TMMN Reviews: Mega Man: The Wily Wars Collector’s Edition by Retro-Bit

This has been a long time coming… and I don’t just mean this review. (Sorry about that, by the way — I’ve been preoccupied with a project that I hope to be able to share soon!)

It’s been over two years since Retro-Bit announced that for the first time ever, Mega Man: The Wily Wars would be getting a genuine, working physical release on a cartridge for the SEGA Genesis 16-Bit Video Entertainment System in North America. Prior to this, playing the fully-functional game was only possible through 2019’s SEGA Genesis Mini console (its first fully-working legitimate release in North America since appearing on the SEGA Channel back in late 1994) or through emulation.

That said, Retro-Bit’s offering is as much a collectible as it is a legitimate way to play the game (more on that in a bit). As such, for this review, I’m not looking at the game itself — if you want to know what I think about that, then be sure to check out the review I wrote for Mega Visions magazine to celebrate the game’s 25th anniversary a few years ago.

No, for this, we’re looking purely at the quality of the rest of the package. Yes, the review is a bit late, but on the other hand, you’re not buying this direct from the manufacturer, anyway. You’re either like me and pre-ordered it blind some time before it made its way into your hands, or you’re looking into the aftermarket.

So, without further ado, let’s get to it!

Quarter included for scale blatantly ripped off from Brand Eating.

Once you’ve ripped the cardboard shipping container which delivered this bounty unto you asunder, you’re greeted with your plastic bag-encased package. Or rather, packages, as the pack of bonus collectors cards don’t really fit into the box proper so well. Given that, let’s take a look at these first:

The nine character cards come in a two-part cardboard sleeve with a lid, and feature Mega Man, Proto Man, Metal Man, Elec Man, Cut Man, Snake Man, Guts Man, Shadow Man, and Air Man. Each sports their art from the original releases of the three games featured in The Wily Wars on the front, with their names above and a 16-bit pixel art rendition in the upper-right corner, with Capcom and the game’s logos at the bottom. On the back side, you get their names and serial numbers at the top, a mugshot of the front art, a different 16-bit pixel art rendition from The Wily Wars, a brief bio and strategies for how to deal with them, and some statistics at the top which measure their power, agility, speed, stamina, and difficulty.

While most of the information provided may not be new to dyed-in-the-wool Mega Man fans (no, that was not a Sheep Man joke, and yes, if you understood that, I’m talking about you), the presentation here has a certain charm about it — particularly if you were a fan of Transformers in the ’80s and ’90s and collected the many tech specs for the myriad toys in the line. If you have a soft spot for those olden days, then these cards feel like a nice throwback to that.

Their quality isn’t bad, either. I wouldn’t go around using them to do my best Spider impression, but they aren’t particularly cheap or flimsy, either, and should stand up well to some light and careful handling.

Next, we have the box. Or rather, the outer box. But more accurately than that, there’s a shell for the outer box, too. It features a blue outline of Mega Man, half normal and half schematic, which wraps around the corner of the box. The back features a label showing everything you get with this package (handy, in case you separate everything out and should lose track), and a neat little Mega Man sticker to seal the deal. I didn’t want to break the sticker, so I opened mine from the bottom.

Peel back this layer of the Tornado Tonion, and we see:

The next box!

This portion of the packaging features the lenticular (read: you turn it different ways to see different pictures. Please note that it can be kind of tricky to photograph these) image of Mega Man on the front, a picture of his helmet and Mega Buster on the back, and a selection of 16-bit pixel art for almost every major character in the package.

What’s neat here is that the lenticular image of Mega Man can be swapped out for one of four others: Proto Man, Cut Man, Elec Man, and Metal Man. Check ’em out:

It would have been neat if they’d had one Robot Master from each game instead of doubling down on the first, but maybe that’s what Proto Man is for. I suppose if one desired, they could flip any one of them over to the back to display the Wily Wars logo against a dark background, framed by the white box’s borders, but that would seem kind of redundant.

Open this box up, and you’re treated to a box molded to resemble a vintage SEGA Genesis plastic clamshell case, the kind they used before switching to cardboard towards the end of the system’s life (and likely what the game would have been released in had it made it to retail — one time it’s better to not be 100 percent accurate here), as well as a double-sided poster.

On one side of the 16″ x 12″ poster, you get the original artwork for the Japanese and European releases of the game from back in the day. On the other, you get… a group shot from the Mega Man 3 manual, set in front of the Skull Castle from Mega Man 2. It turns out this reflects the reversible cover for the Genesis box (whose other side I forgot to photograph).

On the one hand, it would have been nice to maybe have the original solicited box art for the North American release from way back in the day, to kind of complete that feeling of adding a long-missing item to your collection. On the other, maybe they felt that the original box art wasn’t as appealing? But then again, isn’t that the point of a reversible cover? So that if you don’t like one option, you’ve got another?

As for the box itself, it’s very tight and sturdy. I’ve got actual vintage Genesis cases that don’t feel this secure. And there’s even a hang tab, if that’s your thing! The spine is pretty clean, with the Wily Wars, Capcom, and Retro-Bit logos spread against the black grid background which adorned so many a Genesis box back in the day. The back shatters the illusion a bit, using art of Mega Man and Rush from Rockman Complete Works and Dr. Wily from, of all things, Mega Man 11. For what it’s worth, I don’t know that an image of the planned back of the box has ever been seen, but the sudden shift from vintage artwork of the era to more contemporary material is a bit jarring. Not really a deal-breaker, but just surprising to see, as pretty much everything up to this point has been faithfully retro.

On that note, we might as well address an elephant some of you might not have even been aware was in the room. Conspicuous by its absence is SEGA’s logo anywhere on the product. While this is an official Capcom product, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s an official SEGA product. Perhaps at some point, when they figured they couldn’t keep the illusion up all the way, they relaxed some of the other stuff?

Moving right along…

Inside the case, we’ve got even more goodies!

First, there’s a full-color instruction manual for the game. What’s more, it’s in both English and Japanese! Again, the quality on this is not only good and solid, but might even be better than what you would have gotten from an authentic release back in the day, as a lot of SEGA’s manuals went to cheaper paper and in black and white, at that!

Also included inside is an envelope, containing a bonafide, genuine Certificate of Authenticity! It’s a neat little added flourish which tells you which number in the print run you managed to land. Looks like I wound up in the northern part of the production, so it’s a good thing I got in when I did!

In addition, there’s a book of stickers that just will not stay open for a photograph. Sorry, I love you all, but clearly not enough to bend my Wookie. Here’s the official image to give you a better idea:

It presents quite the classic conundrum, this does: do you use the stickers for their intended purpose, thus devaluing the entire package as a collectible? Or do you apply them all over the case of the laptop you’re going to have to replace in a few years anyway? It’s like deciding whether to start with Flash Man or Metal Man. Sure, Flash Man is easier, but — wait, that’s hardly a decision at all, the Metal Blades rip apart everything!

Look, I’m sure I had a point there. Just nod like you understood it, and we’ll move on.

Finally, we have the game cartridge itself.

In case you were wondering, I simply couldn’t get a good angle of the top of the cartridge on my own, so I summoned Soundwave for Operation: Prop Holder.

Unlike most Genesis cartridges, Mega Man: The Wily Wars does not come in black, but a cool deep translucent blue, complete with sparkles flecked throughout. It’s a neat effect, and photographs don’t really do it justice. The front features a simplified version of the alternative box art (maybe that’s why they used that particular image?), and the back has a neat little bonus not seen on most (if not all) Genesis games of the day: another sticker featuring more art! In this case, it’s a more traditional version of the image of Mega Man riding Rush found on the other box art. Almost like getting two in one!

Oh, and for those wondering: yes, this does indeed work on genuine Genesis hardware. I tried it on both my MK-1601 Model 1 and my Model 2 consoles, and it worked like a charm on both of them. I can’t speak to any other variations or clone consoles, but according to the game’s FAQ, “The list of confirmed compatible consoles is as follows: All versions of SEGA Genesis®, all versions of SEGA® Mega Drive, SEGA® Nomad, JVC X’Eye, AnalogueMega Sg, Retro-Bit Gen-X, all versions of the RetroDuo, all versions of the Super Retro-Trio, RetroN 3, RetroN 5, and Minigen HD.”

I didn’t play it all the way through, though, as I have the SEGA Genesis Mini for that. But I haven’t heard of any problems with these cartridges, so no news is hopefully good news. That said, there are some changes from the original program, however. For starters, the SEGA logo has been removed, and there’s now a new copyright screen featuring Retro-Bit as well as Capcom. More noticeable, though, is in how the game plays:

According to the aforementioned FAQ, they have “optimized certain functions to reduce slowdown such as sprite processing and collision processing during gameplay,” Yellow Devil MK2 contains new function programming for drawing sprites which reduces slowdown,” and “added a code to toggle the score display for boss battles in Mega Man 1. The score is not counted until the boss fight is completed.” Everything else, they say, remains the same.

All in all, as a fan of both Mega Man and SEGA, I’m honestly rather pleased with my purchase here, but I also paid the original pre-order price of $69.99 USD for it (nice). As of this writing, going on eBay shows you’re likely to pay around double that, with a few outliers going a bit higher or lower, depending on who’s selling it.

Whether that’s worth it or not is up to you, but I hope this overview of everything helps either fuel your resolve, or convinces you to hold back for now. Suffice to say, if you like everything you see here, the quality should not disappoint you, and if it sounds like it’s worth the money, I don’t think you’ll be let down.

For more information about this release, please visit the official website.

Thanks for reading!