Dr. Wily's at it again? Okay...but I'll need to call in Cut Man to help me.
Mega Man: A Day in the Limelight is a freeware fangame of the older 8 bit series of Mega Man games by Riverroad. The basic premise is that Mega Man has mysteriously vanished and Dr. Wily is once again out for world conquest. Since Mega Man is unavailable, it falls to the other six Robot Masters from Mega Man to save the day. Each level involves guiding one of the Robot Masters to the exit and fighting the level boss.
The game also comes with a sequel, Mega Man: A Day in the Limelight 2, which follows a similar premise to its predecessor. This time, a virus has infected all of the robots and has shut down Mega Man. However, Dr. Light stored Dr. Wily's eight robots that were fought in the first game and they were immune to the virus. Dr. Light sent them against Dr. Wily's current Robot Masters. Each one of them is assigned a Robot Master. However, unlike its predecessor, defeating each Robot Master unlocks that corresponding Robot Master, allowing them to be played in other stages. For example, Air Man plays in Snake Man's stage, but after defeating Snake Man, Air Man can be played in any other stage. It is necessary to play as the Robot Master in these stages to play with some of the gimmicks involved. Also, there are these items, well as a certain goofy Let's Player has worded it, Squiggly Things, that are hidden throughout the first 12 stages (including the Doc Robot stages). When all of them are collected, Dr. Light will give you a secret weapon.
A third title
featuring the Mega Man 3 Robot Masters against Cossack's Robots was in development, but has had no further updates or news following the v0.2 demo release. However, roughly nine years later, a Sprites Inc user, LejesRimul, decided to pick up the project and remake the game from scratch. Similarly to the previous game, the Robot Masters here face off against a designated Robot Master, and they can be playable afterwards after defeating that Robot Master. However, it seems that Dr. Wily has main role here as opposed to Dr. Light.
You can download the first 2 games, and the demo for 3 from here.
All tropes present in Mega Man 2, Mega Man 3 and Mega Man 4 are present in the respective games, unless if mechanics change otherwise.
This game and its sequel provides examples of:
- Adaptational Badass:
- Instead of just hiding behind destroyable walls, Boobeam Trap has them dropped on Bomb Man.
- Both fights against the Wily Saucer give it multiple forms.
- Gamma has five forms this time.
- Adaptational Expansion: In the second game, the Doc Robot Stages are located in Top Man's, Snake Man's, Magnet Man's and Hard Man's stages as opposed to the other four in the original Mega Man 3.
- Adapted Out: The Wily Alien does not appear at all.
- Advancing Boss of Doom: The Mecha Dragon in the first game averts the trope this time but still has a "keep moving or die" bit anyway.
- Played straight in the second game with Guts Doc Robot chasing you with the Guts Tank.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Guts Man. He can't walk, but he makes up for it by being able to drop rocks and not only throw them at the enemies, but have the rocks drop ON the enemies.
- Badass in Distress: Mega Man is kidnapped by Dr. Wily in the first game.
- Blackout Basement: Bright Man's stage was this in the main game, but in the third game, there are instances where you have to use Spark Man to brighten certain parts of the stage. Even Bright Man's boss battle gets pitch black.
- The Big Guy: Guts Man, Wood Man, Hard Man, and Doc Robot.
- Blow You Away: Air Man, who can blow certain blocks and enemies away.
- Boss Rush: Averted. In the stages where you would usually fight the Mega Man 2/3 bosses, you fight enemies that are altered to be themed on your Robot Masters that you played with through the game. They use your weapon in odd ways as well. In the first game, the order is Ice Man, Cut Man, Elec Man, Guts Man, and Bomb Man (You don't fight Fire Man themed enemies, although you play as him). In the second game, you fight them in the style of teleport hatches. You can go in any order.
- Breakout Mook Character: And how!
- Bubble Gun: Bubble Man uses this as a weapon.
- Cartoon Bomb: Bomb Man uses these as a weapon. Averted by Crash Man, though.
- The Chew Toy: Bubble Man is one of the least effective Robot Masters out of water, and has a few jokes made about this, including being too slow to catch up with his brothers in the ending and being the last one to fight Wily.
- Clipped-Wing Angel: The Wily Saucer's final form in 2 struggles to stay afloat and only has two easily avoidable attacks.
- Combat Breakdown: As 2's final boss fight goes on, you gradually lose player characters while both Gamma and Wily Saucer gradually break down. By the time only Bubble Man is left, the Wily Saucer is visibly on its last legs.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: The games are based off their counterparts, but the level layouts are different and a lot of the boss battles have completely different patterns. Some of the games even add new hazards into the mix as well.
- A Day in the Limelight. It's right there in the name!
- Demoted to Extra: Proto Man, who was a Recurring Boss in the original third game, only appears during the Crash Bomb segment at Wily Stage 4 to assist you.
- Developer's Foresight: In the second game, magnets will attract all robots, except for Wood Man.
- Also, weapon energy does not appear in the second game until the hidden weapon, which uses energy, is unlocked. Since Flash Man's Time Stopper also uses an energy bar, it can be used to charge it as well.
- Directionally Solid Platforms: Present in these games, unlike the classic Mega Man series.
- Ditto Fighter: The Holograph Mega Mans in the second game.
- Dual Boss: Bubble Man and Flash Man in the first game. Since they weren't fought by anyone in the Robot Master levels, you fight them in Wily Stage 3.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Almost all of the matchups have this kind of mentality, be it against you or the Robot Masters.
- Ice Man fights Heat Man because fire melts ice. However, melted ice is water, which douses fire.
- Fire Man fights Air Man because wind blows out fire. On an inversion, hot air is what powers up a tornado.
- Elec Man fights Metal Man because metal conducts electricity. On an inversion, Elec Man's weakness is a flying spinning blade.
- Heat Man fights Magnet Man because heat is one of the elements that can reduce a magnet's magnetism.
- Wood Man fights Spark Man because wood is not conductive.
- Excuse Plot: Just like any other Mega Man game.
- Extra-ore-dinary: Cut Man and Metal Man.
- Final-Exam Boss: It takes all the playable characters to beat Wily.
- Fragile Speedster: In the second game, Quick Man is fast and has a great jump, but he gets less Mercy Invincibility upon being hit by an attack than the others.
- Graceful in Their Element: Bubble Man is pretty slow and clumsy on land, while his weapon is situational at best. But when he's in the water, he has amazing swimming skills and his weapon gets a significant upgrade.
- Green Thumb:
- Wood Man and his leaf shield, with added metal leaves that Cut Man can't cut!
- In the sequel, Wood Man can block out certain electrical lasers by sticking leaves in them.
- Half The Man He Usedto Be: Enemies killed by Cut Man's Rolling Cutter will split in half.
- Heel–Face Turn: Naturally, but it's even more explicit in the second game, since the Robot Masters there were created for combat instead of repurposed. At the end of the game, you even get to see their new jobs.
- An Ice Person: Ice Man uses this trope as a weapon.
- Logical Weakness: Same thing as the Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors entry above.
- Cut Man fights Wood Man because he was a robot meant for logging.
- Guts Man fights Crash Man because bombs blow up boulders. Guts Tank also uses Crash Bomber against Guts Man after enough damage.
- Flash Man fights Top Man because Top Man relies on his spinning to make himself invulnerable, and Flash Man's weapon can freeze him mid-spin.
- Snake Man fights Toad Man because in real life, snakes eat toads (among other things).
- Magnet Man fights Ring Man because Ring Man's weapon are just big metal rings, and magnets attract metal.
- Man on Fire: Enemies defeated by Fire Man fall down while lit on fire.
- Marathon Boss: In both games, the final boss fight is a 6-part fight (8 parts in the sequel) requiring the player to use every single Robot Master.
- Multi-Mook Melee: The Crash Bomber enemies in the second game.
- Mythology Gag: Doc Guts in both fights is stopped by the Time Stopper in the second game and takes extra damage from Flash Man's bullets, referencing Guts Man's weakness from Mega Man Powered Up.
- Nerf: Metal Man's weapon is much slower, doesn't pierce enemies, and doesn't go through walls.
- Not His Sled: Don't expect exact replicas of the stages or bosses when playing through these entries. In fact, Alien Wily is not in the first game at all.
- Playing with Fire / Wreathed in Flames: Fire Man with the former and Heat Man with the latter.
- Plot Tailored to the Party: In all the games, it's visibly obvious that the level you're in is heavily designed around the abilities of your Robot Master, to the point that if they tried to run someone else's stage, it'd likely be Unwinnable. In the second game, the Doc Robot stages and Wily's Fortress can be played as anyone, with some minor switching to other Robot Masters if ladders (Metal Man, Crash Man, Quick Man) or water (Bubble Man) are involved.
- Proactive Boss: Gemini Man in the second game sends his clones to face Bubble Man early on before the actual boss fight. They're also the ones to blow up the machine blocking the cavern instead of Proto Man.
- Promoted to Playable: Doc Robot is the secret character in the third game after collecting all of the hidden parts in the first eight Robot Master stages, and they possess all of the movement patterns of the previously playable Mega Man 2 Robot Masters.
- Puzzle Boss:
- In the first game, during the Wily Saucer boss phase where you play as Elec Man, you have to align the cannon to where it fires at the Wily Saucer.
- In the second game, you have to figure out which robot can damage each phase of the Final Boss. There are 8 phases, one for each robot, and after you complete a phase, the robot you used to complete it is abducted and can't be used again for the rest of the fight.
- Remixed Level: The Doc Robots copy the Mega Man 1 bosses and they are in Magnet Man's, Snake Man's, Top Man's, and Hard Man's stages. They have two bosses, but Elec Man and Guts Man are fought twice in Magnet Man's and Hard Man's stage respectively as Time Man and Oil Man are not in the series proper.
- Secret Character: Collecting all of the secret parts in the third game unlocks Doc Robot, who mimics the behavior of all of the previous game's Robot Masters. By this, you're essentially playing as 16 characters at once.
- Sequential Boss: Kamegoro Maker, Yellow Devil, Wily Saucer, Gamma, the Copy Mega Men, and both Wily Machines. 2's final boss fight has Gamma and Wily Saucer fought back-to-back.
- Shock and Awe: Elec Man.
- Shout-Out: Pharaoh Man uses a shield to deflect attacks, something he used in Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters.
- Stock Video Game Puzzle: Most of the Elec Man vs Metal Man stage, some of the Ice Man vs Heat Man level, and a couple screens of the Fire Man vs Air Man level.
- Time Master / Time Stands Still: Flash Man uses this trope as a weapon.
- In the sequel, it is the only weapon other than the Mega Man 2 Wily Saucer that has an energy bar. It however recharges by itself though.
- Took a Level in Badass: In Mega Man 3, Gamma was an
Anti-Climax Boss. In the second game of this series, not so much. It takes the combined effort of all eight of Megaman 2's Robot Masters to bring him down.
