Mega Man (universe): Difference between revisions

While the series remained relatively popular, each release saw diminishing returns due to oversaturation. To combat this and finally bring the franchise into the new console generation, the team decided to create a major shake up for the franchise. This includes a time skip set 100 years after the events of the classic ''Mega Man'' series and an overall darker and edgier tone. This game eventually released as ''Rockman X'' in 1993 for Super Famicom, localized as ''Mega Man X'' for SNES. In this game, Dr. Cain discovers the ruins of Dr. Light's labratory and finds the robot master [[X]]. A century early, Dr. Light built X as the first ever robot with free will, though he was put in stasis to solidify his moral code. While the reasons are unknown, Dr. Light never retrieved X before his own death. X wakes up to a world where humans and robots, now known as reploids, peacefully coexist. However, reploids sometimes go rogue and become criminals, dubbed Mavericks. X then joins the Maverick hunters alongside enemy turned rival [[Zero]] and other companions to keep world peace and stop a mounting reploid uprising led by Sigma.

On the SNES alone, the franchise saw ''Mega Man X 2'' in 1994 and ''Mega Man X 3'' in 1995, the latter also releasing of PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and PC in ceratin countries, as well as a proper ''Mega Man 7'' in 1995 and ''Mega Man & Bass'' in 1998. Many Spinoffs also released, including ''Wily & Right no RockBoard: That's Paradise'' in 1993, ''Mega Man Soccer'' in 1994, as well as arcade games ''Mega Man: The Power Battle'' in 1995 and ''Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters'' in 1996.

After being more or less exclusive to Nintendo consoles for its life, Capcom decided to shift the franchise over to PlayStation and other CD based consoles due to their disappointment in [[Nintendo 64]] hardware. The first in this new era was ''Mega Man 8'' in 1996 for PlayStation, Saturn and PC, which utilized the capabilites of the CD format to produce high quality audio and fully animated cutscenes. However, the english dub of this game and future entries are notorious for its poor voice acting. Next came ''Mega Man X 4'' in 1997 and ''Mega Man X 5'' in 2000, which dropped the Saturn from as a SKU. Spinoffs of this era include ''Mega Man: Battle & Chase'' for PlayStation in 1997, and Game Boy Color releases ''Mega Man Xtreme'' in 2000 and ''Mega Man Xtreme 2'' in 2001.

The project Keiji Inafune worked on eventually released as ''Mega Man Zero'' in 2002 for Game Boy Advance. Taking place 100 years after the events of ''Mega Man X 5'' and somewhat ignoring later installments, humans defeated the Mavericks and both humans and reploids were once again able to live in harmony. However, an energy crisis drove the humans to kill the Reploids to conserve fuel, causing a resistance movement to form. Zero is then discovered in a healing chamber, who goes out to piece together his century of absence, bring peace to the world once again, and try to find and defeat the mastermind behind this chaos. This game received sequels ''Mega Man Zero 2'' in 2003 and ''Mega Man Zero 3'' in 2004. Inafune initially wanted the series to stop here, but Capcom mandated a ''Mega Man Zero 4'' in 2005.

This series received a miriad of sequels and spinoffs. The mainline entries include ''Mega Man Battle Network 2'' also in 2001, dual releases ''Mega Man Battle Network 3: White & Blue'' in 2002, dual releases ''Mega Man Battle Network 4: Red Sun & Blue Moon'' in 2003, dual releases ''Mega Man Battle Network 5: Team Protoman & Team Colonel'' in 2005, which were combine into a single release on Nintendo DS as ''Mega Man Battle Network 5: Double Team DS'' in 2005, and dual releases ''Mega Man Battle Network 6 Cybeast Falzar & Cybeast Gregar'' in 2005. Two platforming spinoffs released in 2003, ''Mega Man Network Transmission'' for [[Nintendo GameCube]] and ''RockMan EXE WS'' for WonderSwan Color. Two RPG games released for Cell phones, ''Rockman EXE Phantom of Network'' in 2004 and ''Rockman EXE Legend of Network'' in 2005, as well as arcade game ''Rockman EXE The Medal Operation'' in 2005. Several spinoff based entirely on battling also released, including Game Boy Advance games ''Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge'' in 2003 and ''Rockman EXE 4.5 Real Operation'' in 2004, ''Rockman EXE N1 Battle'' for WonderSwan Color in 2003, and ''Rockman EXE Battle Chip Stadium'' for arcades in 2005.

After wrapping up the ''Mega Man Zero'' series, most of the same team then migrated over to development on a new series, which materialized as ''Mega Man ZX'' in 2006. Taking place 100 years after ''Mega Man Zero 4'', human and reploid relations have once again grown peaceful, with maverick hunters now being mass-producable. This includes Mega Man model X and Z, both modeled after X and Zero respectively. The character Vent or Aile depending on who the player chooses are suited up as a Mega Man model and go out to save the world from another mysterious maverick uprising. The game received a sequel in 2007 titled ''Mega Man ZX Advent''.

After a 12 year hiatus, the classic ''Mega Man'' series suddenly returned in 2008 with ''Mega Man 9'' for WiiWare, Xbox Live Arcade, and PlayStation Network. The game was made in the exact 8-bit style of the first six ''Mega Man'' games, albeit with some subtle modernizations like mechanics impossible to achieve on older hardware and new gameplay modes, as well as downloadable content released later. This game was received as a basic, yet well designed return to form after complaints of these many spinoff series losing sight of what made the franchise great in the first place were forming. This game was followed up with ''Mega Man 10'' in 2010, which had largely the same qualities as ''Mega Man 9'' with expanded online modes and new characters. This game receieved less favorable reviews due to generally being considered safe and not being innovative enough, which ironically is what put the series on hiatus in the first place.

''Mega Man 10'' would end up being the last Capcom-developed ''Mega Man'' game for many years. Around 2011, many projects were in the works, but ended up being canceled in messy ways. Four known projects include massive mulitplayer online game for Windows ''Mega Man Online'', the nearly finished level creator game ''Mega Man Universe'', first person shooter reboot of ''Mega Man X'' titled ''Maverick Hunter'', and ''Mega Man Legends 3'', which initially had a public development period where anyone can contribute to various decisions before being canceled by a lack of confidence from executives. Keiji Inafune, who oversaw all of these games and kept poisoning the well with both fans and executives with shortsided decisions that often backfired, left the company at this time to form his own studio. The games Inafune have made since his departure are ''Mighty No. 9'' in 2013, ''Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z'' in 2014, and ''ReCore'' in 2016, all of which were given negative reviews upon release and were considered pale imitations of previous games. Inafune also crowdfunded for the game ''Red Ash'', though this game has yet to materialize.

Outside of games, the ''Mega Man'' franchise has been represented in other media. This includes guest appearances like the ''Marvel vs Capcom'' and {{uv|Super Smash Bros.}} series. Several animated series, comic books, and manga have been created, both directly based on games and in their own continuity. The ''Mega Man'' series has been considered highly influential in the video game industry, particularly with non-linear gameplay structure, story and continuity, and several instances of modernization done right. The character is often seen as a mascot for Capcom and is one of the most recognizable video game characters of all time despite franchise representation being relatively few and far between in recent years.