The blue bomber, Mega Man, was the very first game I ever rented. The box art looked a little wonky, a constipated looking guy on some floating discs, but the game was solid. And very difficult. For a novce player - Mega Man 1 for the NES is hard! If I had not seen a large spread about its sequel and how fun it looked, I may have never picked up the sequel.

Fortunately, our topic today, Mega Man 2, is not hair-pulling frustrating. The developers listened to complaints of the past game, and removed many frustrating or annoying aspects. This is a polished, super fun game, and I honestly find it to be my favorite MegaMan game ever. There is still room for improvement, so I won't give it a 10 - but the giant leap from 1's gameplay to 2 its like being able to see the game as it was meant to be.

I found out that the first game didn't make much money, but the developers wanted to try again, so they had to work on this game inbetween other assignments. Without pay. It was a labor of love. And man, feel the love in this game. This game is the high mark that I judge all other Mega Man versions. If you have not played this, you most definitely should.


Sound: 10
We are just going to get this out of the way. This soundtrack is legendary. So. Much. Win. I love almost every track on this game (sorry Heat Man!). If you doubt me, pull up youtube and listen to MetalMan's stage, Dr. Wily's Castle 1, or anything. Its just that good.
The sound of Mega Man taking damage sounds metallic, reminding you he is a robot like all the other things you fight. The mass explosions caused by Crash Man (and his weapon you get) is fun as well.


Graphics: 10
The first game had kind of washed out colors, a lot of pale greens, some browns - but this game is visual feast. Everything is bright, the backgrounds are gorgeous, and whoever thought to color the giant Air Tikis bright maroon was onto something. The little robot birds that drop an egg which hatches a dozen little baby robot birds - its quite cartoony - but it works. This is saturday morning cartoons mixed with a sugar rush.

Each enemy destroyed blows up in a fast explosion, showing you your hero's power and reminding you none of these things are real animals or humans. But clearly inspired by them, the robot apes, dogs and ostriches in Wood Man's stage show the imaginatino of the game - and isn't always fun to face off against a 20 ton dog that breathes fire at you? There's quite a few giant, impressive bosses.
Mega Man updates his look when assuming one of his abilities, so you know when its equipped. Bubble Man turns your outfit white and grey, Heat Man is orange and red. All of the power up abilities do this, a neat function.


Depth: 7
Expanding from the first game, we start with 8 bosses to choose from, instead of 6. As in any Mega Man game, the option of fighting them in any order is up to you, and their weapon is yours to use as you will. Some enemies (and bosses) are weaker to certain weapons. Crash Man's weapon has the added benefit of blasting special wall icons away, giving you access to potential shortcuts or health.  There are also special items given from your creator, Dr. Light, that can help you get extra lives and life replenishing Energy Tanks, or overcome any part you might be stuck on. The items (cleverly called 1, 2 and 3) climb walls, provide a hover platform to jump off, or become a horizontal moving fast airjet.Some items seem to have way more uses than others, but at least the option to use them is there.

Megaman may learn all sorts of new powers from bosses and Dr. Light, but his hardware hasn't been upgraded from the first game. He still jumps the same, moves the same, and has no new moves himself. The lack of updating vanilla Mega Man with some new built-in moves is disappointing.


Story: 3
The classic Mega Man games overall suffered from lack of story. This is essentially the same plot as the first game. Evil Dr. Wily has made a TON of robots that are rebelling. You are Mega Man, the creation of Santa-Claus beardy Dr. Light - its up to use to stop the 8 evil robot masters and bring down Wily, who always has a big headquarters that you must work your way through.

Actually, I would score this game's story lower than Mega Man 1 - who at least has reasons for their robots existing, as they had normal robot-type functions before rebelling. Gutsman was a construction worker. Elecman provided power for the city. Mega Man 2 makes no such premise. A guy that looks like a log! Does he plant treese? A guy that flashes! Wait, not that kind of flash. The story is as plain as Wily wants to get revenge on you - and for some reason, he isn't making a base full of lasers to do it with!


Addictiveness: 9
But who cares about the story. This game is pure joy to play. All stages have unique enemies, and offer different thrills. Air Man's stage is high in the clouds, forced to jump on platforms over the long drop down to earth. Bubble Man's stage is right next to a large dam, and you also play most of it underwater! Metal Man's stage is full of gears and drills, and has conveyor belts to slow you down or speed you up.
Once you defeat a boss, you have to try out their power to see how it affect you. Crash Bomb works much like you saw the boss use - but Heat Man's power is something the boss did not use. I wish there were stage elements that would require you use a power to open certain doors or something, but alas, many powers are only useful if you bother to try them in many places.


Difficulty: 4 (3 for veterans of the series)
This is not a hard game, and for people given the cold shoulder by MM1's hard campaign, this is perhaps too far in the opposite direction. You do get the choice of a hader game if you like though, but the energy tanks, item 1-3, and one boss' ultra useful ability makes most of the game trivial if you don't metagame and put restrictions on yourself. (OK- i will play the whole game using no energy tanks, or I will noly use the regular buster weapon). While this game introduces a password, i did not find this every necessary.


Overall: 9.6
Without this game's success, made by a team devoted to giving the fledgling series one more shot to prove itself - we would have been waiting years for a reboot, and who knows how many good sequels we would have missed out on, or if Mega Man would have even looked and played the same. The addition of 8 bosses, energy tanks, password, and Rush the dog - all started here and continued with the franchise.  The creativity of matching music to the themed areas, the bright, popping color - the game looked as good as it sound. I cannot imagine this game looking or sounding better than it does on the NES. It is freaking awesome.

However, despite the innovation and fun, I cannot give it a 10. Mega Man himself somehow escaped an update. We would have to wait for MM3 to see the slide move, and then realize how wonderful it was and should have been included from the start. The boss powers he acquires are ill balanced, some are always useful, some have little use and seem to force to find ways to include them in the game. The game is a 360 from the first game's difficulty, but I found it a bit too easy, even on the hard setting. I would rather play a too easy game over something too difficult - at least you get to see all it offers - but yeah, I often wished for a little more challenge.  Mega Man 2 is still my favorite Mega Man game, and I hope its somewhere on your favorite list too.