MMKB

When making edits to long standing statements or facts on the wiki, you MUST PROVIDE CREDIBLE SOURCES FOR YOUR CLAIMS. edits done without will be UNDONE, NO REASONS GIVEN. Please use the talk pages to provide these sources before editing!

READ MORE

MMKB
Register
Advertisement
WilyTinkerRobot

Promotional image with Dr. Wily working on a robot.

The boss character contest (ボスキャラ募集 bosu kyara boshuu, roughly "boss character application") is a contest held by Capcom where fans send ideas for boss characters to appear in a Mega Man game.

Contests and characters[]

Rockman2Promo

Rockman 2 boss character contest

Mega Man series[]

Mega Man 2[]

The first boss character contest, which had 8370 entries and decided the eight Robot Masters that appear in the game. 10 participants received a "staff only" blouson, 100 received a Rockman 2 Original Music tape, and 500 received seals.[1] Besides the eight winners, forty participants were listed in the game's Japanese manual[2] and in the special thanks from the game's staff roll.

As the game had a strict deadline, the staff couldn't wait until after the submissions had arrived and selected the winners to start development. Instead, work was made on the stages and enemies, and the staff had a loose idea of what kind of boss would be needed for each stage (wind and electric themed boss characters for the air themed stage, animal and nature themed bosses for the forest, etc). They selected the motifs they found most interesting from the many submissions, Keiji Inafune cleaned them up and redesigning them as necessary, and they selected one of the designs.[3]

Boss Designer
DWN-009 Metal Man Masanori Satou (佐藤 正徳 Satō Masanori)
DWN-010 Air Man Youji Kanazawa (金沢 洋治 Kanazawa Yōji)
DWN-011 Bubble Man Takashi Tanaka (田中 隆 Tanaka Takashi)
DWN-012 Quick Man Hirofumi Mizoguchi (溝口 博文 Mizoguchi Hirofumi)
DWN-013 Crash Man Akira Yoshida (吉田 晃 Yoshida Akira)
DWN-014 Flash Man Tomoo Yamaguchi (山口 智雄 Yamaguchi Tomō)
DWN-015 Heat Man Toshiyuki Kataoka (片岡 稔幸 Kataoka Toshiyuki)
DWN-016 Wood Man Masakatsu Ichikawa (市川 雅克 Ichikawa Masakatsu)

Special thanks:

  • Hiroyuki Maetani
  • Tatsuya Kasai
  • Mamoru Asoshina
  • Junichi Kanda
  • Masahiro Takahashi
  • Akimitsu Tsubata
  • Yoshiaki Gotou
  • Kazunari Suzuki
  • Yuu Yamazaki
  • Tomohiro Hosoya
  • Yoshiaki Nanki
  • Yasuhito Sasaki
  • Jun Katou
  • Seikou Jougan
  • Kenji Kinoue
  • Takashi Umezawa
  • Kazuya Wakazuki
  • Masashi Yamauchi
  • Makoto Ogoma
  • Seiji Tanaka
  • Hideaki Kawai
  • Ryouji Yasuda
  • Takayuki Wakisaka
  • Takumi Yoshinaga[4]
  • Yasuto Nakamura
  • Shin Ienaka
  • Hirofumi Moriiwa
  • Tetsuya Miura
  • Michinari Satou
  • Yukio Hasegawa
  • Hiroyuki Tannai
  • Michiaki Hama
  • Takeo Morimoto
  • Masaki Satou
  • Youji Miyamoto
  • Shigehisa Iinuma
  • Yoshitomo Kodama
  • Taketsugu Wakabayashi
  • Toshiteru Ogura
  • Takeshi Arai

Mega Man 3[]

MM3Submissions

All 50,000 entries for Mega Man 3.

The contest decided the eight Robot Masters. Had 50,000 entries. Some runner up entries received a pencil case and ID card as prize.[5] Forty participants also had their names listed in the special thanks from the ending credits.[6]

Similar to Mega Man 2, the staff could not wait for the submissions to start development, so some placeholder bosses were used while planning out the stages. When early designs from the game were compiled for R20 Rockman & Rockman X Official Complete Works in 2008, Keiji Inafune didn't remember which of the unused bosses were designed as placeholders and which ones were part of the contest.[7]

Boss Designer Submission name[6]
DWN-017 Needle Man Nobuhiko Akatsuka (赤塚 信彦 Akatsuka Nobuhiko) Iron Man
DWN-018 Magnet Man Nagashi Kii (紀井 長 Nagashi Kī) Magnet Man
DWN-019 Gemini Man Yoshihito Hattori (服部 嘉人 Hattori Yoshihito) ?
DWN-020 Hard Man Kazuhiko Oguro (小黒 一彦 Oguro Kazuhiko) Press Man
DWN-021 Top Man Yasushi Konjiki (近喰 康史 Konjiki Yasushi) Top Man
DWN-022 Snake Man Yuhjiro Ishitani (石谷 裕二郎 Ishitani Yūjirō) Snake Man
DWN-023 Spark Man Mikihiro Suzuki (鈴木 広 Suzuki Hiroshi) Spark Man
DWN-024 Shadow Man Takumine Yoshida (吉田 拓峰 Yoshida Takumine) Ninja Man


Special thanks:

  • Mutsuo Shimomura
  • Takashi Fujioka
  • Akio Yabuki
  • Takehiro Suzuki
  • Tomohiro Komine
  • Yoshitomo Imaizumi
  • Masayoshi Anzaki
  • Junjiro Kimura
  • Katsuhiro Nakamura
  • Atsushi Watanabe
  • Yusuke Murata
  • Takashi Umezawa
  • Tomohiro Takei
  • Tomohide Asakura
  • Takashi Yoshimura
  • Yoshitane Okimoto
  • Yataka Suzuki
  • Keisuke Hokku
  • Taku Hikichi
  • Tsutomu Kond
  • Hiroki Okabe
  • Hisatomo Tanaka
  • Akira Obata
  • Bungo Iwai
  • Shinpei Johno
  • Kazutaka Horimoto
  • Tetsu Akiyama
  • Masashi Haruki
  • Shouichiro Yamaguchi
  • Keisuke Kamioosako
  • Fumitomo Kagami
  • Makoto Inoue
  • Mrs. Tarumi
  • Jyagua
  • Takepong
  • Ashenden
  • Koba Win
  • Aribon
  • Yacchan Z
  • Iriko

Mega Man 4[]

Rockman4BossCharaContest

Rockman 4 contest promotion.

The eight Robot Masters.[8] Had 70,000 entries. The winners from this game's contest received a golden Rockman 4 cartridge.[9] Everyone that participated received the booklet Rockman Character Collection, and towels were also given as a gift.[10]

Boss Designer Submission name
DWN-025 Bright Man Yoshitaka Enomoto
(榎本よしたか)
Pearl Man[note 1]
DWN-026 Toad Man Atsushi Ootsuka Toad Man
DWN-027 Drill Man Masayuki Hoshi Drill Man
DWN-028 Pharaoh Man Takayuki Ebara Miira Man
(Mummy Man)
DWN-029 Ring Man Hiromi Uchida Ring Man
DWN-030 Dust Man Yusuke Murata
(村田 雄介 Murata Yūsuke)
Dust Man
DWN-031 Dive Man Suguru Nakayama
DWN-032 Skull Man Toshiyuki Miyachi Skull Man
  1. Named after a Japanese lamp brand.

Mega Man 5[]

MM6NPSubmissions

A pile of entries for Rockman 5

Like previous contests, it decided the eight Robot Masters. Had 130,000 entries.

Boss Designer Submission name[11]
DWN-033 Gravity Man Yukiko Nori Gravity Man
DWN-034 Wave Man Hideyuki Monno ?
DWN-035 Stone Man Kenta Oonishi Block Man
DWN-036 Gyro Man Katsunari Oguri Gyro Man
DWN-037 Star Man Tatsumi Saegusa Star Man
DWN-038 Charge Man Toshiaki Sugiura Steam Man
DWN-039 Napalm Man Shinichirou Seki Beat Man
DWN-040 Crystal Man Yusuke Murata Lens Man

Mega Man 6[]

MM6-bosscontest

Mega Man 6 boss character contest.

The only contest from the original series with non-Japanese winners, with a contest being held by Nintendo Power. Had 200,000 entries. One of the non-Japanese winners, Daniel Vallée, recalled that, besides his winning entry of Knight Man, he had submitted enough Robot Master designs to fill eight whole games, with names including Wave Man and Samurai Man (the former of whom had coincidentally had a shared name with an unrelated Robot Master in Mega Man 5).[12]

Wily Prize:

Boss Designer Submission name
DWN-041 Blizzard Man Hirofumi Ogawa Spur Man
(シュプールマン, from the German spur, which in Japanese is used to refer to the slippage from ski trails)
DWN-042 Centaur Man Kazuki Kidoguchi Centaman
DWN-043 Flame Man Noritsugu Kurokawa Flame Man
DWN-044 Knight Man Daniel Vallée
(written as Daniel Vallie in the game's credits)
Knight Man
DWN-045 Plant Man Nobuhiro Hoshino ?
DWN-046 Tomahawk Man Yoshinobu Suda Geronimo Man
(ジェロニモマン)
DWN-047 Wind Man Michael Leader Wind Man
DWN-048 Yamato Man Rai Ichikawa Musha Man
(武者マン, lit. "Warrior Man")

Japanese Light prize:

Boss submission Designer
Whip Man Saori Tsubaki
Puzzle Man Tsuyoshi Shinoda
Mirage Man Tomoaki Hirose
Splash Man Miki Kawashima
Oil Man Satoshi Sakamoto
Saboten Man ("Cactus Man") Tomoko Miyamoto
Smoke Man Mitsumasa Nagaya
Box Man Tomohiko Sato
Hook Man Waka Maeda
Fish Man Kenji Tsujimoto
Ōedo Man Takako Asami
Tank Man Yasuko Watanabe
Rope Man Seiichi Honma
Screw Man Shigeharu Kagawa
Quake Man Akio Ofuji
Yamato Man Kenichiro Ueda
Ship Man Katsuki Mugishima
Alo Hameha Man Yuichiro Haruyama
Pair Dancer Man Aya Hattori
Ganesha Man Shunji Terauchi

International Light Prize:

Boss submission Origin Designer
Cord Man Canada Luc Miron
Artillery Man America David Dunn
Lance Man Spain Pol Santamans Bacart
Chain Man Italia Nicolas Fels
Virtuose Man Australia Marco Varga
Shock Man America Nathan Campbell
Flame Man Sweden Pelle Lövholm
Wolf Man America Juson Soule
????? Korea Shin Kyung Bong
Ball Man Germany Aron Bundels
Saw Man America Lee Konstantinou
Korten France Patrick Ruefeuillat
("Patrik Nahon" in the game credits)

Mega Man 7[]

The eight Robot Masters. Had 220,000 entries.

Wily Prize:

Boss Designer Submission name[13]
DWN-049 Freeze Man Shigeaki Sakamoto Freeze Man
DWN-050 Junk Man Jun Akiba ?
DWN-051 Burst Man Keishi Tsuchiya Shabon Man (Soap Bubble Man)
DWN-052 Cloud Man Isao Nakagiri Smoke Man
DWN-053 Spring Man Akira Ito Spring Man
DWN-054 Slash Man Yoichi Amano Claw Man
DWN-055 Shade Man Tetsuya Watada Hells Man
DWN-056 Turbo Man Takashi Kino Dash Man

Light Prize:
32 participants were included in the credits as special designers.

  • Hitomi Yoshimasa
  • Hiroaki Sugawara
  • Tomoko Tanabe
  • Masatoshi Yamazaki
  • Madoka Ayabe
  • Mayumi Ito
  • Miwa Kikuchi
  • Masaomi Shimono
  • Makoto Ohkawara
  • Kyosuke Harada
  • Noriyoshi Takahashi
  • Kunihiro Kaneda
  • Hiroyoshi Nakanishi
  • Kenta Yatsuda
  • Daisuke Hanai
  • Katsuya Onose
  • Susumu Matsunaga
  • Satoko Nogi
  • Hirofumi Yamauchi
  • Hitoshi Takehana
  • Mie Iida
  • Tsutomu Nagai
  • Yuka Takeda
  • Kenji Ito
  • Maiko Miyaji
  • Saori Tsubaki
  • Yusuke Watanabe
  • Hideto Kishimoto
  • Haruo Kubo
  • Ai Nadatani
  • Sayo Ohsawa
  • Akiko Iinuma

Mega Man 8[]

For this contest a template was given for three of the six bosses that would receive the Dr. Wily Prize: one boss character with a sword (the winner being Sword Man), one with extendible arms (Clown Man), and one with two heads (Search Man). The other winners were Frost Man, Grenade Man and Aqua Man. Tengu Man and Astro Man were made by Capcom. Besides the six winners, some submissions are displayed in the game's credits and the Sega Saturn's Bonus Mode,[14] and some participants are listed in the credits as part of the Dr. Light Prize. Some participants won a Mega Man themed calculator.[15] Had 110,000 entries.

The Dr. Wily Prize:

Boss Designer Submission name[16]
DWN-059 Sword Man Keigo Matsuo Ancient Man
DWN-060 Clown Man Hiroshige Sakai Pierrot Man
DWN-061 Search Man Yuuta Hata Vulcan Man
DWN-062 Frost Man Akifumi Nomura Yeti Man
DWN-063 Grenade Man Kenichirou Komaki Explode Man
DWN-064 Aqua Man Morito Kuriki Bio Man

The Dr. Light Prize:

  • Kazuya Miyauchi
  • Takamasa Yamada
  • Shinya Miyamoto
  • Naoki Wakabayashi
  • Syoutarou Aihara
  • Ryouichi Takahashi
  • Takuya Tasaka
  • Kenji Satou
  • Yuuhei Tamura
  • Takeshi Uemura
  • Youhei Shinbori
  • Katsuhiko Fukui
  • Toshiya Oobu
  • Kanichirou Asano
  • Yukihiro Katano
  • Katsuto Fujiwara
  • Naoshi Kataoka
  • Kenzou Umino
  • Kenji Kobayashi
  • Yuuki Maehiro
  • Kunihiro Kanada
  • Takehito Kusuhara
  • Takayuki Hida
  • Kouta Toshi
  • Eiko Hasegawa
  • Kouzou Tsukamoto
  • Syouji Yamamoto
  • Atsushi Matsumoto
  • Takuya Tsutsui
  • Makoto Furukawa
  • Masashi Taniguchi
  • Akari Nakamura
  • Naoyuki Watanabe
  • Syun Tanimura
  • Akiko Kawaguchi
  • Hiroshi Yanagi
  • Ikkou Tatemoto
  • Tomoaki Hirose
  • Teruo Momiyama
  • Hitomi Igarashi
  • Syun Yamada
  • Isara Suwanpramoth
  • Shinichirou Naganuma
  • Takahiro Saitou
  • Syouichirou Sekiguchi
  • Sikharin Eiamprapai
  • Kazunobu Nakata
  • Tsukasa Itabashi
  • Ai Nadatani
  • Kenichi Igarashi

Mega Man Legends series[]

The Misadventures of Tron Bonne[]

Although not a boss contest, The Misadventures of Tron Bonne held contests that had the Servbot Borer (by べのむ) and the Bonne Bazooka as the winners. The designs made by the fans can be seen in the credits from the Japanese version.

Mega Man Legends 3[]

Before Mega Man Legends 3 was cancelled, the Devroom held events for fan content to be included in the game, which included a Bonne mecha boss, a Reaverbot boss, the Bright Bats mascot, promotional ideas, townspeople, and easter eggs.

Contest Winner Entries
Bonne mecha boss Donner Wels by Kobun #46 (CAPコブン) List of entries
Reaverbot boss Calamity by Servbot #2395 (kankan) List of entries
Bright Bats mascot Tinker by Servbot #1061 (Espiownage) List of entries

Mega Man Battle Network series[]

BakenekoMan

Mega Man Battle Network 3 promotion with the character BakenekoMan.

Boss contests makes a return for Mega Man Battle Network in a smaller scale than it was in the classic series. It’s limited to a few bosses instead of becoming all of game's main bosses.

Mega Man Battle Network 2[]

The winner of the Mega Man Battle Network 2 contest becomes the NetNavi of Mr. Famous. The Navi also has his own Program Advance (a super move based on that Navi's attack).[17]

Boss Designer Submission name
GateMan Shoichiro Satokawa (さとかわ しょういちろう) GateMan (ゲートマン)

Mega Man Battle Network 3[]

The winners of the Mega Man Battle Network 3 contest become Navis of various roles. KingMan is the Navi of a re-occurring character. The other two are the Rank #2 Navi of the Undernet between the two versions. MistMan for White version and BowlMan for Blue version. The three also work together in a Program Advance super move, Grand Prix Power.

Boss Designer Submission name
KingMan Koshiro Umegaki (うめがき こうしろう) CrossMan (クロスマン)
MistMan Tsubasa Kataoka (かたおか つばさ) MistMan (ミストマン)
BowlMan Atsuya Shimizu (しみず あつや) BowlerMan (ボーラーマン)

Mega Man Battle Network 4[]

GrandPrixPower-chip

Grand Prix Power Battle Chip art.

The winners of the Mega Man Battle Network 4 contest become Navis of various roles. VideoMan is a Navi of an in-game tournament's participant. KendoMan is Mr. Famous' Navi, who also participates in a tournament. LaserMan is the antagonist group leader's Navi. The three Navis also work together in a Battle Chip, Grand Prix Power. This chip was only obtainable from real life events or an e-Reader card. These Navis also appear in Rockman EXE 4.5 Real Operation.

Boss Designer Submission name
LaserMan Yoshihito Nonaka (のなか よしひと) LaserMan (レーザーマン)
KendoMan Yuta Koido (こいど ゆうた) KendouMan (ケンドうマン)
VideoMan Yosuke Shimizu (しみず ようすけ) VideoMan (ビデオマン)

Mega Man Battle Network 5[]

The winners of the Mega Man Battle Network 5 contest become Navis of various roles. CosmoMan is a story boss, GridMan is Mr. Famous's Navi, and LarkMan is an optional boss in the Undernet. All theses Navis also have their own corresponding Program Advance (a super move based on that Navi's attack).

Boss Designer Submission name
CosmoMan Tsutomu Namegaya (なめがや つとむ) CosmoMan (コスモマン)
LarkMan (JP: SwallowMan) Sota Iwasaki (いわさき そうた) SwallowMan (スワローマン)
GridMan (JP: FootMan) Hidenori Aoki (あおき ひでのり) FootMan (フットマン)

Mega Man Battle Network 6[]

The winners of the Mega Man Battle Network 6 contest become story Navi bosses in the game. While Mr. Famous is in this game, he does not have a fightable NetNavi.

Boss Designer Submission name
CircusMan Touya Hamanaga (はまなが とうや) PierrotMan (ピエロマン)
ElementMan Souhei Nakamura (なかむら そうへい) ElementalMan (エレメンタルマン)
JudgeMan Keisuke Takahashi (たかはし けいすけ) BookMan (ブックマン)

Rockman.EXE Operate Shooting Star[]

After Mega Man Star Force 3, the winner of the next game's contest was set for an undetermined Mega Man title.[18] It was later revealed to be for the advanced port of the first Mega Man Battle Network, Rockman.EXE Operate Shooting Star. ClockMan is the in-game reason on how the MegaMan.EXE and Star Force Mega Man crossover happens.

Boss Designer Submission name
ClockMan Toshiki Goto (ごとう としき) Clock Genius (クロック・ジーニアス)

Mega Man Star Force series[]

Boss contests made a return in the Mega Man Star Force series in an even smaller scale, limiting to one winner per game.

Mega Man Star Force 2[]

The winner of the Mega Man Star Force 2 contest becomes an optional boss.

Boss Designer Submission name
Kung Foo Kid (JP: Goat Kung Fu) Kentaro Fujii (ふじい けんたろう) Mee Goat (Baa Goat) (メー・ゴート Mēgōto)

Mega Man Star Force 3[]

The winner of the Mega Man Star Force 3 contest becomes a roadblock boss that must be defeated to proceed with the story.

Boss Designer Submission name
Moon Destroyer (JP: Moon Disaster) Rikuto Fujiwara (みずはら りくと) Moon Disaster (ムーン・ディザスター Mūn Dizasutā)

Rockman ×over[]

Two contests were held. In the first, the winner was Arcade Man, and he was included as a boss. Besides Arcade Man, three runner-ups (Tabletman, Zehr, and Daruman) were added as Battle Memory.[19][20]

The second contest had a Japanese motif, with eleven characters being selected to be redesigned in a Mega Man style, and two of them (Udon Man and Sudachi Woman) were also included as Battle Memory.[21]

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

MM2 Drill Man

Drill Man, an example of a Mega Man 2 submission redesigned by Inafune. A similar Drill Man would later appear in Mega Man 4.

  • Due to the large amount of submissions, many coincidences could occur, with submissions having names and/or designs similar to others that would appear in later games. For example, a Drill Man was considered for Mega Man 2, and a Drill Man would later appear in Mega Man 4.[3] The name Drill Man was also used for Ground Man during the development of Mega Man & Bass.
    • This could occur even in the same contest. In the Mega Man 4 contest, two submissions were named Pharaoh Man, but "Mummy Man" was selected and renamed as Pharaoh Man.[22]
  • In the interview with the illustrators in MM25 Mega Man & Mega Man X Official Complete Works, Hitoshi Ariga, Ryuji Higurashi and Kenta Saito informed that they participated in the boss character contests, while Keisuke Mizuno and Yuri Kataiwa did not. Saito mentioned that Jupiter looks exactly like one of the characters he submitted, and Hitoshi Ariga jokes that his design may have been stolen. Ariga says that if true, it was not on purpose as the staff could easily get a character design stuck in the back of their minds after going through tons of fan submissions, with that memory resurfacing in someone's mind during development. Ariga also mentioned that he had sent a character named Spring Man to one of the contests before Mega Man 7, and Higurashi wonders how many people may believe that their ideas were copied.

References[]

Advertisement