Wily Castle

Wily Castle (ワイリー城), also known by other names such as Wily Fortress, Wily Stages, Skull Castle and Wily Tower, is the common name used for Dr. Wily's several fortresses with skull motif that appear as the final stages of most games from the original Mega Man series, though not all of them have names. They often have several hazards, mazes, strong enemies, a rematch against the Robot Masters, and a final fight against Wily inside one of his machines, like the Wily Machines and Wily Capsules. The amount of stages vary depending on the game, having from one to six stages.

Mega Man
Wily's base in the first game is actually named Dr. Wily's Robot Manufacturing Plant (Ｄｒ．ワイリーのロボット大工場), but it is called Castle Wily (ワイリーキャッスル) in the remake Mega Man Powered Up and Wily Castle in the Mega Man comic series by Archie Comics. It has four stages.

Mega Man 2


The first Wily Castle to appear in the series. It has six stages. This base also appears in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U.

Mega Man 3


The second Wily Castle used by Dr. Wily. It has six stages.

Mega Man 4


Dr. Wily's third Wily Castle, located in an area with snow. It has four stages.

Mega Man 5


The fourth Wily Castle. It has four stages.

Mega Man 6


The fifth Wily Castle. It has four stages.

Mega Man 7


The sixth Wily Castle. It has four stages.

Mega Man 8


The Wily Tower is Dr. Wily's underground fortress in Mega Man 8. It has four stages.

Mega Man & Bass
A Wily Castle that Dr. Wily was planning to use for his comeback, but he was ousted from it by King before Mega Man & Bass. Later on, Dr. Wily was able to get back into the castle as it was revealed that he was actually the mastermind behind King's revolution. It has three stages.

Mega Man 9


The Wily Castle from Mega Man 9. It has four stages.

Mega Man 10


The Wily Castle from Mega Man 10, which has a giant tower that extends all the way to space. It has five stages.

Mega Man 11


The Gear Fortress (歯車城) is Dr. Wily's stronghold in Mega Man 11, and it has four stages. Besides the skull motif, it features a gear motif to tie in with the Double Gear System.

Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge


The Wily Castle in Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge. It consists of a single stage with five bosses: Bubble Man, Flash Man, Quick Man, Heat Man, and Enker.

Mega Man II
The Wily Castle in Mega Man II is a single, short stage with four teleport hatches that leads to the stages of Needle Man, Magnet Man, Hard Man, and Top Man. After completing the four stages, Mega Man faces Quint and goes to the Wily Station.

Mega Man III


The Wily Castle in Mega Man III, where Mega Man faces Punk.

Mega Man: The Wily Wars


The Wily Tower is Wily's fortress in Mega Man: The Wily Wars. It has four stages.

Mega Man's Soccer
Wily's unnamed fortress in Mega Man's Soccer has the last three fields from the Capcom Championship mode, the Enker Field, Blues Field, and Wily Field. In the game's unused ending, it is destroyed after Wily's defeat.

Mega Man: Battle & Chase
Wily Fortress Course (ワイリー要塞コース) is the last course in Mega Man: Battle & Chase, where the player races against Dr. Wily in a course with several hazards. His fortress can also be seen in the background of Bass' Base Course.

Chokkan! Rockman
The game begins in Dr. Wily's Hideout (Dr.ワイリーのアジト) with Dr. Wily plotting to conquer the world, but Mega Man appears to stop him. However, that's a fake Dr. Wily, and the real Dr. Wily tries to crush Mega Man with his newest machine. Mega Man avoids the machine and Wily releases several bombs from his machine to destroy the hero, exploding his hideout. Mega Man survives by teleporting away and returns to face Dr. Wily's machine in the wasteland (荒野) that the hideout was located.

Only one room from the hideout appears, which is similar to a room from the Wily Castle in Mega Man 4. Also, in Mega Man 4 Wily sets his base to self-destruct, and Mega Man escapes by teleporting out.

Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes
Dr. Wily's Military Base is one of the game's stages, featuring Dr. Wily walking back and forth in the background while yelling to the competitors with a megaphone. It is possible to see Dark Man 1, Metall Potton, Mad Grinder, Baccones, and a giant Killer Bullet in the background. Dark Man 1 is absent in the PlayStation version of the game.

Other media
Wily Castle appeared in several Mega Man related media, including the Mega Man animated series, Captain N: The Game Master, the Mega Man comic book series, Mega Man Megamix, the Rockman manga series, Rockman &amp; Forte, and Rockman 10 -Extra F-.

Other fortresses
Besides the Wily Castle, Dr. Wily also used a Wily Station (ワイリーステーション) in the first four Game Boy games (two of them being space stations), the Wily Battleship (ワイリー戦艦) in Mega Man IV, and the Wily Star in Mega Man V. In addition, there were also unnamed fortresses in Mega Man: Power Battle and Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters, the latter appearing to also double as a giant robot. The bases of Lord Wily, Dr. Wily's counterpart from the Mega Man Battle Network series, are called WWW Research Facility and Castle Wily.

The Worlds Collide crossover event in the Archie Comics Mega Man series saw Wily combining elements of his Wily Castles with Dr. Eggman's Death Egg concept, creating the mighty Wily Egg. The Mega Man Powered Up adapt also featured a workshop where the Robot Masters were tested that Dr. Wily, Time Man, and Oil Man took over as their lair.

Trivia

 * Mega Man 10 marks the first instance of (at least part of) Wily's castle being in space. Until this point, the only fortresses in space were the stations and battleships in the "Rockman World" series for the Game Boy. This is also the tallest building in the series, preceding other buildings like the Jakob Orbital Elevator from Mega Man X8 and the Neo Arcadia Tower from Mega Man Zero.
 * Interestingly, almost all of the Wily Castles and other fortresses have a pipe-shaped chimney-like detail on the right side. This detail also appears in Dr. Light's lab from Mega Man.