Mega Man: A Guide to the Classic Series' Games

The iconic first title of this franchise was released during a time when the Super Famicom - mostly known as NES in the west - was at its peak success. Alongside other titles that are still relevant in current days, the side-scroller platform game arrived with a quite different intention behind it: to add some slight RPG elements to let the player decide the order of stages and their bosses as they want, along with the feeling of leveling up with new weapons and collectible items.

Although having its name based on one of the most successful musical genres in the 80s - the Rock’n’Roll - American publishers didn’t believe that introducing a new robot hero as a “Rock-Man” (as in a man made of Rocks) would make much sense, finally localizing it into Mega Man (with one of the worst box-arts ever produced in history, objectively, being even considered a meme until nowadays by Capcom itself) as we know it here in the west.

At that time, cartridges couldn’t fit as much data into their smaller storage, offering the developers the sad choice between telling the story of the game vs. inserting all the gameplay elements they wanted. As playability and fun were the most important and highest selling factors back then, very few players could actually understand what was going on in the Mega Man universe unless they had access to the booklets from the original boxes, containing the game manual along with its plot.

It was also the case of translated versions altering not just names, but crucial points in storytelling that would get to be known by western fans only many years later with the release of new titles in more modern consoles, which in turn would allow the game to tell its plot alongside all the action and shooting.

The original story of Mega Man begins in the year 20XX, when two very influential robotics scientists begin working on sentient robots and programming them for labor tasks. Robots would have jobs from vacuum cleaners and traffic lights up to demolition sites, avoiding putting the lives of workers that used to do those so far in danger.

One of the scientists, Dr. Thomas Light, also built two robots to help him in both his lab and house chores, respectively Rock and Roll, besides many other models that would do more industrial and dangerous jobs. Six of these robots were then stolen by the second scientist, Dr. Albert Wily, who reprogrammed them to become combat machines and rebel against humanity. While Wily wanted to prove the superiority of robots, Rock, alongside his strong sense of justice, asked his creator and father, Light, to transform him into a robot capable of defeating the powerful enemies so they could be brought back.

And so Mega Man was born, with his plasma cannon equipped on his left arm and a body built with Cerataium - a Ceramic Titanium alloy unique to this universe -, capable of not only defeating enemies, but also obtaining their abilities upon doing so.

To stop the Dr. Wily’s evil plans, Mega Man had to adventure through the six stages available in the game, defeating their respective Robot Masters. All of them have their serial numbers based on their creator and the order they were built (DLN 001, for example, stands for “Dr. Light Number 001”, which is Rock), and the villains in Mega Man 1 were:

After defeating the six Masters, Mega Man finally reaches Dr. Wily’s secret lab and defeats him, but the scientist escapes at the very last moment.

Although the classic Platformer aspects make Mega Man a favorite among fans until this day, what brought it to its success were its unique points. Besides the RPG elements being correctly applied in a more classic action game from that time, the freedom of being able to choose the stage order and acquire the Master’s weapons in different sequences each time you would turn on your NES gave the title a very high replayability level that wasn’t very explored by many games back then.

Even though they are simple, the graphics with vibrant colors and interactive backgrounds that would give, many times, two or more options of paths and ways to finish the stages also gave the player a unique experience, each time different from the last one. With such positive receptivity, it didn’t take long until its sequel arrived.

It took less than a year for the blue bomber’s fans to have good news from their favorite game series. Mega Man 2 brought a direct follow-up of its previous release, although many would only notice the story progression if they had access to the official booklets or future releases.

On this title, Dr. Wily returns with eight Robot Masters that he built himself especially to defeat Mega Man. This time, instead of DLN, we have the DWN or “Dr. Wily Number” for their Serial Numbers, them being:

After beating the eight Masters, the player is introduced to a Wily Castle, a concept that returns in future games in which makes it possible to follow up Mega Man’s advancements on each final stage of the game with their unique bosses. At the end of the castle, Mega Man fights Wily one more time - this time, the scientist was disguised as an ominous Alien which was nothing but a hologram - and stops his twisted plans.

Mega Man 2 was the game that finally brought the franchise into the spotlight. The sales and receptivity were way higher than the previous release and the addition of more stages, abilities, power-ups and tools established the beginning of an era for this series that continues up until this day.

In every following title, there will be eight Robot Masters, multiple final stages with their maps and bosses, progression checkpoints, better in-game storytelling and even more characters, functions and powers to buff up the protagonist and his saga.

Continuing the saga, Mega Man 3 rinsed and repeated the recipe of success from its predecessor and added the cherries on top: a pet, a rival, a new sliding ability and some of the most memorable stages and songs in the entire franchise.

This time, Dr. Wily regrets his crimes and promises to work together with Light to send some special robots to different planets of the solar system to collect materials that would help them to build the future of humanity. As expected, Wily betrayed his workmates, taking eight of the robots under his control and once again plotting his world domination and defeating Mega Man.

This time, the eight enemies were:

To complete the eight stages and defeat the Robot Masters, Rock now has the help of Rush, his loyal robot dog who can act as a spring propulsion to jump to higher places, a jet to fly small distances or a submarine to access underwater areas.

In many stages and even during the final sequence, Mega Man is interrupted by a mysterious red armored robot with sunglasses, that always shows up after an iconic whistle and, after being defeated, unlocks the following areas of the stage. Besides that, it is also possible to trespass obstacles, evade enemy shots or even access hidden areas with the new sliding ability to pass through narrow spaces.

After defeating the eight enemies and acquire their special weapons, Mega Man once more infiltrates the new Wily Castle to stop him from having total control over Gamma, one of the huge weapons that were being built alongside Dr. Light. After defeating Gamma and Wily, Mega Man is trapped under the debris of the falling castle, but is saved by someone who looks like Break Man. Upon waking up, Light informs him that his savior was actually the mysterious red robot, his older brother Proto Man. Wily wasn’t seen being saved from the collapse.

With fast and fast-paced stages, Mega Man 3 is one of the favorites among many players until nowadays, besides having a wonderful ambiance and impeccable OST. With all the improvements in gameplay and lore, fans got even more excited to get to know what would be the next adventures of the Blue Bomber.

Even with all the improvements introduced in Mega Man 3, the fourth title was the one to bring the change which became the most iconic throughout all the franchise’s history: for the first time, it was possible not only to shoot the regular yellow plasma shots with the Mega Buster, but the player could also charge them into more powerful shots by holding down the trigger key instead of just rapidly clicking it.

The concept of a chargeable weapon was made so famous by Mega Man that it became one of its trademarks, also becoming something very common in many other games from many different styles and genres.

The plot begins one year after the destruction of Gamma and Wily’s supposed death under the rubble of his own castle, when Dr. Light is sent a message from a mysterious Russian scientist, Dr. Cossack, saying he wanted to show his superiority as a robotics scientist sending eight of his most powerful robots to defeat Mega Man.

For the first time we have creations with different serial numbers, this time being DCN for Dr. Cossack Number, them being:

After beating the eight enemies and putting Dr. Cossack into a corner, Mega Man finds out that the scientist is actually being blackmailed by Dr. Wily, who kidnapped his daughter Kalinka to manipulate him into doing such attacks.

Proto Man saves Kalinka, and for the first time in the franchise we see two final Castles, the first one being Cossack’s and, the latter, Wily’s. After all the battle sequences, Wily is once again defeated and, once more, disappears mysteriously. Cossack, after being freed from the villain’s hands, becomes one of Light’s best robot developing helpers, actually revealing to be a good person who works towards a better future.

With many games and famous franchises leaving the NES, Mega Man was one of the last ones to do so by releasing their new title on the older console. The penultimate title to be released for this hardware, Mega Man 5, developed even more upon the story of the rivals and brothers, Rock and Blues (original name for Proto Man in japanese).

The game begins after Dr. Cossack finishes a new project to help out Mega Man on his adventures with Rush: Beat, a small bird robot that can help with artillery or bringing useful items during fights. Right when Rock was asking Light about who exactly was Proto Man, the red robot himself interrupts them.

Proto Man had rebelled and challenged Mega Man with the help of his eight Robot Master allies, kidnapping Dr. Light. Worried about all the destruction that was about to begin as well as with Light and Blues, the adventure begins filled with action and unique stages, some among the most iconic of the franchise.

The eight villains this time are:

The adventure has an even faster pace, with the Mega Buster now taking less time to be fully charged and the stages having their unique mechanics, such as the buttons that turn everything upside-down during Gravity Man’s stage. The storytelling also brings us something deeper and more ominous, with the kidnapping of a known charismatic character perpetrated by someone who, so far, was just an anti-hero or rival.

After defeating the eight Robot Masters and facing Blues, the real Proto Man arrives and reveals that the other guy was just a clone built by Wily, called Dark Man. After defeating him, Mega Man goes once more into a Wily Castle to defeat the final villain and save Light. Upon rescuing the good scientist, Proto Man is again responsible for saving everyone from the castle’s collapse.

Some time had passed after Wily’s last attempt for world domination, and the planet was experiencing a good era of peace. To keep things like that and avoid new robotic incidents, the World Robot Alliance (WRA) was created and soon promoted a robot tournament to celebrate the last decades’ advancements in science.

When the tournament was about to begin, a mysterious man called Mr. X revealed that he had taken control over all the competitors, and they would be used on his world domination plans since, now, he didn’t need the work of his henchman Albert Wily anymore.

With a new villain that seemed to be the actual bad guy, above even Wily himself, Mega Man goes on a new adventure to stop the evil Mr. X’s plans. The eight MXN, or Mr. X Numbers are:

On this adventure, Mega Man can also use his new technology: fuse himself with Rush to obtain a new flying or resistant armor, used to access new areas or defeat enemies during the hero’s campaign. After using all abilities and power-ups available in Mega Man 6, Rock defeats Mr. X who reveals to be Wily disguising himself one more time. Finally, after many fights, sagas, disasters and adventures, this is the game where Wily ends up being arrested and sent to prison.

Finally bringing an end to the NES era, Capcom invested into the new console that was the fever of the moment, bringing Mega Man to the SNES. The improved graphics, the superior capacities of the new device and the huge increase in storage space could be used for more new things and flooded the developers' minds with creativity to bring the series into a new era, introducing it to an entire generation of new players.

On this game, it is possible to fuse once again with Rush, this time to activate the Super Mega Man form, which combined all the upgrades of its previous versions. We also get to see the first true anti-hero after Blues, and all of that with better art and animations.

The story begins six months after the end of Mega Man 6, when eight Robot Masters built by Wily wake up and go out looking for their creator. These machines, created especially to do that in the case Wily ever became absent, quickly destroy the city and rescue the evil scientist from the prison where he had been incarcerated.

Upon being freed, Wily sends these eight robots to cause destruction and cheat havoc, as always, and Mega Man has to stop it from happening - yes, for the seventh consecutive time. Still on the intro stage - a concept added to the classic series on this game, giving the player a first stage to learn the core mechanics before going straight into the Robot Masters selection - Rock, Roll, Rush and their new partner Auto are also presented to Bass and his companion wolf Treble, two robots with powers and abilities as strong as the blue hero’s and his dog and, besides being violent and trying to defeat the protagonists, also make it clear that they are Wily’s enemies as well.

Here, the enemies are:

During one of the battles, Bass gets hurt and Rock sends him to his lab so he could be repaired by Light. Upon coming back, the hero finds it all destroyed and Bass missing, with a message from Wily revealing that he and Treble are also his creations.

After beating the eight Robot Masters, Mega Man defeats Bass and Treble and goes on to defeat Wily at his castle, who quickly asks for mercy upon being taken down. Different from previous games, for the first time we see the depth to which the sentience of robots can develop when Rock becomes indecisive to whether he should show mercy to the villain after all the serious crimes he had done.

Wily himself is the one who reminds Rock of the three laws of robotics, emphasizing that robots can never turn against humans, leaving the famous sentence from Joseph Addison ”He who hesitates is lost” being said by Bass himself, who shows up right at the end to rescue his creator.

The philosophical aspects begin to hit in the middle of this game’s plot, something that was already being explored with the following saga, Mega Man X, which had already been released a year before on the same console, featuring things that would happen one hundred years in the future. With the sequel’s tone getting more dark and shady, Mega Man 7 chose to borrow a little bit of these aspects within the classic series as well, keeping it a little bit further away from the comic-relief childish tone that used to set its narration so far.

During Mega Man 7’s ending sequence, it is possible to see a shooting star behind Rock, which is actually a prelude to the following game.

Despite having released only one title on the Super Nintendo, the PlayStation era was starting, and came in like a wrecking ball into the lives of the players who were now able to experience better graphics and renders both in 3D and in 2D platformers - which was what Capcom banked on to release Mega Man 8 in December 96 in Japan, arriving at American shelves on March 97.

With superior graphics than those in Mega Man 7, more complex and longer animations, more abilities available and a store where it’s possible to trade in screws you could collect during the stages for improvements and upgrades, the title was a milestone in a new era which brought not only the game itself, but a more complex narrative with Anime style cutscenes and more dialogue throughout the stages.

The story starts when two extraterrestrial robots fight a battle at the far end of the galaxy, and an explosion caused by their powers launches them directly towards Earth. The resulting impact on a mysterious island captures the attention both from Light and Rock and also from Wily, and all of them headed to investigate the aftermath of the fall. After defeating the evil scientists’ robotic henchmen, Mega Man comes face to face with the villain himself, running away in possession of a powerful energy source he scavenged, disappearing right after. Mega Man, with the help of Rush and Proto Man, rescued one of the alien robots found in the debris and took him to be treated in their creator’s laboratory.

It didn't take long until eight new Robot Masters appeared under Wily's command, once again giving the hero, who immediately got ready to face them, a hard time. The Robot Masters being:

.

During his adventures fighting against the enemies, the alien robot who was resting in Light's laboratory wakes up and escapes, being found by Mega Man who followed his tracks. In the dialogue, the robot says that he trusts Rock and introduces himself as Duo, a robot that watches over the galaxy and protects it from threats. He also reveals that the energy Wily acquired, known as Evil Energy is very powerful and dangerous in case it falls into the wrong hands, and that it could consume the entire planet.

After defeating the eight Robot Masters, Mega Man, Proto Man, Rush and their companions team up with Duo to invade Wily's new castle. After one of the most electrifying final stage sequences, Mega Man also defeats Bass and Treble once again, and opens the door for the final battle against the evil scientist.

Once again, Wily disappears, leaving Mega Man under the rubble and, moreover, corroded by all the Evil Energy flowing around the place. Coming to the rescue this time is Duo, who, seeing the kindness and justice in Rock's intentions, heals him of the energy that was hurting him and hands him back to Proto Man to be properly taken away.

Fans of the classic series were going through a twelve-year drought without any new titles until Capcom decided to partner with Inti Creates to finally bring a direct continuation to the story. However, instead of continuing the evolution in graphics as players expected, the developers decided to go back to their roots and create an entirely new title with the same graphics as the first games in the series: those made for the NES, in the eighties.

So much time had passed since the last events caused by Wily that people no longer remembered him. It was during this period of peace that, suddenly, several robots created by Dr. Light started to revolt against humans and cause destruction everywhere.

Before the accusations could begin, Wily released a video proving that the serial numbers of all the robots involved in the uprising were, in fact, created by Light and not by him, clearing his name right from the start. Peacefully accepting to be arrested to prove his innocence, Dr. Light leaves Mega Man with the task of freeing his creator from the unfair imprisonment and finding the true culprit.

This time around, the eight Robot Masters are:

Upon defeating the Robot Masters, Mega Man gets access to the memory card of one of them and investigates it, finding a video that proved not only Light's innocence, but also Wily's guilt, who had convinced all those robots to revolt, due to their expiration dates coming up.

Once again, Mega Man brings more socio-philosophical factors to the table, with the lives of robots being discussed and having their importance reduced to mere tools that are turned off once they have no further use. Since this time, they were convinced, and not reprogrammed, the villains were, now, rebelling of their own free will.

However, before he was able to show the video to the public, Rock is stolen by Wily who takes the device away, forcing the hero to venture once again through his new castle.

In the end, Mega Man defeats Wily who makes him fall into a trap before escaping, again taking such action of his own free will even after Blues warned him that this would happen. Once the video is recovered, however, Wily disappears again while Light is released from prison, proving his innocence and starting to work so that all robots can continue to live their lives and their beloved functions, instead of being shut down and recycled upon reaching a certain date.

Again, the choices, lines, scenes and dilemmas used lead the player to think more about the fact that the robots are, in fact, living beings who can make decisions on their own, capable of even ignoring certain laws of robotics to achieve their goals.

Once again a result of Inti Creates' partnership with Capcom, Mega Man 10 returned with the NES style just like in the previous title, and brought an even more complex and elaborate plot. Some time has passed since the last disasters, and a new disease known as Roboenza has started to affect all robots around the world, weakening them, eventually shutting them down or even turning them violent for no apparent reason.

Upon even Roll contracting such a virus and with no cure in sight, Dr. Light is visited by the antagonist himself, Albert Wily, who reveals that even his machines and his spaceship were affected and that he needs help to finalize the cure which he had already started to produce. Agreeing that, this time, the problem was so serious that they would need to join forces with their opponents, Mega Man and Proto Man set out in an adventure against eight new Robot Masters who had stolen parts and programs containing such medicine. The enemies are:

Over the course of the campaign, a prototype of the cure was developed by Dr. Wily, who offers it to Roll. Meanwhile, Mega Man ends up contracting the virus and is incapacitated, at which moment the evil scientist reveals his plans to make it so that all infected robots serve him if they want the cure. Roll gives his test vaccine to Rock, who recovers enough to continue his adventures and, once more, put an end to Wily's plans.

During the incursion into the new enemy Castle, Proto Man is also infected and saved by a copy of the cure acquired by Mega Man himself, inside the castle. Upon confronting Wily and defeating his machines, the scientist reveals that, ironically, he is the one who is sick and needs medical care. Unable to leave a human in such a condition, Rock takes him to a hospital from which Wily quickly escapes, but not before doing his first true “good deed”: leaving hundreds of copies of the cure as a thank you for being saved, thus becoming possible to vaccinate all robots and avoid a new virtual epidemic.

For the first time in the classic series (except for Mega Man & Bass, which is a Spin-Off) it’s possible to play the campaigns with different characters, the player being able to choose between Mega Man, Proto Man or even Bass after the release of a DLC.

Once again following a long time without releases in the classic series - this time eight years - Capcom returned, taking full control of the franchise and reviving our blue hero, finally using graphics and gameplay which advanced into modernity instead of following up the series with more nostalgia.

Furthermore, for the first time we have cutscenes that reveal to us the pasts of the two great scientists, bringing a new depth to the stories of Rock, Blues and all the other beloved characters.

The plot begins with memories of Albert Wily when he was still a young student alongside his companion Thomas Light. The colleagues, who were also rivals, had different philosophies they followed for their robotics research: while Wily wanted to potentialize robots and make them more intelligent and powerful, Light wanted to improve the artificial intelligence of the machines, making them capable of thinking and taking decisions to pursue a peaceful future alongside humans. Obviously, who ended up gaining priority to receive research funds was Light, which left his rival frustrated and forced to abandon his great project: the Double Gears, one of them being capable of increasing physical strength and the other, the speed of a compatible robot.

We then return to current times, when Wily decides to resurrect the Double Gear System and install it in eight new Robot Masters to prove the superiority of his studies and robotic skills. Revolted by this, Dr. Light himself installs the same system in Rock, adapted to better function within the blue robot so that he can face eight new stolen and reprogrammed enemies:

During the campaign it’s possible for the player to follow more cutscenes which complete the events mentioned at the beginning, showing how Wily's frustration that fueled him for so many years was generated through a rivalry against Light when they were still young students, how they worked well together when they were allies, even in the construction of the first robot, DLN 000, Proto Man, who should have been turned off due to having a very unstable energy core, but decided to become a wanderer until one day it found a compatible energy source or perished due to lack of it.

There’s also no shortage of references to scenarios, mechanics and other aspects from the old games, as well as new and unique ways of interacting with the stages using the Double Gear System to your advantage, be it to deal more damage in phenomenal shots or to make everything move in slow motion next to how fast you can be.

The soundtrack is also an excellent and notable point in this title, as it once again uses the good audio capabilities of more modern consoles and is not dependent on the limitations of a SNES, PlayStation or even the 8-bit songs which had returned on both previous titles.

After defeating every enemy, we once again have to infiltrate Wily's Castle, a fort fully equipped with Double Gears in everything, everywhere. Upon being defeated one more time, Dr. Light himself appears to question Wily whether it was all worth it, asking his rival to repent from his crimes, proving by having Mega Man himself equipped with Double Gears that they could achieve incredible results if working together. There is a certain hesitation in the villain's tone, but he quickly refuses and runs away, once again leaving the scene with no sign of where he will end up or what antics he will come up with again.

The series then ends with Dr. Light installing the Double Gears in Auto so that they could rebuild and recover all the Robot Masters who had been unfairly manipulated.

In addition to the titles in the main classic series, we had other games being released in parallel on other important consoles for their time. These games featured Robot Masters from other titles in the classic franchise, rarely coming up with new villains or characters, thus not being very influential in the timeline and ending up being considered Spin-Offs.

However, it’s interesting how even in Spin-Offs, the references to the original timeline kept happening, as mentioned between Mega Man 8 and 9, in the release of Mega Man & Bass (Rockman & Forte, in the original) with cutscenes that showed Wily working on his final project, which was so advanced and powerful that it would need to be left still and monitored for decades - and for Wily to be cautious like this, it's because there really is something to worry about.

Each nuance between the story and development of the Rock and Blues brothers, as well as the most important appearances of Roll and other supporting characters also had more screen time in some of these Spin-Offs - which ultimately are only considered as such due to not fitting in with among the games from the classic series in the timeline, but all the information they contain is properly correct within the canonical universe.

With even the extras being so packed full of content, history and rich details, it seems unfair for any fan to complain about not enough releases. But the truth is that the stories need a connection that is always left in a gray area, which we will address soon here at UmGamer when we bring you the direct sequel to the classic series: Mega Man X.

And you? Are you also a fan of the Blue Bomber, and would you like to see more content about this series’ story and gameplay here? Let us know in the comments!