Introduction

What a weird alternate universe. Mega Man for Sega.

But it happened.

I grew up as a Nintendo kid, but I recently got myself some Sega stuff to check out some of the stuff that I missed. And one of my points of interest was Mega Man: The Wily Wars for the Sega Genesis.

More specifically, the Japanese version called Rockman Mega World. I'll explain why the Japanese version a little later.

So, what is Wily Wars, exactly?

It's a 16-bit remake of the first three Mega Man games. You get Mega Man 1, 2, and 3 in one cartridge. Sort of like the Super Mario Allstars of the Mega Man series.

And it's on Sega, which is so weird and unnatural it almost makes you want to cry just out of sheer confusion.

The graphics and music have been updated to the 16-bit era, which sounds great on paper, and sometimes is in execution, but it does fall short in certain aspects.

Gameplay

It's a Mega Man game, so gameplay is the first and foremost thing. How does it feel? I have to say that it does feel a tad strange. For the most part, it's okay. You run, you shoot, and in Mega Man 3, you slide. That's pretty much all there is to it in a Mega Man game.

But the controls are not quite as tight as they are in the NES originals. There's a feeling of sluggishness, especially with the jumps. Also, I seemed to have trouble navigating the slides in Mega Man 3 - something that never really happens when I play Mega Man 3 on the NES.

I don't want to say the controls are bad, and give out the wrong impression, but they will definitely throw a veteran off his game at the start.

Something I also noticed right away is that the rate of fire is way slower in Wily Wars compared to the NES originals.

Actually, while reading about it, I learned that the buster fire is slower in the western version, which is why I went with the Japanese version where the fire rate is at least tolerable.

Still, I noticed myself taking hit after hit after hit in places I haven't taken a hit since the early 90s.

I got used to it, though, and honestly, I'm not saying the controls are bad. They're just noticeably different than on the NES.

Other than that, it's Mega Man 1-3. You go through all the same stages, fight all the same bosses, use all the same weapons. The remake is very faithful to the originals, though there were some instances where it was harder to avoid damage, controls notwithstanding. And in Flashman's stage, one spot, in particular, seemed impossible to get through without tanking a hit.

And I'm pretty good at studying this kind of stuff, as you know.

Despite the controls being a bit wonky, and a few things here and there, I did go through all three games and had a good time throughout the vast majority of the game, so it can't be called a failure by any stretch.

After you beat Mega Man 1-3, you unlock the unique thing in Wily Wars, as well as the biggest reason I got the game: The Wily Tower.

The Wily Tower includes three unique stages with their own bosses to be tackled before facing Wily one more time. The fun thing about the Wily Tower is the fact that you can choose any combination of the weapons from all three Mega Man games to take with you.

This allows for endless experimentation - for a player like me, heaven, basically.

The Wily Tower stages are more challenging in general, which is also something I value. One of the bosses has not one but two life bars, so the content is clearly meant for the crazy Mega Man hardcores.

And I had a great time with the Wily Tower, making this well worth the purchase.

Wily Wars uses a battery save, meaning you no longer need to mess around with passwords. But the lack of passwords also means that you can no longer just skip the Dr. Wily stages if you only want to play those.

I'm sure most people prefer a save feature to passwords, though.

All in all, Mega Man 1-3 are a great experience in and of themselves, so to have them all in one neat package is a great deal and a great use of one's money. There's nothing ostensibly wrong with the games, they are, for the most part, as you might expect.

Me not being used to the controls also has a lot to do with my muscle memory simply being so hardwired to Mega Man games on the NES that any slight deviation from how things usually work will cause confusion.

Others may not even experience this. The rate of fire does annoy me, though.

Graphics

The makeover received some mixed feelings here, but I personally do like it. And I know I'm not supposed to say this out loud, but truth be told, I even sorta kinda prefer this version graphically to the originals.

It's a fun hybrid of the classic NES Mega Man games and the first three X games on the SNES.

It still looks more like the classic cames than Mega Man 7 which was an official Mega Man entry on the Super Nintendo later in the decade.

Now, the original Mega Man games are timeless. Absolutely timeless. And they will be timeless long after you, me, and everybody else reading this are gone.

But credit where credit is due: the 16-bit makeover of the three games just works, in my opinion, and is pleasing to the eye. I did find myself marveling at the aesthetics of the games while going through them.

And it's just fun exploring and seeing how the 8-bit games you love look like in 16-bit.

I can understand some people not liking the makeover. Especially purists. But I had no issues with it, and indeed ended up liking it a lot.

The stages look like their NES counterparts, but with more detail, life, and color.

The NES Mega Man games started looking good with 4, I'd say. Though 3 had things going for it, as well. But 1 and 2 had mostly single-color backgrounds with simple textures, and not much else.

Not that we cared, and not that Mega Man games were about the graphics, or anything. But I'm just saying that Mega Man 1 and 2, in particular, did not suffer at all from a graphical makeover, in my opinion.

And before anyone claims that this makes me not a true Mega Man fan, I challenge them to race Mega Man 2 with me. Let's see who beats the game the quickest, and takes the least damage while doing it, haha.

Too often when makeovers such as this happen, it seems like some of the original intent of things like graphics get lost in translation, but I think the makeover does the original work justice this time around.

It's how I feel, so sue me.

I also think that Mega Man 3 is better than Mega Man 2, so I'm used to being right in the eye of the storm.

Music

Unfortunately...

Eh.

Look.

The music isn't bad. It's just that unlike with the graphics, the music had a lot to live up to. And it doesn't quite get there. In and of itself, the OST is good. It's still the music from the first three Mega Man games. It's just that somewhere along the line, the tracks ended up having a lot less oomph than the originals.

I don't dislike the Sega soundfont, but maybe it's just that I'm so used to Nintendo that the tracks ended up sounding too weird for me to like, by and large.

Not all, though. Some I did like better than the originals, suck as Quickman's theme which was very well done. Ditto for Woodman's theme.

But for the most part, the originals - even though they are 8-bit, and the remakes here are 16-bit - do take the cake. And it's a shame because I was expecting the music here to be incredible, considering the source material the team had to work with.

The original compositions are still the same, so it'd be a stretch to call the OST anything but good in its own right. It's just disappointing. The tracks are a bit too mellow, I was expecting them to have some more weight behind them, I guess.

A worthy soundtrack, but not the classic that the original OSTs are for 2 and 3 on the NES.

In Conclusion

Is it a good remake?

Yes and no.

Like I said, I had fun with it. It's always fun to go through Mega Mans 1-3, no matter what. And I love the Wily Tower. But the slightly sluggish controls and the disappointing soundtrack do hamper the experience a bit.

Outside of the graphics and the Wily Tower, there really isn't a reason to play this one instead of the original trilogy on the NES. The originals are just more timeless.

Of course, the pure novelty of playing the original Mega Man games on a Sega console is worth something.

If you're a Mega Man nut like I am, give it a try for the Wily Tower alone. Also, the 16-bit graphics are nice to look at. But for more casual playing, the originals are still the way to go.

By the way, leave a comment if you're interested in me streaming a Mega Man playthrough sometime in the future.