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  • ve often heard people say that Mega Man belongs in the 8-bit world, that his jump

  • and shoot gameplay is best enjoyed on the NES. I donít completely agree with that.

  • Iím a fan of a fresh coat of paint; though I understand that the gameplay must change

  • with such an evolution in graphics. And thatís where this game enters the argument; a 16-bit

  • MegaMan with 8-bit gameplay. This is MegaMan: The Wily Wars on the Sega MegaDrive.

  • In the mid-90ís, Sega started a service called the Sega Channel, where players could pay

  • for a monthly service to download games, much like a premium TV Channel like Showtime. Thatís

  • right, downloading games in the mid-90s, only they needed to be re-downloaded when the system

  • was shut off. If this sounds familiar, you may know about the Satellaview from Nintendo

  • in Japan. MegaMan The Wily Wars was once such downloadable

  • game, billed as a Sega Channel Exclusive. Thankfully though, the game wasnít lost with

  • the cancellation of the Sega Channel; the Europeanís got this game for their MegaDriveís

  • and through some headaches and cashing in on a few favors, Iíve scored a real cartridge

  • copy from Europe on loan from a friend. The Wily Wars is both a port of the first

  • 3 Mega Man games and a new MegaMan experience at the same time. You can pick from the start

  • what title youíd like to play, and you can even save your game at the end of each level.

  • Thatís the first drawback, no password system. Which is great for MegaMan 1, but not for

  • anyone wanting to skip right to Wilyís Fortress in the second or third game. The Wily Wars

  • does remake the first three NES titles and gives them this fresh look with cool colors,

  • decent backgrounds, and a few extra frames of animation, but itís not all as nice as

  • it looks. The controls are not as responsive as they were in the NES days. When you move

  • the Blue Bomber, he takes a quarter second too long to actually start runningÖ.and as

  • a result, your timing is completely messed up. Completely off; youíll need to rethink

  • everything and, in some sick way, relearn your strategies on how to play. The jump button

  • seems to stick a little too, so stages like Air Man and Shadow Man become incredibly difficult.

  • Also, shooting your weapons suffered as well. In the NES game, you can fire your weapon

  • really quickly. In Wily Wars, youíre limited to every few frames to shoot, and even standing

  • close to an enemy on shooting them doesnít get you to shoot faster like it did on the

  • NES. Itís frustrating, but you get used to it.

  • Some would say a 16-bit rendition of the great music from the games would be welcome. But

  • this is a Genesis game, and I was never a fan of the music on the consoleÖ.But if I

  • want awesome Mega Man music, Iíll throw on The Megas or even the One-Ups. Itís not a

  • big complaint, but someone will probably mention that the music is slower in this version,

  • which bugs a lot of people. Once you defeat every robot master from all

  • 3 games, destroy Wily in all 3 fortesses, defeat Protoman, Gamma, Doc Robot, all that,

  • you are met with one final game; the unlockable Wily Tower, also known as the main reason

  • to play this game. Wilyís upset you defeated his robots again, and has 3 new robots called

  • the Genesis Unit. Get it? Cuz the games on the GenesisÖ? Anyway, thatís 3 new robot

  • masters, and 3 all new stages. You can also pick 8 weapons from ANY of the 3 games, and

  • 3 transport items as well. With a save feature, new music and new graphics,

  • The Wily Wars seems like a good addition to the Mega Man family. However, sticky controls

  • get in the way of completely enjoying it, and even though the game play only has a few

  • MINOR differences between the NES versions, Iím not sure every fan would jump at the

  • chance to play this. But if youíre as big a fan of the Blue Bomber as we are at CGR,

  • you may want to find a way to get your hands on this game.

ve often heard people say that Mega Man belongs in the 8-bit world, that his jump

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