Mega Man's Special Weapons

This.

Right now, going through the game I've got no reason to choose MM over Bass unless one of them is powered-up more than the other (which never happens, since I would choose Bass first at the outset). Bass's extra maneuverability and the auto-fire is great anyway, and with no difference in special weapons it makes him a much better character than Mega Man. Being able to fire through pipes isn't enough incentive for me to give up the double jump.

If Bass had a less powerful subset of Mega Man's weapons I'd consider using Mega Man more often. Bass could have Shadow Blade over Metal Blade, for example. I think Jewel Satellite for MM is a great idea, letting Bass keep the Water Shield.

Maybe we could keep the weapons we have, but possibly have less of them. It's a pain right now to cycle through the weapons once I've got a full set; instead, we could keep all the weapons available but only allow the player to carry three at once. When you pick up a weapon you don't already have and you don't have any slots left it replaces the one you have equipped. This would lead to a lot more variety, choosing what "loadouts" to keep with you.

Yeah Mega Man should have only weapons from MM1-6 and Bass should only have weapons from MM10. But for now the setup is fine.

8 each is fine. Since Bass would only have 8 weapons.

Mega Man has the Slide (which unlike the Dash, makes him shorter), a chargeable buster, a higher jump, a stronger default weapon, and the Rush Coil (and eventually Marine and Jet as well). I don't think he's pointless.
EDIT: Oh, and also he can shoot through walls. That's pretty important.

He's not a pointless character, no. But in my mind, compared to Bass, there's no reason to pick him. If they get different weapon sets then they'll be different enough in my mind to warrant another look. I'll still probably pick Simon or Sophia over either of them unless I'm doing a Single Character run.

I wasn't trying to say he's pointless (but it might looked like). What I wanted to say is that he is just being «shadowed» by Bass.

I guess I'd support giving Mega Man and Bass different weapons -- not because I think Mega Man needs to be justified, but because the series has a ton of weapons and I'd like it if more of them were represented.

Theoman listed several good reasons. Sure, Bass is more maneuverable, but I think there are enough differences that one isn't necessarily better than the other. I enjoy playing as Bass, but I also quite enjoy playing as Mega Man. They do play quite differently, and I happen to actually prefer Mega Man's movements to Bass's (though this could change if I practice more with Bass). I do think different sets of weapons would be great (as I've mentioned before), however.

Hey lookie what i made! Rizer thingy going down! And MM doing a Mario jump and game over. http://i.imgur.com/8TAaq.png