Stage Select Screen

The Stage Select Screen (ステージセレクト画面) is a recurring screen in the Mega Man and Mega Man X series that allows players to select the stages available in any order.

In the first Mega Man, only six stages are available, with Mega Man 2 onward having eight stages. Some games, like Mega Man 8 and the Game Boy games, have four stages available, with other four becoming available later. In Mega Man & Bass, stages are unlocked depending on the order they are cleated. The Stage Select from the Wily Tower mode in Mega Man: The Wily Wars contains three stages. The Stage Select from Mega Man X2 shows the location of the X-Hunters.

Mega Man 7 holds a secret password that lets the player defeat all eight Robot Masters at a time, instead of the four-at-a-time. Mega Man 8, Mega Man & Bass, Mega Man Powered Up, Mega Man Maverick Hunter X, and Mega Man X8 have the Opening Stage available. Mega Man 8 also has the Middle Stage available, and Dr. Light's lab is set alongside the stages instead of being a separated option like later games. Mega Man & Bass contains the Crystal Gate, alongside Auto's shop and the database.

In the Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX series, the stage selection was replaced by the Mission selection.

Trivia

 * Quick Man, Break Man, Galaxy Man, Splash Woman, Sheep Man, and Tundra Man are the only bosses who have a detail extending out of the frame from their stage select mugshots.
 * In Quick Man's case, Keiji Inafune stated that this alteration was made to distinguish Quick Man from the other Mega Man 2 bosses, getting some preferential treatment to be seen like a rival to Mega Man.


 * Two pointers on the Mega Man X6 map don't correspond to the stage names, as the North Pole Area highlights an area on the southeast of Asia, and the Amazon Area an area in the ocean near Japan.