Mega Man (video game)
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| Mega Man | |
|---|---|
 North American NES boxart |
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| Developer(s) | Capcom |
| Publisher(s) | Capcom |
| Designer(s) | Tokuro Fujiwara (game) Keiji Inafune (character) Manami Matsumae and Yoshihiro Sakaguchi (music composer) |
| Series | Mega Man Classic |
| Platform(s) | NES/Famicom, PC, Mobile Phone, Virtual Console |
| Release date | NES December 17, 1987 December 1987 December 13, 1989MS-DOS 1990 Virtual Console June 22, 2007 |
| Genre(s) | Action/Platformer,Science Fiction |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: E (Everyone) (part of Mega Man Anniversary Collection) |
| Media | 1-megabit cartridge |
| Input methods | Gamepad |
Mega Man, known as Rockman (ロックマン Rokkuman?) in Japan, is a video game developed and published by Capcom in 1987 for the NES/Famicom. It is the first game to ever star Mega Man. Mega Man has been in several series and this is the first game in what is called the Mega Man Classic series. This first game established many of the conventions that would define several Mega Man series. Most notably, Mega Man established the setup of a number of stages, each with a Robot Master at the end that, when defeated, would pass on its unique power to Mega Man.
Later, it would be added to Mega Man: The Wily Wars for Sega Genesis (1994), as well as the Japanese collection game, Rockman Complete Works in 1999 for the PlayStation. In 2004, it was re-released in the anthology game, Mega Man Anniversary Collection for the GameCube, Xbox, and PlayStation 2. There is also a remake called Mega Man Powered Up (Rockman Rockman in Japan) for the PlayStation Portable. It features full 3-D graphics and extra stages were added, making the Robot Master count 8 instead of the original 6. It also features a stage level editor. Another interesting feature of the remake is the super deformed style of Mega Man and other characters (Keiji Inafune claimed in an interview that he originally planned to make Mega Man look this way, but couldn't, due to the hardware restraints of the NES). Mega Man has also been released on the Virtual Console in Europe. A mobile game version is now available from CapcomMobile and Movaya.
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[edit] Characters
- Mega Man — Tool assistant, originally known as Rock (or Mega in the remake), created and modified by Dr. Light to combat Wily.
- Dr. Albert W. Wily — The antagonist of the game, his goal is world domination. He appears as the final boss in a hovering ship (at first a tank-like machine in the remake).
- Dr. Thomas Light — Creator of Mega Man, aids Mega Man on his adventure to stop Dr. Wily.
- Roll — Mega Man's sister, she makes her debut in this game, though in the NES version her name is not mentioned. She is only seen at the ending of the credits in the NES version, but she can be downloaded in the PSP remake as a playable character.
- Robot Masters — The various industrial robots built by Dr. Light, reprogrammed by Dr. Wily to do his bidding. They become playable characters in the PSP remake. There were six in the original game, but there are eight in the remake.
[edit] Gameplay
Mega Man is made up of six stages, with a Robot Master at the end guarding a weapon. The stage select screen allows the player to choose from these six stages, and when they are all completed, the seventh and last stage appears in the middle of the menu, replacing the text "Stage Select, Press Start". This last stage is in fact more like four regular stages linked together, some a bit shorter than average, but with bosses that are considered harder than usual.
[edit] Stages
The stages in Mega Man are in the "platformer" genre. In each stage, Mega Man faces many enemies and obstacles. The enemies vary in size and behavior, and are defeated by one or more shots, either from Mega Man's plasma cannon or from one of the weapons he gains defeating a Robot Master.
Obstacles involve jumping from one platform to another. Platforms often move, or become insubstantial periodically, so that complex timing is often required.
Cut Man's stage: Appears to be a simple structure, possibly a warehouse. It is the easiest stage to get through. Suzies, Fleas, Bunbi Helis, and Beaks abound.
Guts Man's stage: Appears to be mining area. It has sudden-death platforms called "Drop Rails", and is viewed as the hardest of the Master stages. Mets and Picket Men appear here.
Bomb Man's stage: Appears to be a supercomputer of sorts, or more logically a missile silo. It has bombs that suddenly appear, as well as a few Sniper Joe.
Fire Man's stage: Appears to be a volcanic structure. Lava waves come out of pipes, and flamethrowers abound. Screw Cannons, Changkeys, and Killer Bullets appear here.
Ice Man's stage: Appears to be an Arctic base. Pengs, Gaboyalls, Crazy Razys, and FootHolders appear here. Due to the ice, the stage is very slick.
Elec Man's stage: Appears to be a large tower. Gaboyalls abound here, and can be killed by certain weapons. Watchers also appear, as well as disappearing platforms.
[edit] Robot Masters
| # | Robot Master | Weapon (American Name) | Weakness |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Cut Man | Rolling Cutter (Cut Blade) | Super Arm |
| 4 | Guts Man | Super Arm (Guts Power) | Hyper Bomb |
| 5 | Ice Man | Ice Slasher | Thunder Beam |
| 6 | Bomb Man | Hyper Bomb | Fire Storm |
| 7 | Fire Man | Fire Storm | Ice Slasher |
| 8 | Elec Man | Thunder Beam (Elec Beam) | Rolling Cutter |
Note: The Robot Master number reflects the construction order of each robot. Thus, Robot Masters 1 and 2 are in fact Mega Man and Roll, respectively. Since they are not boss characters, they tend to not be thought of in this way; however, the end credit sequence in Mega Man 3 reveals that these are indeed their numbers.
[edit] Fortress bosses
After defeating all the Robot Masters, Mega Man is forced to face what are considered to be the final bosses.
| Boss | Weakness |
|---|---|
| Yellow Devil (referred to as "Rock Monster" in older American material due to Nintendo of America's internal regulations concerning religious references) | Thunder Beam, Fire Storm (Mega Man Powered Up) |
| Copy Robot, taking Mega Man's form. It'll take other robot's forms in Mega Man Powered Up. | None, Corresponding Weapon (Mega Man Powered Up) |
| CWU-01P | Super Arm |
| Wily Machine Number 1 (Phase I) | Fire Storm, Corresponding Weapon (Mega Man Powered Up) |
| Wily Machine Number 1/Wily Capsule 1 (Phase II) | None, Correpsonding Weapon (Mega Man Powered Up) |
[edit] Comparison to series
The first game of the Mega Man series produced, Mega Man differs from subsequent games in the series in a number of ways. It is the only game to feature six main stages; each of the subsequent games had eight. Some of Mega Man's actions were not implemented until later in the series. In this game, Mega Man can't slide under obstacles (he gains this ability in Mega Man 3), and he can't charge his "Mega Buster", which originally did not have any specific name (the "Mega Buster" was implemented in Mega Man 4). The powerups in this game look different than the rest of the 8-bit Mega Man games, as pictured below. The original powerup graphics (that resemble footballs) are in the left picture; the replacement graphics are in the right.
 Items from Mega Man |
 The same items from Mega Man 2 - 6 |
[edit] Points
Mega Man was the only NES Mega Man title to feature a score counter. High point scores were a very common gaming convention during the mid-to-late 1980s, especially in arcade games, which is probably why they were included in Mega Man. However, other than the satisfaction of achieving a high score, the player got no extra incentive to collect points, nor did it affect gameplay in any significant way (nor was the player's score saved in any way after the console was turned off). While this was also true for some other games of that era, high scores were usually a more integral feature in games, especially in the arcade. The score counter was removed from future Mega Man games because it was unnecessary, and because there were a few issues with the counter that made it easier to remove than to fix. Specifically, the points that were awarded to a player for clearing a level were reduced to zero if that player ran out of lives, and since the game was very difficult, most players would be starting over from scratch more than once. There was also no high score sheet, which meant that you had to keep track of your own high score. In Mega Man Powered Up however, this aspect remained intact, but players could not only keep a high score record, but clear time records in how fast one could beat a stage.
[edit] Yashichi
- Main article Yashichi
In the NES titles, the yashichi is exclusive to Mega Man, and appears only once in the entire game. It appears as a spikey sprite and refills all weapons and energy, acting like a Mega Tank from Mega Man 5. The Yashichi also awards the player 100,000 points bonus. It is found in the very last level of the game, next to an extra life icon. The player must maneuver Mega Man across two rather challenging jumps to get it, and while certainly obtainable, is not very easy to get to without the Magnet Beam.
The only other times it has made an appearance in a Mega Man game is Mega Man 8 and Mega Man Battle & Chase. The former has the Rush Teleporter, which, like Eddie in previous titles, appears and gives the player a random power item. In Mega Man Battle & Chase, it appears as a boosting item. It also appears in the PSP remake of the first Mega Man where it serves the same purpose exactly.
[edit] Death by spike
Throughout the series, if Mega Man is hit by an enemy, he becomes temporarily invincible to further attacks. From Mega Man 2 on, this invincibility would even protect Mega Man if he fell onto spikes. However, in the NES version of Mega Man, that is not the case. While the temporary invincibility is featured in this game, it will not prevent Mega Man from perishing if he falls onto spikes. This aspect of the Mega Man play mechanics contributes greatly to the game's overall difficulty.
[edit] Glitches
Mega Man contains one of the series' most famous glitches, which is known as the "Pause Trick". This trick arises because it is the only game in the series with two pause methods. When the player presses the start button, the gameplay pauses and shows the menu. When the select button is pressed, the game pauses and silences. Players tend to take advantage of the full pause when using the Thunder Beam weapon when close to hitting the boss. If done right, the pause will make the shot do multiple hits on impact. This method works well on the Yellow Devil and the two forms of the Wily Machine. Using this method, the Yellow Devil and both incarnations of the Wily Machine can be dispatched with a single shot. To an extent, even Ice Man and the Mega Man Clone can be defeated this way, too. Without this trick, both the Yellow Devil and the two battles against Dr. Wily are extremely hard (to many players, next to impossible, due to their difficulty and lack of Energy Tanks). This is seen in the eyes of some gamers as a cheat trick. Such glitches are also extensively used in the tool-assisted speedrun of this game.
This glitch takes advantage of two things. The first is the fact that the robot masters' weapons' projectiles pass right through (throwing blocks from Super Arm creates debris while Hyper Bomb's explosions are represented by expanding balls of plasma which act as projectiles), whereas in future Mega Man games, the projectile would be absorbed when they hit their mark. Because of this, it's possible to do this glitch with any robot master weapon. The second is that when the game is paused with the select button, despite that all movement stops, time still passes. When a robot master gets hit, normally, they "flash" and are temporarily invincible for a second. However, when the game is paused, time goes on and their invincibility wears off. When the game is unpaused, the projectile hits them again. Also, there appears to be a lag between unpausing and when the projectile moves again, with the hit registering at when or just before the projectile moves. So if timed right, a skilled player can do at least a couple of hits with any weapon. Possibly the reason why Rolling Cutter and Thunder Beam are the two recommended weapons to do this glitch with is that their projectiles are the slowest.
This famous glitch was fixed in Mega Man Anniversary Collection and Mega Man Powered Up.
[edit] Dr. Wily's castle (or lack thereof)
Starting with Mega Man 2, the player is shown a visual representation of Dr. Wily's castle (or, in Mega Man 4, 5, and 6; Dr. Cossack's castle, Proto Man's castle, and Mr. X's castle, respectively, with Dr Wily's castle following each). Each stage is a dot on the map, and when Mega Man beats one stage and goes to the next, this progress is shown on the map. Mega Man 1, however, does not have this feature. In the PSP remake, Mega Man Powered Up, it can be seen as the player loads one of four final levels, and is named "Castle Wily". Mega Man 1 is also the only game where the player selects Dr. Wily's stage and he appears like the Robot Master with the clear points listed next to him.
[edit] Development and localization
Creator Keiji Inafune stated in a G4 interview that the concept of the game was inspired by Rock, Paper, Scissors; every weapon and Robot Master has a strength and a weakness.[1]
Due to Nintendo of America's strict rules concerning religious references at the time, the Yellow Devil boss was instead named the "Rock Monster" for the original NES version[citation needed]. Also, when released in America, Capcom was forced to change the title of the game from Rock Man to Mega Man because Sony had copyrighted the name for their Rockman amplifier[citation needed].
In the original U.S. Instruction manual, "Dr. Light" is referred to as "Dr. Wright". In Mega Man 2, he is called "Dr. Light". The in-game text of Mega Man 3 refers to him as "Dr. Right". However, "Dr. Light" remains his official romanized name.
In the original Japanese version of the story, Dr. Wily was not Dr. Light's partner. Instead, he is simply a mad scientist who gets revenge on the world for not recognizing his scientific work.
[edit] Notes
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- The picture on the game's American box contains virtually nothing that can be found in the game. Mega Man himself resembles a middle-aged man rather than a boy, and he is holding a handgun instead of his Arm Cannon. The game's cover is commonly ridiculed because of its inaccuracy; GameSpy placed it in first place of its Top Ten Worst Covers list.[2]
- The European box cover, however, features Mega Man looking more like his video game counterpart.
- In the Mega Man manga (Rockman Mega Mix) and Super Adventure Rockman, all Robot Masters from this game became Mega Man's allies. In addition, the remake of this game, Mega Man Powered Up, centers on saving them from Dr. Wily's influence over them, along with Timeman and Oilman, both of whom Dr. Light also created in the game.
- This game has been remade or ported more than any other game in the Mega Man series. All in all, there have been six versions of this game: the original, the Wily Wars remake, the Complete Works port, the Anniversary Collection re-release, the Powered Up remake, and the recent Wii Virtual Console release in Europe and Australia.
- Guts Man and Cut Man have become some of the most commonly seen Robot Masters in the entire franchise. The characters were notably featured in every single episode of the Ruby-Spears cartoon. Cut Man (called Cuts Man) also appeared prominently in an episode of Captain N: The Game Master. Guts Man has been featured as a fortress-boss in several games, including Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 7. Cut Man has also been featured as a hidden boss in Mega Man 8 (Sega Saturn version only) and Mega Man X8. Both characters also make a cameo in the "Cut Man 2" comic featured in the newspaper at the opening movie for Mega Man 7. Both also appear in the Mega Man Battle Network series, with GutsMan.EXE featured as one of the major characters.
- HORSE the band did a song called "Cutsman", in obvious reference to Cut Man. They have also used Cut Man and Mega Man images in concert posters and merchandise.
- The band The Megas play rock covers of songs from the Mega Man soundtracks, with lyrics that attribute personality quirks to each of the robot masters.
- This is the only game in the Mega Man series which has no title screen music. (For the Wily Wars remake, the title screen music from Mega Man 3 was used.)
[edit] Reception
Mega Man rated the 61st best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power's Top 200 Games list.[3]
[edit] Adaptation in other media
The Captain N: The Game Master episode, "Mega Trouble for Megaland" was based on Mega Man and Kid Icarus. It is the second part to a previous episode "Videolympics", in which Mother Brain steals the Three Sacred Treasures from the Kid Icarus game world.
Kevin, Lana, Duke, and Mega Man go to Megaland after Wily used the treasures to conquer it. They are informed by Dr. Wright (Light's chosen name for the series) that Wily is taking over Megaland again with the six robots they built together.
Mega Man decides they should start by entering Cut Man's world first (the Robot Leader is called Cuts Man on the show for reasons unknown, although it's speculated that the episode's writer Jeffrey Scott mixed up the names Cut Man and Guts Man — as Scott was not too familiar with video games). The entire layout involves climbing as opposed to the game's version, as well as being inhabited with Bladers, Beaks, and a Big Eye. Also, the four of them share the same energy meter (6 lines of energy) which runs out on their first encounter with Big Eye.
They end up at the beginning of Cut Man's world again, according to Mega Man they have two more chances if they're not careful. After getting to the first boss door, they run into clones of the other five robots before their encounter with Cut Man (whom is defeated by his own weapon). Similar to fighting the robots once more in the game, Wily is able to instantly recreate the six robots due to the power produced by the Three Sacred Treasures.
- This episode also features the first and only appearance of Garbage Man.
- Cut Man is called Cuts Man in this episode and is colored green and orange; however most of the other six robots appear to be more accurate to their game counterparts.
- Though "Videolympics" is centered more on Kid Icarus, Mega Man and Dr. Wily compete in a ladder climbing competition in which both must navigate through the electric traps from Elec Man's stage. When Mega Man is hit by a blast and falls from the climb, he disintegrates in the same manner as he does in the game.
While not based on the game outright, the Mega Man episode "The Beginning" features all six robot masters onscreen.
[edit] References
- ^ "Mega Man". Game Makers. No. 19, season 2.
- ^ Top Ten Worst Covers. Retrieved on 2006-05-22.
- ^ “NP Top 200”, Nintendo Power 200: 58-66, February 2006.
[edit] External links
- Capcom official site, developers and publishers of Mega Man
- Complete video from Mega Man on archive.org
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