After my huge bashing of the original Mega Man, it is time to look at is hyper popular sequel. The first "Mega Man" actually sold poorly here in the US, despite the critical acclaim from reviewers everywhere, so, Capcom, wanting to ditch Mega Man and start fresh, wanted the Inafune team to start anew with some other titles. However, the K-Man himself would not let go of Mega Man, so "Mega Man 2" was developed strictly on their free time. How does this game hold up?

Graphics: If any of you read my review of "Mega Man", you will know that I bashed it considerably for copy-and-pasting area designs to artificially extend play time. However, "Mega Man 2" threw that out the window. OH MY, this game looks absolutely beautiful. Gone are the choppy, single colored backgrounds, and in with the patterns, animations, and more. I love the game's graphics, from the spinning gears in Metal Man's stage (the ones in the BACKGROUND), the forest of Wood Man, I love ALL of the stages (except the Wily Fortress stages, which are rather dull like MM). The enemies this time around are also more detailed, and so are the robot masters, leaving a better impression overall to the gamer. This is especially surprising for a game developed on free time, compared to the original. Love the graphics here.

Sound: The sound design in "Mega Man 2" didn't actually vary that much from the original. The music is still composed of bloops and bleeps, but it is much better than before. The sheer number of "Wily Stage 1-2" remixes assures that. However, it is still below of what Contra or many other games, including "Super Mario Brothers 2" offered, so eh.

Addictiveness: This is where the game falls short. Although I enjoyed the Robot Master stages (especially Quick Man!), the Dr. Wily stages this time around where a complete chore and very boring to wade through. The constant requirement of Utility items really irk me, meaning that if you screw up, you must grind enemies for energy. Other aspects include the horrendously designed Boo-Beam trap boss, which requires the Crash Bomber and is still quite a pain, as well as the constant sprite flickering that causes me to constantly fall into bottomless pits or lose track of where I am from Boo-Beam Trap shots. The game itself, minus the Wily Stages, is quite addictive, but the fortress drags it down in general.

Story: "Mega Man 2", for some reason, has even LESS story than the original, but thankfully, the whole "Monsteropolis" is out of the question, and instead replaced with the traditional story. However, there is still no tale to be told in this game.

Depth: Unfortunately, MM2 also falls short in depth. Unlike the original, which had the super cool Magnet Beam item to find, Mega Man 2 offers nothing but Energy Tanks, and those pale in comparison with another weapon to use. This, coupled with the fact that Robot Master stages may no longer be revisited after completion, makes MM2 quite shallow of a game.

Difficulty: MM2 is MUCH easier than the original, as now the bosses follow stricter patterns! With the inclusion of E-Tanks and broken weapons like the Metal Blade, "Mega Man 2" is definitely where newbie players should start with in the franchise. Also be sure to select Easy mode!

Overall: Although highly overrated and not at all perfect, Mega Man 2 is one amazing game. It takes a lot of strides forward, enough to for me to forget the downgrades, and offers more friendliness towards new players than before. This is a must have game from any NES library.

So I feel like this review is more of a comparison to the original than and actual review. When reading one I don't really care to hear how much the other one sucks and so on. I want to know about this one.  

lilythetigerkity :
I feel that, when reviewing a sequel, it is important to compare the sequel to the original. The game is Mega Man, and considering that Capcom decided to basically recycle the same game 6 times on the Famicom (NES in the USA), I feel that talking about the movement and other aspects of the game like a brand new thing will be repetitive for someone who has been doing research on the games and read reviews already on the matter.
Instead, I focus more on what the sequels improve upon from the original, or take a step down from the former. Again, this is to avoid repetition. It is natural, to me, to talk of something like "Mega Man" and discuss heavily into the controls and such matter, while it feels unnaturally repetitive to do the same for the sequel unless it drastically changes that control scheme (Double Dragon III is an example), so, thank you for the comment, and I apologize if you didn't find the review too helpful.

I have the game on my 3ds and I play it when I have mothing to do on my 3ds and I feel like taking a break from vizzed. ive beat it more times than I can count.