wrote.

He added that more information will be coming down the pipeline in the form of interviews and such, so anyone interested should tune in to hear more about the development behind this generous offering.

I've defended Capcom a lot on this site, and now I think I'm getting a reward for sticking with them. I hope it does become available on consoles, but I'm not complaining about the computer exclusivity (as long as it's available on Mac of course...).

Oh, and you'll be able to download this from Capcom Unity's Mega Man brand page, which I think is a smart move to get more people interested in Capcom's digital fan base (not "fanbase," fan base).

What do you guys think about this? Is it mindless pandering, or something truly special? Sound off in the comments!