Impact Man

"Punch! Pummel! PULVERIZE!"

- Impact Man

Impact Man, known as Pile Man (パイルマン) in Japan, is a Robot Master who appears in Mega Man 11. He's an all-purpose construction robot who specializes in piling. Impact Man is dedicated to his job and has never been one to leave a task unfinished. Even after being stolen and modified by Dr. Wily, Impact Man continued to carry out his duties as he rounded up a gang of construction robots and took up residence in an abandoned construction zone so he and his comrades could continue working on it.

Appearance
Impact Man is a large robot whose body consists of three pile driver robots named Kui-ichiro (クイイチロー) (the oldest one, colored black), Kui-jiro (クイジロー) (the middle child, colored yellow), and Kui-saburo (クイサブロー) (the youngest one, colored orange), who call themselves the Impact Brothers. He has three spikes on his body, one atop his head and two more at the ends of his arms (one for each arm). He also has tailpipes on his shoulders. His upper body is colored orange on one side and yellow on the other side, and his lower body is colored black.

Personality
Always on task with his assignment, Impact Man is dedicated to working as a construction robot. Even after his reprogramming, Impact Man will still work diligently with his fellow construction robots. He is also very loud and boistrous as demonstrated in his fight against Mega Man.

For the individual components, Kui-ichiro is the leader who never fails to drive his point home, and usually takes control when the brothers are combined. Kui-jiro is indecisive and has to ask Kui-ichiro for instructions. He is also very unruly. Kui-saburo, the youngest, is the most responsible after Kui-ichiro, and takes charge of Impact Man if Kui-ichiro is tired. He always makes time for proper maintenance, which keeps his spike spotless, shiny, and sharp.

Strategy
Impact Man's battle consists of a number of attacks in which he'll try to impale Mega Man with his drill spikes. Usually, he will dash across the room to try and ram into Mega Man with his spikes. After defeating Impact Man, Mega Man gets a special weapon called Pile Driver that mimics this attack. Impact Man will also sometimes jump into the air and turn into a three-sided drill, after which he'll jump across the room in an attempt to crush Mega Man. He'll also leave behind a spike wherever he lands. When he's lost most of his health, Impact Man will activate his Power Gear and turn into a gigantic jackhammer. In this form, Impact Man will jump around the room and generate massive explosions by slamming his enlarged spikes into the ground. After doing this three times, Impact Man will break apart into nine Impact Brothers who will fly across the screen. Impact Man will then respawn in his normal form and continue the battle.

In-Game Quotes
Pre-Battle Taunts:
 * “BEHOLD! Impact Man!"
 * "Maximum Impact!""
 * “I like to spike!"
 * "Crumble, rumble, tumble!"

Attack Shouts:
 * "Punch! Pummel! PULVERIZE!"
 * "Spike! Spike! SPIKE!"
 * "Impale! Impair! IMPLODE!"
 * "Impact!"
 * "Don't move!"
 * "Spike!"
 * "Ehraagh!"
 * "Blagh!"
 * "Hrigh!"
 * "Transform!”

Activating Power Gear:
 * "Getting together!"
 * "Spike formation, engage!"
 * "Power Gear!"

Attack Shouts (Power Gear):
 * "Slam attack!"
 * "There's no escape!"
 * "HRAGH!"

Death Cries:
 * "AAAAAAAAAAHHH!"
 * "TOO SPIKEY!"
 * "I SEE YOUR POINT!"

Trivia

 * Impact Man is the fifth Robot Master that can transform into a vehicle or machine, the other four being Turbo Man, Ground Man, Galaxy Man, and Nitro Man.
 * Impact Man attacks Mega Man even before he reaches the boss room; in certain sections of his stage, Impact Man will show up as the Impact Brothers, which will fly across the screen as they try to ram into Mega Man.
 * This makes him the third boss in the Mega Man franchise to attack the player while they're still in the stage, after Jet Stingray and Gigabolt Man-O-War.
 * He is also the first in the Classic series to do this.
 * Impact Man is the second Robot Master in Mega Man 11 with a giant form, the first being Block Man.
 * He's also the first Robot Master in Mega Man 11 with a different name in the Japanese and English versions, the second being Bounce Man.
 * The Impact Brothers' names are prefixed with Kui- (杭) which means "pile," while Ichiro, Jiro and Saburo are masculine Japanese given names meaning "first son," "second son," and "third son" respectively.
 * Some aspects of Impact Man may have been inspired by the manga Android Kikaider by Shotaro Ishinomori. Kui Saburo, Kui Ichiro, and Kui Jiro may likely be references to characters from the Android Kikaider series. This also explains the half and half color inconsistency of Impact Man's design.
 * Impact Man's weakness to Acid Barrier is a reference to acid being able to corrode most types of metal. This is very similar to Tunnel Rhino's weakness against Toxic Seahorse's Acid Burst.
 * According to the relationship chart found in the production notes that come with the complete edition of Rockman 11, Impact Man reads Boom Monthly, the same magazine Blast Man writes for.