Mega Man (video game)

Rockman, or Mega Man in the rest of the world other than Japan, was the first Rockman/Mega Man game made. It was created by Keiji Inafune of Capcom in 1987 and debuted on the Famicom in Japan and the NES in North America and Europe in 1987-89.

Release Dates
Famicom/NES:
 * Japan: December 17, 1987
 * North America: December 17, 1987
 * Europe: December 13, 1989

"Mega Man: The Wily Wars," Sega Mega Drive:
 * Europe: October 20, 1994
 * Japan: October 21, 1994

"Rockman Complete Works," PlayStation:
 * Japan: August 5, 1999

Mega Man: Anniversary Collection:
 * GameCube and PlayStation 2: June 22, 2004
 * XBox: March 15, 2005

"Mega Man: Powered Up," PlayStation Portable:
 * Japan: March 2, 2006
 * North America: March 14, 2006
 * Europe: March 24, 2006

Mobile phone:
 * Japan: 2003
 * North America: ?

Wii's Virtual Console:
 * Europe: 2007

Story
The story as from the American manual: It's Mega Man versus the powerful leaders and fighting forces of Monsteropolis - that strange multi-faceted land of robot-like humanoids.

Brilliant scientist Dr. Light conceived the construction of fully operational human-like experimental robots to preform specific everyday duties. Dr. Light and his assistant Dr. Wily, encouraged by their very first near-human robot - Mega Man - proceeded to develop six additional Humanoids, all programmed to perform prescribed rituals.

But with the exception of Mega Man, all of Dr. Light's near-human robot experimentation went awry. Assistant Dr. Wily turned disloyal, re-programming Dr. Light's humanoids, now bent on destroying opposition so Dr. Wily can control the world and its resources.

Resisting re-programming, Mega Man is chosen as the defender of the universe and its inhabitants. Mega Man dares to single-handedly penetrate seven separate empires of Monsteropolis, eliminating the leaders and followers of these sovereignties.

The actual story is more like this:

To understand the story of Mega Man, one must look back at the events which occur before the game takes place, and to do so, once can look to sources such as Rockman Perfect Memories which have taken the time to document the information reported by Capcom over the years in regards to the series:

The story of the Mega Man universe begins in the mid-20th century with the birth of Thomas Light and Albert W. Wily (circa 1958). These men would become friends and attend the same university, studying the field of electronics and eventually receiving PhDs. By the 1990s, the two men would go into business together and form a company called Light Labs, a team whose ambition it was to use computer and electronic technology to benefit mankind in the coming era.

In the early 21st century, Light Labs made its first leaps in the field of robotics, creating the Sniper Joe police robots, Mettool construction robots, and various others to benefit mankind. Yet, Light and Wily both realized the potential of their project. They wanted to create robots that were human-like. They wanted to build robots that contained artificial intelligence within them.

Thus, around the year 2005, Light Labs produced the first one of such robots- Proto Man. Proto Man was based off of the design of the Sniper Joe robots, but was instilled with an artificial intelligence unlike anything the world had ever seen. Yet, Proto possessed a true sense of independence, one that made him much like true human beings, and because of this he ran from the lab before his diagnostic testing was completed.

Still, Light and Wily did not give up. The following year they set to work on building a pair of robots, thinking that two would work together and overcome the independence issue. It was thus that Rock and Roll were born. Rock became the lab's new assistant and Roll became a housekeeper. With the success of this project, the two scientists went on to create eight more robots, each for industrial assistance purposes: Fire Man, Ice Man, Bomb Man, Cut Man, Guts Man, Elec Man, Oil Man, and Time Man.

It was for the success of these projects that Dr. Thomas Light received the Nobel Prize for Robot Master Design in 2007, an award which Wily felt he deserved as well.

In December of 2008, Dr. Albert W. Wily had finally had enough of living in the shadow of his colleague, Thomas Light. Light's reception of the Nobel Prize the previous year, as well as his winning the LIT Manual Design Contest drove him over the edge. Wily realized the potential of what he and Dr. Light had been designing with the Light Labs team. Robots with true A.I. built for industrial purposes could be used for other means. It was to this line of thinking that Wily turned one night that month when he snuck down into the lab and reprogrammed all of the robots that he could get his hands on. However, he failed to get past the programming on Rock and his "sister," Roll. Still, Wily figured that in the end he wouldn't have much use for a lab assistant and a housekeeper, so he took his new army of industrial powerhouses and fled the lab.

When Light came in, he found his lab in shambles and soon discovered that his colleague was to blame. With Wily on the loose with an army of intelligent and powerful robots, Dr. Light knew that the world's police forces and armies weren't ready to deal with this new challenge.

It was thus that Rock, the lab assistant, volunteered to be converted into a fighting robot. Rock had a strong sense of justice and couldn't sit by and watch his "father's" work be destroyed before his very eyes. As such, Light reluctantly converted the former lab assistant into a robot of unimaginable potential. Equipped with titanium armor and a plasma cannon, Rock became known as the fighting robot Mega Man and set out for Wily's new fortress of Monsteropolis.

Would he be able to stop the evil madman from taking over the world?

Note: In the original version of the story, Doctors Light and Wily only built six robots in their industrial series, but Capcom modified the story with the release of Mega Man: Powered Up to contain two additional Robot Masters in order to make the game more in-line with its sequels.

Robot Masters

 * DRN-003 Cut Man
 * DRN-004 Guts Man
 * DRN-005 Ice Man
 * DRN-006 Bomb Man
 * DRN-007 Fire Man
 * DRN-008 Elec Man

Weapons

 * Plasma Cannon (P), Mega Man's main weapon. (Shot)
 * Magnet Beam (M), An item used to create platforms. Found in Elec Man's Stage. (Shot)
 * Rolling Cutter (C), Cutman's weapon. (Thrown)
 * Super Arm (G), Gutsman's weapon. (Needs an item; Thrown)
 * Ice Slasher (I), Iceman's weapon. (Shot)
 * Hyper Bomb (B), Bombman's weapon. (Thrown)
 * Fire Storm (F), Fireman's weapon. (Shot)
 * Thunder Beam (E), Elecman's weapon. (Shot)

Fortress Bosses
Area One Area Two Area Three Area Four
 * Yellow Devil
 * Cut Man R
 * Elec Man R
 * Copy Robot
 * The Seven CWU-01P(s)
 * Bomb Man R
 * Fire Man R
 * Ice Man R
 * Guts Man R
 * Dr. Wily's Machine, phase one
 * Wily Machine No. 1, phase two

Other Character(s)

 * Doctor Thomas Right/Light: He created many robots and is a brilliant roboticist.

Epilogue
ROCKMAN HAS ENDED THE EVIL DOMINATION OF DR WILY AND RESTORED THE WORLD TO PEACE HOWEVER, THE NEVER ENDING BATTLE CONTINUES UNTIL ALL DESTRUCTIVE FORCES ARE DEFEATED. FIGHT, ROCKMAN! FOR EVERLASTING PEACE!

Walkthrough
See Mega Man walkthrough.

Enemies
See list of Mega Man 1 enemies.

The Pause/Resume Trick
It is possible to inflict more damage to boss characters in the game by pausing the game (by pressing the select button, not the start button). This especially helps in the battles against Yellow Devil and Dr. Wily. When Mega Man's shot hits the opponent's weak spot, pause (select) the game, then unpause. If you're too early, just do it again. The enemy will be hurt more. This trick is especially useful for novice gamers. The Thunder Beam is the most effective weapon to use with this glitch, as it is large and doesn't vanish when hit a enemy, allowing multiple hits with one beam.

To avoid this glitch in others games, it's no longer possible to pause the game with the select button in Mega Man 2 and later games. This glitch was fixed in remakes of the game.

Trivia

 * This is the only Mega Man game with a score system.
 * The American box art was completely different from the actual Mega Man concept. The reason for this was that the Capcom's American game developers thought that the cuteness of the character would not be attractive in the eyes of the U.S.A's public. That was also the reasoning behind changing "Rock" to "Mega" and "Rockman" to "Mega Man" - an attempt to make it sound more "western".
 * Mega Man almost never existed. The first Rockman game was originally intended to be the official video game of the popular Japanese franchise Astro Boy. Apparently, the owners of "Astro Boy" backed out of the deal with CAPCOM while the game was still in it's early stages of production. Instead of dumping the project, CAPCOM and Keiji Inafune gave it a completely new flavor and created the Rockman character. The game was a hit on the Nintendo Famicom (The NES's title in Japan) and was imported to America and Europe, re-christened with the title "Mega Man".
 * Rock, Roll and Dr. Right go unnamed throughout the whole game; they're only seen at the end. (Rock goes unnamed; NOT Rockman) The Yellow Devil, the Copy Robot, and the seven CWU-01P(s) are also unnamed in the game, although the Copy Robot can just as well be referred to as Mega Man; it's an exact copy. Dr. Wily is the only part of his name given; There's no "Albert W." The weapons are not given names either. (P and M stand for Plasma and Magnet)
 * The names Rock and Roll are a pun, named after the musical genre.