New 8-bit Sprites on 25th Anniversary Albums??

[PressStart]

Speculation time!!

http://www.rockmancorner.com/2012/08/25 ... racks.html

The album covers on the 25th Anniversary Techno/Rock Arrange Soundtracks show off some new sprite-work for classic Robot Masters. What I'm wondering is, where did these come from? While it is entirely possible (and likely) they were just thrown together for the sole purpose of covering this album, there's a few oddities about them:

-Almost all of the Robot Masters shown are given a unique "hurt" sprite, which are similar to the poses seen in Power Battle/Fighters but different from the ones in the Neo Geo Pocket game and definitely not from the original NES titles
-There's weird little differences with some of the sprites, such as Snake Man's tail being shortened
-No jumping or walking sprites are used, only poses, attacking, and being hurt (even to the point of a unique "Snake Man shooting on the ground" sprite being used)

I wanted to try and "rip" some of these, but even the high quality images are not enough, yet. I did try to draw over Snake Man's standing and hurt poses though:

The top left is just the black color of Snake Man's original sprite. The top right is my redraw of what's on the album. The bottom right is my redraw of the hurt pose, and the bottom left is my guess at the hurt sprite being colored to match the other NES sprites.

Originally, I had hoped that these sprites were maybe from some kind of in-progress or canned 8-bit version of the Power Battles, but the limited-poses and repeated states almost makes it seems like they're from some kind of cell-phone title instead (like a puzzle game, where each character would have attack animations for completing a line and a hurt animation for receiving garbage). The only reason I speculate they're from something else is because it'd be strange to create so many new "hurt" sprites for these Robot Masters, when they could have just used other poses.

IN ANY CASE, I hope there's some even higher-res pics in the future of the cover, cuz I do think some of the unique hurt sprites are cool.

[Kapus]

Wow. This is pretty weird.

Maybe they're just weird sprite edits they threw in there for the heck of it.

[MusashiAA]

YEAH, I NOTICED IT TOO

HOLY SHIT, LOOK AT ALL THOSE HURT POSES!

Rock album cover, some new poses!
Techno album cover, full of new poses!

EDIT: Almost all of those RMs have new dot art for hurt poses! Nice detail!

Airman has one AND a different firing pose
Heatman has one
Elecman has one
Woodman probably has one but it's out of picture
Metalman has one
Crashman has one
Bubbleman has one
HARDMAN HAS A CRAMPIER DESIGN, ALSO HAS A HURT POSE
Snake has one too AND a new standing frame
Pharaoh has one
Skull has one (I lol'd)
Flashman has one
QUICKMAN HAS A DIFFERENT DESIGN (more athletic), also has a hurt pose

[PressStart]

Wow. This is pretty weird.

Maybe they're just weird sprite edits they threw in there for the heck of it.

Lol, as much as I wish and hope for some weird new game, this is probably the truth.

Grouped em cuz hey, why not.

[Kapus]

Skull Man, Pharaoh Man and Hard Man have the best hurt poses.

[Geno]

I'm gonna challenge myself and see if I can remake these.
Hey, when I do, I could post them, and someone could replace the MM8BDM ones with these ones!
Someone should find a higher quality version of the rock album cover.

[MusashiAA]

I'm gonna challenge myself and see if I can remake these.
Hey, when I do, I could post them, and someone could replace the MM8BDM ones with these ones!

Skin replacement mod, yes please

Or just add those into the vanilla game as alternate skins

[Geno]

Here's "set 1" of the new poses!


And it doesn't look much like Hardman's smaller, it looks like they just shortened the legs and arms.
AND since I couldn't figure out that the heck was going on with Quickman's face, I just put a modified normal Quickman head over it.
Also includes PressStart's Snakeman.

EDIT: "Set 2"

[PressStart]

Haha yesss, awesome! The spit flying from Flash Man is great.

Excellent job : )

[GameAndWatcher]

QuickMan's mouth should be more open.

[Geno]

I won't be able to continue until someone finds a better quality version of the Rock arrange album.

[PressStart]

Yeah; even though the images are pretty big, it is still hard to see all of the pixels, and some end up getting squished or hidden. As soon as they're released, some high-res photos should make the job easier (although they'll still be in weird black-and-white)

I love the re-sprites you've done, though!

[Geno]

I will not do the sprites on the rock arrange album until a better picture surfaces.
Though I'm sure somebody can put the other sprites to good use.

[MusashiAA]

GENO DOOOOOOOOD

LOOK

YOU DID IT

[PressStart]

I'm glad it got posted, cuz the commentors on the blog post are now pointing out these sprites are actually from (or at least, were made before) the 20th anniversary. Guess that pretty much solidifies the fact they were created purely for merchandise (and no chance of weird new Mega Man games   )

I feel like we've come full circle!