Mega Man 4

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Mega Man 4
Developer(s)	Capcom
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Designer(s)	Yoshinori Takenaka, S. Kobashi and Keiji Inafune (planner)
Platform(s)	NES/Famicom
Release date	JPN December 6, 1991 NA January, 1992 EUR January 21, 1993
Genre(s)	Platform
Mode(s)	Single player
Media	4-megabit cartridge

Mega Man 4, known as Rockman 4 Arata Naru Yabō!! (ロックマン 4 新たなる野望!!, Rokkuman Fō Arata Naru Yabō!!^?, Rockman 4 A New Ambition!!) in Japan, is a video game from the Mega Man Classic series. The game was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America and Europe, and for the Famicom in Japan.

It was somewhere between the release of this game and the previous one that Capcom considered taking the Mega Man series to the SNES, its unveiling closely approaching at the time. However, they changed their minds and put it off for approximately four more years, until the release of Mega Man 7.

Story

In the year 20XX, one year after the events of the Gamma Project and Dr. Wily's overtaking of it (and Wily's supposed "demise"), Dr. Light received a letter from a mysterious Russian scientist named Dr. Cossack claiming that he was the superior robot engineer in all the world. Cossack stated further that he would unleash his army of robots upon the world as a "test" for Light to see which of them was the best. Of course, Light would not stand for this, so once again, peace in the world was shattered, and Mega Man was called forth from his search for Wily (whom they had yet to find) to go after Cossack's Robot Masters.

This time, however, Dr. Light had an upgrade ready for Mega Man's Buster. He had modified it into what he calls the "Mega Buster," which allows him to charge/focus energy into powerful plasma shots.

Upon defeating the eight Robot Masters designed by Cossack, Mega Man makes his way to the scientist's icy fortress and fights his way through the stronghold and ultimately defeats him, but before he delivers the coup de grace, Proto Man teleports in with Cossack's daughter, Kalinka. Dr. Wily had kidnapped Dr. Cossack's daughter and forced him to build an army of robots to fight Mega Man in order to win his daughter back. Now that his plan had been revealed by Proto Man, Dr. Wily stepped out of the shadows and Mega Man gave chase to Wily's lair, where he fights through the newly built Skull Castle, and this time defeats Wily, though he again does not manage to capture him.

Gameplay

The fourth iteration features several enhancements and changes from previous games, including:

• The ability to charge the Buster, which is now called the "Mega Buster" ("Neo Rock Buster" in Japan).
• Two new utilities for Mega Man to use: a grappling hook (called the Wire Adapter) and a balloon dispenser (called the Balloon Adapter). This is the only game to date that has these items.
• A helper robot, Flip-Top (Eddie), who will appear in certain stages to give the player a random item.
• This was the first game in which passwords no longer saved your accumulated Energy Tanks.
• Like Mega Man 2, this game also has a section with automatic scrolling, where the player has to keep up with the scroll. This is in Stage 3 of Dr. Cossack's Citadel.
• There is a glitch in the game in which the second continue points in the fortress stages (between the boss doors) sometimes don't work. This is the only game to have this glitch.
• When the Pharaoh Shot is being charged, a pinkish fireball appears above Mega Man and grows as the weapon is being charged; this fireball can hit enemies if touched and disappears upon doing so, but Mega Man can still fire another charged Pharaoh Shot when the player release the Fire button. It is unknown if this is a glitch or an intended trick within the game.

In addition, this game reveals for the first time the complete origin of Mega Man. In the English NES version and in the Anniversary Collection rerelease, Mega Man's original name is Rock like the Japanese version.

In this game, Mega Man is able to fire shots that are more powerful. When the player holds the button to fire the Mega Buster, Mega Man starts to glow. When the player releases the button, Mega Man fires a shot that is more powerful than his non-charged shot. This is the only NES game where the Mega Buster can remain charged even after being hit by an enemy. Although this was the first game with the Mega Buster, the shape of the fully-charged shots does not resemble the way it looked in later games. In fact, it looks more like a partially charged shot from the later games, with the partially charged shot in this game looking like just an enlarged regular shot. The "familiar" shape of a charged shot would first appear in the next NES Mega Man title.

Unlike Mega Man 2 and 3, the player can revisit previously completed Robot Master stages (as in the first Mega Man), but this time with the Robot Master's lair empty (first game in the series to do so). The player starts with three lives whenever he or she starts or resumes a game. The player can earn a maximum of ten lives.

This game features one of three instances in the Mega Man series where the side scrolling is steady and controlled by the computer, rather than the player. This takes place in the third stage of Cossack's Fortress. The second instance, which is significantly more limited, takes place in Mega Man 2 at the end of the first stage of Skull Castle II, where Mega Man is being chased by a large dragon which serves as the stage's boss. Also, in Rock Man & Forte, the start of Tengu Man's stage features an auto-scrolling screen.

The following Robot Masters appear in this game. The character designer is listed after the robot.

After defeating all the Robot Masters, Mega Man is forced to face what are considered to be the final bosses.

Development

This section requires expansion.

Reception

This section requires expansion.

Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• There are many parallels in this game with Mega Man 2, most of them musical. The fanfare to introduce each level, and the victory fanfare, are all nearly the same as in Mega Man 2. The other notable parallel is in both games, the last level of Wily's Fortress (and the game) is a simple L shape, with the battle against Wily taking place in a lab room that has been darkened. In Mega Man 2, this level features acid drops that are timed to be avoided simply by running steadily past them, while in Mega Man 4, this level contained robo-slugs (seen in Skull Man's level) that could be destroyed to recover weapon energy in preparation for the final battle. (Similarly, the last level of Mega Man 6 is in an L-shape, but features much more variety than the last levels of 2 or 4.)
• This is the last game in the NES series which features Mega Man's "throw" sprite when using some of his weapons (Rain Flush, Pharaoh Shot and Balloon). This sprite is absent from both Mega Man 5 and Mega Man 6.
• This game offers the greatest number of weapons for Mega Man to use in the original series.
• This is the last game in the original series to offer the Rush Marine adapter.
• Like all Mega Man games, the Robot Masters were based on designs submitted by Japanese children. Of particular note in this game is Dust Man, created by future Eyeshield 21 mangaka Yusuke Murata as his entry for the game. He would also create Crystal Man for Mega Man 5.

Port

This game was re-released for the PlayStation as part of the Rockman Complete Works series.A port of this version with less extra features was released PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, and Xbox in 2004 as part of Mega Man Anniversary Collection.

Links

• Complete video from Mega Man 4 on archive.org