| Mega Man 2 has eight Robot Masters where Mega Man had six, and eight became the series' number. | Mega Man II, The Basics | Web |
| After each Robot Master the player can take a password and use it later to return to the same point in the game. | Mega Man II, The Basics | Manual |
| Mega Man 2 was the series' breakthrough, far more popular than the first game, and its success made the series a hit. | Mega Man II, The Basics1987, Mega Man (Rockman in Japan) | Web |
| Retrospectives single out Mega Man 2's music. | Mega Man II, The Basics | Magazine |
| Besides the eight Robot Masters' stages, the game has four bonus stages that refight the bosses of Mega Man 2, and Dr. Wily's own stages. | 1990, Mega Man III, Gameplay1990, Mega Man III, Gameplay | Web |
| Mega Man 3 introduces Proto Man, Mega Man's brother, whom Inafune wanted players to read as either a rival or a comrade. | 1990, Mega Man III, The Basics | Web |
| The release kept a debug feature on the second controller. Holding right on it lets Mega Man jump across the screen, and holding it right as he falls into a pit drains his health but leaves him impervious to damage. | 1990, Mega Man III, Gameplay | Book |
| Proto Man, Rush, and the slide recur in nearly every later Mega Man game, and GameSpot's retrospective calls Mega Man 3 perhaps the series' best. | 1990, Mega Man III, The Basics | Book |
| Mega Man 4 adds the New Mega Buster, whose shot charges while B is held, and Capcom's developers say the charge shot became a staple of the series from this game on. | 1991, Mega Man IV, The Basics | Manual |
| In Mega Man 4 a cleared stage can be played again, without its Robot Master, to look for items missed the first time, and each Robot Master beaten gives a password to continue from. | 1991, Mega Man IV, The Basics | Manual |
| Mega Man 4's apparent villain is Dr. Cossack, but Dr. Wily turns out to be behind him, having taken Cossack's daughter Kalinka hostage to force him into the fight. | 1991, Mega Man IV, The Basics | Web |
| GameSpot's history of the series ranks Mega Man 4 below Mega Man 2 and 3 and calls it the game where the series' invention began to run out and it began to show its age. | 1991, Mega Man IV, The Basics1991, Mega Man IV, Final Thoughts | Web |
| Charge Man's weapon, the Charge Kick, turns Mega Man's slide into an attack. | 1992, Mega Man V, The Weapons and Bosses | Web |
| Collecting the letters M-E-G-A-M-A-N-V, hidden in the stages, lets Mega Man call Beat, a robot bird that fights for him; Beat is new in this game. | 1992, Mega Man V, Gameplay1992, Mega Man V, The Basics | Manual |
| GameSpot's 2003 history of the series found Mega Man 5's ideas wearing thin, praised its graphics and music, blamed its bosses and the market's move to the Super NES for its weak showing, and called it underappreciated and rare. | 1992, Mega Man V, The Basics1992, Mega Man V, Gameplay1992, Mega Man V, Final Thoughts | Web |
| In Japan the game is Rockman 6: Shijō Saidai no Tatakai!! The atlas translates the subtitle as The Greatest Battle in History!!, where GameSpot gives The Biggest Battle in History!! | 1993, Mega Man VI | Magazine |
| Capcom published the game in Japan and Nintendo of America published it in North America, where Capcom had published Mega Man 1 to 5. | 1993, Mega Man VI | Manual |
| GameSpot's history says Capcom, committed to the Super NES and disappointed by Mega Man 5's sales, chose not to release the game in the United States. | 1993, Mega Man VI | Web |
| Two of the bosses, Knight Man and Wind Man, came from Nintendo Power readers: the magazine sent their designs to Capcom, which adapted them. GameSpot names their designers as Daniel Vallie, a Canadian, and Michael Leader, an American; the other six bosses were designed in Japan. | 1993, Mega Man VI | Magazine |
| GameSpot's 2003 history of the series called it the last NES game of the series and the cheesiest. | 1993, Mega Man VI | Web |
| Mega Man chooses which of six Robot Masters to fight from a menu, in any order; they are Cut Man, Guts Man, Ice Man, Bomb Man, Fire Man, and Elec Man. | 1987, Mega Man (Rockman in Japan), Gameplay | Manual |
| Mega Man sold modestly, not well enough to earn an immediate sequel, and its team made Mega Man 2 in their own time. | 1987, Mega Man (Rockman in Japan) | Magazine |
| Retrospectives credit the free stage order and the stolen weapons with the series' long run. | 1987, Mega Man (Rockman in Japan), Gameplay | Web |
| GameSpot's 2003 history calls Mega Man one of Capcom's most popular characters worldwide, and the series the company's most important before Street Fighter. | introductionintroduction | Web |
| Mega Man X, on the SNES in 1994, began a side series. | Mega Man X, The Basics | Web |
| Mega Man Legends (1998) took the series into 3D. | Mega Man Legends, The Basics | Web |
| By 2003 the series had branched into Mega Man Battle Network, set in an alternate reality, and Mega Man Zero, a spin-off of the X series, both on the Game Boy Advance. | introductionintroduction | Web |