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I have seen many a game idea borrowed from, inspired by, or copied from other games, but never have I seen such a blatant rip-off as The Krion Conquest! Everything about this game has, in some way, shape, or form, been ripped off from the Mega Man series of games! The story begins that an invading empire of robots has taken over the world. A girl is being chased through the streets by these flying robots that look exactly like something out of a Mega Man game. She's backed against a wall, but a witch (yes, a witch!) pops out of the cane she's carrying and destroys the robots. The witch introduces herself as "Francesca", and the game begins. Here's a screenshot sequence of that opening: |
 Robots invade earth and cause mass destruction! |
 Robots are everywhere! Run! |
 ...and they're chasing this woman around town... |
 And her back's against the wall! |
 But wait! Something in the magic cane has destroyed the robot! |
 Here it comes! |
 Is any of this making sense? She looks rather surprised, but she seemed aware that cane was special... |
 I am Francesca! |
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By now you're probably thinking, "So what? Aside from the robots, it's not really that much like Mega Man so far, and many games have robots." True, but let's take a look at the game itself. First of all, although Francesca is a witch, her character sprite looks about as much like Mega Man as it possibly could. If you took Mega Man out of his robot armor and put him in a red dress, shoes, and witch's hat, he'd look very much like Francesca. Her walking (or running) animation is done exactly the same way as Mega Man's NES walking/running animation. When she shoots bullets from her wand, it's animated the same way as when Mega Man shoots bullets from his arm cannon. Francesca's jumping and falling poses are also very much like Mega Man's, and she even makes a similar metallic "click" when she lands from a fall or jump that Mega Man does. Francesca does have the ability to shoot straight up and to duck, neither of which Mega Man could do in any of the NES games, but she doesn't appear to be able to slide.
Another huge similarity is Francesca's ability to switch weapons. By pressing start, a list of weapons appears on-screen, again, just like in the Mega Man games. And when you select a different weapon, she changes colors just like (you guessed it!) Mega Man! Some of her special weapons include a Fire Phoenix that wipes out all enemies on-screen, a bullet-ball that richocets off of walls, a freeze ray, and a shield. But instead of having an energy meter for each separate weapon, some have to be charged, some have unlimited use, and others take a bit off her life meter.
Vic Tokai, the creators of The Krion Conquest, didn't stop at just ripping off the weapons and animations of Mega Man. I've only played the first level of Krion, but I noticed many similarities between it and the Hard Man stage of Mega Man 3; similar graphic style and geographical layout. Also, many of the enemies are direct rip-offs of Mega Man enemies. The bouncing springs with the face on top are a common Mega Man enemy. There are green robots that stand in one place and throw bullets that are reminiscent of MM's Sniper Joes. The Hard Hats, those little helmets that pop up and shoot when you get too close, are probably one of Mega Man's most well-known enemies with appearances in almost every MM game, and yes, Krion even has an enemy just like them! Here are some screenshots for comparison: |
 This scene from Krion Conquest is very similar to... |
 ...this scene from Mega Man 3 |
 Here is a list of Francesca's weapons |
 A list of Mega Man's weapons from MM2 |
 Here Francesca encounters a Spring enemy. And you can also see how she changes colors with a different weapon equipped. |
 Here is Mega Man's "Spring" enemy |
 Here is Krion's version of the lovable Hard Hat enemy |
 Here is the actual Mega Man Hard Hat enemy |
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More Screenshot Comparisons Sent in By Charem Charmeleon!
In addition to looking amazingly similar, these enemies attack the same way - by hovering left and right over Mega Man/Francesca and dive-bombing.
#2: Cloned Robo-Rabbit Enemies
This may not be a perfect clone (actually, I believe there's another Mega Man enemy that looks/acts more like the "clone" than the purple bunny does), but they both hop towards the player in pretty much the same way.
Pretty self-explanatory.
FO's Note: I noticed that Francesca explodes like a robot (yeah, that makes a whole lotta sense), but forgot to mention it in my part of the article.
Also, that "A" logo is clearly ripped off of the "Dr. Wily" logo:
The thing here is the above enemy constantly dispenses new
enemies (those white head things) until you destroy its weak point on top,
much like Mega Man's numerous dispenser enemies (the penguin, whale, giant
met, etc.). Pretty stupid-looking dispenser in Krion, though.
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THE VERDICT: Well, you can see just from looking at these screenshots that even though Krion Conquest copies Mega Man's graphic style, they're not quite as high-quality. Krion's opening cinema has impressive graphics, but it doesn't make much sense. Even the music of the game sounds sort of "Mega Man-ish", but it's nowhere near as catchy or well-composed. It's hard for me to judge the actual gameplay quality of Krion, since I've only played the first stage. It didn't seem too bad to me, aside from being such a blatant rip-off. The play control was okay, but Francesca becomes momentarily stunned when hit by an enemy, which is a bit annoying.
Even if Krion Conquest is bad, it's still fun to play just to see how hilarious it is! It's almost as though it's like some "side-story" to Mega Man. In reality, it's not, because Capcom did not make it, but I like to think of it that way! I hope someday I can get farther in it than the first stage, just to see if a Dr. Wily clone eventually turns up or what the bosses are like (if there are any.)
For more information on The Krion Conquest anomaly, visit these sites:
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