Square Machine (スクエアーマシン Sukueā Mashin) is the boss from Cossack Stage 2 in Mega Man 4. It is an intruder prevention shutter made to protect important locations, such as the base's large mother computer.
Mega Man 4
Attack Pattern
Square Machine, as a whole, resembles a giant square, but spends most of the fight split up as 3 horizontal parts. While as 3 parts, the boss slides around the room similar to a slot game, in hopes of trying to crush Mega Man along the sides of the screen. These parts can move at either a fast speed, a medium speed, or a slow speed, and Mega Man can slide under the lowest part to dodge the crushing. If the Square Machine did not move at a slow speed, it will continue moving and go down each speed level one by one until it reaches the slowest speed. At its slowest speed, rather than leave the screen, the parts will lock in place and fully form the Square Machine as a whole. Once fully formed, its red eye activates and attacks by shooting red projectiles at the player's position. After shooting 3 projectiles (always having the same downtime after each shot), the Square Machine will disassemble (and the red eye will deactivate) and leave the screen at its slowest speed.
The boss's weak point is the red eye, but it can only be hurt when the Square Machine is fully formed. To attack it, Mega Man has to get inside the Square Machine when it closes. From there, the Square Machine has two green maintenance platforms on each side of eyes that always move up and down opposite of each other, which Mega Man will need to use to shoot the eye from the sides.
Weakness
The Square Machine's main weakness is Dust Crusher, which defeats the boss in 7 hits. At peak performance, Mega Man can get at most 3-5 shots of Dust Crusher on the boss within each attack cycle. If that weapon is not desired, Drill Bomb is a good secondary weakness. Wire can hit the eye without the player having to use the platforms, but as it locks the player in place, it is not recommended. As with most bosses, Square Machine takes 3 damage from a fully-charged buster shot, but is immune to Pharaoh Shot.
Damage data chart
Amount of damage in units that Square Machine receives from each Special Weapon in Mega Man 4.
| Mega Man 4 | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mega Buster | Flash Stopper | Rain Flush | Drill Bomb | Pharaoh Shot | Ring Boomerang | Dust Crusher | Dive Missile | Skull Barrier | Wire Adaptor | ||
| 1:3 | 0 | 0 | 2:2 | 0:0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
*For the Mega Buster and Pharaoh Shot, the first digit is when the weapon is fired normally and the second is when it is fully charged.
Other media
Square Machine appeared in the Rockman 4 manga.
Trivia
- Square Machine in concept is nearly identical to the Yellow Devil and all the other Devils, as it attacks by splitting its parts, can only be hurt in its eye, and the eye itself fires shots.