Mega Man (universe): Difference between revisions

*'''Mega Man X series''': Taking place a generation later, this darker-toned series centers on an "older" successor to Mega Man, Mega Man X (or Rock Man X in Japan; and is commonly called "X"), whom the late Dr. Light has left behind to police a world where more advanced, sapient robots called Reploids are integrated into human society. A sinister Reploid named Sigma goes maverick and repeatedly turns other Reploids into Mavericks, which serve as the animalistic "robot masters" that X and his ally, the sword-wielding Zero, must battle before taking the fight to Sigma in his own lair. This transitions into the '''Mega Man Zero''' series, where a more brooding Zero reawakens after a century into an even darker version of the world, and does battle for a resistance group against the governing body and "utopia" Neo Arcadia. Finally, set three centuries after the ''Zero'' series are a set of '''Mega Man ZX''' games, in which the player takes control of either a male or female character who can merge with Biometals, artifacts that can absorb the traits of a human or Reploid, to obtain forms and abilities derived from other characters, including those from the earlier subseries. In all three series, the player-character has more fluid movements, such as acceleration along the ground and jumping up along and clinging to walls.  

*'''Mega Man Battle Network series''': An alternate reality where spiritual counterparts to classic Mega Man characters exist not as robots, but as computer programs that navigate and do battle in cyberspace as though they were physical beings navigating a physical plane, as per the commands of real-world humans at their computers. Dr. Wily in this universe is the head of a net-crime organization called the WWW ("World Three"), and the main human protagonist, Lan Hikari (or  Hikari Netto ({{ja|光熱斗}}) in Japan), has his "NetNavi" and the main player character, MegaMan.EXE, foil the WWW's cyber-schemes by deleting the "Virus" enemies it sends. The gameplay of the primary ''Battle Network'' series is an enormous departure from the side-scrolling platforming of the other games in that it operates similar to a turn-based JRPG. Another subseries taking place in this continuity, the '''Mega Man Star Force''' series of over-the-shoulder action RPGs set 200 years later, stars a human boy named Geo Stelar (called Subaru Hoshikawa ({{ja|星河スバル}}, Hoshikawa Subaru) in Japan), who regularly merges with an electromagnetic alien named Omega-Xis (or Warrock in Japan) to become a blue-suited "Mega Man" of his own and fight enemies in an invisible electromagnetic plane overlaid with the real world.

*'''Mega Man Legends series''': A shorter-lived series taking place millenia in the future, at a point where the Earth is mostly ocean and civilization is dependent on digging into the remaining islands for a power source. The player controls Mega Man Volnutt, a robotic Digger, who investigates ruins and does battle against air pirates named the Bonne family. In another series departure, these games focus on third-person action-adventure elements.