Mega Man: The Wily Wars Review

In 1994 Capcom gave the first three Mega Man games the Super Mario All-Stars treatment on the Sega Mega Drive (Genesis). Not many people remember the Wily Wars collection, probably because it was released so late in the Mega Drive’s existence, but after trying it out for myself I’m really impressed with it.

Gameplay: 4/5 – I do commend the makers for sticking to the individual gameplay elements of each individual game. Mega Man doesn’t for instance slide in any other game except form 3. However, there is something a bit off about the gameplay timing which doesn’t make it quite the 1-1 match as say Super Mario All-Stars. As a result some parts of the games feel more difficult and others more easy than in their NES counterparts. This is however a minor gripe.

Graphics: 5/5 – I have to say that the graphics have been livened up nicely with the new stage designs. Especially certain levels in Mega Man 1 and 2 which looked quite plain in the original versions look much livelier here. Also, the game makes use of the Mega Drive’s graphic abilities really well.

Animation: 4/5 – It seems to me that in this area they didn’t make any big additions or changes which is not bad but it is a little underwhelming. The only negative point is that in the Weapons Menu in Mega Man 3, it seems to take forever to exit the menu when picking any of the Rush items because you have to wait for the animations to finish.

Music: 5/5 – The remixed versions of the classic Mega Man themes sound really nice. The tempo on the music is a little slower than in the original which isn’t a bad thing though. The new transitional music isn’t anything special but then again you’ll only listen to it in the menus, so it doesn’t really matter.

Sound: 3/5 – Nothing really special. The sound-effects do sound more or less the same as the 8-bit counterparts but with the only difference being that they are 16-bit.

Replay value: 5/5 – It’s a new fresh take on the old classics which is always fine in my book. With the added save feature you don’t have to worry about more difficult levels like the ones in Mega Man 1 and, just generally put, the fun factor of the original NES classics has been brought to the Mega Drive in a great way. Plus, playing through all the games opens up new levels to explore which is all just a great plus.

Score: 87% - Mega Man: The Wily Wars is a great way to re-experience the first three classic NES Mega Man titles, if you’ve already played them to death.

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