Mega Man (character)

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Mega Man (alternatively spelled "Megaman") is a video game character and the star of the main Mega Man series created by Capcom. He was designed by Keiji Inafune. In Japan, he is known as Rockman (ロックマン Rokkuman). Because of his popularity, Mega Man is Capcom's official mascot. He has appeared on the NES, SNES, Game Boy, Nintendo 64, GameCube, Sega Genesis, Game Gear, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and Xbox platforms, as well as in arcades.

History

In the year 200X (20XX in Powered Up), master designer Dr. Thomas Light worked to create a humanoid robot. This robot would demonstrate an advanced artificial intelligence program that would allow it to make decisions based on vague commands and directions. He called the robot project "Robot Master", because the resulting robot would be able to supervise the work of other, less intelligent machines.

The first Robot Master was code-named "Blues", but came to be known as Proto Man. Proto Man had the ability to lead a small squad of other robots in military applications. However, before testing of his AI was complete, the robot escaped and was thought to be destroyed.

With the disappearance of Proto Man, Light decided to create another robot. Fearing that the disappearance of Proto Man was due to the robot not having a peer, he created two robots at around the same time to work as a pair. These robots were called "Rock" (Mega in the Powered Up remake) and "Roll". Rock was created as Dr. Light's lab assistant. His sister, Roll, was designed for housekeeping.

With the success of these two test-type robots, Light designed and built six production-type robots, mainly to be used in the construction and maintenance of public works. These robots were Cut Man, a land reclamation robot; Guts Man, a construction and excavation robot; Ice Man, a robot designed for exploration in extreme freezing temperatures; Bomb Man, a mining robot designed to work with Guts Man; Fire Man, designed for waste management; and Elec Man, designed to oversee and control atomic energy power plants. The enhanced remake has also retconned into existence Time Man, designed to research time travel with his ability to slow down time, and Oil Man, designed for maintenance by generating oil for machinery and firing it through his arm cannon. Each of these robots had full use of the Robot Master's intelligence and reasoning potential.

The time finally came for Dr. Light to be recognized by the world for his brilliant contributions to science. Dr. Albert W. Wily, an old colleague and rival, grew jealous when his unique research was utterly overshadowed by Dr. Light. He stumbled upon Proto Man one day, who was dying when his energy system was malfunctioning. He repaired him, using his specifications to create the police robot, Sniper Joe. That's when he realized that he discovered while analyzing Proto Man, he had found a way to reprogram Light's robots. He decided that he could use these new robots to exact revenge. When Dr. Wily arrived at near Dr. Light's laboratory soon after announcing his plans for world domination, he failed to realize Rock and Roll's potential, so he went to the lab without them, claiming that helper robots are as good as scrap metal to him. He took and reprogrammed the six (Eight in "Mega Man: Powered Up") construction robots so they became misled and forced under his rule. With his new followers, Wily seized control of the city and demanded recognition.

Realizing that it would be very difficult for the armies to stop Wily without harming the city, Dr. Light knew something had to be done. Due to his programmed sense of right and wrong, Rock volunteered to be converted from his current state as a lab assistant into a fighting robot. Thus, from that day forth, he became known as "Rockman" (Mega Man in the U.S.) .

Personality

Mega Man's personality and intelligence are equivalent to that of a ten-year-old boy. He is without the capacity for further maturation that some future robots, like X, would have (see Reploid). However, he is loyal to Dr. Light and has a strong sense of justice, always trying to stand up for humanity.

Mega Man, like most robots, obeys a set of rules seemingly derived from Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, particularly the First Law: "A robot may not harm a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm." However, in Mega Man 7, he seemingly threatens to break this law in order to kill Dr. Wily. When Dr. Wily calls him out on this, he puts down his arm cannon. In the Japanese original, Rockman is silent; but in the English version, Mega Man claims to be "more than a robot" and again threatens to kill Wily, but hesitates because of the law. Note however, the game doesn't state it was a law, Wily simply points out that Mega Man wasn't allowed to kill humans.

Mega Man personifies the phrase "idealistic youth," matching his view of the world in most respects. He wants peace not only from Dr. Wily, but from people in general. There are hints dropped from time to time that Mega Man doesn't spend all his time conquering Wily's evil schemes, but also helping people who are simply in need. This ideal and sometimes naive view of the world seems to trickle down from his programmer, Dr. Light, who made Mega Man in many ways like a real son to him. Mega Man cares deeply for his creator, and worries about him when he is in trouble. Despite his idealism, though, he remains realistic about necessary violence when it is required of him to save the world from the plots of Wily. And after a while, he seems to grow somewhat disappointed in his inability to usher in real change. In Mega Man 8, he commented that Wily simply makes the same excuses repeatedly, and in Power Fighters, Wily turned the tables on his guilt and made him feel responsible for the violence. Fortunately, though, Mega Man always has his friends standing by him, and his good-natured spirit, valor, and willingness to help simply because it's the right thing to do can never be crushed.

Abilities

• Strength and Speed: Mega Man's enhancements give him extraordinary strength. He can lift and move tremendous amounts of weight, as demonstrated in Mega Man 5, in which he braces the upper levels of a fortress from collapse. He also possesses agility and speed that far surpass the most gifted athlete.
• Design: Interior endoskeleton is composed of strong, lightweight titanium alloy. Outer epidermal layer is composed of a Light Industries made synthetic ceramic polymer that has skin-like texture. Has magnetic joints located in knees and elbows to reduce friction and wear. Legs contain air cavities to absorb shock when jumping. Powered by a reactor located within his chest cavity. Traditional two-tone blue exterior armor frame also made of titanium alloy. Nano-robotic cells allow for nearly instant reconfiguration to change from hand to weapon.
• Variable Weapons System: An advanced form of Mega's original ability to use any tool, the Variable Weapons System allows Mega Man to adapt the attacks of his enemies and make them his own. However, he usually has to defeat them in combat first. The VWS also changes the colors of Mega Man's armor as an unintended side-effect.
• Mega Buster ''See Mega Buster
• Slide: Introduced in Mega Man 3. Allows Mega Man to slide along the ground at a high speed to evade attacks and enter small crevices.

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• Jet Adapter: Introduced in Mega Man 6. Allows Mega Man to fuse with Rush and become "Jet Mega Man". In this form, Mega Man is equipped with the "Jet Booster" and can fly or hover for short periods of time.
• Power Adapter: Introduced in Mega Man 6. Allows Mega Man to fuse with Rush and become "Power Mega Man". In this form, Mega Man is equipped with the "Super Knuckle", an ultra-powerful, short-range attack that knocks back foes and breaks blocks.
• Super Adapter: Introduced in Mega Man 7. Allows Mega Man to fuse with Rush and become "Super Mega Man". This form combines the two previous Adapters, allowing Mega Man to fly (or, in this game, double jump) and launch a rocket fist (which can be equipped with a enemy-tracking rocket system). Bass stole the plans for this and adapts it for use with him and Treble.
• Mega Kick: Introduced in Mega Man: Powered Up. As Mega, he can use powerful kicks to destroy enemy robots.

Trivia

• Rock (Mega) and Roll are often considered "twin" robots by fans.

• According to Japanese sourcebooks, Rock was created as a general-purpose tool user. Simply by studying how a tool was used, he could mimic its use using a Variable Tool System. This made him the ideal lab assistant.

• Mega Man has robotic pets: a dog, Rush, a cat, Tango, and a bird, Beat. Dr. Light has robotic assistants, Auto the mechanic (called Rightot in Japan) and Eddie the walking suitcase, sometimes called Flip Top.

• Mega is known as Rock in Japan. Note that Rock is present in the original English release of Mega Man 4, but with the release of Mega Man Powered Up for the PSP, Mega Man's true name was changed to Mega. This could either be an act of retconning the English games, or it could be cited as mistranslation, or perhaps even both.

• It was originally belived that Mega Man changing which arm he shot with every time he turned around was caused by simple sprite mirroring; however, more recent games seem to suggest that both of his arms can transform as needed. In Super Adventure Rockman, he even charged both arm cannons at once. Dr. Wily, shocked, notes that that amount of energy being output would be capable of overloading and destroying Mega Man.

References

1. ↑ 
2. ↑ 
3. ↑ 
4. ↑ 

 

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