Mega Man: Wily's Revenge
Reviewed by Andrew Rae
Megaman [or Rockman if you live in Japan], the wildly popular
Capcom character, makes his debut on the wildly popular handheld
system with this game in 1991.
The Story: Dr. Wily tries a 'new' way to get his revenge against Mega
Man - Resurrecting past robots and sending them after him. You start
out seeking out the bosses from Mega Man 1: Cutman, Elecman, Iceman,
and Fireman [The order I take].
After they're defeated, Mega Man is sent Carry, a platform item much
like the Item-1 from Mega Man 2, and then decides to pay a visit to
Dr. Wily's fortress. Making his way through the long corridors, Mega
Man finds that Dr. Wily is NOT there, but a trap...a room containing 4
teleporter tubes, in each waiting a boss from Mega Man 2: Flash Man,
Quick Man, Bubble Man, and Heat Man. When he's done with THEM, he'll
find that a fifth tube has opened, on the other side a shocking sight: a
robot which he had never, ever, EVER, seen before. Its name is Enker,
and he carries an energy-absorbing lance.
After destroying him, procedure classified, Mega Man relieves [as well
as a new weapon] signals from a space fortress, in it residing none other
than Dr. Wily. Pressing through the gauntlet of past dangers, Mega Man
finally meets up with Wily and destroys his machine.
Anyway, putting it plainly, this game is a merger of two, and as you can
pretty well see, the results are interesting. It introduces to the Mega
Man 1 plane what wasn't around yet, such as passwords, new model
weapon/energy capsules, even some foes from Mega Man 2. It's a good
game if you want a 'different' Mega Man experience. It never followed
the format of any Mega Man game on the NES, so it should be worth
your time.
Graphics: 7 out of 10
This would have gotten a higher rating if the graphics weren't so
dang crude! White-backgrounded ladders on dark-grey backgrounds?
NO BLACK used for one stage's graphics? Dark-grey clouds in a white
sky? These, fyi, are just 3 [of 6] stages, the rest look near perfect to
me. I like how Iceman's stage looks remarkably like it did on the NES,
for example. Heck, the enemies, bosses, even Mega Man himself look the same!
Music and Sound: 8 out of 10
Daddy likes. Some NES themes were remixed for this game. The Wily
stages, though entirely original, didn't disappoint either, especially
the first one. Sure, it was beepity-bip, but that just set the atmosphere.
It's a shame the Mega Man 2 bosses didn't have stages [You better believe it!
You're taken DIRECTLY to each one!], because I would have liked to know
what they did with their music.
Game Challenge: 7 out of 10
This is where it hurts. For a first game, it's HARD! These robots
are not the push-overs they used to be, and the Wily levels are LONG.
The second is nearly THREE TIMES any given first robot stage! Passwords
don't even save between Wily stages or Mega Man 2 bosses. One thing I'm thankful
for, though, is how the Mega Man 2 bosses drop big energy capsules upon defeat.
That ought to make you happy...
Frustration
With difficulty comes frustration. Sure, you may not complete even one
stage on the first try, I die once or twice in the process, but as always,
practice makes perfect. I've beaten it [one sitting, no cheats], and that
proves it's possible.
Overall: 8 out of 10