Mega Man Blog

Here you will find content from the Mega Man games, comics, and OVA along with fan art, edits, and funny stuff. I'll also occasionally post some of my own content as well! My banner was made by the amazing @stardestroyer81! I reply/like/follow under @stephysalcido

[stardestroyer81]

Just in time for Mega Man's thirty-sixth anniversary, I've whipped up a wallpaper themed after Mega Man 3, sized at a comfy 1280x720— I think that this one may just be my most detail-oriented anniversary wallpaper yet... as well as my favorite, too! 💙✨

Previous Anniversary Wallpapers: 1, 2

[superherorobots]

[stardestroyer81]

@shrimpuufriend told me that Capcom had recently released never-before seen concept art of the original Rockman (Which you can find here!), and it is the coolest thing EVER.

That said, I wanted to be the first person to make something based off of the newly surfaced concept art, so I took one featured sketch of Rockman and turned it into its own sprite piece, complete with a faux beta title screen I craftily edited into the manual! 💙✨

[superherorobots]

In case your followers can't catch the single frame of Glitch Man's pancakes exploding, here's the high-definition frame of that exact moment!

HERE IT IS FOLKS, ONE OF MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE FRAMES IN THIS ANIMATIC AND FAVORITE EXPRESSIONS I'VE EVER SEEN IN GENERAL

I love this expression SO MUCH, it is like the most hilarious thing to me(those EYES XDDD) and I will never cease to laugh and smile like a complete dork every time I see it no matter how many times I look at it XDD

[stardestroyer81]

Glitch Man attempts to start his morning with a hearty breakfast, but he doesn't get very far once Strafe Man's hijinks get involved.

[stardestroyer81]

The eight robot masters of Mega Man Ultimate are my pride and joy. As evident by their intro posts, plenty of thought went into the conceptualization of each bot, and it was very fun to revisit their initial 2018 designs and sprite them while making a few design tweaks for their big tumblr debut!

However, while I was taking a good look at the sprites I had made of the octet of renegades, I noticed something... I was fairly satisfied with every sprite I had drawn, though I felt as though I could do a lot better with one in particular, both in terms of his sprite and his design as a whole...

Strafe Man, the overconfident high-flyer.

Unlike the other seven members of the Synth Legion, Strafe Man's design had hardly been altered since I first settled on a design for him back in 2018— the most he had ever really gotten was a color change here or there, and I've also found that he's the single most underrated robot master of the eight in spite of proclaiming to be the coolest.

Let's fix that, shall we?

With a flashier winged helmet, bigger wings and a much more arduous arsenal, Strafe Man has officially been done justice! My goal was to give him a more detailed and streamlined design compared to his 2018 counterpart (Which there wasn't inherently anything wrong with, he just looked plain alongside the other SLN units), and I'm certain I succeeded in achieving just that!

If you'd like a bit more insight on Strafe Man's redesign... you know just where to look to find them (Here's a hint; it's just below)! ✨

[stardestroyer81]

Did y'all know that Amazon Man actually debuted in Rockman 2 and was cut so late into development that he ended up making an appearance in game's manual?

(Just to clarify, this is merely an edit! Check out the tags for full context!)

[stardestroyer81]

Last month, after seeing the success of my then-previous attempt to sprite something in 16-Bit, I decided to give it another go many months later by giving Glitch Man a Mega Man 7 styled makeover... with a result that I'm still very much thrilled with!

Very shortly after I showcased my 16-Bit Glitch Man sprite, I knew I wanted to jump straight into SNES-ifying yet another Synth Legion Number, though it was admittedly tough to decide who to choose of the remaining seven. I wanted to focus on choosing a Number that'd be a fair challenge to sprite in 16-Bit, but nothing too extreme.

And who better to choose than the Synth Legion's second in command?

Up next in my ongoing series of doubling the bits of Mega Man Ultimate's robot masters is none other than Zap Man, who proved to be exactly the sort of fun challenge I was looking for!

(Check under the cut for the usual Star Insight, Zap Man’s spriting process and a little bonus!)

This is something I never touched on when first revealing Zap Man and the sprite I'd drawn for him to tumblr, though of the eight Synth Legion Numbers, I would say that Zap Man was probably the second to third hardest to sprite. I'm certain that this is because I stuck within a five color limit, and his hulking size is slightly non-standard when compared to other robot master sprites in canon.

However, it was and still is a sprite I'm proud of nonetheless, and when preparing to go about my method of creating Mega Man 7 styled sprites out of already existing 8-Bit sprites, I had but one goal for Zap Man's SNES iteration— to up the detail to the absolute maximum.

Naturally, with over double the amount of colors I was able to use, it was an easily attainable goal! Since the above sprite is about two or three times bigger than Zap Man's original sprite, this of course meant that I could run wild in squeezing out as much detail as I could, and that was something that I had an absolute blast with.

Zap Man definitely took me much longer than an hour to sprite. If I recall, I think this sprite took me just about a day to draw— not twenty-four consecutive hours, obviously, but as you can probably tell, a sprite with THIS level of detail was no walk in the park to create, as evident by the above sprite process!

With that said, though, I think that Zap Man's 16-Bit sprite may just be one of if not my best SNES styled sprites yet, and I'm thrilled to finally be able to show him off! ✨

[stardestroyer81]

Gee, Peppibot Factory sure looks different today.

With the one Pizza Tower title card meme making the rounds lately, I figured I'd join in on the fun with my own contribution starring none other than the super fighting robot, Mega Man! This might just be my biggest sprite piece yet this year, and I am BEYOND thrilled that I was able to pull this off! 💙✨

(I highly recommend opening this image in a new tab for closer viewing if you want a better look at the little details!)

[superherorobots]

if you don't already have a suggestion lined up your queue tag could be 'get equepped' or something of the sort >:]

Hi! I do have a suggestion for my queue tag lined up already that I got almost right after I made that post, but I'm going to figure out a way to still use this even if it's not the main queue tag because I really like it as well and don't want to reject it, and I think I have an idea on what I might do! :D

[robots-are-lit-people]

Mega Man X ReActivated Preview

A Legacy's Beginning

April 14, 21XX

I still have yet to discover the missing link in my research. It has been weeks since I set off on my archeological expedition. Recently, I happened upon a breakthrough in my  study about the flora of the Mesozoic period. I simply need to find a certain fossil to verify my findings. My calculations have brought me to an isolated location out in the wild. Here I have been actively searching for days upon end.

So far, all I have managed to find is mountains upon mountains of dirt. Many of this region's (excuse me) unique lifeforms have managed to discover me, however I do believe I can do without their hospitality. I had wanted to locate evidence of life, but not this kind. It does make me rethink my choice in wardrobe, something I need to take note of for my next expedition. 

I fear this whole endeavor has been a blatant waste of time. Perhaps I should pack up my supplies and return to my home. I can go over my notes and locate another area to find the evidence for my theory. After all, what did I expect to find in such a -

Much to the surprise of Dr. Cain, he felt his foot slip through a softer patch of dirt. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to journal while walking. His whole body was thrown forward into the now exposed hole. He didn't yell as he slid downward. This was not the first time this had happened.

What was shocking to him was hitting a cool, tiled floor. You didn't run into one of those in the wild every day. Dr. Cain quickly popped back up, at least as quickly as he could at his age. He picked up his hat that had fallen during his descent and brushed the dirt off of it before placing it back on his head.

Surveying his surroundings, he let out a small gasp. From what he could make out from the little light from above, he was standing in the remains of a robotics lab. For a room seemingly lost to time, the technology within it seemed to rival that of modern times. Either the owner of this lab was ahead in technology or society had not improved technology as much as they thought they had.

Dr. Cain approached a table littered with pieces of metal and circuit boards. He picked up one of the metal pieces and was thrown off by how much it weighed. This was not the lightweight material they used today. He returned the metal to its place and ran a hand over the table. Layers of dust stuck to his hand, which he wiped against his shorts. 

To the right was a desk covered with piles of papers. A supercomputer was mounted on the wall around it, though its monitors had long since expired their warranty. The model was ancient, but it seemed to have been upgraded from its original state. Cobwebs hung from nearly every surface, giving Dr. Cain flashbacks to that colony of… he moved on from the thought.

His eyes landed upon a photograph on the ground, sticking out of its broken frame. He picked it up and instantly recognized the man in it. Dr. Thomas Light. The Father of Robotics. Dr. Cain tried his best to stifle the fanboy in him. There were a few smaller figures in the image, but the picture was too aged to make out who they were. He felt a twinge of guilt for imposing on the century old lab, but as an archaeologist it was kind of his job to lurk and explore this kind of stuff so he continued. 

Dr. Cain turned around, just now noticing the huge metal cylinder there. Its long side was facing horizontally, giving the archeologist the impression of a bed. A very strange bed indeed. For some inexplicable reason, it greatly piqued his curiosity. He approached it, circling to see it from other angles. Slowly, he reached out and wiped some dust from its surface.

Suddenly, the lab came to life. Lights flickered on, casting a blue glow to the room. Cain could hear the faint hum of technology working. A projection of Dr. Light came up a few feet from where he stood. He figured it was life sized, making the Doctor a lot shorter than he had imagined him to be. He ran a hand through the projection. It was incredible holographic technology for being from 20XX.

Despite the overwhelming feeling of awe, Dr. Cain managed to pull out a screen to record any message that played. He worried he would not be able to activate it again later, so he wanted to capture it. He frowned a little, seeing that he had cracked it slightly more during the fall, but he didn't mind too much as long as it worked.

DR THOMAS LIGHT, SEPTEMBER 18, 20XX

The voice of the man himself. It was like a time capsule. There were plenty of news reports and videos of Dr. Light from when he was alive a century ago, but something about this message seemed more personal. 

"X" IS THE FIRST OF A NEW GENERATION OF ROBOTS WHICH CONTAIN AN INNOVATIVE NEW FEATURE - THE ABILITY TO THINK, FEEL, AND MAKE THEIR OWN DECISIONS. HOWEVER, THIS ABILITY COULD BE VERY DANGEROUS. IF "X" WERE TO BREAK THE FIRST RULE OF ROBOTICS, "A ROBOT MUST NEVER HARM A HUMAN BEING", THE RESULTS WOULD BE DISASTROUS AND I FEAR THAT NO FORCE ON EARTH COULD STOP HIM.

APPROXIMATELY 30 YEARS WILL BE REQUIRED BEFORE WE CAN SAFELY CONFIRM HIS RELIABILITY. UNFORTUNATELY, I WILL NOT LIVE TO SEE THAT DAY, NOR DO I HAVE ANYONE TO CARRY ON MY WORK. THEREFORE, I HAVE DECIDED TO SEAL HIM IN THIS CAPSULE WHICH WILL TEST HIS INTERNAL SYSTEMS UNTIL HIS RELIABILITY HAS BEEN CONFIRMED. PLEASE DO NOT DISTURB THE CAPSULE UNTIL THAT TIME.

"X" POSSESSES GREAT RISKS AS WELL AS GREAT POSSIBILITIES. I CAN ONLY HOPE FOR THE BEST.

The hologram flickered before shutting off, as though it was never there. Dr. Cain verified that the message properly recorded before putting his screen away.

X. Dr. Cain never recalled hearing about an X in terms of Dr. Light's numerous robotic projects. Then it came to him, as if a switch had been flipped in his head. He turned his attention back to the metal cylinder. Towards the top, there was a clear change in material. A small section was made of a strong glass, as it was still intact after all these years.

He cautiously wiped the years of dust from the glass and peered through. He had revealed a slumbering face. He was amazed by how realistic it looked. It resembled that of a 14 year old boy. He wore a blue helmet with a large red gem at its center. Dr. Cain could already tell this was in fact something - no - someone very special.

Dr. Cain smiled. "Hello there. Nice to meet you, X."

Author's Note

[robots-are-lit-people]

Get ready, Mega Man X fandom!

In three days, I'm gonna post a little preview of something I've been working on for a decent amount of time (and am not even close to finishing *single tear starts falling*-). My sister pointed something out about the date, so now I am compelled to share a little part of it that day. More probably won't be out until summertime because SCHOOL (school stifling my creativity), but I'm calling this a sneak peak.

So yeah if you wanna see I'll post it April 14 at hopefully 12:07 PM if school and the queue allows it. Very excited to share this!

Yay!

[superherorobots]

Hello everyone!! I am back for REAL this time!!

I am deeply sorry about the SUPER long hiatus that this blog was on, I had a lot going on at the time but now I've got everything figured out and under control so I think I'm finally ready to be active on this blog again! And there are a LOT of new things I'm going to be trying out too and some old stuff I'm going to bring back as well, such as:

More of my own art! I'm going to start posting some of my sketches and WIPs instead of waiting until I have digitally outlined and colored them because that always takes AGES for me to finish XD

Analysis and headcanon posts! This is something I have ALWAYS wanted to do but was too shy to because everyone has very different headcanons and interpretations, but I've realized that there isn't really anything to fear about sharing my own thoughts and headcanons, especially since this fandom is generally very kind and accepting of different headcanons and opinions and interpretations!

More memes! Anyone who's been following this blog since its very early days probably remembers that I used to make a lot of simple memes and character alignment charts. I stopped doing that because I ran out of ideas, but now I have way more new ideas since I know practically everything about Mega Man at this point!

Polls! Ever since I learned of tumblr's new poll feature, I've been brimming with ideas for Mega Man related polls! I'm thinking I might make it a weekly or biweekly thing and I can't wait to make some soon!

YouTube Recommendations! One thing I've learned about myself in this past year or so is that I LOVE finding and listening to remixes and covers of Mega Man themes, especially my favorite ones! I am just absolutely obsessed with it, I even have a whole playlist of my favorite ones that I found! And because of that I think it would be a really cool idea if I made posts linking each one of them and putting my commentary either in the post or in the tags! They are just SO GOOD, y'all, I just HAVE to share them so you can all hear them and so I can talk about them!!

And I think that's everything! Also just because I have a lot of new original stuff I plan to post doesn't mean that I'm going to reblog stuff any less, I still plan on reblogging everyone's amazing content all the same and there are a LOT of posts that I've been meaning to reblog that I wasn't able to get around to doing before. I'm thinking of setting up a queue that will post like 2 or 3 reblogs a day and I may post more or less on certain days, but that might take a little while since I still need to write tags for a least a good few posts since all of them have either no tags yet or only have very few tags. But I know everything's going to work out in the end and I am very excited about getting this blog up and running again!

[stardestroyer81]

Mega Man 10 features a triad of playable characters— Mega Man, Proto Man, and Bass. Unlike the former two, Mega Man 10 was Bass's first 8-Bit outing (Not counting his very minor cameo in Mega Man 9), and his faux NES sprite is... off. It's not a bad sprite by any means, but his color palette and posture being much too close to Rock's never quite sat right with me.

But what would Bass look like in my spriting style? Well... here's your answer! ✨

[stardestroyer81]

Back in August of last year, I made a post showcasing a sprite piece unlike any other one I'd shown before on this blog— a sixteen-bit rendition of Shovel Knight, sprited in the style of Mega Man 7 on the SNES!

I've only ever attempted to sprite in MM7's style a few times before (The linked post above being the most recent example), and from having a whole year of sprite expertise under my belt between said post and now, I figured it was time for me to try spriting something else in a SNES style... but just like last time, it was a little tough to decide on a subject.

Sure, I had chosen Shovel Knight previously, and would have been more than content with spriting somebody else from the Shovel Knight franchise (King Knight, perhaps), though this time, I wanted to chose a Mega Man character, one that would look plenty cool in Mega Man 7's style...

... so why not choose one of my own?

Thus, everybody's favorite guru of glitches was quick to receive a visual upgrade, and I am very much pleased with what I was able to come up with!

(Check under the cut for the usual Star Insight, Glitch Man's spriting process and a little bonus!)

When I decided on spriting Glitch Man in Mega Man 7's spriting style, I sampled Mega Man 7's color palette, grabbed all of the colors I knew I would need, and set up MS Paint accordingly for the creation of the sprite! However, where Shovel Knight's sprite was hand-drawn from the ground-up, the process I went about in SNES-ifying Glitch Man was a slight bit different, so I'll let you in on my top-secret, highly confidential process in starting his sprite...

I just upscaled Glitch Man's original sprite to roughly match the size of Mega Man's sprite in MM7 and traced over it.

To some, I understand that this method would be something of a copout, but when you take into consideration that doing so would cut down the production time significantly and allow for more room for finer details, it's actually a fairly viable technique. Plus, it's not like other sprite artists don't use this method— Rockman 7 FC instead took the SNES sprites and downscales them to befit the look of the NES Mega Man titles, seen here!

With a good idea on how to approach the lineart, all that was left was to actually draw it and color Glitch Man. Since I went into spriting him with every color I needed, applying a base color was plenty easy, though to stay true to Mega Man 7's spriting style, I would have to shade him in a very specific way.

You might notice that, in the above spriting process, I would draw lineart of a certain area of Glitch Man (Like his head), apply a flat color, shade it and then move onto the next area. I also had to make absolutely certain that one of his legs was a single pixel shorter than the other, as you'll notice is how every character is drawn in Mega Man 7 if you look closely!

And after about an hour of work, Glitch Man was complete! I'm certain I'm finally getting a hang of spriting above my usual 8-Bit limitations, and definitely intend on choosing another member of the Synth Legion to SNES-ify for a future post! Hope you've enjoyed reading through the insight behind this sprite, and expect more Mega Man 7 styled sprites to come!

[superherorobots]

Hi everyone! I want to apologize for not being active at all in the past *checks date of last reblog* WAIT IT'S BEEN FIVE MONTHS?! These past months(and this whole year in general, honestly) have been so busy and eventful that I've had like no time to make any posts or even write tags for the reblogs I have sitting in my drafts. I'm still quite busy because I just started a new college semester a few weeks ago but I wanted to assure you all that I am definitely planning to get this blog up and running again as soon as I can, I may even reblog one or a few things today if I get the chance!

[stardestroyer81]

Hi everyone! Today, I have a bit of a smaller post seeing as yesterday I showcased a drawing I'm quite proud of with a particularly lengthy design process to go with it, though what I have for this post is something I've been wanting to show off for a short while now!

A few days back, when looking at Mega Man Ultimate's stage select (The most recent version from 2020, in particular), I decided that it was high time that certain aspects of it got a revision— most specifically, the bulky stage select icon borders.

While the portraits of the eight robot masters have been constantly reworked and improved upon since each one's conception, the stage select icon borders have remained untouched since I first started making Mega Man Ultimate content back in 2018. Given I've had four whole years of sprite practice under my belt since then, it was time for a redraw!

And who better to show off the new border than a fan favorite?

When drawing a new stage select icon border, I took inspiration from the ones used in Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 4, the former of which being my main reference. The initial 2018 borders have always felt a bit clunky to me, and there's a lot going on on all sides of it (Figuratively and literally).

Upon setting out to make a slimmer, more compact redesign, I wanted the border itself to be a lot more simplistic than the version from four years ago. Really, all I needed were some cool blue gradients and the classic blinking corner lights, and it didn't actually take me that long to whip something up with those design choices in check!

And that's not all— if you look really closely between both portraits of Amazon Man, you may be able to make out a few small changes so that his portrait looks the best it can be! I redrew the leftmost side of his helmet and eyes a slight bit, fixed the shading on his head so that it looks a bit more vibrant, and extended his right pupil up a pixel. While small, these changes make his portrait look leagues better than before!

While we're on the topic of SLN-004, it was when I had been making these changes that I wanted to try something in pertains to Amazon Man's design that I had not once ever considered before... what would he look like without his usual mouthpiece?

The answer is a little something like this! While not a permanent change to his design, the minute 'mouthpiece-less Amazon Man' crossed my mind, I just had to attempt spriting out what he would look like without it!

I've always envisioned Amazon Man to have a slightly darker, more tan skin tone than the usual lighter tone that most humanoid robot masters tend to have, similar to Blast Man. In addition, I felt that it would be appropriate to continue to stray from the norm by giving him a broader chin, which hasn't been seen in a robot master since Dive Man.

The full, reworked version of Mega Man Ultimate's stage select should be up very soon— since all that's left for me to do is figure out one last portrait— but for the time being, enjoy this sneak preview of what to expect for it!