January celebrates two notable dates in science-fiction history, “National Science Fiction Day” on January 2 and Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000’s birthday on January 12. Accordingly, I’m dedicating January to celebrating sci-fi with an event I call “Sci-Fanuary”.

Released: 7 June 2024
Originally Released: 22 July 1994
Developer: Minakuchi Engineering
Also Available For: Game Boy and Nintendo 3DS

A Brief Background:
Notorious for its high level of difficulty, Mega Man (Capcom, 1987) represented Capcom’s shift away from the arcade scene and into the burgeoning home console market, eventually establishing a franchise that expanded to the Game Boy in 1991. Capcom outsourced development to Minakuchi Engineering, whom they reunited with for the Blue Bomber’s subsequent handheld ventures after a brief collaboration with Thinking Rabbit left series artist Keiji Inafune allegedly disappointed by their efforts. Mega Man V was the last of these efforts, and was said to have taken the longest to develop of the Game Boy titles. Furthermore, Infaune struggled to create new designs for the game, particularly the debuting “Stardroids” and Mega Man’s newest robotic companion, Tango. Mega Man V was also one of the first games developed specifically to connect with the Super Game Boy peripheral, allowing players to experience the game in full colour on their televisions. Seen as one of the system’s most ambitious titles, Mega Man V is largely regarded as one of the best in the franchise’s handheld library, demonstrating better graphics, mechanics, and narrative elements. Although this didn’t lead to a collection of the portable Mega Man games, these were all eventually ported to Nintendo’s online shops and services.

The Review:  
Mega Man V retains the core gameplay mechanics of its predecessors and main console titles, charging players with battling through four initial stages and powering the fighting robot Mega Man up before heading into space to take on four additional stages and Robot Masters. Consequently, the controls remain unchanged (with one exception): B or X fires the Mega Buster, which can be charged to unleash a stronger shot. This time, Mega Man flings out his fist thanks to his creator, Doctor Thomas Light, upgrading his abilities since his usual charged shot won’t work against the game’s new Stardroids. However, the “Mega Arm” is functionally the same as the old charged shot except it deals additional when it flies back to Mega Man and it can be upgraded to snag items and pass through walls. B is for jumping, with Mega Man jumping higher when underwater or in outer space, and down and B performs a slide that’s useful for avoiding hazards and attacks. There’s no longer a recoil to the charged shot, which is a bit of a shame, but you’ll still collect P-Chips to trade in for upgrades at Dr. Light’s lab between stages. These allow you to buy those upgrades for the Mega Arm, refill some or all your weapon energy, replenish your health, or purchase a 1-up or E- and S-Tanks to refill your health and energy on the go. Enemies drop most of these items upon defeat, though your chances of getting them are again more restricted since they also drop P-Chips (which are mostly useless with the Switch’s rewind and save state features). These goodies may also be found in stages by taking alternative paths and destroying certain walls, and Mega Man’s little friend Eddie and mysterious brother Proto Man occasionally gift items. Mega Man’s robotic bird companion Beat is absent, so you won’t have to worry about collecting any letters, though four crystals are hidden in the later stages that will grant you the Power Generator, which halves the usage cost of your Special Weapons. Finally, if you exhaust all your lives and use a continue, you’ll gain the Turbo Accelerator for your Mega Arm to help you out.

Brace yourself for a shock but…Mega Man V features all-new Robot Masters and Special Weapons! Yes, for the first time in Mega Man’s handheld career, the stages and bosses are all new (save for some inspirations from previous games). Like previous Robot Masters, Terra’s Stardroids are weak to specific Special Weapons, making the game more difficult depending on the order you challenge them. They’re all fought in enclosed arenas, as usual (though Mega Man V gives you more room to manoeuvre than the previous Game Boy games) and all fought again during the endgame. I started with Mercury, a Stardroid with liquid metal properties who transforms into blobs but who you can put down with the regular Mega Arm (or, later, Salt Water). Mercury grants you the Grab Buster, which leeches health from your target, though the Mega Arm alone was enough to take down Neptune, who simply hops about like a frog. Weak to Photon Missile and Electric Shock, Neptune bestows you with the Salt Water shot which, while slow, damages enemies with splash damage (a common mechanic in this game). Salt Water also gives you the edge over Mars, who fires the slow but very powerful Photon Missiles and even lays mines across the floor. Like the Crash Bomber, you must time Photon Missile shots to defeat Venus, who mostly just stomps about but gets some serious airtime when he’s filling the screen with explosive bubbles. The Bubble Bomb is one of the more useful Special Weapons thanks to it travelling upwards, making it perfect against Pluto when he pounces to the ceiling, and Jupiter since he’s always hovering overhead. Jupiter fires a concentrated beam of electricity and is invulnerable in this state, a weapon you can use to fry enemies up close. Saturn was next; a big target, he tosses a ring, slides at you, and sucks you in with his Black Hole attack, which Mega Man uses with explosive effect. Defeating Pluto nets you the Break Dash, which sees you charging across the screen to barge through enemies and walls. It’s also great against Uranus, who you fight in close quarters. Defeating him grants you the Deep Digger which, like the Super Arms, lets you toss certain blocks.

You’ll also obtain an additional Special Weapon by defeating Terra; the Spark Chaser is like the Gemini Laser in that it ricochets about and is best saved for the game’s true final boss. Beat may be gone but Rush is still here; unfortunately, you get Rush Coil and Rush Jet quite late in the game and they’re nowhere near as useful as before. Mega Man V finally addresses Rush’s potential by having you fly about in a sidescrolling shooter to approach and then blast into Doctor Albert Wily’s newest space station. Mega Man also gets a new robotic companion right from the start of the game. Tango is summoned with a charge attack and will spin about the screen to attack anything in range, though I honestly had little use for this and kept longing for the Rush Coil to reach out of reach goodies. While you’ll find many familiar hazards in this game, such as bottomless or spike-ladened pits, insta-kill spikes, moving and disappearing platforms, and rising tides, there are a fair few different obstacles to overcome. Mega Man spends some time either out in space or dealing with gravity mechanics inside, not unlike his encounter with Gravity Man. The floor threatens to crush you rather than the ceiling coming down, and you’ll do your fair share of tricky platforming up in the clouds. Water rushes at you and pipes vent steam, rocket-powered blocks drive you towards ceiling spikes, snow and ice make platforms slippery, and rocks and girders drop from above. Except for Metall’s new annoying shield and sniper variants, all the enemies in Mega Man V are new. There are robotic apes that hop up and down and toss bananas, bubble-shooting crabs that push you to your doom, fan-like owls, walking bombs, spiked turtles, and armoured foes who are invulnerable when charging. Many attacks feature splash damage, which is an additional hazard, though Mega Man V handles slowdown and screen tearing much better than its predecessors. Mega Man will also battle some bigger mini bosses, including an attack helicopter, a giant cannon, and a Sphinx-like wall that constantly threatens to drop you onto insta-kill spikes.

Battling past the first four Stardroids sees you confront Terra in a strangely deserted base. Here, he sics an upgraded Yellow Devil, the “Dark Moon”, on you. While his body parts are still tricky to avoid, the battle is the same as in Mega Man in that you must time shots of the Photon Missile to hit his eye and the hardest thing about this fight is all the waiting around to land hits. Defeating the second set of Stardroids sees Terra finally face you in battle for “[mettling]” with his plans. Terra teleports about, fires his Spark Chase, and can briefly freeze you but, for all his hype, he’s easily defeated with the Deep Digger. Mega Man and Rush then blast at the exterior of Dr. Wily’s space station (something that’s tricky to do as you can only attack its laser-firing mouth) before Mega Man battles through a gruelling torture chamber within and encounters the four previous “Mega Man Killers”. While each is weak to one of Mega Man’s new Special Weapons, the fights are unchanged: you still fire at Enker when he holds his sword aloft, still target Punk’s head as he pogos about, still jump over or slide under Punk’s buzzsaw-like attack, and must still avoid Ballade’s Ballade Cracker. Still, it was nice to face them again and I liked the added touch of seeing copies of each held captive in the stage. With them defeated, you’ll take on Dr. Wily’s newest, biggest mech in a four-stage battle. The first two see you avoiding giant robotic fists, blasting its wrist eyes with the Grab Buster and avoiding its homing missiles. Next, you’ll find the Brain Crusher impervious to all your attacks. Instead, you must avoid its missiles and destroy the Pikashus before their gravity attacks drive you into the ceiling spikes, then fire at the walking bombs it spits out to deal damage. You’re then forced into a tight, spiked corridor and must hop over Dr. Wily’s ground shots and pummel his glass dome to finally put him down. However, in desperation he awakens the ultimate Stardroid doomsday weapon, Sunstar, who frequently destroys the ground and forces you to drop to lower areas. Weak to the Spark Chaser, Sunstar boasts a particularly devesting arm cannon, fires scattered shots and tiny sparks, and spins at you like a buzzsaw.

The Summary:
Well, it took five games, but the developers finally gave Game Boy players something unique to get their teeth into. Mega Man V is the first of the handheld titles not to shamelessly recycle and reuses bosses, stages, and weapons from the previous games. Instead, it presents an all-new (if familiar) narrative pitting Mega Man against the planet-themed Stardroids and giving you new Special Weapons to play with. Unfortunately, as ever, I had little use for these outside of boss battles; you can use them to make stages easier, but I got along just fine with the Mega Arm. Similarly, it’s a shame Tango wasn’t used more; like, he could’ve let you climb certain walls and perhaps fulfilled the Grab Buster mechanic. However, I was glad to finally see a sidescrolling shooting stage implemented with Rush (including a boss battle, no less) and Dr. Light’s items were much more useful, giving me an incentive to collect at least some P-Chips. There’s a greater emphasis on story in Mega Man V, with many sprite-based cutscenes and dialogue boxes, which are bolstered by the best pixel art in the portable series. Unfortunately, while stages are more detailed than ever, there wasn’t much variety or logic to them. Like, Mercury could’ve been any other underwater base stage, Saturn had an Aztec theme, and Jupiter went with electricity instead of raging storms. Venus and Mars mixed things up with their weird, tumour-like enemies and spinning gears, respectively, but I feel the developers could’ve done a lot more with the space theme. Still, I really enjoyed Mega Man V, particularly the rematches with the Mega Man Killers and the new antagonists. Terra and Sunstar were a nice change of pace and even Dr. Wily’s presented a bit differently in his boss battles. Mega Man V is what we should’ve seen from some of the Blue Bomber’s previous handheld titles; familiar elements in a new setting. This, it feels less like you’re playing a downgraded version of the home console games and more like a unique experienced tailored to the Game Boy.

My Rating:

Great Stuff

Did you own Mega Man V back in the day? Were to happy to finally see some original content for the Game Boy? What did you think to Terra and the Stardroids? Were you disappointed that the developers didn’t do more with the planet theming? Which of the new Special Weapons was your favourite? How would you rank Mega Man’s portable adventures? What are your plans for celebrating the science-fiction genre this month? Whatever opinions on Mega Man V you have, leave them below and be sure to check out my other Mega Man reviews!

January celebrates two notable dates in science-fiction history, “National Science Fiction Day” on January 2 and Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000’s birthday on January 12. Accordingly, I’m dedicating January to celebrating sci-fi in an event I call “Sci-Fanuary”.

Released: 7 June 2024
Originally Released: 29 October 1993
Developer: Minakuchi Engineering
Also Available For: Game Boy and Nintendo 3DS

A Brief Background:
After Mega Man (Capcom, 1987) allowed Capcom to stake a claim in the revitalised home console market, the franchise became a Nintendo staple known for its challenging difficulty. Capcom expanded their reach to the Game Boy in 1991 by outsourcing the franchise, resulting in the highly regarded Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge (Minakuchi Engineering, 1991). When the quickly produced sequel divided critics, series artist Keiji Inafune allegedly blamed the inexperience of developers Thinking Rabbit, leading to Capcom collaborating with Minakuchi Engineering once again for the for a third, better regarded effort. For Mega Man IV, the developers again borrowed elements from the main console games, mixing and matching them into a bite-sized title that was largely praised for pushing the limits of the Game Boy and better emulating the main series titles. Unfortunately, like its predecessors, Mega Man IV was stuck as a Game Boy exclusive for many years as a collection of these games was cancelled, though this eventually changed when they were all ported to Nintendo’s online shops and services.

The Review:
Mega Man IV continues the time-honoured tradition of the Blue Bomber’s handheld adventures by recycling and remixing elements from the franchise’s release on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), namely Mega Man 4 (Capcom, 1991) and Mega Man 5 (ibid, 1992). In many ways, these portable titles are delivering what I came to hope from the mainline series in that they’re combining elements of two games into one, and a common complaint I had about Mega Man’s console games was how redundant some of them are since the changes were so minimal. Without a doubt, Mega Man IV is the closest to the console games so far in terms of presentation, length, and gameplay mechanics. The basic setup is all here: Mega Man runs-and-guns through four initial stages, defeating Robot Masters to gain their Special Weapons, then battles through four additional stages in his quest to defeat Doctor Albert Wily. B and X fire your Mega Buster or currently equipped Special Weapon. Holding down the button charges a shot with either the Mega Buster or Pharoah Shot, with the added wrinkle that Mega Man’s basic charged shot now has a little recoil you’ll need to account for. B jumps, with Mega Man being lighter when underwater, and down and B slides beneath jumping enemies, projectiles, and through narrow tunnels. While enemies will still drop health and weapon energy, and the occasional 1-up, and you can still collect these and energy filling E-Tanks in stages, Mega Man IV introduces a new collectible. During your adventure, you’ll collect P-Chips; collect enough of these and, between stages, you can visit Doctor Thomas Light and purchase various single-use power-ups. You can fully refill Mega Man’s health or weapon energy, gain a 1-up, store an E-Tank (or purchase a small one to trade in for a large one), and refill one or all your weapons. Personally, I found this a bit tedious; the P-Chips simply meant more grinding for health or energy and the power-ups weren’t really worth the extra effort of collecting them.

Mega Man’s robotic companions return in Mega Man IV, though Rush sadly doesn’t get much play. Rush Coil is primarily used to reach higher platforms containing goodies or the odd alternative path, while Rush Jet didn’t really factor into the game until I reached Dr. Wily’s space station and needed to fly over some insta-kill spikes. Beat also returns, with him summoned when you collect four letters to spell his name from the first four stages. I was actually able to accomplish this this time around, meaning I made use of Beat to chip away at the latest “Mega Man Killer”, Ballade. Eddie also pops up to offer you helpful power-ups and you can even take alternative paths to find Proto Man, who’s standing near some helpful pick-ups. Finally, you must collect the WILY letters from the second set of stages to access Dr. Wily’s newest stronghold, and you’ll gain a brand-new Special Weapon, Ballade Cracker, which tosses an explosive in all directions and is very handy when escaping Dr. Wily’s exploding base and battling the mad scientist. Otherwise, Mega Man’s Special Weapons are the same as in Mega Man 4 and Mega Man 5: you douse flames and hit all enemies with Rain Flush, freeze enemies (and Pharaoh Man) in their tracks with Bright Flasher, fire diagonally or charge an overhead energy ball with Pharaoh Shot, and toss a quick returning Ring Boomerang. Defeating the second set of Robot Masters adds the slow, explosive Crystal Eye, the bouncy explosive Napalm Bomb, the twirling Power Stone, and the sliding Charge Kick to your arsenal. As ever, these Special Weapons are best saved for use against specific Robot Masters and bosses, but they’re also useful for attacking aerial or tougher enemies and destroying certain walls. Though Rush Marine isn’t present, you can jump to propeller platforms to cross spike beds and ride slow moving, insta-kill drills to cross gaps.

Mega Man IV does a commendable job of recreating the stages from its NES counterparts and features more story than of the previous handheld Mega Man games. Dr. Light appears, as do frequent text boxes, and big pixel art is the order of the day; you even get a quick demonstration of Mega Man’s new abilities and a new stage introduction. Unfortunately, slowdown and sprite flickering are still a problem, particularly when using the Power Stone. Enemies constantly respawn and bottomless pits and various spikes are everywhere, but Mega Man IV feels fairer than the last game. The perspective hasn’t changed and sprites, though detailed, are still too big (like some hit boxes), but the difficulty was way more accessible for me this time around. Many gimmicks from the console games are faithfully recreated here, such as the light gimmick from Bright Man’s stage (where you must destroy Dompans or activate switches to light up the area), the quicksand from Pharaoh Man’s stage, and the zipping platforms from Ring Man’s stage. Crystal Man’s stage is full of glittering crystalline trappings and spikes, Napalm Man’s stage features destructible blocks and collapsible walkways, and Charge Man’s stage again takes place in and on top of a train, with the screen juddering to simulate the train’s movement. Magnetic hazards await prior to Ballade and you’ll blast at missiles across the deck of Dr. Wily’s ship before venturing inside, where a very detailed mechanical hellscape awaits you. Mega Man IV really pushes the Game Boy to the limit, featuring blinking lights, numerous medium-to-large enemy sprites, and a far more detailed enemy roll call at the end that shows Mega Man battling each Robot Master. The sprite-based cutscenes are entertaining to see on the handheld and the larger pixel art is impressive, it’s just a shame the hardware is still struggling to render everything that’s happening. Luckily, the rewind and save state feature can help you out, and the game still includes a password feature (which has also received a new coat of paint).

There’s far greater enemy variety in Mega Man IV, which faithfully recreates some of Mega Man 4 and Mega Man 5’s most recognisable foes. Crystal and Gunner Joes will dog you, Mummira’s appear from hidden doors and toss their heads, Metall’s drive little choo-choos or split into miniature versions of themselves, and tiger-like Sumatran pounce at you. Coccos sit in place and spawn little chicks, bombs and rocks are tossed at you, and four familiar, giant mini bosses also return. The large snail Escaroo again tosses bombs and its vulnerable eyes at you, the hippo-like Kabatoncue stays high up out of reach and spits homing missiles (it’s best to use Pharaoh Shot rather than waste time bringing him to the ground), a giant Metall shoots at you from a massive cannon (easily destroyed by hopping on the gun barrel and blasting his eyes), and you’ll want to use Bright Flasher to expose Whopper’s weak spot. The Robot Masters are much easier in this game thanks to the arenas being a little bigger, meaning you’re less likely to take damage from their massive hit boxes. Charge Man was an exception as he was tricky to jump over, but guys like Toad Man and Pharaoh Man are a joke thanks to the former just hopping around and the latter being powerless against Bright Flasher. You’ll fight Ballade twice, with his second form being a bit tougher, but he’s a big target for your charged shot. Dr. Wily’s base is protected by a large energy cannon and mechanised bridge, with the latter firing some of the Robot Masters’ attacks, as well as eyeball-like drones and the traditional rematch against the eight Robot Masters. Dr. Wily attacks in a machine so vast it is the background; he’ll punch you or slam the ground, causing debris to fall, and fire a shot from his central core. Simply avoid these hazards and time your Power Stone to knock out this first stage, then his bird-like cockpit lowers and fires electrical blasts from its antenna. In this phase, you must toss Ballade Cracker into the mech’s mouth and unload with the Mega Buster when it tries to crush you. Finally, Dr. Wily pulls the old disappearing trick in his UFO but with a twist; he drops bombs that’ll destroy sections of the ground, and you’ll need to chase after him, relentlessly tossing the Ballade Cracker until he’s begging for mercy!

The Summary:
Well, it’s taken four games, but the developers finally brought something that closely mirrors Mega Man’s console outings to the Game Boy. Mega Man IV is a clear step up, visually, from its predecessors; the added focus on story and sprite- and pixel-based cutscenes alone speak to that. It’s also a lot bigger than its predecessors; the main content is about the same length, but the stages definitely feel longer and more challenging. Yet, the challenge is notably fairer than normal and the game’s way more forgiving than Mega Man III. I liked the little touches, like the recoil from Mega Man’s charged shot and the optional paths, which included cameos from Proto Man. While the developers haven’t played around with the format too much, the action was a lot smoother and less aggravating than before, with less cheap deaths and enemy and hazard placements, to the point where I was actually enjoying myself rather than tearing my hair out with the rewind function. It’s still a tough game and I still question how anyone completed it back in the day, but the margin for error is much wider this time around. This is best seen in the Robot Masters; while still big targets and difficult to avoid, I didn’t feel as much pressure to go in with full health and it felt satisfying offing them rather than a chore. The P-Chip system was a bit weird and unnecessary; Dr. Light doesn’t sell anything you can’t get with a bit of exploration ot pre-boss grinding and the mechanic just reduces the drop rate of health and energy. Like, why not purchase Proto Man’s shield or a passive item that instantly respawned you when you fall down a pit, or a rapid-fire power-up? Similarly, it’s a shame Rush was sidelined and that the Ballade Cracker was little more than a secondary explosive. Still, I liked the sidescrolling chaser sections where you have to outrun the exploding environment and the faithful recreation of some of Mega Man 4 and Mega Man 5’s more recognisable enemies and mechanics. It was still a short, shallow, and tricky experience, but Mega Man IV is much closer to the level of quality I’d expect from the series and therefore where your handheld Mega Man journey should start, in my opinion.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Was Mega Man IV a part of your Game Boy library growing up? Do you agree that it’s one of the better portable Mega Man adventures? Were you disappointed by the Ballade Cracker? Did you ever collect all the letters and utilize Beat? Which Robot Master was your favourite to fight? Do you have a favourite portable Mega Man game? How are you celebrating the science-fiction genre this month? Whatever opinions on Mega Man IV, leave them below and be sure to check out my other Mega Man reviews!

January celebrates two notable dates in science-fiction history, “National Science Fiction Day” on January 2 and Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000’s birthday on January 12. Accordingly, I’m dedicating January to celebrating sci-fi with an event I call “Sci-Fanuary”.

Released: 7 June 2024
Originally Released: 11 December 1992
Developer: Minakuchi Engineering
Also Available For: Game Boy and Nintendo 3DS

A Brief Background:
Mega Man (Capcom, 1987) successfully saw Capcom graduate to the growing home console market and. by 1992, the Blue Bomber was a Nintendo staple thanks, in part, to the challenge offered by his titles. In 1991, Capcom outsourced the development of Mega Man’s Game Boy debut to Minakuchi Engineering, resulting in the highly regarded Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge. Though it borrowed elements from Mega Man’s main console outings, the portable adventure was followed by a 1991 sequel so divisive even series artist Keiji Inafune allegedly believed the inexperience of developers Thinking Rabbit was to blame. Thus, Capcom reunited with Minakuchi Engineering for a third handheld title, one that was noted to have produced something much more akin to the mainline games. In keeping with its predecessors, reviews are somewhat mixed (despite notable improvements), especially concerning the limitations of the hardware and the recycling of elements over creating something truly unique to the series. While a collection of the Blue Bomber’s portable adventures was cancelled, Mega Man games continued to appear on the Game Boy and were later ported to Nintendo’s online shops and services.

The Review:
Mega Man III takes its inspirations from Mega Man 3 (Capcom, 1990) and Mega Man 4 (ibid, 1994), maintaining many of the same gameplay mechanics as the previous two handheld adventures and deviating very little from the established formula. When you first start the game, you must battle past four stages and defeat the Robot Masters waiting at the end. As you’d expect from a Mega Man title, each Robot Master has a specific weakness so it’s best to tackle them in a certain order. I’d recommend this more than usual because Mega Man III is particularly unforgiving, even for a Mega Man game. The restricted screen space of the Game Boy and the large sprites and hit boxes remain a constant headache, but I also found the game to be full of far more insta-kill hazards (bottomless pits and various spikes) than usual, and that enemies were far less likely to drop health and weapon power-ups. By default, Mega Man is armed with his signature arm cannon, which you fire with B or X. For the first time in the handheld series, you can charge up a shot by holding either of these buttons and this is far more useful here for cutting through the constantly respawning enemies. B lets you jump and pressing down and B lets you slide under enemies and projectiles (a feat trickier than it sounds thanks to their large hit boxes), through tunnels, and under ceiling spikes. You can replay any stage until you reach Doctor Albert Wily’s new sea fortress and the game comes with the usual password feature, though the Nintendo Switch’s save states and rewind features make this redundant. They were, however, far more essential here than usual as the game is littered with enemies and hazards, with airborne robots, projectiles, and temporary platforms screwing up your jumps and dropping you to your doom.

Players of Mega Man 3 and Mega Man 4 will instantly recognise the stages on offer here, and Mega Man III does a commendable job of recreating its 8-bit counterparts. One positive I can definitely say is that the developers were becoming more familiar with the Game Boy’s limited hardware and adding more depth and detail to the backgrounds and foregrounds. Snake Man’s stage, for example, boasts rippling snake platforms and fireball-spitting turrets; Gemini Man’s stage features a catchy tune and a beautiful crystalline aesthetic; and Shadow Man’s stage begins set before a rushing waterfall. Each Robot Master is fought in a claustrophobic, enclosed arena that makes it near-impossible to avoid taking damage. Thus, it’s recommended you “farm” nearby enemies to bump up your health and weapon energy. Each one drops a Special Weapon that’ll defeat another, and they all function exactly as in their home console counterparts. The Search Snake sends little snakes slithering across the floor and up walls, the Gemini Laser ricochets about, the Shadow Blade can be directed, and the Spark Shot fires a powerful electrical blast. Battling the Robot Masters is compounded by the atrocious slowdown and sprite flickering at work here that crops up in stages with larger enemies, such as Jumbigs, Pickelman Dadas, and frustrating Skeleton Joes (who reassemble far too quickly for my liking). As before, besting the first four Robot Masters sees you taking on four additional ones in four more stages. You’ll battle through Dust Man’s junkyard, avoiding being sucked up by him, and acquire his slow but explosive Dust Crusher, navigate Skull Man’s boneyard stage and hop around his Skull Barrier to gain a temporary shield, test your platforming skills in Dive Man’s flooded damn and grab his useful homing Dive Missiles, and blast through Drill Man’s mine to fire the Drill Bomb, which can also be remote detonated.

Dr. Wily’s personal defences are somewhat lacking this time around; you’ll battle the Giant Suzy twice, a fight I found extremely aggravating thanks to being stuck in a narrow corridor and the erratic robot attacking at random each time I rewound. Dr. Wily puts a lot of faith in his new “Mega Man Killer”, Punk, who makes a dramatic entrance and attacks by spinning at you like a buzzsaw and firing similarly themed projectiles. He’s not too tricky but also varies his high and low attacks, making him an unpredictable foe who I’m not how you’d defeat with the rewind feature. Dr. Wily attacks in a ridiculously large machine that hops about and fires diagonal missiles in its first phase. Thankfully, you can avoid damage completely by staying at the far left of the screen, but it can only be damaged with a well-timed, fully charged blast of your Mega Buster to its pupils (not the eyes; the pupils!) In its second phase, it stays still and spits out bouncy spheres at reflect your attacks. You must position yourself between them and chuck the Screw Crusher at the cockpit to reduce Dr. Wily to tears and destroy his base. Stages are the usual affair here, featuring many repurposed gimmicks such as ladders (with and without damaging clamps), vertical shafts (with and without spikes), lightbulbs that must be destroyed to light up dark areas, disappearing and reappearing blocks, long gaps that must either by leapt across or crossed using Rush Jet, higher areas you can only reach with Rush Coil, and a tense gimmick where the ceiling tries to crush you and you must blast blocks to reach safety. Dive Man’s stage was a standout for me thanks to the large Moby enemies and the rising/falling water gimmick recreated from Mega Man 4. Skull Man’s stage was also great because of the giant bones and skull theming, and I especially liked the swaying trees in Snake Man’s stage. Unfortunately, Mega Man III had a hell of a sharp difficulty curve, with some stages assaulting you with offscreen enemies right at the start. Tricky jumps, timed explosive platforms, and Hammer Joes were all placed in the worst locations and the margin for error is so frustratingly low thanks to the tiny screen size and the ridiculously large sprites (as impressive as they are).

The Summary:
I’m not against a challenge as long as it’s fair and fun. In this day and age, with quality-of-life features like save states and rewinds, it seems hypocritical to complain about a game’s difficulty. But Mega Man III is quite possibly one of the cheapest games I’ve ever played. It’s easily up there as one of the hardest Mega Man games I’ve experienced, and not in a fun way. The number of times I had to rewind or reload a save state tells me that I probably wouldn’t even clear a single stage if I was playing “legitimately”. Three games into the Blue Bomber’s portable career and the developers still haven’t figured out to just zoom out a bit, or reduce the size of their fun, expressive sprites. Sure, they’re way more detailed and impressive than the home console sprites, but they take up far too much screen space. It was almost impossible to avoid taking damage, especially with the brutal slowdown and sprite flickering slowing the game to a snail’s pace. Enemies respawn way too quickly, flying and jumping at you in the smallest of spaces and eating away your health in the blink of an eye. Sure, you can find the odd E-Tank to refill it, but that’s not going to help you when a couple of enemies appear at just the right position to batter you into an explosion of pixels. The Special Weapons were more useless than ever; considering their energy drains so quickly, you don’t want to waste them on anything but the Robot Masters so you’re stuck charging your Mega Buster. The Robot Masters were more unfair than ever, clogging up the screen and peppering you with their signature shots; Gemini Man was the worst thanks to him duplicating, firing a regular shot, and bouncing his Gemini Laser around. The Game Boy just couldn’t handle all that and your movements and attacks so the battle was an aggravating one. Sure, the sprite art in the ending and between stages is impressive, as is the soundtrack and the impressive recreation of the home console games. But the Game Boy just can’t handle everything happening onscreen and Mega Man III suffers because of it. The difficulty spike is immediate no matter which stage you pick and playing this game was a chore as a result, making it one of my worst experiences with the franchise so far.

My Rating:

Could Be Better

Did you find Mega Man III a challenge and a half? Do you think the Game Boy’s screen size was too small for the action? Were you disappointed by the lack of other bosses? What did you think to Punk and Dr. Wily’s obnoxiously large final machine? Which of Mega Man’s handheld games is your favourite? How are you celebrating the science-fiction genre this month? Whatever your thoughts on Mega Man III, share them below and be sure to check out my other Mega Man reviews!

January celebrates two notable dates in science-fiction history, “National Science Fiction Day” on January 2 and Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000’s birthday on January 12. Accordingly, I’m dedicating January to celebrating sci-fi in an event I call “Sci-Fanuary”.

Released: 7 June 2024
Originally Released: 20 December 1991
Developer: Thinking Rabbit
Also Available For: Game Boy, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Wii U

A Brief Background:
Capcom developed Mega Man (Capcom, 1987) to establish their name in the renewed home console market, landing themselves a popular franchise known for its excessive difficulty. By 1991, Mega Man was a staple of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) thanks to its many sequels and, with the developers busy with Mega Man 4 (1994), Capcom outsourced Mega Man’s first Game Boy title and earned themselves another well regarded success despite Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge (Minakuchi Engineering, 1991) recycling many elements from Mega Man’s NES titles. Capcom then doubled down and outsourced the franchise to another developer to release a second Game Boy title later that same year, a decision series artist Keiji Inafune apparently believed caused Mega Man II to differ somewhat from other games in the series. Despite a later compilation of Mega Man’s Game Boy adventures being cancelled, this lukewarm remix of a game represented another of the Blue Bomber’s lengthy outings on the Game Boy and has subsequently been ported to Nintendo’s online shops and services.

The Review:
It’s interesting learning that Keiji Inafune believed Thinking Rabbit’s inexperience with the franchise led to Mega Man II feeling “different” from the other Mega Man titles as, for me, the game plays, looks, sounds, and feels exactly like a Mega Man game and is as different from Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge as Mega Man 3 (Capcom, 1990) is to Mega Man 2 (ibid, 1988). For example, Mega Man II is still a 2D, sidescrolling action/platformer; players can still pick one of four initial stages; and you’ll face a Robot Master (recycled from Mega Man 2) to acquire their signature Special Weapon. Not only that but the game’s controls are exactly the same as those of Dr. Wily’s Revenge, with A allowing you to jump, B or X firing your currently equipped weapon, and + bringing up the pause menu where you can equip a different Special Weapon or use an E-Tank (making their Game Boy debut) to restore your health. Health is again restored by picking up or finding restorative orbs, extra lives are gained from 1-Ups, and your Special Weapons can be recharged by collecting Weapon Energy pods. In addition to Mega Man 3’s password system also returning, Mega Man can now slide through narrow tunnels, beneath enemies and projectiles, and through gaps by pressing down and A. As in Mega Man 3, this feature is useful only in certain stages and circumstances and not explored much beyond taking different forks in paths or perhaps reaching hidden goodies. The same is true of certain ladders, which lead to power-ups or hazards depending on which path you take, though your slides often have to factor in drills, spikes, and potential pitfalls. As ever, you can circumvent much of the game’s difficulty with the Nintendo Switch’s rewind and save state features, though you still have to battle the knockback and large hit boxes that dogged Dr. Wily’s Revenge.

Anyone who’s played Mega Man 2 will recognise the four initial Robot Masters, their stages, their attack patterns, and their Special Weapons and battling them is no different to that game except the arena and screen is much smaller so it’s a lot harder to dodge their attacks. As always, you’re better off tackling each in a specific order to obliterate them with whichever Special Weapon is most effective against them, meaning I tackled Metal Man first to grab his Metal Blade, which cut down Wood Man despite his large Leaf Shield and leaf barrage, which in turn clogged up Air Man (despite his mini tornados filling the arena), which of course gave me the edge over “Clash Man”. This latter was probably the toughest fight as “Clash Man” doesn’t just jump around and damage you with his giant hit box like the others; he also drops a delayed explosive charge that can be tricky to dodge. Defeating Metal Man, Air Man, and “Clash Man” awards the three Rush “items” that debuted in Mega Man 2. These allow you to spring up to higher platforms, fly over bottomless spits or spike beds, or easily cut through underwater areas with Mega Man’s robotic canine, Rush. While these turn the game into a short sidescrolling shooter, you must keep an eye on your energy meter or you’re like to be sent plummeting mid-flight. After besting the first four stages, you’re transported to four more levels from Doctor Albert Wily’s space station, with these themed around stages and bosses from Mega Man 3. You’ll face Needle Man, Magnet Man, Hard Man, and Top Man, with each being exactly the same as in their NES title and bestowing the same Special Weapons (which, honestly, I only found useful for defeating their counterparts). Finally, you’ll battle Quint, an upgraded and corrupted future version of Mega Man who bounces around on Sakugarne, a pogo-stick-like item that is surprisingly useful against the final boss.

The difference between Dr. Wily’s Revenge and Mega Man II isn’t readily apparent from the title screen alone, despite the noticeably jauntier music, but does become more obvious once you get into the game. Stages are longer and far more detailed, with gears, cogs, and a mess of drill-like platforms adorning Metal Man’s stage (alongside those conveyer belt-like platforms from Mega Man 2). Wood Man’s stage features a surprisingly detailed forest and tree trunk interior, Air Man’s stage is in the clouds and features girders and Mega Man 2’s “Goblin” platforms, and “Clash Man” resides in an ugly mess of pipes. As in the last game, Mega Man flies into space to confront Dr. Wily, though there’s now an additional cutscene where he drops you into a trap and you’re teleported to four additional stages rather than battling through different levels of Dr. Wily’s base. Needle Man’s stage has a large city in the background and essentially takes place on a construction site, while Magnet Man’s is also in the sky, with clouds obscuring enemies and you crossing gaps using the Mag Fly enemies. Hard Man’s stage is much more basic, being simple steel platforms and a plain background, while Top Man’s reminded me of a botanical garden with its glass tubes containing leaves. This latter stage, and Wood Man’s, contain underwater sections where you’re better off using Rush Marine than risk the floaty jumps. Disappearing/reappearing platforms make a return, as do insta-kill spikes, and you’ll be taking out Kaminari Goros to ride their cloud platforms across gaps. Large vertical shafts, different ladder designs (now with transparency), cannons, blind drops, and those rail-based platforms from Mega Man 2 all make appearances. When you explore Dr. Wily’s base, it sports a bizarre clock aesthetic and multiple narrow shafts and tunnels, while the ending cutscene again mirrors Dr. Wily’s Revenge by being in space and featuring a roll call of the game’s bad guys. Speaking of which, Mega Man II features far more enemy variety, recycling baddies from Mega Man 2 and 3 but I’ll take that over the handful of lame enemies seen in Dr. Wily’s Revenge.

While Mega Man II performs much better than its predecessor and sports a greater number of large enemy sprites, there are still many moments where the game suffers from slowdown, screen tearing, and sprite flickering. It feels like a far bigger game thanks to you being transported to additional stages rather than straight to boss battles in Dr. Wily’s space station, though it still suffers from a lack of originality in its level design and a failure to better incorporate the various Special Weapons into each stage beyond using Rush Marine or Rush Jet to bypass certain obstacles. Drills, clamps, respawning enemies, rushing robot chickens, mechanical apes, and robots with fans in them dog your progress as much as totem poles, robotic birds, and giant mechanical cats. Bola-throwing Joes, spiked hedgehogs, and large spiked weights all make appearances alongside the usual bottomless pits, with some enemies positioned in ways that require your Special Weapons (though you’ll need all your energy for the Robot Masters). This game’s newest “Mega Man Killer” is Quint, but he’s a pretty lame penultimate boss despite his lack of a health bar. You simply slide under his pogo jump, watch for the rocks he kicks up, and blast him in the head. His Sakugarne is pretty difficult to control, but you can use it to land a lot of hits on Dr. Wily in the final confrontation, since his only weak spot is his cockpit. Dr. Wily battles you in three craft, flying between them in his little UFO vehicle, with the first being a mech walker that fires bouncy bombs and a low needle shot. Defeating that sees him switch to a tank-like vehicle and gain a cannon shot, while the third phase has him in a stationary dragon-like mech that drops missiles, rains enemy robots onto you, and tries to smash you with its extendable skull. If you’ve collected a bunch of E-Tanks, these battles are tough but mostly do-able. It helps that there’s not loads of projectiles and slowdown to deal with, though the rewind feature is obviously your saving grace.

The Summary:
Mega Man II represents a bit of a step up from Dr. Wily’s Revenge, but not much. It’s literally the same as the differences between Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3, with Mega Man II adding only one brand new weapon to your arsenal (the Sakugarne), though it does recycle Special Weapons and the Rush abilities from those two NES titles. Sadly, they’re not utilised all that much; again, I can forgive this given the restrictions and limited hardware of the Game Boy, but it would still be nice if the game had found some way to incorporate Rush more prominently. Although the Game Boy still struggles to render all the action, Mega Man II performs far better than its predecessor, is much bigger, and features far more detailed environments. Some of them might be an eyesore but it’s still impressive given the hardware, and I always enjoy seeing it render large enemy sprites (even if they are immobile). The enemy variety was also much appreciated and a big step up from the last game, even if they are all recycled, and the music was pretty catchy, too. The hit boxes remain a frustrating obstacle, but Mega Man II seemed more forgiving in this regard, though more challenging overall with its longer stages, greater hazards, and the inclusion of four additional stages prior to the additional Robot Masters. In many ways, it’s simply a repeat of the last game but with more to look at and accomplish, which is enough to bump the score up ever-so-slightly, but there’s still a lot of room for improvement for it to match-up to its NES counterparts.  

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Did you own Mega Man II back in the day? How do you feel it compares to Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge? Which order did you challenge the Robot Masters? Were you disappointed by Quint? What did you think to the inclusion of four additional stages in Dr. Wily’s space station? Which portable Mega Man game is your favourite? How are you celebrating the science-fiction genre this month? Whatever opinions on Mega Man II, leave them below and be sure to check out my other Mega Man reviews!

January celebrates two notable dates in science-fiction history, “National Science Fiction Day” on January 2 and Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000’s birthday on January 12. Accordingly, I’m dedicating January to celebrating sci-fi in an event I call “Sci-Fanuary”.

Released: 7 June 2024
Originally Released: 26 July 1991
Developer: Minakuchi Engineering
Also Available For: Game Boy, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Wii U

A Brief Background:
Mega Man (Capcom, 1987) represented Capcom’s bid to make their big debut in the growing home console market. Known as “Rockman” in Japan, Mega Man was a big hit despite its excessive difficulty and, by 1991, the Blue Bomber had (eventually) become a Nintendo staple with a handful of sequels. While Capcom were busy working on Mega Man 4 (1994) for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), they outsourced the development of Mega Man’s Game Boy debut to Minakuchi Engineering, though long-time series artist and producer Keiji Inafune contributed by designing the newest Robot Master, Enker. Though limited by the Game Boy hardware, Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge was highly regarded at the time. Reviews praised its faithful recreation of the NES gameplay, though its difficulty and recycling of previous elements was criticised. Although a compilation of Mega Man’s subsequent Game Boy adventures was cancelled, the Blue Bomber had a healthy career on the Game Boy and his handheld adventures were later ported to Nintendo’s online shops and services.

The Review:
Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge is a 2D, sidescrolling action/platformer in which players control the fighting robot Mega Man and run-and-gun their way across four initial stages, each themed around a returning Robot Master from Mega Man. Being a Game Boy title, the controls are as simple as you would expect: you control Mega Man with the directional pad, jump with A, and fire his currently equipped weapon with either X or B. You can pause the game and select a Special Weapon using the + button, though the Special Weapons Mega Man obtains drain an energy meter, which must be refilled by collecting Weapon Energy pods that are either dropped by the constantly respawning enemies or found in each stage. You can also find the odd 1-Up for an extra life and refills for your health bar, both of which are sorely needed as Dr. Wily’s Revenge is one challenging game. While Mega Man can take a fair few hits, hit boxes are large thanks to the Game Boy’s small screen and the surprisingly big sprites. Mega Man also gets knocked back when hit and you’ll constantly have to watch for insta-kill hazards like spikes, lava, and bottomless pits. Thankfully, the password system introduced in Mega Man 3 (Capcom, 1990) appears here and you can abuse the Nintendo Switch’s save state and rewind feature to your heart’s content, though it’s sometimes easier to lose a life and respawn from a checkpoint with full health than risk battling a boss with critically low health.

If you’ve played the original Mega Man, you’ll be very familiar with the Special Weapons on offer here. You’ll get the Thunder Beam, Ice Slasher, Fire Storm, and Rolling Cutter from the four primary Robot Masters, with the Thunder Beam firing horizontally and vertically, Ice Slasher firing frigid arrows that temporarily freeze enemies, Fire Storm blasting a fireball and creating a brief shield, and the Rolling Cutter tossing a boomerang-like projectile. You can challenge the four Robot Masters in any order but, as each has a specific weakness, it’s better to go after them with the right Special Weapon on hand as you’re stuck in a claustrophobic arena and dodging their attacks is incredibly difficult thanks to those big hit boxes. Once you’ve gotten the fourth Special Weapon, you’ll also get the “Carry” weapon, which creates a temporary floating platform and is key to reach out of the way areas or crossing spike beds or bottomless pits. When battling through Dr. Wily’s fortress, you’ll encounter four Robot Masters lifted from Mega Man 2 (Capcom, 1988) and gain four additional Special Weapons that again function exactly the same as before. The Time Stopper freezes all enemies until your meter drains and leaves you unable to attack, the Quick Boomerang tosses a few small boomerangs in quick succession, the Bubble Lead fires slow but powerful bubbles, and the Atomic Fire shoots flaming spheres that you can charge by holding X or B. Finally, defeating Enker earns you the Mirror Buster, which reflects projectiles if and when you can get the timing right. There is no slide ability here, no Rush, and very few opportunities to use your weapons in stages beyond using the Atomic Fire to destroy optional blocks in Dr. Wily’s stages.

Despite being a Game Boy title and thus devoid of any colour, Dr. Wily’s Revenge surprised me in how detailed it is. There’s no intro or story to speak of, but the title screen is surprisingly vivid and all the sprites are big and cartoonish. Mega Man even blinks when left idle and the backgrounds are surprisingly not just plain voids, with you scrambling around on rooftops against a backdrop of clouds at times. You’ll clamber up ladders (sadly lacking transparency), hop to moving or temporary platforms, and dodge hazards such as blowing fans, electrical currents, plumes of fire, and the ever-annoying spikes. Each stage gives a sense of a theme, with Elec Man’s stage kind of being like a power plant, Ice Man’s being covered in snow that slows your movements and ice that sends you skidding to your doom, Fire Man’s stage featuring wooden ladders and rivers of flashing lava, and Cut Man’s stage being packed with girders and little buzzsaw enemies. Enemy variety is a little lacking; Metall and Sniper Joe are here, alongside little propeller enemies, loads of lame +-shaped robots, sentient scissor blades, and little birds that drop eggs full of smaller minions. Larger enemies like the Big Eyes and Hotheads act like mini bosses, slowing the action to a crawl and causing the sprites to flicker and the engine to struggle to render everything onscreen, and you must blast the Lightning Lords to ride their cloud mounts through the skies of Elec Man’s stage. Enemies respawn and can be “farmed” for goodies, but some (looking at you, Big Eye) are difficult to defeat without expending your Special Weapon energy. You’ll want to be fully powered up when you tackle the Robot Masters as, again, the game slows to a crawl once they start jumping or flying about and firing their projectiles, and the hit boxes are so big that it’s almost impossible to defeat them without taking at least a little damage, even with the right Special Weapon equipped.

Visually, the game does a decent job of recreating its NES counterparts. Sure, stages aren’t as colourful or varied and Mega Man’s sprite doesn’t change when he has Special Weapons equipped, but the same vertical shafts are here, many of the same gimmicks and mechanics are present, and the music holds up just as well as Mega Man 2’s. Larger sprite art is used to show Mega Man’s arsenal being upgraded, in-game graphics recreate Dr. Wily’s escape to his fortress and his humiliating defeat, and we still get a fun roll call during the credits. Naturally, beating the four stages isn’t enough and you’ll need to fight your way through Dr. Wily’s fortress, a mish-mash of every enemy, hazard, and gimmick seen before, including ice blocks that melt when you stand on them, flame bursts across the ground, and tricky platforming sessions (though now against the fun background of a space station!) Some of these hazards are used in tandem, such as fans pushing you back as you hop to platforms over a spike pit, or electrical bursts appearing in spiked shafts, or forcing you into shoot-outs with Sniper Joe on precarious platforms. After besting Enker (who can absorb and redirect your shots but its otherwise pretty easy to beat; literally just keep shooting and dodging), you’ll take on Dr. Wily’s newest death machine. This large, bird-like mech is completely stationary but initially spits buzzsaws that you must jump over or run under to attack with the Fire Storm. The second phase is much harder as Dr. Wily fires a semi-homing claw appendage and super-fast high and low projectiles. You need to find the space to avoid taking damage and use frame-perfect timing to reflect his shots with the Mirror Buster to win the day here, which can be very frustrating since everything is so hard to avoid given the restricted screen space.

The Summary:
I was surprised by Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge. Given the restrictions and limited hardware of the Game Boy, I didn’t expect the game to look or sound as good as it did. The sprites and environments are nice and chunky and detailed, technically surpassing the first two NES titles in many ways, and the game does a great job of recreating the gameplay and gimmicks of its home console cousins. Mega Man controls exactly as I’d expect and the gameplay loop is the same, but distilled into a portable package. Yet, I give the game props for having you face different Robot Masters in the endgame rather than simply repeating the previous four boss battles. Unfortunately, the limitations do hold this game back. Screens are largely empty, with only a handful of sprites and hazards seen at any one time, because the Game Boy just cannot render it all. This leads to some of the worst slow down and screen tearing I’ve ever seen as sprites fade out of existence and the game struggles to chug along. I can somewhat forgive the recycling of elements from Mega Man and Mega Man 2 and commend the developers for recontextualising them in a new adventure but, at the same time, why not just port the first two games since you’re not doing anything really new with the concept? The game is also atrociously difficult, and not just because the hit boxes are so large. I have no idea how anyone beat this back in the day without rewind and save states because it was pretty tough to beat even with those features. Unfair and needlessly difficult at times thanks to the hardware limitations, Dr. Wily’s Revenge is a fair crack at offering a portable Mega Man adventure but ultimately has too much working against it to be as enjoyable as I’d like.

My Rating:

Could Be Better

Was Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge in your Game Boy library back in the day or did you first play it on Nintendo Switch? Which order did you tackle the game’s Robot Masters? Were you disappointed that the bosses and Special Weapons were recycled from the NES games? What did you think to the difficulty of the game? Which portable Mega Man game is your favourite? How are you celebrating all things science-fiction this month? Whatever your thoughts and memories of Mega Man, feel free to leave them below and go check out my other Mega Man reviews!