Creepy Things We Found In Mega Man Games

Sometimes, the creepiest things in life lurk beneath the surface of the otherwise normal. Take Capcom's Mega Man franchise, for instance. This veritable pinnacle of the platformer genre is known the world over for its stoic yet cheerful protagonist and his primary-colored robot rivals. But long before he was mixing it up with World Warriors and the X-Men in fighting game crossovers, Mega Man was blasting his way through weird mechanical levels that were often laced with bizarre details and perverse NPCs.

The modern Mega Man is a shining example of an all-ages hero, and the latter-day foes he encounters in his ongoing fight against Dr. Wily are a reflection of that. But back in the day, things were a bit different. A lot of subtle, sinister ideas made their way into those early releases. So, in an effort to uncover these salacious anomalies for the scientific benefit of future generations, we mined the depths of the Mega Man Legacy Collection databases and a little Mega Man X for insights into the creepiest corners of the Mega Man universe.

We may never agree on which classic Mega Man game is the best or even the most difficult. But we can certainly agree on one thing: when it comes to creepy, circuses take the cake. And, of course, the deranged Dr. Wily managed to find a way to populate the robot-riddled landscape of 200X with a murderous carnival powered by his own deviant brand of mechanical malice. 

The Bubble Man stage in Mega Man 2, for instance, plays host to a creepy robotic bacchanal performed by a deranged assortment of mechas. Claw (a crab bot) and Kerog (a frog bot) perform tricks in this so-called "underwater carnival" to a lethal degree. Meanwhile, we come to learn that the oversized Goblin robots of Air Man's stage are the former leaders of a different robot circus which also includes Pierobot and Blocky from Metal Man's stage along with an assortment of others. If the phrase "be careful not to touch its horns or its Petit Goblins" doesn't make your skin crawl, we don't know what will. Wily's evil circus persists in later installments, with enemies like Parasyu from Mega Man 3 taking the spotlight. Send in the cybernetic clowns!

We don't know what it is about Mega Man 2 that made it such fertile breeding ground for creepy ideas, but it's easy to see that the fan-favorite sequel to the original NES release is crammed full of some strange characters and sinister situations. And sometimes, the most innocuous-looking enemies are the most egregiously macabre. Take Telly, for instance.

Encountered within the Heat Man and Crash Man stages (as well as in the first and fourth stages of Wily's Castle), Telly is "a security robot made for households" that "records intruders with its camera eye." But like so many of his robot brethren, Telly has been reprogrammed by the evil Dr. Wily for more insidious agendas. As fans of 2001: A Space Odyssey can attest: nothing's creepier than a voyeuristic robot that wants to kill you. Fortunately for us, we've got tactics like the Leaf Shield to keep Telly's prying eyes out of our business. But you can't put a good bot down: Telly makes a triumphant return in Mega Man 6 as Fire Telly and rears his oversized and ugly head as Big Telly in Mega Man 8.

Given the tremendous humanity of our eponymous hero and his mechanical companions, there's no doubting the robots of the Mega Man universe are sentient beings, with personalities becoming of their professions and their so-called programming. It's already a grim revelation when we learn the horrible truth of how Dr. Wily has repurposed so many of his robots from peaceful beings into weapons of war. But he really crosses the line in Mega Man 4 by raising the dead. That's right: zombie bots.

An upgrade of the Junk Golem from Mega Man 3, Mega Man 4's Mummira is the creepy robot version of an undead Egyptian horror. This "pyramid-exploring" robot is "cheap to produce, as it's made from destroyed scraps." Before we move on, let's get this straight: on top of its loathsome occupation, the Mummira is composed of the leftover parts of dead robots. If you think about it long and hard, it's enough to make your skin crawl (or your paint peel, as the case may be).

The majority of Mega Man's reputation is arguably built upon the franchise's breakneck difficulty and the cool characterizations of its boss battles (not to mention the lovable moxie of our titular mecha himself). But the devil's in the details, as they say — and some of the creepiest stuff in the series comes from how the unsung enemies behave.

When it comes to Mega Man's lesser adversaries, Ring Ring from Mega Man 4 occupies an interesting region of our imaginations. This unassuming space exploration robot "doesn't allow its prey to escape" and approaches with the slow incessance of a slasher movie serial killer like Michael Meyers or Jason Voorhees. When tensions run high (as they often do in Mega Man games), attacks laced with this steady lethargy can be most unsettling. In addition to his native habitat within the Ring Man stage, you'll encounter Ring Ring in the third section of Dr. Cossack's Citadel, where he's sure to terrorize you at an inopportune moment. Nothing's worse than besting the fastest enemies the game can throw at you, only to be beaten by the very slowest in one final, desperate moment of defeat.