Mega Man: The Wily Wars

Prerelease Info Notes Bugs Unused Damage ValuesWhat do you mean Super Arm works against the Wily Machines?! Regional DifferencesThree times the games means three times the changes!

Unused Music#

This is the theme that you hear when you get a new weapon in Mega Man 3. But, Unlike the NES original and the second Game Boy game, only the first 7 seconds can be heard in-game as the game takes you to the file selection screen shortly after, completely cutting out the rest of the track. However the full track can be heard on the sound test.

Track 72 in the music test is a theme placed among the Wily Tower soundtrack which is not heard anywhere in-game. Its intended use is unknown, but it was possibly meant for Wily Tower password screen (as Wily Tower, redundantly, uses the one from Mega Man 3). The final game uses a serial EEPROM to store progress.

Unused Graphics#

A portion of Break Man's scarf in Mega Man 3 ended up getting overlapped by the picture frame. Most likely nixed due to difficulty creating compatible palettes, since unlike in the NES version this is not a sprite-layer graphic.

The shadowy Proto Man from Mega Man 3's ending. The actual game just uses the regular Proto Man sprites with a blue palette.

Extended Life Bar#

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Watch on YouTubeUsing the Pro Action Replay (PAR) code 02E65C:??, the player's starting Life Energy can be set to anything from $00 to $7F (127). Using a value between $1D (29) and $56 (86) will cause the life bar to use unique colors: values over 29 give it a silver hue, while values over 59 turn it orange.

Any number beyond $56 (86) and up to $7F (127) will also work, but will cause the Life Energy meter to call random sprites, such as splash graphics or boss shutters, instead of the proper graphics. Grabbing any Life Energy pick-ups with more than $1C (28) Life Energy will immediately max-out the player's life back to that expected value.

Lockout Text#

Among the game's region lockout text is "WITH NTSC GENESIS SYSTEMS". Presumably, the only way to have encountered this legitimately was by downloading the game during its US Sega Channel availability window using a non-US console.

Revisional Differences#

European Release#

• Aside from the obvious regional differences, less obvious bit-shifted addresses, and some copyright text, not much has changed under the hood.

Mega Drive Mini#

• The game runs and loads a little faster.
  • Slowdown was eliminated by using more powerful hardware. The ROM itself was not significantly altered, however.
• Full-screen flashing has been significantly reduced to prevent potential seizure risk.

Genesis Mini#

• Appears to be a mix of the Mega Drive Mini and European ROMs with some bit-shifted addresses.
• More copyright text was added.
• Much like the Mega Drive Mini version, slowdown was eliminated by using more powerful hardware rather than altering the ROM.

Retro-bit Release#

• Appears to be based on the "Genesis Mini" revision.
• The save game data now uses battery-backed SRAM rather than EEPROM.
• The game loads within 10 frames instead of 250.
• As this is technically an unlicensed commercial reproduction, all mentions of Sega have been removed:
  • There is no "Sega" logo upon booting the game.
  • The copyright text now reads "Licensed by Retro-bit" instead of "Licensed by Sega Enterprises, Ltd."
  • The "Licensed by Sega Enterprises, Ltd." line has been erased from the main title screen.
• Various odds-and-ends have been tidied up, helping the game run a bit faster on real hardware.
  • However, the game still slows down when there are a lot of "active objects" on the screen.

Examples: Cut Man's stage (Guts Blocks), Yellow Devil fights (he splits apart), Buster Rod G refight (every platform is an object)

• The score counter disappears when fighting bosses in Mega Man.

References#