Mega Man (character)

Mega Man, known as Rock Man in Japan, is a video game character created by Keiji Inafune and is the title character of what has been referred to as the "Classic" Mega Man series developed by Capcom since 1987. Since then, he has become one of the company's primary original characters and continues to be one of the video game industry's most recognizable icons. Having appeared on nearly every gaming console and handheld system since the Nintendo Entertainment System, Mega Man has always had a wide gaming audience, and his games continue to evolve with the ever-changing hardware demands of modern gaming systems. Several spin-off series have emerged over the past few years, each one continuing the Mega Man mythos in some unique way, including the Mega Man X, Mega Man Legends, and Mega Man Battle Network series. A resulting animated series was also produced originally in the United States, as well as a number of toys, comics, and collectibles available both in and outside of Japan.

Mega Man's role in his games is to battle the forces of the mad scientist Dr. Wily and his ever-growing army of robots, and must stop them from taking over the planet by using their own special abilities against them. Utilizing his special Mega Buster arm cannon, and his ability to copy a defeated robot's coding, Mega Man must travel the world and traverse harsh environments in order to bring Wily's menace to an end. With the help of his good-hearted creator Dr. Light and his assorted robotic companions, Mega Man's eventual goal is to one day achieve "everlasting peace".

Mega Man's original Japanese name, "Rock Man", is a reference to the music genre '[rock and roll'', and is meant to work in tandem with his "sister" robot, Roll. Such music-themed naming conventions are present in a number of Keiji Inafune's other character designs, such as Blues. In addition, the original Mega Man titles intentionally incorporated a "Rock, Paper, Scissors" game play mechanic into defeating certain enemies. In parts of the English speaking world, some people call Mega Man "The Blue Bomber" because of his blue armor.

In Mega Man video games
Mega Man has appeared in over 100 games over the past two decades, and is responsible for more sales revenue than both of Capcom's next leading franchises (Street Fighter and Resident Evil) combined. His most notable appearances have been within his own self-titled games, beginning with Rockman for the Nintendo Famicom in 1987. This, and all future Rockman games released in North America and the European Union, would bear the title "Mega Man" in lieu of Capcom USA's early decision to change the name.

Nearly all of the classic series Mega Man titles have been two-dimensional sidescrollers involving horizontal movement through various levels. This mechanic persists even on titles developed for high performance platforms. The main series on both the NES and Nintendo Game Boy would follow this formulaic approach in the design of every game developed on those systems, and set the standard for all platformer Mega Man games to come. Mega Man himself has evolved very little cosmetically since his initial release, but has often been given new techniques in each game, the Mega Buster, for instance, which was introduced in Megaman 4 which allowed him to charge up a shot, or the slide introduced in Megaman 3. It was these which were used in order to help him exceed any new challenges added by the programmers.

Capcom, regarding Mega Man as a versatile character, has placed him in several different gaming situations outside of his usual series. He has since been seen as a sports star in the Super Nintendo game Mega Man Soccer, a race car driver in Mega Man Battle & Chase, and a board game piece in Wily and Right's RockBoard. A limited release arcade fighting game series containing Mega Man: The Power Battle and Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters pitted Mega man against several boss characters from his original series.

In other games
Mega Man has made in appearances in several game projects outside of his original series. Non-playable cameo appearances by Mega Man occur most often in other Capcom licensed games, and he is often seen as a background character. Such appearances include Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Mighty Final Fight.

In animation
Animated incarnations of Mega Man were common in the early 90s, particularly in North America, where his popularity had granted him a social status equal to comic book superheroes. His first animated appearance was in the 1989 series Captain N: The Game Master, which featured a myriad of characters that had appeared on Nintendo consoles up until that time. Joining several other video game characters as Nintendo's Pit, Konami's Simon Belmont, and a sentient Game Boy, Mega Man would aid the title character, Captain N, in his quest to save the world of Videoland. The plot would usually involve battling several prominent video game villains, including Mega Man's own enemy Dr. Wily. In addition to Mega Man, several other characters including Dr. Light, Rush, and an assortment of robot adversaries from his past games would appear in various episodes. A female counterpart to Mega Man, Mega Girl, was also introduced, though she would not appear in any other Mega Man related medium. Mega Man was voiced in this series by Doug Parker, and his character had a tendency to add the word "mega" in front of words for emphasis. It should also be noted that Mega Man had a Popeye-esque voice.

A three episode Japanese anime titled Rockman was produced in 1993 in an attempt to help spread information on Japanese culture. This series was later dubbed in English and released in North America in 2002 on DVD by ADV Films as Mega Man: Upon a Star. In it, Mega Man would often cross paths with his adversary Dr. Wily while learning various facts about Japanese society, and receiving occasional help from Proto Man.

An animated Mega Man TV Series, commissioned by Capcom USA and produced by Ruby-Spears Productions aired in North America from 1994 to 1996. It would later see dubbed releases in Europe and the Middle East as well. An American re-imagining of the Mega Man character, this series featured a taller, lower-voiced protagonist from the video games, but was otherwise a faithful retelling of the events of the original series. Characters such as Roll were given more characterization, while others like the robot scientist Data, were introduced. In this series, Mega Man was voiced by Ian James Corlett, who ironically had voiced Dr. Wily in the aforementioned Captain N series.

In 2002, TV Tokyo created an anime based on the game series Megaman Battle Network (Megaman.EXE in Japan), and named it Mega Man NT Warrior. Originally the anime had four seasons, but just the first two seasons were aired outside of Japan.

In 2006, TV Tokyo also created an anime based on the game Megaman Star Force (Ryusei no Rockman in Japan), weeks before the game was launched, the episodes of this series have a duration of only 7 minutes. The series was never aired outside of Japan.

Story
In the fictional and futuristic year of the 200X (20XX in Mega Man 4 and all following games, including Powered Up in an act of retcon), master designer Dr. Thomas Light (Dr. Right in Japan) worked to create a humanoid robot. This robot would demonstrate an advanced artificial intelligence program that would allow it to make decisions based on vague commands and directions. He called the robot project "Robot Master", because the resulting robot would be able to supervise the work of other, less intelligent machines.

The first Robot Master came to be known as "Proto Man" (Blues in Japan). Proto Man had the ability to lead a small squad of other robots in military applications. However, before testing of his AI, or his complete system was finished, the robot escaped and was thought to be destroyed.

With the disappearance of Proto Man, Light decided to create another robot. Fearing that the disappearance of Proto Man was due to the robot not having a peer, he created two robots at around the same time to work as a pair. These robots were called "Rock" (Mega in the Powered Up remake) and "Roll". Rock was created as Dr. Light's lab assistant. His purpose was a general-purpose tool user. Simply by studying how a tool was used, he could mimic its use using a Variable Tool System. This made him the ideal lab assistant. His "sister" (though not actually a sister, but a robot partner), Roll, was designed for housekeeping.

With the success of these two test-type robots, Light designed and built six production-type robots, mainly to be used in the construction and maintenance of public works. These robots were Cut Man, a timber felling robot; Guts Man, a construction and excavation robot; Ice Man, a robot designed for exploration in extreme freezing temperatures; Bomb Man, a land reclamation robot; Fire Man, designed for waste management; and Elec Man, designed to oversee and control atomic energy power plants. The enhanced remake Mega Man Powered Up has also retconned Time Man — designed to research time travel with his ability to slow down time — and Oil Man — designed for maintenance by generating oil for machinery and firing it through his arm cannon — into existence. Each of these robots had full use of the Robot Master's intelligence and reasoning potential.

The time finally came for Dr. Light to be recognized by the world for his brilliant contributions to science. Dr. Albert W. Wily, a colleague at that time and future rival, grew jealous when his unique research, which he studied with Dr. Light, was utterly overshadowed by his partner. He stumbled upon Proto Man one day, who was dying when his energy system was malfunctioning. He repaired him, using his specifications to create the police robot, Sniper Joe. That's when he realized that he discovered while analyzing Proto Man, he had found a way to reprogram Light's robots. He decided that he could use these new robots to exact revenge. When Dr. Wily arrived at near Dr. Light's laboratory soon after announcing his plans for world domination, he failed to realize Rock and Roll's potential, so he went to the lab without them, claiming that helper robots are as good as scrap metal to him. He took and reprogrammed the six (eight in Mega Man Powered Up) construction robots so they became misled and forced under his rule. With his new followers, Wily seized control of the city and demanded recognition.

Realizing that it would be very difficult for the armies to stop Wily without harming the city, Dr. Light knew something had to be done. Due to his programmed sense of right and wrong, Rock volunteered to be converted from his current state as a lab assistant into a fighting robot. Thus, from that day forth, he became known as "Rockman" (Mega Man in the U.S.) Like the other characters, Mega Man's fate was unknown in the Mega Man X series, though some fans speculate that he was killed by the Mega Man X character named Zero. Some fans also insist that Mega Man X is simply Mega Man with an upgrade originally designed to combat Zero.

Abilities

 * Super Strength: Mega Man's enhancements give him extraordinary strength. He can lift and move tremendous amounts of weight, as demonstrated in Mega Man 5, in which he braces the upper levels of a fortress from collapse.
 * Design: Interior endoskeleton is composed of strong, lightweight titanium alloy. Outer epidermal layer is composed of a Light Industries made synthetic ceramic polymer that has skin-like texture.  Has magnetic joints located in knees and elbows to reduce friction and wear.  Legs contain air cavities to absorb shock when jumping.  Powered by a reactor located within his chest cavity.  Traditional two-tone blue exterior armor frame also made of titanium alloy.  Nano-robotic cells allow for nearly instant reconfiguration to change from hand to weapon.
 * Weapon Copy: An advanced form of Rock's original ability to use any tool, the Weapon Copy ("Variable Weapons System" in Japan) allows Mega Man to adapt the attacks of his enemies and make them his own. However, he usually has to defeat them in combat first.  The WC also changes the colors of Mega Man's armor (whether this is intended or not is unknown)
 * Slide: Introduced in Mega Man 3. Allows Mega Man to slide along the ground at a high speed to evade attacks and enter small crevices.
 * Jet Adapter: Introduced in Mega Man 6. Allows Mega Man to fuse with Rush and become "Jet Mega Man".  In this form, Mega Man is equipped with the "Jet Booster" and can fly or hover for short periods of time.
 * Power Adapter: Introduced in Mega Man 6. Allows Mega Man to fuse with Rush and become "Power Mega Man".  In this form, Mega Man is equipped with the "Super Knuckle", an ultra-powerful, short-range attack that knocks back foes and breaks blocks.
 * Super Adapter: Introduced in Mega Man 7. Allows Mega Man to fuse with Rush and become "Super Mega Man".  This form combines the two previous Adapters, allowing Mega Man to fly (or, in this game, double jump) and launch a rocket fist (which can be equipped with an enemy-tracking rocket system).  Bass stole the plans for this and adapts it for use with him and Treble.
 * Mega Kick: Introduced in Mega Man Powered Up. As Mega, he can use powerful kicks to destroy enemy robots. Known as Rock Kick in Japan.

Legacy
The original Mega Man has spawned a number of spin-off titles that have appeared since the launch of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Keiji Inafune, wanting to give a new face to the popular character, created the Mega Man X series in 1993. Set in the future, this series follows the story of Mega Man's successor, Mega Man X, an upgraded model with increased offensive and movement capabilities. This character, often referred to as simply "X", is a further creation of Dr. Light put into suspended animation and uncovered 100 years in the future by a researcher named Dr. Cain. The Mega Man X series was marketed at a new generation of video game players with an action twist to the original series' usually playful antics.

Beginning on the Sony PlayStation in 1997, a 3D action game series called Mega Man Legends was created to take advantage of the new console's advanced graphics hardware. This series, which is in the same world as the other games (though thousands of years in the future), takes place in a time when the world is covered by immense bodies of water, marked by a re-occurrence of several major characters from the original series in different situations. The hero, Megaman (Rock), is a relic hunter called a "Digger", who scavenges various ruins laden throughout the world in search of refractor shards that can be mined as power sources and traded as currency.

Mega Man Battle Network, a series on the Gameboy Advance and Nintendo Gamecube, began in 2001 as a way for the Mega Man games to branch out into the growing role-playing game market, as well as to celebrate Mega Man's 15th anniversary. Modeled after the popular monster battling franchises prevalent in Japanese media, this series features a character called Mega Man.EXE, a "net navi" who acts as a virtual pet to Lan Hikari, a school child and would-be hero who uses his friend to help battle computer virus and other net-based threats. Of course, this game doesn't belong to the original series timeline. A resulting anime series Mega Man NT Warrior, was also produced.

In 2002, A follow-up series to the Mega Man X franchise was developed for the Game Boy Advance which starred Zero, a character from the previous games. Though called Mega Man Zero, a character named "Mega Man" is not actually playable, though it does take place within the same world as the previous Mega Man games. The series revolved around the battles Zero must have against a powerful human-supremacy force as he protects the oppressed remains of reploids.

Mega Man ZX is placed in the future after the Zero series. This is the first Mega Man game where the main protagonists are of different genders; Vent and Aile. This game resolves around the fight of Vent and Aile to help the Guardians, a group that fight against the Mavericks, to stop the plans of Serpent, using the power of the Biometals, that have the info of the legendary heroes X and Zero. This is also the first game of the original time line where the main character is a human. Its sequel, ZX:Advent, is currently in the works.

A new series, Mega Man Star Force' (Rockman of the Shooting Star) was released on the Nintendo DS on December 14th 2006, with a North American release date sometime in 2007. The first game's launch will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Mega Man franchise. An anime based on this series began airing on TV Tokyo in October.

Official sites

 * Capcom: Mega Man (Official US webpage)

Unofficial sites

 * Original text from Wikipedia
 * Atomic Fire
 * Rockman Perfect Memories
 * MMHP: The Mega Man Homepage
 * Mega.Man.Network
 * Planet Mega Man
 * Mega Man Matrix
 * The Mega Man Knowledge-base: The Mega Man Wiki — A wiki devoted to Mega Man
 * Megaman Legacy
 * Forte's Sprites n' Comics