The NES Mega Man games suffer from that awful 50Hz slowdown so many European games suffer from and since the NES can't be modified to run at a different speed, I had long decided to buy an American console so I could play some of its games, including Mega Man 2 and 3.
Now, there's a Mega Drive remake of Mega Man 1,2 and 3 I could get in the place of the American games. It looks great, sounds amazing and doesn't have that incredibly annoying flicker the NES games have but I don't know if it's worse in other aspects.
Thoughts?
PD: It doesn't matter if the PAL Wily Wars cartridge runs at 50Hz since you can force 60Hz with a switch on the Megadrive.
Last edited by Erik_Twice on Thu Jan 30, 2014 10:13 am, edited 2 times in total.
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I had a US repro a while ago (from Ziggy I believe). I personally really liked the game. A lot of Mega Man purists hate the controls but they didn't bug me that much, and the music is really pretty neat too, although I'd hesitate to call it better. You can use any powerup from say, 3 and use them in 2 which is really kind of neat.
Since the gameplay itself is a bit different you wont have the same experience as if you were to play through the original NES games with better graphics but it's still worth a play if you can find it at a reasonable price.
How does Wily Wars differ from the Mega Man Anniversary collection?
All of the remakes I've played have always seemed a bit off. The controls aren't as tight, the speed of the game seems a bit slower, but the graphics sure do look nice.
o.pwuaioc wrote:The Willy Wars? I know that Sega didn't censor as much as Nintendo in the 90s, but I never thought I'd see a game like that!
Fixed
How expensive is it supposed to be?
Recent UK eBay prices range from £80 for a cart only to £360 for a boxed copy Buy It Now.
Most auctions ended up between £120-250. There's lots of variation, but it's not cheap in any sense. It makes Panzer Dragoon Saga look like a bargain.
If you want to play it, a reproduction might make more sense.
Luke wrote:How does Wily Wars differ from the Mega Man Anniversary collection?
All of the remakes I've played have always seemed a bit off. The controls aren't as tight, the speed of the game seems a bit slower, but the graphics sure do look nice.
Besides new graphics, the big addition is a Wily Tower mode which adds new levels in to the game. In the tower you get to choose any 8 weapons from the first 3 Megaman games to take with you.
I feel like the Wily Wars is something best left to Mega Man fanatics as a curiosity.
While some of the levels are improved by the new graphics others lose their charm. The slowdown is just as bad or even worse which is kind of inexcusable given the hardware. The music is also not as good as the original arrangements in almost every case.
Really if you want to play the Mega Man games the originals are still the best so going with the Anniversary Collection or Virtual Console or something is your best bet.
Wily Tower is the only thing that really makes it worth having, but it's not very long and the only thing interesting about it is being able to choose your weapon and item loadouts.
It's cool to have a Mega Man game on the Genesis/Mega Drive and all, but I would've preferred an original outing to half-baked remakes. They're still totally playable and fun but the remake is really a step down and not a step up.
I have the Japanese release, but I prefer it far and away over the NES versions. I've done this before, but let me break down the differences:
I feel like anyone's mileage with Wily Wars is going to depend heavily upon whether or not that person played the first three on the NES as a kid/growing up. I'll start by saying that I think the remakes play better overall, even though they are markedly different from the NES versions. First: All projectiles are slower than they were in the NES versions, and one implication of this is that it's not as easy to rapid fire things in close proximity. It also means that it's easier to have three buster shot pellets floating to the edge of the screen while one is unable to shoot again until they do. I really think that sounds more obnoxious than it really is, though. Some say that it makes the remakes overall more difficult than the NES versions, but I don't find that to be true.
There are some minor changes to stage design in a couple places, the only one I can really think of is the on/off platforms in Guts Man's stage. It may, in fact, be the only place any stages were altered. There is probably somewhere around 200ms more delay to Mega Man's walk/run interval compared to the NES versions. It admittedly takes a little getting used to, but I never had any issues with it once I did. The slowdown in Wily Wars is more noticeable than in the NES versions, but is largely in the same spots, and does a lot to help along the Yellow Devil fight in Mega Man 1, as the pause glitch was removed from the remake.
However, graphics and sound were updated: It both looks and sounds like a Mega Drive game. Backgrounds were added to a lot of the sections of the originals that were just black backdrops. There's overall more depth to many of the stages, and it just looks more pleasant in general. Very similar to the difference between Mario All-Stars and its NES progenitors. The most common criticism I seam to hear about the soundtrack is that it doesn't sound more like Thunder Force. Obviously some sound designers were more adept with FM synth than others, but I prefer the MD soundtrack, if only for the increased fidelity. The new tracks composed for Wily Wars are really incredible, and I've honestly heard people trash the remixes for the first three games, while praising the Wily Tower mode tracks. Wily's Tower is also a really cool addition. It's a bit easy, but part of that is from being able to select all of the best weapons/items from the first three games, and using them throughout Wily Tower. It's still nicely designed, and the Hyper Storm H stage theme is one of my favorite tracks from any MM game.
Some added context: I really like Mega Man 8 (the Saturn version, anyway) and I hate Mega Man 4. (Haven't played 5 or 6.) I played Wily Wars with a JP Mega Drive 6-button controller (it's relevant, I tells ya) and after beating Wily Tower, I went back to the NES versions of 1 and 2. Stopped playing 1 after spending too much time in Elec Man's stage. To expound on that: the gameplay is largely the same, but points where I had much less trouble clearing in the MD remake, I would get caught up on for 20 minutes at a time; the greatest offender being Elec Man's stage. I wasn't able to feel out my jumps as well, and targeting the spinning blades in the beginning was extremely frustrating. On to Mega Man 2, and I played Hard Mode (there's no difficulty select in the Wily Wars' MM2: Hard Mode o nada) and while it's largely the same experience, I just didn't feel in the same level of control over Mega Man. While I was able to beat it with a little more time than it took me to finish the Wily Wars version, everything that was relatively challenging about the remake just became an incredible pain in the ass in the original. (Wily Castle 4.) I did not find it enjoyable by comparison, and while it's a relatively good looking game for the NES, some spots are just uninteresting or all together garish compared the the MD remakes. (Bubble Man.)
So, while it's a relatively simple upgrade to some very good games in the original NES titles, I find that I much prefer playing Wily Wars over the NES originals. To me, criticisms of Wily Wars sound very much like, 'it's different, therefore immediately not as good.' (Aside from the price. That's legitimate.) I won't deny that I think it could have been done a bit better, and there are some areas where it appears inferior to the NES versions, technically (at least in theory) but I find Wily Wars to be a better overall experience, regardless. I think if it were more readily available there would be a lot less for people to complain about. As it is, I think the criticisms are rationalizations for not plunking down the money for Wily Wars. (Which is honestly rather valid.)
I can see an argument for the first game being improved in Wily Wars, definitely. The other two I still feel like the only improvements are graphical ones. I'm 50/50 on the stage graphics because while some of them add a lot I feel like others take away from the original concept or are just missed opportunities. I think what frustrates me the most about Wily Wars is that the remakes are a B-quality effort at best. There is absolutely no excuse for this game to suffer from slowdown on the Mega Drive. While I feel they were shooting for a Super Mario All-Stars style remake they didn't quite hit the mark.
I think you're right that some of the complaints about Wily Wars are because it's different, but I'm not sure about it being validations to not make an expensive purchase. I like Wily Wars (and my Genesis) enough to own a reproduction, but as fan of the series I still prefer the original games with the original graphics and style of music. Maybe it's nostalgia and not quality but it's certainly not because I don't want to justify buying the game.
Anyway I don't know if I can recommend Mega Man 5 because that one is often considered love it or hate it, especially if you hated 4, but you should try out 6. It's one of the more unique entries with the different Rush power suits and alternate level exits. It's also got some wonderful graphics for a game on the NES. It's really only been getting attention it deserves in recent years.
