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Actor's Scene Re-Dub Attempts To Make Up For Mega Man X4's Past Sins

Mega Man 8 and Mega Man X4 are two of the first games we point at when we talk about the awkward spasms gaming went through in its transition from 16 to 32 bits. “Hey, remember when voice acting in Playstation games could make your dog's ears bleed?” we say.

The death of Iris in Mega Man X4 still holds in our memories, not entirely for good reasons. For starters, the romance between the two has since ignited way too many message board conversations about how/if robots Do It. Second, Zero's voice actor sounds like he drank a scalpel blade smoothie before he recorded. Third...well...WhatamIfighting4rrrrrr?”

Capcom did get its act together admirably in the latter Mega Man X games. Mega Man X: Command Mission, Mega Man X8 and Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X employed the same voice actors for all three games, giving the characters some much-needed consistency. Moreover, there is a hint of professionalism here, as the actors were all employed from The Ocean Group, a Canadian-based anime dubbing company.

Zero's adopted actor is Lucas Gilbertson, an Alberta native who voices the red Maverick Hunter by day and draws some awesomely effed-up pictures by night. Gilbertson was interviewed by a fansite/blog that asked him if he'd try redubbing Iris' death scene in Mega Man X4.

Guess what! He did! He also got a bit close to the microphone, so you might want to lower your volume a titch.

Japanese Musicocracy: Capcom's Numerous Tributes to Axl Rose

I don't know how many years Axl Rose spent working on his latest album, Chinese Democracy, but I seem to remember still playing with dollies when the project was first announced. I'd say I was about 13 years of age. Don't judge me.

Axl's hibernation was long, but he had the courtesy to surface every few years and eat a former band member so we wouldn't forget him. Forget him we did not, though perhaps the Japanese deserve the most credit for keeping Guns N' Roses alive through video games.

Capcom in particular was good about reminding us that Axl Rose was more than a scary story parents told their children when they formed an obsession with hair bandanas. GnR's influence flavours the streets of Metro City in Final Fight, haunts X in Mega Man X's Maverick uprisings, and, in Street Fighter III, gives us a glimpse of what Axl might look like if he drank two steroid smoothies every day.

You might have missed Axl and Slash in Final Fight; they were mere droplets in the tsunami of thugs that crashed over Cody, Haggar and Guy. It was an unspectacular appearence anyway. Slash didn't try to hit anyone with a concrete Gibson and Axl didn't have an attack involving a heroin syringe. I'm sorry, I'll show myself out the door.

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.