Snake Man

"Nice dodge, but you won't be getting a second chance, Rockman."

- Snake Man

Snake Man (スネークマン) is a Robot Master with a snake motif created by Dr. Wily and Dr. Light to investigate narrow areas and survey topography on uninhabited planets marked for development. With his quick and lightweight body, he was well-suited for work on any kind of terrain. However, this caught the attention of Dr. Wily, who stole him, turned him into a combat robot and set him to work fulfilling his schemes. Snake Man is the first Robot Master with an animal-themed design.

Snake Man is intelligent and shrewd, but he can also be tenacious. He enjoys actively hunting and cornering his prey like a snake, which puts him at odds with the fair-minded Hard Man. He enjoys the company of Toad Man, for whom the feelings are unfortunately not mutual, and has a hatred of slugs.

His Special Weapon is the Search Snake, serpentine missiles that can move swiftly along the ground and even climb up walls. In Super Adventure Rockman he is shown to be able to dig underground to stay out of sight and ambush opponents, or to avoid their attacks.

Mega Man 3
Snake Man is one of the eight bosses. He follows a simple attack pattern of traveling back and forth across his room, jumping over the elevated area in the center as he does so and firing two Search Snakes when he stops on a side of the room opposite to Mega Man. However, as he runs from wall to wall he stops short a good distant from the wall itself before turning around, leaving a somewhat safe area for Mega Man to stand in.

A good strategy is upon entering the room is to just keep Mega Man positioned in front of the shutter, as standing in this position (close to a wall) will have Snake Man always turning around and running back the way he came. This will only make it necessary to focus on attacking Snake Man and jumping over his Search Snakes. His weakness is the Needle Cannon, but he can also be easily defeated using the Mega Buster. He is also weak to his own weapon, the Search Snake, but it can be only used in the rematch against him in Wily Castle.

Mega Man III
Snake Man is one of the first four bosses. His strategy is the same from Mega Man 3.

Mega Man's Soccer
Snake Man is a balanced player with a good tackle. In Tournament mode he is a member of the Cut Man, Wood Man, Needle Man, Pharaoh Man, Enker, and Proto Man teams. In League mode he is part of the Elec Man and Dust Man teams.

Super Adventure Rockman
Snake Man is one of the robots revived by Ra Moon in the Lanfront Ruins. He is the fourth boss from Episode 2, attacking Mega Man in an underground area. He attacks with Search Snakes and uses two rocks to protect himself. If the rocks are destroyed, he will dig underground to stay out of Mega Man's range. His weakness is the Crash Bomber.

Later in Episode 3, Snake Man is revived again, but Wily is betrayed by Ra Moon and his robots are attacked until they collapse. Snake Man and the other robots are apparently destroyed alongside Ra Moon's temple.

Other appearances

 * Snake Man appears in the CD database from Mega Man & Bass.
 * Snake Man appears in Battle Memory from Rockman ×over.
 * Snake Man appears in the arcade game Adventure Quiz: Capcom World 2.

Rockman Complete Works data
ヘビのようにしつこく、じわじわ敵をおいつめる...かってに動きまわるので、こっちは動かずに攻撃しよう.

Stage enemies
Enemies in Snake Man's stage, a long and steep area with an eerie snake-like motif.
 * Big Snakey
 * Bomb Flier
 * Bubukan
 * Dada
 * Hammer Joe
 * Jamacy
 * Petit Snakey
 * Potton

Enemies in Snake Man's (Game Boy) stage:
 * Big Snakey
 * Bubukan MK-II
 * Dada
 * Hammer Joe
 * Ladder Press
 * Petit Snakey
 * Potton

Damage Data Chart
Amount of damage in units that Snake Man receives from each Special Weapon in Mega Man 3. * For Magnet Missile, there is no value as the projectile bounces off Snake Man rather than hitting and dealing 0 damage.

''* For Gemini Laser, it is possible to hit Snake Man with the projectile once it has bounced off a wall. If fired directly at him, the laser reflects and splits in two.''

Mega Man (Ruby-Spears)
In Ruby Spears' Mega Man animated series, the design of Snake Man's head and arm cannon are different. His eyes are yellow with red slitted pupils, and instead of lips his mouth is a plate that opens and closes when talking, and he often hisses when doing so. The eyes on his helmet are also different, and he has circular ears like other robots. The Search Snakes are fired as projectiles that can chew through many surfaces and objects.

Except for Cut Man and Guts Man, Snake Man is one of Dr. Wily's robots that had the most appearances in the series, being present in the episodes "Bot Transfer", "Campus Commandos", "Showdown at Red Gulch", "Brain Bots" and "Mega X".

A recurring joke is the use of the line "Try this/these on for size!" whenever the Search Snake is first used in an episode by a character, be it Snake Man, Mega Man, or even Mega Man X.

Snake Man is voiced by Ian James Corlett, who also voiced Mega Man and Rush.

Mega Man Megamix
Snake Man appeared in the manga Mega Man Megamix and Mega Man Gigamix.

In the story "Metal Heart" from Mega Man Megamix, Wily orders his robots from Mega Man 3 to go after Yellow Devil MK-II, which is out of control, and they make a truce with Mega Man to stop him. When Yellow Devil MK-II created a tunnel to escape, Snake Man, Beat and Tango go after him, but they argue and lose sight of him. Later, Snake Man, Top Man and Spark Man help Shadow Man save Mega Man when he was thrown from the building.

In Mega Man Gigamix vol. 1, Snake Man uses Search Snakes to map the space station in the story "Asteroid Blues", which is based on the events from Mega Man 3. In the stories from volumes 2 and 3, he assists Dr. Wily and the others in the battle against the Stardroids.

Mega Man (Archie Comics)
Dr. Wily used Ra Moon to create Snake Man during the story arc "Spiritus Ex Machina", seen briefly among Wily's robot masters in the final issue of the arc. Snake Man also appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 250 of the Worlds Collide crossover arc. In it, he fought Vector the Crocodile and was pummeled by the latter, with the crocodilian Mobian telling the Robot Master that he was "a disgrace to reptiles everywhere."

Because of Ra Moon's involvement in creating Snake Man, Snake Man aligned himself with Ra Moon after it took over. Snake Man also uncovered Mega Man and Break Man's plan to use a less guarded passage to reach the Temple of the Moon via one of his Search Snakes, with him and Needle Man being dispatched to ambush them in the tunnel. Rush managed to spot one of his Search Snakes, although Mega Man dismissed it. Snake Man then fell under direct remote control of Ra Moon and attacked Mega Man before being pinned to the wall by the Blue Bomber with Needle Cannon, having copied the weapon from Needle Man earlier. He then has his main functions restored, although he also congratulates Mega Man for accomplishing an ambush on him in a sinister manner, suggesting he and Needle Man have no memory of their actions under Ra Moon's control.

Snake Man, alongside his brothers, were repaired by Ra Moon and they faced off against Mega Man, Break Man, several of the original Light robots, and the original line of Wily Robot Masters, with Snake Man being defeated by Quick Man. However, after Ra Moon was destroyed by Mega Man, Snake Man was freed from his control and helped his brothers and Break Man search for the rogue Shadow Man in order to convince him to rejoin Wily's army. After Shadow Man agreed to do so, they teleported back with him to continue building Wily's new fortress. Before doing so, however, Snake Man snidely questioned Break Man as to whether he thought that Mega Man and Roll would forgive him as quickly as the Wily Masters had forgiven Shadow Man his role as Ra Moon's willing servant. He and his brothers of the second line later attacked Gamma's unveiling to steal the Energy Elements, something Snake Man found particularly enjoyable.

In issue 41, Snake Man along with his line set up their residence with one of the stolen Energy Elements, on an artificial mining asteroid. Snake Man becomes the second Robot Master Mega Man and Rush travels to. As they traverse through his stage, Snake Man silently stalks them, thinking to himself about how can Mega Man be the Blue Bomber, the one who defeated sixteen other Robot Master's beforehand and destroyed Ra Moon, when to the reptilian robot he is nothing but a scared little robot boy, recalling the fact that even when Snake Man was disabled back at the Lanfront Ruins, Mega Man decided not to finish him off. As Mega Man and Rush enter his room he ambushed them, covering them in Search Snakes and lashing at them with his helmet tail. Mega Man retaliated by using the Top Spin which knocked the snakes off of them while sending the serpent robot master into a wall. Before Snake Man could catch a second wind, Mega Man fired several several shots into him while Rush ripped off his helmet tail. Snake Man then smiles as he realizes this is why Mega Man is the Blue Bomber, just as he is destroyed by a charged shot.

After being rebuilt in issue 49, he questions Dr. Light's statement that all of the robots of his line have industrial purposes built into them, and Dr. Light answers that he was originally designed for topographical surveying. Snake Man notes that he finds the offer intriguing, and, since he does not appear with the eight that refuse to be given a new purpose, it can be assumed that he accepted being re-programmed and put to work for good.

Rockman World 3
After Snake Man spots Mega Man in the woods, he sends his minions to attack, and later appears himself, surprising Mega Man with his Search Snakes. He is the first boss defeated by Mega Man.

Other appearances
Snake Man has brief appearances in the manga Rockman: Yomigaeru Blues as a member of the Wily Patrol and a cameo appearance in the Rockman 7 manga. He also appeared in some shorts from the manga Rockman 4Koma Dai Koushin.

Trivia

 * Snake Man is credited to liking Toad Man and disliking slugs; this most likely comes from a Japanese variation of Rock Paper Scissors; where Snake beats Toad (the snake can swallow the toad), Toad beats Slug (the toad can swallow the slug), and Slug beats Snake (the slug, by covering its prey with a slimy secretion, can destroy a snake). This would also explain why Toad Man is credited as disliking Snake Man also. Also, some snakes eat toads in real life.  Archie Comics makes a note to this in Sonic Universe #250, where Snake Man is seen waving at Toad Man while the latter stares at him suspiciously.
 * Hyleg Ourobockle and Burble Hekelot from Mega Man Zero 2 have a similar relation to Snake Man and Toad Man.
 * Snake Man makes a cameo appearance in Mega Man 7. He, along with many other Robot Masters from the previous games, can be seen in the background of the Robot Museum. Snake Man also appears in the opening scene from Mega Man 8.
 * Part of Mega Man 7's Robot Museum background music is a remix of Snake Man's theme from Mega Man 3.
 * Shark Man's mugshot from the PC version of Mega Man 3 is an edited version of Snake Man's mugshot.
 * Snake Man's appearance in the Mega X episode of the Ruby-Spears cartoon is a reference to the fact that the eight main Maverick bosses in each title of the Mega Man X series are also based on animals.
 * The tileset of Snake Man's stage is used in a complicated way for the Snakies. This is similar to Crash Man as he has complicated, looping layouts of pipes.