Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge

This is another revenge plot, just like Mega Man 2—only instead of building new robots, Dr. Wily resurrects previous Robot Masters.

This was the first Mega Man game for the Game Boy. Its actual name is just “Mega Man” with a subtitle: “Dr. Wily’s Revenge.” (Yeah, nothing that hasn’t happened before!) The first three Game Boy games were like that: no real plots, just a game to play. The first four games took Robot Masters from various of the Nintendo series of games, which is kind of interesting because you can see how well Crash Bombs work on Hard Man and so forth. Also, story-wize, it’s probably a lot easier for Dr. Wily to build robots from existing plans than to come up with schematics from scratch.

Play Control:

The play control isn’t bad, but the sprites are so large compared to the screen size that they leave less room to maneuver.

Graphics:

Like black and white versions of NES graphics.

Animation:

Like black and white versions of NES animations.

Music:

The music suffers from some tinginess, but many of the new tunes are catchy and most of the songs are in stereo.

Sound Effects:

Very similar to the NES games.

Plot:

What plot?

Difficulty: (normal)

I rate this game easier than, say, Mega Man 1, but it is sometimes tricky mostly due to the small size of the screen and the fact that Mega Man has a shorter energy meter.

Replay Value:

I did play this one a good bit when it first came out, but that was probably because at the time it was the only Mega Man Game Boy game I could play.

Polish:

There was nothing really significant about this game, but for its day and age it was a relatively decent way to pass the time when unable to be near a TV and a home console system.

Overall: 79%

Not a bad effort, and features such as the passwords lift it over Mega Man 1. However there are better games.

I surprise myself with this order, but in this Game Boy version, Elec Man seems to have tamed down a little while Cut Man is nastier than ever. One of the hardest things about fighting robots in the Game Boy games is the huge characters. You have very little room to maneuver.

• Elec Man (Use arm cannon or Rolling Cutter if you have it)
• Ice Man (Use Thunder Beam)
• Fire Man (Use Ice Slasher)
• Cut Man (Use Fire Storm)

Note: you will always acquire the item Carry from the last Robot Master you fight.

• Flash Man (Use Ice Slasher)
• Quick Man (Use arm cannon, then Time Stopper)
• Bubble Man (Use Quick Boomerang)
• Heat Man (Use Bubble Lead)

There are teleporting hatches here, but they don’t take you to the same Robot Masters as you’d previously fought. You didn’t think there were only four Robot Masters in the game, did you?

Enker:

All of the Game Boy games have a mini-boss humanoid robot (except for Mega Man V, in which Wily regenerates all four of the ones from the previous games). The one in this game is Enker. He absorbs energy in his lance then fires it off at you, though in doing so he will take damage.

You defeat him by letting him absorb all he wants, then getting out of the way when he fires. Win and you get the Mirror Buster. This weapon allows you to reflect shots. As soon as you enter Wily’s space fort, equip it and activate it, because there’s a Sniper Joe just off the screen that will clobber you if you just stand there.

Wily 1st time:

Use Fire Storm.

Wily 2nd time:

Dodge the rest of the stuff while reflecting the energy shots with the Mirror Buster.

Make any other passwords you want with the JavaScript Generator!

• Carry: You get this from the last Robot Master (from the first group of four) that you defeat. It doesn’t matter which one this is—it’s always the last one.

• Whenever falling down shafts that could possibly land you on spikes, always have Mega Man equipped with Carry. Then, if you see that you are plunging to your doom, hit the button and Mega Man will place a platform right under his feet and land on it. Use this breather and more platforms if needed to escape the maw of death.

I like the ending music to this game—it has been one of my all-time favorites (but then, I have a lot of favorites). First you see the space fort (almost all of the Game Boy games have one) blow up, and a space shuttle flies out just in time. You don’t know who is on the shuttle (Wily or Mega Man), but the next thing you see is Mega Man standing in front of a star background. (This time it’s a close-up view of Mega Man instead of the usual running sprite. Pretty nice for a four-frame walk and a low resolution.) The game shows names and images of robot enemies, and when it’s done Mega Man starts to walk. The background fades in—he’s apparently in that space shuttle after all. He walks to a window where he can see his planet and stops. The background fades out and is replaced with the closing “Presented by Capcom” phrase.