GAME HINTS

Story

“I’m not through with you yet, Mega Man!” is what Dr. Wily yells from his little yellow and blue saucer. And indeed he isn’t. The scientist has whipped up three (very unusual-looking) robots designed specifically to wipe out the blue bomber. And even when Mega Man has taken care of these, he still has to tackle Wily’s Tower...

Special Features

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The Wily Wars is a Genesis game that was never released in cartridge form in North America, although it was playable via the Sega Channel. Much later on Sega re-released it on the Sega Genesis Mini. And even later than that it became available on the Nintendo Switch’s Sega Genesis emulator (subscription required, though).

Having said all of that, the game I am describing here is actually the European (MegaDrive) version. It is a remake of the NES games Mega Man 1, Mega Man 2, and Mega Man 3. In addition it includes an original mini-game called the “Wily Tower.”

For the most part the first three games are identical to the originals, but there are some differences. Mega Man’s play control stays constant throughout the levels, though he doesn’t gain the slide until Mega Man 3. For the most part you can check out the NES reviews for more information; the rest of this hints page will only cover the stages which are new. For the first three, I list below some of the differences I’ve noticed between the original NES games and the remakes. Check out this list, then go to the appropriate hints page for more help.

All Games:
  • Mega Man’s play control is a little different here. There is an annoying delay before he starts running when you push a direction. Also, in this game he has a very small base of balance. In other words, though he can still pretty much stand with only one foot on a platform, you don’t have that much of a margin of error when jumping. Many times you will miss a platform when it appears as though you should have landed on it.
  • I don’t know whether it’s because of the Genesis or the adapter, but this game was, as a rule, slower than the NES counterparts. For instance, Quick Man and Shadow Man, two of the fastest Robot Masters, are as slow as molasses. This can come in handy though. The slow-motion that happens when fighting the Yellow Devil in Mega Man (1) is your saving grace!
  • Some enemies seem to take more or less damage before expiring than they did on the NES. Just enough to knock your timing off.
  • Speaking of timing, because the robots no longer move at the same speeds as they used to, you’ll find that if you got used to the timing on the NES, it’ll be completely goofed up here.

Mega Man (1):

  • Since you can no longer pause the game without bringing up a menu, the Pause/Resume trick does not work here. Sorry.
  • As you may know, when Mega Man is hit he is invincible for a short time. In Mega Man (1) for the NES, even if you are invincible in this way when you hit spikes, you die anyway. This has been changed in this cart. Now, like all other Mega Man games, you can stand safely on spikes as long as you are flashing.
  • Power-ups can only be collected once. In the original game, you could grab a power-up and leave the screen and return and it would be back. This no longer works.

Mega Man 2:

  • There is no difficulty setting in this game. It is always on difficult mode.
  • Due to the delay in opening the menu, the Pause/Resume trick in this game doesn’t work quite as well.
  • Robots are invincible for a few seconds after they’ve been damaged. This sounds fair to me but this means you can’t rapid fire anybody anymore. What’s more annoying is that you will hear the sound effect of your shot connecting, but no damage will be taken. For minor robots (with no energy meters) the delay is minimal; for bosses, they are invincible as long as they are flashing.

Mega Man 3:

  • None of the tricks I listed on the Mega Man 3 page work in this version. No super jump, no invincibility...they even fixed the Rush glitch. Sorry!
  • Robots are invincible for a few seconds after they’ve been damaged. This sounds fair to me but this means you can’t rapid fire anybody anymore. What’s more annoying is that you will hear the sound effect of your shot connecting, but no damage will be taken. For minor robots (with no energy meters) the delay is minimal; for bosses, they are invincible as long as they are flashing.
  • Most of the “scroll the enemies off the screen” tricks no longer work, though some robots can still be scrolled away.
  • Proto Man is far too tiny! They should have redrawn him so that he matches his brother Mega Man like he’s supposed to. Oh well.

The rest of this page deals mostly with Wily’s tower and other features more or less unique to this game.

Origins:

For those that are curious, here’s an aside. The three new robots introduced in this title (listed below) appear to be based off the old Chinese fable/book “Journey To The West” (AKA “The Monkey King”). Buster Rod.G is, obviously, Sun Wukung, or the Monkey King himself, who learned to fly on a cloud and held a telescopic rod as his favorite weapon. Hyper Storm.H would be Chu Pa Chieh or “Pigsy”—a pig-like humanoid that could change its size. And finally, Mega Water.S would be Sha Monk, or Sandy, a sea creature. Note: For those of you to whom this sounds familiar, yes, Dragon Ball was based off this same source.

Thanks to Syd S. who first brought this to my attention.

FAQ

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  • How do I get to the Wily Tower?
    You must first complete each of the other three games in a single save file. Once you’ve beaten them all, the Wily Tower mini-game will open. A logo for it will be added to the game select screen at this time. (Note: There is evidence that this does not work, for whatever reason, in the emulated version. If that’s the case, then there’s not much I can do to help you, sorry. You can perhaps try the Game Genie code now in the Passwords section and see if that helps.)

Suggested Order

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It doesn’t matter which order you do these guys in as they do not give you weapons. Below I just list some weapons that you might need. I suggest taking the Metal Blades to all three stages as they are immensely useful. For items, I suggest Rush Jet instead of Item 2, and either Item 1 or the Magnet Beam but not both.
  • Buster Rod.G — (What kinda name is that?) Hit him with Hyper Bombs (BO). Charged Atomic Fire shots will also do the trick, though the Gemini Laser and the Bubble Lead work well too. You’ll want the Crash Bomber for his stage. Other than these, take what you like.
  • Mega Water.S — The Ice Slasher works best on him that I found, though Hyper Bombs also do decent damage and are easy to throw at him. You’ll want Metal Blades and the Hard Knuckles for the stage.
  • Hyper Storm.H — This guy is so huge he gets two energy meters! But he’s a piece of cake. Crash Bombs and Hyper Bombs both do decent damage, and the Spark Shock is easy to use. (Heck, you can easily beat him with just your arm cannon!) If you have the Hard Knuckles you can try for a suicide 1-Up during his stage, but I don’t recommend it.

Teleporting Hatches

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There are no hatches in the Wily Tower (surprisingly enough), so you don’t have to worry about them. It’s almost a shame; it would have been very interesting to fight the Robot Masters from the previous three games over again with all of the weapons—you could see how weapons from Mega Man 3 worked on Robot Masters from Mega Man 1, and so forth. Oh well.

Bosses

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There are four stations in Wily’s Tower, and you can change weapons between each one. I highly suggest taking the Metal Blade to each stage; having a multi-directional weapon helps extremely.
Station One:
Take the Crash Bomber for an Energy Tank and the Super Arm (Guts Man’s weapon) for a 1-Up.
Fire Serpent:
Water/Ice weapons are the way to go; any fire weapons will go right through him. The Ice Slasher is your best bet. The Bubble Lead will do decent damage but hitting with it is a terror. Jump on the very edge of the spring farthest from the snake to attack, and stand on the center hub when it goes under. This is a fairly easy battle once you have the dodging down.
Station Two:
This stage takes place in a moat, so be prepared for water adventures. Metal Blades are almost a must. The Crash Bomber will allow you to reach a “?” tank.
Bouncing Ball:
Luckily this thing bounces high enough that you can usually slide underneath it, so you don’t have to worry about getting trapped in a corner. It can only be damaged when it shows its ugly face (heehee). I happened to have the Thunder Beam on me and that was very useful, especially since you can also hit it with a beam when it’s above you.
Station Three:
The Hard Knuckles and a lifting item will get you to an alternate route which takes you to Pole Eggs and hence plenty of powerups.
Buster Rod.G again:
Every time you fight this guy the first time, regardless of what you do, he flees at the end of the battle and you face him again here. (Thanks to Jerryteacup for confirming this.) This battle is a very interesting one because you and your opponent are falling the entire time. (Too bad you can’t knock him off the platforms and into the pit like he can do to you!) Generally the Air Shooter is the best weapon to use here. (Or if you’re quick you can wipe him out with a few Hard Knuckles at the beginning of the battle!) Metal Blades can hit him but do only one unit of damage. Most other weapons will have a hard time hitting.
Station Four:
This is a very short stage, so you won’t really need any special weapons for it. Be sure to say hi to your brother!
Big Feet:
You want to aim at the sphere just below the robot’s waist—the one that is shooting homing missiles at you. You can hit it at any time, but at times the other spheres that make up the legs get in your way. To inflict the most damage, hit one of these other spheres with the Crash Bomber so that the bomb’s explosion will hit the vulnerable sphere. You can take up to three separate hits this way (for a total of about nine units of damage). If you don’t have any Crash Bombs, the Fire Storm is useful for getting rid of the homing missile while at the same time damaging the giant. Same with the Thunder Beam.
Body and Head:
When you defeat the legs the robot will fall down and start making little hops as if it’s dancing. Oh well. You need to hit the head. You can hit with the Metal Blades at any time by shooting diagonally. To inflict the most damage, however, you’ll want to wait until the monster swings a spike-bottomed fist at you so you can climb on. Once the robot brings you two face to face, blast its face with Hard Knuckles. Crash Bombs also do decent damage (if you have any left), but Knuckles are preferred.
Dr. Wily:
Dr. Wily’s saucer will always be above you, so your arm cannon and any other weapon that cannot shoot up is out. The bombs he drops will only damage you when they explode, so ignore them otherwise. The Thunder Beam is the way to go here. If you don’t have it or if it’s out of energy, you’ll have to resort to Metal Blades or some other high-shooting weapon.

Passwords

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This game has a save feature instead of passwords. (You can even save in Mega Man 1.) The saved games work exactly as the passwords did. Wherever you could view a password in the original games, you are allowed to save. And wherever you could input a password, here you load a saved file. Just as with passwords, saved games will take you to the first stage of the fortress, even if you’d gotten farther than that when you saved. The save feature has its advantages (don’t have to worry about writing down, losing, or forgetting passwords) but it also has its disadvantages. (No skipping ahead! You gotta beat all the stages fair and square. Or get someone else to do it...) It also means there’s nothing I can post here!

Note: Your progress is saved automatically whenever you beat one of the games (MM1, MM2, MM3, or the Wily Tower). If you don’t want to overwrite your save file, make a copy of it before you beat a game.

On a side note, I don’t normally post Game Genie codes, and I don’t plan to make a habit of it because I can’t verify them, but if you want to skip directly to the Wily Tower, try the code: ATNA-CAFG (thanks to Jerryteacup).

Tricks and Secrets

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There seems to be a bug in the save system. Play the game through, then erase the save file and start from scratch again, using that same save slot. Sometimes when you defeat one of the Robot Masters you will suddenly find yourself with all of the weapons and items! I have not yet found what exactly causes this glitch, but if I do I’ll be sure pass it on. (Then of course Capcom will probably remove it from the game...but it was fun while it lasted!)

Ending

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What I am referring to here is the ending to the Wily Tower. This one actually reminds me a bit of Mega Man V.
When you defeat Wily, he drops to his knees and starts to beg (as usual). A small red object rolls from him, stopping at Mega Man’s feet. It turns out to be a small bomb, but Mega Man jumps back, out of the way of the explosion, in time. Dr. Wily steals his chance to jump to his feet and run away. Mega Man chases him.

The next screen, the two are running through a field that looks much like the one in Mega Man V. Wily is on the left side of the screen running left; Mega Man is a full screen-length behind him. They run for a bit while the Robot Masters are shown at the top. Once this is done, Wily trips and falls to the ground. (“Trip! Flop!”) Mega Man slows to a walk and approaches him. But before the blue bomber can reach his nemesis, Wily’s saucer appears and picks up the scientist. Dr. Wily waggles his eyebrows at Mega Man, then his saucer takes off straight up. Mega Man jumps, and the scene freezes as the screen zooms in on him, and on the outside come the typical, “Thank you for playing...” words.