The year was 1994, and Mega Man had yet to appear on Nintendo’s maturing 16-bit hardware. Certainly, the Blue Bomber’s descendant, X, had already arrived to tremendous critical reception a few months prior, but the original had yet to show his face on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
Rather than a traditional game of the sort, however, Capcom decided to use their de facto mascot in another way upon his introduction to playing with Super Power:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtQAr9yc-no
Unfortunately, the company also released the game in a seemingly unfinished state. While endings for both the Championship and Tournament modes were made and even programmed into the game, neither one plays upon completing the game. Instead, those curious have had to utilize cheat devices such as the Pro Action Replay in order to view the reward for all their hard work. (Though YouTube has also become a quick fix, albeit a less rewarding one.)
What’s more, according to The Cutting Room Floor, Dr. Wily was supposed to become playable upon completing the game, but with no ending, the game instead just returns to the title screen. Even when using the aforementioned cheat devices, the game remains stuck at the ending screen until the console is reset, still preventing the mad scientist from taking the field under the player’s control.
Why Capcom chose to release the game in such a seemingly unfinished state remains a mystery. Fortunately, for those who would like to play the game as it was originally meant to be played, there is now a solution.
Thanks to an individual known simply as “Q,” a new hack has been created for the game which restores the endings to normal functionality, as well as allowing Dr. Wily to be a playable character in Exhibition Mode. Plus, you can also make adjustments in the Options menu so that your time and S.Shoots to 99.
Of course, you’ll still need to find a way to apply the hack to a copy of the game. If you don’t already own one, it commands a wide range of prices on eBay, depending on how much of the original package you want. If you have or get a copy, then I’ve heard you can apply such hacks to the game by using the micro SD Card reader on a Retron 5.
Header image via Mega Man Knowledge Base, screens via Romhacking.net.
