Mega Man in Dr. Wily's Revenge
Encyclopedia
Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge, known as in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, is a platforming
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...

 video game by Capcom
Capcom
is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...

 for the Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....

 Game Boy
Game Boy
The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...

. It is the first game in the handheld
Handheld game console
A handheld game console is a lightweight, portable electronic device with a built-in screen, game controls and speakers. Handheld game consoles are run on machines of small size allowing people to carry them and play them at any time or place...

 series of the Mega Man franchise. It was first released in Japan on July 26, 1991 and was localized in North America that December and in Europe the following year. The game continues the adventures of the android hero Mega Man
Mega Man (character)
Mega Man, known as in Japan, is a cybernetic video game character, and the main protagonist of what has been referred to as the original Mega Man series developed by Capcom since 1987. The pixel art for the character was created by the designer of the original game in the series, credited under...

 as he once again confronts the evil Dr. Wily
Doctor Wily
, full name Albert W. Wily, is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the original Mega Man series of video games. Designed by Keiji Inafune, he appeared in the first Mega Man video game and later in promotions and other media related to the series...

, who has recently dispatched his revived "Robot Masters" and a new "Mega Man Killer" named Enker.

Dr. Wily's Revenge is an action
Action game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...

 and platform game
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...

 in same vein as the Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...

 (NES) Mega Man games. The player is tasked with completing a series of four stages in any order desired. Beating a stage's boss will earn the player a special weapon that can be selected at will and used throughout the rest of the game. Dr. Wily's Revenge specifically takes components of the original Mega Man
Mega Man (video game)
Mega Man, known as in Japan, is a video game developed and published by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System . It is the first game in the original Mega Man series and the entire Mega Man franchise...

 and Mega Man 2
Mega Man 2
Mega Man 2, known in Japan as , is a platform game developed and published by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the second installment in the original Mega Man series. The game was released in Japan in 1988, and in North America and PAL regions the following years. Mega Man 2...

, including their enemies, stages, and Robot Masters.

According to series artist Keiji Inafune
Keiji Inafune
is a video game producer and illustrator. He was the former head of Research & Development and Online Business and Global Head of Production at Capcom, best known as the illustrator and co-designer of the character Mega Man, as well as the producer of the Onimusha and Dead Rising video game series...

, Dr. Wily's Revenge was the first Mega Man game to be outsourced
Outsourcing
Outsourcing is the process of contracting a business function to someone else.-Overview:The term outsourcing is used inconsistently but usually involves the contracting out of a business function - commonly one previously performed in-house - to an external provider...

 to a developer separate from Capcom. Critical reception for the game has been favorable, and most sources have denoted it as a competent if not excessively difficult, portable version of the popular NES series. Dr. Wily's Revenge was a best-seller and spawned four sequels of its own on the Game Boy, many of which follow its trend of reusing elements from their home console counterparts. In 2011, Dr. Wily's Revenge was made available as a Virtual Console
Virtual console
A virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux, and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...

 launch title on Japan's Nintendo eShop
Nintendo eShop
The Nintendo eShop is an online service for the Nintendo 3DS handheld gaming system. Launched on June 6, 2011 in North America and June 7, 2011 in Europe and Japan, the eShop was enabled by the release of a system update that added the functionality to the 3DS' Home Menu...

 for the Nintendo 3DS
Nintendo 3DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo. The autostereoscopic device is able to project stereoscopic 3D effects without the use of 3D glasses or any additional accessories. The Nintendo 3DS features backward compatibility with Nintendo DS series software, including Nintendo DSi software...

. It also appeared on PAL region
PAL region
The PAL region is a television publication territory which covers most of Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and most of Western Europe...

 and North American eShops later that year.

Plot

Set in the 21st century ("200X"), Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge follows the storyline of the original Mega Man series. The titular protagonist Mega Man
Mega Man (character)
Mega Man, known as in Japan, is a cybernetic video game character, and the main protagonist of what has been referred to as the original Mega Man series developed by Capcom since 1987. The pixel art for the character was created by the designer of the original game in the series, credited under...

, a super robot created by the benevolent Dr. Light, has restored peace to the world by halting the plans of the evil Dr. Wily
Doctor Wily
, full name Albert W. Wily, is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the original Mega Man series of video games. Designed by Keiji Inafune, he appeared in the first Mega Man video game and later in promotions and other media related to the series...

 and his powerful "Robot Masters". In Dr. Wily's Revenge, the mad scientist returns to send eight of his old Robot Masters to contend with the hero once again. After vanquishing four of the Robot Masters, Mega Man heads to Wily's fortress and deals with the remaining half of them. The protagonist then battles a new robot designed solely for destroying him, the "Mega Man Killer" Enker. As Mega Man defeats Enker and obtains his Mirror Buster ability, Wily retreats to a space station. Mega Man gives chase and, using the Mirror Buster, destroys Wily's newly-built, final weapon. After putting a stop to his arch nemesis once again, Mega Man travels back home via space shuttle.

Gameplay

Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge is an action
Action game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...

-platformer
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...

 that shares many similarities with its NES
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...

 counterparts. The player, as Mega Man, is able to choose among four stages to complete in whatever order desired. Each stage contains various enemies to blast through and obstacles to overcome, such as leaping between disappearing blocks over deadly spikes and bottomless pits. Mega Man's primary weapon is an arm cannon that has unlimited ammunition. Destroyed enemies typically leave items that replenish Mega Man's health or extra lives
1-up
1-up , pronounced "one up", is a term in console video gaming that commonly refers to an item that gives the player an extra life, to complete the game. In certain games, it is possible to receive multiple extra lives at once...

. At the end of every stage is a boss battle with a Robot Master, and defeating it earns the player its special weapon. Each boss is weak to another's weapon, allowing the player to strategize the order in which they are beaten.

Dr. Wily's Revenge reuses and mixes stage components, enemies, and Robot Masters from the first two NES games in the Mega Man series. The initial four stages and bosses (Cut Man, Ice Man, Fire Man, and Elec Man) come from the original Mega Man
Mega Man (video game)
Mega Man, known as in Japan, is a video game developed and published by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System . It is the first game in the original Mega Man series and the entire Mega Man franchise...

. A password system allows the player to return to the game after any or all of these first four stages are cleared or when the player suffers a game over
Game over
Game Over is a message in video games which signals that the game has ended, often due to a negative outcome - although the phrase sometimes follows the end credits after successful completion of a game...

. Once the player completes these stages and travels through Wily's fortress, four more Robot Masters must be fought in order to progress. These bosses (Quick Man, Bubble Man, Flash Man, and Heat Man) are taken from Mega Man 2
Mega Man 2
Mega Man 2, known in Japan as , is a platform game developed and published by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the second installment in the original Mega Man series. The game was released in Japan in 1988, and in North America and PAL regions the following years. Mega Man 2...

for NES. Although they do not have their own stages, the player earns the special weapons of these bosses.

Development

According to series artist and producer Keiji Inafune
Keiji Inafune
is a video game producer and illustrator. He was the former head of Research & Development and Online Business and Global Head of Production at Capcom, best known as the illustrator and co-designer of the character Mega Man, as well as the producer of the Onimusha and Dead Rising video game series...

, Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge was the first Mega Man game to be outsourced
Outsourcing
Outsourcing is the process of contracting a business function to someone else.-Overview:The term outsourcing is used inconsistently but usually involves the contracting out of a business function - commonly one previously performed in-house - to an external provider...

 by Capcom
Capcom
is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...

 for its development. He felt the game turned out well because the project's leader was a "huge Mega Man fan" who appeared to understand the games better than some of Capcom's own people. Because he thought much of his artwork from the original Mega Man was not aging well, Inafune redrew many of his old illustrations to be used for the game's enemy character sprites. Beginning with Mega Man 2 for the NES, Capcom began accepting boss ideas from fans. It was not until Dr. Wily's Revenge that Inafune was able to design a boss character from scratch. To keep with the musical motif of naming characters, the new character Enker was named after the Japanese genre enka
Enka
is a popular Japanese music genre considered to resemble traditional Japanese music stylistically. Modern enka, however, is a relatively recent musical form which arose in the context of such postwar expressions of modern Japanese nonmaterial nationalism as nihonjinron, while adopting a more...

.

The decision to release a Game Boy
Game Boy
The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...

 incarnation of the Mega Man series came after the release of Mega Man 3
Mega Man 3
Mega Man 3, known as in Japan, is a video game developed and published by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the third game of the original Mega Man series and was originally released in Japan on September 28, 1990. The game localized in North America later in 1990 and in European...

on the NES. Early reports of Dr. Wily's Revenge were made in February 1991 in both the magazine GamePro
GamePro
GamePro Media was a United States gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console , a computer, and/or a mobile device . GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and...

and Steven A. Schwartz's book The Official Guide to Mega Man. The North American version of this game and the first DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...

 Mega Man game share a similar cover art. Instead of being an all new illustration, the Dr. Wily's Revenge North American artwork is a simple touch-up of Mega Man 3's regional cover, with the surrounding landscape and Robot Masters cropped out of the picture.

Reception and legacy

General critical reception for Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge has been above average, a popular opinion being that the game retains the respectable run-and-gun
Shoot 'em up
Shoot 'em up is a subgenre of shooter video games. In a shoot 'em up, the player controls a lone character, often in a spacecraft or aircraft, shooting large numbers of enemies while dodging their attacks. The genre in turn encompasses various types or subgenres and critics differ on exactly what...

 gameplay of the earliest NES entries in the series. "What makes this game especially attractive to adults," proclaimed Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...

s Bob Strauss, "is that you can begin your quest on any one of four stages, thus avoiding that linear, start-over-again-from-scratch quality that only 12-year-olds find hypnotic." The use of old stages and bosses has not been universally positive. GamePro was disappointed by the game's lack of originality but preferred its use of recycled content to poorly-made new content. In a 2007 retrospective of the Mega Man franchise, 1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....

 writer Jeremy Parish found the use of rehashed details acceptable for its original release, but believed that Dr. Wily's Revenge "hasn't really held up".

Reviewers have also commented on the game's high difficulty level
Difficulty level
In general usage, difficulty level refers to the relative difficulty of completing a task or objective.In computer and video games, the term specifically delineates the ease or difficulty with which an average user may complete a game or a part of a game. Arcade games as well as many early console...

. Craig Skistimas of ScrewAttack
ScrewAttack
ScrewAttack . is a video game-related website that showcases original entertainment for an audience of video game enthusiasts. Its content is also shown on GameTrailers and IGN...

 stated that certain parts of the game simply require one to have played before in order to succeed. Allgame
Allgame
Allgame is a commercial database of information about arcade games, video games and console manufacturers.Allgame is owned by All Media Guide, along with Allmusic and Allmovie....

 contributor Colin Williamson noted the game as extremely hard due to its "pixel-perfect jumps", the "sheer number of attackers and flying bullets", and a lack of checkpoints within each stage. IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...

 editor Lucas M. Thomas pointed out that the large size of the player character within the small Game Boy screen makes dodging enemy attacks overly challenging and sometimes impossible. He furthermore observed the difficulty to be compounded by a lack of helpful Energy Tanks introduced in the NES Mega Man sequels.

The readers of GamePro voted Dr. Wily's Revenge the best handheld game of 1991. Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...

readers voted it the fifth-best Game Boy game of that year. In North America, Dr. Wily's Revenge was released under Nintendo's Player's Choice
Player's Choice
Nintendo Selects is a marketing label used by Nintendo to promote video games on Nintendo game consoles which have sold well; Nintendo Selects titles are sold at a lower price point than other games...

 best-seller label in 1996. The game was followed by four sequels on the Game Boy, of which the first three similarly recycle content from the NES games. In Japan, the game was made available on the Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power (cartridge)
The flash RAM cartridge was a Japan-only peripheral produced by Nintendo for the Super Famicom and the Game Boy, which allowed owners to download Super Famicom/Game Boy games onto a special flash memory cartridge for less than what the full cartridge would have cost.During the days of the Family...

 cartridge service on March 13, 2001. Capcom had planned to release a full-color compilation of all five Game Boy games on the Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...

 in 2004, but the project was cancelled. In 2011, Dr. Wily's Revenge was released as a Virtual Console
Virtual console
A virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux, and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...

 launch title on Japan's Nintendo eShop
Nintendo eShop
The Nintendo eShop is an online service for the Nintendo 3DS handheld gaming system. Launched on June 6, 2011 in North America and June 7, 2011 in Europe and Japan, the eShop was enabled by the release of a system update that added the functionality to the 3DS' Home Menu...

 for the Nintendo 3DS
Nintendo 3DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo. The autostereoscopic device is able to project stereoscopic 3D effects without the use of 3D glasses or any additional accessories. The Nintendo 3DS features backward compatibility with Nintendo DS series software, including Nintendo DSi software...

. The game made its way to PAL region
PAL region
The PAL region is a television publication territory which covers most of Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and most of Western Europe...

 and North American eShops later that year.

The character Enker, who debuted in Dr. Wily's Revenge, appeared as a boss in the Game Boy game Mega Man V
Mega Man V (Game Boy)
Mega Man V, known as in Japan, is a video game developed and published by Capcom for the Game Boy handheld game console. It is the fifth and final game in the Game Boy version of the original Mega Man series. The game follows the adventures of the protagonist Mega Man as he must defend the Earth...

and as a playable character in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...

 game Mega Man Soccer
Mega Man Soccer
Mega Man Soccer, known in Japan as , is a soccer video game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System . The game is based on the original Mega Man series of action-platform games...

. A downloadable
Downloadable content
Downloadable content is official additional content for a video game distributed through the Internet. Downloadable content can be of several types, ranging from a single in-game outfit to an entirely new, extensive storyline, similarly to an expansion pack. As such, DLC may add new game modes,...

 stage in Mega Man 10
Mega Man 10
Mega Man 10, known in Japan as , is a video game developed by Capcom and Inti Creates. It is the tenth main entry of the original Mega Man series...

features Enker as its boss and his Mirror Buster weapon as the reward for beating him.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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