Mega Man: The Wily Wars

It's hard to say what a change from 8-bit to 16-bit brought to the gaming world. Today, graphics and sound really haven't changed all that much in the last 10 years, but to make the leap from 1985 to 1995 was enormous. Sound got better, music got better, graphics got better. So, in 1993, Nintendo decided to port four NES Mario games to the Super Nintendo with some updated graphics. Thus, Super Mario All-Stars was born.

The games weren't completely perfect. They changed up some physics. But, generally, it was four classic Mario games with updated sound and graphics. Of course it sold like gang-busters, becoming the second-best-selling game of the Super Nintendo.

At this time, Capcom was closely tied to Nintendo, but they were looking to branch out to Nintendo's main rival, Sega. They ported their Street Fighter II arcade game to Sega, where the product sold well. Capcom's Blue Bomber would get a game for the Genesis, but Sega outsourced the project, and, according to artist Keiji Inafune, development was slowgoing and difficult. After all was said and done, the game was not even released in North America. It was only released in Japan and the PAL regions. It came to North America through a subscription service called the Sega Channel. It was called Mega Man: The Wily Wars.

So, what is Wily Wars? The premise is that sometime after Mega Man 3, Dr. Wily built a time machine to go back in time to defeat Mega Man. The game includes Mega Man 1, 2, and 3. Once you complete those, there's a fourth section, Wily Tower, where you can pick any 8 of the 22 Robot Master weapons from the first three games. This game sounds like a great idea! Unfortunately, it didn't turn out great.

The biggest problem behind the Wily Wars is that it's not a faithful port. Physics are a little messed up, the sounds and music have a tinny Genesis sound rather than the crisp NES sound. Enemies and bosses have more frames of invincibility. For people who are familiar with the NES originals, playing this game will probably be a chore. The bonus content, Wily Tower, is good, but the Metal Blade is so overpowered that it kind of breaks the game.

What breaks my heart is that this game could have been an all-time classic. If they had had more time or maybe hadn't outsourced it, or maybe even ported it to Super Nintendo rather than Genesis, this could have been a killer app. You look at the sprite work, and it really looks like a graphically souped-up Mega Man, but the whole package doesn't come together. What a disappointment.

If you're not familiar with the NES games, you could try this game first, because you won't know the difference. Unfortunately the PAL region one will play on the Genesis only with a Galoob Game Genie, but even then it's super-slow because it's 50 hz instead of 60. Meanwhile, the Japanese one's in Japanese. I suppose you can get it on an emulator, but be careful which one you pick - in some it won't save that you've beaten the game, meaning you never unlock Wily Tower.

As John Greenleaf Whittier said: "For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: 'It might have been!'"