Happy New Year everyone at Arcade Sushi! We hope your holiday hangovers weren’t too bad. As we move forward into the future, we present to you a Fan Game Showcase that looks into the past, in more ways than one. Today’s showcase is Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch, a game filled with nostalgia for the blue bomber and first person shooters of old.

Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch is actually a Doom 2 mod of all things. It puts you in the shoes of Mega Man himself, once again attempting to thwart Dr. Wily’s nefarious plans. Except this time, Wily’s plans have taken on a new dimension… the third dimension. The game takes place right after Mega Man 6 and centers around the real Mr. X and his robot tournament. Of course, Dr. Wily wants to prove his genius by entering all of his robots into the robot tournament, and of course things get a little out of hand from there. Eventually, you’ll find yourself protecting the populace from iconic Mega Man bosses like the Yellow Devil. Heck, the plot of the game even ties into the Mega Man X series.

But, nobody plays Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch for the single-player mode. The multiplayer is where it’s at. Unlike modern day shooters like Call of Duty, Mega Man 8-bit deathmatch has you dying at a much slower pace. You have to drain an entire Mega Man style life-bar in order to score a kill, and the basic Mega Buster weapon only does a small amount of damage, about as much damage as you would expect it to do against a robot master in a Mega Man boss fight.

Luckily, there are 76 unique weapons for you to pick up and use, all based around Mega Man weapons of the past. In a 3D arena a lot of these weapons take on entirely new functionality. Guts Man’s ability to pick up and throw blocks lets you alter the geography of the arena. The spread of the Air Shooter becomes more like a shotgun in a 3D world. Even the ludicrous Top Spin has some use in Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch. Sure, it makes you spin wildly and can only be used in midair, but it does damage to the opponent as long as you are in contact with them, almost ensuring a one-hit kill. You’ll also find upgrades from Mega Man 8, like the Laser Buster, along with Rush, Eddie, Tango, Treble, and Beat items as well. You can even get the infamous Item-1 platform creator from Mega Man 1.

Your goal? To kill all the other robots in the area. There are over 78 maps in Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch, each providing new ways to hunt down and kill Wily’s robot masters. You’ll even find some sixteen bit stages form Mega Man 8 and Mega Man and Bass. While Deathmatch is the game mode most people play (come on, it’s right in the title), you can also participate in Capture the Flag matches and other game modes as well.

The last update to Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch was made in late 2012, but the developers are very supportive of their mod community. Since then, a number of new mods have been released, including new maps, new skins, new enemies, and even new weapons. As long as the modding community keeps thriving, then Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch will never die, and you will still be able to laugh when you land a perfectly timed Hard Knuckle right in someone’s face.

For more information on Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch and a free client download, head on over to its official homepage at www.cutstuff.net.

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