Mega Man's Soccer

Dr. Wily is taking over the land through its soccer games! (??) Okay, so this isn’t the best plot ever devised. I suppose the old “Let’s solve this diplomatically with a contest” con is more realistic, but that has already been done! At any rate, I figure the game makers designed the game first, and then had to come up with a plot around that. And, er, well, you know how that goes.

This is a very cute game that somehow manages to keep that Mega Man style even though it’s a completely different type of game. The pictures in the opening are pretty good (Mega Man looks good on the Super Nintendo!) but unfortunately, for some reason the game control kind of went down the tubes.

• How do you fire super-shots?
  The super shot is executed by pressing R (on the top of the controller) and B at the same time. The timing is critical, however, and if I remember correctly, you must actually press R a split second before B. Experiment for yourself and see what works for you. If you have troubles, try putting R on turbo; this greatly increases your chances of hitting B at the proper time. Note that your super shots are limited, so if you suddenly can’t seem to pull any off, you probably used them all.

There’s really no great advantage to doing them in any particular order, though I usually do Wood Man first so I can stick him in goal. Other good players to have include Elec Man, Cut Man, and definitely Pharaoh Man, who can trip almost every character in the game—including sometimes Wily!

Super shots are like the Master Weapons of this game; every character’s is different. Normally, a super shot flies toward the goal until it either strikes a player or flies off the field. If it strikes a player, the ball will lose most of its momentum and roll only a short distance past the victim; however, the hapless player will be incapacitated for several seconds. Some characters can shake the super shots of certain other characters, which means the ball will strike the player but will not affect him, and the player will usually gain control of the ball immediately. Dr. Wily shakes off just about all super shots sent his way, so beware.

Here is a list of the possible characters in the game, as well as what happens when he fires a super shot:

• Mega Man: The blue bomber is joined with an army of clones.
  
  Which is the real Mega Man? He won’t say! Anyway, when any of the Mega Men fires a super shot, the ball is surrounded by a shell of energy and flies in a straight line. It will zap whatever it hits. The target goes flying into the air and lands on his knees, and the ball bounces a short distance beyond him.
• Proto Man: Proto Man has the same weapon as his brother, so he shoots super shots in the same manner as Mega Man.
• Skull Man: Four skulls orbit the ball. If they hit a target, they will knock the robot to his knees and orbit him for a few seconds while the ball bounces on past.
• Flash Man: The ball is surrounded by blue light. When it strikes someone, the blue energy zaps the player with a quick blue flash, and the ball rolls on beyond the player a short distance. The victim is left kneeling on the ground for several seconds.
• Bubble Man: The ball is encased in a bubble. When it strikes a player, the bubble is transferred to the target, and the player floats up off the playing field, encased in a giant bubble. The bubble eventually pops, dumping the victim.
• Toad Man: This shot operates like Flash Man’s.
• Cut Man: The ball becomes a giant Rolling Cutter blade which flies in a zigzag pattern. It will slice and dice the first robot it hits. (Don’t worry, the victim will magically pull himself together after a couple of seconds; there is no way to permanently lose team members in this game.)
• Elec Man: The ball is surrounded by an electric field. This will zap whatever player it hits, encasing the victim in electricity for two seconds then dropping him to the ground. He’ll get up after another second passes.
• Bomb Man: The ball turns into a bomb which will explode when it hits a target, hurling that player straight up into the air.
• Dust Man: The ball turns into a Dust Crusher shot. Upon contact, the hapless player is buried in dust which dissipates after a second.
• Air Man: The ball swirls in a small blue tornado. If it strikes a player, that player is carried upward in a larger tornado as the ball bounces to a halt. The player falls back to the ground and kneels for several seconds.
• Ice Man: The ball becomes an ice crystal which will encase the player it strikes in ice. The ice will vanish after a few seconds, but the player topples over and kneels for a couple more seconds.
• Needle Man: Five needles prick out of the ball as it zooms across the screen. Coming into contact with this will chop up the target just as Cut Man’s super shot does.
• Top Man: The ball swirls like a miniature orange tornado. A player that is struck vanishes for a second or two, frozen in place while invisible.
  
• Fire Man: This creates a fireball similar to Pharaoh Man’s shot.
• Pharaoh Man: The ball turns into a sphere of fire and blazes across the field. Anyone stuck by the ball is engulfed in flames for two seconds and falls to the ground for another second. The ball will land near the victim.
• Wood Man: Four leaves surround the ball as it flies through the air. Anyone stuck by the ball is grounded for one second.
• Snake Man: The ball becomes a green snake which homes in for the goal. It will apparently fly through all players except for the goalie. Most characters can shake it; however, some goalies will dive for it and miss because it is traveling too quickly.
• Gemini Man: The ball bounces rapidly across the field, gaining a mirror of itself which reflects the bouncing pattern from underneath. This one apparently passes through all players except for the goalie.
• Enker: The ball turns into a black electrical sphere, but otherwise operates the same as Mega Man’s Mega Buster super shot.
• Dr.Wily: The ball becomes a black electrified sphere, similar to Enker’s shot. I’ve yet to see anyone shake off one of Wily’s super shots, so beware.

Team member stats:

• A good team layout: Wood Man or some other big guy in the goal, Cut Man, Elec Man, Fire Man, Needle Man, Air Man, and/or Dust Man as full backs or half backs, Pharaoh Man as a half back, and Enker, Mega Man, and Proto Man as forwards.
• Goalies can leave the goal area, even with the ball, but if you have your goalie go outside the box, he’s all fair game, and the computer players will storm him. If you stay within the box, however, all computerized players will run away when the goalie has the ball. You can even pass to your goalie. Use this to your advantage.
• It is possible for a player to score on his own goal! In this case, no one cheers the goal, they all just stand there. (I played a demo match and watched the computer do this to itself.) Don’t do this—you give the point to the other team! Be careful!
• Super shots are hard to pull off and you have a limited number of them. On the other hand, so does your opponent, so if you can get him to waste them all without making goals with them, you have an edge. The best way: commit suicide by leaping into the path of the ball. Better a field player to be hit than your goalie...
• You don’t have to use super shots just to hit players and goalies. If up against someone who likes shaking most of your shots (such as Dr. Wily), use your super shots to gain speed instead. With the right angle, a super shot can blaze the ball right past the goalie and make a score with a shot that the goalie would have otherwise blocked.
  
• Try firing from the points where the semicircle in front of the goal joins with the line crossing the field. If you shoot from here with no one in the way, most goalies will leap for it but miss, allowing the ball to go right in. You don’t even need a super shot! This also works if you shoot from the corners of the goal net, though it’s harder to get into position without getting the ball stolen by someone else.
• Put a straight-shooter in the goal and try this: First, choose a formation that will leave the path between the two goals as clear as possible (and hope your opponent does the same). Let your goalie have the ball. Clear the path, then fire a super-shot straight across the field. If no one gets in the way, the ball will usually stun the other team’s goalie (depends on who it is) and go right in the goal! Is it fair for the goalie to make goals? I didn’t think so, but this game allows it!
• Note: Wily was evidently intended to be a player character in this game (he’s on the team member select screen), but it is impossible to actually unlock him without hacking the game.

This game has an ending, but it is impossible to trigger it during normal gameplay. Some people have browsed around in the assembly code for the game and found the ending. One place where you can read about it is The Cutting Room Floor.

Since you can watch everything on YouTube these days, there’s not a lot of need for me to describe the ending here, but as it’s my tradition to do so, I’ll go ahead and do it anyway:

Wily’s island fortress blows up for no obvious reason (gratuitous fan service is the only explanation I can think of), Wily escapes in his saucer, and the screen scrolls upward into the sky. (Nice stereo in the music here.) Then the game switches to a “Characters” roll which shows the various players included in the game, “selected stage” style. This is closed off by the standard “Presented by Capcom” with Beat flying alongside.

A credits sequence has been found in the game code as well; evidently, it was intended to utilize the password grid (believe it or not). Maybe this explains why the passwords are so darn big.

I’m not sure why this ending sequence was excluded from the final game, but it must have been done deliberately. This isn’t a bug that would have gotten past QA. It would be interesting to hear the reason for it, though.