Mega Man 8

Mega Man 8, known as Rockman 8: Metal Heroes (ロックマン 8: メタル ヒーローズ) in Japan, was released for the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn from 1996-1997 and is the eighth game in the classic Mega Man series. The game is the first in the classic series to feature anime-style full-motion videos (FMV) in order to tell the story and is the first and only game (aside from the DOS game Mega Man 3) in which Mega Man is capable of swimming. The game also marks the tenth anniversary (1987-1997) of the Mega Man franchise, and limited copies were released with a color history booklet called "Mega Man Anthology" celebrating the series' history.

The PlayStation version was later re-released as part of the Mega Man Anniversary Collection, and was released on the PlayStation Network as part of the PS1 classics on December 17, 2014 in Japan and May 27, 2015 in the U.S.. The PlayStation version was also later re-released as part of Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 on August 8, 2017 for the PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One. The Nintendo Switch version of Legacy Collection 2 was later released on May 22, 2018.

Story
Mega Man 8 is a continuation of the original Mega Man series storyline. Cutscenes in the game are presented both in-game and with newly introduced anime-style FMVs. Like other games in the series, it takes place in an unspecified year during the 21st century (20XX). The game opens as two alien robots engage in a climactic battle in the depths of space. Ultimately both of them plummet towards Earth, critically injured. Meanwhile, on Earth, Mega Man and his canine companion Rush are caught in a skirmish with his rival Bass, who still wants to prove himself to be stronger than Mega Man. Thanks to the timely intervention of Roll, who was bringing a message from Dr. Light, Mega Man manages to subdue Bass long enough to leave. Bass swears that he will get back at Mega Man for his "cowardice". Dr. Light asks Mega Man to investigate strange energy readings on a nearby island. On the island, Mega Man finds Dr. Wily flying away with a strange purple orb. Before chasing him, he sees a damaged robot and asks for Dr. Light to pick it up and try to repair it. Dr. Wily then releases four new Robot Masters to combat Mega Man: Frost Man, Tengu Man, Clown Man, and Grenade Man. Each time he destroys one, the robotic hero receives a purple orb like the one Dr. Wily confiscated. Each of the Robot Masters are empowered with a strange energy, and it seems that this power comes from the new energy cores that Wily has infused them with.

After Mega Man defeats the four Robot Masters, he returns to the lab and Dr. Light tells him that the robot he found should be fine if he rests for a while. Mega Man brings with him the energy cores that he retrieved from the fallen Robot Masters; when Dr. Light examines them, he realizes that they are a powerful form of energy which Dr. Wily must not have in his possession, lest it destroy the world. After Dr. Light and Mega Man leave the lab, the robot awakens, sees the energy cores, becomes enraged, and flies off into the distance. Mega Man follows suit on Rush. Mega Man finds him in a mine shaft on the other side of the globe, and after battling the robot, Proto Man shows up and tells Mega Man that Dr. Wily's new fortress, "Wily Tower," is just ahead. Mega Man goes ahead, but is captured by one of Wily's giant robotic creations. The robot saves him, introduces himself as Duo, and reveals his purpose to Mega Man. Duo explains that the purple orbs are "Evil Energy," and he has been traveling the universe tracking down this energy and trying to destroy it before it engulfs the entire world. However, Wily Tower has a barrier around it that prevents him from taking out the source. Duo tells Mega Man to destroy the four other Robot Masters that hold the key to the barrier: Astro Man, Sword Man, Search Man, and Aqua Man, while he collects and extinguishes the rest of the world's Evil Energy.

Once the other four Robot Masters have been beaten, Wily Tower's barrier is lifted and Mega Man makes his way through it, defeating the hordes of robotic henchmen inside, including Bass, who uses a piece of the Evil Energy to amplify his powers, and ultimately, the evil doctor himself. The "Evil Energy" is destroyed before it is allowed to spread throughout the world but it manages to infect Mega Man before being destroyed, and Wily's newest compound is demolished with Mega Man inside, who is dying from the Evil Energy. Duo arrives, examines Mega Man, and seeing the goodness and justice in his heart, cures him of the evil energy, eradicating the last remnants of the Evil Energy on Earth. Proto Man catches up to him; Duo then says that his mission is done, and leaves, but not before asking Proto Man for a favor. Mega Man then wakes up in Dr. Light's Lab and is reunited with Dr. Light, Roll and the others who tell him that Duo saved him. He then walks outside and finds Proto Man, who gives him a message from Duo: "Thank You." Mega Man then looks up to the sky and says "Thank You" to Duo as his reflection is seen in the sky.

Version Differences
Although Mega Man 8 was released on the Sega Saturn shortly after being released on the Sony PlayStation, the Saturn version was not identical to the PlayStation version. The differences are:


 * A Bonus Mode was included, which includes official and fan artwork, voice test, music test, and a secret animation test for the FMVs. Of note, the voice test includes some unused vocal samples, including an unused line by Frost Man, Dr. Light, and Mega Man saying "Metal Heroes" (used in the Japanese version). By holding L and R and pressing start to get in there, some additional options are available. Bonus Mode replaces the "Game Information" option from the Japanese PlayStation version, which showed previews of the then-upcoming Rockman: Battle &amp; Chase and Super Adventure Rockman.
 * There are a few additional enemies added in the stages (for example, the game's first two enemies are Metalls).
 * Water has an additional morphing ripple effect, giving the scenery and background an animated wave motion.
 * A loud red siren immediately flashes when Mega Man enters the derelict base of Duo's mini-stage. It stops during boss fights.
 * Cut Man (from Mega Man 1) and Wood Man (from Mega Man 2), who appeared as cameos among the crowd of Robot Masters at the end of the opening animation, make appearances in Duo's mini-stage and Search Man's stage, respectively. Cut Man is an optional encounter, while Wood Man is a mandatory mini-boss. Defeating them earns Mega Man two Bolts that are otherwise lying in the open in the PlayStation version. Once their Bolt is collected, they cannot be challenged again. (On a side note, Cut Man and Wood Man are thought to be the apparent stolen Robot Masters that were in two broken display cases seen in the background of the Robot Museum stage in Mega Man 7.)
 * The music is slightly different in the Saturn version. Two notable examples are Aqua Man's Stage, which is moodier and has a wider variety of instruments, and Tengu Man's Stage, the only stage in the game which had an entirely different tune. Also, because of Cut Man and Wood Man's appearances, their original stage themes are played in the Saturn version when players battle them; both are remixed to match the sound of the rest of the music. The Saturn version uses PCM encoded audio, while the PlayStation version uses the internal MIDI system of the console.
 * The full-motion videos in the Saturn version are compressed using Cinepak compression, which causes artifacting and slight blockiness, whereas the PlayStation uses its native MPEG.

Bosses
Opening Stage boss: 
 * Yadokargo

Robot Masters
Middle Stage Boss:
 * Duo

Fortress Bosses
Stage 1:
 * Atetemino

Stage 2:
 * Bliking

Stage 3:
 * Mid Boss: Bass (combined with Treble)
 * Main Boss: Green Devil

Final Stage:
 * Rematch with the Robot Masters
 * Wily Machine 8 and Wily Capsule Great

Other Media
A manga series was authored by Kōji Izuki and serialized in Comic BomBom between December 3, 1997 and May 6, 1998. The manga was later reprinted on May 28, 2011, which included four additional chapters. This version would remain for the 2015 reprints.

The plot of Mega Man 8 was incorporated into the Mega Man Gigamix manga by Hitoshi Ariga, with elements from Mega Man V included.

Archie Comics
The Mega Man Archie Comics series incorporated elements of the game, though a full adaptation was not produced before the series went on hiatus. Duo notably appeared in the Worlds Collide crossover, rather than in an adaptation of the game. The opening of the game was also shown during Mega Man #20. The final issue saw Dr. Light experiencing a vision of the events of the game among other yet-to-be-adapted games.

Trivia

 * This game was released after Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters, but it is set before it as shown in Duo's ending.
 * The opening FMV of the game shows some bosses from previous games; in one sequence, the Robot Masters that appear are in the order of the game they appear in (1-7): Guts Man, Quick Man, Snake Man, Pharaoh Man, Charge Man, Tomahawk Man, and Shade Man.
 * Other robots in the opening theme include the Yellow Devil, Mecha Dragon, Wily Machine 4, and the Robot Masters Wood Man (MM2), Centaur Man (MM6), Spark Man (MM3), Skull Man (MM4), Gyro Man (MM5), Cut Man (MM1) and Freeze Man (MM7).
 * In the boss character contest of this game, Capcom said three of the six robots (not including Tengu Man and Astro Man) to be chosen to appear in the game had to have a specific appearance, being one with a sword and separable body, one with two heads, and one with long extendable arms.
 * This game marks Duo's first chronological appearance.
 * This is the only numbered game in the classic Mega Man series to feature FMVs.
 * This is the only game since the first Mega Man (without counting spin-offs) to not include Energy Tanks.
 * Starting with this game, Mega Man was no longer able to use the Super Adapter. However, Bass was still able to use it.
 * This is the first game where Capcom didn't try to "Americanize" the boxart (excluding Mega Man 6, which wasn't published in the U.S. by Capcom, themselves). Also, this is the first Mega Man game to use the Japanese logo in other countries.
 * This is the second numbered game where Mega Man could swim, the first game being Mega Man 3 for DOS.
 * As with Mega Man X4, the game is often poked fun at for its voice acting in the U.S. and European releases, particularly Dr. Light, who speaks with an apparent speech impediment, infamously pronouncing Doctor Wily as "Doctah Wahwee". His voice happens to sound very similar to Elmer Fudd's.
 * As with Mega Man 7, there's a part in this game that contains a typo in Mega Man's speech, as well. After Bass is defeated, he'll say "Bass, why you don't understand?", when it should have been "Bass, why don't you understand?"
 * There's also a typo in Proto Man's speech after the Duo intermission stage, where he'll say "What happend?"
 * Both of these typos were later corrected when the game was re-released in 2017 as part of Mega Man Legacy Collection 2.
 * Notably, this is the only Mega Man game where Dr. Wily doesn't try to trick Mega Man when defeated by feigning guilt. In fact, his reaction when the Evil Energy tries to corrupt Mega Man implies that he was not planning on using the Evil Energy to attack Mega Man to cover his escape, and that he probably had no intention of tricking Mega Man.
 * The Sega Saturn version of Mega Man 8 is one of the rarest Saturn games in existence, having a 91% Rarity rating on Rarity Guide.
 * The Saturn version is thought to be the original version (or at least, the one closer to the original vision of the game)—according to interviews, it was intended to be a Sega Saturn exclusive all along, as the game was specifically made to cater to sprite-based games, but Sony allegedly demanded the game be released on their system as well.
 * Due to its ease of porting, the PlayStation version of Mega Man 8 is the version always used when porting the title to other platforms or collections.
 * The music that plays in Dr. Wily's fourth stage is a remix of the pre-boss fight music in the game.
 * The enemy that loses the fight to Duo at the start of Mega Man 8 doesn't have an official name. His design appears in R20 Rockman & Rockman X Official Complete Works. The Archie Comics Mega Man series would later give him the name of Trio.
 * This is the first game in the Classic series not to have artwork for the Special Weapons.
 * This marks the second numbered classic Mega Man title in which fighting the Robot Masters goes through a unique canon (with the first being Mega Man 7); rather than fighting the eight bosses in a row in accordance to their weaknesses, Mega Man must fight them in two sets of four.
 * This is the only numbered game in the Mega Man Classic series that was not released on a Nintendo system (excluding its presence in Mega Man: Anniversary Collection and Mega Man Legacy Collection 2). It is also the only numbered game in the Mega Man Classic series that is available on a Sega system (besides the first three games that were re-released on the Sega Genesis as Mega Man: The Wily Wars).
 * This is the first Mega Man game to show the amount of available shots for a Special Weapon in numbers (as opposed to the traditional Weapon Energy bars). The next game in the Mega Man franchise to do this would be Mega Man X4.
 * There were a total of 110,000 boss character submissions for this game, some of which are shown during the ending credits and the Saturn version's Bonus Mode.
 * There is a bootleg version of Rockman 8 for the Game Boy.