* BadExportForYou: The ''Anniversary Collection'' versions of the ''Complete Works'' games did not have all the features from the Japanese versions.
* CashCowFranchise: One of Creator/{{Capcom}}'s {{mascot}} series, alongside ''Franchise/StreetFighter'', ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'', and ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter''.
* ColbertBump: After several years of inactivity, Mega Man's appearance in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' helped reignite interest in the franchise.
* ExecutiveMeddling: The franchise has been a target of this from the very beginning, and each sub-series has suffered through this in some way.
** As mentioned below, this is the reason for the MarketBasedTitle (''Mega Man'' is known as ''Rockman'' in Japan and most of Far East Asia). A Capcom USA executive simply didn't like the name ''Rockman'' and demanded a name change before he'd allow it to be published in the region. ExecutiveMeddling has been bothering the franchise since its inception.
** One of the earliest instances of this trope in the series is ''Mega Man 6'', whose development was egged on by Creator/{{Nintendo}} to get in one last Mega Man game on the NES before the SNES overtook it. (Another reason may be that Nintendo, via their Nintendo Power magazine, helped two American kids get their Robot Master designs approved to be in a real game; Nintendo wanted to make sure the kids didn't feel ripped off.) As a result, ''[=MM6=]'' hit more of a middling quality than the rest of the NES games.
** A push to [[CashCowFranchise keep selling]] the ''Mega Man X'' series has led to the creation of three sequels, despite ''[=X5=]'' being the intended end. The resulting games tend to be ranked among the worst of the ''X'' lineup, with ''[=X7=]'' generally ending up as the least liked installment in the franchise.
** The ''Battle Network'' series has a similar issue; despite the third game capping the end of the series pretty well, development for another three sequels was forced again. ''[=BN4=]'' is regarded as the worst installment of the Battle Network series, but thankfully, ''[=BN5=]'' and ''[=BN6=]'' are regarded far better and are typically on par with the rest of the series.
** ''Mega Man Star Force'' had a fourth game in development around 2009 to 2010, but due to poor reception due to being compared to the Battle Network series and low sales of the second and third games along with the remake of the first Battle Network game featuring a crossover scenario with the Star Force series, Capcom decided to end it at the third game.
** ''Mega Man Zero'' was originally going to end at the third game with Inti Creates originally wanting that to be the end and the next game they planned was originally meant to take place between the first two games. However, Capcom changed this into the fourth game in order to give the series a more definitive conclusion by resolving the last remaining loose end regarding Dr. Weil as well as Inti Creates intentionally killing off Zero so a Mega Man Zero 5 wouldn't be made. Unlike most of the other examples, while some people believe that the gameplay changes from the previous game were inferior to Zero 3, many agree that the fourth game serves as a solid conclusion to the Zero series.
** On the opposite end of the problem, ''Mega Man [=ZX=] Advent'' and ''Mega Man Legends 2'' both end on very blatant {{Cliffhanger}}s, but due to a declining interest in Mega Man at the time, both series seem to have gone into a hiatus with no followup games in the foreseeable future.
*** While Inti Creates did have a third ZX game called "ZXC" in development around 2008 when they were also helping develop Mega Man 9, it was cancelled at Capcom's decision.
*** Before leaving Capcom, Keiji Inafune started development on "Mega Man Legends 3" as a game for the Nintendo 3DS. While he left early in development, the team involved with it attempted to continue it's development as well as tried to create a unique playable teaser for the Eshop that wouldn't be in the game and acted as it's prologue in order to try and get the game greenlit for development based on how many people downloaded it. However, Capcom cancelled the game before the prototype was even completed.
* FollowTheLeader: This series inspired both Touhou's GaidenGame ''VideoGame/MegaMari'' and the series ''VideoGame/{{Rosenkreuzstilette}}'', and both ''[[ShoutOut know]]'' [[ShoutOut it]].
* MarketBasedTitle: The franchise is known as Rockman in Japan. They changed it for the rest of the world because a Capcom USA executive didn't like the name.
* NoExportForYou: Capcom had no plans to release ''Great Adventure on 5 Islands!'' and ''Rockman DASH Golf'' overseas.
* TheOtherDarrin: In Japan, Mega Man's voice went from Creator/HekiruShiina (''The Power Battle'' and ''The Power Fighters''), to Creator/AiOrikasa (''8'', ''Battle & Chase'', and ''Super Adventure''), to Kaoru Fujino (''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcomClashOfSuperHeroes'' and ''[[VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom2 Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age Of Heroes]]''), to Creator/YumikoKobayashi (''Powered Up''). In English, Ruth Shiraishi ( who was also the voice of X in ''X4'') in ''8'' to Cole Howard in ''Powered Up''.
** Dr. Light: Creator/ShozoIizuka to Tomohisa Aso as of ''Powered Up'' and ''Maverick Hunter X''.
*** On the English side, he went through a few actors before currently settling on Randall Wiebe (''X8'', ''Maverick Hunter X'' and ''Powered Up''), who also voiced [[VideoGame/MegaManX8 Earthrock Trilobyte]] and CWU-01P.
** Proto Man: Creator/RyotaroOkiayu in ''8'' was succeeded by Daisuke Sasaki in ''Powered Up''. In the English releases, it went from Jack Evans (''8'') to Jonathan Love (who was also Burn Rooster in ''X8'') in ''Powered Up''.
** Roll: Creator/HirokoKonishi (''8'' and ''Battle & Chase'') to Creator/KonamiYoshida (''Super Adventure Rockman'') to Yoshimi Ninomiya (''Powered Up'') to Hiromi Igarashi (''Tatsunoko vs. Capcom'').
*** In English, she was voiced by Michelle Gazepis in ''8'' (Gazepis was also Iris in ''X4'') and Angie Beers in ''Powered Up''.
** Dr. Wily: In English, he was voiced by an unknown/uncredited VA for his brief cameo in Zero's intro from ''X4''. In ''Powered Up'', Dean Galloway, who was also Chill Penguin in ''Maverick Hunter X'', voices him.
* ReclusiveArtist: Akira Kitamura, the franchise's creator and director of the first two games, is notoriously reclusive. He abruptly left Capcom after the release of ''VideoGame/MegaMan2'' with only a few ideas for [[VideoGame/MegaMan3 its sequel]] (among them Proto Man and Rush) to start his own video game studio. Said studio eventually folded and Kitamura retired from the industry altogether, and Kitamura has given very few interviews since.
* SeriesHiatus: Prior to the announcement of ''VideoGame/MegaMan11'' (which was released in October 2018), no new titles in the franchise were released since ''Mega Man 10'', which was initially released in 2010. ''11''[='=]s producer, Kazuhiro Tsuchiya, [[https://venturebeat.com/2018/06/13/the-retrobeat-mega-man-11-interview-e3/ said]] that there was a big desire within the company to continue the franchise, but the departure of Creator/KeijiInafune left a void within the company that no one was willing to fill until director Koji Oda finally stepped up to take the reigns for ''11''. After the game was released, multiple [[CompilationRerelease Collections]] for the many Mega Man series were released in the following few years with only "Star Force" and "Legends" not having any as of 2024.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** ''Mega Man Mania'' was going to be a GBA compilation with remakes of all the Game Boy games. It ended up being shelved, with one reason of it being due to some of the [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup source code]] for the games being lost, although an ex-Capcom employee said this wasn't true and claimed it was [[https://www.neogaf.com/threads/they-lost-the-source-code-to-what.344208/#post-13859927 "much stupider reasons"]]. The Game Boy games were eventually re-released on the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS eShop.
** ''Legends 3'', ''Star Force 4'', ''ZXC'', ''Universe'', and ''Rockman Online'' were canceled before they could be made.
** Around 2010 an unannounced game called simply ''Maveric Hunter'' (not to be confused with ''VideoGame/MegaManMaverickHunterX'') was quietly cancelled. It would have been a DarkerAndEdgier FirstPersonShooter reimagining of ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' series, with designs made by the same person who made the re-designed armor for ''Film/IronMan1''.
** Bass was almost named "Baroque" to highlight that he is [[EvilKnockoff the opposite]] of Rock/Mega Man. In [[GratuitousEnglish the original Moonspeak]], it was even more obvious: "Barokku" vs. "Rokku".
** A feature-length LiveActionAdaptation was announced back in 2015 with Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox and Chernin Entertainment producing it with Capcom. Plans fell through in 2019 following the former's acquisition by Creator/TheWaltDisneyCompany, but a film is still in development as of 2022.
** In 2024, one of the creators revealed that, had the limitations of the NES not been an issue, Mega Man would've worn white instead of the blue he became known for. By the time the technology was there, not only had he long left Capcom, but the blue was [[GrandfatherClause grandfathered in]], even influencing his successors and later versions of the character.
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