"Mega Man" is the name of a video game character, and the games in which he stars. These games are of an action platform genre, all 2D side-scrollers (with the exception of the oddball ones such as Mega Man Soccer). They were created by the company Capcom. The series actually originated in Japanese under the name "Rockman" and was later ported to English as "Mega Man."
The first Mega Man game was released on Nintendo's home console entertainment system (NES). It possessed graphics superior in detail compared to other NES games at the time, unmatched play control, and a unique twist on the usual side-scrolling action genre. Not only could you choose what levels to tackle in what order (instead of having to play them in a predetermined order like most games), Mega Man games also allowed the player to acquire an enemy's weapon by defeating him. With the inclusion of passwords in the second game, the player could also save his game and pick up about where he'd left off, instead of having to play the entire game from the beginning each time.
After five NES sequels (which is a record all in its own; most game series don't get past the second or third installation), Capcom spawned a new version of Mega Man for their first Mega Man game on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). This series was called Mega Man X and again possessed incredible graphics and play control. Although the style of game is about the same as the NES ones, the storylines of the X games are completely separate from the original Mega Man, and the X games run in parallel with the original series.
A short while later, the first original series Mega Man game (Mega Man 7) was released for the SNES. This turned out to be the only original series Mega Man to be released on the SNES; Mega Man 8 came out simultaneously on the Saturn and PlayStation.
Currently, there are six NES Mega Man games, five Game
Boy games, three SNES X games, two Mega Man SNES games, three original
PlayStation games and a couple of ports, two Saturn versions of two PSX games,
one Game Gear game, and one Mega Drive (Genesis) game. There are also two arcade
games, a few Mega Man guest appearances in non-Mega Man games, two Tiger
Electronics handheld games, and two or three Japanese games that were never
released in English. (Luckily, unlike the Final Fantasy series, with Mega Man we
English speakers aren't missing much.) Third parties have created a few other
Mega Man games, but most of these were lacking in quality.
That's over 20 titles that are unique, not counting the same title ported to various machines. This is quite a lot for one series of video games!
Counting only those on console systems, here is a list of games to date:
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Japanese (NTSC) |
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Date |
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English (NTSC) |
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Date |
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English (PAL) |
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Date |
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Rockman |
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1987 |
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Mega Man |
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1987 |
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Mega Man |
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1987 |
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Rockman 2 |
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1988 |
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Mega Man 2 |
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1988 |
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Mega Man 2 |
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1989 |
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Rockman 3 |
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1990 |
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Mega Man 3 |
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1990 |
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Mega Man 3 |
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1990 |
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Rockman 4 |
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1991 |
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Mega Man 4 |
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1991 |
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n/a |
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-- |
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Rockman 5 |
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1992 |
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Mega Man 5 |
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1992 |
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n/a |
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-- |
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Rockman 6 |
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1993 |
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Mega Man 6 |
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1993 |
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n/a |
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-- |
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Rockman 7 |
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1995 |
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Mega Man 7 |
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1995 |
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Mega Man 7 |
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Rockman 8 |
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1996 |
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Mega Man 8 |
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1997 |
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Mega Man 8 |
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1998 |
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Rockman World 1 |
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1991 |
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Mega Man I |
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1991 |
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n/a |
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-- |
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Rockman World 2 |
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1992 |
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Mega Man II |
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1992 |
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n/a |
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-- |
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Rockman World 3 |
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1992 |
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Mega Man III |
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1993 |
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n/a |
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-- |
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Rockman World 4 |
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1993 |
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Mega Man IV |
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1993 |
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n/a |
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-- |
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Rockman World 5 |
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1994 |
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Mega Man V |
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1994 |
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n/a |
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-- |
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Rockman X |
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1993 |
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Mega Man X |
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1993 |
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Mega Man X |
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Rockman X2 |
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1995 |
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Mega Man X2 |
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1995 |
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Mega Man X2 |
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Rockman X3 |
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1996 |
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Mega Man X3 |
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1996 |
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Mega Man X3 (PSX) |
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Rockman X4 |
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1997 |
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Mega Man X4 |
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1997 |
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Mega Man X4 |
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1998 |
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Rockman Board |
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1993 |
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n/a |
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-- |
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n/a |
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-- |
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n/a |
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-- |
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(Best of) Mega Man |
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1993 |
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n/a |
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-- |
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Rockman's Soccer |
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1993 |
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Mega Man Soccer |
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1994 |
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n/a |
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-- |
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Rockman MegaWorld |
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1993 |
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n/a * |
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-- |
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The Wily Wars |
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1994 |
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Rockman Battle & Chase |
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1997 |
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n/a |
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-- |
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Mega Man Battle & Chase |
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1998 |
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Rockman Dash |
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1998 |
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MegaMan Legends |
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1998 |
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MegaMan Legends |
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1998 |
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Superadventure Rockman |
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1998 |
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n/a |
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-- |
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n/a |
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-- |
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Rockman & Forte |
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1998 |
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n/a |
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-- |
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n/a |
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-- |
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Misadventures of Tron |
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1999 |
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Misadventures of Tron |
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2000 |
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n/a |
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-- |
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Rockman Battle & Fighters |
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2000 |
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n/a |
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-- |
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n/a |
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-- |
* - Mega Man -- The Wily Wars was available through the Sega Channel in North America but was never released on cartridge there.
