Proto:Mega Man: The Sequel Wars/SAGE 2022 Demo

This is a sub-page of Proto:Mega Man: The Sequel Wars.

September 4th, 2021 marked the day that a second Sequel Wars demo dropped – and just in time for the Sega Amateur Games Expo, the first build of Mega Man: The Sequel Wars running on a brand new code base was released.

A week later, the "EX" version of this demo was released with one additional stage and some bugfixes, much like the previous demo. Whether this was intentional or not is debatable, but regardless, it showed even more improvements and formed the basis on which the final game would be released.

The EX version of this demo can be found here.

Sub-Pages

Inaccessible Stages Five stages? Nah, we've got a couple more than that.

Charge Shot Types

While all three Charge Shot variants are used in the different game modes, selecting the Mega Buster within one game's weapon selection doesn't change the Charge Shot type as it does in the final game. However, by setting address 1AF4 to 00, 01, or 02, the player can force the current game mode to use the Charged Shot style of Mega Man 4, Mega Man 5, or Mega Man 6, respectively.

Play as Roll

Setting the address 1AEB to 01 reveals a surprise leftover from the Episode Red Demo. It's Mega Man's sister, Roll!

In the previous demo, there was an option on the Weapons Menu to "Swap Skins". While this was mostly used for Co-Op Mode, it also allowed a single player to play as Roll. Just like in that demo, she's fully functional and can do everything Mega Man can -- which makes sense, as she's a reskin of Mega Man up to this point in development. The biggest difference is that the game has been programmed to use a more appropriate palette -- previously used for her Co-Op-exclusive Tango Coil. However, she still turns blue when in menus, teleporting, or exploding.

Co-Op Mode Leftovers

In addition to the Roll skin, one can uncover the remnants of the previous demo's Co-Op Mode, itself, by adding 4 to Settings bit address at 1F76 or setting 1F75 to 01! Sadly, the Player 2 controls have been gutted entirely, so all they can do is stand around and look cute. Despite not being able to move, however, Player 2 is still mostly functional:

• Player 2 is completely untouchable and can't interact with some active sprites (enemies, props, items).

• Player 2 can still sink in the shifting sands in Pharaoh Man's stage and will loop around the screen instead of losing a life.
• However, Player 2 can still get popped by spikes, since those are tile flags.

• If Player 1 is defeated, the Life Energy meter turns grey and slowly refills, signaling the ability to respawn, just as it did in the earlier demo.

• However, no combination of inputs allows Player 1 to respawn in this state.

• If Player 2 is defeated, the Lives Counter decrements appropriately.
• Player 2 has their physics enabled and can fall from high places.
• Player 2 will still teleport to Player 1 when enough distance is put between them
• Changing address 1AEB from 01 to 00 will change Player 2's skin from Roll to Mega Man.
• The graphics for Tango Coil and Tango Jet -- which were used exclusively in Co-Op Mode in the previous demo -- become scrambled due to those graphics no longer existing.
• The life bar graphics also become scrambled after pausing.
• The Weapon Menu labels move up by one 8x8 block in an attempt to make room for Player 2's life bar, which doesn't exist in this demo.
• Going through a screen transition with Player 2 in tow also causes the game to get confused and stop loading other active sprites.

• Player 2 often starts to slowly drift away at this point, too.

• The Mega Man 5 and 6 stages in this demo lack the Co-op Mode spawn behavior, causing Player 1 to spawn ahead of the normal spawnpoint rather than both players spawning on either side.

All of this hints that the mode was already on its way out the door by this point in development.