Mega Man: The Wily Wars

Mega Man: The Wily Wars, known as Rockman Mega World (ロックマンメガワールド) in Japan, is a remake of Mega Man, Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3, released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. The game never saw a cartridge release in North America and was only available for download through Sega's short-lived "Sega Channel" in the mid-1990's.

The game also features the Wily Tower, a bonus game that only appears when all the three Mega Man games are finished in the same save file. In Wily Tower, Mega Man must go up against three unique Robot Masters called the Genesis Unit, which are all patterned on characters from the Chinese novel, Journey to the West. They are: Buster Rod G, Mega Water S, and Hyper Storm H. These three robot masters are the guardians of the Wily Tower, in which Dr. Wily is preparing a brand new scheme for world domination. In Wily Tower, players are given the option to pick eight out of the twenty-two weapons from Mega Man 1, 2, and 3 as well as three out of the seven transport items from those 3 games. Wily Tower also has nearly all of the enemies from the first 3 Mega Man games as well, with notable exceptions being the Air Tikki from Mega Man 2.

Story
"Tired of having his plans failed every time by Mega Man, Dr. Wily decided to build himself a time machine. Transporting himself into the past, Dr. Wily restored his defeated robots and started causing chaos. At this rate, even the peaceful past was about to be tainted by Dr. Wily's ambitions! In order to stop Dr. Wily, Mega Man was sent into the past in a time machine hastily crafted by Dr. Light."

Version Differences
It should be noted that there are some differences between the original NES versions of Mega Man, Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3 besides enhanced graphics and sound quality. These changes can affect the gameplay.

General Differences

 * In all games, shots are limited to one shot every few frames of animation. In the originals, you could fire your weaponry on every other frame.


 * The controls in these versions of the games seem a little tighter than the originals, though Mega Man himself seems to have a slight delay before moving because he is able to do sidesteps.


 * Speaking of delays, a number of weapons now have a noticeable "can't move" delay after firing, such as the Items from Mega Man 2 or the Shadow Blade from Mega Man 3.


 * All three games now have a "save game" feature. However, the "password" feature was removed from Mega Man 2 and 3.


 * At several points during the game, it suffers from very bad slowdown. However, for less-skilled gamers, this can be a positive effect, because the Yellow Devil's stages in Mega Man and 3 suffer from it the most, as does the battle with the Wily Machine in Mega Man. This makes those boss battles much easier.


 * For some reason, the "All Stage Clear" theme from Mega Man 3 isn't in the Sound Test option.


 * In general, despite their names, the games are based more closely on the Rockman versions than on the Mega Man versions; most notably, Normal Mode is absent from Mega Man 2.
 * The Title Screens are also based on their Japanese versions, but with "Rockman" changed to "Megaman".

Mega Man Differences

 * While the original Mega Man's boss select screen simply showed the Robot Masters' in-game sprites as icons, the Wily Wars remake uses new mugshots to match Mega Man 2 and 3.
 * Cut Man is much tougher in the remake than he was in the original game, mostly due to the fact that his flinch is much less intense, and due to the Mega Buster dealing a third of the damage that it would normally do.


 * Once an item like health/energy pick-ups are obtained in a stage(and not from enemy drops), they do not reappear if you return to the area where they were until all of your lives are gone. In the original, you could simply scroll off-screen and refill your energy this way. In the original game, however, 1-ups couldn't be reobtained this way.


 * The famous "Pause-Unpause" glitch from the NES has been fixed.


 * Some Robot Master AIs are slightly different.


 * In the original game, Mega Man can die from spikes even if he is invincible for a brief moment after getting hit. However, in the remake, when Mega Man gets hit, he can now stand safely on spikes as long as he is flashing, which is the same mercy invinicibilty he has in all subsequent games.

Mega Man 2 Differences

 * Mega Man 2 does not have two different difficulty modes. It should be noted that the original Japanese release, Rockman 2: The Mystery of Dr. Wily, also had no difficulty selection.


 * Quick Man is much less quick in this version, though he no longer takes two damage from Mega Buster shots as he did in the "Difficult" mode or the Japanese version of Mega Man 2.


 * Some Robot Master AIs are a bit different.


 * When you lose all of your lives, you no longer lose all your E-tanks. In the original, continuing meant forfeiting any and all E-tanks remaining in your inventory, preventing players from farming the start of Metal Man's stage. Now it is possible to do so.

Mega Man 3 Differences

 * The grey tones on Proto Man's sprites have been changed to white.


 * Proto Man's "shadow" sprites from the ending are found in the game data, but for some reason, Capcom decided to just use a "shadowy" palette on the original sprites instead of those.


 * While not a difference, neither Proto Man nor Break Man have been resized like Mega Man and the Robot Masters have. They don't have any additional frames of animation, either.


 * The Wily Castle map screen music has been shortened from its original tune. (Incidently, the extended theme wasn't accessible in-game anyway.)


 * Like the first two games, some Robot Master AIs are a bit different.


 * Magnet Missiles have odd behavior; sometime they do not "home" (right turn up or down) correctly. Hard Man and the Doc Robot Metal Man are much more difficult due to this fact.


 * On the Weapon Select Menu, Rush is now blue instead of red. (This also happens in Wily Tower)

Wily Tower
Wily Tower is an optional game unlocked after clearing all three Mega Man games. Dr. Wily has created three new robots, specifically designed to destroy Mega Man. These robots are known as the Genesis Unit, since the game was released for the Sega Genesis. Mega Man must defeat these three robots using eight weapons and three items of the player's choosing from the three Mega Man games, then traverse through the Wily Stages and defeat the bosses and finally Dr. Wily.

Wily Tower bosses
Genesis Unit:
 * Buster Rod G
 * Mega Water S
 * Hyper Storm H

Fortress bosses:
 * 1) Fire Snakey
 * 2) Iron Ball
 * 3) Buster Rod G
 * 4) Wily Machine

Lockout Bypass
The cartridge version of the game is incompatible with North American Genesis consoles because of the regional lockout. However, if you have a Galoob Game Genie cheat device, you can enter a code at the front screen that bypasses the lockout and will allow the cart to play on the Genesis. They must be entered as follows:

V2AT-BMEJ

EAAT-BL1T

REBT-A6XL

Wait a few seconds and the Sega logo should appear. When that happens, it worked. (Make sure the Game Genie device is switched to "on", or else the codes won't work. You'll know the device is on if a green light right above the "on/off" switch is lit)

Wily Tower
Use this code to go directly to the Wily Tower, an inaccessible mini-game through emulation.

ATNA-CAFG

Trivia

 * The version of Mega Man 3 featured in this collection has some game-breaking glitches, though a player is not likely to run into them accidentally.
 * For example, lots of blue Proto Men will appear in Gamma's stage after killing him.


 * When the game was announced, a promotional piece of artwork was made featuring Mega Man shaking hands with Sonic The Hedgehog.


 * The Genesis Unit is named after the Sega Genesis.
 * Interestingly, this game was rated MA-13 (similar to the ESRB's "T-rating"), which is unusual for a Mega Man game.