Key Preview Takeaways:
- Our Gamescom preview focused on playing as Mega Man, but this time we played as Proto Man.
- Proto Man isn’t just a reskin of Mega Man with a cool scarf.
- The demo’s boss fight against Twinkle Girl was tough but fair, thus exactly fitting into the Mega Man formula.
2027 is a big year for Mega Man. Everyone’s favorite little blue robot turns the big 40. That’s a major milestone, and few active franchises in all of gaming can celebrate that kind of longevity. As part of the festivities, we are getting a new mainline entry in the series in Mega Man: Dual Override. At Tokyo Game Show 2026 we had a chance to go hands-on in this robotic adventure, and found a traditional 2D shooter/platformer like the series is best known for, but with some modern twists.
Similar to Simon Cardy’s excellent preview, I would be taking on Twinkle Girl, and her lineup of stages. But this time, I’d be ditching the Blue Bomber in favor of his older brother, occasional foe, and sometimes ally Proto Man. For those who don’t know, Proto Man was the first of Dr. Light’s sentient robot creations, who long ago abandoned the good doctor to forge his own path. He’s flawed, a bit aloof, and cool as hell. Just look at those built in sunglasses!
Levels are now divided into distinct segments of ascending difficulty. Twinkle Girl’s area is themed after some sort of Robot World’s Fair, with colorful balloons ascending into the blue skies, and cheery, upbeat music pumping through my headphones in this first portion. After so many games returned to the depressing all brown and gray color palette of the late 2000’s, I haven’t to admit the vibrant colors are pretty refreshing.
Proto Man isn’t just a reskin of Mega Man with a cool scarf. Shots from his Proto Buster hit hard, but only travel a short distance ahead, and his charge shots arc out in a semi-circle slash attack, rather than send a big ball of energy all the way across the screen. His blaster also builds up heat, which can interfere with his attacks if he overheats. This dissipates over time or can be manually vented. It’s a different, in-your-face playstyle that needs timing and aggression to push through the enemy robots that litter the path ahead.
I quickly make my way though the first area, blasting through enemies, destroying wall-mounted turrets, and jumping over some indoor fireworks emitters (which seems like a firecode violation.) Each area ends with a boss, and the first, Big Press Don, alternates between flying in the air, then trying to land on me to crush me into robot-paste, or shooting a fist out of a chest cavity, both of which I use the classic Mega Man slide move to evade, and blast/slash ol’ Donny boy into early retirement.
Beating Dom lets me advance, but it also earns me a Bolt. These are essential; similar to Mega Man 11, these feed into Dr. Light’s lab, which in turn allows you to unlock Custom Chips, which can be equipped and used to boost your performance. I didn’t get to unlock any in my run, but I did come equipped with a rapid-fire chip that let Proto Man unleash a torrent of machinegun-like blasts from his Proto Gun, which could quickly turn most enemies to scrap. Bolts are also hidden in each of the levels, offering incentive to explore thoroughly, and I could see myself farming any Bolts I was missing if I got stuck on a particularly hard boss.
As I move to the second location, a behind-the-scenes area of the exhibit, things get tougher, and Proto Man’s other abilities become a factor. While he doesn’t have the range of his blue brother, Proto Man has a powerful shield at his disposal. This can be thrown like a looping boomerang, Captain America-style. Similar to prior playable appearances, he lifts his shield when he jumps. That move saved my life quite a few times, as I jumped over several pits of instant death while birds dropped balls that exploded into a barrage of rockets that would have knocked me away from the platforms had I not blocked the shots.
You don’t get to copy powers from fallen Robot Masters the way Mega Man does. Instead, as best I can tell, the Proto Shield gets new functions or abilities. For this demo, I had two attacks unlocked, a leaping uppercut, and horizontal dive attack. Both were useful in fights (especially the uppercut against the boss of the second area, a knockoff of Astro Man from Mega Man 8), and had some convenient other uses as well. At one point I spied a Bolt in the upper right corner of my screen, too far to jump, but was able to snag it after leaping into one of those horizontal dives. Seems like another series staple, backtracking once you’ve unlocked useful areas to grab all the secrets, is back once again.
It’s nighttime in the final area, as large shapes formed by the fireworks now light up the sky. The going is noticeably tougher here. There are a lot of enemies, a lot of pits, and quite a few platforming sections that put both together, with little margin for error. As you reach the end of each screen, it scrolls over, in classic Mega Man style, and every few screens drops a checkpoint. Gone is the era of limited lives, but you can restart at the most recent checkpoint as much as you need, which seems like a decent compromise to give us old-school Mega Man fans a chance to flex our gameplay muscles without scaring away new players. One particularly tough section has me jumping across a series of ascending fireworks, using them as platforms before they explode, and requires carefully timing my shots as I clear out the enemies blocking my path in the air. That’s an area where the large coverage area of Proto Man’s charged shot is advantageous over the relatively smaller hitbox of Mega Man’s charged buster shot.
When I finally have my showdown with Twinkle Girl, it takes me a few tries to figure out her attacks and how to avoid them. Solving that combat puzzle with Proto Man, with his limited range in mind, forces some strategic rethinking compared to Mega Man. You’ve got to stay tight to land attacks, but not so close that you get hit. He has a narrow window to operate in, which makes for an interesting challenge as I clash with the Robot Master.
One thing that stood out to me in this fight, and throughout the demo, was the visible damage on my character, as well as on some enemies. As you, the other bots, and the boss lose health, a visibly scuffed, beaten up look appears. It’s a small touch, but one I don’t recall seeing before, and a cool little attention to detail.
As my fight with Twinkle Girl nears, she kicks things up a notch, entering a powered-up state, and firing off a series of fireworks blasts before crashing to the ground in an eruption of fire. Not one to be outdone, I activate Proto-Man’s override mode, with a quick, flashy cutscene leading to my own souped-up state. This boost is temporary, and leaves you with diminished offensive capabilities for a brief time after it runs out, so I press the attack. Just as my time is about to run out, I fire a massive charged attack from point-blank range, draining the last of Twinkle Girl’s health as my charred, slightly smoking Proto Man claims victory, in a dramatic finish.
Proto Man offers a distinctly different challenge than Mega Man. Not necessarily harder, just different. It’s worth noting that you won’t be switching back and forth between the two; at the start of your playthrough you’ll select which character to control for the entire run, offering some potential replayability to see the game both ways. I’m particularly curious about the various chips that can be unlocked, how those will affect gameplay, and what sort of moveset a fully upgraded Proto Man will have at his disposal. For that, I’ll have to wait for Mega Man: Dual Override’s launch, scheduled for Spring 2027.
While you’re here, check out these recent previews of other big upcoming games we’ve checked out recently!
Justin Koreis is a contributor to IGN. Check out everything he’s written via his IGN page.