Getting Geeky: Mega Man 10 Image Analysis

A few days ago IGN posted some new videos and screens of Mega Man 10. One of the things about the screens is that they featured borders which will fill in the dead space on 16:9 aspect televisions. As it turns out, though, these borders reveal a bit of information when you look at them up close! Namely, it shows off quite a few, if not all of the game’s stage enemies in one of the borders (not including midbosses). Here is the image in question:
Using my geeky Mega Man powers, I intended to analyze each of the enemies, showing which stages they appear in, which previous robots they may be based on, and pointing out the enemies we still haven’t seen in previous media. Afterwards, I’ll point out a couple more interesting images. This post may get a little weird with its layout, so please forgive any strange text formatting. Now, let’s get geeky!

For the first batch of images, we have the pitching robots from Strike Man’s stage. Both will lob a baseball at you that arches downward and back up. However, a trait unique to the blue variety, the ball will fly at Mega Man after arching. Next we have a couple of Joes, who appear to be modeled after MM9’s Machine Gun Joe, but now they are green and blue instead of red. It’s unknown if they act any differently, and from screens we know the green variety appears in Nitro Man’s stage. Curiously, the blue one seems to have no shield! Is this a more aggressive Joe that doesn’t bother to defend itself? Or is it possible now to separate the Joes of their shields somehow? Finally we have the ball basket robots also found in Strike Man’s stage. The blue ones launch normal, spherical balls, while the red ones launch more oblong, football-like balls which have a more unpredictable bouncing pattern.

In this next set, we have the much expected return of the Metall (or Met, Metool, Mettaur, what have you). Given its stance, it appears to be based on Mega Man 2’s Neo Metall. So far we know these appear in Commando Man’s stage. The purplish robot appears to be a descendant of the Springer enemy line. This one fires shots erratically when it springs, and we know it’s found in Strike Man’s and Blade Man’s stages. Next is a shrimp-like enemy that’s probably based on 2’s Shrink. It’s in Pump Man’s stage. Then we have the annoying parachute bombs that have been seen flying out of pits in Commando Man’s stage. Finally, a never before seen enemy. This drill-like robot appears to be based on 2’s Mole enemy.

In this image we we appear to have a new Adhering Suzy, spotted in Chill Man’s stage. It’s unknown yet if it has any differences to the original. The beetle enemy next to it appears in Commando Man’s stage. These seem to drop bombs on mines which open pits in the stage’s quicksand. The enemy next to it appears to be an overgrown Telly, which shows up in Pump Man’s stage. From screens and videos, we can tell that these try to affix themselves into pipes, and then spit the sludge flowing through them at you. In the below row is a hopping ax enemy called Merserker (perhaps a combination of massacre and berserker). This shows up in Blade Man’s stage. The next enemy is possibly related to the Gabyoall, and appears in Solar Man’s stage. From MM10’s promotion trailer, we see that it fires guided missiles. Finally we have a cannon enemy, which in video footage appears to function exactly the same as 9’s Classical Cannon. It’s design is a little different, however.

Here we have a handful of new enemies, but we’ll start with the known ones. Of course Shield Attacker makes its return. This green model has been seen in Commando Man’s and Chill Man’s stages, with a blue variety in Sheep Man’s stage. Next we have a mine like device, which as mentioned above can be exploded by the flying beetle enemy in Commando Man’s stage. I believe footage shows it can also detonate by touch. Next is this odd purple block enemy, which appears in Solar Man’s stage. According to Nintendo Power, these apparently re-spawn incessantly, making them annoying to deal with. The remaining three enemies are all never before seen. The swallow-like enemy on the top which appears to be holding some kind of capsule is likely based on the Pipi line of enemies. The other two, however; just looking at them doesn’t give me a clear idea on what they are or what they do, so they’re largely a mystery for now.

Here we have a couple more Metalls. Metalls couldn’t fly until 3’s Metall DX, so I’m curious if this is still of the same variety seen above. These flying Metalls are seen in Nitro Man’s stage. Next we have the slug-like Metalls, which were mentioned back in Nintendo Power. These appear in Pump Man’s stage, and shoot sludge that slows you down. From IGN’s Pump Man gameplay video, their attack timing seems a little more tricky. The red claw-like robot appears in Commando Man’s stage. It’s what’s at the bottom of the pits that can be blown into the quicksand, and it will continually spit out projectiles if uncovered. The strange face robot we’ve seen plenty now, it’s a locker door robot that appears in Strike Man’s stage. The flying cannon enemy appears in Blade Man’s stage. From the recent IGN footage, we know it fires at you the moment you appear in its line of sight. And the mouse cursor robot, which is definitely one of the more unique enemies, appears in Sheep Man’s stage.

Finally we get to the other side. Going down the first line, we have a fairly hard to make out enemy. However, this seems to be a miniature version of the large crusher enemy (shown later). You can see it very briefly in the MM10 trailer in Chill Man’s stage. Below that is a spider enemy that seems similar to 9’s Deispider, but it’s a little smaller and moves a lot faster. It appears in Pump Man’s and Blade Man’s stages. The cannon roader enemy I’ll get back to. The next enemy in the middle appears in Sheep Man’s stage, it looks kind of like a flying brain. What’s interesting about this enemy is that it can latch onto equipment. Below it’s in a mechanism that can fly around erratically and drop bombs, as seen in the 22nd anniversary special. It also appears to have a gunner form, though this wasn’t shown previously. The last column has the soccer ball platforms from Strike Man’s stage. The thing at the top, however, hasn’t been identified before. I’m not really sure if it’s an enemy or another kind of platform.

Let’s get back to that roader enemy, that appears in Nitro Man’s stage. Here we can see it doesn’t have the cannon, but below that is a small flying cannon enemy, which reveals this enemy’s trick: the cannon can be separated from it. It is probably possible to destroy one or the other, which appears to be why Mega Man is attempting to avoid it in the footage we’ve seen so far. Below that is an enemy that appears in Chill Man’s stage, which creates snowman-like heads it can throw. In the middle is a flower-like cannon which has recently been seen in screens of Solar Man’s stage. It appears to charge up and fire a laser. Below that is a large, security-like robot. It has been seen in Nitro Man’s stage though I’m not really sure what it does. Next is this strange pink ball. This has not been seen before, so it’s a wonder what it might be. But below that we have the return of the beloved Count Bomb, which appears in Nitro Man’s stage. Three are shown (including the next image), having a timer of 5, 3 and 0. Does this mean there are Count Bombs that explode as soon as you jump on them? That’d be devious.

And our final enemy image. here we have the tower-like enemies from Sheep Man’s stage that fires rebounding sound waves. It can also be used as a platform. Below that is the tried and true Changkey, which has been making a recent comeback in MM games. This appears in Solar Man’s stage of course. Next we have the typical giant crusher enemy that tries to jump on you. So far these have been seen in Commando Man’s and Chill Man’s stages, but I imagine they’ll be seen a lot more. And finally the large truck enemies, which appear in Nitro Man’s stage. These appear to be used as platforms if you can jump on them fast enough.

The next image we analyze is the border that seems to appear during regular gameplay, that shows numerous sprites of Mega Man and his pals. Incidentally, I suspect this border will change to Proto Man sprites if you play as him instead.

There’s really not much to read from this board, but two of the sprites in it really stand out. Here they are:

It’s kind of hard to fix the color, since there’s clearly a blue tint on them. But it’s easy enough to make out that Tango is there. Having made a sole appearance in Mega Man V for Gameboy (and Rockman & Forte on Wonderswan, if you’re in Japan), could this cat finally be coming back? If so we can finally see what those Gameboy sprites would look like in color, officially. Now to Tango’s left is something I didn’t even notice until I was cutting out the Tango sprite. Here we have a sprite of Mega Man, who appears to be sneezing. If anything, this may be indicative of a plot twist wherein Mega Man himself gets infected with Roboenza! Or, maybe he’s just allergic to cats.

Finally, one last image just for fun, since I bet a lot of you figured this one out already.

Here’s the cityscape from the opening of Mega Man 10. Did you ever notice that the building on the far right is the same building Mega Man is standing on in the opening from Mega Man 2? Probably, but if not, consider your mind blown!

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