Mega Man, also known as Rockman in Japan, first came to be in 1987, and since has become
one of Capcom’s biggest franchises, containing over 50 games across all consoles internationally.
That’s not even counting the comic books or animes either!
The protagonists of the franchise are a series of robot characters who take on the Mega Man
alias, which has expanded over centuries in the games.
So today, we’re taking a look at some of the variations of the initial hero with our
list of the top 10 alternate versions of Mega Man.
But before we begin today’s video, I want to give a huge shout out to Biggit for sponsoring
this video!
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Alright, now let’s get to our list!
10 Starforce Mega Man Star Force Mega Man comes from the Mega Man
Star Force anime and Rockman.EXE Operate Shooting Star, a game released in 2009 for the DS in
Japan that’s an advanced port of the first Mega Man Battle Network title that includes
extras like a crossover with the Mega Man Star Force.
Star Force Mega Man is also known as Shooting Star Rocketman, and is the EM Wave Change
of the human Geo Stelar and Wizard Omega Xis, registered under Project TC as number 3.
He’s got an array of equipment, like his visualize visor, which was the visualizer
with an EM Wave Change, and can analyze and display info about viruses and EM Bodies.
He’s got a wave toss device, which is designed to send and receive EM waves across short
distances, and can collect information about Noise.
He’s got a star force emblem, a card display and a mega arm.
9 Bad Box Art Mega Man Moving on to something more comedic at this
number, we have the Bad Box Art Mega Man, this unfortunate attempt at Mega Man box art
created in the US for the first Mega Man video game.
In Japan, it’s lovingly referred to as US Mega Man for that exact reason.
As you can see, he looks NOTHING like Mega Man, appearing like a middle aged dude with
a hand gun rather than a mega buster, in an ill fitting jump suit.
This spawned a few parody versions of Mega Man, including in Street Fighter X Tekken,
in which the character appears in the Secret Disk legendary hero from the Mega Man ZX Advent,
which continues the joke by calling him a hero who looks more like a coal miner in a
colourful outfit.
8 MegaMan Juno Mega Man Juno, called Rockman Juno in Japan,
is the final boss from Mega Man Legends.
He’s the bureaucratic unit in charge of installations in Kattlelox Island, and attempts
to purge all of the humans (called Carbons) on the island alongside Eden.
He has a very robotic personality, calm and polite on the outside, but strictly following
orders and vacant of emotion.
Eventually, this does change when he transfers over into a larger body, in which his rage
and desire for violence becomes more evident.
The character was locked inside of a sealed chamber for a least a century.
7 Mega Man?
Here we have a character from Mega Man Powered Up, a 2006 game for the Playstation Portable
that’s a remake of the original Mega Man title.
Mega Man ‘?’ Is a boss from the game that you cross paths with when playing with a Robot
Master on it’s own level.
Despite looking like the real Mega Man, this character isn’t; it was created by Dr Wily
as a means of impersonating the hero.
Mega Man ‘?’ Tries to impersonate the real mega man whenever you speak to him, trying
to convince you to join up with Dr Wily and him.
There’s also some speculation that the character could be related to Copy Robot; they are both
loaded with Mega Man’s data and have the same voice clips, and they both explode into
energy spheres when defeated, despite being different colours.
6 MegaMan.EXE MegaMan.exe is a version of Mega Man that
appears in all of the Mega Man Battle Network games, and has even appeared in the Mega Man
trading card game.
He’s the NetNavi operated by Lan Hikari, netnavi being short for Internet Navigator.
Created by Lan’s father, scientist Yuichiro Hikari, MegaMan.EXE is quite powerful, and
is a skilled virus buster.
And to make things even more intense; he’s actually Lan’s twin brother who had died
at birth via a rare heart condition; Lan’s father used his data to revive him as a NetNavi.
He’s incredibly loyal, even to the point of being willing to sacrifice himself to save
them, incredibly brave and hard working.
5 Mega Man ZX Series This Mega Man comes from the Mega Man ZX series
(hence the name), and is a specific type of Mega Man; a type that can activate a Biometal
and perform the Megamerge.
They’re also known as Chosen Ones.
So for context; the Mega Man ZX series debuted in 2006 on the Nintendo DS, and takes place
200 years after the events of the Mega Man Zero series, in which there is no longer a
difference between humans and Reploids, with the ‘humanoids’ becoming the norm.
Man and machine.So in other words, they’re the Mega Man versions of the future.
4 Mega Man X Mega Man X, commonly known as X, is the Mega
Man protagonist of the Mega Man X series.
He’s the first robot to possess sophisticated technology and behavioural adaptation, all
based off of designs created by Dr Light.
He’s able to make his own decisions without an limitations, and possessing sophisticated
reasoning capabilities.
The scientist who found X, Doctor Cain, was never able to fully analyze X’s system code
or other internal systems to better understand his functions, but he was still able to use
X as a precursor to every Reploid created afterwards, making X a proverbial father of
sorts.
But despite that, when Dr Light was alive, he feared that X may not have any moral programming
to dictate his actions, potentially making him a threat to the world.
So he sealed X away into a special capsule in order to test his systems and ensure that
he could determine right from wrong; a process that would take over 30 years, and Light would
not live long enough to see the results of his testing, leaving a warning on his computer
in his lab to anyone who may come across X.
3 Mega Man Volnutt Volnutt first appeared in Mega Man Legends,
and has been featured in a slew of other Mega Man games since.
Once upon a time, he was known as Mega Man Trigger, a purifier unit on the synthetic
planet of Elysium.
He’s a character who is seen to have lived two very different lives, something that makes
him unique compared to others who have been Mega Man.
As Volnutt, he doesn’t like fighting, and sees conflict as a last resort.
He’s a Digger in search of adventure, too, and develops a deep bond with Roll, who clearly
has romantic feelings for him.
2 Shadow Mega Man Shadow Mega Man has only appeared in one game;
Mega Man 9.
He is an enemy that appears in Plug Man’s stage, and looks identical to Mega Man except
for his slightly more sinister colour palette.
He runs faster than Mega Man, but can’t jump as high and can’t shoot, yet is still
incredibly difficult to kill, which causes Mega Man to resort to tactics of trickery
in order to prevail.
This includes tricking Shadow Mega Man to run into spikes or off of ledges, something
that can be considered a delicate maneuver since those two things can also be the end
of Mega Man himself.
1 Rockman Shadow Rockman Shadow is a character who has only
appeared once outside of Japan, in one of the Mega Man comics from Archie Comics.
Aside from that, he’s a character who strictly exists in the canon outside of North America,
and is the leader of a group called the Dimensions.
He’s also a baddie, and is the boss in the game Rockman and Forte Mirai kara no Chosensha
(which is a pronunciation I definitely just butchered).
He’s first seen attacking Symphony City, aiming for both humans and robots.
Mega Man, or rather rockman, is eventually able to defeat him with rockman shadow admitting
that he was a failed prototype that was abandoned.
He’s killed, and Mega Man buries him; something he’s only done with one other character
in the entire franchise.
There we have it friends!
What other variations of Mega Man should have been on our list?
Once again, major shout out to our friends at Biggit for sponsoring this video.