Mega Man 2

Mega Man 2
NA CoverEU Cover,JP CoverPlayStation (Rockman Complete Work 2) Mega Man gets even better!
Protagonist(s): Mega Man Genre(s): Platformer Action Platform(s): Nintendo Entertainment System PlayStation Mobile iOS Android Release Date: Famicom/NES JP: December 24, 1988 NA: June 2, 1989 PAL: December 14, 1990 PlayStation JP: September 2, 1999 Mobile phone NA: June 2007 iOS NA: March 26, 2009 Android WW: January 5, 2017 Developer(s): Capcom Publisher(s): Capcom Country: Japan Series: Mega Man Predecessor: Mega Man Successor: Mega Man 3

"So we, of our own accord, got together, spent our own time, we worked really, really hard, you know, just 20-hour days to complete this, because we were making something we wanted to make. Probably in all my years of actually being in a video game company, that was the best time of my working at Capcom, because we were actually working toward a goal, we were laying it all on the line, we were doing what we wanted to do. And it really showed in the game, because it’s a game, once again, that we put all our time and effort and love, so to speak, into it, designing it."

— Keiji Inafune, April 2004

Mega Man 2, known as Rockman 2: Dr. Wily no Nazo (ロックマン2 Dr.ワイリーの謎 Rokkuman 2: Dr. Wairī no Nazo, which translates to "The Mystery of Dr. Wily") in Japan, is the second game of the Mega Man series. The game was released in Japan on December 24, 1988, and in North America and PAL regions the following years.

Plot

In the year 200X (the first decade of the 21st century), a super robot named Mega Man was created by Dr. Light to stop the mysterious evil genius Dr. Wily's ambition to conquer the world in Mega Man. However, one year after his defeat, Dr. Wily returns on June 9 with eight of his own combat robots to challenge Mega Man. Mega Man, learning this, set out to defeat the eight Robot Masters which Dr. Wily had created, having to traverse their respective stages first.

Why It Mega Rocks

1. Like with Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles, the most impressive part about this game was how it was able to be completed in just four months, yet it still managed to be pitch perfect.
2. The game has eight robot masters to choose from compared to six in the first game, which, like last time, can be tackled in any order. That is also a major step up from the first game, and the eight robot master setup became a standard in later Mega Man games.
3. The graphics are very great for a NES game made in 1988; much like Ninja Gaiden on the NES, the game looks like a 16-bit game despite being on an 8-bit console. The graphics are also even better and have improved from the first game, which had good graphics but was not as detailed as this one.
   • It's also extremely colorful, and it's also added life to the game, despite being very good already; in fact, it's one of the best-looking NES games of 1988 due to how good the graphics are.
   • No matter what stage you are in, the game will never look bad, like Mega Man Zero (which was released later in 2002 for the GBA).
4. The controls are improved from the first game; Mega Man is no longer stiff to controls, and he isn't as slippery as he was in the first game. It's also added to the reason why this game is so good and a huge improvement over the first game; later Mega Man games will even improve the controls even more than this game, like Mega Man 8.
5. This game introduces the Energy Tank item to the Mega Man franchise; it's allows a player to refill Mega Man’s health at any time, which is an incredible cool feature of the series, and it's helpful when you have trouble with enemies or some boss fight.
6. The soundtrack is phenomenal for a NES game made in 1988, especially for its time. In fact, it's so good that the soundtrack of the game is considered to be some of the best soundtracks of any NES game. This includes, but is not limited to:
   • Air Man theme, which became one of the most iconic musics from not only the NES library but also in the entire gaming history, also fits the stage itself, and it's one of the best musics of the game.
   • Bubble Man theme is also very good and fits the stage, especially in the underwater section; it's also unique in itself.
   • The boss battle theme sounds very great and is one of the best boss battle music of all time ; it's also sound epic, though not as much as Dr. Wily Castle 1.
   • Dr Wily Castle 1 is one of, if not the greatest, songs of the game, as it's very epic and, along with the Air Man theme, one of the most iconic pieces of music in gaming history. It's also unforgettable, even for a Mega Man game.
7. To this day, Mega Man 2 is considered one of the best video games ever made, and for good reasons due to how great the game is.
8. The game introduces a password system, so you can continue the game where you left off without having to beat the game in one sitting.
9. A much more balanced difficulty than its predecessor (but still challenging). The international version even adds an option to choose between two difficulties: normal and difficult. In normal mode, the weapons do double damage to the bosses.
   • In fact, the game is more fun than the first because of this main reason; it's also another improvement over the first game.
10. Great Robot Master designs like Quick Man, Flash Man, Metal Man, and Crash Man—in fact, these robot masters look better than most robot masters in the first game due to how great they were designed.
11. It removed the pointless score system from the first game, even though some people would maybe like to get that score system back.
12. The final stage, Wily's Castle, is longer than the first Mega Man, with six stages in total.
13. The stages are creative and exciting and an improvement over the first Mega Man game on the NES, as they were designed much better than the first Mega Man game.
14. It saved the series from being abandoned by Capcom, as the previous game sold very poorly and a sequel was very unlikely to happen, but the team behind the first game wanted to make a sequel and believed Mega Man had some potential, and since the developers put so much care into the final product, it resulted in this sequel receiving positive reviews and also becoming the best-selling game in the series until Mega Man 11 surpassed it in 2018, thus making Mega Man the mascot of Capcom and one of the most important video game franchises of all time.
15. Creative and fun boss battles (except for the Boobeam trap and Wily Alien Boss fights).
16. The ending is entertaining and an improvement over the first Mega Man on NES.
17. The weapons are much better than the first Mega Man game on NES (despite most of them being already good).
    • The Metal Blade is very strong, since it can fire in eight directions and deals massive damage to enemies, and has a lot of ammo.
    • The Quick Boomerang is also a good weapon, since it can deal a good amount of damage to enemies and serves very handy in defeating certain bosses.
    • The Air Shooter can be very good at taking down airborne enemies and has good damage output overall.
    • Crash Bomber is very useful at destroying certain areas in the game, and is important to use to defeat The Boobeam Trap.
    • The new utility items are also a welcome improvement over the previous entry's sole Magnet Beam. This time you have them unlocked after defeating certain bosses with items like a flying lift (Item 1), a jet platform to cross gaps (Item 2) or a climbing platform (Item 3).

Bad Qualities

1. The game was a victim of rushing; notwithstanding, it turned out to be one of the best games on the NES, making the next point happen.
2. Not all the boss fights are well-constructed.
   • The Boobeam Trap boss fight is extremely poorly designed. The player has to use the Crash Bomb to destroy the purple orbs on the walls that fire almost impossible-to-dodge (unless you glitch the game by constantly pausing and unpausing, which gives you invincibility frames) lasers, as well as two of the five breakable walls. The problem with this is that the player only has seven shots with the Crash Bomb, and all seven are needed to win. So if you mess up, you have to either grind for Crash Bomb energy (which takes absolutely forever and is not worth the effort) or intentionally get a game over to try the boss again!
   • You can only use Bubble Lead to defeat the final boss in the game. If you use anything else, you will give the boss full health. Even worse, if you run out of Bubble Lead during the final stage, you need to get the game over since there are no ways to refill your Bubble Lead energy.
   • Some of the Robot Masters are perhaps too difficult without using their weakness. Air Man is infamously tricky as he scatters his tornadoes in the arena in which you must have precise timing to dodge. Quick Man in his normal stage is a tough boss with a random jumping pattern and his fast boomerangs that are tricky to avoid while he zooms across the screen.
3. Dr. Wily is kept as a villain for this game and other games afterwards, even though there are subtle hints of him changing from being a villain into a hero or anti-hero.
4. Just like its predecessor, the US cover art is awful, though at least it's more accurate than the first.
   • Speaking of which, one of the European box arts is even worse. Mega Man looked more like a Silver Terminator than a Blue Bomber.
5. Quick Man's Stage is infamous for its unbearable difficulty. Above, in the laser part where it's the unbearable difficulty, you can use the time stopper to go through it easily, which helps you not die from that.
6. You can get hit by enemies you didn’t see coming, just like in the original Mega Man.
7. Poor weapon balance:
   • The Metal Blade is too overpowered, being capable of being shot in eight directions and having a whopping 112 shots of energy before running out of it.
   • The Bubble Lead is considered to be one of the worst weapons in the franchise, as it deals low damage and dings off many enemies, being only effective against Heat Man and the final boss.
   • The Crash Bomb deals weak damage for its energy cost.
8. Speaking of weapons, the Atomic Fire, Leaf Shield, and Time Stopper are also bad weapons.
   • The Atomic Fire takes half of the ammo when fully charged, and the uncharged blasts deal poor damage.
   • The Time Stopper makes the player unable to make Mega Man switch weapons or shoot enemies, you cannot toggle once activated. It doesn't help that if you use it against the force beams in Quick Man's stage, you won't have enough for the boss because you used all your weapon energy in one go on the stage! It also drains way too quickly too, making it very hard to use even against the lasers in Quick Man's stage.
   • The Leaf Shield only stays on if Mega Man does not move at all. It's not a shield that can block attacks either; then again, the Fire Storm from the first Mega Man game doesn't block either, but the Leaf Shield isn't as good of an offensive weapon as the Fire Storm is.
9. The game's password system is overly convoluted, thankfully, this would be rectified with Mega Man 3 onwards, giving a much simpler password system.
10. E-Tanks do not save upon losing all lives, particularly detrimental in the fortress stages where E-Tanks are scarce.

Reception

With more than 1.5 million copies sold, the game is the best-selling Mega Man title. Critics praised its audio, visuals, and gameplay as an improvement over the first game. Many publications rank Mega Man 2 as the best title in the series and as one of the greatest video games of all time. In the last issue of the gaming magazine Nintendo Power, released in December 2012, Mega Man 2 was ranked the 6th-best game released on a Nintendo platform.

Trivia

• The "Town Mission 4" music from Sonic '06 has been compared to Flash Man's theme here due to the two songs having similar tunes.
• This is the only installment to have only one theme for all bosses, even the final boss, Alien.
• Dr. Wily's stage is shown in the stage select screen but can't actually be selected. The player automatically goes to it after defeating the eight bosses.
• Roll is not present in the base version for the NES. However, she appears as the navigator in Navi Mode in the Rockman Complete Works and Mega Man Anniversary Collection versions.
• Bosses have a short invulnerability period after receiving damage, allowing the player to quickly deplete their health with the Mega Buster. However, many can't be hit multiple times due to the way they act.
• This is the first Mega Man game to:
  • Include a wise castle.
  • Have difficulty setting.
  • Have Dr. Wily create his own set of robot masters instead of using someone else's.
  • Feature the standard eight robot masters instead of six from the first game.
  • Use Robot Master mugshots instead of their sprites.
• Use Robot Master mugshots instead of their sprites.
  • Have the "Teleport System" when encountering the Robot Masters (the original game had teleporters, but you had to do them in a set order).
  • Have energy tanks, although the player could only carry four instead of nine as in later NES (and NES-style) games.
• The North American cover art of the game is referenced in Resident Evil: Resistance; one of the sprays in the game is a direct reference to the art with the words "Mega Martin 2".
• Many ideas that were not used in the original Mega Man game, due to cart size limitations, were recycled for Mega Man 2.
• This game and Mega Man 3 are the only ones from Mega Man to Mega Man 11 to use a final boss other than the Wily Machine or Wily Capsule.
• Quick Man's stage is taken from this game and is used as Dr. Wily's fortress stage in the Game Gear Mega Man game.
  • Also, Shadow Devil's stage in Mega Man X5 and QuickMan. EXE's stage in Mega Man Network Transmission is similar to Quick Man's stage.
• Despite the original Mega Man having an alternate music track for fortress bosses, Mega Man 2 lacks this feature, something not repeated for Mega Man 3 but brought back for Mega Man 4-6 and 8-9. (Although in the latter cases, there was a separate music track for the final boss, whereas in Mega Man 2, the boss music is the same for all bosses.)
• Like the first game, using a Game Genie on Mega Man 2 will cause the music to be riddled with quirks and odd sounds.
• Despite the original Mega Man having an alternate music track for fortress bosses, Mega Man 2 lacks this feature, something not repeated for Mega Man 3 but brought back for Mega Man 4-6 and 8-9. (Although in the latter cases, there was a separate music track for the final boss, whereas in Mega Man 2, the boss music is the same for all bosses.)
• Like the first game, using a Game Genie on Mega Man 2 will cause the music to be riddled with quirks and odd sounds.
• Flash Man and Bubble Man are the only two robot masters from Mega Man 2 who did not appear in the Ruby-Spears Mega Man cartoon. Also, Flash Man is the only robot master from the game absent in Captain N: The Game Master.
• In the stage select screen, if the player holds the A button and chooses a stage, the stars that sit behind the presentation of the boss will turn into pipis.
• At Wily Stage 5's boss rematches, if the player defeats a boss while not moving from the spot when teleported in, a glitch will occur, and the boss' life meter will freeze and turn green momentarily, letting the player go. It's easiest to do this glitch with Flash Man or Metal Man.
• This game was the first to have more than four Wily Stages. Mega Man 3 and 10 would repeat this later on.
• A player can warp to a glitched version of the Wily Stages via the boss room of four Robot Masters in order of level. They are (in order in which stage the level shares data): Heat Man (Wily Stage 1), Air Man (Wily Stage 2), Wood Man (Wily Stage 3), and Bubble Man (Wily Stage 4). All except Heat Man require Item-1 to perform the glitch.
• Promotional art for Marvel vs. Capcom Origins is heavily inspired by the U.S. boxart of the game.
• At the end of Crash Man's stage, before the shutter, there is a pattern of stars in the background that resemble the constellation Big Dipper.
• Wood Man's stage is given the name Titanium Park in the Archie Comics Mega Man series. Issue 55 of the series would also feature the design of Mega Man from the European cover of this game in its Short Circuits, which saw several different Mega Man characters and different versions of them appear.
• Keji Inafune expressed a desire to remake Mega Man 2, similar to Mega Man Powered Up, but stated that such a project was dependent on the commercial success of the latter.
• This is the only game in the franchise to be included on the NES Classic Edition.
• Mega Man 2 is one of the video games that appear in the film The Wizard.

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