Mega Man (universe)

File:MegaManSymbol.png

The Mega Man universe (known as the Rockman universe in Japan) refers to the Smash Bros. series' collection of characters, stages, and properties that hail from the eponymous Mega Man (or Rockman in Japan) series by Capcom. Originating on the NES, the Mega Man franchise has spawned a multitude of video games across many platforms, as well as a variety of associated media. The series is the third such third-party franchise to contribute elements to a Smash game, with the titular Mega Man being a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4.

Franchise description

Capcom was originally known for creating arcade games and porting them to home consoles. In the mid-1980s, however, a team of only six employees developed the original Rockman for the Famicom, as part of Capcom's initial "focused" foray into the Japanese home console market. The developers strove for perfection in all aspects of the project despite the severe technical limitations of the Famicom, and incorporated designs inspired by Osamu Tezuka's manga Astro Boy. The eponymous hero of the weapon-based platformer was colored blue simply because blue had the most available shades within the Famicom's limited color palette. For the game's simultaneous release in Japan and the United States on December 17, 1987, Capcom's then-Senior Vice President Joseph Marcini renamed the localized version of the game and titular character Mega Man, believing it would have a much wider appeal to American children. Mega Man was released to favorable critical reception, but moderately low sales (around 100,000 copies sold), though they were higher than Capcom originally anticipated.

While Mega Man was not a large enough commercial accomplishment for Capcom to necessarily justify a sequel, the company allowed the development team to create a sequel as an aside to other projects. The team focused on improving the original formula with enhanced graphics and audio, more levels, and new supportive items that addressed consumer concerns over the extreme difficulty of the previous title. Mega Man 2, in stark contrast to the original, was a huge success, selling over 1.5 million copies worldwide, and definitively established Mega Man as one of the industry's largest and longest-running franchises and one of Capcom's flagships, and also propelled Capcom to its present-day status as a game developer. As of 2013, over fifty Mega Man games have been released, with many populating specific "sub-series" and exploring genres outside side-scrolling platforming. Iterations of the Mega Man character himself and other related characters, meanwhile, have appeared in Capcom-involved games outside the main series such as crossover fighting games, like the Marvel vs. Capcom series that pits Capcom characters against Marvel superheroes and, more recently, Nintendo's own Super Smash Bros. 4.

The most iconic formula of the Mega Man series, which has remained Rockman in Japan, is a side-scrolling platform game where the player controls the blue robot Mega Man, who has a "buster" cannon grafted onto his arm, as he shoots his way through levels packed with enemy robots. Oftentimes, eight levels are immediately available to complete in any order, and at the end of each level is a boss robot with a similar level of advanced construction and power as Mega Man himself, referred to as a "Robot Master". Defeating a Robot Master gains Mega Man a special weapon corresponding to that Robot Master that he may use for the rest of the game, and this weapon is typically the weakness at least one of the other seven Robot Masters. Since one Robot Master uses a weapon that is the weakness of another Robot Master, a rock-paper-scissor mechanic between all of the Robot Masters is formulated by this. Once Mega Man has defeated all eight Robot Masters and gained their weapons, he proceeds to a final set of harder stages typically taking place in the villain's fortress lair, featuring both special, harder bosses and a room where all eight Robot Masters are defeated one in a row, before battling and defeating the villain in his latest war machine or ultimate form.

The most prolific continuities and sub-series in the Mega Man franchise are as follows, each of which has its own incarnation on the Mega Man character design:

• Mega Man Classic series: The original series depicts Mega Man in his most famous incarnation, that of a young "boy" robot in a world where his allies and enemies are in a colorful children's-anime style. His kind-hearted inventor, Dr. Thomas Light, regularly sends Mega Man on missions to destroy the newest Robot Masters, always having names ending in "Man" (save for one notable exception named "Splash Woman"), created by the arch-rival to Dr. Light and Mega Man, Dr. Wily - the very definition of the archetypal mad scientist out to take over the world. Mega Man is restricted by stilted jumping and sliding motions in his games, and in addition to the weapons he procures from Robot Masters, he must occasionally rely on specific allies to overcome stage obstacles, not the least of which is his transforming robotic dog companion, Rush, who can combine with Mega Man to form Super Mega Man.

• Mega Man X series: Taking place a generation later, this darker-toned series centers on an "older" successor to Mega Man, Mega Man X (Rockman X in Japanese, and is commonly called simply "X"), whom the late Dr. Light has left behind to police a world where more advanced, sapient robots are integrated into human society. Despite being his greatest creation, when X was finished, Dr. Light sealed him in a capsule, as the believed that the world wasn't ready to accept X. X was discovered by Dr. Cain a century later, and he made more robots that can think on their own, like X. These robots are called Reploids, or replica androids. However, some Reploids have gone "Maverick", or violent, and have caused problems. A force called the Maverick Hunters was made to counter the Mavericks. The leader of the Maverick Hunters, Sigma, eventually becomes a Maverick himself after fighting the then-Maverick, Zero, a Reploid made by Dr. Wily, the enemy of the original Mega Man. While Sigma turned more Reploids into Mavericks, Zero stopped being Maverick and joined the Maverick Hunters, and became a partner to X. Sigma assigns eight powerful Mavericks to guard certain areas, and these Mavericks become the Mega Man X version of the Robot Masters. These Mavericks are fought (and defeated) by X or Zero, who then must battle all of them once again before taking the fight to Sigma in his lair. The events of the Mega Man X series transition into the Mega Man Zero series, where a more brooding Zero reawakens after a century of slumber into an even darker version of the world, and battles for a resistance group against the governing body and "utopia", Neo Arcadia. At first, Zero had to fight against a copy of X. After defeating Copy X, it was eventually revealed that the real mastermind behind Neo Arcadia is Dr. Weil. Zero defeats Weil as well, but he is killed as well, as the space station they were fighting in, Ragnarok, broke apart and fell down to Earth. Finally, set three centuries after the Zero series are the 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 Legends series: A shorter-lived series taking place millennia 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 (or Rock Volnutt in Japan), 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.

• 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 (光熱斗 Hikari Netto), has his "NetNavi" and the main player character, MegaMan.EXE (Rockman.EXE in Japanese), 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.

• Mega Man Star Force series: A series of over-the-shoulder action RPGs set 200 years later in the future of the Battle Network continuity. It stars a human boy named Geo Stelar (星河スバル Subaru Hoshikawa) who regularly merges with an electromagnetic alien named Omega-Xis (Warrock in Japanese) to become a blue-suited "Mega Man" of his own and fight enemies in an invisible electromagnetic plane overlaid with the real world.

In Super Smash Bros. 4

Characters

• 
  Mega Man (or Rockman in Japan): The eponymous star of his series, Mega Man, like Sonic, was a heavily requested and anticipated third-party guest character. Mega Man appears as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. for 4, being confirmed in the reveal trailer of the game. Mega Man uses very few physical attacks, instead relying on his own arsenal of weapons and those obtained from defeated Robot Masters. Mega Man's Final Smash has him assisted by various alternate versions of the character.

Boss

• 
  Yellow Devil: A recurring boss character in the Mega Man series, the Yellow Devil appears as a "stage boss" on the Wily Castle stage. The Yellow Devil attacks players using it's body and various beams, and must be defeated by attacking it's eye, the only vulnerable place on it's body. The Yellow Devil explodes upon defeat, acting as an attack for the player who lands the defeating blow on the boss.

Assist Trophy

• Elec Man: One of the Robot Masters from the first Mega Man game, appears as an Assist Trophy, unleashing his Thunder Beam to attack opponents.

Misc.

• Mega Man's robotic dog Rush is used in his Rush Coil move.
• Mega Man X, MegaMan.EXE, Mega Man Volnutt, and Star Force Mega Man all appear and assist the classic playable Mega Man in his final smash.

Stage

• Wily Castle: A stage exclusively for the Wii U version that appears to be standing in front of Dr. Wily's Skull Castle from Mega Man 2. The Yellow Devil appears on this stage as a mini-boss and hazard for players.

Music

While no music has been confirmed for an appearance in Super Smash Bros. 4, remixes of the classic Dr. Wily's Castle music and the Mega Man 2 title music were used in Mega Man's initial reveal trailer. In addition, the original version of the Wily Castle theme played in the Developer Direct trailer. The trailer also featured a rock remix of the "stage selected" theme from the Mega Man series. The Super Smash Bros. Direct also featured Spark Man's theme.

Games with elements from or in the Super Smash Bros. series

Mega Man

The game that introduced Mega Man as well as the Yellow Devil. Mega Man also obtains the Super Arm ability which serves as his grab from Guts Man in this game. Elec Man, a Robot Master boss, appears as a Assist Trophy.

Mega Man 2

As noted by Sakurai on Miiverse, many of Mega Man's moves come from this game including:

• Metal Blade (obtained from Metal Man)
• Leaf Shield (obtained from Wood Man)
• Crash Bomber (obtained from Crash Man)
• Air Shooter (obtained from Air Man)

Additionally, the design of Dr. Wily's Castle comes from this game.

Mega Man 3

Mega Man's ability to slide was introduced in this game as were the following abilities:

• Rush Coil
• Spark Shock (obtained from Spark Man)
• Hard Knuckle (obtained from Hard Man)
• Top Spin (obtained from Top Man)

Mega Man 4

Mega Man's Charge Shot originated in this game.

Mega Man 5

The slide being able to damage opponents could be a reference to Charge Man's power Charge Kick, which was the first weapon that allowed Mega Man to weaponize his sliding ability to attack targets on the ground.

Mega Man 6

Flame Man's Flame Blast comes from this game.

Mega Man 7

Slash Man's Slash Claw originated in this game.

Mega Man 8

Sword Man's Flame Sword originated in this game.

Super Adventure Rockman

An obscure title that never saw release outside of Japan. Mega Man's need to vent his Mega Busters after using an attack that involves both is a reference to the game's climax where Mega Man takes down the Evil Ra Moon with a double charge shot, despite Wily warning that doing so could overheat his systems and destroy him.

Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters

While Sakurai notes that the Mega Upper is used in Marvel vs. Capcom, it originates in this arcade game.

Mega Man X

Mega Man X is one of the five Mega Men to fire in Mega Man's Final Smash.

Mega Man Legends

Mega Man Volnutt is one of the five Mega Men to fire in Mega Man's Final Smash.

Mega Man Battle Network

MegaMan.EXE is one of the five Mega Men to fire in Mega Man's Final Smash.

Mega Man Star Force

Geo Stelar (as Mega Man) is one of the five Mega Men to fire in Mega Man's Final Smash.