Video Game / Mega Man Rock Force

A fan-made Mega Man (Classic) game by GoldwaterDLS. It stars Mega Man and the Rock Force, a group of Robot Masters formed to ensure there would always be someone to fight against evil should Mega Man be unavailable. When eight Robot Masters suddenly rebel against their employers for unknown reasons, the Rock Force and Justice Man, a robot Dr. Light created to aid Mega Man in training the group, were sent out to neutralize the rebels, only to mysteriously disappear. Mega Man thus decides to get into action himself in order to stop the rebels, rescue the Rock Force, and investigate what happened to Justice Man (an earlier incident regarding Shock Man six months ago may have something to do with it)...

The Robot Rebels consist of:

• Crypt Man: Weak to Photon Flare and Dive Missile, holds Knight Man captive, gives you Crypt Cloak.
• Pulse Man: Weak to Virus Outbreak and Rolling Cutter, holds Nitro Man captive, gives you Pulse Stopper.
• Virus Man: Weak to Charade Clone and Fire Storm, holds Dive Man captive, gives you Virus Outbreak.
• Boom Man:^*Formerly Fuse Man Weak to Shock Gauntlet and Thunder Beam, holds Bomb Man captive, gives you Phantom Fuse.
• Photon Man: Weak to Phantom Fuse and Hyper Bomb, holds Fire Man captive, gives you Photon Flare.
• Shock Man: Weak to Circuit Breaker and Wheel Cutter, holds Elec Man captive, gives you Shock Gauntlet.
• Circuit Man: Weak to Pulse Stopper and Tornado Blow, holds Cut Man captive, gives you Circuit Breaker.
• Charade Man: Weak to Crypt Cloak and Knight Crush, holds Tornado Man captive, gives you Charade Clone.

It was once possible to download the game here, but as of 2023 the domain has expired, so it's unknown when or if it will be restored by GoldWaterDLS. In the meantime, mirror sites host the latest version of the game.

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Mega Man Rock Force has examples of:

• A Day in the Limelight: The player can invoke this with the other Rock Force members in later versions, since they become playable upon being rescued. The cutscenes are even modified to focus on the Robot Master in question.
• Acrofatic: Pulse Man is pretty big, yet just as agile as his other Robot Master contemporaries. Also, in the revised ending, he has gotten the opportunity to earn the hilariously incongruous job of a fitness instructor.
• Action Prologue: The intro mission takes place six months prior to the main plot, during an incident with Shock Man at the hydroelectric plant in which Justice Man is wounded in action.
• All There in the Manual: Not just the story, but also Robot Master specifications that give hints to their weaknesses. Even the Fusion Masters get backstories that reveal that they were all once functioning Robot Masters but were decommissioned and destroyed due to various issues (War Man being too good at his war game simulator, for example), as do the two Robot Masters fought in Justice Man’s fortress.
• All the Worlds Are a Stage: In the earlier builds of the game, entire segments from the first 8 Robot Master stages were recycled and stitched together to create the final level, with only the visuals changed to give the stage a unifying theme. Later versions of the game have reworked the last level to be better about this: instead of copy-pasting level chunks together, the new final stage combines the most notable stage elements from the intro stage and 7 of the first 8 Robot Masters stages^*The shot-deflectors from the intro stage, Crypt Man's hands, Pulse Man's accelerators and teleporters, Virus Man's disappearing blocks, Fuse Man's minecarts, Photon Man's rising blocks and solar panels, Shock Man's conductive floors, and Circuit Man's bulb/switches and weaves them together to create new, interesting challenges for the player and give them a nostalgic feeling without making them re-tread old ground.
• An Ice Person: Polar Man, the second fortress boss.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • In the rematch room, a Mutual Kill still counts as defeating the Robot Master. You still lose a life in the process, but you don't have to try to defeat the Robot Master again (unless you run out of lives in the process).
  • You can exit the stage you're currently on at any time, even if it hasn't been cleared. Also, you can save your progress on the current fortress stage if you run out of lives (with cleared ones indicated by icons of the defeated Robot Masters).
  • The game has settings to make the game easier or harder. Among the default settings are spikes dealing only half your character's health instead of outright killing him. Further, by default, the stages have four checkpoints each instead of the usual two, which compensates for the fact that the stages in this game are longer than those in a normal Mega Man game. Charade Clone also invokes this, by allowing Mega Man to use an Expendable Clone of himself to get past trickier hazards.
• Arrange Mode: Supplementing the aforementioned options to lessen game difficulty are options that increase the difficulty, like turning spikes into Mega Man-style spikes that instakill you even with Mercy Invincibility, removal of checkpoints, and making bosses tougher with higher damage and harder patterns.
• Ascended Extra: The Rock Force members, and multiple times actually:
  • Since their original appearances has them as one-time bosses, having to rescue them made them actually plot-important.
  • In the early builds of the game, the Rock Force didn't do anything past one cutscene after their rescue. Later builds now feature Rock Force assistance during the levels after the first eight robot masters are defeated.
  • Now, in the latest build, the Rock Force are now completely playable characters, complete with their own abilities and physics.
• Ascended Fridge Horror: The game directly tackles the consequences of the robot expiration law introduced in Mega Man 9, specifically in the 2015 update and onwards.
• Auto-Scrolling Level: The final stretch of Terror Man's level.
• Badass Cape: Crypt Man sports one, which can be used to block your character's shots.
• Badass in Distress: The Rock Force.
• Barrier Warrior:
  • Virus Man gives you the Virus Outbreak, but Virus Man himself never really used it until the latest game build where it is now one of his attacks.
  • There's also Pulse Man, who gives you the Pulse Stopper. It's a big ring that can be fired anywhere (basically yet another nerfed version of Metal Blade), but if you hold the fire button, the ring will cover Mega Man, and will absorb bullets.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: The rogue Robot Masters come off as this. At first.
• Big Boo's Haunt: Crypt Man's stage is...well, a crypt. Terror Man and Death Man's stages also have elements of this theme.
• Bittersweet Ending: Added in later updates: Although Justice Man is damaged beyond repair and is effectively dead, his cause opens Dr. Light's eyes into making things better for robots, and the Robot Masters (who'd have suffered his fate were it not for Mega Man and the Rock Force) are rebuilt and given better jobs and lives. In earlier versions, the ending was a sudden and unexpected bummer through and through.
• Bleak Level: Terror Man and Death Man's stages. Especially the latter, because it has no enemies at all.
• Boss-Only Level: Played with in regards to Death Man's stage: while no different in length, the only other things in it besides him are One-Hit Kill hazards.
• Boss Rush: Yet another given staple of a Mega Man game.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Sort of. Shock Man shocked Justice Man at the end of the intro stage, which rearranged his mental matrix and made him 'not the same'. This only happens in previous versions, though.
• Broken Pedestal: The Rock Force members take issue with Justice Man's change of heart to various degrees.
• The Brute: Flare Man, the combined result of Photon Man and Charade Man.
• Call-Back: In the latest version of the game, the Big Bad cites the "mandatory expiration" law from Mega Man 9 as a major motivation. Apparently, while the robots from that game (and also the Rock Force, according to the villain) were granted exemptions, the law itself still seems to be in force.
• Cerebus Retcon: Originally, the only reason that the Fusion Masters existed was to have Mega Man fight an additional set of bosses before confronting the main villain. They later received illustrations accompanied with bios that not only explain their purpose, but also some often depressing backstories.
• Checkpoint Starvation: Generally averted; by default, each stage, while longer than those of a typical Mega Man stage, has four checkpoints. You can lower the number of checkpoints to the more standard two if you wish, or you can fully invoke this trope by turning off checkpoints entirely.
• Climax Boss: Death Man, complete with his own boss theme.
• Controllable Helplessness: Virus Man's "infection" stage gimmick had shades of this in the first build, as it completely disabled weapons in addition to reversing the controls. Later builds only disabled the charge shot and special weapons, making it much more tolerable.
• Corridor Cubbyhole Run:
  • Shock Man's stage has an area where the water gets electrified, therefore your character must quickly get out of the water before the shock rods contact it.
  • Terror Man's stage has an area where a fast-moving wreckage of Wily Machine 4 flies over; you must hide in alcoves to avoid getting killed.
• Could Have Been Messy: The April 2015 update adds a scene to the prologue where Crypt Man is holding a press conference. During said conference, he confirms that, while his companions were a bit too..."zealous", no human suffered any injuries during their forced evacuation.
• Counter-Attack: This is pretty much the only way to hurt War Man, as he uses a shield that makes him invulnerable to damage, but puts it down when he gets up in front of you and attacks.
• Crazy-Prepared: Justice Man went to a lot of trouble to try and prevent anyone from stopping him. At first, he arranged to have the Rock Force captured. Then, he retrieved decommissioned robots that can be reactivated with combined energies in lieu of IC chips to help his cause, if the current Robot Masters get defeated. To top it off, he had a fortress set up in the event that the aforementioned plan managed to fail, complete with its own Robot Master guardians. Oh, and the other robots can regroup/be rebuilt there.
• Crossdresser: Occasionally, Charade Man's portrait will depict him as "Charade Woman" (in later updates, at least). But when selected and fought, he remains a Man. In the ending, he plays a woman in a play with Knight Man.
• Cryptic Background Reference: The reason why Shock Man initially went out of control hasn't been disclosed.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Despite being an adversary you have to fight, Crypt Man gives off this vibe in general. In the intro, he announces that he wished for a more peaceful solution, but that some of his associates were more aggressive. The first time you fight him, he'll likely give you a Life tank if you're not at full health. And in the ending, he runs a horror-themed park for charity purposes.
• Darker and Edgier: Out of every Mega Man fangame, this one has the most serious subject matter by far, even with the initial downer ending swapped for a Bittersweet Ending in later updates. The opening cutscene describes a robot going haywire at a location where humans are currently still located, some of the robot master backstories provided on various sites are depressing (the fusion robot masters exceedingly so), and the death of Justice Man is played completely serious and is the primary source of bitter in the bittersweet ending, with Mega Man questioning his role of a peacekeeper in the ending cutscene due to it.
• Deader than Dead: In earlier versions of the game's plot, Justice Man and all of the Robot Masters, which contradicts quite a few aspects of the Mega Man Classic canon, and even is contradicted by the game itself with the rematch room. The latest version of the game changes this so that this trope only applies to Justice Man, and even gives an explanation of why the trope applies to that character and not the others.
• Death Course: Pretty much what the entirety of Death Man's stage is. No enemies, just a plethora of One-Hit Kill hazards like Spikes of Doom and Bottomless Pits.
• Death Trap: Present in the first part of Crypt Man's level in a similar vein to Quick Man's stage's lasers. Terror Man's stage has one that looks like an inescapable spiked wall room that closes in. This is also the whole gimmick of Death Man's level.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Men that play women's roles is an old theater tradition, so seeing Charade Man do it in the stage select screen and the ending shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.
• Detachment Combat:
  • Virus Man can detach his upper body to attack you.
  • Plague Man loses his arms once he starts taking damage, which then become autonomous and leap around the place. He's formed from Pulse Man and the aforementioned Virus Man.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • Circuit Man's stage requires you to be able to shoot through walls for the lightbulb puzzle. However when playing as either Bomb Man or Nitro Man, who can't attack through walls, the lightbulb puzzle changes. Instead of shooting the lights to activate and deactivate certain blocks, they simply go on and off on their own, turning it into a timing based platforming section.
    • Similarly, both Bomb Man and Nitro Man are exempt from fighting the midboss of Pulse Man's stage, Tube Tank, because neither of them would be able to hit it through the wall, and Bomb Man is unable to attack at all while holding onto a ladder. This goes for Tube Tank's reappearance in the final stage as well.
  • The cutscene that plays after you defeat the last normal 8 bosses changes on depending who you defeat, as it determines who you rescue. The same goes for the conversations with the Final Boss, both after the battle against the Disc-One Final Boss and before the final battle itself: The dialogue changes depending on who you fight them with.
  • Eight of the stages contain an appearance by a member of the Rock Force. If you go through the stage as the member of the Rock Force that would normally appear in the stage, the cameo won't happen, and if the cameo would remove an obstacle that the regular character actually can't remove by himself, the obstacle will not be there.
  • Speaking of these cameos, with some of them^note Bomb Man, Knight Man, and Fire Man, if you do something to obviate their help (such as destroying the barriers the Rock Force members normally would, such as with Phantom Fuse), they will react to it. This isn't true for all such appearances; for example, Tornado Man doesn't mind if you don't use his Tornado Blow to get a powerup.
  • If you defeat one of the first eight Robot Masters as a member of the Rock Force, the Rock Force member will switch out for Mega Man, who will absorb the power of the Robot Master you just defeated, so the Power Copying isn't short-circuited by beating a boss with the wrong character. It also means that it's Mega Man who rescues the last member of the Rock Force, so the conversation here still makes sense.
  • If you screw up one of the puzzles in Port Man's stage, you will be allowed to retreat to the previous room to reset the puzzle.
  • Upon rescuing the final Rock Force member from the first eight Robot Masters, you'll see a cutscene of Mega Man talking to the most recently rescued Robot Master. Since most of them are as tall or taller than Mega Man, his sprite during the cutscene is him looking up to them. However, Knight Man gives Mega Man a courteous bow, and so Mega's sprite changes so that he still makes eye contact with him.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Dive Man's Psycho Crusher move grants him a short period of invincibility. Learning to make full use of these invincibility frames can make Dive Man a far more effective character to play as, in or out of the water.
• Difficulty Levels: This game offers a wide variety of how you want to play the game. There are settings for spike damage, level difficulty, number of checkpoints, invincibility frames, knockbacks, slide length, damage taken, and number of lives. Yes, you can make this game easy as a breeze, or you can make it Nintendo Hard.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Death Man. Immediately after his defeat, you get an Info Dump from the real villain of the piece.
• Doppelgänger Attack: Sort of. Using Charade Clone, the clone will explode if you ram it into an enemy.
• Driven to Suicide:
  • Implied with Shock Man. His unexpected malfunction meant he had no workmates afterwards due to mistrust, so he wants to pursue a new line of work. Or simply be was scrapped. The latter may be a factor in him joining the robot rebels.
  • After Flare Man was robbed of the chance to participate in the First Annual Robot Tournament against Mega Man, then made to do the lowly work of guarding an oil refinery in a desert, he felt so ashamed that it's rumored he crushed his own IC chip before going offline.
• Drought Level of Doom: Death Man's stage has a variation on this; there are no items to pick up, but there are also no enemies, only spikes that are set up to deplete your supply of extra lives.
• Easy Levels, Hard Bosses: Like in Mega Man & Bass, depending on which member of the Rock Force you're using, this trope can be in full effect. Certain members, such as Elec Man, can run circles around most of the levels in the game. However, if they're facing a Robot Master who isn't weak to their natural weapon, expect to be in for a long, slow battle against them, since their attacks only deal one damage, and most of them have a delay to them unlike Mega Man's Mega Buster, in addition to the fact that they can't use other Robot Master weapons like Mega Man.
• Electrified Bathtub: Done in the water area of Shock Man's stage with electrical rods in the background. Make sure you're outside the water when they touch the water!
• Escort Mission: Two stages, both added in April 2015:
  • Thrill Man's stage, where a large "balloon" of your character's head appears over your character. If it gets hit by anything harmful, the counter in its eyes goes down, and your character also dies if it hits 0. Shooting causes the balloon to move upwards.
  • War Man's stage has you escort an allied Hopping Machine, needed to activate switches at the end. It can be told to stop moving by shooting at it. However, it's very prone to falling into Bottomless Pits.
• Expendable Clone: Charade Clone. If it touches anything harmful, it dies. If you press the attack button while controlling it, Mega Man teleports to the clone...and the clone explodes.
• Face–Heel Turn: Justice Man undergoes this after being incapacitated by Shock Man. It wasn't the shock that damaged his thought circuits, however (at least in the newer version).
• Fish People: The aptly-named Fish Man is based on a fish.
• Flawless Victory: Beating one of the bosses (except the final boss, or the boss rematches) without taking any damage in the fight will give you one of four parts required to obtain Beat.
• Flunky Boss: Terror Man and Fish Man can summon spiders and exploding fish, respectively.
• Foreshadowing: Terror Man's stage is a robot junkyard. This becomes significant later on, given Justice Man's motives.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Death Man's portrait directly stares at the player.
• Fusion Dance: Done twice once you beat all the Robot Masters. Which robots fuse with which depends on who you defeat last. The second time, the four Fused Masters fuse once more to form Death Man.
• George Lucas Altered Version: Starting from the 2015 update.
• Gimmick Level: Almost all of the levels have some sort of gimmick to go along with the Robot Masters. Taken to its logical conclusion with Death Man, who, true to their name, has a stage consisting solely of One-Hit Kill hazards.
• The Grim Reaper: Death Man is essentially a robot version of this, complete with cloak and scythe.
• Grave Robbing: Invoked by two of the enemies in Crypt Man's stage, one being a bandit in a fedora that descends via a rope and the other a grave digger that throws stuff at you.
• Greater-Scope Villain: In a rare case of an abstract concept being one, the expiration law is what caused the robots to revolt in later updates.
• Guns Akimbo: Pulse Man has twin cannons on his arms. Strangely, both of Pulse Man's fusions avert this trope.
• HA HA HA—No: In the updated epilogue, this is Auto's response to Nitro Man asking if the oil Auto requested was for him.
• Hijacked by Ganon: For once, no, Dr. Wily is not behind the events of this game at all. This was a conscious decision by GoldwaterDLS because he found it hard to believe that all the world's problems are caused solely by one man. As a result, not only is Wily not involved in the plot at all, but he doesn't even appear in the game.
• Hitbox Dissonance: Averted in one case with Sniper Joes. While in most classic Mega Man games, Sniper Joe is completely invincible from the front while his shield is up (with the exception of being able to shoot past the shield in some titles), in Rock Force, the shield's hitbox only includes the shield itself. As a result, the shield doesn't completely cover the Sniper Joe from the front, so you can kill a shielded Sniper Joe with the Mega Buster by shooting Joe in the head (very difficult, as only the top of the helmet is vulnerable) or the foot (much more exposed than the head, if you can manage to aim that low).
• Interesting Situation Duel: Pulse Man's miniboss, Tube Tank, is fought while anyone except Bomb Man or Nitro Man is on a ladder, similar to Gazamir from Mega Man Zero 2.
  • The fight against Power Man has him in a sealed room over the normal boss area that Mega Man is limited to. Mega Man can't shoot him through normal means (beside using special weapons) and Power Man himself is limited to a weak energy gun. However, heavy machinery lies in the room that Mega Man is in; Mega can bounce his buster shots off the machines to hit Power Man, and in return Power Man can control the machines to attack Mega.
• Interface Screw: Virus Man's level is filled with...well, viruses that can reverse your controls and force you to use uncharged buster shots if they hit you. Virus Man himself can also do it.
• Invisibility Cloak: Crypt Cloak, which causes certain enemies to stop noticing Mega Man and allows Mega Man to walk on transparent blocks, as well as giving Mega Man a Shockwave Stomp.
• I Just Want to Be Badass: This is Polar Man's motivation for being a rebel, and it's the most humble one out of every enemy Robot Master in the game; he eventually grew weary of his mundane and daily snow removal job, not helped by the fact that other ice-themed robots achieved great things and explored the world. So, when Justice Man came up to him and offered the chance to become "something great", he didn't even hesitate to accept.
• Killed Off for Real: This happens to Justice Man no matter what update of the game it is, even when Mega Man tries to save him; his IC Chip is just too damaged to be salvaged. This also was the fate of the other Robot Masters, but as this didn't make sense, especially since the Rock Force is composed of characters Mega Man defeated, it was scrapped and they live through the ending.
  • The Fusion Robot Masters can be considered this pre-game, with their integrated circuits destroyed.
• Knight of Cerebus: Whenever Justice Man appears in a scene, things immediately take a turn for the serious.
• Lantern Jaw of Justice: Justice Man's official illustration shows that he sports a small one, naturally.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: The robot rebels' serial numbers are JMN-001 to 019, representing their sworn allegiance to the game's true villain, Justice Man.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Whenever the stage select screen loads in later updates, Charade Man's portrait changes drastically. Also, when you select his stage, there's a chance that when his level loads and the Robot Master gets to do his opening animation, he misses his jump and falls off the screen.
• Lethal Joke Weapon: Most of the time, Fire Man's weaponry is obvious, and obviously useful. However, when he's underwater, his Fire Storm turns into a stream of bubbles. Surprisingly, the bubbles are still able to do damage to his enemies, and he's able to use his downward shot to "levitate" his way through the water, making a run through the first fortress stage a surprisingly viable option for Fire Man. (Also, unlike in Powered Up, he reignites as soon as he leaves the water, so he doesn't have to look for an external ignition source to get back to full power.)
• Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: If your health isn't full when facing Crypt Man in his level, he'll throw you a life tank to heal you up for a fair fight. This may not happen on all difficulty levels.
• Logical Weakness:
  • The electricity-using Shock Man is weak to a weapon called the Circuit Breaker.
  • Being a Robot Master that cloaks in darkness, Crypt Man wouldn't like the light from Photon Flare. Likewise, just because he's hiding in darkness doesn't mean he can't be tracked by a homing weapon like, say, Dive Man's Dive Missiles.
  • From the site's info, Pulse Man is based on a cardiovascular system, which makes him similar to a heart. Hearts don't take well to a Virus Outbreak.
  • A minor inversion in that Dive Man is stronger in an underwater environment than he is outside it, which explains why he's also effective against a boss that fights underwater: Fish Man.
  • Polar Man (the second fortress boss) is weak to Fire Man for obvious reasons (fire melts snow).
  • It makes sense that Justice Man would be weak to the Shock Gauntlet, given who shocked him at the beginning at the game. Elec Man is also strong against Justice Man, for the same reason.
  • Charade Man's bio states that he can only copy robots that he thoroughly studies through visual cues. Crypt Cloak makes the player invisible, leaving Charade Man completely unable to study Mega Man's movements.
  • Most of the regular Robot Masters have profiles on the official site, along with details pointing to their weaknesses. For example, the fuses on Boom Man's explosives are apparently electronic in nature, which suggests that Boom Man would be vulnerable to the Shock Gauntlet, which indeed he is.
  • On the same token, Virus Man is weak to the Charade Clone, which makes sense given as Charade Man was designed to replace actors who are sick or otherwise unavailable.
    • In addition, Virus Man was only designed to work on/with one person at a time. As the Charade Clone makes copies, Virus Man has difficulty focusing on multiple targets.
  • Virus Man is weak to Fire Man because viruses don't do so well in hot conditions.^note This is the reason you get fevers.
  • Death Man is most vulnerable to the Charade Clone, since you are essentially faking your own death and cheating it with a body double.
    • Rolling Cutter, being a scissors-themed cutting boomerang, can likely cut through threads. A.K.A. it can cut through Death Man's "Threads of Life".
  • Fish Man is based on an organic animal and he's even covered in an organic polymer. Fittingly, he's vulnerable to the weapon that infects organics well — the Virus Outbreak.
• Low Clearance: Thrill Man's boss fight is a Traintop Battle, and low hanging obstacles will periodically appear during the fight. Get ready to slide whenever Thrill Man makes a panicked expression.
• Malevolent Mugshot: Justice Fortress, shaped like Justice Man's eagle helmet.
• Marathon Level: The final Fortress Stage in the updates, which one could probably claim rivals a normal Mega Man Unlimited stage in length. Besides having the gimmicks of all previous stages in it in some way, it also has a mid-boss, the Robot Master rematch fights, as well as the two forms of the Final Boss directly after it, in addition to generally being a long level regardless. Hope you stocked up on E-and-W-Tanks before hand!
• Mirror Match: Mega Man vs. Justice Man. Well, the first phase, anyway.
• The Mole: Justice Man. He's the reason that the Rock Force didn't return from its mission.
• Mood Dissonance: Even when the game still had its downer ending, Charade Man and his inherently silly stage lighten the mood considerably.
• Mouth of Sauron: In the newer updates, Crypt Man acts as the Rebellion's official spokes-bot, holding a televised interview to announce their objectives and issue their ultimatum.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Terror Man, due to being based off of a spider.
• My Name Is ???: Justice Man's serial number is known only as DLN-???, given the game's mostly unclear placement in the series timeline^*Nitro Man's presence sets the game sometime after 10, but doesn't take fan-made Doctor Light Numbers by other people into account (current or otherwise).
• Mythology Gag:
  • Charade Man's stage background contains several destroyed minibosses from throughout the classic games.
  • Terror Man has Gamma in the background (with a cracked forehead window to boot). It also features Zombiegs from Mega Man 7 and uses the fast-moving carcass of Wily Machine 4 as an instakill stage hazard.
  • The MM1 Robot Masters' personalities (and Cut Man's Wall Jump) are directly taken from Megaman Powered Up.
  • Justice Man's stage has statues of Splash Woman in the background.
  • Charade Man's midboss encounter has him copying the movements of past Robot Masters, specifically Quick Man, Shadow Man, Gemini Man, and Toad Man.
  • This game is structured very much like Mega Man 3. It has 8 main bosses, 4 additional bosses after you beat the main ones, and one last boss before going to the fortress stages.
  • All members of the Rock Force are Robot Masters that were created without any affiliation to Dr. Wily. More than half of them were created by Dr. Light, Dive Man was made by Dr. Cossack, and Knight Man and Nitro Man were created by people unknown^*despite both being listed as DWN series robots, though some DWN robot masters are robots he stole. It's telling that this includes the Robot Masters from 3, which were a joint project of both Dr. Light and Dr. Wily at the time.
  • Fish Man was a Credits Gag in previous Mega Man games. Here, he's an actual boss.
  • In the revised ending, Dive Man is seen with seasickness. This references his profile in Mega Man & Bass and the Robot Master Field Guide.
• Names to Trust Immediately: Justice Man. In hindsight, this is Gone Horribly Right...
• Never Say "Die": Completely averted with Death Man.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: In the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, Virus Man tries to cheer up an ill Dive Man with a story about another robot he knew getting sick...but cheerfully goes into very graphic detail in the process.
• Noble Demon: Crypt Man, who apparently wanted to minimize human injuries during this uprising and will only fight his opponent at full health as noted above.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Port Man was designed to work for large corporations, digitizing himself to manipulate code efficiently. This led him to discover questionable, corrupt and illegal practices from several corporations, and he reported them to the authorities. This only got him scrapped by said corporations.
• Non-Standard Character Design:
  • None of the Robot Masters look like anything from the Mega Man series, with the possible exception of Charade Man (and even then only in his sprite; his portrait makes him look like a thick-necked luchador). Justice Man himself only barely qualifies, being an edit of Mega Man. Their portraits have been updated in later versions, however, and they resemble actual Robot Masters a little more. The official illustrations by KarakatoDzo, on the other hand, make them look even more faithful in proportions and art style.
  • The robotic Gorillas in Pulse Man's stage stand-out for not resembling anything like a Gori-Three, or a Monking (the face and its size specifically).
  • Thrill Man's boss fight is set on top of a train, and the passengers inside (while obscured by a silhouette) are realistically proportioned, rather than the Super-Deformed proportions typical to the 8-Bit series.
• Nostalgia Level: Played with. The miniboss encounter in Charade Man's stage is Charade Man himself, but he will copy the movement pattern of two past Robot Masters. His boss hallway is also filled with enemies, not unlike the original game's boss hallways.
• Not Me This Time: Wily is nowhere to be seen in this game. In fact, the only direct mention of him in the entire game is a brief reference in the narration at the beginning of the game.
• Nothing Is Scarier: A giant thing can be seen lumbering along in Terror Man's stage background. You never fight it...
  • Death Man's stage is completely devoid of enemies until you reach his boss room.
• Oh, Crap!: Be wary when Thrill Man has this expression, because that means he's noticed something you'll both have to dodge quickly.
• Only Six Faces: Exaggerated with Boom Man and Pulse Man, whose bodies look so similar that the only major difference is their bulks. As a result, Boom Man's color scheme was later changed in an effort to make them stand out more.
• Orbiting Particle Shield: The Virus Outbreak, which can expand on command to strike approaching enemies.
• Order Versus Chaos: The reason why Mega Man and the Rock Force have to fight Justice Man. Justice Man wants freedom for all robots, but in doing so, he disrupts the order by causing a rebellion, and thus Mega Man and the Rock Force have to go after him.
• Pet the Dog: In a similar vein to Mega Man 9, the updated version of the ending has the game's Robot Masters get new jobs or general freedom in the ones they keep and are much happier for it.
  • Death Man, of all people, is the only Fusion Master to be granted a more suitable function after his previous one gets rendered moot by various factors. That is, until Justice Man collects him.
• Pinball Projectile: Your character's shots still retain their hitboxes after being deflected. Thus, it's possible to make trick shots. In fact, this is the gimmick for the intro level and Power Man's fight.
• Plague Doctor: Plague Man's design is based off one.
• Platform Hell: Surprisingly averted with Death Man's stage. It's filled with Spikes of Doom, but is completely fair about presenting them — everything that could potentially kill the player, the player can see coming well in advance; further, there are no "gotcha" moments. It also gives the player plenty of safe spots to stand while considering what to do next.
• Player-Guided Missile: The Phantom Fuse can be controlled by the player.
• Playing with Fire: Flare Man and Thermo Man. On the Rock Force, you have Fire Man.
• Power Copying: But of course. This is a Mega Man game after all.
• Produce Pelting: The final area of Charade Man's stage has an area with a bunch of performing mooks, where a constant stream of exploding fruit is thrown on-screen at your character.
• Promoted to Playable: The Rock Force. Originally, they just appeared in certain stages to help Mega Man pass some obstacles. A later update made them playable as you unlock them, each with their own unique abilities and strengths.
• Pungeon Master: While quite a few members of the Rock Force exhibit this tendency, Justice Man seems to have an especially bad habit of throwing out puns in his conversations with the other members of the Rock Force. Even his last words contain a pun: "Clearly, there is no justice in this world."
• Punny Name: The title is a pun on Mega Man's Japanese name, Rockman. Several weapons also have punny names, such as Circuit Breaker, Virus Outbreak, and Pulse Stopper.
• Puzzle Boss:
  • War Man is invincible while he has his shield up, and will always slowly inch his way over to you. No matter what you do or what member of the Rock Force you use, your attacks will always bounce off his shield. In order to damage him, you have to let him get right next to you, let him attack, dodge, then quickly counter attack before he puts his shield back up.
  • Cut Man is strong against Pulse Man, but the midboss Tube Tank is out of range of his Rolling Cutter attacks. In order to hit Tube Tank, you have to fire the default cutter attack in the opposite direction of Tube Tank, so that the cutters fly past Cut Man and into the midboss.
• Pyrrhic Victory: When it came to simulated wars using robots, War Man was second to none at defeating them by himself. Unfortunately, he was so good at winning that customers had accused his creators of cheating and stopped going to his company, eventually causing it to go bankrupt.
• Real-Time Weapon Change: Done in the same vein as Mega Man 9 and 10.
• Recurring Boss: A notable example notwithstanding the Boss Rush. Shock Man is fought three times — first as the intro level boss, then as the boss of one of the 8 stages, and finally in the boss gauntlet.
  • Charade Man also qualifies, since he is fought twice in his own stage (since he acts as his own mini-boss with different tactics), then returns in the said boss gauntlet.
  • The Tube Tank miniboss is also fought in two stages: once in Pulse Man's stage, and again in the final fortress stage.
• Red Herring: It turns out that it was not Shock Man's attack that damaged Justice Man's mental matrix, it was Justice Man's independent thought processes which did. At least, it was in the new version.
• The Remnant: Downplayed with the Sniper Joes and Mets (among other enemies), as they don't serve Dr. Wily in this case, but the Robot Masters that have rebelled.
• Retcon:
  • The update that introduced four optional Robot Masters to fight did a few, especially for the ending. Crypt Man specifically says no humans got hurt in the process of the Robot Masters taking over the areas, and it's implied that it was their bosses specifically who were the ones treating them terribly instead of humanity at large. Similarly, Justice Man didn't have his personality fried by Shock Man. Rather, Justice Man's views were the result of Dr. Light trying out a new, more independent personality and thought process program that still had a few bugs in it, as Dr. Light said that Justice Man would have continued from Well-Intentioned Extremist to Jumping Off the Slippery Slope had Mega Man and the Rock Force not done anything. (This is probably what necessitates the 30-year "testing period" for Mega Man X.) Speaking of which, Justice Man no longer views all of humanity as monsters in regards to robots or wants to make them pay. Rather, he becomes a Well-Intentioned Extremist who merely wants the mandated expiration date on robots cited in the story of Mega Man 9 abolished, as well as allow robots to have more freedom to choose their jobs outside of what they're programmed for, but slowly starts becoming more and more unhinged as time goes by. Regardless, Dr. Light manages to pull off his original goal during the ending in a much more peaceful manner, and while Mega Man is still rather saddened that Justice Man is beyond repair, the ending still ends on a high note. Many consider this a vast improvement on the original ending.
  • Fuse Man was later renamed to Boom Man, due to Mega Man 11 introducing a Fuse Man.
• The Rival: Supplemental material provided with Thrill Man's official artwork reveals that he is this to Nitro Man, since before the bike bot arrived on the scene, Thrill Man was the reigning robot daredevil. As Nitro Man's popularity grew and his waned, Thrill Man set up one final epic stunt in an attempt to outdo Nitro Man get back on top, but he botched it and was retired and scrapped soon after. Fittingly, Nitro Man's Wheel Cutter is one of his weaknesses.
• Robot War: A much more clear-cut case than usual for the series.
• Route Boss: As of the 4/18/15 update, upon defeating the eight standard Robot Masters, depending on the last Robot Master you beat, you'll have to deal with four different Robot Masters. Defeat the robot master that is on your character's either four cardinal directions last, and you get the four Fusion Masters that were in the game since the start. Defeat the ones in one of the corners last, and you'll be treated to four different Fusion Masters that were added in the update. You can't fight all eight in a single playthrough, though you can use different save files to technically play through them all in a single playthrough.
• Sad Clown: The character bios reveal that some of the Robot Masters have been like this in their assigned tasks:
  • Although Boom Man acts very manly and tends to talk about robot women, he uses this behavior as a coping mechanism, since his hazardous demolition job has made him anxious.
  • Charade Man has been designed to only imitate the mannerisms of actors that are sick or otherwise unavailable, something that he regrets, since he wants to add his own flair to the character roles he plays.
  • Virus Man expresses a jolly demeanor around hospital patients, not unlike a robotic Patch Adams, although some eavesdropping people have noticed how the stress of having to see so many suffering, sick patients has obviously gotten to him.
• Sailor Earth: Justice Man, Dr. Light's newest creation.
• Self-Duplication: Charade Man. You also get this ability from him, called Charade Clone.
• Sequential Boss: Both Fish Man and Polar Man. The former rides in on the dragon fought earlier in the level, the latter rides in a large ice machine.
• Series Continuity Error: Part of the reason that the Sudden Downer Ending in the first version was so problematic. Mega Man laments about how he silenced the Robot Masters forever, even though the entire Rock Force is composed of Robot Masters whom he had previously defeated. Meanwhile, the idea of robots being denied choices flies in the face of the various quirks of the Robot Masters, how other robots in the series have been able to choose their own destiny in general, and how the game itself is about Mega Man and the members of the Rock Force choosing to form their own team of peacekeeping robots, despite Knight Man being the only one of them that is a dedicated combat robot, the rest being built with civilian applications in mind. These plot holes were revised in a later build to stay in line with the series' canon.
• Shock and Awe: The aptly-named Shock Man. On the Rock Force, we have Elec Man.
• Shockwave Stomp: Crypt Man, Pulse Man, and Flare Man have these. The Crypt Cloak allows Mega Man to use this while cloaked. Shock Man's stomp isn't one per se, but every time he lands from a jump, the entire floor gets electrocuted. One of the enemies in Shock Man's stage does the same to similar floors.
• Shout-Out:
  • In the first build's intro cutscene, Ryu can be seen as an anchorman. This is a shout out to Chun-Li's cameo at the beginning of Mega Man 9 where she became a reporter. This was only present on the first build; later versions replaced him with a different-looking anchor, albeit one that wasn't as Off-Model as Ryu was.
  • One of the enemies at Crypt Man's stage is a grave robber with a fedora and an overall brown color scheme.
• Simple, yet Awesome: Elec Man. He doesn't have as many abilities as other members of the Rock Force, but his default attack (the wide-reaching and hard-hitting Thunder Beam), his wall jump, and his raw speed are enough to make him possibly the strongest member of the group.
• Small Role, Big Impact: While otherwise just a regular Robot Master who largely stops mattering after the intro stage, Shock Man is responsible for harming Justice Man while going haywire. Leading, by proxy, to the latter's decision to revolt.
• Smart Bomb: Photon Flare. It's basically Rain Flush (or Centaur Flash) with another name and appearance.
• Spikes of Doom: Par for the course, but less lethal this time — the default setting makes them only deal half your maximum health instead of being a One-Hit Kill. However, in the first build, the spikes were identical to Mega Man spikes - they ignored Mercy Invincibility.
• Springtime for Hitler: As the secondary leader of the Rock Force, Justice Man wanted it to fail its mission for the sake of his robot freedom plan, so he had his Robot Master comrades capture the whole team save for Mega Man. However, this ended up encouraging Mega Man to rescue them all, so this results in Justice Man's forces resorting to increasingly desperate measures to the point that he's clearly annoyed by the time Death Man is defeated.
• Stalked by the Bell: The final room in Boom Man's stage before the boss corridor has a countdown timer on it. If the timer hits zero, random explosions start filling the room, making it more difficult to get through.
• Starter Villain: The intro level boss is Shock Man, the very first threat to deal with in the game's plot.
• Status Quo Is God: Completely defied in later updates. Since human casualties have been prevented and all of the robots have been saved (except Justice Man), there's no longer any reason for the Rock Force to disband like in the former Downer Ending, so they get to continue helping Mega Man with fighting for eternal peace.
• The Stoic: Tornado Man. In the cutscenes that feature him, he almost never raises his voice, and he seems to remain calm in his conversations with the main villain. This manifests itself in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue where Photon Man tries to get Tornado Man to show some excitement over green energy... and Tornado Man just can't really get openly enthusiastic about it.
• Storming the Castle: Figuratively with Death Man's cemetery, then done literally for the game's fortress.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Phantom Fuse and Circuit Breaker. The former especially, since it has the biggest blast radius in any Mega Man game, official or not. And Bomb Man, of course, is all over this trope.
• Sudden Downer Ending: In earlier versions, Mega Man does an excellent Zero impersonation upon destroying Justice Man. The later versions changed the ending to something more uplifting and more reminiscent of Mega Man 9 and 10's Where Are They Now style of ending with the Robot Masters. The fortress bosses and Justice Man still don't get these scenes, the latter for obvious reasons...
• Thanatos Gambit: Invoked by Justice Man with the Fusion Masters. The fact that some of them actually do have unfinished business is simply a bonus.
• Techno Wreckage: Terror Man's level.
• The Paragon Always Rebels: Justice Man.
• The Power of the Sun: Photon Flare is heavily implied to be this, as Photon Man's stage is a solar energy plant. Naturally, it does extra damage to Crypt Man.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilised: The robot attacks were so violent that in later updates, one part of the intro was added so that Crypt Man explains that casualties were avoided, despite the actions from his more spirited comrades.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: This is part of Terror Man's backstory. Designed to ward off trespassers of the junkyard he's assigned to, Terror Man's gentlemanly personality is betrayed by his monstrous appearance. After years of having to put up with people and robots scared off by his appearance, he finally snapped and started acting more violent and terrifying towards those unfortunate enough to come across him. He eventually crossed the line when he ended up critically harming a human victim.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Dive Man is, in most stages, one of the weakest members of the Rock Force — he's slow, his special moves consume energy unlike most of the other Rock Force members, and he has a comparatively large hitbox (and doesn't have a shield to make up for it unlike Knight Man). In the first fortress stage, however, he gets his chance to shine — it's a water level, and he's a lot more mobile and powerful in that environment.
• Too Fast to Stop: While in Nitro Man's motorcycle form, you cannot actually stop, only reverse direction.
• Traintop Battle: Where the battle against Thrill Man takes place. Make sure to pay attention to when he notices something off screen, because otherwise you'll be in for a nasty surprise!
• Trick Boss: Death Man, in the sense that he's actually not the final boss.
• True Companions: The Rock Force, natch. Correspondingly, Justice Man also treats his followers as such.
• Turns Red: In the second phase of the fight with Justice Man, he summons the powers of his followers and uses a new set of attacks.
• Underground Monkey: The series' common recurring enemies are given a makeover in Charade Man's stage to fit the "theatre" theme of the level. Mets now wear classy black top hats instead of the usual hard hats, and Hard mode introduces tuxedo wearing Sniper Joes with "comedy" faces painted on their shields.
• Underwater Boss Battle: Fish Man's battle takes place entirely underwater.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: Port Man, in addition to his level being rather puzzle-oriented, has teleporters that teleport you into the background and change it to the style of old Action-Adventure shooters from the Atari 2600 era. The tail end of the fight against Port Man also takes place in this style.
• Utility Weapon: Several:
  • Shock Gauntlet can be used to grab items.
  • Phantom Fuse and Circuit Breaker can blow up certain walls. Bomb Man's bombs can do the same.
  • Crypt Cloak makes you invisible to enemies and certain stage hazards. It also allows you to stand on invisible blocks scattered throughout the game.
  • Charade Clone allows you to grab items that are placed on spikes, as well as a free attempt or two at a section lined with spikes and/or pits.
  • Fire Man's down attack gives him a midair boost, which he can use up to twice per regular jump. Underwater, he can use this ability continuously to levitate.
  • Dive Man's Psycho Crusher move can be used to make longer jumps, and if Dive Man hits a wall while doing so, he will rebound and gain a slight height boost. Dive Man also gains some invincibility frames after using this move.
  • Tornado Man's Tornado Blow, in addition to being a screen-clearing move, can also be used to boost his already considerable jump height (as it could for Mega Man in Mega Man 9).
  • Nitro Man's Wheel Cutter can be used to climb walls, as it could in Mega Man 10.
• Vaudeville Hook: A large one appears in Charade Man's stage in an area with a bunch of performing mooks. It'll try to pull your character towards the left of the screen into spikes.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Justice Castle.
• Victory Fakeout: Downplayed. After you defeat a Robot Master, the usual power-absorbing animation will play, but after then, you still have to go through the other door to free the Rock Force members.
  • Similarly, a game-ending victory fanfare plays after you defeat Death Man, but it isn't over yet...
• Video Game Set Piece: In the second half of the game, one member of the Rock Force will make a brief appearance in each of the levels — Elec Man in Terror Man's stage, Tornado Man in Plague Man's stage (two appearances, in fact), Nitro Man in Power Man's stage, Bomb Man in Flare Man's stage, Knight Man in Death Man's stage, Dive Man in Fish Man's stage, Fire Man in Polar Man's stage, and Cut Man in the final stage. Note that all this is not present on the first build, nor is there any assistance in the new levels of the April 2015 build.
• Villain Has a Point: It's pointed out by Dr. Light in the newer ending that despite the villain's cause being the product of an unstable mind, it doesn't mean he was wrong—far from it. The problem only lay in how the villain tried to go about it.
• Walking Spoiler: Justice Man is revealed to be the one behind the events of the game, having decided to ensure freedom for him and all robots by starting a rebellion against humans and capturing the Rock Force.
• The Walls Are Closing In: Two stages feature this.
  • Partway through Terror Man's level, a set of spiked walls will slowly close in on your character while firing spikes from both sides. To survive, you must stay in the middle until the floor opens up. Quite fitting for a level whose boss is called Terror Man.
  • Death Man's stage has a series of rooms where the (spiked) walls press inwards, presenting a practical time limit for getting through each room.
• Warm-Up Boss: Shock Man is first fought in the intro stage.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Justice Man becomes this after his face-heel turn above. His goal is to ensure freedom for him and all robots, by starting a rebellion against humans and capturing the Rock Force.
• Wham Line: One of these little exchanges occur after the final Fusion Master is defeated:
  Mega Man: Justice Man? What are you doing here?
  Justice Man: I never expected you to defeat Death Man.
  
  Cut Man: We finally found you! Yay!
  Justice Man: I wish you hadn't done this.
  
  Elec Man: Oh! There you are, little brother.
  Justice Man: I'm surprised you managed to defeat Death Man.
  
  Bomb Man: Dude!
  Justice Man: You preformed better than I expected, Bomb Man.
  
  Fire Man: Justice returns!
  Justice Man: Apparently, not yet.
  
  Knight Man: My fellow, you have returned!
  Justice Man: You've slain my ultimate warrior.
  
  Tornado Man: Phew! There you are.
  Justice Man: You shouldn't have done that, brother.
  
  Justice Man: I didn't expect you'd defeat Death Man.^note His response to both Dive Man ("Commander! Where have you been?") and Nitro Man ("Uh...")
• Wham Shot: After you defeat all of the rogue Robot Masters and get informed of a strange phenomenon by Dr. Light, you see their portraits fuse with each other in the stage select screen.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • The fusion robots, Fish Man, and Polar Man disappear from the game after their fights. GoldwaterDLS says that at least Fish Man and Polar Man's fates will be addressed in an upcoming final update.
  • The Rock Force themselves, in earlier versions, who disappear from the game after you rescue them. Eventually addressed by having them assist you during the stages, and they eventually became playable.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The ending added in the update with the four optional robot masters added this, showing that the Robot Masters Mega Man and the Rock Force battled are alive and kicking, and are being much more fairly treated by humans, no longer being forced to be scrapped once the mandatory expiration date is hit and being free to choose jobs outside of their original programing. Notably, while some do stick to their jobs like Charade Man continuing to be an actor, albeit with more creative freedom on the characters he plays, Circuit Man becomes the new owner of the Robot Museum instead of his continued job in electronics, and Virus Man helps assist a new deep sea expedition with Dive Man, as well as unintentionally giving him sea sickness in the process, and Crypt Man no longer repels grave robbers, instead being the tour guide of a horror-themed amusement park, which he finds far less depressing and enjoys a lot more.
• White-and-Grey Morality: The robot rebellion is providing a hefty shade of grey: its leader reasons that it's not fair to create robots who think, feel, and serve humans, and also arbitrarily dispose of them; for that reason, they go violent and threaten society. While the Rock Force ultimately quell the rebellion and restore the peace, their goal of undoing the expiration date law comes to fruition.
• The Worf Effect: Happens to the entire Rock Force save for Mega Man, since they disappeared during the investigation on the robot attacks. It turns out that Justice Man deliberately planned for this to happen, partly to prevent them from finding out his true goals.
• Worthy Opponent: War Man's greatest regret before being shut down was not getting the chance to fight one.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: As always, don't expect the game to end just yet after defeating the Fusion Masters.