5TH ANNIVERSARIES

This weekend marks our 9TH YEAR! As usual, we celebrate by counting down the 5th anniversaries of Saturday morning programs over the last seven decades from the newest to the oldest. Join us, won't you?

Here are the shows celebrating...

MEGA MAN: FULLY CHARGED

 

MEGA MAN: FULLY CHARGED
(Cartoon Network, August 5, 2018-May 23, 2019 US
Family Chrgd, September 8, 2018-June 22, 2019 CAN)
 
Capcom, Dentsu Entertainment USA, DHX Media, DXH Media Studios Vancouver

  

MAIN CAST:
Vincent Tong – Mega Man/Aki Light, Namagem
Ryan Beil – Mega Mini, Wayne
Caitlyn Bairstow – Suna Light
Garry Chalk – Dr. Thomas Light

For the history of Mega Man, check out the post here.  

Mega Man: Fully Charged was the second western-developed animated series featuring the Blue Bomber since 1994’s Mega Man from Ruby-Spears, and the fifth solo series overall including the OVA series Upon a Star, NT Warrior and Star Force. It was meant to coincide with the 30^th anniversary of the franchise.

The new generation of Mega Man.

In 2015, Capcom entered into a production deal with Dentsu Entertainment USA to create a new 26-episode Mega Man series. Dentsu chose the writing team Man of Action—Joe Casey, Joe Kelly, Duncan Rouleau, and Steven T. Seagle—to oversee the development of the series, considering their successful billion dollar franchise Ben 10, which also starred a heroic young boy with various abilities. While they issued assurances that they would be sticking closely to the spirit and established look of the franchise, there would be some changes made and an attempt to appeal to western audiences with the storytelling.

Mega Man's new alter-ego, Aki Light.

Mega Man was now Aki Light (“Aki” could mean “bright” or “sun”, voiced by Vincent Tong), a robot who looked like an ordinary boy and attended junior high school with other children in Silicon City. He could summon his Mega Man armor in a stock transformation sequence, which resembled the game’s depiction of it with a few added flourishes. Along with his regular Mega Buster blaster, Mega Man could fire a beam onto a robot that would copy their abilities after about a minute and allow him to use them. As a side effect, Mega Man would also gain some of their personality traits as well that would often work against him. Unlike the games where he could hold onto all of the boss abilities, this Mega Man was limited to only three at a time via a safeguard; otherwise, his blaster would overheat and cause personality glitches. Being a little boy, he displayed a level of self-confidence and cockiness that often led to his being impetuous and leaping without thinking. He also had some locked-away memories from being in the Hard Wars, a period when humans were at war with robots at a time known as the Hard Age.

The Light family: Dr. Thomas, Suna, Aki and Rush.

Dr. Thomas Light (Garry Chalk, who played various roles in the 1994 series) was Aki’s father and strong advocate for human/robot relations, having been a veteran from the Hard Wars. He knew Aki was secretly Mega Man, but kept it to himself for a while. He was the keeper of the Mega Key: a device that could grant complete access to the schematics and programming of any robot placed inside it. Suna Light (a play on “sun light”, voiced by Caitlyn Bairstow) was Aki’s intelligent human sister who had a variety of gadgets at her disposal. She openly knew of Aki’s double life and often aided him. She was this show’s version of Roll (who appeared on a poster in her bedroom), and later revealed to become their version of Zero from the Mega Man X spin-off game series. Rush was Aki’s loyal robot dog as in the games, but colored a normal brown instead of red (although he would be upgraded with armor that would bring him closer to his original look). After being injured in a supervillain battle, Rush developed a fear of them and often froze up when Aki took him into a fight. A new addition to the Mega crew was Mega Mini (Ryan Beil), a small quippy robot that lived in Aki’s head and monitored his circuits, offered (often ignored) advice, and handled his transformation into Mega Man.

Bert Wily, not the bad guy.

Aki’s best friend was Bert Wily (Cole Howard, who voiced Mega Man in Mega Man Powered Up), designed to resemble both Alan from the Dreamwave comics and traditional arch villain Dr. Wily (the latter of whom was actually his grandfather). He was a genius inventor whose devices tended to be adorned with a skull motif reminiscent of the bad doctor. Other characters included Principal 100100 (Brian Drummond), the building-sized school principal that used to be a battle robot; Peter Punkowski (Howard), a know-it-all with a love for history and a perpetually runny nose; Ashley Adderley (Shannon Chan-Kent), a semi-egotistical science lover that Aki had a crush on, but who had a crush on Mega Man (not knowing they’re one and the same); Junk Man, a robot made out of scrap by Aki and Suna as a training dummy for Rush, later turned into a lab protector by Dr. Light; Man Man (Ian Hanlin), a bumbling human who wanted to be like Mega Man (modeled after Bad Box Art Mega Man); and The Good Guild, Silicon City’s robotic peacekeeping force that served as various public services such as police and firefighters.

Two villains in one: Sgt. Breaker Night (above) and his alter-ego, Lord Obsidian.

The primary antagonist of the series was Sgt. Breaker Night, aka Lord Obsidian (Michael Adamthwaite). As Sgt. Night, he was a human veteran of the Hard Wars that lost an arm and had it replaced with a robotic one by Dr. Light. He sought to destroy human/robot relations by encouraging some robots to attack humans to turn them against them, and believed humans were superior to robots since they created them. Sgt. Night shared a lot of similarities with the villain Xander Payne from the Archie Comics Mega Man series. Night donned powerful armor to become his alter ego Lord Obsidian, a robot supremacist seeking to turn Mega Man into the perfect weapon for his goals (essentially playing both sides of the conflict he sought to create). He desired the Mega Key to obliterate all robot kind. His second-in-command was Namagem (Tong), who shared all of Mega Man’s abilities but could hold up to five copied powers at once. It turned out that Namagem was actually Aki’s long-lost twin brother who was stolen and brainwashed by Sgt. Night at the end of the Hard Age. He was this series’ version of Proto Man.

Lord Obsidian leading Air Man, Blasto Woman, Drill Man, Namagem, Wave Man, Fire Man and Guts Man.

The Robot Masters that often caused trouble around town were comprised of Fire Man (Hanlin), a hot-headed former construction robot that grew to despise humans; Drill Man (Andrew McNee), a perpetually angry robot whose unfeeling father replaced his hands with drills to take part in the family construction business, rather than pursue his musical passions; Wave Man (Samuel Vincent), a sanitation robot who took his job too far and almost flooded the city; Ice Man (Travis Turner), a glitched robot who takes everything too literally and believes he’s helping bring humans and robots together by freezing them; Air Man (Hanlin), a wind-blowing robot with a superiority complex and quirky siblings called The Bluster Bunch (he’s a composite of Wind Man and Tengu Man); Guts Man (Peter New), a powerful waste-disposal robot powered by eating garbage who took issue with Dr. Light’s eco-friendly recycling program; Elec Man (McNee), a hyperactive robot with electrical abilities; Cut Man (Colin Murdock), the Lights’ perfectionist gardener who flew off the handle whenever that perfection was disturbed or challenged; and Wood Man (Mark Oliver, who voiced FreezeMan.EXE in Mega Man: NT Warrior), a paranoid who was deactivated during the Hard Wars and believed he was still fighting in them when accidentally reawakened (although he’s a Robot Master as far as the games go, he operated independently of the others and Night).

Chaotique: friend or foe?

Additionally, three series-exclusive Robot Masters were introduced: Hypno Woman, a robot with hypnotic abilities that used to be a guidance counselor until she got tired of listening to students’ problems; Blasto Woman (both Kathleen Barr), a former flying cargo-delivering robot who sought to make money through illegal means; and Chemistry Man (New), a former chemistry teacher that Sgt. Night convinced to go rogue when he was fired for putting his students to sleep with boring lectures. Other foes included Chaotique (Rhonda Rees), a prankster fun-loving robot who tended to be a bad influence on Mega Man and worked as a double agent of Obsidian; and The Hoover Gang, former custodians-turned-criminals that carried non-lethal weapons, comprised of humans Duane (Adamthwaite) and Wayne (Beil), and a vacuum robot.

Mega Mini inside Mega Man's head.

The first 10 episodes of Mega Man: Fully Charged were made available through the Cartoon Network app and website on August 3, 2018 before debuting on the network itself on August 5. It was initially reported that the series would air on Disney XD (where it would air in Southeast Asia in 2019). Despite a traditionally-animated demo reel being leaked by studio Film Roman featuring Mega Man battling Fire Man and Drill Man, DHX Media was announced as the animation studio for the series in 2016 and that they would be using a computer-generated 3D style. It would be one of the last shows made under the DHX name before they became WildBrain in 2019.

Elec Man crashes Ashley's play, starring Aki as--of all things--Mega Man.

Originally intended for a 2017 debut, Dentsu and DHX announced it would be delayed until 2018. DHX revealed the show’s title at the 2018 Licensing Expo and held its premiere on July 20 at the San Diego Comic-Con. Sister network Boomerang began airing reruns as early as August 12^th, however it was removed from both channels’ schedules after 10 weeks until January. Internationally, DHX-owned Family Chrgd (now WildBrainTV) broadcast the show in Canada beginning on September 8^th; POP in the United Kingdom on October 1^st; and 9Go! in Australia on July 15^th, 2019.

Iced-up Mega Man and Ice Man putting out fires.

The series was written by Man of Action with Marcus Rinehart, A.J. Marchisello, Michael Oliver, Joe Barnathan, Justin Peniston, Janis Robertson, Kevin Somers, Lawrence H. Levy, Kevin Grevioux, Beata Harju, Sean Kennedy Moore (as Sean Patrick Geraghty), Jeff Treppel, Rocco Pucillo, Ricky Mammone, Dan Goldman, M.J. Offen, Greg Hart, Bob Fingerman, Patricia Villetto, Dan Marmor, Ian Drazen, Tanner Marchisello and Henry Stukenbog. Peter DeTina was the lead designer, with Derek Weselake, Diane Quach, Francine Delgado, Harrison Hemeon and Lera Nyukalova serving as designers. Mega Man’s machinery graphics were handled by Greg Sepelak. The modelers included Colin Robinson, Aldrich Chung, Ezra Petruik, Ben Hutchinson, Ingrid Clemeno, Brooke Schlaphoff, Derek Levesque, Jaroslav Chorny, Jin Man Kim, Jin Sung Jim, Kenneth Ma, Melissa Sylvana and Snehal Gopal. Episodes ran for 11 minutes and were typically shown together until they were split up halfway through the run. The series’ music was composed by Steffan Andrews. As a nod to the franchise’s video game origins, there were times when the animation switched to 2-D pixel art; typically in flashbacks, fantasy sequences, enemy encounters and images displayed during the end credits. These was done by Gurkan Tenekecioglu, Juan Carlos Lopez and Paul Johnson.

Man Man, following Mega Man's example. Unfortunately.

Cartoon Network has been noted as having not been very supportive of Fully Charged (or, frankly, any third-party programs). There was little to no promotion on the network’s part for it, instead all promotion came from the websites of the companies involved with making it and advertisements could only be found on YouTube. Cartoon Network initially placed it at 6:30 AM on Sunday morning. After, it bounced between Saturdays and Sundays before ending its season in a Monday-Thursday 12:30 PM timeslot. Most of the episodes were released in batches on the Cartoon Network app just before they began airing on the network itself. While Cartoon Network’s YouTube channel previewed the first few episodes, the official Fully Charged channel had very little activity. The series was once available to stream on Cartoon Network’s website, and available to purchase digitally on Prime Video.

Fire Man's 8-bit origin story.

There was some question as to whether or not a second season was happening. An online article posted by Rockman Corner had anonymous sources claim that they were told that a renewal was “99% greenlit” with some minor things to iron out. Those minor things ended up being a disagreement over DHX wanting to take the funding for several of the episodes to make promotional Mega Man shorts for their YouTube channel—like music videos or “a day in the life” of characters—and Dentsu not wanting to allow it. Production on the new season had begun halfway during production on the first, so things were ready to go. All they needed was the word. Unfortunately, between that disagreement and the abysmal ratings due to Cartoon Network’s neglect of the series, Fully Charged was effectively dead.

Mega Man, Drill Man, Guts Man, Wave Man, Ice Man, Air Man and the Mega Buster lab playset.

In 2019, Jakks Pacific released a line of Fully Charged toys. Mega Man, Air Man, Ice Man and Wave Man were included in the basic set, while Drill Man, Guts Man and Mega Man with Drill Man’s schematics were included in the deluxe. There were two Mega Busters; one for kids to wear, and one that opened up into Dr. Light’s lab. A second wave was planned but ultimately cancelled. The toys were used in cheaply-made “Toyplay” shorts and stop-motion videos on the series’ official YouTube channel. In 2020, BOOM! Studios published a 6-issue comic series set after the events of the show. Written by A.J. Marchisello and Reinhart with art by Stefano Simeone, colors by Igor Monti and letters by Ed Dukeshire, the series saw the Robot Masters gain a new leader in Skull Man, who seemed to have insights into Aki’s role during the Hard Age. He faced off against them and Namagem with the aid of the mysterious Zero and Hard Age authority Dr. Wily.

 

EPISODE GUIDE:

“Throwing Shade Part I / Throwing Shade Part II” (8/3/18 app, 8/5/18 CN) – When Sgt. Night crashes Dr. Light’s speech on human/robot coexistence, Fire Man arrives to make an example out of him. / Mega Man must fight to control his anger after copying Fire Man’s powers.

 

“Drilling Deep / Videodrone” (8/3/18 app, 8/12/18 CN) – Aki ends up humiliated in school when he has trouble controlling Drill Man’s copied powers. / When everyone but Aki and Suna end up hypnotized at school, they discover it’s the work of former teacher robot Hypno Woman.

 

“Please Rush Home / Blaze of Glory” (8/3/18 app, 8/19/18 CN) – Aki searches for Rush after he runs away from home but ends up having to deal with a sanitation robot flooding the city. / Cooling mechanisms fail throughout the city during a heatwave, and Fire Man is the culprit.

 

“Nice on Ice / Hard Times in Silicon City” (8/3/18 app, 8/26/18 CN) – Ice Man decides the best way to help human/robot relations is to freeze them all together. / An educational trip to the museum results in Aki having to deal with Blasto Woman trying to rob the artifacts.

 

“Tripping the Light Fantastic / Running Wild” (8/3/18 app, 9/2/18 CN) – Dr. Light’s new date turns out to be Hypno Woman in disguise. / Copying Air Man results in Aki becoming vain and arrogant, which he puts on full display when he runs for school president against Bert and Peter.

 

“Unfriendly Competition / Opposites Attract” (8/3/18 app, 9/9/18 CN) – Aki makes fun of Bert for using robot legs and a speed button to join the track team just as Chemistry Man attacks the school. / A weekend vacation is put on hold when Aki and Suna discover Fire Man and Wave Man working together.

 

“I.C.E. (In Case of Emergency) / Trust Your Guts, Man!” (8/3/18 app, 9/16/18 CN) – Ice Man’s heroics cause Aki to doubt himself, and copying his powers ends up making him take things too literally. / Guts Man becomes offended by Dr. Light’s new garbage recycling device and decides to destroy his lab.

 

“Drill of the Hunt / Power Cycle” (8/3/18 app, 9/23/18 CN) – After using hypnosis on Drill Man to turn him good, Aki unintentionally hypnotizes others around him. / Copying Elec Man’s abilities makes Mega Man just a bit too hyper for anyone’s good.

 

“Bored to Be Wild / Enter the Wood Man” (8/3/18 app, 9/30/18 CN) – Megan Man is forced to rely on classmate Ashley’s help to solve Chemistry Man’s riddles. / Aki and Suna are attacked in the woods by Wood Man who still believes he’s fighting in the Hard Wars.

 

“Lightfall Part I / Lightfall Part II” (10/5/18 app, 10/7/18 CN) – Mega Man foolishly agrees to a battle with Lord Obsidian and loses handily. / Obsidian invades the Lighthouse and attempts to take the Mega Key unless Mega Man can stop him with some new tricks.

 

“Rush to Greatness” (11/11/18 CAN, 1/4/19 app, 1/5/19 US) – Despite his fear of villains, Rush speeds out to try and stop Wave Man on his own.

 

“S.W.I.S.H.” (11/11/18 CAN, 1/4/19 app, 1/6/19 US) – Mega Man is easily bested by Namagem until he has Rush retrieve a force field device that causes Namagem’s blaster to overheat.

 

“Minus Mini” (11/18/18 CAN, 1/4/19 app, 1/12/19 US) – Mega Mini ends up falling out of Mega Man’s head and Blasto Woman intends to sell him on the black market.

 

“A Cut Above” (11/18/18 CAN, 1/4/19 app, 1/13/19 US) – Upset over the accidental destruction of a tree, the Lights’ robotic gardener is upgraded by Obsidian to get his revenge.

 

“A Bot and His Dog” (11/25/18 CAN, 1/4/19 app, 1/19/19 US) – Mega Man feels the “emergencies” he’s called on are beneath him until Hyno Woman takes over the city power plant.

 

“This Man, This Man Man” (11/25/18 CAN, 1/4/19 app, 1/20/19 US) – Mega Man is upset by a bumbling wannabe that interferes with stopping Guts Man from attacking the school.

 

“A Guilded Cage” (1/4/19 app, 1/26/19 CN) – Aki’s new love of mystery films comes at the perfect time as The Good Guild is suddenly causing trouble around town.

 

“To Air Is Robot” (1/4/19 app, 1/27/19 CN) – Aki must overcome Air Man’s arrogance when he uses his schematics to stop him from leveling buildings around the city.

 

“Watt’s Happening” (1/4/19 app, 2/3/19 CN) – Aki auditions to play himself in Ashley’s Mega Man play, but needs to stop acting when Elec Man crashes the show.

 

“Chill Out, Bruh” (1/4/19 app, 2/10/19 CN) – The Lights rehabilitate Ice Man by giving him a device that balances his emotions, but Sgt. Night secretly sticks a counter-device on him.

 

“Big Bad Dreams” (1/4/19 app, 2/17/19 CN) – Sgt. Night has Hypno Woman attack Aki’s dreams at night, giving him nightmares about Namagem.

 

“License to Drill” (1/4/19 app, 2/24/19 CN) – Aki is dismissive of Bert’s interest in Hover-Surfing until he needs his hoverboard to help him defeat Drill Man.

 

“All Good in the Wood” (3/1/19 app, 3/3/19 CN) – Mega Man copies Wood Man’s abilities and gains his paranoia just as Suna and Ashley needs his help to stop their science project run amok.

 

“Fire Man in the Hole” (3/1/19 app, 3/10/19 CN) – When lava blocks their exit during a fight, Mega Man and Fire Man work together to get to safety.

 

“A Split End” (3/1/19 app, 3/11/19 CN) – Cut Man has become a barber, but a customer complaint sends him back over the edge into supervillainy.

 

“All Play and No Work” (3/1/19 app, 3/12/19 CN) – Mega Man hangs out with Chaotique to relax until she frames Bert for theft.

 

“More More More!” (3/1/19 app, 3/13/19 CN) – Mega Man copies Guts Man’s schematics to beat him, but ends up acquiring a voracious appetite as the Robot Masters erect a wall through the city.

 

“Blast Resort” (3/1/19 app, 3/14/19 CN) – Blasto Woman tricks Mega Man into helping her steal an EMP device, which she promptly uses on him to hand him over to Obsidian.

 

“Too Much is Never Enough” (3/1/19 app, 3/15/19 CN) – Mega Man has his schematic safeguard removed so he can carry more, but he becomes moody and overloads as a result.

 

“The Bluster Bunch” (3/1/19 app, 3/24/19 CN) – Mega Man battles Air Man to stop him from ruining his siblings’ work.

 

“It’s Chemistry, Man” (3/1/19 app, 3/31/19 CN) – The new chemistry teacher proves a boon when Chemistry Man attacks and turns robots into other metals.

 

“Flower Power” (3/29/19 app, 4/7/19 CN) – Mega Man pursues Wood Man who has taken a Corpse Flower that is stinking up the entire city and giving Mega Man an allergy attack.

 

“Enemy of My Enemy” (3/29/19 app, 4/14/19 CN) – Unable to talk sense to Namagem, Mega Man teams up with Fire Man to take him down.

 

“Old School” (3/29/19 app, 4/21/19 CN) – Chaotique crashes a school assembly to steal a device that can make things vanish and make the school disappear.

 

“This Is Not a Drill” (4/26/19 app, 4/28/19 CN) – Mega Man goes on patrol after a fight with Dr. Light and ends up having to stop Drill Man from destroying a tunnel his father is working on.

 

“A Man Man for All Seasons” (4/26/19 app, 5/5/19 CN) – Man Man causes Mega Man’s systems to be gummed up by the Hoover Gang, leaving him unable to transform.

 

“Change the Charge” (4/26/19 app, 5/12/19 CN) – A blast from Elec Man causes Mega Man to take everything literally again and leads to him helping Elec Man carry out his task.

 

“Hide and Secrets” (4/26/19 app, 5/19/19 CN) – Using Wood Man’s schematics prompts Mega Man to try and get the Mega Key to use against Namagem.

 

“Make the Cut” (5/20/19) – An exhausted Mega Man must protect Suna and Ashley from Cut Man.

 

“Panic in the Lighthouse” (5/21/19) – Obsidian convinces Chaotique to invade the Lighthouse and steal the Mega Key to get back at Mega Man.

 

“The Gauntlet Part I” (5/22/19) – Obsidian and the Robot Masters attack the Lighthouse, but the Lights stand together to defend the Mega Key.

 

“The Gauntlet Part II” (5/23/19) – Mega Man combines all of his schematics to take on a powerful form to defeat Obsidian once and for all.

HISTORY OF MEGA MAN

 

Mega Man is a gaming franchise developed by Capcom. The series centered on the titular little blue robot boy who had a blaster mounted on his arm. He was created and named Rock by benevolent roboticist Dr. Thomas Light as a lab assistant, along with his “sister”, Roll, and their robot dog, Rush. Additionally, humanoid robots known as the Robot Masters were created by Dr. Light to assist humanity in the year 20XX. However, Dr. Light’s rival, Dr. Albert Wily, reprogrammed several of Dr. Light’s robots to assist him in taking over the world. Reluctantly, Dr. Light converted Rock into Mega Man in order to stop Wily and the renegade robots.

Dr. Light and Mega Man.

By the mid-1980s, Capcom had established itself as a leader in the arcade game market. However, they were looking to expand their operations from arcade games and ports to original games made specifically for the Japanese home console market. They created a small team of only six people tasked with creating a game that would set itself apart from their previous arcade offerings: director Akira Kitamura, producer Takashi Nishiyama, programmer Nobuyuki Matsushima, and artists Yasuaki Kishimoto, Naoya Tomita and Keiji Inafune. That game would end up becoming Mega Man.

Mega Man in-universe schematics.

Unlike other games whose concepts were basically decided by a single person, Mega Man was instead a collaboration between all involved. However, Kitamura did come up with a particular set of rules that governed the game’s overall design that he came to while playing different games and studying what they did there:

1.      All of the sages should be cleared within an hour and offer some kind of replayability.

2.      Players should be able to select whatever stage they liked in whatever order they wanted.

3.      Weak little enemies should appear in waves of 3 or 4, avoiding mixing up enemy types whenever possible. Each member of the wave would have a different difficulty in being defeated, with the last one being the easiest to skew the player’s perception of the game’s overall difficulty. Enemy placement and terrain would determine the difficulty of each area. 

Cut Man, the original hero of the series.

            Originally, the Robot Master that became known as Cut Man was envisioned to be the protagonist of the series. Kitamura imagined being able to use the boomerang-like scissors on his head to cut down enemies and obstacles during progression. Gradually, more and more Robot Masters with varying abilities came to mind, and he decided instead of limiting the player to one power, they should be able to take the ability of all the defeated Robot Masters. A system was then put in place inspired by the game “Rock, Paper, Scissors” where certain Robot Masters would be more vulnerable to the powers of another (or empowered by them, depending). Along with Cut Man, the other featured Robot Masters were Elec Man (electricity), Fire Man (fire), Bomb Man (bombs), Ice Man (ice), and Guts Man (super strength). 8 were originally planned, but memory limitations forced them to stick with 6. Additionally, there were two other robots to face—Yellow Devil and Copy Robot—and a boss rush before getting to Wily himself.

A cavalcade of robots and sceintsits.

            The designs for the robot characters came from anime influences; in particular, Mega Man largely looked like Astro Boy while Roll was based on the titular character from Candy Candy. Mega Man’s initial blue coloring was selected simply because blue had the most variations available on the Nintendo Famicom’s (also known as the Nintendo Entertainment System) limited palette that allowed the sprite’s movements to show clearly, and it was neither an aggressive nor weak color. Matsushima, inspired by Tokusatsu action shows, came up with the idea that Mega Man should change color based on what Robot Master ability he had equipped (after the notion of showing the icon of the weapon on his helmet had to be abandoned). The designs for Dr. Light and Dr. Wily were based on Santa Claus and Albert Einstein, respectively.

Mega Man using Cut Man's ability.

            When coming up with Mega Man’s name, the options of “Mighty Kid”, “Knuckle Kid” and “Rainbow Man” (based on his color changing) were considered. Ultimately, they decided on a music motif for the names (you noticed their names were Rock and Roll, didn’t you?), and called him Rockman. Music was also key in the game’s experience, courtesy of the score composed by Manami Matsumae. She created thematically appropriate songs for each Robot Master’s stage while only limited to three notes at any one time. She was also responsible for creating the game’s sound effects.

            Rockman hit store shelves on December 17, 1987 in Japan. The game was a run and gun side-scrolling platformer where the player had to blast their way through waves of enemies and maneuver across treacherous terrain to reach the Robot Master at the end and acquire their power. Unlike Rock’s primary weapon, the Rock Buster (or Mega Buster), the Robot Master powers had a limited ammunition and needed to be replenished via random item drops by defeated enemies. Players could select any level in any order, and even revisit completed levels. Revisiting Elec Man’s stage, for instance, awarded Rock with a platform generator known as the Magnet Beam. Defeating all 6 Robot Masters unlocked a 7^th stage where Rock encountered the Robot Masters again, two new Boss fights, and Wily himself.

The legendarily bad American box art for Mega Man.

            Capcom’s sales department didn’t have faith in Rockman’s ability to sell, but their minds were soon changed by its performance in Japan. An American localization was quickly commissioned, with Capcom’s then-Senior Vice President Joseph Morici having the name changed to Mega Man because he didn’t like the original title, and it was felt American children would be more interested in the game if called that. Additionally, new box art was quickly whipped up within 6 hours that has gained infamy in gaming circles for not only its poor quality, but its inaccuracy. The art featured a wildly disproportioned older Mega Man rather than a boy, in yellow and blue and holding a gun. It would become known as one of the worst game covers of all time, and Inafume has blamed it for the game’s relatively poor North American performance. That, coupled with minimal advertising, meant it relied on word of mouth to eventually become a sleeper hit.

            While sales didn’t meet Capcom’s expectations, they allowed the crew to develop a sequel. Mega Man 2 released on December 24, 1988 in Japan, retaining many of the core elements of its predecessor and beginning the trend of 8 Robot Master bosses. New features included an Energy Tank used to refill Mega Man’s health at any time and a password system that allowed players to save their progress. The game ended up a huge success, going on to sell over 1.5 million copies worldwide and being critically praised by gaming publications. Even the North American release received better-looking box art (although still featuring Mega Man holding a gun).

The ever-expanding Mega Man franchise.

            Mega Man had gone on to become one of Capcom’s top (though often neglected) franchises, boasting 11 entries in his main series along with several spin-off series and appearances in other games. It was only natural that he would soon make his leap into other media—and Saturday mornings…