Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge or in Japan as Rockman World [a] is an action-platform video game by Capcom for the Nintendo Game Boy. It is the first game in the handheld series of the Mega Man franchise. It was released in Japan on July 26, 1991, and was localized in North America that December and in Europe the following year. The game continues the adventures of the android hero Mega Man as he once again confronts the evil Dr. Wily, who has dispatched his revived "Robot Masters" and a new "Mega Man Killer" named Enker.
Dr. Wily's Revenge is an action and platform game in the same vein as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) Mega Man games. The player is tasked with completing a series of four stages in any order desired. Beating a stage's boss will earn the player a special weapon that can be selected at will and used throughout the rest of the game. Dr. Wily's Revenge specifically takes components of the original Mega Man and Mega Man 2, including their enemies, stage aesthetics, and Robot Masters.
According to series artist Keiji Inafune, Dr. Wily's Revenge was the first Mega Man game to be outsourced to a developer separate from Capcom. Critical reception for the game has been favorable, and most sources have denoted it as a competent, if excessively difficult, portable version of the popular NES series. Dr. Wily's Revenge was a best-seller and spawned four sequels of its own on the Game Boy, many of which follow its trend of reusing elements from their home console counterparts. In 2011, Dr. Wily's Revenge was made available as a Virtual Console launch title on Japan's Nintendo eShop for the Nintendo 3DS. It also appeared on PAL region and North American eShops later that year.
Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge is an action-platformer that shares many similarities with its NES counterparts. The player, as Mega Man, is able to choose among four stages to complete in whatever order desired. Each stage contains various enemies to blast through and obstacles to overcome, such as leaping between disappearing blocks over deadly spikes and bottomless pits. Mega Man's primary weapon is an arm cannon that has unlimited ammunition. Destroyed enemies typically leave items that replenish Mega Man's health or extra lives. At the end of every stage is a boss battle with a robot master, and defeating it earns the player its special weapon. Each boss is weak to another's weapon, allowing the player to strategize the order in which they are beaten.
Dr. Wily's Revenge reuses and mixes stage components, enemies, and robot masters from the first two NES games in the Mega Man series. The initial four stages and bosses (Cut Man, Ice Man, Fire Man, and Elec Man) come from the original Mega Man. A password system allows the player to return to the game after any or all of these first four stages are cleared or when the player suffers a game over. Once the player completes these stages and travels through Wily's fortress, four more robot masters must be fought in order to progress. These bosses (Quick Man, Bubble Man, Flash Man, and Heat Man) are taken from Mega Man 2 for NES. Although they do not have their own stages, the player earns the special weapons of these bosses. Once all four are defeated, the player faces a new robot master created for the game, Enker.
