Normal vs. Difficult

The North American release of the game introduced a difficulty select of Normal or Difficult. The Japanese release does not feature this option, but is equivalent to "Difficult" mode for gameplay.

Damage done by the player to enemies is is doubled in normal mode. Note that most enemies die in half as many shots (round down).

Normal mode also tends to produce more large drops than Difficult.

Though not a gameplay difference, North American "Difficult" mode features exceptionally longer "Weapon Get - Dr. Light Get Your Weapons Ready" cutscenes than the Japanese version, by approximately 30 seconds. These cutscenes are a set amount of time, and the Leaderboards on megamanleaderboards.net will automatically adjust times for proper comparisons.