Mega Man 10 Robot Masters

Mega Man 9 and Mega Man 10 are made in the 8-bit aesthetic that was popular with the NES from 1985 until about 1994. Indeed, 1994 marked the date Mega Man 6 was released, one of the last NES games sold in the United States, and the last time before 2008 that we saw an 8-bit Mega Man title. Why is this important? Because Capcom released Mega Man 9 and 10 to please their old-school fans. And Mega Man 10 has an even bigger piece of fan-service that only the truest of Mega Man fans will appreciate -- the Archives. Fought on three separate occasions during your run through the initial stage of Dr. Wily's castle, the Archives are a computer system that hold the powers and abilities of Robot Masters from the Mega Man games of yore. In the first lair, you'll fight Elec Man (Mega Man), Wood Man (Mega Man 2), and Gemini Man (Mega Man 3). In the second lair, you'll face off with Ring Man (Mega Man 4), Napalm Man (Mega Man 5), and Flame Man (Mega Man 6). And in the third and final lair, you'll deal with Slash Man (Mega Man 7), Frost Man (Mega Man 8), and Tornado Man (Mega Man 9). And yes -- Slash Man and Frost Man have all-new, redrawn 8-bit sprites (as they hail from a 16-bit and 32-bit game, respectively). Now that's fan service. Thanks, Capcom!

You may be surprised to run into a boss lair almost immediately upon beginning the stage, but that's all part of the design here. This opening stage is Dr. Wily's Weapons Archive, and each of the three boss lairs you'll encounter here are the ultimate piece of fan service. Much like the "Dark Man" robots from Mega Man 3, the archive computers here will summon forth Robot Masters from games past. Mega Man 3's Dark Man summoned forth all of Mega Man 2's Robot Masters, but this time around, things are a little more clever. Instead of focusing solely on a single game (like Mega Man 9, for instance), the designers of Mega Man 10 thought it would be a lot more fun to have a single Robot Master from each of the nine previous core Mega Man titles make an appearance. This first room has representation from Mega Man 1, 2 and 3. The next room has representation from 4, 5 and 6, and the final room has representation from -- you guessed it -- 7, 8 and 9. But for now, let's focus on these little robots that are summoning forth the past, and deal with them as best we can.

The original Mega Man is represented here by Elec Man. Mega Man 2 throws Wood Man at you. And Mega Man 3 brings forth Gemini Man. But you won't fight them per se. Instead, you'll see a graphical representation of them above, as their powers are funneled through small pink-colored robots that fly around the room, mimicking those Robot Masters' signature moves. But there's good news, too, because some of these guys don't pack quite the wallop as their original versions did. For instance, Elec Man's Elec Beam, which was a devastating weapon in the original Mega Man, one that would cut Mega Man down in mere seconds, only does standard damage to him here. Make Elec Man fall quickly with the use of Nitro Man's Wheel Cutter.

Wood Man is well-known as being the first Robot Master to use a "shield" weapon, and many Robot Masters after him (Skull Man, Star Man, Plant Man, Junk Man, Jewel Man and Pump Man) all have similar weapons designed after his Leaf Shield. When Wood Man calls forth his Leaf Shield, he's invulnerable to attack, and leaves fall from the sky in an attempt to hit you, if his launching of his shield at you doesn't do the trick first. When he's vulnerable without his shield, however, lay into him with Blade Man's Triple Blade. And finally, Gemini Man doesn't pack the punch he used to either. After all, Gemini Man split into two separate robots back in Mega Man 3, but now, he's limited to the use of his pesky weapon, the Gemini Laser. As the beam bounces around the room, equip Nitro Man's Wheel Cutter once more, and let him have it.

Now that you're in the lair of the second set of old Robot Masters, it's time to get down to business. Here, you'll do battle with Ring Man (Mega Man 4), Napalm Man (Mega Man 5), and Flame Man (Mega Man 6). As was the case in the last boss lair, these guys will appear and disappear rather randomly, but you'll always know which guy you're fighting based on the hologram picture above the machine. The small pink robots will again mimic some of the fighting style of the Robot Master in question, though it won't be a picture-perfect representation, which works out well for you... otherwise, this would be the hardest stage in Dr. Wily's many castles' history. Follow all of that?

Ring Man is definitely the easiest of the bunch to take out, for he fights in a completely formulaic fashion. Ring Man's Ring Boomerang was actually an extremely useful weapon back in Mega Man 4, but now, all you have to do is dodge it as it's thrown to avoid being damaged. Ring Man will toss the Ring Boomerang out at you, and it will come back at him as he rises up to the top of the screen (so be careful that it doesn't hit you on the way back). He'll then chuck another Ring Boomerang, come down to ground level, go to the other side of the screen, and repeat the process once more. While he's easy enough to take out with the Mega Buster, you can make extremely quick work out of him by opting to use the Solar Blaze instead. It's not the easiest weapon to hit him with, but it does the trick.

Napalm Man from Mega Man 5 seems daunting, and in Mega Man 5, he certainly was. But this more one-dimensional robotic simulation of Napalm Man is merely a shadow of who it's trying to mimic. Napalm Man's Napalm Bombs shoot out of his Commando Man-like arm cannons, causing explosions on the ground. Getting hit directly with the bomb will damage you, but so too will getting hit by the explosion, so keep moving back and forth, letting Napalm Man jump overhead as you lay into him with his weakness, the Rebound Striker. And finally, Mega Man 6's representative, Flame Man, can be easily killed with -- you guessed it -- the Water Shield. Dodging Flame Man's flaming arm cannon shots is easy, as they move extremely slowly, but his Heat Man-like attack that sends flames streaming out of the ground can be more difficult to avoid. Don't worry about any of that though -- run up to Flame Man and let him have it with the Water Shield, and he won't last more than a few brief moments.

The final batch of Robot Masters you have to deal with, representing Mega Man 7, 8 and -- yes, indeed -- 9, are the most difficult you'll have to face. That's because two of them have difficult-to-dodge attacks, and the third guy... well, he's just a massive pain in general. Though they will, as always, appear in a certain order, let's go ahead and deal with them in sequential order based on their games. Mega Man 7's representative, Slash Man, is a melee-inspired Robot Master whose weapon, the Slash Claw, can do massive damage to Mega Man. Here, he can be easily avoided if you are constantly mobile and anticipate his attacks, but when he descends downward from the archive computer, expect that he's going to attempt to pounce right on top of you. The bad news is that his weakness is the Chill Spike, and you'll need to have him run directly into the spikes themselves for you to do massive damage (just like when you used this weapon on Nitro Man). Since this is admittedly difficult to do, you may opt to simply use your Mega Buster instead.

Just like Slash Man, Mega Man 8's representative, Frost Man, has a completely redrawn 8-bit sprite to bring him out of the 32-bit era and back to the 8-bit era (Slash Man was from a 16-bit game on the SNES, and also has a redrawn sprite). Frost Man is the most annoying of this bunch of Robot Masters to defeat, because his attack, the Ice Wave, is extremely difficult to avoid (you'll need to time your jumps carefully to do so). Making matters worse is that Frost Man's weakness, the Commando Bomb, only does optimal damage if it explodes near him, catching him in the blast radius. Just like with the Chill Spike and Slash Man, hitting him directly with the bomb is a useless endeavor, since it does as much damage as the base Mega Buster attack does. So, try to make quick work of him, so that the potential damage caused by his Ice Wave is kept at a minimum.

And finally, we come to Tornado Man. Tornado Man was in Mega Man 9, Inti-Creates' and Capcom's initial 8-bit resurrection from back in 2008. Tornado Man is definitely the easiest of this bunch of Robot Masters to defeat, though he can be a bit annoying as well, as his weapon, the Tornado Blow, is a hard attack to avoid. While fighting Tornado Man in Mega Man 9 meant that the Tornado Blow may send you careening upward to a ceiling of instant-death spikes, that's not the case here. Therefore, the Tornado Blow does some rather straight-forward damage. The key to defeating Tornado Man rests with Sheep Man's Electric Wool. Once again, you don't want to hit him with the cloud directly, but rather have it go over his head, unleashing electricity on top of him from above. A single well-timed cloud will strike Tornado Man twice with lightning, taking him out rapidly. If you're unsuccessful in doing that, however, you may want to switch over to the arm cannon to finish him off.