"The Last Days Of Dr. Wily"
is a short video by YouTube channel OLD RICH PEOPLE, clocking in at just over four minutes long. It was released on May 28, 2008 — for reference, that's 5-6 years after Mega Man & Bass was ported to the Game Boy Advance, two years after the initial release of Mega Man Powered Up, and just about four months before Mega Man 9.
Mega Man's archenemy Dr. Wily has run out of money in the middle of developing his latest evil plan. His project manager explains that the robot designer, Greg, went way over budget on failed ideas for new Robot Masters. The manager suggests ways to gain more funding, but Wily brushes these off. Wily talks to Greg and the level construction union in search of ways to cut costs, but ultimately decides his only recourse is to finish everything by himself. In the end, Wily's focus on ensuring Mega Man's destruction ends up clashing horribly with everyone else's mindset of creating a challenging but fair video game experience.
Tropes shown in this video include:
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Wily laments that he's out of money for building more Robot Masters and their hideouts. His project manager mentions that McDonald's wants to sponsor Wily to build a robot to speed up kitchen productivity, but Wily immediately dismisses the idea with, "How's a hamburger going to kill Mega Man?" Subverted in that not only does Wily refuse a legitimate use of his talents, but any money he would've earned would be specifically to continue his villainous plot.
- The Ghost: An offscreen construction worker is addressed as Manuel, but the character is never seen or heard.
- Gratuitous Spanish: The construction union representative calls out towards one of his workers, "¡Manuel, vámonos a magnetic blocks gigantes!"
- Medium Blending: Most of the video is filmed in live-action, except the establishing shot which depicts Wily Castle from Mega Man 2, and the montage of Mega Man: Wily Does it Himself at the end which edits together content from Mega Man, Mega Man 2, and Mega Man 3.
- Money Dumb: Greg dumped an exorbitant amount of money into ludicrously-expensive Robot Master concepts such as Rolls Royce Man, Fabergé Egg Man, and Honus Wagner Card Man.
- No Name Given: Wily's project manager and the construction union representative aren't named in the video.
- Only Sane Man: From Wily's perspective, he's the only person who cares that his project's main goal is to kill Mega Man. He's not interested in the McDonald's sponsorship opportunity from his project manager, he's confused why Greg is designing robots that drop power-ups for Mega Man or why Mega Man is allowed to get new weapons from beating bosses, and he doesn't understand why the construction union protests against the level design being made "too difficult for the kids."
- Skewed Priorities: Budgeting costs for heat and electricity in the Robot Master levels makes some degree of sense, but Dr. Wily doesn't bat an eye at high-definition speakers to play music, despite his later dialogue focusing on ensuring Mega Man's demise.
- Unwinnable by Design: Mega Man: Wily Does it Himself, depicted as a montage at the end of the video. Dr. Wily makes good on some of his ideas mentioned earlier, such as a Bottomless Pit that's too wide for Mega Man to jump over, or having a level start with Mega Man surrounded by One-Hit Kill spikes.
- Virgin-Shaming: While talking to Greg, Wily leans over and picks up a printed robot design, which is just Wily's 8-bit sprite with the caption "VIRGIN MAN". Wily looks at Greg in silent annoyance, then drops the paper and walks away while Greg just shrugs.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Wily complains to Greg that there's no need to waste money on building eight levels, since the Robot Masters can all just attack Mega Man at once. The ending montage that shows Wily's attempts at making the game himself includes one scene of just that happening. The montage ends with the title screen where Wily is aiming a pistol at the Blue Bomber from behind.
