50 Fun Facts About Mega Man

Under which name, chosen over ideas such as Knuckle Kid, is Mega Man known in Japan?

Rockman was dropped for the American release because a Capcom executive, Joseph Morici, simply disliked the title and came up with Mega Man instead.

Which famous bearded figure inspired the look of Dr. Light, the kindly scientist who built Mega Man?

Santa Claus was the model for the gentle Dr. Light, while his rival Dr. Wily was drawn to be an archetypal mad scientist.

Which robotic dog, introduced in Mega Man 3, can turn into a coil, a jet and a submarine?

Rush was first planned with a drill mode too, which would have let Mega Man tunnel underground, but the idea was cut.

On the infamous North American box art of the first Mega Man, what does the hero hold?

A handgun stands in for his arm cannon because Capcom's US office wanted a cover by the next day, so a friend of its marketing rep drew one in about six hours.

Which sport did Capcom give Mega Man and the Robot Masters in a 1994 spin-off for the SNES?

Soccer got a Mega Man twist: every character has a special shot that temporarily disables anyone the ball touches.

Which real scientist was the model for Dr. Wily, the recurring villain of the Mega Man games?

Albert Einstein inspired both the name and the look of Dr. Wily, who was first sketched as a tall, thin scientist with glasses and a lab coat.

Which alliterative nickname, a nod to his armour's colour, do fans and critics use for Mega Man?

The Blue Bomber got his colour for a technical reason: blue had the most shades in the NES's 56-colour palette, which let the artists add detail.

Which scarf-wearing, shield-carrying robot is revealed as Mega Man's older brother in Mega Man 3?

Proto Man was written so players could not tell whether he was a friend or an enemy, and late in the game he duels Mega Man in disguise as Break Man.

Mega Man returned to the spotlight in 2014 as a guest fighter in which fighting game series?

Super Smash Bros. added him in its 3DS and Wii U entries, and he came back for the sequel, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Keiji Inafune named which Osamu Tezuka manga as a major influence on his Mega Man designs?

Astro Boy also stars a robot child, and the 1987 team leaned on anime for its animation, so the hero's arm visibly transforms into his cannon.

Which housekeeping robot, built by Dr. Light, is regarded as Mega Man's younger sister?

Roll went unnamed in the games until the ending of Mega Man 3, where her entry appears in Dr. Light's list of robots.

Which rival robot, introduced in Mega Man 7, did Dr. Wily build to match Mega Man's power?

Bass is powered by Bassnium, an energy Dr. Wily discovered by mistake, and he often rebels against his creator when Wily gets in his way.

Which Robot Master in the first Mega Man, built to fell timber, throws his blades like boomerangs?

Cut Man is one of the most frequently recurring bosses in the series, and the scissor-like blades he throws sit on top of his head.

Which Mega Man 2 Robot Master shields himself with leaves and is fought in a forest-themed stage?

Wood Man is one of eight Robot Masters that Dr. Wily built himself for the sequel, rather than stealing Dr. Light's creations again.

Which former leader of the Maverick Hunters became the main villain of the Mega Man X series?

Sigma was built by Dr. Cain and regarded as the finest of the Reploids before he went berserk and rebelled against humanity.

Which Street Fighter special move can X learn from a secret capsule in the first Mega Man X?

Hadouken is the fireball thrown by Ryu and Ken, and X can only earn it once certain hidden conditions are satisfied.

Which crowdfunded 2016 game starring a robot called Beck is seen as Mega Man's spiritual successor?

Mighty No. 9 reached its Kickstarter goal within two days in 2013 under Keiji Inafune, then slipped through repeated delays before release.

From Mega Man 2 onward, where did Capcom get many of its Robot Master designs?

Fan-submitted drawings poured in: Capcom received 8,370 boss ideas for Mega Man 2 alone, though even the eight winners were tweaked.

Which Mega Man 9 boss was first conceived as a second female Robot Master before being made male?

Hornet Man began as Honey Woman and was changed after Keiji Inafune presented Splash Woman, the first female Robot Master of the original series.

Which scientist attacks the world in Mega Man 4 because Dr. Wily has kidnapped his daughter?

Dr. Cossack becomes an ally once his daughter is freed, and in Mega Man 5 he upgrades the hero's arm cannon with a stronger charge shot.

Which one-eyed boss in the first Mega Man splits into flying pieces and reassembles across the room?

Yellow Devil has a body made of shape-memory alloy, and the single mechanical eye at its centre is its only weak point.

Which company, rather than Capcom, published the NES game Mega Man 6 in North America in 1994?

Nintendo handled that release, while Europe had to wait until a 2013 Virtual Console version, nearly twenty years after the game first came out.

Which retro graphics style did Capcom revive for Mega Man 9, a 2008 game made for modern consoles?

8-bit visuals and sound were imitated so closely that the developers even considered selling the game on NES cartridges, though the finished game is far too large to fit on one.

Which system, unique to Mega Man 11, lets the hero slow down time or boost his attack power?

Double Gear pairs a Speed Gear with a Power Gear, but a bar above Mega Man's head fills as he uses them, and too much makes him overheat.

Which robotic bird, debuting in Mega Man 5, attacks enemies once players collect eight letters?

Beat homes in on enemies and charges them, and in several later games he instead swoops in to rescue Mega Man from pits.

Which small recurring Mega Man enemy waits under an indestructible hard hat with a plus sign on it?

Met is a construction robot whose helmet is impervious to most weapons, and variants such as Metall and Mettaur turn up across the spin-off series.

Which boss in the first Mega Man, inspired by American comics, is Keiji Inafune's favourite design?

Elec Man was the first character Inafune created for the game apart from ordinary enemies; several other bosses were already in progress when he joined.

Which Mega Man 4 boss impressed Capcom's team enough that a level was scrapped and rebuilt for him?

Skull Man was one of only two bosses in the game built as combat robots from the start; the rest were industrial machines reprogrammed to fight.

Mega Man X dropped the tradition of bosses named "Man" and modelled its eight Mavericks on what?

Animals such as a mammoth, an octopus and a chameleon inspired the eight bosses, and their art was divided among three illustrators.

Mega Man 8 brought the main series to 32-bit hardware, launching in Japan in 1996 on which console?

PlayStation hardware let the series add animated cutscenes with voices, though the English voice acting became notorious for its poor quality.

Which Maverick pilots a mechanized Ride Armor against X on the highway in the first Mega Man X?

Vile overpowers X in that first clash until Zero forces him to retreat, and he only falls later after Zero sacrifices himself to destroy the Ride Armor.

The four Mega Man Zero games, starring X's old partner, first appeared on which handheld system?

Game Boy Advance hosted the whole series, which is set more than a century after the X storyline and was later reissued on the DS.

Which studio, founded in 1996 by former Capcom staff, developed the Mega Man Zero games?

Inti Creates was given free rein over the design and premise, and it later worked on Mega Man 9 and Mega Man ZX as well.

Which young human scientist finds and awakens the sleeping hero in the first Mega Man Zero?

Ciel is a young genius who founded the Resistance to shelter Reploids being destroyed during a worldwide energy shortage.

Which ice-wielding Mega Man Zero 2 boss guards the computer room that controls Neo Arcadia's defences?

Poler Kamrous is modelled on a polar bear, and the computer room this boss protects is kept at minus 20 degrees Celsius.

Which fifth-grader from the town of ACDC operates MegaMan.EXE in the Mega Man Battle Network games?

Lan Hikari and his partner spend most of the series stopping crime syndicates, the first of them WWW, which is said aloud as World Three.

In Mega Man Battle Network, what are the digital people kept inside handheld PET devices called?

NetNavis, short for Network Navigators, let their users jack in and explore the Net as if it were a physical place.

Which air pirate from Mega Man Legends got her own prequel spin-off game in 1999?

Tron Bonne is the series' antihero, and her game follows the criminal Bonne family before the events of the first Legends.

Mega Man: The Wily Wars remade the first three NES games for which rival console in 1994?

Sega Genesis owners in North America could only play it through the Sega Channel service, because the cartridge release there was cancelled.

Which publisher launched a Mega Man comic in 2011 and later crossed it over with its Sonic series?

Archie Comics gave the lead writing job to Ian Flynn, a veteran of its Sonic books, and the 2013 crossover ran under the title Worlds Collide.

Which item, new in Mega Man 2, lets players refill Mega Man's health whenever they choose?

Energy Tank arrived in the same game as the series' first password system, which let players pick up their progress after switching off.

Mega Man Battle Network swapped platforming for which genre when it launched in 2001?

Tactical RPG battles replaced running and jumping in a series created amid the success of Pokémon and the rise of collectible card games.

Which Robot Master was newly created for Mega Man Powered Up, the 2006 remake of the first game?

Oil Man and one other newcomer raised the remake's boss count to eight, and players can control all eight under the right circumstances.

Who directed the first Mega Man and drew the hero's original sprite, later refined by Keiji Inafune?

Akira Kitamura worked on only the first three games and hid in the credits behind pseudonyms such as A.K, so Inafune is often credited in his place.

Which Capcom composer, credited as Chanchacorin, wrote the music for the original Mega Man?

Manami Matsumae also wrote the game's well-known Game Start jingle, and she came back decades later to help score Mega Man 10.

Which American studio co-produced the 1994 Mega Man cartoon with Japan's Ashi Productions?

Ruby-Spears made 27 episodes across two seasons, and a planned spin-off cartoon based on Mega Man X never went ahead.

Which fifth-grader from Echo Ridge merges with the alien Omega-Xis in Mega Man Star Force?

Geo Stelar has shut himself away since his father's presumed death in a space station explosion, until the alien moves into his Transer.

In Mega Man 10, which virus makes robots malfunction and rebel, sending the hero after a cure?

Roboenza turns out to be Dr. Wily's own creation: he had developed the cure only to entice infected robots into doing his bidding.

Which robot from outer space crashes to Earth in Mega Man 8 and becomes Mega Man's ally?

Duo was designed to keep peace across the universe, and once the alien menace on Earth is eradicated he leaves to continue that mission elsewhere.

Which defector from the vigilante group Red Alert becomes a new playable hero in Mega Man X7?

Axl is a new-generation Reploid with a power called A-Trans, which lets him take on the look and abilities of enemies he defeats.