The classic series of Mega Man games made their debut on the monochrome Game Boy in 1991 with Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge (Rockman World in Japan). In an effort to help differentiate the Game Boy series from those on the home consoles, subsequent games were titled with Roman numerals.
In the first of these games, Dr. Wily returns with another plan to take over the world. Borrowing elements from the first two NES games, players were tasked to complete four difficult stages en route to four additional bosses protecting Dr. Wily’s lair. The success of this initial foray into handheld gaming was enough to spawn four additional sequels, each borrowing assets and systems from the home console games that preceded them.
Despite the Game Boy games generally reusing materials from their predecessors, several characters made their debut in these games. Quint, from Mega Man II, would later appear in Mega Man V alongside Punk (from Mega Man III). Punk would also appear in Mega Man 10 and Mega Man Battle Network.
Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge was the first game in the franchise to be outsourced to a non-Capcom developer.
Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge
Mega Man II
Mega Man II for Game Boy was developed by a studio unfamiliar with the Mega Man franchise and thus feels different from the others. The developer Biox wasn’t rehired.
Mega Man III
Mega Man IV
Mega Man V
The green robotic cat, Tango, made its debut in Mega Man V. This powerful ally could roll itself up and buzzsaw-dive into enemies. As with Enker and Bass’s dog, Treble, Tango’s name is musically themed.