| Mega Man | |
|---|---|
 Japanese cover art byKeiji Inafune | |
| Developer | Capcom |
| Publisher | Capcom |
| Director | Akira Kitamura |
| Producer | Takashi Nishiyama |
| Programmer | Nobuyuki Matsushima |
| Artists |
|
| Composer | Manami Matsumae |
| Series | Mega Man |
| Platforms | |
| Release | |
| Genres | Action,platform |
| Mode | Single-player |
Mega Man, known asRockman[a] in Japan, is a 1987action-platform game developed and published byCapcom for theNintendo Entertainment System. The first installment in theMega Man franchise andthe original video game series,Mega Man was produced by a small team specifically for thehome console market, a first for Capcom, which up until that point focused onarcade video games. It was directed by Akira Kitamura, with Nobuyuki Matsushima as lead programmer.
The game follows thehumanoid robot andplayer-characterMega Man and his quest to save the world from themad scientistDr. Wily and the six "Robot Masters" under his control.Mega Man'snonlinear gameplay lets the player choose the order in which to complete its initial sixstages. Each culminates in aboss battle against one of the Robot Masters that awards the player-character a unique weapon. Part of the strategy of the game is that the player must carefully choose the order in which to tackle the stages so that they can earn the weapons that will be most useful for future stages.
Critics praisedMega Man for its overall design.Mega Man established many of the gameplay, story, and graphical conventions that would define the ensuing sequels, subseries, and spin-offs in theMega Man franchise. The game has since been re-released in game compilations such asMega Man Legacy Collection, ported tomobile phones, and become a part of consoleemulation services. A sequel,Mega Man 2, was released the following year. A remake with 3D graphics, titledMega Man Powered Up, was released for thePlayStation Portable in 2006.
In the year 200X, robots developed to assist mankind are commonplace thanks to the efforts of renowned robot designerThomas Light. However, one day, these robots go out of control and start attacking humans, and among them, there are six advanced humanoid robots created by Dr. Light for industrial purposes. Known as the "Robot Masters", they consist of Cut Man, Guts Man, Ice Man, Bomb Man, Fire Man, and Elec Man. Dr. Light realizes that the culprit responsible for these attacks is his old rivalAlbert Wily, but is unsure of what to do. His helper robot, Rock, has a strong sense of justice and offers to be converted into a fighting robot to stop Dr. Wily's plans, dubbing himselfMega Man.[8] He eventually defeats the six Robot Masters and recovers their central cores, then confronts Dr. Wily within hisPacific-based robot factory, where he is manufacturing copies of Light's robots. After defeating replicas of the Robot Masters, and several robots designed specifically by Wily to defeat him, Mega Man confronts Wily in a final showdown and defeats him before returning home to his family.[9]
The initial Western release of the game has the same basic plot, and some significantly changed details from the original Japanese manual. In this version, Dr. Light and Dr. Wily (who is portrayed as Dr. Light's former assistant) co-create thehumanoid robotMega Man[10] alongside the six Robot Masters, each of whom were designed for the benefit of Monsteropolis's citizens[11] (no such place existed in the original plot). Dr. Wily, angered by Light taking credit for their work and desiring to use his creations for criminal purposes, steals the Robot Masters and reprograms them, then creates his own army of robots to seize control of Monsteropolis and declare it his own personal empire. Dr. Light, horrified by Wily's betrayal, sends Mega Man to destroy the Robot Masters and free Monsteropolis from Wily's machines.[10]
Mega Man consists of sixside-scrollingplatform levels freely chosen by the player. In each level, theplayer-character, Mega Man, fights through various enemies and obstacles before facing a "Robot Master"boss at the level's end. Upon defeating the boss, the player assimilates the Robot Master's signature attack, or "Special Weapon", into Mega Man's arsenal for the rest of the game.[11] Unlike the standardMega Buster (Rock Buster in Japan), the Robot Master powers have limited ammunition replenished by collecting ammunition cells dropped by defeated enemies at random.[11] Enemies also drop energy cells that replenish Mega Man's health gauge.[10] Though the player is free to proceed through the game in any order, each Robot Master is especially vulnerable to a specific weapon, which encourages the player to complete certain stages before others. The player can revisit cleared levels. Besides the weapons taken from the Robot Masters, the player is able to pick up a platform generator item known as the "Magnet Beam" in Elec Man's stage.[10][11]
Mega Man features ascoring system where players score points for defeating enemies, and earn extra points for collectingpower-ups from fallen enemies and for clearing each stage. Each Robot Master was worth a random number between 50,000 and 100,000 points whereas Dr. Wily was always worth 200,000 points.[10] The scoring system was removed in laterMega Man games as it was found to provide no meaningful benefit to players and felt unnecessary to designers.
When all six Robot Master stages are completed, the seventh and last stage appears in the middle of the stage select menu.[10] This stage, in which the player traverses Dr. Wily's robot factory, is a chain of four regular stages linked together, each containing at least one new boss. During these final stages, the six Robot Masters must also be fought again in a predetermined order before the final confrontation against Dr. Wily. As Mega Man's ammo is not restored between stages, every action the player takes is consequential.[11][12]
BeforeMega Man,Capcom primarily madearcade games, and itsconsole releases were mostlyports of these games. In the mid-1980s, Capcom made plans to developMega Man specifically for the Japanese home console market.[13][14] They decided to bring in fresh, young talent for the small team, including artistKeiji Inafune, a recent college graduate who started on theStreet Fighter team.[14][15] Inafune recalled that theMega Man development team worked extremely hard to complete the final product,[2] with a project supervisor and lead designer who sought perfection in every possible aspect of the game.[16]
The development team forMega Man consisted of only six people.[17] Inafune (credited as "Inafking") designed and illustrated nearly all of the game's characters and enemies, and the JapaneseRockman logo, box art, and instruction manual. He was responsible for rendering these designs into graphicalsprite form.[14][16][17] He said, "We didn't have [a lot of] people, so after drawing character designs, I was actually doing the dotting (pixelation) for the Nintendo. Back then, people weren't specialized and we had to do a lot of different things because there was so few people, so I really ended up doing all the characters."[14] Inafune was influenced by the eponymous protagonist ofOsamu Tezuka'smangaAstro Boy in hisMega Man designs.[15][18][19][20] Mega Man is colored blue because it seemed that the color had the most shades in the console's 56-color palette (cyan included), and that selection was used to enhance Mega Man's detail.[14]
Although he is often credited for designing the character, Inafune insists that he "only did half of the job in creating him", as his mentor, directorAkira Kitamura, developed the basic character concept before Inafune's arrival.[2][21] The basic sprites forRoll and Dr. Light were created before Inafune joined the project, and the designs for Cut Man, Ice Man, Fire Man, and Guts Man were in process.[2] Aside from normal enemies, Inafune's first character was Elec Man, inspired byAmerican comic book characters.[2][21] The artist has commented that Elec Man has always been his favorite design.[17] The designs for Dr. Light and Dr. Wily were based onSanta Claus andAlbert Einstein, respectively; the latter character was meant to represent anarchetypal "mad scientist".[2][22]
The team had initially considered names such as "Mighty Kid", "Knuckle Kid", and "Rainbow Man" before settling on their final decisions.[13][18][22][23] The "Rainbow" name was considered because the character could change into seven colors based on the weapon selected.[24] The production team chose a musicmotif when naming the main characters inMega Man. The protagonist's original name is Rock and his sister's name is Roll, a play on the term "rock and roll".[24] This type of naming would later be extended to manycharacters throughout the series.[13][14] One of the original storylines considered by the team but not used in the final game was to have Roll be kidnapped, and Rock had to rescue her.[24] Another idea had included a boss fight against a giant Roll near the end of the game.[24]
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The team decided to incorporateanime elements for the game's animation. Inafune explained, "[Mega Man's] hand transforms into a gun and you can actually see it come out of his arm. We wanted to make sure that the animation and the motion was realistic and actually made sense. So with Mega Man, we had this perfect blending of game character with animation ideas."[14] The gameplay forMega Man was inspired by the gamerock paper scissors.[13][14] The project supervisor wanted a simple system that offered "deep gameplay".[2] Each weapon deals a large amount of damage to one specific Robot Master, others have little to no effect against them, and there is no single weapon that dominates all the others. Mega Man was originally able to crouch, but the team decided against it since it made players' ability to determine the height of onscreen projectiles more difficult.[2] Naoya Tomita (credited as "Tom Pon") began work onMega Man's scenic backgrounds immediately after his Capcom training. Tomita proved himself amongst his peers by overcoming the challenges of the console's limited power through maximizing the use of background elements.[25]
Mega Man was scored byManami Matsumae (credited as "Chanchacorin Manami"),[26] who composed the music, created the sound effects, and programmed the data in three months, using a sound driver programmed by Yoshihiro Sakaguchi (credited as "Yuukichan's Papa"). The musical notes were translated one by one into the computer language. Matsumae was challenged by the creative limits of three notes available at any one time, and when she was unable to write songs, she created the sound effects.[26]
When the game was localized for distribution in America, Capcom changed the title of the game fromRockman toMega Man. This moniker was created by Capcom's then-Senior Vice President Joseph Morici, who claimed it was changed merely because he did not like the original name. "That title was horrible," Morici said. "So I came up withMega Man, and they liked it enough to keep using it for the U.S. games."[27]1UP.com's Nadia Oxford attributed this change to Capcom's belief that American children would be more interested in a game with the latter title.[19]
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| AllGame | 5/5[28] |
| Famitsu | 5/7/7/5[b][29] 4/5[30] |
| IGN | 8/10[31] |
| Famicom Hisshoubon [ja] | 4/5[32] |
| The Games Machine | 83%[33] |
| Publication | Award |
|---|---|
| Golden Joystick Awards | Best Console Game(8-bit)[34] |
Critics receivedMega Man well.AllGame described the NES version of the game as a "near-perfect blend of action, challenge and audio-visual excellence" and awarded it five stars, their highest rating.[28] Lucas M. Thomas ofIGN described the game as an "undeniable classic" for the NES, noting its graphics, innovative weapon-based platform gameplay, and music.[31] IGN editorMatt Casamassina proclaimed, "Mega Man is one of the best examples of great graphics, amazing music and near-perfect gameplay rolled into one cartridge".[35]GameSpot writers Christian Nutt and Justin Speer identified the game as a "winner in gameplay" granted its "low-key presentation".[12] Jeremy Parish of1UP.com likewise outlined it as a "charming (if slightly rough) start for the series".[36] InFamicom Hisshoubon [ja], one reviewer complimented the action as the selling point of the game with its innovative ideas such as platforms that vanish and re-appear and the games "essence ofACG."[32] A second reviewer complemented it as an exciting, simple and fun game and hoped Capcom would focus on games likes this for theFamicom instead of porting games to personal computers.[32]
Reviews inWeekly Famitsu had two reviewers complimenting the game for having new original characters and being a rare action game at the time. Three reviewers commented the game was too difficult, with one saying that the "difficulty seems cruel, but the game is exciting!"[29] Whether positive or negative,Mega Man has been commonly perceived as very difficult and is listed among thedifficult games of Nintendo, being described byUSGamer as “the introduction of the Nintendo Hard difficulty”. Casamassina found the game the hardest in the franchise, and among the hardest titles on the NES.[35] Thomas observed that its combination of high difficulty and short length hurt itsreplayability.[31] According to 1UP.com, the "Nintendo-hard"Mega Man bosses set the game apart from its two immediate and more popular sequels.[37]Total! retrospectively characterized the game as "an overhard and unenjoyably frustrating platform nightmare".[38]
At the 1990Golden Joystick Awards,Mega Man won the award forbest console game of the year (8-bit).[34]
Mega Man has additionally received various honors from video game journals and websites. IGN listed the game at number 30 on its "Top 100 NES Games of All Time".[35]Nintendo Power rankedMega Man at number 20 on its "100 Best Nintendo Games of All Time" in its September 1997 100th issue, then at number 61 in its "Top 200 Games" in its February 2006 200th issue.[39][40] 1UP.com included it in their "Top 5 Overlooked Videogame Prequels" and as number 17 on its "Top 25 NES Games" list.[37][41] British magazineThe Games Machine awarded it the "Star Player" accolade after its launch in PAL regions.[33][3]
Capcom's sales department originally believed that the game would not sell, but after Japan had received limited quantities, it had been seen as successful enough to quickly commission an American localization.[13] As part of the rushed localization, the president of Capcom U.S.A. told the marketing representative to have acover done by the next day, so he had a friend draw it within about six hours.[13] Inafune blamed the game's relatively poor North American performance on its region-specific cover art,[14][15] which visualized elements not found in the game: Mega Man himself resembles a man rather than a boy, his costume is coloredyellow and blue instead of being entirely blue, and he is holding a handgun rather than having his arm cannon. Over the years, the cover art has been infamous in the gaming community.[12][13][42][43] It has been considered one of the worst game covers of all time by publications includingGameSpy,[44]Wired,[45] andOC Weekly.[46] The cancelledMega Man Universe featured a "Bad Box Art Mega Man" playable character alongside the classic 8-bit Mega Man.[47] "Bad Box Art Mega Man" has since become a playable character inStreet Fighter X Tekken.[48]
With little overseas press coverage save for a full-page advertisement inNintendo Fun Club News, sales gained momentum overword of mouth, making the game asleeper hit.[13][14] WhileMega Man was not a large commercial accomplishment for Capcom, the company decided to allow the development team to create a sequel,Mega Man 2, for a 1988 Japanese release. Many of the design elements cut from the originalMega Man due to space limitations such as planned enemy characters were included in the follow-up game.[13][49]Mega Man 2, with greatly improved box art, although still repeating the 'pistol' error, unchanged in directions from Capcom America, to veteran game illustrator Marc Ericksen, proved to be such a success that it solidifiedMega Man as one of Capcom's longest-running franchises.[14][19] Due to "overwhelming demand", Capcom reissued the originalMega Man in North America in September 1991.[50] Capcom carried the same8-bit graphics and sprites present in the originalMega Man into the next five games in the main series. Even though the sequels feature more complex storylines, additional gameplay mechanics, and better graphics, the core elements initiated byMega Man remain the same throughout the series.[43]Mega Man 9 andMega Man 10 would later revert to the familiar graphical style set forth by this title.[43][51] The scoring system inMega Man has not been present in any of its sequels.[43]
According toGamesRadar,Mega Man was the first game to feature anonlinear "level select" option, as a stark contrast to linear games likeSuper Mario Bros. andopen world games likeThe Legend of Zelda andMetroid. GamesRadar credits the "level select" feature ofMega Man as the basis for the nonlinear mission structure found in most multi-mission, open world,sidequest-heavy games, such asGrand Theft Auto,Red Dead Redemption, andSpider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.[52]
Mega Man has been re-released several times since its 1987 debut. A version with enhanced graphics and arranged music was included alongsideMega Man 2 andMega Man 3 in theMega Drive compilationMega Man: The Wily Wars.[12] Another adaptation of the game was released in Japan on thePlayStation as part of theRockman Complete Works series in 1999.[4] This version also features arranged music in addition to a special "Navi Mode" that directs the player in certain portions of the levels.[12]Mega Man was compiled with nine other games in the series in the North AmericanMega Man Anniversary Collection released for thePlayStation 2 andGameCube in 2004 and theXbox in 2005.[53][54] Amobile phone rendition ofMega Man developed byLavastorm was released for download in North America in 2004.[6] A separate, 2007 Japanese mobile phone release received a 2008 update adding the option to play as Roll.[5][55]Mega Man for the NES was reissued on theVirtual Console service for three different systems: theWii in Europe in 2007 and in North America and Japan in 2008,[56][57][58] theNintendo 3DS in 2012, and for theWii U in 2013. TheComplete Works version of the game was made available on thePlayStation Store in both Japan and North America.[59][60]
Anenhanced remake titledMega Man Powered Up — known asRockman Rockman (ロックマン ロックマン) in Japan — was released worldwide for thePSP in 2006. The game features a graphical overhaul with 3Dchibi-style character models with large heads and small bodies. Inafune had originally planned to makeMega Man look this way, but could not due to the hardware constraints of the NES.[61] Producer Tetsuya Kitabayashi stated that redesigning the character models was a result of the PSP's 16:9widescreen ratio. The larger heads on the characters allowed the development team to create visible facial expressions.[62] "The concept for these designs was 'toys'. We wanted cute designs geared towards little kids ... the kinds of characters that you'd see hanging off of keychains and such," character designer Tatsuya Yoshikawa explained. "Not only that, I made sure to tell the designers not to skimp on any of the originalMega Man details. We wanted their proportions and movements to be accurately reflected in these designs as well."[63] As the size of the remake's stages are not proportional to those of the original, the widescreen ratio also presented the developers with more space to fill.[62]
Mega Man Powered Up features two styles of gameplay: "Old Style" is comparable to the NES version aside from the updated presentation, and "New Style" uses the PSP's entire widescreen and contains storyline cutscenes with voice acting, altered stage layouts, remixed music, and three difficulty modes for each stage. This mode also adds two new Robot Masters (Oil Man and Time Man). The NES version was originally intended to have a total of eight Robot Masters, but was cut down to six due to a tight schedule.[63] Additionally, the remake lets players unlock and play through the game as the eight Robot Masters, Roll, and Protoman. The New Style stages differ in structure from that of Old Style, with some pathways only accessible to specific Robot Masters.Mega Man Powered Up also features a Challenge Mode with 100 challenges to complete, alevel editor for creating custom stages, and an option to distribute fan-made levels to thePlayStation Network online service.[64][65]Mega Man Powered Up received generally positive reviews, with aggregate scores of 83% onGameRankings and 82 out of 100 onMetacritic as of May 2010[update].[66][67] The remake sold poorly at retail, and was later released as a paid download on the JapanesePlayStation Network digital store[63][68][69] and as a bundled withMega Man Maverick Hunter X in Japan and North America. Capcom additionally translatedMega Man Powered Up intoChinese for release in Asia in 2008.[70]
Narrator: Mega Man has ended the evil domination of Dr. Wily and restored the world to peace. However, the never-ending battle continues until all destructive forces are defeated. Fight, Mega Man! For everlasting peace!
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