Video Game / Mega Man 11

"My name's Mega Man, and I'm back for my 30th birthday bout."^note Clockwise from bottom-left: Tundra Man, Torch Man, Fuse Man, Bounce Man, Block Man, Impact Man, Blast Man, and Acid Man

Mega Man 11 (Japanese: Rockman 11: Unmei no Haguruma!!, or "The Gears of Fate!!") is the eleventh mainline installment of the classic Mega Man series. It was announced on December 4, 2017 during the Mega Man 30th Anniversary stream, and released on October 2nd, 2018. The game's graphics are 2½D, similar to Mega Man X8.

The story of the game revolves around Dr. Wily's so-called "Double Gear System" (one of the concepts on which he worked with Dr. Light in his youth), which augments robots' powers to unbelievable proportions at the risk of damaging their systems. In yet another bid to Take Over the World, Wily installs it into eight Robot Masters stolen while Dr. Light was checking on them. Realizing the threat that it could possibly unleash, Dr. Light installs a prototype copy of the system into Mega Man to give him a fighting chance against the rogue Robot Masters.

Robot Masters:

• DWN-081: Block Man, gives you Block Dropper.
• DWN-082: Fuse Man, gives you Scramble Thunder.
• DWN-083: Blast Man, gives you Chain Blast.
• DWN-084: Acid Man, gives you Acid Barrier.
• DWN-085: Tundra Man, gives you Tundra Storm.
• DWN-086: Torch Man, gives you Blazing Torch.
• DWN-087: Impact Man, gives you Pile Driver.
• DWN-088: Bounce Man, gives you Bounce Ball.

You can see the reveal trailer here. There's a follow-up trailer on Nintendo's Twitter feed.

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Tropes:

• 2½D: The graphical style is in a similar vein to Mega Man X8, with more cel-shaded graphics.
• Acid Attack:
  • One of the Robot Master bosses, Acid Man, has both an acidic projectile attack and acid shield in his arsenal. Mega Man gets his hands on the shield when he beats Acid Man.
  • The Pipetti in Acid Man's stage also count, firing corrosive substances from the valves on their heads.
• Acid Pool: Scattered throughout Acid Man's stage. Special enemies can drop chemicals into the pits, changing their color from blue to yellow to red to green. However, the pits only deal damage to Mega Man in their "green" state (and even that can be negated with the Acid Barrier).
• Action Bomb: The Shimobeys that debut in Blast Man's stage are flung backward when hit by shots and detonate on landing. In addition to dealing damage to other enemies, they can also trigger the explosive boxes.
• Actor Allusion: Thrice for Hideyuki Umezu, Dr. Wily's current Japanese voice actor: Not only he had previously voiced characters trying to take over the world, he is also the official Japanese dub voice of Wile E. Coyote, who, on top of having a similar name, both had tried (and failed) countless times to defeat the main protagonist (Mega Man and the Road Runner respectively), not to mention to consider themselves geniuses, despite their failures.
• Advancing Wall of Doom:
  • Three different sections of Torch Man's stage involve Mega Man being chased by a massive wall of fire.
  • An area in Block Man's stage has another one of these walls that attempts to crush Mega Man with grinding gears. However, it's less like a wall moving towards Mega Man and more like a Conveyor Belt o' Doom moving the obstacles and Mega Man to the wall.
  • Several sections of the second Gear Fortress stage involve Mega Man being chased by a massive skull machine, destroying terrain in its path.
• Ambidextrous Sprite:
  • When Mega Man has a Robot Master weapon equipped, the arm he fires with is constantly in an alternate form rather than defaulting to a normal arm. This gets especially weird in the case of the Pile Driver — despite its unusual asymmetrical color scheme, the "weapon arm" is always yellow whether or not Mega Man is using his otherwise orange arm.
  • The Mega Buster itself changes places depending on the direction that he is facing. As he has two visible hands whenever he is not firing his weapon, presumably he has a Buster built into both arms (something that was shown to be true in Super Adventure Rockman, though that game is officially non-canon).
  • Several enemies as well, the most visually obvious being the Pickelmen who are literally ambidextrous, switching their throwing arm based on which direction they face.
  • For some reason, Acid Man's Arm Cannon switches hands when he turns around.
• Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: When Wily unleashes Wily Machine 11's true form, the room turns into a black swirling star-field with the strange, upside down pyramid-like gear structure in the background now active and spinning profoundly.
• Ambiguously Brown: Blast Man's skin tone is a shade darker than the other Robot Masters'.
• American Kirby Is Hardcore: Comparing the voice tracks for the English and Japanese releases, Mega Man and Block Man have deeper and more serious-sounding voices in the English track, while the Japanese track gives them younger-sounding voices.
• Amplifier Artifact: The Double Gear System gives huge boosts to the Robot Masters using them. Mega Man must match them by using it himself.
• Amusement Park of Doom: Both Blast Man's and Bounce Man's stages. Blast Man's stage takes place in the ruins of an amusement park and movie studio hybrid, with his boss room showing the wreckage of a roller-coaster and Ferris wheel in the background. In contrast, Bounce Man's stage is more colorful and less dangerous, being that it was meant for children and is still in use.
• Anime Hair: Blast Man's hair is spiky and colored according to his personality.
• Anti-Frustration Features: Numerous.
  • The entire Double Gear system, giving Mega Man controlled access to more powerful weapons and Bullet Time. The entire game can be completed without using the gears, so they're primarily there to give less skilled players an easier way into the game.
  • Rush can now be summoned with his own dedicated hotkeys (including individual ones for Coil and Jet), rather than having to go into the weapon select screen to access them.
  • On top of the weapon select screen and cycling through weapons with the left and right triggers, there's also a third quick-select option allowing the player to immediately switch to a specific weapon on the fly. On controllers it's mapped to the right analogue stick by default, while keyboards use the number pad keys for the same effect.
  • Weapon Get demonstrations now include a blurb that explains the usage in-depth and also allow the player to test the weapon with infinite energy and Power Gear charge.
  • Not unlike Mega Man X8, most shielded enemies can have their shields knocked aside for a second with a fully-charged buster shot, allowing players to take them down quickly rather than having to play the usual waiting game until they become vulnerable.
  • The Energy Balancer is more affordable than ever before, and there's even a second Balancer that redistributes weapon energy among all empty or partially full weapons.
  • At a certain point in the game, all consumable items from the shop (like E-Tanks and extra lives) gain a heavy discount, so you won't have to spend as much time grinding to buy supplies.
  • Unlike previous physical attack-based weapons like the Top Spin and Charge Kick, if Mega Man doesn't destroy an opponent with the Pile Driver, he gets pushed backwards on contact to mitigate the risk of suffering Collision Damage.
  • While previous games are no stranger to enemies that suddenly pop out of Bottomless Pits as soon as you jump over them, causing damage and then making you fall to your death, this game's version of that enemy instead causes damage and shoves you backwards, likely back onto the thing you were jumping off of, making them feel like a far less cheap version of that enemy type.
• April Fools' Day: In 2018, Rockman Unity, an official Capcom blog, "revealed" all 8 of the Robot Masters, from ones that could conceivably be real (Whip Man and Necro Man), to the absurd (Shogi Man and Shower Man), to a bunch of references to other media ("Dark Roll" is designed after Popuko, Career Woman is a direct Shout-Out to Japanese comedian Chiemi Blouson, and Bit Man is highly reminiscent of Beck).
• Arc Symbol: Gears, reflecting the new Double Gear system. Wily Fortress in particular is covered in gears.
• Art Evolution:
  • The game, like Mega Man 7 and 8, has much more detailed designs for characters, objects and settings. Additionally, there are many elements in the game's design that take advantage of running on a more modern game engine, doing things that were not possible in the previous games (such as Block Man's Power Gear transformation or the Mega Buster's dynamic lighting in Torch Man's Blackout Basement segments).
  • Mega Man's design places emphasis on the joints in his body, taking some inspiration from his appearance in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. In addition, instead of just changing Mega Man's color palette, Robot Masters' weapons will also slightly influence Mega Man's design.
• The Artifact: Acid Barrier's protection from Acid, it's rather obvious that they didn't design the mechanic with the intent for players to use it while replaying Acid Man's stage, and yet it's useful exactly nowhere else.
• Awesome, but Impractical:
  • The secret part that allows infinite Double Gear usage also showcases its limits. The Speed Gear slows down everything, including moving platforms Mega Man needs to use to traverse a stage, so if one's out of reach you'll have to wait or switch the gear off. The Power Gear lets Mega Man charge up a Double Charge Shot or, if he charges long enough, the Final Charge Shot. Not only is there significant recoil when a shot is fired, the shot is lost if Mega Man takes a hit while holding the charge. The extensive time needed to charge the Final Charge Shot also makes it very impractical.
  • The M Tank recharges all of your health and weapon energy. If you have everything filled instead it turns all weak enemies in the screen into 1-ups. While this is impressive, you can only carry 9 lives and you can easily buy them at Dr. Light's lab, so it's better to save the tank for a hard battle (specially since you can only carry one).
  • The Final Charge Shot. It inflicts the same amount of damage as a normal Power Geared charge shot, but requires a lot more charging and instantly fills up the gear gauge if used under Power Gear, forcing an overheat after firing it. It does penetrate shields and has a larger hit box, as well as some of the few invincibility frames that the red shot doesn't ignore (Notably Block Man's while he's shifting to his 2nd phase), and can kill Gaboyalls. If used under Double Gear, it charges much faster and can be used 2-4 times depending on how long you need to hold each charge, but the normal Power Gear Charged Buster can be used close to twice as many times. In summary, while it does have some uses, it's rarely the best option out of all the weapons in the game.
• Balance Buff: After a rather fraught history with other shield weapons (with particular standouts including Skull Barrier, which couldn't block most shots without going down; Plant Barrier, which was nigh useless with its massively limited ammo; and Jewel Satellite, which was notoriously overtuned due to its fantastic ammunition and staying power), Acid Barrier goes for a middle approach - it blocks more than a single shot and doesn't leave Mega Man fully on the defensive because it also gives him a powerful acid weapon, but it's also tied to a cooldown that will have the barrier burst and leave Mega Man vulnerable for precious moments, meaning the player needs to apply it well while they have it active, keeping the pace going.
• Bait-and-Switch: After the final battle, Wily announces he has one more trick up his sleeve, proceeding to jump in the same vein as the Speed Gear... only to immediately start begging for mercy once again.
• Big Bad: Dr. Wily yet again.
• Big Good: Dr. Light, yet again.
• Bittersweet Ending: The day has been saved, and Robot Masters were restored back to normal, but Dr. Light's plans to revive his friendship with Dr. Wily fell through, and Wily made it clear that he's going to attack again in the future.
• Blackout Basement: Several parts of Torch Man's level are kept lit by enemies, and killing them will cause the level terrain (but not other enemies) to be shrouded in shadow. The Scramble Thunder, however, can keep these parts lit in their absence.
• Blatant Lies: One of Wily's Boss Banter lines is "Wily always wins!" when Wily makes his Wily Capsule use the Double Gear ramming attack.
• Book Ends: The game starts and ends in Dr. Light's lab during maintenance of the eight robot masters; during both cutscenes, Auto complains about being overworked, and Roll berates him for not putting in as much effort as he should.
• Boss Banter: All of the Robot Masters get back in on this after years of silence following the eighth installment (and the first game's super-deformed remake), as does Wily. Suffice to say, the majority of them are quite chatty (and loud).
• Brainwashed and Crazy: The Robot Masters in this game are all created by various robot companies, but Wily used the Speed Gear to capture and reprogram them to wreak havoc.
• Brand X: The trope name itself is mentioned in game. According to the description for Brushy, they were meant to compete with similar cleaning robots literally made by Brand X.
• Bubble Shield: Acid Man's Acid Barrier weapon produces a bubble of acid around Mega Man that absorbs projectiles before dissipating.
• Bullet Time: One of the Double Gear's functions allows Mega Man to overclock himself, perceiving time as slower than normal.
• The Bus Came Back: Many old enemies make returns from past games, such as Lyrics, Tatepakkans, and Pickelmen. The Yellow Devil returns too, as Yellow Devil Mk. III.
• Call-Back:
  • Tundra Man was created by Cossack Robot Laboratories.
  • A large chunk of 11's weakness chain is ripped straight from the original Mega Man: The electric weapon beats the ice robot, whose weapon beats the fire robot, whose weapon beats the explosive robot, whose weapon beats the brick-throwing construction robot. A little bit is taken from Mega Man 10's chain as well. Fuse Man's electric powers have no effect on a bouncy rubber ball, while Bounce Man is easily punctured by a sharp object.
  • A part that can be acquired from the lab increases the size of buster shots, making it easier to hit enemies. In Mega Man 5, the Charge Shot was the largest it's ever been, thanks to Dr. Cossack upgrading the Mega Buster to the Super Mega Buster, a modification that was retained for Mega Man IV. Unlike 5 and like IV, you don't lose a Charge Shot when taking damage (unless you're in Power Gear).
• Call-Forward:
  • As revealed in flashbacks, one of the reasons Wily originally created the Double Gear system and got into robotics in general was to create robots that could be "real heroes." As it turns out, Wily's original desire would eventually come true with Zero. Much later in the future than he realized.
  • Dr. Light's desire to explore artificial intelligence harkens forward to the day he would also succeed in creating it, with X.
  • Furthering the above two points, and as elaborated in Mythology Gag below, Mega Man's enhanced abilities with Double Gear activated are evocative of ones used by X in his games. As theorized on the Fridge page, X's "unlimited potential" and Adaptive Ability might've had some basis in Wily's project, especially when the ending sees Light offer up a Double Gear-equipped Mega Man to Wily as proof that their individual research can synergize together perfectly in spite of the ongoing conflict between them. In addition, one of the post-game upgrades you can buy in the shop is the Awakening Chip, which grants Mega Man infinite ammo for all of his weapons, much like one of X's armor upgrades.
• Calling Your Attacks: Employed often by the Robot Masters and Wily, either to signify their individual attack patterns or whichever aspect of the Double Gear system they're utilizing during their Turns Red phase. Mega Man likewise does this when activating one or both gears ("Speed Gear!" "Power Gear!" "Double Gear!") as well as when firing off his various Charge Shots, though he alternates between this trope and other voice clips that still manage to get the point across (such as "Speed up!" or "More power!").
• Canon Immigrant: Blast Man's name actually originates from Mega Man Battle Network, making him the only Robot Master to be based partially on a character from one of the Mega Man spin-offs. Torch Man also gets this treatment on a technicality, since FireMan.EXE's name was changed to Torch Man in the English dub of MegaMan NT Warrior.
• Canon Welding: In the original American version of Mega Man 1, Dr. Wily and Dr. Light were schoolmates at Robot University and it was the cause of Wily's hatred due to being overshadowed. Not so much in the Japanese and other versions. Now in Mega Man 11, they did attend the Robot Institute of Technology together and Dr. Light did overshadow him.
• Casting Gag: Two exist in the Japanese version to the MegaMan NT Warrior anime.
  • Torch Man, a fire-themed Robot Master, is voiced by Katsuyuki Konishi, who previously voiced Ken'ichi Hino (Mr. Match), an operator who loves fire-themed NetNavis.
  • Ice-themed Robot Master Tundra Man is voiced by Shinji Kawada, who previously voiced the ice-themed NetNavi ColdMan.EXE.
• Clean Dub Name: "Rubber Man" could be interpreted as a condom reference, so it was changed to "Bounce Man". "Pile" is another word for "hemorrhoid", so Pile Man's name was changed to Impact Man.
• Combining Mecha: A mild example, but according to the game's official website (and his in-game Gallery file), Impact Man is actually comprised of three smaller pile-driving robots, all of which attack Mega Man at certain points in his stage. During the boss battle, Impact Man can use his Power Gear to summon six more of these robots to become an even larger menace.
• Concept Art Gallery: Available in the "Specials Menu".
• Conspicuous Electric Obstacle: Fuse Man's stage has obvious orange electrified surfaces and nodes that shoot out electricity whenever they are traveling over the said surfaces.
• Conveyor Belt o' Doom: Block Man's stage is full of conveyor belts placed to drop Mega Man into bottomless pits, or worse, force him into grinding gears, with giant walls that drop down to block his escape.
• Costume Evolution:
  • Roll's new design takes elements from her original look from games 1-7 and Powered Up, and the modified red, black, and white dress from 8 and Mega Man & Bass, retaining the general design and color scheme of the latter, but greatly simplified to better resemble Roll's first dress, along with significantly shortening her sleeves and modifying the top of her dress into a hoodie.
  • Dr. Wily's new look takes on some elements from Mega Man Megamix. Most notably a black shirt and new tie, but there are some other details too, like a fancy belt buckle. His lab coat has also been subtly changed to resemble a trench coat.
• Crosshair Aware: Wily Machine 11 shoots missiles at Mega Man that come down from the top of the screen and display targets where they will hit. Provides the page image.
• Dance Battler: Tundra Man is a figure skater who pirouettes and dashes into Mega Man to deal damage.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: The Double Gear system is this in-story, as Dr. Light deemed it too dangerous for robots to use but was left with no choice once Wily installed it.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: As per usual with the Classic series, although this time a defeated Robot Master will be enveloped in beams of bright light before exploding, reminiscent of later X series installments as well as Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX.
• Death Cry Echo: Mega Man and the main Robot Masters cry out when defeated, their first time doing so since the last entries with voice acting: 1996's Mega Man 8 and 2006's Mega Man Powered Up.
• Death from Above: The Block Dropper weapon summons a row of blocks at the top of the screen which then rain down upon opponents below.
• Demo Bonus: Having play data from the demo grants 3 Energy tanks, 300 bolts, and a discount at the shop.
• Desperation Attack:
  • Mega Man can activate Overclock when his HP reaches 4 or lower, which triggers both the Speed and Power Gears at once. However, after usage Mega Man enters a Power-Strain Blackout state where the Charge Shot is disabled entirely and he can only fire one shot at a time until he cools down, and only has 1 HP remaining.
  • Wily Machine 11 V2 has this too: at 5 HP it will continuously teleport and charge towards Mega Man at speeds that practically require use of the Speed Gear to even land a hit. However, Wily has perfected the prototype Double Gear used by Mega Man, and thus is able to having either gear running indefinitely without risk of overheating.
• Difficult, but Awesome:
  • Chain Blast's non-Power Gear mode. You can actually do more damage, if you use all four bombs. But you either have to detonate them manually, or wait for them to explode. And you can mess up the chain if you're not careful. The Power Gear variant, by contrast, only does the damage of 3 bombs, but comes out fast, and detonates on impact, making it much easier to use.
  • Power Gear Buster qualifies as well. It actually charges pretty quickly, and the 2nd (red) shot bypasses boss invincibility frames. But the Power Gear's timer only gives you so much time to charge it, so you have to know pretty much exactly when you're going to fire in order to use it properly.
  • The Energy Dispenser upgrade, which explicitly states that it's for advanced players. It reduces Mega Man's hitpoints but makes the Double Gear technique avaliable at all times, meaning that users can tear through almost any encounter with ease, as long as they can manage the vulnerability period after it and dodge well enough to mitigate the reduced life energy.
• Difficulty Levels: Three gameplay modes are available — Newcomer, Casual ("Advanced" in Japanese), and Normal ("Original Spec." in Japanese). A fourth mode, Superhero ("Expert" in Japanese), was not available in the demo. In the full game, all four are unlocked from the beginning.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Block Man manipulates stone blocks. He can also turn into a huge, towering brick Rock Monster when his health goes down to 18 HP or lower.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The game's official album has "[RM11]", sung by Ayaka Fukuhara, Mega Man's Japanese voice actress.
• Dub Name Change: The Japanese names of Impact Man and Bounce Man are Pile Man and Rubber Man, respectively. This makes them the first two Robot Masters since Crash/Clash Man to have their names changed overseas.
• Dynamic Entry:
  • Block Man tears through the ceiling.
  • Fuse Man teleports in to begin his fight.
  • Blast Man blows up a wall.
  • Acid Man leaps from the acid pool below a bridge, turning that section into his arena.
  • Tundra Man perfroms a spin jump similar to Mario.
  • Impact Man fuses with some Impact Brothers.
• Easier Than Easy: The "Newcomer" difficulty, which not only reduces the damage you take and increases the damage you deal to enemies, but also gives you an unlimited amount of Beat Calls and Spike Guards, which makes you immune to Bottomless Pits and Spikes of Doom, and additionally gives you infinite lives on top of all that.
• Endgame+: Once you beat the game, you can make a clear save. From there, you can replay levels as you please with all the weapons and upgrades you've gained, and bosses will appear at the end again, as well as play any Wily Castle stage over. You also unlock two purchasable expensive parts that can break the game over your knee.
• Eternal Engine:
  • Acid Man's level is a chemical plant and is littered with acid pools and syringe needle enemies called Pipetti that shoot globs of acid that can turn normal water into a dangerous corrosive chemical.
  • Wily's new castle, the Gear Fortress, is outfitted with many, many moving gears and cogs, inside and out.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • New to this game is Anti-Eddie, an evil Eddie-like robot that takes away items from Mega Man. More specifically, it hides behind useful pick-ups and has to be gunned down or it will jump off-screen with the item in tow.
  • Most of the Robot Masters have the same jobs as Dr. Light's original creations.
• "Eureka!" Moment: While recovering from a nightmare, Dr. Wily suddenly remembers the word "gear", which makes him think about the Double Gear project he was working with Dr. Light on a long time ago — back when both doctors were still friends.
• Explosive Overclocking: The Double Gear System gives robots increased combat abilities for a short time — at the (alleged) price of permanent damage to their internal systems. The only reason Light installs it into Mega Man is because it's the only way he can reasonably fight against Wily's new Robot Masters. After the end of the game, Dr. Light manages to work out the drawbacks of it, installing it in the robots at the lab so it can be further used for good. In a case of Gameplay and Story Integration, said upgrade can be purchased after beating the game, allowing Mega Man to use both gears without having to let them cool/recharge.
• Foreshadowing: Wily Stage 2 starts with a gigantic spiked skull tank sitting on the left side of the screen that greatly resembled an Advancing Wall of Doom. Three guesses what starts chasing you down later in the level.
• Funny Background Event:
  • During scenes that take place in Dr. Light's lab, you can see that one of the "monitors" is what seems to be a slow roaster in the process of cooking a turkey leg.
  • There are a bunch of Metalls sitting around a bonfire in the background of the Mini-Boss chamber in Torch Man's level.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: The Double Gear system was deemed too dangerous to develop, with Dr. Light citing the tremendous strain placed on robotic systems, only installing it on Mega Man with no other choice. The worst that the system can do to Mega Man is disable charge shots and leave him at minimal power after a Desperation Attack, which an E-Tank can mitigate. That being said, the E-tank may not have been invented by that point and it's possible materials and robots weren't as sturdy when Wily first made the Gear system.
• Godzilla Threshold:
  • Dr. Light has had access to the prototype Double Gear since before the series began, only revealing it when Dr. Wily decides to use it himself.
  • Mega Man is perfectly willing to use the dangerous Double Gear system if it would help stop the evil Robot Masters.
  • Activating both gears at once (which eventually reduces your health to 1, disables your Charge Shot and causes the longest amount of gear cooldown) is only available when you're close to death.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: It is stated that Torch Man tried to control his power by Meditating Under a Waterfall. Too bad the Outdoor Martial Arts Master failed to realise that water can beat fire.
  Torch Man's Bio: He once tried training by standing under a raging waterfall. The subsequent repairs took three months.
• Graying Morality: The game reveals that Wily wasn't always that bad of a guy, wanting to use the Double Gear system to make heroes of robots, and that his Face–Heel Turn was the result of Light's callousness in shutting down his idea. Even Light admits that he regrets not figuring out a way to help him realize his vision instead of just telling him he was wrong.
• Grimy Water: If Pipettos throw corrosive water balls into a pool, Mega Man will lose some of his health if he tries to swim.
• Guide Dang It!: There are 3 secret items purchasable from Dr. Light's Lab, but having them available is obscure to say the least. The Bolt Catcher requires you to buy it on a Saturday, the Energy Catcher requires you to get a lot of Game Overs, and the Capsule Catcher requires you to literally run out of all possible Weapon Energy.
• Harder Than Hard: "Superhero", the notch above Normal difficulty. Not only do you take more damage, there are no health or energy drops in stages, as well as bosses being able to use their Gear abilities impunity from the start of their battles (and certain attacks being tweaked to be harder). And by no drops, this also includes no requisite recoveries in the Boss Rush. The only concession you get is that the items from Dr. Light's Lab are still able to tilt the game in your favor by stocking up on E-Tanks and other supplies.
• Hard Levels, Easy Bosses: Even if you don't have their weakness, bosses are fairly easy simply because of how inexpensive it is to stock up on E-Tanks. But getting to them is another story; the stages are easily three times longer than classic Mega Man stages with lots of precision jumping, insta-kill deathtraps, at least one miniboss and a criminal lack of checkpoints.
• Humongous Mecha: Block Man and Impact Man can each transform into a powerful, gigantic form with the Double Gear system (Power Gear, specifically).
• Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt: Conveyor belts and negotiating the obstacles they're transporting are a common design feature of Block Man's stage.
• It's All About Me: If his stage, a wrecked amusement park in the process of being rebuilt to center around himself, is any indication, Blast Man's got some serious narcissistic tendencies going on.
• Later-Installment Weirdness:
  • When Mega Man has a Robot Master weapon equipped, his appearance isn't just a palette swap, he actually changes his look.
  • The fortress map is now a full-fledged stage select screen, and its stages can even be replayed over and over unlike in previous Mega Man games ^note although Mega Man Powered Up and the older iOS port of Mega Man 2 also did this with their fortress stages, in which the fortress stages were usually played back-to-back (like in the NES games or in 9 and 10) or individually (similar to the 16/32-bit era).
• Lethal Joke Weapon: You wouldn't think rubber bouncing balls would be an effective weapon, but as it turns out Bounce Ball, being three Pinball Projectiles fired in a Spread Shot pattern that can hit multiple times before popping and can even be aimed up or down, is surprisingly powerful.
• Lightning Bruiser: Fuse Man rivals Quick Man in overall speed and attack power once he activates the Speed Gear. The other bosses that use the Speed Gear (Tundra Man, Acid Man, Bounce Man, and Yellow Devil MK-III) as well. Wily Machine 11 V2 also becomes this thanks to having both the Speed and Power Gears.
• Logical Weakness: Going into detail would equal a lot of spoiler tags, but each Robot Master's weakness makes perfect sense when you think about it, and not just the elemental ones.
• Mad Bomber: Blast Man shares Grenade Man's explosive temper and fondness for mayhem.
• Man on Fire: Sparkey is a burning turkey Mini-Boss in Torch Man's stage, and cannot be attacked from behind while ablaze. He's one of Torch Man's camp safety assistants, and a lamp owl robot can reignite him should he be put out. There's a Record for keeping him extinguished throughout the fight.
• Medal of Dishonor: The Pierce Protector item and Power Shield part can only be unlocked by dying from Spikes of Doom 5 times or taking 200 points of damage respectively. To even have them available for purchase at all is a sign of the game taking pity on you for your failure.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Dr. Wily's "Plan B", where he jumps backwards in slow motion with Speed Gear effects before assuming his post-defeat Pose of Supplication.
• Mundane Utility: The Double Gear system could be used to Take Over the World... or, as demonstrated in the final cutscene by Light, you could use it to give your robot assistant a bit of an extra kick.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The intro, with scientists choosing Dr. Light's robots with thought over Wily's Double Gear project, brings to mind how the Battle Network series is precipitated on Light researching internet rather than robots and getting funding from the government instead of Wily.
  • Dr. Wily's younger appearance in the intro bears a close resemblance to how he looked in Mega Man Megamix.
  • Mega Man's body, primarily his helmet and arm, changing to accommodate his new weapons is rather similar to MegaMan.EXE, the Battle Network incarnation of the character, when using Style Change (2 and 3) or Double Soul (4 onward). The game's character designer, Yuji Ishihara, worked on the Battle Network series as well.
  • One of the previews from Game Informer showed Mega Man in a form that looked almost exactly like Mega Man Star Force's Mega Man. The designers eventually confirmed that this was nothing more than a placeholder for Mega Man while using Tundra Storm, created by modeler Keiji Ueda as an in-joke, and was not intended to be shown to the public.
  • The effects of the Gears on Mega Man: Power Gear enhances weapons, enabling a Double Charge Shot and stronger special weapon attacks, whereas the Speed Gear basically slows down time. Both were first seen to some degree in the Mega Man X series. ^note The Power Gear's effect resembles the Double Charge Shot from his Second Armor while the stronger weapon attacks are similar to the recurrent ability to charge weapons, and the Speed Gear's effect emulates the Crystal Hunter's Bullet Time effect when fully charged. This effect vastly predates the Time Slow from Mega Man Powered Up. Given that the Classic series predates the events of the X series, it is entirely possible that these effects are a Call-Forward to X's considerably superior powerset and abilities.
  • The Yellow Devil Mk III utilizes the ability to split itself into smaller Mini-devils, similar to its appearance in The Power Battle. In addition, the sequence of its chunks moving across the screen is identical to its pattern from the first Mega Man.
• New Weapon Target Range: Every time a new weapon or tool is obtained, the games goes into a demo screen where players can test the new gear.
• Nightmare Face: Block Man is a Humongous Mecha glowing blood-red eyes and a skeletal-looking, equally-red mouth.
• Non-Standard Character Design:
  • Bounce Man looks very different from the others, with more robotic eyes that closer resemble those of Astro Man and Galaxy Man.
  • Most of the Robot Master weapons change Mega Man's color palette, one of his arms, and his helmet. The Pile Driver, on the other hand, takes this to another level by giving Mega Man an asymmetrical color scheme in addition to the arm and helmet changes (his right arm and right leg are orange; his left arm, left leg, and "underwear" are yellow; and the rest of his body is black).
• Past Experience Nightmare: Dr. Wily has a nightmare near the start of the game about his numerous defeats at the hands of Mega Man. That said, it also leads to Wily remembering his long-forgotten invention.
  Dr. Wily: Bad memories make the worst dreams. A genius of my caliber needs sleep to keep his brain in gear...
• Pinball Projectile: Bounce Man's weapon is this, naturally. Bounce Ball shoots an aimable spread shot of three balls that bounce off of enemies and walls with the potential for multiple hits. Power Gear makes the spread shot fire in both ways.
• Player Death Is Dramatic: When Mega Man is defeated, the game pauses for a brief moment as Mega Man is shown in his damage pose, then he cries out as he dies and unleashes orbs.
• Playing with Fire: Torch Man mainly uses fire to attack. Where he differs from most of the other fire-based Robot Masters is his use of Torch-jutsu, a martial arts style of his own creation that relies heavily on kicks.
• Power Copying: The series tradition itself gets a visual upgrade this time. Not only do Mega Man's colors change, but he also gets distinct features of the particular Robot Masters.
• Power Up Letdown: Zig-zagged with the Speed Gear Booster part, which lets you move at normal speed while using the Speed Gear. While it's great if you just need to move quickly, which can take the edge off in situations like outrunning the wildfires in Torch Man's stage, it also removes your ability to rise or fall in slow motion, which is handy for situations like aiming in Bounce Man's stage.
• Proactive Boss: In Impact Man's stage, three pile driver robots called the "Impact Brothers" charge you at certain points. Once you reach the end of the stage, the Impact Brothers combine into Impact Man. This is the first time a Robot Master doesn't even wait until the Boss Room to screw with the Blue Bomber.
• Production Foreshadowing:
  • Mega Man is voiced by Ben Diskin, and Roll is voiced by Erica Lindbeck. Both actors went on to voice the two main protagonists of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, released less than a year after this game.
  • In the Mega Man 8 gallery in Legacy Collection 2, released in August 2017, there's a completely out-of-place Mega Man concept design which doesn't fit at all with any game in the entire collection. It's from this game, and shows off Mega Man's new aesthetic changes that he takes on when he changes weapons (specifically the Block Dropper). Even Capcom acknowledged this, calling out the Mega Man fans who noticed the out-of-place concept art.
  • In September 2017, a Nendoroid figure of Roll was announced, but it's based on her new design from this game, which was still unannounced at the time. Furthermore, the art used to promote it used the normal concept art instead of a Super-Deformed rendition that Nendoroids usually use, and Nendoroid aficionados know that the Good Smile Company never do Canon Foreigner designs for the characters they license for the Nendoroid toyline, which they tried to pass this Roll as on announcement.
• Purposely Overpowered:
  • The Robot Masters, courtesy of Wily's Double Gear system, are stronger than Mega Man by default. To even the playing field, Mega Man undergoes upgrades to have Dr. Light install the Double Gear prototype Wily left behind decades ago.
  • Once you beat the game, you can continue replaying all the stages and refight bosses as you please. You also unlock two parts in the Lab that are 3000 Bolts each, but they give you infinite subweapon ammo and infinite Double Gear usage, as a reward for game completion.
• Redemption Rejection: Dr. Light personally breaks into Wily's fortress to tell him that Mega Man is the perfect realization of his Double Gear system, used to fulfill his original goal of creating a "true hero." He then tries to convince Wily to change his ways and work together with him again, but Wily refuses and makes his escape.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Block Man's second form has glowing blood-red eyes. Blast Man, Acid Man, Tundra Man, and Impact Man are less-nightmarish takes, with otherwise normal eyes.
• Running Gagged: After 30 real-world years and 11 prior games (without counting the Game Boy games, spin-offs, and crossovers), Mega Man finally points out that he's tired of Wily's begging for forgiveness after the final fight and that he would never fall for it.
• Scenery Porn: The first screen of almost every Robot Master stage is very pretty.
• Self-Imposed Challenge: Despite the prominence of the Double Gear mechanic, the game was designed and balanced with the ability to completely ignore them if you so wish, complete with an achievement. Especially at Wily Machine 11's Capsule, when Wily eventually just spams the Double Gear and becomes almost unhittable without excellent timing.
• Shout-Out:
  • Among Block Man's Hurricane of Puns are "You're just another brick in the wall!" and "YOU BLOCKHEAD!"
  • When Torch Man activates his Power Gear, his projectile attack uses a similar attack animation to Geese Howard's Reppuken.
  • The Shimobeys are, according to their bio, supposed to be robot stuntmen designed to play Mooks in live-action shows. So of course, they look like tiny Shocker Combatmen, skeleton pajamas and all.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: At the end of the game, Dr. Light tries to reason with Dr. Wily that both of their dreams can work together by looking at Mega Man. However, Wily ignores this and only wants both of them kneeling before him in defeat. As Wily escapes, Light can only lament that his old friend will never return.
• Smart Bomb: The Tundra Storm turns when powered by the Power Gear, allowing it to hit the entire screen for massive damage but costing a huge amount of weapon energy.
• Soft Reboot: The game changes up the character designs and brings up some new backstory between Light and Wily, and was deliberately designed as a sort of "jumping on" point for new fans, which is one of the reasons stated for why Proto Man and Bass are not in the game.
• Spam Attack:
  • Thanks to being a Spread Shot where the projectiles bounce around instead of disappearing when hitting a surface, the Bounce Ball can easily fill the screen with projectiles.
  • As part of his Desperation Attack, Block Man mindlessly throws blocks at you non-stop after his Power Gear form is destroyed.
• Spread Shot:
  • The Bounce Ball fires an initial spread of three bouncing balls out, which can be aimed. If used with the Power Gear, it fires six, three to the left and three to the right.
  • When used with the Power Gear, the Blazing Torch becomes a Spray Burst variety as the fireball sends out three flame shots in a diagonally downwards direction.
• Springs, Springs Everywhere: Bounce Man's stage contains several colorful bouncy balls that act like springs, and there's a large trampoline platform you can catapult off of at one point too.
• Super Mode: The Double Gear System grants Mega Man abilities he normally wouldn't have: the ability to slow down the flow of time and an extra-powerful Charge Shot. The Robot Masters get in on it too, gaining new attacks and — in some cases — completely changing their appearance once they've lost half of their health. This is also utilized by the fortress bosses and Wily Machine 11's second form.
• Super Prototype:
  • The Double Gear system that Mega Man uses is the prototype that Wily developed back at Robot University. In fact, the only other boss that uses an actual Double Gear system instead or either an individual Speed or Power Gear is Wily Machine 11 V2.
  • Ultimately subverted with the Double Gear system in Wily Machine 11 V2 being objectively better than Mega Man's as it's designed so it'll never overheat, which in the final phase of the fight allows him to leave his Speed Gear running indefinitely. Then gets double subverted after completing the game, as a part allowing players to also use Double Gear without risk of overheating becomes available for purchase in the lab.
• Super-Speed: An upgrade to the Speed Gear allows Mega Man to move at his normal speed while everything else onscreen is slowed down. Mechanically, this acts as Bullet Time but the implication is that Mega Man is moving at high speed.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Despite the many obstacles Wily puts in Mega Man's path, his resources are not infinite. Mawverne's enemy bio states that Wily had intended to build a second model with the opposite Gear, but didn't have the time to get the steel he needed. Similarly, Yellow Devil MK. III was meant to have the Power Gear, but Wily had to settle for the Speed Gear due to budget constraints. The fact that the Yellow Devil uses the Speed Gear a bit differently than Wily intended also counts.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
  • The electrical beams in Fuse Man's level have a striking similarity to Force Beams/Quick Lasers that hasn't gone unnoticed by the fandom.
  • This game doesn't technically have a Wily Capsule, with the Final Boss instead presented as Wily Machine 11's true form. However, it uses several traits common to past Wily Capsules, such as being a small pod, having homing shots, and teleporting when low on health.
• Time Master: Using the Speed Gear allows Mega Man to slow down time. Robot Masters can also utilize this ability to their advantage as well.
• Tragic Keepsake: The prototype Double Gear system Wily invented is this to Light, who repaired and kept it after the former broke it in anger over his research getting cancelled.
• Underground Level: Impact Man's level, a mining colony.
• Upgrade vs. Prototype Fight: Wily Machine 11's second form is Wily's perfection of the Double Gear technology, and it can use both the Speed and Power Gears without overheating, unlike the prototype installed in Mega Man.
• Utility Weapon: On top of being the game's physical weapon, the fact that the Pile Driver propels Mega Man forward even in the air means it can be used as a Mega Man X-style midair dash.
• Video Game 3D Leap: The first game in the Classic series to be rendered entirely with polygonal graphics.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Wily turns down Light's proposal to atone for his antics and collaborate together once more like they did during their younger days, and flies off in his UFO, vowing to get back at Mega Man and Light someday.
• Villain Has a Point: After his defeat, Wily points out that his defeat at Mega Man's hands is proof of how effective his Double Gear system is. Even Light has to admit that, through the Double Gear system, Mega Man has become the "true hero" that Wily initially wanted to create through his research, but unfortunately Wily has grown too bitter and resentful to work together with Light and combine their research further.
• Villainous Breakdown: Block Man seems to have one during his final attack phase, when he's running low on health and just starts mindlessly throwing blocks at you non-stop.
  Break already!
• Villains Want Mercy: Wily doesn't do a very convincing job of begging for mercy here, to put it lightly.
  Dr. Wily: "Spare me! I'm a helpless old man! Mercy, Mega Man!"
  Mega Man: "Enough! You can't fool me that easily!"
• Vocal Evolution: Mega Man himself goes through this. After Ruth Shiraishi's infamous girlish portrayal of him in 8 and Cole Howard's somewhat passable kiddy one in Powered Up, the Blue Bomber now sports a much deeper, adult-like voice courtesy of Ben Diskin. Averted with the japanese voices, where Mega Man still has a childish voice.
• World of Pun: Every single Robot Master in this game is a Pungeon Master. Their dialogue consists of 90% pun, 7% grunts, and 3% anything else.

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