Mr. X's Castle,[1] known as the X Foundation Headquarters (エックス財団本部ビル Ekkusu Zaidan Honbu Biru)[2] in Japan, is the fortress used by "Mr. X" in Mega Man 6. Mr. X's Castle consists of four parts, called Mr. X Stages (Mr.Xステージ Misutā Ekkusu Sutēji). The final part of the fortress ends with a battle between Mega Man and Mr. X.
Mr. X Stages[]
Mega Man being attacked by two Cannopellers in the first Mr. X Stage.
Mr. X Stage 1[]
In the first stage, Mega Man begins outside of the castle, with a nighttime view of a blue futuristic city underneath a full moon. This stage mostly consists of Mega Man trying to break inside by scaling the walls of the castle. Jet Adaptor will have to be used commonly to get from ladder to ladder, though there will be a lot of Cannopellers to deal with. This stage has two split paths, diverging at one room where Mega Man can either continue climbing up and enter from the roof (which is adorned with blue telephone poles), or he can break through a cracked window using Power Adaptor. Getting to that window is tricky as Mega Man has to stay in his Power Adaptor form while jumping along a duo of drone-platforms from Wind Man's Stage with a spike ceiling over Mega Man's head. The drone always holds its platform on either its left or right side, and if Mega Man lands on the platform, the drone will change its position to the other. The stage's boss is Rounder II.
Enemies[]
| Image | Enemy |
|---|---|
 |
Rounder II (boss) |
 |
Tatebo |
 |
Cyber Gabyoall |
 |
Cannopeller |
 |
Hotchkiss'n (main path) |
 |
Skull Walker (main path) |
 |
Batabattan (secret path) |
 |
Wall Blaster 2 |
Valuable pickups to look out for:
E-Tank: If the player takes the normal path along the rooftop, this pickup will be hidden in a breakable block that only Power Adaptor can destroy.- 1-UP (x4): All four of these pickups are hidden inside the last breakable block in the secret path.
Mr. X Stage 2[]
The opening area of the second Mr. X Stage.
The second Mr. X stage has an outer space feel, with large windows that give Mega Man a view of the night sky. The level contains a large amount of Mets across the stage. There is also no vertical scrolling at all, making this level like a hallway of the fortress. The main gimmick is the stage are fake floors outlined by construction-stylized foreground, with Mega Man being visible behind the black stripes. Introduced to give Mega Man some goodies, it later becomes a trap by having spikes at the bottom. One particular gimmick, unique to this stage, is featured exclusively by itself in one room. Yellow platforms are lined up like a bridge, and once stood on, they wait a second before falling straight down into the pit below. If Mega Man keeps walking, however, there should be no issue. The stage's boss is Power Piston.
Enemies[]
| Image | Enemy |
|---|---|
 |
Power Piston (boss) |
 |
Met |
 |
Molier |
|
Hotchkiss'n |
|
Skull Walker |
Surprisingly, there are no valuable pickups to speak of.
Mr. X Stage 3[]
The third Mr. X stage takes place in a boiler area. There are a few alternate paths in each stage, but they are self-contained within the rooms. The main gimmick is also unique to this stage. There are these giant red machines positioned along tall screw-pillars, and they each have two yellow platforms that are always opposite of each other like a weighted scale. If Mega Man stands on one platform, it will slowly sink while the other rises, which is needed to progress and give Mega Man better angles to jump to his next destination. The combination of Fire Tellies and Pookers returns, tasking Mega Man to switch between Jet Adaptor and Power Adaptor on the fly in order to deal with the enemies efficiently. The stage's boss is Metonger Z.
Enemies[]
| Image | Enemy |
|---|---|
 |
Metonger Z (boss) |
|
Cyber Gabyoall |
 |
Ben K |
 |
Fire Telly |
 |
Pooker |
|
Cannopeller |
Valuable pickups to look out for:
- 1-UP: At the very first room, this pickup is below the platform Mega Man spawns on. It is protected not only by breakable blocks on both sides, but also Cyber Gabyoalls. Power Adaptor can be used to dispatch both.
- E-Tank: If Mega Man takes the left ladder in the first room, it will lead him to this pickup, though it is also a dead end and Mega Man will have to progress using the right ladder.
- E-Tank: There will be another room that has branching paths. The lower one has breakable blocks which only Power Adaptor can destroy. However, there are also Cyber Gabyoalls hidden in-between the blocks. One of the breakable blocks hides this pickup inside it.
Mr. X Stage 4[]
The fourth and last Mr. X stage, an area that seems to be used for robot production. Right away, the one-off spike platform from Tomahawk Man's Stage appears in the first room. Every time the safe side is touched, either from standing on it above or bonking your head below, the platform rotates in 180 degrees. At this point, there will be a lot more breakable blocks to bash with Power Adaptor, holding many goodies. In addition, there are a few unique gimmicks in this stage: a special X block that is indestructible, but can be pushed forward if hit with Power Adaptor. There are also yellow tubes that release Peats upwards at a steady rate, though if one of the aforementioned X blocks is knocked on top of one, it will seal off the entrance and stop the Peats from spawning (a falling block won't actually destroy Peats, however). There are also two split paths that each have their own enemies, converging shortly after. The stage's boss is X Crusher.
Enemies[]
| Image | Enemy |
|---|---|
 |
X Crusher (boss) |
 |
Wall Blaster 2 |
 |
Peat (unique) |
 |
Tadahou |
 |
Shield Attacker GTR |
 |
Colton (right path) |
 |
SW-525 (upper path) |
Valuable pickups to look out for:
- E-Tank: In the room with many slide gaps on top of each other, this pickup is in plain sight underneath somne of the upper platforms. It is recommended to destroy one breakable block with Power Adaptor so it can open up a path for Mega Man exit out safely. If this is not done, the only way to escape is to forcibly take damage from a Wall Blaster 2 who hangs out at the end of the bottommost slide gap.
- 1-UP: This pickup is in plain sight on the upper path and is easily accessible among the SW-525s. The right path, by comparison, is a little shorter in length, but does not have any goodies.
- E-Tank: After the paths converge, this pickup will be accessible by simply falling into the left area and grabbing it. However, there is a Peat tube that will spawn enemies to distract Mega Man, and it may be tempting to use Power Adaptor and punch the nearby X block to seal if off. Doing this will also seal off the pickup, making it impossible to obtain.
Other media[]
New Metropolis attacking a city.
Rockman 6[]
In the Rockman 6 manga, the X Foundation Headquarters is located in the center of a giant flying city named New Metropolis (ニューメトロポリス Nyū Metoroporisu) that is hidden in space. When Mr. X's eight robots are defeated, New Metropolis descends and attacks a city with its weaponry. Mega Man invades New Metropolis and fights against its defenses, including Rounder II, an army of Mets, Power Piston and Metonger Z.
When Mega Man destroys the X Crusher, Mr. X reveals he is Dr. Wily and escapes, setting the New Metropolis to fall on the city. To save everyone, Mega Man rushes to the city's control room, but to his surprise, New Metropolis stops falling and goes up. When he enters the control room, Mega Man sees the Metall that was piloting Metonger Z, who stopped the fall and sacrifices himself by taking New Metropolis high in the sky and exploding it after Mega Man leaves with the Jet Adaptor.
Mega Man Megamix[]
The New Metropolis appears briefly in the beginning of "The Strongest Enemy to Date". When Mr. X attempts to conquer the world, Mega Man goes to New Metropolis and fights against Mr. X's eight robots, Doc Robot, Picopico-kun, Cockroach Twin, Big Pets, Mechazaurus, Tank CSII, and other robots before reaching Mr. X's Castle (Mr.Xの居城 Mr. X no Kyojou). Mega Man quickly takes down Mr. X, who reveals that he is actually Dr. Wily and asks for forgiveness. When Mega Man turns around, Dr. Wily tries to crush him with the Wily Machine 6, and as it is easily destroyed, Wily begs for mercy again, but this time he is shot in the head. However, that was a fake Wily robot, and the real Wily escapes. It is later revealed that at one point, Mega Man fought against an evil copy of himself before facing the eight robots, and the copy took his place, believing to be the original.
Gallery[]
See Also[]
References[]