Mega Man (universe)

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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, 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 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 typically is much more powerful against at least one of the other seven Robot Masters than Mega Man's default buster. 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.

Some of the most prolific continuities and sub-series in the Mega Man franchise are as follows:

• 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.

• 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 "X"), whom the late Dr. Light has left behind to police a world where more advanced, sapient robots called Reploids are integrated into human society. A sinister Reploid named Sigma goes maverick and repeatedly turns other Reploids into Mavericks, which serve as the animalistic "robot masters" that X and his ally, the sword-wielding Zero, must battle before taking the fight to Sigma in his own lair. This transitions into the Mega Man Zero series, where a more brooding Zero reawakens after a century into an even darker version of the world, and does battle for a resistance group against the governing body and "utopia" Neo Arcadia. Finally, set three centuries after the Zero series are a set of 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 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 in Japanese), 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. Another subseries taking place in this continuity, the Mega Man Star Force series of over-the-shoulder action RPGs set 200 years later, stars a human boy named Geo Stelar (星河スバル Subaru Hoshikawa in Japanese), 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.

• 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.

In Super Smash Bros. 4

Characters

Artwork of Mega Man from Super Smash Bros. 4

• Mega Man (or Rockman in Japan): Mascot of the series, Mega Man, appears as a playable character. He uses very few physical attacks, instead relying on weapons.

Stage

• Dr. Wily's Castle: The stage appears to be floating in front of Dr. Wily's Castle.

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.

Misc.

• Mega Man's robotic dog Rush is seen, apparently when Mega Man is using a particular move.
• In the trailer shown at E3 2013, the recurring Yellow Devil boss is shown appearing on the unnamed Wily stage. It is not currently known whether it acts as a boss, a stage hazard, or something else entirely.