worry. I'm here to help by providing the origins, history, and even trivia of some of your favorite

enemies. They can be from well-known titles or absolute bombs. But they are memorable,

and that's what matters. And who has more memorable enemies than Mega Man? The series

has plenty to choose from, but today the spotlight is on one of his first, Sniper Joe.

He's a bit of an odd choice since he's not exactly the face of Mega Man enemies, that

would be the Mets, but he has an interesting backstory all his own. Well, an interesting

in-game story at least. That's because despite his prevalence and variations over the years,

there's very little material that lays out why he was created, what it was based on,

or even why his design was chosen. His origins, as far as his role as an enemy, are a mystery.

So it's bit ironic that he may have one of the most fleshed out backstories of any enemy

found in classic Mega Man. Granted, a lot of this was added later in post material,

but it still made his story all that more unique; especially since he's intrinsically

linked with one of the more beloved characters in Mega Man, Proto Man.

For those unfamiliar with the story of Mega Man, Proto Man was the first advanced robot

Dr. Light had ever created. The Doctor had insisted on giving Proto Man a personality

and bonded with him quickly. But, because he was a prototype, a problem was discovered

in his power core that would eventually kill him. Dr. Light wanted to fix this problem,

but Proto Man was afraid that his personality would completely change in the process and

fled instead. Later, on the verge of death, Proto Man was

discovered by Dr. Wily and fixed. Feeling that he owed a debt to the doctor, Proto Man

adopted the name Break Man and fought against Mega Man in the third game. Eventually he

became an ally of Mega Man, protecting him from the shadows.

Where Sniper Joe comes into this story is that Dr. Light developed them as a mass production

version based on Proto Man's design. One hand armed with a buster, the other with an incredibly

sturdy shield. According to the ongoing Archie comic, it was Dr. Wily who insisted on creating

the Sniper Joe line in order to sell them to the military. This would earn Dr. Light

the money necessary to perfect the power cores design and create Mega Man and Roll as well

as the first six Robot Masters. In essence, you could say that without Sniper

Joe, Mega Man never would have come to be. Of course, that's just in a story sense. None

of these details ever appeared in the original game. In reality, artists probably realized

all the similarities between Sniper Joe and Proto Man before deciding to work it into

the story. After all, they have the same shield and even their mouth piece looks alike when

Proto Man is in his Break Man form. Humorously, when playing as Proto Man in Mega Man: Powered

Up, he remarks how he hates Sniper Joes since they feel like a cheap knockoff of himself.

Like all of the enemies in the original Mega Man, Dr. Wily modified the Sniper Joes' programming

to be loyal to him. But surprisingly they only appeared in one stage, Bomb Man's. Their

tactics are overall pretty simple, ducking behind their shield before firing at most

3 shots or even jumping around. Defeating them comes down to timing and avoiding their

shots. It takes ten hits from the Mega Buster to destroy them but like many other enemies

they can be defeated quicker with other weapons. Ice Man's freezes them allowing you to fire

openly, Bomb Man's bombs only require one hit, Elec Man's weapon takes three shots while

Cut Man's only takes two. Finally, Fire Man's weapon takes five hits to defeat Sniper Joe.

It may seem odd to bring up, but it highlights another connection to Proto Man. By Mega Man

3, players had figured out that the Robot Master's weapons could tear through certain

enemies quicker. So when Break Man appears, looking an awful lot like Sniper Joe, players

likely tried out as many of those weapons as they had available only to quickly discover

that none of them worked. Instead, the Mega Buster had to be used to defeat him. It's

a great example of turning players' expectations on their heads. Especially since a normal

Sniper Joe doesn't appear in Mega Man 3. Of course that's not the only time Sniper

Joe appeared in a Mega Man game. Despite only appearing in one stage of the original game,

he made an appearance in almost every stage of Dr. Wily's Revenge on the Game Boy. They

still mostly act the same, but are less prone to jumping around. Mega Man 2 saw Sniper Joe

upgraded with a walker mech called the Sniper Armor. These appear in Flash Man's, Heat Man's,

and Quick Man's stages as well as Wily's Castle. The strangest thing though is that the Sniper

Joe's without the armor are called Returning Sniper Joes instead of, you know, Sniper Joe.

Maybe it's because the Returning Sniper Joes can't jump at all.

Mega Man 3 is the first time Sniper Joe saw a major upgrade, this time being turned into

a Hammer Joe. It seems like its body has been covered in the same material used for its

shield making it invulnerable to the Mega Buster. And its blaster has been swapped out

for an infinite supply of Olympic hammers to throw. However, its legs and open eye are

Hammer Joe's weakpoints. One of the hardiest of the Sniper Joe line

appeared in Mega Man 4 as Skeleton Joe. Instead of hammers, they throw bones and are only

found in Skull Man's stage as well as the first level of Dr. Cossack's Citadel. Interestingly,

they can only be destroyed by a charged Mega Buster shot or using the Flash Stopper or

Pharoah Shot. Everything else will merely dismantle them for a short time before they

reassemble, similar to the Blood Skeletons from Castlevania.

Mega Man 5 features the most variations of Sniper Joe in any game with three in total.

The first are Apache Joes which fire on Mega Man from small helicopters. Second are the

Rider Joes which attack Mega Man on Marine Bikes during Wave Man's stage. Finally, the

strongest of the three are Crystal Joes. Like normal Sniper Joes, they can only be hit while

they attack, but Crystal Joes create crystal shards that they launch at Mega Man. They

are completely invulnerable while charging. The rest of Sniper Joe's variations all tended

to use machines, whether they were piloting spaceships as Gunner Joe's in Mega Man 4 on

the Game Boy, mounting turrets in Mega Man 6 as Cannon Joes, or even driving a large

truck with spikes on its front bumper as Truck Joes in Mega Man 7. But the seventh game in

the series also saw the return of Sniper Joe's classic form with his shield and blaster.

This version is known as Sniper Joe 01. However, something was lost in the, um, "upgrade" since

it only takes four shots from the Mega Buster to destroy him.

The last time Sniper Joe appeared in his classic form for a Mega Man platformer was in the

eighth game. Appropriately enough, he's named Joe Classic. That is a little weird though

considering his main attack is to now throw grenades. For his return in both Mega Man

9 and 10, he was renamed Machine Gun Joe and given a rapid fire attack.

But these aren't the only times a Sniper Joe model has appeared in a Mega Man game. In

Mega Man Soccer, Sniper Joes and Hammer Joes can be spotted in the stands in several of

the fields. And in Mega Man: Battle & Chase, Sniper Joes act as one type of extra opponent

racers. There's also a hidden boss in the game called Black Joe.

And Sniper Joe's aren't limited to the classic continuity either since both they and Hammer

Joes appear as enemies in Mega Man Network Transmission. In this game, Sniper Joe can

now charge up one big shot in addition to firing three smaller shots, but Hammer Joe

acts the same as it did in Mega Man 3. Like Mega Man, the Sniper Joes left a legacy

when the time of Mega Man X began. Despite being a hundred years in the future, Hoganmers

are strikingly similar to Sniper Joe's design. They even have a little backstory since it's

said they were fighting Reploids from a Robot Colosseum show. That kind of background makes

it easy to see why they went Maverick. Interestingly, Hoganmer chooses to use a mace in conjunction

with its shield rather than a blaster. But the last time a Sniper Joe influenced

enemy appeared in the series was in X2. Disk Boy 08 acts just like the Sniper Joes, hiding

behind their shield and occasionally jumping, though their shields can be knocked away with

a charged shot. Their sole means of attack are throwing spiked discs at X. In a way,

it feels kind of fitting that Disk Boy 08 was their last incarnation. It had three eyes

rather than one and seems to be getting further and further from Sniper Joe's design.

In fact, it could be argued that it was the last time the design ever appeared, but human

designs on standard enemies are quite rare. So it's possible that even the Pantheons and

Variants from the Zero series could have been influenced by Sniper Joe though their aesthetic

is meant to reflect X more. And finally there are the Galleons from the ZX series who are

more a descendent of the Pantheons than anything reflective of Sniper Joe.

But Sniper Joe has undoubtedly left his mark on the Mega Man canon. It was the rare humanoid

design in a game full of robots designed like animals or guns. The only other humanoids

were the Robot Masters themselves. From his connections to Proto Man to his difficult

to read pattern of attack, Sniper Joe is undoubtedly an iconic enemy of the Mega Man franchise.

Always in Mega Man's way with shield in hand. And that, my friends, is why you should know

your enemy. It just may save your virtual life.