I've created a new field to use for the intro battle with the Mets so that I could cut down on the Wily Castle field repitition. I used the ending from Mega Man 2 as a reference and created a scene of grassy fields and mountains with a little picket fence and a small laboratory on the left. I think I will eventually make a unique into stage for Wily mode, but for now this will do. This is the first stage that doesn't use the same foreground template as the others and I think it looks pretty nice with all those little flowers. :P

The bonus mission that's unlocked after you complete the prototype and the MM3 preview robots (Spark Man) have been combined slightly. Now, Spark Man appears in the bonus stage at level 30 and while you cannot unlock him, you can still download the Spark Shock from him with the Copy Shot ability. I will be putting all other preview characters in this bonus stage as well, so it should end up really fun in time. :P Oh, and the Met is unlocked a bit differently now. After clearing the prototype, go back and complete the very first intro stage again. After you do, you'll unlock the Met for use in battle. He's still terribly weak, but it's fun to see him try. :P

I've tweaked the experience system again, though this time there are no new mechanics per-se. The base experience you got from each robot just wasn't enough, and even though the other mechanics were working (like getting boosts for super effective hits) the effects were so small they could barely be seen. Because of this, I tweaked the experience calculations a bit to increase the base amount by about 500%, meaning you'll be able to level up much, much easier now. Just make sure you score lots of super effective and critical hits (and avoid triggering resistances and immunities) and you'll be strong in no time. :) I've tested this a lot, and it seems to be okay, but please let me know if you feel it's too much or should be tweaked more. Thank you for your feedback. :)

The demo mode has been changed and no longer has unlockable characters or abilities. The prototype demo now starts players with both Mega Man and Proto Man together, each having their own set of abilities including the weapons from the MM1 Robot Masters. You fight through the same four missions as before, but this time using only the two brothers. Mega Man and Proto Man's wealth of abilities make the first two battles a breeze, but the last two may require a bit of level grinding and/or luck to complete. I have played through the demo a few times already and I feel like it's fair and balanced but let me know if you think otherwise. :P Additionally, users that play through the demo and then choose to create a save file will get a nice little bonus - Mega Man's level will be backed up and then carried over into the story mode (or whatever we're calling it). This way, if you spend a bunch of time in demo and get your Mega Man to level 5 or 6 or whatever, you can carry that over into your new game and not feel like you wasted your time. For those who aren't aware, your Battle Point total also carried over from the demo when you create a new game. :) I like this new addition, and I hope it encourages people to make a new save file once they finish the demo.

I've tweaked the AI for all enemy robots so that they use they signature weapons more often and the break/boost/etc. ones less often. That being said, I've also tweaked the mission robots to have more of these abilities than before (scaled with progress, of course) and make the battles more interesting and dynamic. It's a small change, but I think it will make battles a lot more interesting and finally allow for abilities like Super Throw and Bubble Bomb to be copied with the Copy Shot (if you're fighting a high level Guts Man or Bubble Man, of course). Yay!

Most abilities have been revised and tweaked again. I'm almost hesistant to make an update the changes are so minor (at least I think they are) but I wanted to make note of it either way. Mega Buster and Proto Buster were tweaked, as well as Buster Shot, Fire Storm (fixed a bug too), and several others. Check out the Ability Database for the full list, as always.

I almost don't want to post this update just in case, but I'm pretty sure I finally fixed a bug (or web of bugs) that's been breaking the game for months and driving me crazy! Abilities that hit more than one robot had a nasty bug which would be triggered if you KOed more than one robot per turn. The opponent would do all sorts of strange things like sending in multiple robots, switching in then out then in again with the same robot, and all kinds of other stuff. Also, if you targeted a benched robot and that robot switched into the active position (or vice versa) the battle engine would crash completely and you would need to refresh the browser to play again. It was really horrible, and there are many other bugs related to the issue that were being triggered as well. As you may guess from the update, I've spent a lot of time writing custom logic for these situations and testing extensively and I am pretty sure I've fixed the issue for good. I'm pretty happy about it, as it means I can finally focus on content-related updates again. If I haven't fixed the bug or you encounter something else like it, please contact me and let me know! I appreciate the help and apologize for the inconvenience.

Two weeks ago I decided to revise all of the robot sprite sheets and fix some issues with missing pixels, boring poses, and other things like that. While I was in there, I decided to change the shading technique so I could reduce filesize (which worked) and then (because I thought I was on a roll) I decided it would be super cool to manually recolour all the sprites using the colours found in official artwork of them. Sounds good in theory, but was an absolute disaster. None of the characters matched the fields, abilities, or other objects in the game and they all had a very bright, almost pastel colour to them that did not fit with the aesthetic of the game in the slightest. Because of this failure, I I had to go back and manually recolour all the sprites according to the colours found on the original NES sprites. I had a backup of the robot sprites that I could have used instead, but it lacked the other positive changes I made to the file so I couldn't really use it. :( This massive update to the game's files meant I couldn't upload changes to the live version of the game until I fixed my mistake, and I will not make that mistake in the future. I know there are many bugs floating around and the game has become rather boring without frequent updates, but I will not make that mistake again - promise. >_>

An unfortunate oversight in the 2013/01/27 update was that these "dynamic" target robots had incredibly predictable attack patterns - that is to say, each target robot only had one ability! I've since updated the game to scale target abilities along with the level scaling it already does. As you beat each mission in a phase, the target robots gain another semi-random ability. First they gain an Energy Boost ability, then a random Attack/Defense/Speed Boost, then a random Attack/Defense/Speed Break, and then finaly a Attack/Defense/Speed Mode (with the order shifted slightly for Wily mode). Because these abilities are randomized each time you fight the target, each battle has the potential to play out quite differently. I've also tweaked all the robot AI to use Energy Boost a little less often - it was becoming a hassle and that's no fun so why not fix it?

Party due to my incredibly busy schedule and party due to the number of players the game has accumulated, I've decided to only update the game once a week on weekends. I will still be doing minor updates and bug fixes during the week, but will not upload the changes until Saturday or Sunday night when there's been time for proper testing and review. Sorry for the inconvenience but I promise it is for the best and will only contribute to a more stable, fun game in the end. :) That being said, a crapload of updates have been made to the game over the last week and you should definitely read about them on the Updates page!

In a purely cosmetic move, window events have been added to the game. These are basically just alerts that appear over the main game window when key events happen in the game and will eventually be used for telling the story when that's finalized. So far these events include only new game events (like the first level up and first ability unlock) and prototype-completion events. They're not much, but they were definitely something that needed to be added and will used much more now that there's support for them. Also, for those who have already started save files, the mesages you see may be a little messed up. This is because thew new event flags will all be firing at the same time and the display window may be overloaded. This should fix itself after one or two messages, so no need to worry unless something is seriously broken. :P

There is a bug right now regarding abiltiies with high speeds like Quick Boomerang and Oil Slider. When used by the player they always go first (as they should), but when used by the target they seem to ignore the ability speed. This is because the target's action (switch, ability, etc.) is calculated much before the details of that action (like which ability is used) and the speed does not have a chance to take effect. I am working on a fix, but it will require rewriting some code and may take a little while. Please be patient in the mean time and enjoy your advantage over your opponent. :P

All abilities have been revisited and had their effects, power, and/or accuracy altered to fit better with the recent changes in the game. They may not be perfect yet and still need some tweaking, but I'm pleased with how most of them turned out. One of the key changes here was clearly defining abilities which operate on percentages (ex. Energy Boost) and those that operate on base values to be tweaked by stats (ex. Buster Shot). This change also fixed a few other bugs, including one with the Defense Burn ability that should have been using base power but was instead using a percentage. Please refer to the Ability Database for a list of all abilities and their new details.

The Flash Stopper move unlocked by defeating Flash Man has been revised and is now significantly more useful and much different than the Time Arrow it paralled before. Flash Stopper now strikes all robots on the field, dividing the base power by the number of robots on the opponent's side of the side of the field. This change took a lot of work, especially getting the game to attack in the right order and making sure it didn't crash when all robots are disabled in one turn, but it was definitely worth it and it's so much fun to use! :D

The Met battle that appears at the start of the game has been modified slightly. For each of the first eight battles you complete, an additional Met might appear in the battle (up to a maximum of eight robots). This will allow you to more easily level up and collect battle points for new abilities, but it's also a nice way to test new robots and combos on really weak enemies.

The robot cores introduced in a prior update now have more relevance in the game, and boost the effectiveness of abilities sharing the same type in battle. As an example, Ice Man has a Freeze Core which allows him to both equip Freeze Type abilities and (thanks to this update) deal 25% more damage when using them! This change should make robots without a Copy Core (like Mega Man and Proto Man) more useful in-game and slightly tougher opponents in battle. As always, check the Robot Database for information on which robots have which cores.

Experience points in battle can now be boosted even further by repeatedly striking the target with critical hits and/or super effective attacks! Previously these bonuses were a yes/no flag - either you got a boost or your didn't - but now you get a 10% experience boost every time you exploit a robot's weakness or land a critical hit! This should make leveling up a lot easier and a lot more fun, so please take advantage of it for maximum enjoyment of the game. :)

In an update that was meant to be done earlier but took a little more time than I anticipated, robots can now be transferred between players! After unlocking Dr. Wily, robots can be transferred between the two player's save games and be used in battle! Not only does this allow for many more team combinations, it also allows you to teach your robots more abilities! In addition to more abilities, transferred robots also earn twice the experience points in battle - so don't be scared to mix it up and experiment! :D EDIT: Please note that those who exploited the recent bug that allowed you to unlock Wily robots in Light mode and Light robots in Wily mode will experience some issues with the transfer functionality. When transferring a robot from one player to the other, duplicate robots will be overwritten! This is not a bug but the intended functionality - only one of any robot should exist in a user's save file with no exceptions, so when transferring these duplicate robots from one player to another take note of which one you want to keep and avoiding overwritting it. I'm very sorry for the inconvenience, but this is a necessary evil and will make the final game much more fun and balanced (who wants to waste their time training the same robot twice anyway?). Please contact me if you have any questions, and let me know if you notice any other bugs with the transfer process.

Dr. Wily is now an unlockable player for all new games, and can only be accessed once you have reached a certain point in Dr. Light's game and defeated Dr. Wily in battle. After that, Dr. Wily will be unlocked and you will able to do some pretty interesting things with his robots… Details in the next update! Oh, and those who have already started a game and unlocked Wily will be able to keep him - so no worries. :P