Death In Megaman (Character Deaths)

While game overs are one thing, there is a lesser death in Megaman, the character death. I say lesser not because it happens less, in fact it happens at lease 3 times as much. I say lesser because unlike game overs, if you have more lives you can start from half-levels and you can keep your E-tanks (powerups).

The other main difference between the two is that character death is almost impossible to avoid. While lucky players can store up lives or power to ward off game overs, there's only 1 false move between a player and character death. With the number of instant-death situations in the Megaman games, it's surprising how many times he explodes.

When Megaman dies, he doesn't just fall over or leave the screen.. he explodes. I guess that's reasonable for a robot but still... explodes. Explodes into little balls of light:

Death in Megaman (Game Overs)

With the entire Megaman series being so damn hard, probably the most viewed screens in them are these:

That's right, the game-over screens.

Since the boss order is usually guess-and-check until you know what works well, and the stages themselves are not easy to begin with, most players will see game over at least at few times before they get their first power.

Of course, then they have 1 power and a boatload more bosses so there's not really a lessening in either the stage guessing or the game overs for at least a few more tries.

Megaman in Pop Culture (Music)

There are also several bands whose entire careers focus on the Megaman series and/or events surrounding it:

The Protomen in particular  have written an entire rock opera detailing the events and backstory of the series.They go into detail about Protoman, Megaman, Sniper Joe, the bosses, even Dr. Light and Dr. Wily themselves.

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The Megas have taken a different approach, making all of their songs about the backstories of the Megaman bosses. As such, they had to create personalities and stories for the bosses based on their levels, since that is never given in the series.

Both bands have achieved relative popularity over several age groups in the United States, selling out small-venue shows across the country. (Even my mother has gone to see them twice..)