Mega Man

Mega Man (known in Japan as Rockman) is a robot created by Dr. Light and the titular protagonist of the Mega Man video game series. Originally created to be Light's lab assistant, Dr. Wily taking over six of Light's robots led Mega Man to be converted into a battle robot to fight Wily and stop him from taking over the world as well as achieve everlasting peace.

In the Mario series, Mega Man has only made appearances in the Club Nintendo comics, and is a playable third-party guest character in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U.

Club Nintendo comics
Mega Man's first appearance in Mario-related media is in the German Club Nintendo magazine comic "Super Mario: Die Bescherung". The comic shows him with several other characters at Mario and Luigi's Christmas party.

His first and only major appearance was in the 1993 comic "Super Mario: Die Verwandlung", where he serves as Dr. Light's assistant. Toward the beginning Mega Man is the one that lets Mario into Dr. Light's home and guides him to his lab, making fun of Mario wearing a plastic bag to cover his pixelated head. Later, when Dr. Light confuses Mario's pixels for pimples, Mega Man appears and recommends "Oil of Mega Man". Finally, when Wario breaks out of the lab, Mega Man is the one driving the car they are chasing him in.

Mega Man is also mentioned in the comic "Super Mario: Mario im Wunderland". When Mario and Toad meet Kirby, the latter explains that he wants to see the wizard so that he can wish to look like Mega Man.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U
After twenty years of not appearing in any Mario-related media, Mega Man appears a playable guest character in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, as the third third-party character to be confirmed as a playable character in the series.

Mega Man's appearance and aesthetics in this game are based on his appearance in the NES titles, possessing a moveset centered around shooting as his opponents; he can use the Mega Buster to fire multiple single shots as his standard attack, which can be used while both walking and jumping, and use the Charge Shot as a side smash attack. His only direct attacks are the slide as his strong down attack, which made its debut in Mega Man 3, and the Mega Upper as his strong up, a move introduced in Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters which later appeared in Marvel vs. Capcom.

Much of Mega Man's moveset is based around the special weapons (referred to as the "Variable Weapon System") obtainable from the various Robot Masters in the classic Mega Man series. His special moves include Metal Blade, Crash Bomber, and Leaf Shield from Mega Man 2 as his neutral special, side special, and down special respectively, and Rush Coil from Mega Man 3 as his up special. His dash attack is the Top Spin, a move from Mega Man 3 which can hit multiple times. His up smash is the Spark Shock and his down smash is the Flame Blast, from Mega Man 3 and Mega Man 6, respectively. His aerial attacks include Slash Claw from Mega Man 7 as his back air, Flame Sword from Mega Man 8 as his front air, Air Shooter from Mega Man 2 as his up air which sends a tornado into the air that pushes opponents up, and Hard Knuckle from Mega Man 3 as his down air which acts as a meteor smash. His grab is the Super Arm from the original Mega Man. His Final Smash is Mega Legends, which involves the other incarnations of the Mega Man character appearing alongside this one to blast opponents all at once.

Mario Kart 8
By scanning the Mega Man amiibo on the GamePad while playing Mario Kart 8, a special Mii racing suit designed after the character will be unlocked. A sample of this suit is shown right next to a picture of Mega Man on the Mii Racing Suits screen, which is located in the main menu of the game; thus, Mega Man makes his first - and currently the only - cameo appearance within a Mario game. These features are only present as of version 4.0 of the aforementioned game.

Super Mario Maker
Mega Man's amiibo can be used to unlock a Mega Man costume for use as Costume Mario in Super Mario Maker. His sprite is similar to his 8-bit sprite from the Mega Man series, but scaled down to fit the size of Small Mario. As with all other Costume Mario costumes, can only be used in the Super Mario Bros. graphical style.

Mega Man's transformation sound is the level select sound from Mega Man 2, and while he has no jumping sound effect, his landing and death sounds are the ones throughout the Mega Man series, and pressing up on the d-pad causes him to hold out the Mega Buster, which also plays the sound for firing a shot in the Mega Man series. Finally, his level clear song is from Mega Man 2. His running and jumping animations are based on those used in the Mega Man series, and his stopping sprite is based on his sliding sprite first seen in Mega Man 3.

Palutena's Guidance

 * Viridi: Hey, look! It's Mega Man!
 * Pit: Is that really him? It is really him! WOW!
 * Viridi: I hope he busts out his Mega Buster!
 * Pit: I wanna see his Charge Shot!
 * Palutena: Flame Blast!
 * Viridi: Leaf Shield!
 * Pit: Rush Coil!
 * Palutena: Metal Blade!
 * Viridi: Spark Shock!
 * Pit: Air Shooter!
 * Palutena: Crash Bomber!
 * Viridi: Slash Claw!
 * Pit: Flame Sword!
 * All: HARD KNUCKLE!

Trivia

 * Mega Man series creator Keiji Inafune took some level of inspiration from the Super Mario games when designing this series.
 * Mario appears in a French commercial for Mega Man 2.
 * In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Mega Man's original name is "Mega" in Dr. Light's trophy description; while not incorrect, most sources instead call him "Rock" to match his sister Roll. This instance of his original name stems from the PlayStation Portable remake of the original game Mega Man Powered Up.