Mega Man (character)

Mega Man
Series	Mega Man series
First Appearance	Mega Man
Designed by	"A.K" (in-game pixel art) Keiji Inafune

Mega Man (or Rockman in Japanese) is the protagonist of Capcom's Mega Man series, starting with Mega Man on the NES. He's a blue robot who, in the initial adventures, was set off to destroy evil robots that were either created or corrupted by Dr. Wily. Mega Man himself was created by Dr. Light. So far Mega Man has appeared in countless titles, certainly more than any other Capcom character has. While not the most successful franchise under Capcom's belt (that title going to the Resident Evil series), it's undeniable that it is one of their most popular titles, and that Mega Man is their most recognizable character. Mega Man is also scheduled to appear in Super Smash Bros. Wii U / 3DS.

History

The original Mega Man had the so called "Blue Bomber" destroying a multitude of Dr. Wily's evil robots. This title wasn't as successful as Capcom had anticipated, though with the release of Mega Man 2, the title hit its stride and found its way into thousands of gamers' houses. Currently it is known among the Mega Man fanbase as one of, if not the best game in the series.

A total of six Mega Man platformers were released on the NES/Famicom, each one appropriately numbered. Following this, two more would be released on following consoles until it was thought the fan-titled "classic" franchise was dead in order to make way for the RPG and Zero series, among others. Surprisingly in 2008 Capcom announced a ninth game in the series that would be similar to the second game in the series titled Mega Man 9, and it would be available for download via Nintendo's WiiWare service (as well as the competitor's download systems as well). Fans were delighted to hear this, as one could assume.

Spin-offs

Multiple spin off titles have been made by Capcom for various consoles after the NES. These spin-off titles were very popular and became sub series themselves, and include X, Zero, Legends, Battle Network, Star Force, and ZX, the latter two being the most recent of the batch.

Abilities

Mega Man has the ability to take on his opponent's gun after defeating them, though this will only occur after thwarting bosses. This is the key to easily defeat the Robot Masters in each game since the player can choose the path in which he wants to defeat the bosses and since each boss in especially vulnerable to certain types of attacks.

Gallery

Main article: Mega Man (character)/gallery

Trivia

• Mega Man's origanal name (Rockman) along with Roll's name came from the type of music "Rock and Roll".
• A redesigned version of Mega Man was a main character in the cartoon series Captain N: The Game Master.
• Mega Man won the award for Best Hero in the 1990 Nintendo Power Awards for his appearance in Mega Man 3.