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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mm1.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:350: The game that started it all.[[note]]'''L-to-R:''' [[CartoonBomb Bomb Man]], [[BattleBoomerang Cut Man]], [[SuperStrength Guts Man]], [[AnIcePerson Ice Man]], [[ShockAndAwe Elec Man]] and [[PlayingWithFire Fire Man]][[/note]]]]
3->''READY''
4
5''Mega Man'' (''Rockman'' in Japanese) is a 1987 Platform/NintendoEntertainmentSystem video game by Creator/{{Capcom}}, and is the first game in the eponymous [[VideoGame/MegaManClassic series]] of the same name, as well as its many, many spinoffs.
6
7The story: It is the year [[YearX 200X]], and advanced robots designed to help humans in tasks are commonplace thanks to the efforts of [[BigGood Dr. Light]], the foremost expert on robotics. One day, however, a former friend and rival of his by the name of [[MadScientist Dr. Wily]] reprogrammed several of these robots, and is now trying to TakeOverTheWorld from within his fortified robot factory. To make things worse, among them are Dr. Light's six Robot Masters -- humanoid robots with advanced A.I. and abilities designed for industrial use. Dr. Light's assistant robot and "son" Rock, [[VideoGame/MegaMan4 having a strong sense of justice]], volunteers to be converted into a "fighting robot" in order to disable and retrieve the Robot Masters and right Wily's wrongs. He thus becomes known as Mega Man.
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9At the time, Mega Man was a revolutionary title in the [[Platform/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]] library; first, you could choose to tackle any stage you wished in any order you desired, second, to add a layer of strategy, the game allowed you to not only [[VictorGainsLosersPowers keep the weapon of whatever boss you killed]], but also allow you to use the weapon in question against [[TacticalRockPaperScissors another boss that was particularly weak to it.]] The game's cartoony graphics and catchy music, not to mention its [[NintendoHard grueling difficulty]], established many hallmarks that we've grown to love about the series.
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11The game was ultimately a modest hit in Japan, but performed rather poorly in sales internationally, which made Capcom reluctant to make another sequel, but they ultimately [[VideoGame/MegaMan2 greenlit one anyway...]]
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13One of many early ideas for the game was to make it an arcade platformer called ''Rainbow Man''. Other proposed early titles included ''Mighty Kid'' and ''Knuckle Kid''. The game was developed by a small team of six people, with Creator/KeijiInafune designing almost all of the characters, enemies, and sprites. The game also gave them a lot of headaches as far as memory limitations went — the entire cart was only 1 Megabit (1000 kilobits, or 128 kilo''bytes'') in size!
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15The game would later receive a [[UpdatedRerelease 16-bit upgrade]] in the [[NoExportForYou Europe and Japan exclusive]] ''VideoGame/MegaManTheWilyWars''/''Rockman Megaworld'' cartridge for the Platform/SegaGenesis (aside from a brief American release as a downloadable Sega Channel exclusive, and an eventual local release as a bundle with other Sega games in the ''Sega Genesis Mini''). It would later be ported to the [[Platform/PlayStation PS1]] as ''Rockman: Complete Works'', and then to the [[Platform/PlayStation2 PS2]], Platform/NintendoGameCube and Platform/{{Xbox}} as part of ''Anniversary Collection''. It has also seen a release on Platform/VirtualConsole, as well as on the Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch, [=PlayStation=] 4, and Xbox One PC as part of the ''Mega Man Legacy Collection''. This game also received a [[VideoGameRemake remake]] for the [[Platform/PlayStationPortable PSP]], called ''VideoGame/MegaManPoweredUp''.
16
17Robot Masters:
18* DLN-003: Cut Man, weak to Super Arm, gives you [[BattleBoomerang Rolling]] [[AbsurdlySharpBlade Cutter]].
19* DLN-004: Guts Man, weak to Hyper Bomb, gives you [[SuperStrength Super]] [[RocksFallEveryoneDies Arm]].
20* DLN-005: Ice Man, weak to Thunder Beam, gives you [[FreezeRay Ice Slasher]].
21* DLN-006: Bomb Man, weak to Fire Storm, gives you [[ThrowDownTheBomblet Hyper]] [[CartoonBomb Bomb]].
22* DLN-007: Fire Man, weak to Ice Slasher, gives you [[PlayingWithFire Fire]] [[KillItWithFire Storm]].
23* DLN-008: Elec Man, weak to Rolling Cutter, gives you [[ShockAndAwe Thunder]] [[LightningGun Beam]].
24
25This game would later receive a companion title for the Platform/GameBoy, called ''VideoGame/MegaManDrWilysRevenge''.
26
27----
28!! Tropes:
29* AbilityRequiredToProceed:
30** Didn't pick up the Magnet Beam in Elec Man's level? You won't reach the end of the first Wily stage without it, so get a GameOver to get back to the stage selection screen and go get it!
31** The Magnet Beam itself is hidden behind three destructible blocks, meaning it cannot be collected without either the Super Arm or Thunder Beam.
32* AllThereInTheManual: The game's story, as per the standards at the time. However, the English version is notoriously inaccurate ("robot-like humanoids"?).
33** Both the English and Japanese manuals fail to mention Roll in any manner, making her appearance in the game's ending out of nowhere.
34** Most summaries and adaptations of the story tend to imply Wily was banking exclusively on the six Robot Masters in conquering the world. A short manga initially only seen to those who won the ''VideoGame/MegaMan4'' boss character contest shows that Wily reprogrammed a heck of a lot more than just six robots (as in, the minor enemies were a more immediate concern than the Robot Masters).
35* AmericanKirbyIsHardcore: One of the most infamous examples, due to the artist being given only the back of the box description and a couple of ''hours'' with no source material to work with. Thus the North American version instead got [[https://supermemorybros.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/megaman-boxart.jpg a middle-aged man in a blue and yellow jumpsuit, holding a pistol, against a rather bizarre background.]] [[http://www.blogcdn.com/www.nintendowiifanboy.com/media/2008/09/boxart-mm1-eu.jpg The European boxart]], while more accurate to the game, also qualifies. The box for the western releases claims that the Robot Masters are actually ''humans'' transformed into cyborg monsters by Dr. Wily, and that his ultimate goal is to transform the entire human race. This backstory is something that was never intended by the developers, and was never mentioned in any future western releases of the series.
36* {{Antepiece}}: Because you can enter each level in any order, the developers carefully planned each one around a specific gimmick as a warmup for the Robot Master encounters, while also doubling as red flags for what's up ahead as far as the game's difficulty goes.
37** Cut Man has a flying enemy (Bunby Heli) that launch at you in an arc, which you have to shoot or time your jumps carefully in order to dodge, a warm up for Cut Man and his Rolling Cutter.
38** Guts Man has its first section centered around a wide open pit with traveling platforms moving along, requiring very precise timing to dodge. Later on, you'll need these kind of jumping reflexes to avoid getting knocked on your butt by Guts Man's earth shaking stomp and dodge his subsequent boulders. You also encounter the Metall enemies before you fight their tougher Pickelman counterpart.
39** Elec Man has electric arcs that shoot out at you, inflicting heavy damage on contact. These are a tip that Elec Man is by far the toughest of all the bosses. Also, the opening room has a series of platforms guarded by enemies (Spines) that can only be stunned with the Mega Buster (but can be destroyed with the Rolling Cutter later), a clue of just how hard it will be to get all the way up the tower. It's also a vertical-oriented stage with lots of opportunities to fall, so the dev team placed the Magnet Beam in it to encourage you to try out practicing with it to make the stage easier, and prepare you for using it later in the final Wily stages.
40*** Additionally, the Spines and the Appearing Blocks in Elec Man's stage allows you to figure out how to deal with both later in Ice Man's stage and save the Magnet Beam's energy for when you'll really need it--[[PlatformHell when your only other option is to rely on flying platforms that shoot you]].
41** Fire Man has a section close to the end where a constant stream of fire is pouring out of a tunnel, and it requires pixel perfect timing to dodge them. You encounter this exact same problem with Fire Man and his barrage of the Fire Storm.
42** Ice Man's use of Appearing Blocks and very difficult floating platforms is a cue for you to try out finding or using the Magnet Beam to pass, since it's required to beat the game later anyway.
43** Bomb Man's stage, besides the presence of exploding bombs flying out of pits, has the Flea enemies jump in the exact same arc that Bomb Man does, serving as a warm up for your fight with him later.
44* ArtificialStupidity:
45** While Elec Man is one of the toughest bosses in the game (especially if you fight him without his weakness), it's possible to exploit his crude A.I. by jumping and shooting him in a very carefully timed pattern, freezing him in place while also allowing you to dodge his attack.
46** Use the Super Arm or Magnet Beam against the Copy Robot, and watch as it continually runs left to right, never touching the far left corner and only jumping when the shoot button is pressed. It is worth noting the boss recycles the aforementioned Elec Man's A.I.
47* AscendedGlitch: The "Pause Trick" is so well known that in the ''Anniversary Collection'' port, the glitch was deliberately left intact. Even moreso in the ''Legacy Collection'' where not only is it intact, but the trick is required to get a gold medal on the time trial for Yellow Devil's boss fight.
48* AwesomeButImpractical: The Hyper Bomb. It's extremely powerful, but there's such a long delay between the time you throw it and when it actually goes off, that it's very easy for the enemy to move out of range before that happens. Also, you can only throw one bomb at a time, so you're left wide open if you miss.
49* BattleBoomerang: Cut Man's signature weapon is the Rolling Cutter, a pair of blades that he throws toward Mega Man, before it returns to him. Mega Man can use the Rolling Cutter himself after defeating Cut Man, and throw it in a circle that returns to him.
50* BeakAttack: Somewhat subverted. Cut Man's level features several metallic beaks on the wall called Blasters (but also sometimes known as "Beaks" in some translations), but they actually just open and shoot [[EnergyWeapon Frickin' Laser Beams]].
51* BlobMonster: The Yellow Devil is a yellow goo-like robot that attacks by firing pieces of its body that reform into his complete form on the opposite side of the screen.
52* BossArenaIdiocy:
53** Cut Man is weak to having Super Arm blocks thrown at him. There are blocks in his arena. Oops. Subverted when refought in Wily's factory, making him the one Robot Master in the series whose weakness can't be used against him in a rematch.
54** The same goes for CWU-01P in the third stage of Wily's factory, but notably if you use too many blocks too early, you'll find yourself hard-pressed to avoid damage from the large and progressively faster robots (Boss Arena Brilliance?).
55* BossBonanza: The second Dr. Wily stage, in addition to having a battle with the Copy Robot at the end, contains rematches with Cut Man and Elec Man at certain points throughout.
56* BossRush: In what would become a series tradition, all six of the Robot Masters are fought for a second time in Wily's fortress, though the setup is different from later games. While Cut Man and Elec Man had their rematches earlier in Wily Fortress 2, Bomb Man, Fire Man, Ice Man, and Guts Man are fought all in a row right before the final battle with Wily, with no chances to heal between fights.
57* {{Bowdlerise}}: Due to Nintendo's policies discouraging any religious references, Western sources at the time (such as ''Magazine/NintendoPower'') refer to the Yellow Devil as the "Rock Cyclops".
58* CartoonBomb: The Hyper Bomb, used by both Mega Man and Bomb Man, takes on the form of a black sphere with a fuse.
59* ConspicuousElectricObstacle: Elec Man's stage has wall-mounted outlets that shoot out lightning.
60* CoversAlwaysLie: The infamous American box art would have you believe that you play as a 50-something man in a bright blue and yellow suit while holding a gun, and it all happens in a city with palm trees, large metal buildings, and bright gold arses littered everywhere. Suffice to say, none of that may be true in the actual game.
61* CutAndPasteEnvironments: The environments tend to look very similar and tiles and enemies frequently rely on palette swaps. The dev team only had 1 Megabit (1000 kilobits, or 128 kilo''bytes'') of memory to work with, forcing them to use every shortcut they could just to fit the game in, including this trope.
62** Bomb Man's stage has a specific segment of bottomless pits that has the same level architecture that gets repeated. However, the second time, the enemies are different.
63** Cut Man's stage has a screen that is used to transition from horizontal scrolling to vertical on two separate occasions.
64** Elec Man's stage has a segment where Mega Man must hop cross a bottomless pit by jumping across single-block tiles that gets repeated within the same stage.
65** Wily Fortress 2 begins with three sets of platforming challenges over bottomless pits with the same level layout. Each section is only distinguishable based on the enemy types that appear.
66* DittoFighter: The Copy Robot copies Mega Man and uses whatever weapon he uses. It also acts like one to Elec Man, since it reuses his A.I.
67* DubNameChange: The reason for the change from ''Rockman'' to ''Mega Man'' was because Capcom Consumer Products Division president Joe Morici felt the title was horrible.
68* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference: Mega Man, Dr. Wily, and Dr. Light's official art are much closer to their NES sprites in proportions, before later games refined them. Wily has the biggest difference of all, looking much more like UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein with none of the exaggerated features (e.g. his hair and chin) he'll get in later games.
69** Mets/Metools don't have feet, can't move, and are just theme enemies for the mine stage.
70* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Plenty of it:
71** There's a [[ScoringPoints point system]] not featured in any other game (aside from remakes of this one).
72** Only six Robot Masters are present instead of the usual eight.
73** The {{Boss Corridor}}s are longer than a single screen and contain enemies.
74** On the stage select screen, the Robot Masters simply display their in-game sprites rather than the mugshots of the later games. The only other game in the series which does this is ''VideoGame/MegaManDrWilysRevenge''.
75** Weapon and energy items have completely different sprites than they do in later games.
76** [[EmergencyEnergyTank E-Tanks]] and a [[PasswordSave password function]] don't exist.
77** MercyInvincibility won't protect you from SpikesOfDoom. ''VideoGame/MegaManX7'' is the only game to bring this back.
78** After defeating each boss, you have to grab an orb (which the [[http://kobun20.interordi.com/2012/12/12/the-rock-manual/ Japanese manual]] implies to be the robot's "central core", or as later supplementary material would use, I.C. chip) to finish the stage proper a la ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}''. Mega Man doesn't even teleport out afterwards.
79** There's no "You Got a New Weapon" screen, and therefore no in-game indication that you can even get Robot Master weapons. It was not unknown for players who couldn't/didn't read the manual or the game box to not even ''realize'' that you could do this.
80** Wily's lair is a robot factory instead of a [[SupervillainLair castle with a skull motif]]. Not that it's obvious, since it doesn't have a map screen. Said skull motif is also noticeably absent from the game, before ''2'' would make it a feature of his Fortress, and ''4'' would implement it in the Wily Machines.
81** The Robot Master rematches are sprinkled throughout the Wily stages instead of being collected in a teleporter room (though ''VideoGame/MegaManAndBass'' as well as ''VideoGame/MegaManX1'' would reuse this concept).
82** When defeated, both the Yellow Devil and the Wily Machine become black and inert, instead of just exploding.
83** The Wily Machine is the FinalBoss rather than being a penultimate boss in the other games (at least the ones not on the Platform/GameBoy).
84** Half of the weapons are thrown rather than being shot out of the Mega Buster.
85** There are no Rush items or similar equivalent, with the Magnet Beam being the nearest the game gets.
86** Collectible powerups reappear when you leave the screen and return.
87** Dr. Light's name was initially translated as [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Dr. Wright]] in the Western manual.
88** Mega Man's physics are off -- his movement is slightly slippery, he doesn't jump higher underwater, and in situations where the ground beneath him disappears (such as the platforms in Guts Man's stage), he instantly falls at maximum velocity without any kind of acceleration.
89** In this game and ''VideoGame/MegaMan2'', most of the common sound effects (for example, firing and doing enemy damage) are different than in the rest of the NES series (but would be reused for ''VideoGame/MegaMan9'' and ''VideoGame/MegaMan10''). Much of the soundtrack is much lighter in tone, as well.
90** In the NES version, pressing Select pauses the game and the music without bringing up a menu, much like most other 8-bit games would treat pressing Start. This is not present in most of the other games, where you will have to use the weapons menu (which doesn't stop the music) as a pause screen instead.
91* ElementalBaggage: Guts Man can summon large boulders from the ceiling that he can throw using his Super Arm. Mega Man does not have this same advantage, however, needing to pick up blocks found within the stages in order to throw them.
92* EternalEngine: Elec Man's stage is located inside a power plant where Mega Man must ascend several floors while avoiding stray electrical currents.
93* ExcusePlot:
94** Mad scientist Dr. Wily is taking over the world with a batch of stolen robots, go stop him!
95** The ''Wily Wars'' remake plot is centered on Dr. Wily creating a time-travelling Wily Machine and trying to take down Mega Man in the past, prompting Dr. Light to send Mega Man back in time to fight him while reliving his first adventure. Of course, that plot point is exclusive to the manual -- the in-game plot is as bare bones as ever.
96* {{Expy}}: While the creators have listed [[http://shmuplations.com/megaman/ many sources]] of artistic inspiration, Mega Man was most heavily patterned after Manga/AstroBoy. This is especially notable in the ending, where Rock is almost a dead ringer for him.
97* FireIceLightning: Fire Man, Ice Man, and Elec Man respectively attack with waves of fire, sharp icy blades, and beams of lightning. Naturally, Mega Man will wield all three of their weapons after you defeat them.
98* FlameSpewerObstacle: In Fire Man's stage and Wily Stage 1, there are pillars of flame that shoot up and down. The player can freeze them using ice slasher.
99* FreezeRay: The Ice Slasher that Mega Man obtains after defeating Ice Man deals no damage to enemies, instead freezing them in place, allowing Mega Man to either bypass them instead, or leave them a free target for another weapon.
100* GameBreakingBug: The final battle has a real show-stopper; if you get hit by the final boss ''at the same moment'' when you defeat him (so both of you take damage on the same frame), the screen will glitch and the game will never proceed to the ending, forcing you to reset the game.
101* HeartDrive: That red orb that appears after defeating a Robot Master is this, an apparent early version of what supplementary materials would call an I.C. chip.
102* AnIcePerson: Ice Man attacks using the Ice Slasher, a sharp ice-based projectile. Naturally, Mega Man himself can use this ability after defeating Ice Man. Ice Man's version of the attack does lots of damage, while Mega Man's does no damage to most enemies, but instead freezes them in place.
103* INeedNoLadders: The ladder climbing animation is slightly bugged, resulting in a glitch where Mega Man simply ''falls up'' very quickly under certain conditions, and is one of the ways to save time in speed runs.
104* ItsAllUpstairsFromHere:
105** Nearly all of Elec Man's stage is spent climbing higher and higher by using ladders to progress to the next screen.
106** In the final Wily stage, each battle in the BossRush takes place one floor above the last.
107* KaizoTrap: Unlike other games in the series, the Robot Master boss' projectiles do not disappear when they're defeated, and can still hit you. This is especially problematic because Mega Man is frozen briefly when the boss explodes. It is entirely possible as a result to die after beating the boss, which of course means having to fight them all over again.
108* LethalLavaLand: Fire Man's stage, though the actual lava isn't much to write home about (essentially being a fancy background over a large bottomless pit).
109* LongRangeFighter: Fire Man only uses the Fire Storm when he is far enough away from Mega Man (or when Mega Man shoots). If Mega Man is too close, he will try to run away from him. Stay close to Fire Man, and he becomes several times easier.
110* LuckBasedMission: If the player makes the mistake of starting the battle with CWU-01P by immediately using Super Arm to throw the blocks at it, taking out its last three forms [[NoDamageRun without getting hit]] will depend on them all emerging from the left or right hatches. If any of them emerge from the center shaft, Mega Man will have a very difficult time (if not an impossible time) dodging them.
111* MirrorBoss: The Copy Robot will use the same weapon that Mega Man currently uses, and it will work identically to how he uses it (e.g. any Hyper Bombs it throws are harmless until they explode). The only weapon it cannot use at all is the Magnet Beam; it can't use the Super Arm either, but neither can you, as there are no blocks to throw.
112* NintendoHard: One of the hardest of the original games, for the following reasons:
113** No password or save function -- the game must be completed in one sitting (Except on Virtual Console, which lets you quit with the home button and come back right where you left off [[note]]and lets you "save state" on the Wii U and 3DS[[/note]], Anniversary Collection gives an auto-save and ''Legacy Collection'' has built-in save states like on Virtual Console). The game is at least generous enough to give you infinite continues and checkpoints.
114** MercyInvincibility does not protect you when you fall onto spikes.
115** Tricky platforming segments; most notably in Guts Man and Ice Man's stages, where there are platforming bits that demand split-second reflexes and very precise jumping, with absolutely no room for error. Ice Man's stage is possibly the hardest of all the stages, not only due to the disappearing blocks, but also the erratic pattern of the flying platforms midway through the stage (and the fact that they shoot at you, combined with how small they are, makes it extremely easy to get knocked off to your death), not to mention the occasional glitch that keeps the platforms flying too far apart from each other. This is enough to have all but the most determined players falling back on the Magnet Beam to skip through.
116** Very cheap placement of powerful enemies such as Big Eyes, particularly in Wily Stage 1.
117** Boss weapons are a lot less useful than in the later games outside being used against bosses.
118** Some of the bosses have much more erratic patterns, not to mention much more damaging "take you down in one or two hits" attacks. Elec Man and Ice Man are the most infamous for this, as they can both kill you in three hits. Their attacks are often difficult, or, in the case of Fire Man or Ice Man, almost impossible to dodge.
119** The aforementioned kaizo traps that can sometimes occur just when you have defeated a boss.
120** Health pickups aren't as common as in later games, and the game contains useless pickups that only increase points.
121** The infamous Yellow Devil, which many people have not been able to defeat without exploiting the "Pause Trick" glitch.
122** The Wily Wars remake adds a save feature and mercy invincibility for spikes, and makes the Yellow Devil fight easier due to the lag during its morphing, but as a trade off, the robot masters take and dish more than ever, and there's no pause trick.
123* NoOSHACompliance: Good Lord, Wily's Robot Manufacturing Plant. It may as well be a DEATH Manufacturing Plant!
124* NoPlotNoProblem: Because the game had very little memory to work with, the plot is entirely in the manual -- the game just drops you off at the title screen so you can get straight to whomping Wily's robots upon pressing start. The ending is the only indication that there even was a story in the first place.
125* NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom: All of the stages are very straightforward, with no alternate paths or hidden secrets (aside from the Magnet Beam, but it's not hidden and [[AbilityRequiredToProceed it's mandatory]]) to look for.
126* PaletteSwap:
127** Because of the NES' limitations, certain enemies have color differences between levels, though none of them act any different or are passed off as another enemy.
128** An odd example is the Copy Robot - while it's not a recolor of anything, its battle A.I. (aside from what weapon it uses) directly reuses that of Elec Man's thanks to the cartridge's memory limitations.
129* PlayingWithFire: Fire Man's main attack is a wave of fire that not only covers a lot of ground, but briefly leaves a small flame under Mega Man's feet. Upon defeating Fire Man, Mega Man can do this himself with the Fire Storm.
130* PowerUpLetdown: Two, which is ''really'' bad in a game where there are only 6 alternate weapons in the first place.
131** The Super Arm is by far the least useful of all the weapons. It can only be used in specific situations where you can grab a giant block and throw it. Other than the battles with Cut Man (but only the first time) and CWU-01P and getting to the Magnet Beam, it's basically useless.
132** The Hyper Bomb is hardly any better, as it's thrown in an arc rather than shot, has a long fuse before it actually goes off, and you can only have one on screen at a time. It's immense power when you ''do'' connect with it is great, but it's so hard to do this that you're pretty much always better off using another weapon.
133* PrecisionGuidedBoomerang: The Rolling Cutter.
134* PuzzleBoss: The third Wily Stage boss, the [=CWU-01Ps=], sort of.
135* RockPaperScissors: As with all of the games, each of the Robot Masters is weak to one other Robot Master's weapon. Thus, after beating one boss, you can exploit their weapon to beat the next boss who is vulnerable to them, and so on.
136* ScreenShake: Happens everytime Guts Man jumps. Mega Man has to time his jump or it will briefly knock him off his feet, leaving him open for attack.
137* SharedLifeMeter: The game has CWU-01P, a series of robots encased in bubbles. Each one has its own hit points, but destroying one will always knock off four bars from the shown boss meter.
138* ShoutOut:
139** The Killer Bomb enemies seem obviously patterned after [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1 Bullet Bills]].
140** The Yellow Devil's appearance is heavily based on the giant robot Manga/AstroBoy fights on the moon in the early "Hot Dog Corps" story arc of the manga. The design similarities would become even more blatant in [[VideoGame/MegaMan3 its later reappearance.]]
141* SlippySlideyIceWorld: Ice Man's stage. Notably, it has palm trees in the background, implying it's an odd arctic version of JungleJapes.
142* SpikesOfDoom: Setting the standard for the series, spikes that insta-kill you are everywhere, and unlike later games, MercyInvincibility ''won't'' save your blue ass if you fall into them.
143* StealthPun:
144** Cut Man is themed around scissors, and is the most vulnerable to Mega Man's default weapon. In Japanese, Mega Man is named "Rockman". Rock beats scissors.
145** Elec Man is weak to Rolling Cutter. ''Cut the power.''
146* StuffBlowingUp: Naturally all over the place in Bomb Man's stage, with Bombombombs that self-destruct and drop explosive fragments, Killer Bombs that cause a harmful explosion after being shot, and Bomb Man himself, of course.
147* SuperNotDrowningSkills: Because Mega Man is a robot, water can't kill him.
148* SuperStrength: Guts Man has this as his ability, being able to summon and throw huge boulders at you. Defeating him gives you the Super Arm, which allows you to lift up certain blocks and throw them (but you can't summon blocks yourself).
149* TemporaryPlatform:
150** Appearing Blocks make their first appearance in the series in this installment. Elec Man's and Ice Man's stages have them blink in and out in set patterns that are better to be memorized.
151** The Magnet Beam allows Mega Man to fire a blue beam out of his Buster that he can stand on after releasing the fire button. The longer the player holds the fire button before releasing, the longer the beam will be, but it disappears a few seconds after being released, and holding the button longer doesn't make it stick around any longer.
152* TrialAndErrorGameplay: In the Guts Man level, there is an area where you have to fall downward onto to the next screen, while avoiding the SpikesOfDoom which cause instant death upon contact. There is absolutely no way to know where the spikes are your first time playing the game. If you manage to get past this part without dying, it's entirely due to luck.
153* UnwinnableByDesign: If you arrive at the first Wily stage without the Magnet Beam, you're snuffed. It's impossible to pass the room just before the Yellow Devil without it. You can leave by extinguishing all your lives and then go back to Elec Man's stage to grab it, however.
154* VillainsWantMercy: Wily in the ending, starting the tradition of doing it every time you defeat him in later games.
155* WalkDontSwim: Mega Man can't swim, but whereas in the sequels he can jump ludicrously high in water, in this game it slows him down and weakens his jump. The ''Wily Wars'' remake, curiously, ignored that and kept the water physics the same as the sequels.
156* WarmUpBoss:
157** Cut Man is absolutely the easiest boss to take down of the six due to his low stamina. If you managed to beat Guts Man first, you can use the Super Arm to kill him in ''two hits''.
158** Bomb Man is almost as easy as Cut Man, too. While he has better stamina than Cut Man, his bombs are so inaccurate that he's more likely to hurt you from collision damage--fortunately, he jumps around so high that it's very easy to avoid him.
159* WhoNeedsTheirWholeBody: The Crazy Razy robots in Ice Man's stage. Shooting only their lower bodies will cause their top halves to fly around and swing at you.
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