Needle Man

"Come on, Rockman. This limestone cave will be your final resting place!"

- Needle Man

Needle Man (ニードルマン) is a deadly Robot Master when he uses his Special Weapon, the rapid-fire Needle Cannon, to pepper his foes with a barrage of spike-shaped bullets which are sharp enough to pierce 10 inch-thick stone. Created by Dr. Light and Dr. Wily using aspects of Metal Man's combat programming, his initial purpose was to work in energy mines, specialising in land development and breaking through boulders and bedrock.

Despite his large "Air Man-type" build, he is agile and good at jumping, even being able to remain stationary in the air to attack for brief moments of time by raining shots on his opponents from above. To accompany his ranged attacking capabilities, the thick spikes on his head are needle-sharp, and mounted on a heavy base attached to his head with an extendable chain. This impromptu weapon can be fired over short distances with huge power, making him very dangerous to try and fight up close.

Needle Man is intellectual and generally liked for his fighting capabilities, but he has a dry wit and tends to be sarcastic. He enjoys sewing and knitting, hobbies that both utilize needles, but ironically is terrified of injections and other medical procedures that involve needles.

Mega Man 3
Needle Man is one of the eight bosses. His attack pattern will be triggered either by pressing the fire button or waiting a few seconds. He will start by jumping in place, and while he is suspended in the air, he will fire his Needle Cannon at Mega Man (three the first time, and later four), and slowly descend. After that, he can either jump and shoot again or jump near to Mega Man's position and use his Needle Hammer to attack instead.

To avoid the shots, it is recommended to wait until Needle Man has shot twice and then make a long jump, thus avoiding the first pair and directing the second over Mega Man's head. If Needle Man is about to jump towards Mega Man, running away or sliding twice can be used to escape, but if he manages to get in range for his spike attack, wait until he is facing Mega Man and jump in place.

Using this strategy can help to avoid most of Needle Man's attacks, though his speed can make the battle still very hard. By using his weakness, the Gemini Laser, the battle can be made much easier, taking just four shots to defeat him.

Mega Man II
Needle Man is one of the four bosses fought in the Wily Castle. His actions are the same from Mega Man 3.

Mega Man's Soccer
A team of eight Needle Mans is one the eight team bosses from the Capcom Championship mode. When defeated, one Needle Man joins Mega Man's team. He has a good kick and tackle, but is the third slowest player from the game, alongside Dust Man. His special is Needle Shoot.

Needle Man's team in Tournament mode is formed by three Needle Mans, Air Man, Gemini Man, Top Man, Snake Man, and Toad Man. In League mode his team has three Needle Mans, two Top Mans, two Toad Mans, and Proto Man.

Super Adventure Rockman
Needle Man is one of Dr. Wily's robots that was revived by Ra Moon in the Lanfront Ruins. He makes an appearance as the penultimate boss of Episode 2. He appears during the period when Mega Man and Beat explore the caves underneath the ruins.

Before he fights the player, he ambushes Mega Man, impaling him using the spikes on his head, before knocking him into an underground pond with two well-timed punches. Afterwards, Mega Man responds by battling him, eventually coming out victorious, with Beat taking his Needle Cannon chip before they leave.

Needle Man and the other robots (except for Shadow Man) are later revived again near the end of Episode 3, but when Ra Moon betrays Dr. Wily, they are attacked several times until they collapse. If Mega Man loses to the New Yellow Devil, he can ask the robots to give their remaining energy for him to be able to save the world, and they shut down after doing so. Needle Man and the others are apparently destroyed alongside Ra Moon's temple.

Rockman Complete Works data
エアーマンタイプのボディ、メタルマンのこうどうプログラムのはってん型を使用している. はなれて戦おう.

Translation: Has an Air Man Type body, he uses a developed type of Metal Man's action program. Fight away from him.

Stage enemies
Enemies in Needle Man's stage, a relatively simple area good to practice Mega Man's new action, the slide.
 * Bikky
 * Bubukan (Doc Robot stage)
 * Cannon
 * Giant Metall (Doc Robot stage)
 * Giant Springer (Doc Robot stage)
 * Hammer Joe
 * Metall DX (Doc Robot stage, both normal and propeller types)
 * Hari Harry
 * Needle Press
 * Parasyu (Doc Robot stage)
 * Yambow

Enemies in Needle Man's (Game Boy) stage:
 * Bikky
 * Cannon
 * Hammer Joe
 * Hari Harry
 * Needle Press
 * Neo Metall
 * Yambow

Damage Data Chart
Amount of damage in units that Needle Man receives from each Special Weapon in Mega Man 3.

Mega Man (Ruby-Spears)
"And after I've finished you off, I'll be Dr. Wily's favourite bot!"

- Needle Man

Needle Man appeared in the episode Bro Bots from Ruby Spears' Mega Man animated series. He, along with Heat Man and Elec Man, pretends to rob the city museum early on in the episode, where he allows himself to be incapacitated by Proto Man as part of his brief act in turning to the heroes.

After being recovered and repaired by Doctor Wily, Needle Man later rejoined Elec Man and Heat Man as they attacked Mega Man in the robot manufacturing plant, at one point nearly impaling him with a close shot from his Needle Cannon. The trio was ultimately defeated after having a vat of a hot red gelatinous substance dumped on them, which instantly solidified and left them trapped.

He was voiced by Garry Chalk, the same voice actor as Guts Man and Bright Man. Interestingly, Needle Man sounded almost exactly like Grounder from the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog series, whom Chalk also voiced.

Mega Man Megamix and Mega Man Gigamix
In Hitoshi Ariga's Mega Man Megamix and Mega Man Gigamix manga series, Needle Man appeared in the stories Metal Heart, Asteroid Blues, and Toward a Bright Tomorrow. Needle Man was registered as a land development robot assigned to foreign planets, specialising in breaking through boulders and bedrock. In reality, he is just a combat robot, pretending to be a non-violent industrial robot.

The Needle Cannon he uses to break through rocks is capable of firing 16 Needles at a time at speeds of up to 2000-3000 metres every second- due to the conical shape of the needles, they are less susceptible to the flow of gasses and fluids in their path. Also, since the full force of their momentum is focused on the narrow tip, each needle offers more destructive power than a regular projectile. He also has ammunition feed belts linking his arms to his midsection, assumingly feeding needles into his Needle Cannon from his torso.

The only drawback to the Needle Cannon is that it is not capable of scattered shots, and Needle Man must therefore make use of the Needle Hammer located on his head to clear away large obstacles. Of course, the destructive power of all these tools can be directly applied to the field of battle.

Mega Man (Archie Comics)
Needle Man makes an appearance in Mega Man issue 15. Created by Ra Moon, Needle Man immediately pledges loyalty to Dr. Wily, and Wily commands him to do some heavy lifting. Needle Man looks at his arms (and lack of hands) in confusion, with which Crash Man sympathizes. He was among the Robot Masters who formed an army under Wily and Dr. Eggman and did battle with Mega Man and Sonic the Hedgehog's team.

Afterwards, Needle Man, due to being made by Ra Moon, ultimately served the supercomputer in its plans to unleash an EMP across the planet to short out technology. It later waited out Guts Man, Mega Man, and Rush under Ra Moon's orders in the tunnel (who knew about their plans to infiltrate the least guarded path shown by Break Man due to one of Snake Man's Search Snakes). He then attempted to ambush them with his needle base on his head, but Mega Man saw it coming and grabbed it, also pinning it between two trap stone doors. Needle Man then proceeded to threaten Mega Man that he'll drive a spike so far into his head that "[Mega Man will] be speaking C++." Mega Man attempted to coax him out of fighting him, citing that they're trying to save the world. Needle Man then recognized Mega Man, but then ended up coming under direct control of Ra Moon (his eyes changed to Ra Moon's symbol), and aided Snake Man (who ambushed Mega Man from underneath).

Needle Man and his brothers did battle with Wily's first line of Robot Masters and Mega Man's team at Ra Moon's command, but were later freed from the alien computer's control when Mega Man destroyed it. Needle Man and six of his brothers, under the command of Break Man, were tasked with capturing Shadow Man and bringing him into Wily's army. Shortly after this successful endeavor, the eight Masters brought into being/redesigned by Ra Moon appeared at the unveiling of Gamma. As they moved to steal the giant robot's Energy Elements, Dr. Light recognized them as being based on designs that he and Wily had created together.

Other appearances
Needle Man also appeared in Shigeto Ikehara's manga Rockman World 2 and Rockman: Yomigaeru Blues, in Rockman 4Koma Dai Koushin, and as a racer in the Chinese manga Rockman Battle &amp; Chase.

Trivia

 * The differences between the NES and cell phone versions of Needle Man is that:
 * In the NES version, he will jump and slowly descend while firing his Needle Cannon.
 * However, in the cell phone version of Mega Man 3, Needle Man hangs in the air as he fires his Needle Cannon, making it more difficult to avoid.


 * Ironic to his theme, there are no instant-kill spikes in Needle Man's stage, excluding the Doc Robot's version of the stage.


 * In a further case of irony, Needle Man appears to suffer from trypanophobia - an extreme fear of medical procedures involving injections and surgical needles.


 * Two versions of a construction tool (one blue, one orange; most likely a power drill) that resembles Needle Man appears in a couple episodes of the TV show Code Monkeys.