A (Mega) Man Out of Time

In the grand scheme of the Mega ManIn 1987, Capcom released Mega Man on the NES, a game featuring a blue robot that fought other robots and took their powers (so that he could then fight other robots with those powers, and on, and on). The series went on to release over 50 games in 30 years and become one of the most famous gaming franchises in the world. series, the Game Boy titles aren’t really considered main entries of the series. They’re mostly built on reused content, taking enemies, bosses, and ideas from the NES games engineered into mash-up titles on the tiny handheld. While they largely play fairly well, they do feel compromised, fighting against the small, green-grey screen and the underpowered hardware, straining to be good even with everything stacked against them. They are noble efforts, but most tend to set them aside and consider them “off brand” games, not “in continuity” entries.

Still, for many players out there (those young enough at the time that the Game Boy was their primary means of playing video games) these Game Boy entries were their gateway into the Mega Man series. Small and “compromised” as these games were, there are players that still hold out certain Game Boy entries as their favorites from the series. These were the games they got to play on road trips, the ones they could afford to pick up, when NES games were more expensive. The Game Boy titles were their slice of Mega Man, and we shouldn’t downplay how important that was for many players.

The fan game Quint’s Revenge is like a love letter to the classic Game Boy Mega Man titles. Built as an ode to Mega Man II, the second Game Boy title (where Quint first appeared), this fan game looks to give Quint his time as a protagonist, letting him out to explore stages, fight bosses, and take on that mean Dr. Wily who ruined his life. It takes the core concepts of Mega Man II and updates it into an NES-style adventure with flash and pizazz, the kind of game fans would have wanted to play back in the day on the NES had the Game Boy titles properly crossed over and been accepted into the main continuity.

Quint was once Mega Man from a future, peaceful timeline. But Dr. Wily traveled into that future and kidnapped that Mega Man, changing him and reprogramming him into a Mega Man killer. The hope was that the future version would kill his past self, freeing Wily to conquer the world without any fear of any version of Mega Man stopping him. But unfortunately (and likely due to the laws of reality and paradox), the Mega Man of the present was able to defeat his future self, the renamed Quint, and was very much able to take out Wily in the end.

Disgusted with his failed project, Wily cast Quint aside, leaving him for dead. But Quint wasn’t so easy to eliminate, and freed of Wily’s control, Quint came back to himself and was Mega Man once more. Now, on a mission to have his revenge and stop Wily once and for all, Quint charges into the battle, taking on the Robot Masters he was once working with, all so he can storm into Wily’s castle and take on the mad doctor himself. It’s a battle not just for the planet but for the future, too, as Quint looks to restore his despite Wily’s best efforts.

Despite being a fangame, Quint’s Revenge feels like a proper sequel to Mega Man II (and no, in this discussion we’re not including Mega Man III). The Green Bomber (because Quint is green, not blue) has to take on eight Robot Masters, chosen in any order the player desires, battling through their remixed stages before fighting the robots and stealing their weapons. The robots featured in the game come directly from the second Game Boy title: Air Man, Clash Man, Hard Man, Needle Man, Magnet Man, Metal Man, Top Man, and Wood Man. Each features stages that hearken back to their NES and Game Boy entries, but with new traps, tricks, and hazards to avoid.

For instance, Top Man’s stage features quick lasers that will come out of nowhere, emphasizing the speed and quick reflexes of the stage boss himself. Metal Man’s stage has buckets of molten metal that will drop down gouts of this liquid hot magma that the play has to avoid. Wood Man’s stage shifts from Fall to Winter half way in, forcing the player to content with ice physics on top of tricky jumps and tons of enemies. Each stage will remind players of the games they’ve played before, but the layouts are new and the traps really add a fresh dynamic to the equation.

The bosses, too, have been remixed and updated. Each features new patterns for their attacks, forcing the players to adapt to these encounters in ways they likely couldn’t expect. They also have desperation phases, once they reach their health’s halfway point, layering in even more attacks for the player to adapt to. These fights can get pretty hectic, and anyone picking up the game should expect to die to the bosses repeatedly before they finally figure out the strategies for each of these new encounters.

Aiding the player, though, are Quint’s improved abilities. While he can still walk, jump, and shoot like a standard Mega Man, he has additional capabilities that his future improvements, and Wily’s tinkering, have graced him with. Instead of sliding he now has a dash, which trails colorful sprites behind him. It’s a flashy move, but the important detail is that it gives him far more maneuverability. He can also duck, making many sticky situations much easier. Sliding was fairly limited in its application when it came to enemies shooting just at head height, but a duck means the player can position themselves just right, lean down, and still fire with ease. And, finally, Quint has an air jump he can use by walking off a ledge. This allows him a bit more flexibility when it comes to maneuvering in the air, although it does take some getting used to.

One final power-up that shows up in the game has more limited function. Instead of items or Rush abilities to collect, Quint will sometimes have access to his Sakugarne, the pogo stick-like jackhammer that Wily built for him. Quint can’t use this item all the time, but there will be sections where he can pick up the Sakugarne and use it for limited periods, helping him traverse difficult sections with far more ease. All together this makes for a very powerful Mega Man who still doesn’t feel like he’s too overpowered for any situation.

While the game is based on a Game Boy title, the graphics and sound are made to feel like you’re playing an NES game. The stages all use NES-style graphics, many of which were taken from the classic NES games. Although Quint’s dash ability feels like it would have been impossible to illustrate on the NES, most other effects, enemies, levels, and abilities feel like they were brought straight from Nintendo’s 8-bit system. It gives the game that proper feel, the verisimilitude, that gives the vibe of it being a proper Mega Man game.

I think the best improvement, though, is the soundtrack. The music of Quint’s Revenge features arranged tracks from Mega Man II which, without a doubt, had the worst soundtrack of the whole series. Those songs, pumped through the Game Boy’s tinny hardware, were too loud, screechy, and awful to listen to. But when updated and rearranged to work through an NES-style sound font, the songs come to life. They actually sound good, which is something I never thought I’d say about the music of Mega Man II, and it makes me wish some of these tracks could have come out in an official NES Mega Man title as opposed to being relegated to one of the lesser titles of the off-brand Mega Man series.

Overall this is a solid game that’s a lot of fun to play. It has a lot of great ideas added into the standard Mega Man package, all on top of a game that does its level best to redeem the second Game Boy adventure. Mega Man II might not have been everyone’s cup of tea, but with Quint’s Revenge players might finally have the title that shows them how the Game Boy titles could have been if they’d just had a little more love and care… and better hardware than they were forced to perform on.