Video Game / Mega Man 7

"My name is Mega Man. I kicked Wily's ass once again..."^note Clockwise from bottom-left: Slash Man, Turbo Man, Spring Man, Freeze Man, Burst Man, Shade Man, Junk Man, and Cloud Man
Center: Auto

"In The Year Of 20XX AD... The world cheered Mega Man when at long last he captured and imprisoned Dr. Wily. But... Dr. Wily knew his schemes might end in failure and had planned for just such an occasion. Four robots had been hidden away and after six months without being contacted by Dr. Willy, they activate and begin searching for their master..."

— Narrator

The 7th entry and one of only three games (Mega Man & Bass was a case of No Export for You before its GBA port, and Soccer is considered non-canon) in the original Mega Man (Classic) series released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

In the closing of Mega Man 6, Dr. Wily was finally put in jail. What Mega Man didn't know was that he had robots hidden somewhere in his lab. After six months without Dr. Wily's input, the robots would activate, and search for him.

The Robots gave a city a surprising attack, looking for their master. Mega Man and Dr. Light watch the robots help Dr. Wily escape from a far distance. Mega Man goes out to stop Dr. Wily. Along the way, he encountered Bass, another humanoid robot, and Treble, his mean robotic wolf. They are also trying to stop Dr. Wily. The battle began...

Though built using the same engine as the first Mega Man X, and featuring a similar emphasis on storyline, gameplay-wise Mega Man 7 has more in common with the line of Mega Man games previously released on the Game Boy, featuring two sets of four Robot Masters instead of eight from the start, along with the item shop featured in the fourth and fifth Game Boy outings, and Mega Man and the various other enemies being scaled more like their Game Boy sprites than their NES ones (though, thankfully, without the insane jumps that this often entailed in the Game Boy entries).

Robot Masters:

• DWN-049: Freeze Man, weak to Junk Shield / Scorch Wheel, gives Freeze Cracker.
• DWN-050: Junk Man, weak to Thunder Bolt, gives Junk Shield.
• DWN-051: Burst Man, weak to Scorch Wheel / Freeze Cracker, gives Danger Wrap.
• DWN-052: Cloud Man, weak to Danger Wrap, gives Thunder Bolt.
• DWN-053: Spring Man, weak to Slash Claw, gives Wild Coil.
• DWN-054: Slash Man, weak to Freeze Cracker / Scorch Wheel, gives Slash Claw.
• DWN-055: Shade Man, weak to Wild Coil, gives the Noise Crush.
• DWN-056: Turbo Man, weak to Noise Crush, gives the Scorch Wheel.

On a side note, a fan-made NES style remake of this game can be found online.

This game is part of the compilations Mega Man Anniversary Collection and Legacy Collection 2.

---

Tropes:

• Accidental Misnaming: In the opening scene, Dr. Wily is accidentally referred to as Dr. Willy with two Ls instead of one, as shown above. This is corrected in the Anniversary Collection, but future releases leave it untouched.
• Advancing Boss of Doom:
  • King Gojulas, the T-Rex Mini-Boss in Slash Man's level, who drops in behind Mega Man and chases him into a corner, where Mega Man cannot progress until he defeats it.
  • HannyaNED, the Oni Mask Boss from Wily Castle 3, is fought in an area that automatically scrolls to the right, and Mega Man must constantly be moving forward to avoid contact with it.
• A.I. Breaker: Hard to say if it was intentional or not, but several of the Robot Masters ^note Cloud Man, Junk Man, Freeze Man, Spring Man, Slash Man, and Turbo Man will have a flinch animation when hit with their weapon weakness which causes their A.I. to reset into a predictable, and in some cases, very exploitable pattern, making them almost laughably easy to beat.
  • On the other hand, Burst Man's weakness to Scorch Wheel, although it causes him to flinch and reset his A.I., can make him harder to beat, as opposed to easier.
• Ambidextrous Sprite: Wily Capsule 7's sprite is flipped even when it has the asymmetrical Dr. Wily logo.
• Animal Mecha: Robotic dinosaurs are a major theme of Slash Man's stage. Robot dinosaur fossils are also present in the background of Freeze Man's stage.
• Anti-Frustration Features: This is the first Mega Man game to allow the player to restock supplies as well as automatically recharge weapon energy in between each Wily Castle level. This is also the first of the console games to introduce the item shop, where the player could max out their E-Tanks, W-Tanks, S-Tanks, and Extra Lives between stages.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Proto Shield, Proto Man's iconic shield, given to Mega Man after beating Proto Man in battle...Unfortunately, the shield works the same as how Sniper Joes use them, and can only block shots while standing perfectly still. If you move, jump, or shoot, it becomes useless, and what's worse, you cannot use any weapon other than the Mega Buster or any of the Rush abilities at the same time as the Proto Shield.
• Bears Are Bad News: Shirokumachine GT Vs in Freeze Man's stage. They attack Mega Man by either throwing chunks of ice at him, or by causing icicles to rain from the ceiling with their roar.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Mega Man, normally a pacifist, attempts to kill Wily at the end of the game.
• Big Boo's Haunt: Shade Man's level. The level starts in a cemetery with Mega Man fighting Astro Zombiegs, before entering a haunted castle full of enemies like Batton M48s, Raggers, Gilliam Knights that turn into werewolves, and a VAN Pookin.
• Bittersweet Ending: After several years of chasing Dr. Wily and finally putting him in jail, Wily breaks out and runs amok again like nothing has changed, but to make matters worse, at the end of the game, although Mega Man does stop Dr. Wily's current rampage, Wily still escapes, Bass turns out to be an enemy, and Mega Man has to deal with the fact that he attempted to kill a living being (even if it was Dr. Wily). For all intents and purposes, Mega Man fails and Dr. Wily got exactly what he wanted; to escape prison.
• Blackout Basement:
  • One of the rooms in Shade Man's stage is completely dark, which is especially dangerous sine the room contains a pit of Spikes of Doom. Luckily, the room can be illuminated by using charged buster shots or by lighting the torches with Scorch Wheel.
  • The first Dr. Wily stage contains sections where the room goes dark as long as Mega Man's feet are on the ground. Whenever he jumps, the room lights back up again.
• Blow You Away: Bufoohs, the game’s version of Fan Fiend, try to blow Mega Man into bottomless pits or other hazards, but can also change their bodies to pull the Blue Bomber into them or just damage him on contact, similar to Hyper Storm H of the Genesis Unit.
• Boss-Only Level: The Robot Museum has absolutely no enemies up until the end, where Dr. Wily reveals Mash, the robot clown.
• Bowdlerization: Bass says "Damn" at one point in the original SNES version of the game. Likely due to changing ESRB standards over the years, and the general touchiness of using mild swearing in an E-rated game, the line was censored to "Darn" for all future releases like Anniversary Collection and Legacy Collection 2.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Try using the Freeze Cracker on Freeze Man and watch his reaction.
• Bring It: Freeze Man reacts to everything you do. If you do nothing, he defaults to taunting you.
• Call-Back: This game makes several references to previous games, but the most apparent is the robot museum stage. Glass tubes with various robot masters on display, with Wily making off with Guts Man (to be remodeled into a fortress boss later), and the music for that stage is a mix of Guts Man, Heat Man, and Snake Man's themes.
• Car Fu: One of Turbo Man's attacks is transforming into a mini-car to run Mega Man down.
• Charged Attack: The Noise Crush is a Collect Type, where Mega Man must bounce it off a wall to catch the ricochet to empower the next blast. The Wild Coil and the Mega Buster are Hold Types.
• Collapsing Ceiling Boss: Guts Man G in Wily Castle 1.
  • To a lesser extent, the last of the Polar Bear robots from Freeze Man's stage can summon icicles from the ceiling with a Mighty Roar.
  • Freeze Man also uses his Freeze Ray to create rows of falling icicles from the ceiling.
• Combining Mecha: Returning from Mega Man 6, Mega Man and Rush can combine into a single Jet Pack, rocket-punching machine. Bass and Treble eventually are able to do this as well.
• Compilation Rerelease: Available through Anniversary Collection (PS2, GameCube) and Legacy Collection 2 (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and Steam).
• Console Cameo: At the beginning of Junk Man's level, you can see several Famicom systems lined up in the background. Also, Rush Search may randomly dig up a Game Boy. These were removed from Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 on non-Nintendo systems, and were not restored for its Nintendo Switch port.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Slash Man's design is based on Pluto from Mega Man V for the Game Boy.
  • Turbo Man's stage includes a falling gauntlet of fiery columns similar to the infamous Laser Hallway from Quick Man's stage.
  • Guts Man G is not the first time Wily has used a Guts Man Tank as a Wily Castle boss; he first did it in Mega Man 2 with the Guts-Dozer.
• Cool Garage: Turbo Man's stage: bonus points for Turbo Man himself being the Cool Car for the garage.
• Creepy Cockroach: The Gockroach S in Junk Man's factory-themed stage.
• Darker and Edgier: On a lesser note, Mega Man is visibly frowning at all times instead of the blank look on his face from the NES games; 1-Ups no longer smile, either. On a greater note, the ending in particular stands out: Mega Man attempts to murder Dr. Wily and is seen walking away from the burning inferno of the Wily Castle, with his more usual blank expression occasionally cracking into a look of anger.
• Death Course: What seems to be a nod to the Laser Hallway from Quick Man's stage, Turbo Man has a falling gauntlet of instant-death columns of fire.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: The bosses from Wily Castle suffer quite lengthy chain reaction destructions when they are defeated.
• Dowsing Device: The first appearance of the Rush Search. This item makes Rush dig into the ground wherever he is summoned, and pull out whatever he finds. If used in the right spots, Rush can find items that can otherwise only be obtained by paying lots of bolts at Big Eddie's.
• Dub-Induced Plot Hole: In the original Japanese script, Mega Man tries to kill Wily, but is forced to stop once Dr. Wily reminds him that he cannot harm humans. In the English localisations, Mega Man claims to be "more than a robot" (and as such does not have to be Three Laws-Compliant) before (unsuccessfully) attempting to kill Wily). The latter has rather drastic implications that no later game would address.
• Easily Detachable Robot Parts: Mash, the robot clown mini-boss's weakness is his detachable head.
• Easter Egg:
  • There is a code that allows you to play a two-player battle mode. Both players can choose to play as either Mega Man or Bass, and both characters have a few secret moves that can be performed using Street Fighter-like command inputs.
  • If you hold B when selecting Shade Man's stage, the usual stage music will be replaced with a remix of the first level theme from Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts.
• Episode of the Dead: Shade Man's stage, which also doubles as Halloween Episode. Being in a base based on a cemetery, most of the Mooks Mega Man has to fight are Astro Zombiegs.
• Eternal Engine: Not all that uncommon in the Mega Man universe, Burst Man's and Junk Man's stages are some sort of chemical plant and junk smelting factory, respectively. Turbo Man's stage is this mixed with a Cool Garage.
• Everything's Deader with Zombies: Shade Man's stage is filled with Astro Zombiegs.
• Evil Counterpart: Bass and Treble, for Mega Man and Rush.
• Exorcist Head: Junk Man is able to spin his body and head separately, as we see in his intro animation prior to his fight.
• Feed It with Fire: All the games use Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors, but this was the first game to have boss enemies who became more powerful based on the weapon you used against them.
  • When you use Noise Crush on Shade Man, he gets charged up as if he was hit with his own shot. This does not work the other way around.
  • If you hit Spring Man or Turbo Man with the Thunder Bolt, they will each enter a supercharged form, giving them access to new abilities for a short time.
  • Freeze Man, if hit with his own weapon, the Freeze Cracker, will cause the game to freeze for a moment, and Freeze Man to cast the player an Aside Glance before healing his health.
• Fictional Currency: The first Mega Man game to use Bolts as money (in place of the P Chips from IV and V), also an aversion to the usual Money Spider trope, as it makes sense that destroyed Mecha-Mooks would leave behind screws and bolts.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning:
  • Turbo Man, Freeze Man, and Cloud Man, respectively attack using a wheel of rotating flames, icy projectiles that can freeze Mega Man, and bolts of lightning.
  • The Wily Capsule shoots out projectiles of the three elements as well. The fire balls cause Mega Man to burst into flames for additional damage, the ice balls freeze him, leaving him vulnerable to the next attack, and the lightning orbs simply deal damage.
• Floating in a Bubble: Burst Man's specialty is firing bombs encased in bubbles. These bubbles have the ability to encase Mega Man himself and send him floating up towards a ceiling full of Spikes of Doom. Mega Man can do this as well, of course, once he obtains the Danger Wrap from Burst Man.
• Foreshadowing:
  • The ending has a scene where a comet streaks across the sky, setting the stage for Duo and the Evil Energy in 8.
  • In the Japanese version of Shade Man's stage, after Mega Man offers to help Bass to Dr. Light's lab, he warns our blue hero that he hopes his kindness won't cost him his life, though this is Lost in Translation in the localization. Sure enough, he succeeds in wrecking Light's lab later in the game and stealing the enhancements meant for Mega Man and Rush.
  • There are three broken displays in the Robot Museum. One of them is Guts Man, of course, but the others two foreshadow Cut Man and Wood Man's return in the Saturn version of the next game.
• Forklift Fu: Truck Joe from Turbo Man's stage tries to run Mega Man down with something that looks akin to a forklift-like machine with a spiked plate on the front, possibly a dangerously tricked out crate-pusher of some sort.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: During the introduction backstory, we see a newspaper headline of Dr. Wily having been arrested by Mega Man at the end of Mega Man 6. However, if you look at the lower right-hand corner of the newspaper, you'll see a quick cameo of Cut Man and Guts Man in something called Cut Man 2.
  • Spring Man's stage features what appears to be schematics for a prototype version of◊ Astro Man.
• Funny Background Event: An amusing oversight in the Robot Museum, in the first room of Robot Master glass cases, if one looks to the far right and far left of the room, they will see Plant Man on display twice.
• Game-Breaking Bug: When facing Cloud Man, if the Danger Wrap is used when entering the boss room at the exact right moment, it will hit Cloud Man above the screen and cause him to plummet to the ground, stopping his entrance animation and making him disappear. This causes the game to keep Mega Man frozen in place waiting for Cloud Man's entrance to finish, and after several more seconds, the screen will finally glitch and Mega Man will die.
• Giant Enemy Crab: Kanigance, the robot crab Mini-Boss from Burst Man's stage and Wily Castle 3.
• Good Is Not Soft: In case you missed it, Mega Man gives thought to killing Wily as opposed to simply apprehending him. The American version goes a step further by having Mega Man threaten the doctor and actually attempt the deed. A Three Laws logic loop prevents the Blue Bomber from acting either way.
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: The evil varieties, Shade Man has bat wings, and Bass gets a set in his Super Mode that are both devilish and metallic in appearance.
• Gotta Catch Them All: Beyond the standard weapons, and the fact that the Rush enhancements are no longer automatically obtained but have to be found/bought, there's also the R-U-S-H tiles, Beat's Whistle, the Energy Balancer, the EXIT option, Auto's Headbolt, and Proto Man's Shield — and that's not even including the basic Energy Tanks and Extra Lives!
• Guide Dang It!:
  • Freeze Cracker, Wild Coil, and Danger Wrap can be aimed by holding up or down before shooting. Danger Wrap can also be aimed "forward."
  • You can severely reduce the damage dealt by burning attacks by mashing the buttons like you'd to escape freezing ones. This can be a huge help to mitigate the amount of damage some bosses, including the final one, do against you.
  • Van Pookin, the miniboss in Shade Man's stage, actually has a weak point right on the eyes themselves. Given that most shielded enemies need to be attacked when vulnerable or with an armor-piercing weapon, one might overlook this. However, defeating Vay Pookin by hitting the eyes actually opens up an alternate pathway through the level leading to a hot spot under a portrait of Dr. Wily where Rush Search can uncover an Energy Balancer so that you don't need to buy it from Auto's shop.
  • The Final Boss — infamous for its high difficulty — has a mechanic that isn't obvious. Each time they release four orbs, you can actually misdirect their Robo Teching by jumping, sliding and moving in different directions. The trouble is that the movements are very specific if you want to avoid taking damage completely and until this point, there hasn't been a boss quite like this in the classic series. You can also prevent him from releasing the orbs by shooting him with the Thunder Bolt right after hitting him with the Mega Buster, Freeze Cracker or Wild Coil, but it requires precise timing and isn't possible if Wily is too high up for the Bolt's reach, plus there's no incentive to try it out when you don't know about it since the Thunder Bolt doesn't damage Wily, so you really just have to guess this specific mechanic (or see it in a guide). For a No-Damage Run, it is absolutely essential to memorize how to react to every position the Wily Capsule may appear at. If you're out of consumables and want to still win, it's also essential to learn this as you can't spare too many hits.
• Happy Ending Override: Mega Man 6's ending had Dr. Wily being finally imprisoned, but here he is shown having a backup plan to escape and Mega Man ultimately fails to arrest him at the ending.
• Hover Tank: VAN Pookin, the Tank Mini-Boss from Shade Man's stage.
• Invisibility Cloak: The Wily Capsule's usual teleporting ability is replaced by this for some reason.
• Invisible Block: Present in Cloud Man's stage as the invisible platforms variety. ^note They can be made visible in a snowstorm, however.
• Kaizo Trap: A downplayed example with Slash Man. Hitting Slash Man with the Freeze Cracker turns him into a frozen block that will slide around on the floor. He can still hurt you in this state.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Bass was created by Dr Wily? What a twist!
• Letting the Air out of the Band: In the introduction stage, when Auto hands Mega Man a Met Helmet instead of his Iconic Blue Helmet, a short and off-key version of the usual Robot Master music plays, and Mega Man responds with a long Visible Silence.

• Life Drain: Shade Man can do this by using his robot vampire powers to drain Mega Man's oil.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Junk Shield and Scorch Wheel. Also, your reward for beating Proto Man is his shield.
• Macross Missile Massacre: The Sisi Truck's endless barrage of Sisi Rockets in Turbo Man's stage.
• Mass Hypnosis: This is what Shade Man's sound cannon was supposed to be able to do, but due to faulty wiring, became the destructive Noise Crush instead.
• Meaningful Background Event: Remember those two other broken Robot Master capsules in the Robot Museum boss room's background? As implied in the Sega Saturn release of Mega Man 8, in addition to nabbing Guts Man, Dr. Wily also grabbed Cut Man and Wood Man.
• Man on Fire: Turbo Man's Scorch Wheel, Gamerizer's Fire-Breathing Weapon from Wily Castle 2, as well as Dr. Wily's Capsule can inflict this onto Mega Man, repeatedly damaging him until the fire fades. Also happens to Burst Man and Slash Man when the Scorch Wheel is used on them.
• The Mole: Bass was first introduced as a potential ally to Mega Man, who claimed to also be battling Dr. Wily. When he's discovered injured later in Shade Man's stage, Mega gives him access to Dr. Light's lab to be repaired. Bass ends up ransacking Light's lab and stealing the plans for some new upgrades for Mega Man and Rush, delivering them to his creator, Dr. Wily.
• Monster Clown: Mash, the boss of the robot museum stage.
• Mook Maker: Gamerizer, the boss of Wily Castle 2, can summon mini-Gamerizers named Spotaro from its barrack-like body. Also the Wily Machine Minis from Dr. Wily's Wily Machine 7.
• Multiple Life Bars: The VAN Pookin Mini-Boss from Shade Man's stage has the Alternate Knockout Conditions variant, and can be defeated by either destroying its outer shell or by attacking its core. Interesting in that this has an effect on gameplay, as each method will open up one of two different paths to continue through the level. Perhaps a Shout-Out to Mega Man 6, in which four of the 8 robot-master stages split into two paths to choose from (one path to fake boss, other path to real boss).
• My Rules Are Not Your Rules: If you use Noise Crush against Shade Man, he will absorb it like it was his own shot. However, if he uses his Noise Crush on you, you don't absorb it and instead take damage as normal.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Mega Man's costume when he has Thunder Bolt equipped bears a shocking resemblance to the costume worn by Mega on the infamously Off-Model U.S. box art for the original game.
  • The Freeze Cracker and Thunder Bolt are nearly identical in appearance to the Shotgun Ice and Electric Spark weapons, respectively, in Mega Man X. May also count as a Call-Forward due to the X series taking place later in the timeline.
• Nostalgia Level:
  • The Robot Museum stage has Metool shrubberies, Brain Break statues, and Camon wall tiles, as well as glass case displays for Heat Man, Snake Man, Pharaoh Man, Skull Man, Ring Man, Blizzard Man, Flame Man, and Plant Man, before Mega Man can finally catch up with Dr. Wily just in time to watch him steal Guts Man ^note and as we'll find out in Mega Man 8, Cut Man and Wood Man as well. The stage music is even a remix of Guts Man's, Heat Man's, and Snake Man's level themes.
  • Shade Man's stage is one for the Ghosts 'n Goblins series, as the entire level is an homage to the first stage of Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts.
• One-Wheeled Wonder: Gilliam Knights and Turbo Roaders.
• Optional Boss: Proto Man, after meeting certain requirements, can be fought in a secret area in Shade Man's level. Mega Man can acquire his Proto Shield if he defeats him.
• Our Vampires Are Different: They are robots who feed on oil and are mounted with a sound cannon.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: The Gilliam Knight, a common enemy in Shade Man's stage, can transform into a Werewolf Robot under the full moon, changing attack tactics to lunging at Mega Man, and gaining almost as much health as a boss.
• Overshadowed by Awesome:
  • The Rush Jet has been suffering Badass Decay since Mega Man 4, but now it seems overshadowed by the Rush Super Adapter. Doesn't help matters that since Rush Jet is completely optional in this game, there are no levels where you even have to use it.
  • The Proto Shield as well suffers from being overshadowed by the Rush Super Adapter, only one of the items can be used at a time when not using a specific weapon, and the Adapter is just more versatile than the Proto Shield, which can only block shots while standing perfectly still.
• Perpetual Frowner: Mega Man during this game.
• Precision F-Strike: Mild example. Bass says "Damn" when you meet him in Shade Man's stage. This was taken out of the Anniversary Collection.
• Prehistoria: Slash Man's stage is this (mixed with futuristic robotic technology, of course).
• Properly Paranoid: Or Crazy-Prepared; take your pick. The Excuse Plot of this game stems from the fact that Dr. Wily always knew that eventually in his efforts to Take Over the World, he might fail and get captured, so he hid four secret Robot Masters that would activate if not contacted within six months and come to find him wherever he was being held to free him.
• Pumpkin Person: VAN Pookin serves as a miniboss during Shade Man's stage (which has a strong horror/Halloween theme).
• Remember the New Guy?: Auto has apparently been working with Dr. Light for a while, although this is the first time in 7 games we've seen him.
• Savage Wolves: Treble, Bass's Robot Wolf.
• Shout-Out: To Ghosts 'n Goblins; hold the B button while selecting Shade Man's level and it will play the famous first level theme from the series.
  • Also in Shade Man's stage are the Gilliam Knights, who can transform into a Werewolf Robot that looks very similar to an enemy in Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, while the Raggers are based on Sir Kibbles from the Kirby series.
    • Gilliam itself is possibly a reference to a character in Breath of Fire I (the reference may be lost in the American version, because his name was changed to Bo).
  • Shade Man's normal stage music takes a riff from "Bloody Tears".
  • Slash Man's stage is a tribute to Jurassic Park, as it takes place in some kind of Research Facility/Prehistory Jungle. Naturally, the Mini-Boss is a Tyrannosaurus rex Mega Man must flee from. Slash Man himself borrows a lot of moves from Vega from Street Fighter.
  • The Japanese version has many more shout-outs to other Capcom games that were Dummied Out, such as Auto referencing Strider Hiryu when obtaining the Slash Claw.
  • Gamerizer, the turtle Tank boss of the second Wily Castle level, is a Shout-Out to the popular Japanese monster Gamera.
  • Gamerizer also resembles the Thunderbird 2 machine from Thunderbirds, both in appearance and in the abilities.
  • The game's ending references that of the third entry heavily. Dr. Wily has rubble from his crumbling fortress fall on him and he is very nearly killed, though not in that order or for that reason. Additionally, Bass comes to rescue him in the end, much like Proto Man did for his brother. Hell, the Wily Machine 7 is like the Wily Machine 3, though it can only walk, jump, and shoot out smaller versions of itself. Justified, since Wily didn’t have time to add in offensive capabilities since he just got out of prison.
• Shown Their Work: How Spring Man becomes magnetic when hit with Thunder Bolt is how electromagnets really work — an electrical current flowing through a coil of wire creates a powerful magnetic charge.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Freeze Man's level, with a few Underground Level elements added to it.
• Spread Shot: Freeze Cracker is of the Exploding Shot variant; it explodes into 6 smaller ice projectiles when it hits a wall.
• Springs, Springs Everywhere: Spring Man's stage, of course!
• Start X to Stop X: Averted. Shooting Freeze Man with the Freeze Cracker will heal him. He'll even stop the fight to give a "...Seriously?" Aside Glance at the player.
• Stealth Pun: What happens if you hit Freeze Man with the Freeze Cracker? It causes the game to freeze for a few seconds!
• Temporary Platform: The timed version, wouldn't feel like a true Mega Man game without them.
• Teru-Teru Bōzu: The Tel Tel enemies in Cloud Man's stage are based off of these. You can shoot the first one to cause rain, and the second one will cause snow if hit with the Freeze Cracker.
• Three Laws-Compliant: Regarding the first law Thou Shalt Not Kill in particular, played straight in the Japanese version, but downplayed in the English versions, in which Mega Man claims to be "more than a robot" and therefore above the first law towards killing Dr. Wily, but never makes good on this threat before Wily's Castle collapses.
• Throw the Mook at Them: In the Wily Stages, one method for defeating the turtle tank boss involves using the Danger Wrap weapon to bounce its mini-turtle mooks into its beak for massive damage. However, most players find it more practical to defeat the boss more conventionally.
• Tincan Robot: Junk Man, cobbled together from old robot parts.
• Transforming Mecha: Turbo Man can transform into a racecar, and the Gilliam Knights can turn into werewolves under a full moon.
• Trick Bomb: Burst Man uses bombs that are Floating in a Bubble, and Slash Man uses bombs filled with a sticky red goo.
• Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway: The Wily Machine 7, since Dr. Wily had only just broken out of prison not too long ago he did not have much time to work on it, so in the end all it can do is hop around and shoot out miniature versions of itself.
• Unflinching Walk: Mega Man during the end credits, walking away lost in thought while the fiery explosion of Wily's Castle burns in the background.
• The Unfought: Except for when Bass combines with him, Bass's own Rush counterpart, Treble, is never fought directly, although the robot wolf does snap and growl at Mega Man more than a few times.
• Upgrade vs. Prototype Fight: The game has Mega Man face off against his "older brother" Proto Man (a.k.a. Break Man).
• Utility Weapon: This game has a large amount compared to others:
  • The Freeze Cracker can be used to freeze the molten junk in Junk Man's stage, revealing an alternate path where the player can collect one of the plates for the Rush Super Adapter. It can also be used on the Tel Tels to make it snow.
  • The Thunder Bolt can be used to power up machines like the ones in Junk Man's stage and temporarily illuminate a certain part in Shade Man's stage.
  • The Scorch Wheel can be used to light up candles in Shade Man's stage and burn up foliage in Slash Man's stage.
• Warm-Up Boss: Mad Grinder from the intro stage, helps that he comes already pre-damaged before you have to face him.
• We Will Meet Again: Delivered twice by Bass, instead of Dr. Wily, the first time after Bass's rematch in Wily Castle 1, and the second after Mega Man hesitates too long after deciding to kill Dr. Wily at the end of the game, with Bass swooping in to save his creator.
  Bass: "Round 1 goes to you, Mega Man. But I'll be back..."
  Bass: "Too late, Mega Man. He who hesitates is lost! We shall return!"
• Weaksauce Weakness: Cloud Man is severely crippled by bubbles (to be fair, it's the bomb that does the actual damage, but once trapped in a bubble Cloud Man is completely defenseless). Shade Man and the Wily Capsule are weak to spring coils for some reason.
• Weather-Control Machine: Cloud Man's stage involves Tel Tels that change the weather, generating lots of pushing wind and blinding rain (one of the few games to notice how driving rain will reduce visibility). Cloud Man uses these gimmicks as well when you fight him.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: This is the only game to get into this so far. Mega Man seriously considers killing Wily after defeating him for the umpteenth time. Unfortunately (but fortunately for Wily) Mega Man was Three Laws-Compliant, leaving him unable to carry out his threat.
  • In the American version, extra dialogue was added where Mega Man prepares to shoot Wily. Wily reminds Mega Man that robots are programmed not to harm humans, only for Mega Man to retort that he's "more than a robot" and prepare to open fire. Luckily for Wily his fortress then starts blowing up, and in the confusion, Mega Man hesitates long enough for Bass and Treble to appear and teleport Wily to safety.
• A Winner Is You: In the Anniversary Collection version, the end credits sequence (Mega Man walking away from a burning skull fortress in deep contemplation, a slideshow of the robot masters, and Bass looking out overhead) is replaced by just showing the credits against a plain black background. Apparently, this is because the developers, Atomic Planet, didn't know how to properly emulate the Mode 7 effects used here.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Bass pulls this on Mega Man to get into Dr. Light's lab so he can steal the new Rush Super Adapter upgrades for himself and Treble.
• Your Size May Vary: Compare the Mad Grinder in the intro to the actual Mad Grinder that Mega Man fights.
• Zero-Effort Boss: Most of the bosses in the game once you get their weakness weapons. This is especially true for Cloud Man, who can't even fight back if you use his weakness against him multiple times.

---