Mega Man (video game)

Mega Man, known as Rockman (ロックマン) in Japan, was the first Rockman/Mega Man game made. It was co-created by Keiji Inafune of Capcom in 1987 and debuted on the Famicom in Japan, and was localized for North America in December 1987 and for Europe in May 1990.

North American Instruction Manual
"It's Mega Man versus the powerful leaders and fighting forces of Monsteropolis - that strange multi-faceted land of robot-like Humanoids."

Brilliant scientist Dr. Light conceived the construction of fully-operational human-like experimental robots to perform specific everyday duties. Dr. Light, and his assistant Dr. Wily, encouraged by their very first near-human robot - Mega Man - proceeded to develop six additional Humanoids, all programmed to perform prescribed rituals:

(the six industrial robots are shown)

But, with the exception of Mega Man, all of Dr. Light's near-human robot experimentation went awry. Assistant Dr. Wily turned disloyal, re-programming Dr. Light's Humanoids, now bent on destroying opposition so Dr. Wily could control the world and its resources.

Resisting re-programming, Mega Man is chosen as the defender of the universe and its inhabitants. Mega Man dares to single-handedly penetrate seven separate empires of Monsteropolis, eliminating the leaders and followers of these sovereignties."

Note: Several elements in the NES manual were invented by the Capcom of America localization team and are not officially in the series continuity. These things include Dr. Light and Dr. Wily being partners, as well as the city of Monsteropolis, ignoring the Rock and Roll backstory completely, and Wily attempting to reprogram Rock / Mega Man and meeting resistance.

Actual Story
To understand the story of Mega Man, one must look back at the events which occur before the game takes place, and to do so, one can look to sources such as Rockman Perfect Memories which have taken the time to document the information reported by Capcom over the years in regards to the series:

The story of the Mega Man universe begins in the mid-20th century with the birth of Thomas Light and Albert W. Wily. These men would attend the same university, the Robert Institute of Technology, studying the field of electronics and eventually receiving PhDs. Some years later, Dr. Light formed a laboratory with the ambition to use computer and electronic technology to benefit mankind in the coming era. Dr. Wily, meanwhile, tired of being one step behind Dr. Light, constructed a secret robot factory in the Pacific and began to plot a way to conquer the world.

Dr. Light made his first leaps in the field of robotics, creating various robots to benefit mankind. Light realized the potential of his projects. He wanted to create robots that were human-like. He wanted to build robots that contained artificial intelligence within them. Thus, Dr. Light produced the first one of such robots - Proto Man. Proto Man was the base design of the Sniper Joe robots, but was instilled with an artificial intelligence unlike anything the world had ever seen. Yet, Proto Man possessed a true sense of independence, one that made him much like true human beings. When it came to light that Proto Man had a faulty power generator, Proto Man misunderstood his creator's intentions, thinking that repairing him would take away his individuality. Because of this he ran from the lab. (In the remake Mega Man Powered Up, Proto Man also seems to resent Dr. Light.)

Still, Light did not give up. Later he set to work on building a pair of robots, thinking that two would work together and overcome the independence issue. It was thus that Rock and Roll were born. Rock became the lab's new assistant and Roll became a housekeeper. With the success of this project, the good doctor went on to create six more robots, each for industrial assistance purposes: Cut Man, Guts Man, Ice Man, Bomb Man, Fire Man, and the prized Elec Man. (In Mega Man Powered Up, Oil Man and Time Man were added, although their canonicity is questionable.)

Soon, Dr. Albert W. Wily had finally had enough of living in the shadow of his colleague, Thomas Light. Light's reception of the Nobel Prize, as well as his winning the LIT Manual Design Contest drove him over the edge. Wily realized the potential of robots built with true A.I. - they could be used for other means.

Dr. Wily stole and reprogrammed all of Dr. Light's industrial robots. However, unwisely, he missed Rock and his "sister," Roll, as the helper robots did not suit his needs. Dr. Light soon discovered that his former colleague was to blame. With Wily on the loose with an army of intelligent and powerful robots, Dr. Light knew that the world's police forces and armies weren't ready to deal with this new challenge.

It was thus that Rock, the lab assistant, volunteered to be converted into a fighting robot. Rock had a strong sense of justice and couldn't sit by and watch his "father's" work be destroyed before his very eyes. As such, in May 25, Light reluctantly converted the former lab assistant into a robot of unimaginable potential. Equipped with Ceratanium armor and the Mega Buster, Rock became known as the super robot Mega Man and set out for Wily's fortress to stop Wily from taking over the world.

Characters

 * DLN. 001 Mega Man: The main protagonist of the series and the player's character.
 * Doctor Thomas Light: A brilliant robotic scientist who created many robots, including Mega Man and Roll.
 * Doctor Albert W. Wily: The main antagonist of the series, a mad scientist who wants to conquer the world.
 * DLN. 002 Roll: Mega Man's "sister".

Fortress Bosses
Bosses in Dr. Wily's robot factory:

Stage 1:
 * Yellow Devil

Stage 2:
 * Cut Man
 * Elec Man
 * Copy Robot

Stage 3:
 * The seven CWU-01P(s)

Final Stage:
 * Bomb Man
 * Fire Man
 * Ice Man
 * Guts Man
 * Wily Machine 1 (Two forms)

Weapons

 * "Mega Buster" (P), Mega Man's main weapon.
 * Magnet Beam (M), An item used to create platforms. Found in Elec Man's stage.
 * Rolling Cutter (C), Cut Man's weapon.
 * Super Arm (G), Guts Man's weapon.
 * Ice Slasher (I), Ice Man's weapon.
 * Hyper Bomb (B), Bomb Man's weapon.
 * Fire Storm (F), Fire Man's weapon.
 * Thunder Beam (E), Elec Man's weapon.

Mobile phone versions
There are two different mobile versions of the game. The 2004 version has extra modes and differences listed below. The 2007 version, which was released only in Japan, is closer to the original and has Roll as a playable character.

Modes

 * Normal Mode is similar to the way the game was originally presented on the NES, where the player is scored and has only three lives. But, if all of them are lost, the player will need to restart at the beginning.


 * Capture Mode is different from normal mode. The player has unlimited lives and a save feature but they are not scored.

Differences

 * The levels are shorter and are designed quite differently from their original counterparts.


 * The Magnet Beam is not located in Elec Man's stage. It is now located in Bomb Man's stage and is colored red near a pair of wall turrets.


 * The Skull Fortress has been shortened from four stages to one long stage consisting of only the Robot Masters rematches, then the rest of the Fortress baddies from the game, including the Yellow Devil. Fortunately, the player now gets energy and weapon power-ups between each boss battle.


 * While almost all of the music tracks from the original game are there, there are no sound effects.


 * The Fire Storm is the only weapon that appears to be effective against Dr. Wily.

The Pause Trick
Mega Man featured two pause buttons, the Start button, which would pause the game and bring up the weapon selection menu, and the Select button, which would pause the movements of everything on screen. However, the Select button would not pause certain timers, namely the timer used for the temporary post-damage invincibility experienced by Mega Man and the bosses. As such, the player could fire a shot at a boss, pause the game when the shot hits the boss, wait about 1-2 seconds, unpause the game, and the boss would take damage again from the same shot (the game can be paused and unpaused again until the boss dies). This trick is notably easier with the Thunder Beam and Rolling Cutter, as shots from those weapons do not disappear after hitting an enemy (the trick IS possible with weapons like the Mega Buster, but the player must have precise timing to pause the game before the shot disappears). This trick allows for the easy defeat of difficult bosses such as the Yellow Devil in a matter of seconds.

To avoid this glitch in others games, it's no longer possible to pause the game with the Select button in Mega Man 2 and later games. This glitch was also fixed in remakes of Mega Man. In Mega Man Anniversary Collection's version, pushing the Start button brings up the overall menu for the collection. It has the same effect, but it is much slower and a little more difficult to do.

Trivia

 * This is the only platform Mega Man game with a score system.


 * The American box art was completely different from the actual Mega Man concept. The reason for this was that the Capcom's American game developers thought that the cuteness of the character would not be attractive in the eyes of the U.S.A's public. That was also the reasoning behind changing "Rock" to "Mega" and "Rockman" to "Mega Man" - an attempt to make it sound more "western". However, the designer of the cover was asked to create it with little to no time before the game was released and had never viewed any of the source material or seen the game, thus creating a cover that almost has nothing to do with the game. It is also rated as one of the worst box art covers in video game history.


 * This is the only Mega Man game in which a Robot Master must be fought a second time if a stage is replayed.


 * The American box art appears in the game Mega Man ZX Advent as the Secret Disk "Legendary Hero", given as reward for completing Chris' sidequest. Description of the disk: A collection of rare digital photographs of Legendary Heroes that the Hunter Chris wanted. These Legendary Heroes look more like coalminers in colorful outfits. The yellow and blue Mega Man from the cover was set to appear as a playable character in the game Mega Man Universe. Instead this iteration appeared as a playable character in Capcom's fighting game Street Fighter X Tekken.


 * Rock, Roll and Dr. Right go unnamed throughout the whole game; they are only seen at the end. (Rock goes unnamed; NOT Rockman.) The Yellow Devil, the Copy Robot, and the seven CWU-01P(s) are also unnamed in the game, although the Copy Robot can just as well be referred to as Mega Man; it's an exact copy. Dr. Wily is the only part of his name given; there's no "Albert W." The weapons are not given names either. (M stands for Magnet, and P may stand for Power or Player.)


 * The names Rock and Roll are a pun, named after the musical genre.


 * Many people believe that Elec Man's stage music was inspired by the song "Faithfully" by Journey, from their classic 1983 album "Frontiers". The songs do sound very similar to each other and are even played in the same key signature, but nobody from Capcom USA or Japan has confirmed this yet. It also sounds extremely similar to R.E.M.'s "All The Right Friends".


 * Switching to the Magnet Beam or Super Arm during the battle with the Copy Robot causes the Copy Robot to run around. It won't attack, and will only jump when the attack button is pressed by the player.


 * Mega Man was the only NES game in the series to not have any Robot Masters on the box art. They are on the European and Famicom covers, however.


 * This is the only Mega Man game in which spikes still kill Mega Man if he is flashing in temporary post-damage invincibility. This is also the only game in which buoyancy is unaffected in the water. Mega Man: The Wily Wars fixed both of these issues, although Mega Man Powered Up ignored the latter.


 * This is the only Mega Man game on the NES, which does not feature the Wily Castle map. However, it does feature Dr. Wily getting into his flying saucer, blinking his eyebrows, and floating to his fortress.


 * This is the only Mega Man game to have hazards in the corridor before the Robot Master.


 * This is the only Mega Man game in which Dr. Wily's UFO is red and gold, not blue and gold.


 * This is the only Mega Man game on the NES, where the "READY" title isn't flashing.


 * This game and Mega Man 3 are the only games to have all Robot Masters to appear in the Ruby Spears cartoon show.
 * The two Robot Masters: Cut Man and Guts Man appear in all 27 episodes of Mega Man.


 * The Japanese promo commerical of Rockman shows Mega Man using the wrong Special Weapons against the Robot Masters, such as Mega Man using the Thunder Beam on Guts Man, whose weakness is the Hyper Bomb.


 * Dr Wily's 'Swiss Bank Account' number (19-871-217) in Mega Man 9 is actually this game's Japanese release date (1987/12/17).


 * This is the only game to have different noises for each weapon Mega Man uses.