When did Mega Man's character first appear?
ProtoMan, the ancestor of the little blue suit, is controlled by Tsuko's friend Eric Carter who, instead of wielding a laser cannon, is equipped with a sword and shield. In fact, this reddish-toned character - who first appeared in the 1990 video game Mega Man 3 - becomes a playable subject during some sequences.
All original Mega Man titles were side-forward, i.e., the user moved his character from left to right to advance. The main character had to defeat a series of increasingly difficult enemies, and many of them could only be defeated by a weapon collected from another enemy.
The origin of Mega Man is interesting, as it is one of those few characters that, like Mario, has passed the test of time.
Mega Man began attracting followers in the United States, where the game market is very different from Japan. At the same time, Rockman - the Japanese version - was moving towards Famicom systems in Japan, but he came with a different name and a more attractive, or perhaps more commercial, cover.
A robot created to fight for justice
Mega Man represented an intense and original action platform on the Nintendo Entertainment System, NES, to which consumers flocked. Capcom, as a developer, was already prolific with the system and had a crop of excellent games (Ghosts 'n' Goblins, Trojan...) at the time it released Mega Man. The truth is that the first game was only a small success. The real breakthrough would come with Mega Man 2.
Mega Man, the story of a child robot forged by Dr. Thomas Light to end the plague of rebellious construction robots freed and controlled by his renegade assistant, Dr. Wily, opened up a new world for Capcom. The largely non-linear gameplay and the innovative idea of stealing weapons from defeated bosses were what set this series up for longevity.
It is currently Capcom's most prolific franchise with more than 50 titles on multiple systems that have sold a total of more than 33 million copies (updated to the second financial quarter of 2018/2019).
Mega Man is still alive today. There has been no official conclusion yet, though the creators don’t seem to be planning a further edition. Despite that, Mega Man 11 was released in October 2018. The saga continues.
