Backlog Game Reviews 8: Megaman The Wily Wars / Rockman Megaworld Part 1 (Sega Genesis / Megadrive)

     Hey there, and welcome to Backlog Game Reviews. The next game getting taken off of the backlog is Rockman Megaworld on the Megadrive. It was released in Japan on October 21st, 1994 and on April 3rd, 1995 in Europe. It was released in North America on December 31st, 1994. But it was only available digitally on Sega's online service Sega Channel. Officially this game was never released physically in North America. Megaworld is a compilation of Megaman 1-3 with updated music and graphics befitting the Megadrive.

Cutman's stage

   Nowadays it's a very rare game and very expensive. Most people will ask for 30,000 yen or 300 USD for a boxed copy with the instruction manual. Because it's such an expensive game it must be awesome right? Well, Megaman fans seem to have mixed opinions about it. Some fans think that Megaworls is garbage compared to the original NES/Famicom games. Other fans seem to think that this game is nothing special, while others think it's way better than the originals. How good is this game really? Well, let's take a look and see if Megaworld can live up to the original 3 games.

Megaman 1 title screen

     Let's start with of course Megaman 1. As with all Megaman games, the story is pretty simple. In the year 20XX Dr.Light a scientist in the field of robotics created a new type of robot. These robots can carry out jobs with very little instruction. As long as they don't do anything that would cause harm to a human they can make their own decisions and act out on them. He named these new robots "Robot Masters". Dr.Light was praised highly for his breakthrough in robotics. He hoped that the Robot Masters would help improve life for humans by doing jobs that would be too dangerous for a normal human.

Story from the games manual

    Everything was going as Dr.Light had hoped, but his former Lab partner Dr.Wily grew jealous of Dr.Light's achievements. One day Dr.Wily stole the six Robot Masters that Dr.Light had built and reprogramed them to follow his orders. Using the Robot Masters as weapons Dr.Wily began to take over the world. The military is unable to stand up to the Robot Masters and Dr.Wily seems unstoppable. After seeing the destruction caused by Dr.Wily, Dr.Light's lab assistant robot Rock asks Dr.Light to convert him into a battle robot. Dr.Light agrees and Megaman is born. With his new upgrades, Megaman sets off to defeat Dr.Wily and stop the Robot Masters.

The six Robot Masters

   As for the gameplay, it's pretty much unchanged from the NES original. It's a platformer and your goal is to make it to the end of the stage and defeat the boss. You fight off enemies by shooting at them with Megaman's weapon the Mega Buster. It sounds pretty simple and similar to other platformers on the NES. But what sets this game apart from other platformers is that you have the freedom to pick the order that you want to complete the stages in. So if a certain stage or boss is giving you a hard time you can try out another stage and come back to the harder ones later.

Stage select screen

   That's not the only unique aspect of this game though. Whenever you defeat a boss you copy that boss's power and that power gets added to your arsenal of weapons. Every boss has a weakness to another boss's weapon. So if a boss is giving you trouble you can come back later with his weakness weapon and easily take him out. Megaman's stage select system offers a level of freedom that other NES games at the time didn't. And having the choice of making the game harder by not using a boss's weakness offers a good level of replay value.

Megaman vs Cutman

   At its core, Megaman is a simple game. While trying to make it to the end of a stage you'll have to jump to avoid obstacles and pits. You can choose to avoid enemies or take them out with you Mega Buster. The gameplay is simple but a lot of fun if you like 2D platformers.

A Sniper Joe will jump and  block you if you try to jump over him. So it's best to just fight him.

   I don't have any complaints about the gameplay, but the controls are a little awkward. Jumping and shooting are responsive but there is a slight input delay when you try running. If you push down on the D-pad and quickly let go Megaman will only inch forward a bit. To run you have to hold down on the D-pad for a second and then Megaman will start running. It's not a problem once you get used to it but it's a bit awkward at first.

Megaman vs Bombman

   The controls are a little strange, but the game while slightly challenging is a fun ride from start to finish. But how is the presentation?

    The short answer is that it's really good. It's just as good if not better then the NES version. I prefer Megaworld's music over the original. And the upgraded 16-bit graphics look a lot better than the 8-bit graphics on the NES. Megaman, the bosses and the backgrounds are much more detailed and everything is just nicer to look at. Regarding the presentation, I have nothing to criticize or complain about. They took the already good presentation of the NES game and made it even better.

Fighting an enemy in Bombman's stage

   Overall this is a really good remake of the first Megaman game. The controls are not as good, but everything else is just as good or better than the original. The gameplay is just as fun. The graphics and music are much better then what the NES has to offer. If you can get past the awkward controls I would recommend playing this over the NES version. It's a great game and definitely worth your time if you're a fan of 2D platformers or Megaman.

 And that's all I have to say about this game. Thank you for reading! If you ever get the chance I highly recommend giving this game a try. Next time I'll do a mini-review of Megaman 2 on the Megadrive. These two games share a lot of similarities so there won't be that much to talk about. I hope to see you again at Backlog Game Reviews.