Mega Man's Soccer

Mega Man's Soccer, named Mega Man Soccer in the American box art, known in Japan as Rockman's Soccer (ロックマンズサッカー), is a soccer video game released by Capcom for the SNES in 1994. This is the first game in the classic Mega Man series to appear on the SNES.

Story
A few months had passed since the battle with Dr. Cossack in Mega Man 4. One day, Mega Man, Roll, and Dr. Light are watching a game of soccer on TV, when suddenly, robots take over the field. Soccer fields all over the world were thrown into chaos! Familiar enemy robots restored by Dr. Wily were running out into the field and ruining soccer games. To deal with this emergency situation, Dr. Light modified Mega Man and sent him to make things right, saving soccer and the dreams of those who love the sport by playing soccer against Dr. Wily's robots.

Mega Man's Soccer doesn't have an ending and the player returns to the title screen after completing the game, but the game does contain an unused ending and credits sequence. They are only accessible through a cheat device.

Ending
As noted above, the game had unused endings and credits sequences that were only accessible via a cheat device:

In Championship mode, Mega Man managed to confront and defeat Wily at his arena. Wily then proceeded to beg for mercy, and then fled when the lair began to collapse. Mega Man then collapsed to his feet as rubble rained down on them. Proto Man then watches the sea, and then teleports out. It then shows Wily's lair collapsing while Wily's saucer escapes into the distance. It is unknown whether Mega Man managed to escape from the lair.

In Tournament mode, Mega Man celebrates his win with Beat carrying a banner saying "You Are The Champ!" and Kalinka and Roll arriving to stand at Mega Man's place. It then shows Proto Man watching the sea and teleporting out, just as in the Championship ending. This is however an that can only be seen using Game Genie, but you may find the ending and how to achieve it here.

Game modes
The game has four modes:
 * Exhibition: Free play mode that allows the player to choose his team members and field.
 * Capcom Championship: The story mode. Mega Man must defeat eight teams in any order, and after defeating all of them, he goes to the Wily Castle and faces Enker, Proto Man and Dr. Wily.
 * Tournament: A tournament between eight teams. The winner continues to a tournament against the teams of Enker, Proto Man, and Dr. Wily.
 * League: A league with eight teams.

Playable characters
Each Robot Master uses a special ability with the ball. Dr. Wily is only playable in Elec Man's and Dust Man's teams from League Mode.

Teams
* One member from each team defeated by Mega Man in Capcom Championship joins his team, having a total of 10 reserve players in the last field.

Other appearances
Mega Man's Soccer was adapted in a series of short strips by Hitoshi Ariga in Comic BomBom, which was later reprinted in Rockman 4Koma Dai Koushin, Mega Man Megamix and Mega Man Maniax. Rockman 4Koma Dai Koushin also had Mega Man's Soccer strips by Kazuhiko Midō and Akihiro Tomonaga.

While the game itself was not covered in Archie Comics' Mega Man comic series before the series went on hiatus, Ian Flynn has stated that he had a plan for Mega Man's Soccer. It was however referenced in Mega Man #23, where one of the swarming reporters questioned about a potential Soccer Endorsement Deal for Mega Man.

Trivia

 * The game was released the same year as the 1994 FIFA World Cup.
 * An early sketch from Rockman's Soccer shows that Guts Man was once planned for the game. He was replaced with Proto Man on the cover art. Heat Man was also planned to appear in the game.


 * The Japanese version of this game is the only instance of Bomb Man being referred to as "Bomberman" within a game. Bomb Man's Japanese name is literally translated as "Bomberman", though he is still commonly referred to as "Bomb Man" in Japan.


 * This game marks the only time that a Mega Man Killer (Enker) would appear as a playable character, and the only time one would appear as a character outside of the Game Boy series until Mega Man 10. Enker would also appear as a card in Rockboard, and all Mega Man Killers appear as Data CDs in Mega Man & Bass.
 * The stage select screen has similar music to the stage select screen in Mega Man 5. The screen after selecting a stage where it shows the robot master also has similar music to the same type of screen in Mega Man 5.
 * As goal keepers, some characters have immunity against some s.shoots. The strongest of them all, Dr. Wily, is able to catch all kinds of them, except another Dr. Wily's. As outfield players, anybody will get knocked down by any s.shoots. This is not relevant to TAC and DIF values.
 * Shadow Man and Beat make cameo appearance in some fields. Many other minor villains, such as Mets, Sniper Joes, Hammer Joes and Crazy Razy, are also found outside different fields.
 * Design flaws:
 * Some methods to score are too easy. In fact, they may be bugs. Example 1: reach the lower part of the goal line of the opponent's side (from just outside the goal area to the corner). While holding the left or right button(depending on which side you are on), shoot. A computer-controlled goal keeper will always miss it. Example 2: Give an s.shoot with your goal keeper, if no outfield players get hit(at formation select, some choices will help a lot), and the goal keeper is not one who is immune to the particular s.shoot used, you will score (the goal keeper gets knocked down, letting the ball go beyond it a bit).
 * The field is trapezoidal, not rectangular. (The screenshot on the right explains it.) This means, for example, corner kicks from the top cause effects which are not the same as the ones from the bottom. The different angles are the cause.
 * An ending and a credits sequences may be unlocked by cheat codes, but not by playing normally. In some games modes, Dr. Wily may be chosen by cheat codes only. More data can be found in the main body of this page.
 * Translation is inconsistent in the English versions. Megaman, Rock, Blues, Protoman, Bomberman, Bomb, etc coexist. Elsewhere, some belong to the English versions, some Japanese versions.
 * During a penalty shoot-out, computer-controlled players usually choose the default direction or position, either as a penalty shooter or as a goal keeper.