Get Your Weapons Ready: Mega Man (NES)

by Philip J Reed

Originally I had planned on doing a series of articles discussing, rating and ranting about each batch of weapons we get to play with in the Mega Man Classic series (and maybe X as well). Then Redmage1987 started his own series discussing individual weapons, and it was awesome. That doesn’t prevent me from wanting to push forward with my own ideas/format/string of errors you will all point out in the comments, but I did want to say that I don’t intend to steal Redmage’s thunder (beam).

AHAHAHAHA ahem.

I think there’s a good reason that the Robot Master weapons are getting such attention from the fans, now that they have a chance to write for The Mega Man Network; they– along with the sets of new levels and music– are what helps to define each of the games as a unique experience in itself. While Mega Man hasn’t seen much evolution in terms of his move set (a charged shot here, a slide there), the weapons that he accumulates with each game represent an incredible variety and versatility.

With this series, I intend to look at each group of Robot Master weapons by game, as well as any utilities Mega Man can (or must) pick up along the way. The idea is to not only catalog them, but also appraise them. That is why each of the Robot Master weapons will be discussed in three ways:

Firstly, there will be a rundown of the facts, such as the color scheme Mega Man wears when using it, the number of shots allowed on-screen at a time, and whether or not the weapon continues forward after hitting an enemy, which I refer to here as “piercing.”

In this section I will also use my fantastic, incredible, totally incontestable MS Paint skills to chart the “path” that the projectile takes once it’s fired. In these admittedly rough diagrams, red indicates the path of primary damage, green indicates the path of secondary damage, and blue indicates a path of no damage.

Secondly, each weapon will be rated on a scale from one to ten in the following categories: Ammo Consumption, Usefulness, and Awesomeness. Ammo Consumption refers to the cost per use of each weapon, and it’s rated more on value than quantity. Usefulness rates each weapon on how frequently or likely it is to be used, and Awesomeness is a very scientific category that I couldn’t even begin to explain to you (but I will try below). These quantifiable categories will then be “totaled” to provide an overall picture of how each weapon stacks up, both here and in the series in general.

Finally, I will discuss how each weapon operates in the hands of the Robot Master that originally possessed them. In the first Mega Man game, there’s overall very little difference, but in later titles– starting with the next, actually– the weapons wielded by the Robot Masters differ substantially from the way they are adapted by Mega Man’s Variable Weapon System. As such I will also discuss why Mega Man’s version is either superior or inferior to the original, and itemize any additional attacks the Robot Master has outside of his main weapon (and collision, which is treated as a given).

One quick note: The reason I don’t discuss “Power” as a quantifiable attribute is simply that there’s no standard by which it can be measured. Any given weapon can be extremely powerful against certain enemies, and weak to the point of insignificance to others. Since each weapon is only as good as its context, and since that context is always changing, there was really no way to discuss it in a uniform, concise way.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy, and will stick around as we tackle the entire Classic series. Be sure to tell me how wrong I am about everything in the comments below.

Mega Buster
Color Scheme: Standard
Secondary Benefits: None
Weapon Type: Shot
Piercing: No
Passes Through Walls: Yes
Uses With a Full Charge: Infinite
Number on Screen: 3

Path: Straight to edge of screen.

Ammo Consumption: 10+
This will be the only weapon that receives a 10+ ranking for ammo consumption, and as you might guess that’s due to the fact that there isn’t any. There are other weapons in the Classic series that will likely receive 10s, so the “plus” qualifier here meant to take it out of direct comparison with those. The Mega Buster carries through the entire Classic series as the permanent assurance that Mega Man will never be left completely defenseless.

Usefulness: 5
Appropriately enough, the Mega Buster gets a perfectly average rating in terms of usefulness. Its shot is relatively weak and the projectile is tiny, but that’s balanced out by the fact that you can have three of them on the screen at a time, as well as the fact that it will always have ammunition. It’s exactly the kind of weapon suited to being your starter; it can keep enemies at bay, but its relative weakness encourages you to find smarter and better ways around the obstacles you’ll face. It’s also the first thing new players will ditch as soon as they collect a Robot Master weapon, for better or for worse. In the right hands, the Mega Buster can be all you need to make it through this game and most others in the series (barring a handful of forced Robot Master weapon usage in each), but if you don’t take that time to master it, it serves as only the first rung on your offensive ladder.

Awesomeness: 3
It’s not particularly awesome to spray fragile little egg-shaped pellets everywhere. Its unlimited ammo means there’s little to lose by peppering the air around an enemy and hoping for the best, which is probably how most players use it. It’s a trusty side-arm (so to speak) that’s always available to fall back on, but unless you’re one of relatively few players who are skilled enough to make it through entire games with it, failing to miss shots and generally picking off enemies like a badass, the Mega Buster, on its own, looks less awesome and more like a dinky pea-shooter that barely keeps you out of death’s jaws. And that’s usually what it is.

Total: 18

Rolling Cutter
Color Scheme: White/Grey
Secondary Benefits: None
Weapon Type: Blade, Boomerang
Piercing: Yes
Passes Through Walls: Yes
Uses With a Full Charge: 28
Number on Screen: 1

Path: Rounded return. Can be manipulated by moving while or after firing as the Rolling Cutter is programmed to always return to its user.

Ammo Consumption: 9
It’s a 1:1 ratio here, with one use draining one bar of ammunition. That might sound like it’s worth a perfect rating, but since a few other weapons actually use up less than one bar, this one comes in at a solid nine instead.

Usefulness: 9
The Rolling Cutter is incredibly useful for a weapon that doesn’t have any additional, utilitarian functions. That’s due to the fact that it can hit targets multiple times, thereby dealing extra damage to Robot Masters and other bosses that aren’t, strictly speaking, weak to it. Its arcing path is also impressively tall, allowing Mega Man to take out enemies on platforms above him or at ground level, where his Mega Buster wouldn’t normally reach. There is a “dead zone” in the center of the arc, but it’s small enough that very few enemies would even fit in it, and for them to remain still while the Rolling Cutter arcs around them would be an unlikely occurrence. You can only have one Rolling Cutter on the screen at a time, and it is rather slow, but its wide area of damage and ability to hit the same foe multiple times more than make up for that.

Awesomeness: 10
Shredding enemies with a razor-sharp blade that comes back to you like a loyal puppy is pretty much as good as it gets. The Rolling Cutter both looks great and is a blast to use. Plus it’s got the best weapon name in the game.

Total: 28

When Used By Robot Master: Essentially the same, with greater control over direction. The Rolling Cutter is probably the closest Mega Man ever gets to a perfect 1:1 translation with his Variable Weapons System. While Cut Man does seem to be able to aim it and is certainly more nimble (resulting in trickier arcs to anticipate), the weapon still functions the same way, right down to there being only one in play at a time, and even if we take the ability to aim as a significant enough difference, it doesn’t particularly overshadow Mega Man’s version of the weapon, which already does a great job of hitting enemies above and below him without needing the additional control.

Better or Worse With VWS: Same
Robot Master’s Other Attacks: None

Thunder Beam
Color Scheme: Yellow/Grey
Secondary Benefits: Terrain Clearance
Weapon Type: Electric, Multidirectional
Piercing: Yes
Passes Through Walls: Yes
Uses With a Full Charge: 28
Number on Screen: 1 use, 3 beams

Path: Winds straight ahead in a tall, irregular pattern, simultaneously straight up and straight down in shorter, tighter patterns. Like the Rolling Cutter, there are gaps in the arc that can allow an enemy to slip through. Unlike the Rolling Cutter, however, this seems to happen more frequently here, perhaps owing to the fact that it’s difficult to anticipate the exact path the electricity will take.

Ammo Consumption: 10
As with the Rolling Cutter, one usage of the weapon deducts one bar of ammunition, however the Thunder Beam earns a 10 due to the fact that you get three Beams for the price of one Cutter. It’s great value.

Usefulness: 10
Extremely useful. The main Beam cuts a wide enough path that it can hit enemies too low for the Mega Buster to reach, and the fact that it has such a great coverage area makes this an excellent “panic button”; as long as the enemy doesn’t detonate and damage you in that way, a last-second Thunder Beam can help you avoid taking hits from enemies that are about to hit you. What’s more, it usurps the Super Arm’s only job by clearing out Guts blocks, rendering that weapon redundant. Also, while it’s clearly cheating, we do need to mention the infamous “pause glitch,” which allows the Thunder Beam to destroy almost any enemy in the game– bosses included– with a single shot. What’s more, activating the Thunder Beam on a busy screen introduces slowdown, which can allow you to more carefully platform your way over and around obstacles. You can’t get much more useful than this. Pretty much anything you want, the Thunder Beam has it (or can cheat it).

Awesomeness: 10
You fire thunder (well, lightning…) from your fingers, head, and toes, and the frequency of ammo drops means you can more or less carry this through the entire game uninterrupted once you get it. It’s unquestionably the coolest weapon in the original batch.

Total: 30

When Used By Robot Master: Pretty much the same, which is problematic for Mega Man because the Thunder Beam is a monster. It can be difficult to dodge for the same reasons that it’s so useful to you. The only real differences come with Elec Man’s speed, and the fact that his Beams “break” if they hit you, whereas yours will only break when they destroy a Guts block. Also, Elec Man’s version of the weapon does not destroy those blocks in his room, so there’s a difference right there. It’s not much, but it does make Mega Man’s version slightly better.

Better or Worse With VWS: Better
Robot Master’s Other Attacks: None

Ice Slasher
Color Scheme: White/Violet
Secondary Benefits: Freezes enemies and fire traps
Weapon Type: Ice, Freeze, Shot
Piercing: Yes
Passes Through Walls: Yes
Uses With a Full Charge: 28
Number on Screen: 1

Path: Straight to edge of screen.

Ammo Consumption: 9
Another 1:1 ratio here, which gives some indication of how little thought the developers gave the actual “value” of the weapons in this first Mega Man title. Granted, having a large number of Ice Slashers in your clip doesn’t matter much, as they don’t deal damage to anything apart from Fire Man. This means that if you use an Ice Slasher you must either then avoid the frozen enemy or switch to another weapon in order to destroy it, meaning you shouldn’t be using more than one on any given enemy or obstacle anyway.

Usefulness: 4
Its ability to freeze the traps in Fire Man’s stage– and later Wily’s Castle– earns it a decent rating for usefulness, even though it’s overall pretty unhelpful. With the exception of the Big Eye enemies, pretty much anything that you can freeze can be defeated or avoided more easily without bothering. It can be helpful to stop the respawning of enemies, such as the Killer Bullets and Flying Shells, but this is definitely a weapon with limited application.

Awesomeness: 3
It deals damage to exactly one enemy in the game, and that’s not very awesome. Mega Man is a Super Fighting Robot, after all, not a Super Sneaky Pacifist. It’s also not “awesome” in any way to freeze obstacles instead of learning how to handle them. Sure, we’ve all taken the easy way out, and there’s no judgment intended there… but when it comes to awesomeness, mastering the challenges is always more impressive than circumventing them.

Total: 16

When Used By Robot Master: Ice Man is allowed to have multiple Ice Slashers on the screen at a time, which is at least numerically superior to Mega Man’s version of the weapon. Of course, that alone wouldn’t help much, since your version of the weapon doesn’t deal damage, whereas his does. That’s a significant mark in his favor, and against the VWS imitation. Using the Ice Slasher in mid-air also causes Ice Man to halt in his ascent or descent. This would have been a handy secondary feature of the weapon and would increase its usefulness as a platforming assist tool, but it does not carry over. His Ice Slashers do move more slowly, however.

Better or Worse With VWS: Worse
Robot Master’s Other Attacks: None

Fire Storm
Color Scheme: Mustard/Brick
Secondary Benefits: Functions as temporary shield for emergency situations, can land multiple hits
Weapon Type: Fire, Shot, Shield
Piercing: Yes
Passes Through Walls: Yes
Uses With a Full Charge: 28
Number on Screen: 1

Path: Fireball straight to edge of screen, temporary circle of flame around Mega Man deals secondary damage.

Ammo Consumption: 9
The Fire Storm gets one use per bar of ammo, and that’s a pretty great ratio.

Usefulness: 7
The Fire Storm is a good weapon, but its benefits are at least slightly balanced out by some weaknesses. For instance, the best thing about it is the fact that it deals two forms of damage simultaneously; it fires a projectile forward, and also creates a temporary “shield” effect around Mega Man that deals collision damage, and can hit enemies too low for the Mega Buster to reach. However in the case of the projectile, there can only be one on the screen at a time, meaning each shot needs to count lest Mega Man be left helpless until it scrolls off. In the case of the shield, it’s very temporary, and also imperfect, as enemies can still sneak through in the short time that it’s active. Still, these aren’t so much problems as they are considerations.

Awesomeness: 8
Dressing like a fireball while shooting a fireball and being surrounded by fireballs leaves Mega Man just one application of gaudy makeup short of deserving a heavy metal album cover.

Total: 24

When Used By Robot Master: This is a very interesting case for this game, as the Fire Storm that Mega Man gets bears almost no resemblance to the Fire Storm that Fire Man uses. For starters, Fire Man’s projectiles are much taller, leave a flaming patch beneath Mega Man for lingering, secondary damage (a crude “burn” effect), and allow more than one shot on the screen at a time. Additionally, Fire Man’s version of his own weapon lacks its signature flourish: The shield effect. Therefore, it’s hard to say which of the two weapons is better since they’re so different, but I’ll give the nod to the VWS imitation, simply because it has the shield. If it were more in line with the actual weapon Fire Man uses, it would be little more than a one-directional Thunder Beam, rendering it immediately redundant. The lack of multiple shots at a time and the burn effect are overshadowed by the addition of the much more useful shield.

Better or Worse With VWS: Better
Robot Master’s Other Attacks: None

Hyper Bomb
Color Scheme: White/Lime
Secondary Benefits: Can be lobbed down from higher platforms
Weapon Type: Explosive
Piercing: No
Passes Through Walls: No (though the blast does)
Uses With a Full Charge: 14
Number on Screen: 1

Path: Tall arc, bounce followed by shorter arc, rest. Hyper Bomb does no damage until it explodes after resting, at which point it deals damage in a tight radius from its resting place. Due to the bouncing nature of the explosive, its path can be manipulated by jumping or lobbing down from high places.

Ammo Consumption: 5
Relatively speaking, this is a high-cost weapon for the first Mega Man game, which is preposterous. One Hyper Bomb requires two bars of ammunition. With its unwieldy nature, difficult to predict bounce and forced timer, the last thing the Hyper Bomb needs is a discouraging rate of ammo consumption.

Usefulness: 1
Despite the fact that Bomb Man is meant to be a “ground disruption” robot, the Hyper Bombs fail to disrupt even the breakable blocks in this game, which is a shame, because using these bombs for their ostensible main purpose would have made more sense than the Thunder Beam as a secondary way to deal with Guts blocks. While there are sometimes enemies on lower planes that could conceivably be taken out with a skilled toss of the Hyper Bomb, the time it takes to do so– and the fact that you can only have one Hyper Bomb on the screen, necessitating a lengthy waiting period if you miss– means you’re always better off switching to the Thunder Beam and taking the enemy out that way. Even Guts Man, the slowest Robot Master in the game, often finds it easy to hop away before the thing explodes. What’s more, Guts Man takes extra damage from the Mega Buster, making the Hyper Bomb’s one potential application moot. It’s truly worthless.

Awesomeness: 1
There is nothing awesome about standing around helpless while a big cartoon bomb politely waits for everything to get out of the way before exploding.

Total: 7

When Used By Robot Master: The Hyper Bomb explodes on impact when Bomb Man uses it, making it a far more impressive and deadly weapon than what Mega Man gets. Bomb Man also seems to have greater control over the aim, but considering the fact that he can jump much higher, it’s fair to assume that if Mega Man could achieve that degree of verticality he’d be able to manipulate the arc in similar — if not quite as precise — ways, so on that point it’s a draw. Overall, though, the immediate explosion makes all the difference.

Better or Worse With VWS: Worse
Robot Master’s Other Attacks: None

Super Arm
Color Scheme: White/Brown
Secondary Benefits: Clear terrain
Weapon Type: Close-range projectile
Piercing: Yes
Passes Through Walls: No, but shards do
Uses With a Full Charge: 14
Number on Screen: 1

Path: Block arcs a short distance into the air and forward, dealing damage along the way. Once it strikes a solid surface, it splits into several smaller chunks that then fan out ahead, dealing secondary damage of their own. However, since Mega Man’s initial throw of the block covers most of the distance to the end of the screen, this secondary spread is limited in its usefulness unless the block is interrupted along the way.

Ammo Consumption: 1
This ranking of 1 deserves explanation, because while it’s impossible to “run out” of Super Arm in any one stage– barring the phantom Guts block glitch in which Mega Man lifts a duplicate of the block, leaving the original in place– it’s also wholly dependent on there being blocks around to lift and throw. For that reason, the ammo consumption issue must be rated on a different scale; the primary consideration is not how many bars of ammo you have left, but rather how many throwable blocks can find in any given area. As the answer to this is nearly always 0, and the few times it isn’t there are either very few of them or no enemies to attack with them, this absolutely deserves the lowest rating.

Usefulness: 1
It’s really not very useful at all. While it’s true that there are blocks that need to be removed in Wily’s Castle, that’s more of a case of the problem existing just to give Super Arm something to do, since it’s not needed– or even helpful– anywhere else. The fact that the dearth of existing “ammunition” for the weapon renders it unusable in most areas of the game means there’s no way for players to familiarize themselves enough with it to enjoy it, and since you can’t fire the Mega Buster while it’s equipped, it’s never worth switching to this weapon until you’re about to use it… and then it’s imperative that you switch right back. The fact that there is a purpose to it– artificial though it is– would bump this up to a two or a three if not for the fact that the Thunder Beam can take out those blocks as well, making this as useless as the Hyper Bomb.

Awesomeness: 6
Unlike the Hyper Bomb, though, the Super Arm is damned cool. Its functionality might be severely limited, but when you can use it, it’s pretty cool to see teeny tiny Mega Man hoisting massive blocks of stone above his head and hurling them away without breaking a sweat. Of course, the fact that you can only look that cool in a very limited number of rooms in the game means we can’t give it top marks… but it’s pretty darned cool while it lasts.

Total: 8

When Used By Robot Master: Guts Man has the virtue of not relying on external ammunition, being able to shake down blocks from above. However it’s worth noting that Robot Masters in general are not beholden to the same ammo restrictions as Mega Man, so this shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. Regardless, in Guts Man’s hands the weapon behaves identically to the version approximated by the Variable Weapons System, so with that being the only difference, it’s easy to identify Mega Man’s version as inferior.

Better or Worse With VWS: Worse
Robot Master’s Other Attacks: Ground pound

Magnet Beam
Color Scheme: Standard
Utility Type: Stationary Platform Generator
Passes Through Walls: No
Uses With a Full Charge: 14
Number on Screen: 5

Path: Straight ahead. Longer Beams are generated by holding down B, shorter Beams by tapping it. As you will note in the screenshot, the Beam actually begins behind Mega Man, and not at the tip of his Mega Buster.

Ammo Consumption: 8
While the Magnet Beam has the excellent benefit of allowing longer Beams without an increase in ammo consumption– speed the only reason to use shorter beams– it is easy to chew through it without realizing. This is hardly the fault of the weapon, but the fact that you can end up stranding yourself with no ammo above the abyss is the only thing that holds it back from a higher score.

Usefulness: 8
Skipping disappearing block sections? Check. Skipping Foot Holders? Check. Skipping the falling fire traps? Check. Climbing over Big Eyes? Check check check. It’s an extremely useful utility that can be used anywhere for myriad purposes, but the fact that it appears in front of you robs it of the potential usefulness of catching you during a fall. This would have been a nice feature not only over the game’s bottomless pits and spike sections, but when trying to reach 1-ups while falling in Ice Man’s and Guts Man’s stages, as the game’s sometimes ropey physics can prevent you from slipping through and grabbing them normally. The Magnet Beam also allows you to climb so high that the game registers it as a death, which tosses a slight wrench into its usefulness.

Awesomeness: 2
It’s always more awesome to master a jumping puzzle on your own than to avoid it, and the Magnet Beam can often seem like a cowardly way around them. Of course, with randomized or preposterously tight obstacles (such as the Foot Holders and the falling fire traps respectively), it’s sometimes worth looking a little less awesome for the sake of not tearing the hair out of your head.

Total: 18

Next time: Mega Man 2. You’ve probably never heard of it.

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Philip J Reed of Noiseless Chatter is a member of The Mega Man Network’s User Content Submission System, and the views expressed here reflect the views of the authors alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Mega Man Network.