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Wow, does this hack ever improve upon the original experience! Since there's been no easily available release of the Wily Wars in the US until the Genesis Mini, this hack was there to make sure the community can still enjoy this Genesis hidden gem. Being able to slide in every game is invaluable and the increased speed of the gameplay and increased amount of firing shots is much appreciated. I would recommend this to anyone seeking to play the Wily Wars as this is the definitive version!

I really appreciate the speed increase and it does make it feel closer to the NES counterparts, however, I can still feel something off about it, but it's better than the slower movement of the original.

A previous reviewer stated this hack breaks Mega Man Wily Stage 2, I can confirm this to not be true. Wily Stage 2 was running at a fairly consistent frame rate with the occasional slow down here and there, being very noticeable with the boss battles. I'm using Fusion and I have noticed some plugins make the frame rate horrendous and crappy in some areas, so if anyone is experiencing problematic frame rate issues with Fusion, try disable the filters. Unfortunately this game suffered from frame rate issues to begin.

I definitely recommend this hack as it makes the gameplay a slot smoother. Overall, this a great hack for any Mega Man fan.

I want to like this patch. I really do. It addresses some of the issues that make me not to play these versions of the games. But the cure is worse than the disease.

There is an absolutely insane amount of slowdown in Wily stage 2 in Mega Man 1. When I say insane, I'm talking about it taking close to a minute for Mega Man to beam into the stage. The emulator states it's running at 60fps, but in reality the game moves at less than 1fps. The issue was present in Fusion and Regen. No amount of overclocking in Regen could counteract the slowdown. My computer was not able to overclock it enough to get it anywhere close to normal speed before my processor tapped out. It got to around 5fps of gameplay before my processor hit 100%.

Additional issues: Input delay is not fixed. At all. Sliding under the boss in Wily stage 1 when it is moving still results in taking a hit. Other slowdown issues are exactly as they were in the original.

This patch starts to address the issues that make Wily Wars the worst rendition of the first 3 games, in theory. If it didn't break that stage I would call it a solid step in the right direction. That none of the other reviews got fan enough to encounter the bug makes me wonder how long they played or if I'm just the only geek that still plays the first game.

This is a fine hack.  However, it does not do what is claims it does. The wording on the description is very misleading and, unfortunately... one of the stated claims seems to be a complete lie. I'll explain.

Ar8temis008 claims that the hack "fixes the movement delay."  As far as I can tell, absolutely none of the "movement delay" has been fixed, whatsoever as there is still a 10-frame delay when the player to moves from a standstill.  Even if they're trying to sidle (half-step) again, they have to wait 10 frames.  In the NES games, the player can sidle every 2 frames, but actual movement happens after 8 frames.

Update: Ar8temis has informed me that "whatever she did" to fix the movement delay "isn't working, anymore." It could be an emulator-specific thing, but I'm not sure.

I also thought that Ar8temis might have meant she fixed the notorious slowdown the game suffers when too many sprites are bouncing around.  A simple test in Shadowman's stage tells me that nothing was fixed in that department, either.  The game still slows down worse than the NES version when there are a number of active sprites on-screen. While this is easily fixed in emulators which can overclock the Motorola 68000 CPU – such as Regen – it would be nice if the game, itself, was patched to run more fluidly.

My last thought was that Ar8temis simply meant that she converted the 50 hertz/frames-per-second game to its proper 60 hertz speed.  On that front, yes, the game plays at the correct speed when compared to the Japanese version.  However, the "SRAM fix" hack by MottZilla also did this – and is, in fact, a part of this hack – so...

Ar8temis also claims that this hack "increases firing rate by 67%."  I, like other reviewers, assumed that this meant the nasty 9-frame delay between shots had been reduced to a much-more-accurate 3 frames.  Not such luck, I'm afraid.  What Ar8temis seems to mean is that the default Buster shots move 67% faster as, instead of taking 39 frames to go from the middle of the screen to the edge, they now take 25 frames.  This is good – very good, in fact – as it takes 26 frames in the NES games for that to happen.  Still, it would be nice to reduce that 9-frame "cooldown" on the Buster to match the NES games' 2 frames.

Regarding the "flow" patch, it delivers on exactly what it promises without compromise.  The player can slide around in Mega Man 1/2, certain weapons/utilities have had their usage cost reduced, and the "on-screen shot limit" has been raised from 3 to 5.

It would be nice if Ar8temis could add "slide-under" block event triggers to the first two games to allow players to slide under/between certain one-block-high paths, such as in Quickman's stage in the second game, but the added mobility, alone, is a great boon.

The decreased weapon cost is also very beneficial for newer players, though it's completely superseded by ElwinBran's "Refill Weapons After Death" hack... which is an addendum to this very hack, to begin with.  Still, I suppose having double the amount of Magnet Beam could be pretty fun.

Lastly, increasing the amount of on-screen shots, in my opinion, isn't particularly beneficial with this particular game.  Yes, it's possible to use all five "bullets" at one time by using a turbo controller or using frame-perfect inputs, but unless the player is shooting from clear across the screen – say, in a boss room – the standard 3-shot limit with the increased speed should be effective enough.

Honestly, I'm a little disappointed that Ar8temis008 didn't deliver on what she promised.  The Wily Wars could easily be a magnificent compilation, were it not for little annoyances, inconsistencies, and other seemingly-minor-but-severely-baffling problems that came from completely remaking the game in C+ from the ground up.  That said, the groundwork for this improvement is right here; this is a very promising "proof-of-concept" hack.  If the movement delay and the shot cooldown was fixed, this would be perfection.

All that said... I would still recommend this hack.  The increased bullet movement speed, SRAM fix, and 50-to-60-hz modification, alone, make the game much better, and the optional patch that enables sliding throughout all the games is just plain fun!  I just wish this hack actually did all of what was promised...

This is a nice addition for a not accurate port of a fantastic trilogy, but I think it's still neccesary a real fire rate increase, like mushroomblue said. Anyway, thanks for your work speeding up the buster bullets! Better than nothing :D

When The Wily Wars first became accessible to the world, the idea of a 16-bit remake of the first three Megaman games, plus additional content, seemed like a crazy-good thing. Too bad it had a cryptic save feature, ran at a native 50 Hz, and gave Megaman a painfully slow shooting speed, among other problems. The patches seen here correct these issues to a certain extent, but there's a bit of roughness that can still use some polish.

Because the game was an online Europe-only release, it used a peculiar save method that isn't typical for cartridges with battery backup saves, and it was capped at the PAL-standard 50 Hz speed. Both patches fix this issue by standardizing the save feature and bumping up the speed to a faster NTSC-grade 60 Hz. While the save feature is a relief, the speed increase causes the music to play at faster speeds, which isn't a big problem, but it can be a bit jarring for players who are used to the slower beats of the original. Though with the trade-off being faster gameplay, I think it's well worth it.

Another feature that's common to both patches is the increase in bullet speed for the Mega Buster, which is a welcome feature because of how painfully crippling the base speed is, but this is where the patches run into a critical problem. There is a lack of button response when trying to fire multiple shots in quick succession. While it's possible to get three or five shots on screen (depending on which patch you choose), there's a strange lag gap between shots in which you're unable to fire off another shot, and this is most obvious when trying to rapid-fire with a turbo button setting. It's an annoying problem that's a little less worse if you go with the Flow patch that allows five shots on screen, but the overall feel of the shooting is very off.

While the Faithful patch is a nice change for the game, the Flow patch is the one that steals the show. By enabling the slide ability across all three games, Megaman gains a colossal advantage over obstacles that would normally be very challenging, to the point of game-breaking. You can now slide under Big Eyes with ease, and Quick Man's laser gauntlet can be beaten with far less effort. Purists may find it a bit excessive, but being able to dodge things more easily feels surprisingly good.

The last bit of icing on the cake is the removal of the movement delay, which results in a tighter feel of control over our hero. It's a nice touch that's overshadowed by the slew of other features here, but it's a nice change from how things were in the base game. I can't imagine going back to the way things were.

Overall, I enjoyed the Flow patch tremendously, more so than Faithful, and I highly recommend it. Sure, the firing rate needs some fixing, and the slide feature is definitely a game-breaker, but it makes the first two games a bit less frustrating and a lot more fun, and those pros make up for whatever cons are present.

It's definitely better than the last hack. The only problem is that you can't mash the fire button like you can on the NES. With a turbo controller, you could fire a burst of 3 really close shots, or even rapid fire if up close to an enemy. The lack of this ability turns things like shooting the gear clowns in Metal Man's stage into taking unavoidable damage.

The feel of the mega buster's firing rate is so vital to the feel of the game that it's honestly not worth playing without it. It's a shame; I really wanted to like this hack.

Just finished a full play through using the optional version of the patch on fusion emulator. The games feel closer to the originals and the addition of sliding makes 1 and 2 refreshing. Playing through gave both nostalgia and refreshing feelings, thanks for making this patch. The only thing to note is being unable to slide through tight spaces in 1 and 2.