Proto Man

No need to feel Blue, Proto-Man is here!

The Mii
Proto-Man uses Proto-Man’s Helmet and Armor, and for the Mii I suggest either Nintendo’s official Mii which can be found here; Or WiiSPN’s Proto-Man here; If you want to use Nintendo’s Mii, you’ll need to download the QR code on a Wii U or 3DS, then take any amiibo and set the Proto-Man Mii as the amiibo’s “Owner”. Then go to the Switch’s Mii menu under Settings and select Copy From Amiibo. His color is red, his primary color that contrasts with Mega Man’s deep blue, and his voice is set to Off, in the same line as Mega Man and because he rarely, if ever speaks in most of his home games.

The Moves
Proto-Man’s Charge Blast is a direct reference to charging your blaster in the Mega Man series, and represents Proto-Man’s unique relationship with the charge shot. In every playable appearance Proto-Man has appeared in, his moveset has revolved around the charge shot in some form. Sometimes his charge shots do double damage, sometimes he can only fire charge shots, sometimes he can fire an infinite stream of charge shots, and in the case of the more recent Mega Mans 9 & 10, he’s the only character who can use the charge shot at all, while Mega Man and Bass are relegated to just the regular lemon shooter. No matter which game you play, the charge shot is very important to Proto-Man’s moveset. Flame Pillar might not directly reference any specific thing Proto-Man does, but here it serves as a representation of the types of sub-weapons you’d likely see in a Mega Man game. I originally thought of giving him missiles for this move, but I felt Flame Pillar better represented the more cartoony and fantastical weapons seen in the Classic Mega Man games. More specifically, this move looks a lot like Flame Blast from Mega Man 6. Flame Pillar also just isn’t a very commonly used Gunner move, and unfortunately doesn’t fit many characters, so using it where it’s most appropriate is a goal of mine. None of the Up Specials fit perfectly well for Proto-Man, but Cannon Jump Kick reminds me a bit of the Mega Upper in terms of functionality. Mega Upper is a secret move found throughout the Mega Man series based on Ryu’s Shoryuken. It’s been used by Mega Man, X, Proto-Man, and even Zero. Out of several imperfect options, this seemed like the best fit. Finally, Echo Reflector represents Proto-Man going into a guard stance to reflect projectiles with his shield. This allows him to reflect incoming projectiles for more damage, but leaves him vulnerable to physical attacks.

The Style
For his spirits, Proto-Man uses a Lightweight Style Ray Mk II. Lightweight makes him a bit more of a fragile fighter. Due to being the prototype model upon which Mega Man was based, Proto-Man is often the “challenge mode” character in the Mega Man games, taking double damage and more knockback. But don’t worry, his Mii Fighter more than makes up for this weakness in fire power and defensive cover.

The Spirits
He also has a Braking Ability Up spirit to capture the Classic Mega Man series’ combination of spacey jump physics and tight movement controls, as well as being similar to the physics and properties Mega Man already has in Ultimate. For his last two spirits, I gave him Perfect-Shield Reflect and Easier Perfect Shield. Easier Perfect Shield increases the number of frames Perfect Shield activates by about 60%, from 5 frames to 8. The shield drop animation is 11 frames in total, so this increases the amount of time Perfect Shield will protect you from less than 46% of the shield drop animation to over 72%. This makes Perfect Shielding a much more consistent part of his gameplan and gives him a great defensive option to both close and long range attacks. If you want an easy way to visualize the difference between Echo Reflector and Perfect Shielding, think of Echo Reflector like standing still and holding out your shield, and Perfect Shielding like quickly deflecting an attack with your shield in a pinch.

Analysis
I was trying to think of a character who would fit well with the Perfect-Shield Reflect spirit. Proto-Man was the most natural and perfect fit, being a character all about his shield. If I had a bit more room, I’d have loved to give him Shield Durability Up too, but I felt Braking Ability helped him feel more like a Mega Man character and set him apart from other MFP Gunners, and shield durability isn’t a very noticeable buff anyways.

Summary
The Ray MK II with Lightweight Style: 1 Support Spirit with Braking Ability ↑ 1 Support Spirit with Perfect-Shield Reflect 1 Support Spirit with Easier Perfect Shield



Credits: Uielicious Mii: WiiSPN or