Mega Man's debut handheld adventure. Is it anywhere near as good as its console counterparts?

Back when the Mega Man franchise started with the release of the NES game, Capcom never thought it would do well - the first game was expected to bomb horribly, as almost nobody at Capcom thought people would like it. Fast forward to today, and Mega Man has become one of Capcom's biggest franchises, with multiple new releases each year which all sell pretty well.

In 1990, Mega Man 3 on the NES was released in Japan; as the previous two games had all enjoyed great success, Capcom looked into expanding the series to other platforms as well. The most logical choice was, of course, the Game Boy.

Apparently not very keen on trying to change up the gameplay formula, it's pretty much like the first NES game. You battle through four stages, defeating four familiar Robot Masters (Cut Man, Elec Man, Ice Man and Fire Man) at the end of each one. From each Robot Master you'll receive a special weapon which you can then use in the remaining stages, and also forms the weakness of another Robot Master.

After all four stages have been cleared, you go to Dr. Wily's fortress, which only consists of a meagre two stages this time around. At the end of the first, you won't rebattle the four Robot Masters you just beat. Instead - surprise! - you'll fight four from Mega Man 2, namely Quick Man, Bubble Man, Flash Man and Heat Man, after which you'll fight a completely new boss. At the end of the second and final Wily stage, you'll have to deal with the evil genius himself.

The first thing you'll notice when you start the game is that the sprites in the game are enormous - Mega Man is huge and his enemies aren't exactly small either. Although not game-breaking, this does lead to some very annoying situations; the sheer size of the characters means it's sometimes very hard, or in some cases even impossible, for Mega Man to dodge an attack. The Robot Masters are, of course, the same size as Mega Man, so you better make sure every shot you fire at them counts, because there's no way to avoid bumping into them constantly, and they'll kill you fast.

The stages themselves are completely new: some elements from their NES counterparts (Including everybody's favourite disappearing blocks) are still there, but for the most part the layouts are totally different. For example, Cut Man's stage no longer takes place outside, but rather inside some sort of factory, with a ton of conveyor belts. Mega Man 2 elements can be found in all six stages, to make up for the fact that none of the four Robot Masters from Mega Man 2 has their own stage!

The game's graphics are fairly decent for a Game Boy game, looking pretty much exactly the same as their NES counterparts. The only real flaw with them is that they just seem to be too big for the Game Boy's small screen! The music in the first four stages, as you might expect, tries its best to sound like the matching themes in the NES game, but the melodies have changed slightly and the Game Boy sound chip makes them sound far less impressive. The Wily stages, however, have two completely new songs which actually sound pretty good!

Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge is a decent first attempt at a handheld Mega Man game. It's fairly fun, but for some reason, you'll just have this feeling you're playing a watered down version of the NES games, which will end up making you want to play them instead. The game's over in a flash - with just six stages, it's shorter than every other game in the entire franchise. Thankfully, Capcom noticed this and kept it in mind for the remaining four Game Boy Mega Man games, each of which has ten or more stages instead. Capcom also made those four games much more optimized for the Game Boy, and as such, they're all better picks than this first one.