Mega Man 2 (1989)

Preliminary: As always I'm doing the original Japanese version (fan-translated). I'm super excited for this one. After the long, disappointing FF2 grind, I've been ready for an action game. And I've heard great things about this game. Plus the beginning jingle is good. Plus oh wow I swear this is the sprite my friends and I always used for our webcomics. Lol he sure does look happy when he jumps. And I'm already almost done with the Air Man stage, enjoying the tight controls and the feeling of already getting used to shooting at the exact right time to shoot those eggs before the birds drop them etc. I needed a good straightforward action platformer :-p Nice I'm glad they recognized how absolutely easy a password system would be for a game that just simply needs to know how many bosses have been defeated and thus which power-ups. And the tunes continue to be a jam! It seems, however, that the high difficulty I remember from the first Megaman is still there (this is the original Japanese version, mind you), and some damage seems unavoidable.

Day 2

The music is still absolutely incredible, each place so far! Loving the Quick Man stage's music right now. Good thing too, because the difficulty can be quite frustrating. I googled to be sure: yep, the North American "Difficult mode" is this version, the original Japanese version heh. My biggest complaint is the regular enemies just take too many hits, and from what I read, Easy Mode deals with that. I dig it. If only I could play that version >.> Haha. So far, though, with savestates it's far more doable than Megaman 1 which got very frustrating.

Like always I don't like when enemies respawn just cuz I go back a bit. Leave me alone! Haha. And the jump needed to be able to be upgraded higher or something cuz some of these enemies, with the amount of hits they take, it seems impossible not to have to take some damage... But regardless, I'm bobbing my head to the music and only 3 more bosses left before the Fortress boss rush.

Those guys who ride the leaping frog esque machines are so frustrating grrrr. And ugh six Fortress stages this time?! At least the fortress is beautiful (see below) and it becomes a sort of world map! (I would sorta compare the world map aspect to the last world of Mario 3 which was released a few months before this)

The first fortress level music is so good! Thank goodness for the good music cuz these bird enemies and lots of the enemy mechanics and antics of having to use up your Item 1-3 energy frustrates the heck out of me.

Dang Dr. Wily needs to get his water checked.

Oh and this is what I mean about the world map aspect

Truth is, I was only having fun thanks to copious use of savestates. And I really wish I had the Easy Mode where the enemies take fewer hits. The difficulty really bogs down the fun. I guess I'm just not an early Megaman guy. That being said, the music is great, the sprites and characters nostalgic, it's technically well-made just very difficult, and I still was hooked to it. So by no means a bad game, just too difficult for me. I left off at Wily Fortress 5, so I should for sure finish it tomorrow! But for now it's movie and sleep time.

Day 3

I was hoping for some new tunes in the final 2 stages with Dr. Wily directly there. The Boss Rush was done better this time, and it seems that became the new norm (choose teleporters to go to each) for the series. I wish the teleporters were marked (are they?)... and this game is just way too hard for me to claim I enjoy it. I had to use a Continue to replenish my special weapons and a ridiculous number of savestate abuses. However, I did like the concept and format of the final fortress stage, the red acid dripping was difficult but I was able to learn it and avoid it without it feeling overly hard or tacky.

Wow okay but only one weapon works on the final Dr. Wily boss.... now that is tacky heh. I'm not doing another Continue to replenish. I'm cheating at this point. Not a good sign that I wasn't willing to play back through these few fortress stages, but also a good sign that I didn't just rage quit right then and there. And thank goodness for strategywiki to specify which weapon works... I'd be grumpy having to test each one. I know I know, this is how they encouraged replayability back then, but with the already existing high difficulty and way too many hitpoints for regular enemies to fall (again, this is the original Japanese version, so the Difficult Mode for NA version), just no.

This boss is obnoxiously hard. Your jump is just way too limited. There should've been more upgrades. Maybe I should try the Items, but who has time for that when his damage does an insane amount each time and his projectiles (which are an incredibly lame graphic) look a lot like the stars in the bland background? I tried to get a screenshot to joke "Play Find the High-Damage Projectile" but the projectiles are super fast-paced so I couldn't get one. One positive I learned tho, at least he shoots the fast projectiles at seemingly set intervals so once I got used to those, I just knew to always move/jump right then.... But also trying to time that with the odd Bubble arch was a lot. Thanks to savestates, at last I beat it

Nice even tho there wasn't a sweet final boss/final stages change of tunes, the final credits screen had a nice tune. and great Look.

It went through all the different boss themes (that one above is Wood Man's/the Leaf Shield) and then ended with this nice dramatic screen

Look: 8/10 This gets a bit of a boost from my nostalgia for early 2000s webcomics. (not even sure if it was specifically this Megaman, but that's what came to mind). Plus, great ending screens and level settings. For the most part though, just functional and good.

Sound: 8.5/10 Some really great jams. Nothing quite spectacular or sentimental though, but bordering on C64 quality music. Very high quality for NES, that is.

Play: 7/10 I can't deny I got hooked to the classic action platforming, but it also was way too hard and I had to resort to borderline cheating with savestates. I wonder if I would enjoy the NA Easy Mode more.

Feel: 7.5/10 Great Look and Sound, and the usual action platformer hook, contribute to a great Feel. However, frustrating regular enemy mechanics and respawning mean it can't be that cozy 8+ Feel I look for.

Attachment: 7.5/10 Again, I can't deny the Sound and nostalgia and technically high-quality gameplay (controls were responsive, only a few instances of sprite flicker, etc.), so I give this a slight boost. But how often I will want to replay this era of Megaman games is questionable. Maybe the NA release, so really this maybe should be an 8 for Attachment. I will boost it if I do end up satisfying that itch to try the Easy Mode version to see if I enjoy the Play more that way.

Overall: 7.7/10

Completion: Main Story

Capcom capcom, grandes pedradas que ela lançava com suas sequências, não? Vejamos, Street Fighter II, Resident Evil 2... Dino Crisis? Enfim, ela sabe o que está fazendo, e isso conta com Mega Man 2.

É facilmente visível as melhoras no jogo como um todo, como sua dificuldade mais nivelada, fases mais divertidas e memoráveis, chefes inesquecíveis e sua freaking abertura inesquecível.

Jogo charmoso e divertido, aproveitei cada hora dele... E vai se foder Woodman, os babacas que dizem pra vencer ele primeiro tem que ir pra casa do caralho.

I threw this on to test my new NES ever drive and ended up playing through the whole thing. Man what a good game! I was surprised how easy it was. I don't think I had a very efficient route and a lot of the bosses I ended up just beating with Mega Man's regular gun. The last time I played it was on an emulator on a PSP as a kid with heavy use of save states in the back of my dad's jeep. My only criticism is that it could be a little more challenging and that boss where you fight the turrets requires you to have full ammo for one of your guns which I didn't love.

super sick game tbh, definitely deserves all the hype it gets. This is the only classic Mega Man game I've beaten and I'm looking to trying more. Which one should I play next?

Game #48/200 I may have inadvertently started a classic Mega Man side quest, with this being my second Mega Man title completed in a short burst. I dare to say that classic Mega Man (maybe all Mega Man, tbh) is my most nostalgic series. It's so interesting replaying these titles without rose tinted glasses and seeing that, even this game which is commonly considered the best Mega Man title, these games were not impeccable by any stretch of the imagination. 2 is an obvious improvement over 1 (something I had honestly contested up until yesterday), with every area of game design being better. While I actually felt 1 had pretty strong level design and great ideas, I do think there are massive improvements in 2's stages. Besides just being more of them, there are some really fun segments throughout, like Bubble Man's spiny underwater section or Air Man's above-the-clouds precarious platforming bits. I definitely have to critique the game's power-ups, in which Metal Man's power destroys several levels AND bosses too easily. I actually opted not to use it in many situations where it would have benefited me because it felt too cheap. There were a lot of cool ideas though - Wood Man's power providing a shield and the time freeze power being two of them - and the diversity of power ups made switching through them pretty fun. Honestly though, this game was a little too easy. Bosses get torn through by power ups, and the difficult bosses (the dragon, the penultimate Wily fight, and that stupid glob boss) were such bullshit fights where either you cannot win without a certain amount of weapon energy or you're auto-killed by a dragon appearing on your screen suddenly. Definitely not huge problems, but once again, the experience was pretty unbalanced. The core gameplay loop though is very satisfying, if not part of an all too short overall experience. Here is hoping Mega Man 3 is a more even experience that corrects some of my complaints.

Oh yeah, and SOMEHOW, the music is even better in this title than the first! Definitely in the top, top tier of 8-bit tunes.

Beat on difficult. I know I played this way back in the 90s but cannot remember if I actually beat it then. I love the core Mega Man gameplay loop of choosing the order to fight the bosses, trying to guess which ones are weak to which weapon, and using those weapons to make the stages easier. For whatever reason, woodman jumped out at me to attack first. Wood is a pretty weak element, how bad could he be? I got through the stage fine but woody himself got me well acquainted with the checkpoint save system, which was an excellent mechanic. I loaded the state upon game over though, so not sure how continues worked; probably just had to restart the stage. I slowed the speed down to 30 frames per second and managed to scrape through without losing any lives. I put the speed back up to normal until I found a drop spike trap area that made my Sprite disappear, though it was fine at slow motion. I left the rest of the game slow since it was more fun. Next was Bubble man because bubbles sounded weak. Damn instant death spikes in that stage, though the boss was not difficult. The leaf shield came in handy for some enemies that approached at odd angles so I could kill them with contact damage. The bubbles went low so were good for clearing enemies on lower elevations while also hurting some armored enemies that the standard shot could not. Then I fought Heat man because I figured he surely would be weak to bubbles, and yes kicked his ass easily. The stage was not easy though, taking a lot of save state scumming to get past those stupid disappearing blocks. The rocket sled thing would skip that. I never used the hear shot during the stages because it was just like the standard shot only it could charge up to front load damage. I could see that being good for certain tougher enemies. Next was Metal man because I figured heat would melt metal. So such luck, but he was not too difficult. His blades were very cool because they could be aimed in any direction. Then Air man as he seemed the weakest of the remaining. I guessed that wood was the closest to earth and that earth would beat air, which was correct. However his air attacks blocked my shots and were extremely difficult to get past without getting hurt. I would dread fighting him with just the normal shot. Air shot was great for hitting enemies at higher elevations, even through floors and walls. Then quick man as I figured air would be fast enough to beat him. Both he and his stage were the hardest of the 8. I had to spend a life to get back to the checkpoint as I saved state in a no win situation. I had to then make several attempts through those beam screens to find the flawless route through, which I would not have needed with the time freeze power. The boss was extremely difficult to avoid and I had to use an E tank to heal. Beat him with a mix of heat and air. I only used boomerang for a couple later bosses, but it could be handy for hitting enemies at slightly different elevations. By this time I knew that flash was quick's weakness so I did Crash man next. He was easily killed with air and I only used the bombs for 1 boss later. Last was Flashman, who was easy.

According to a walkthrough the optimal order through the stages was: metal, flash, quick, wood, air, crash, bubble, heat. I would move quick to after air. Then I did the end game. I got stuck at a point where I had to create 4 floating platforms because I had been pressing the turbo button which most often put 2 platforms down at the same time. Then some save state scumming to get past the free fall with instant death spikes. The guide said to beat the cannons by destroying the barriers then deliberately dying and restoring crash bomb energy, but I did it in 1 go. I did need to use an E tank. The 2nd form of dr. Wily was tough due to his shots moving up and down, but I powered through. Then the final form I was forced to only use bubble shot. I did not like how the late bosses could only be hurt by 1 or 2 weapons. Those fights should have been more drawn out with opportunity to use every weapon.

This was one of the best games on the NES with a good balance of action, difficulty and strategy around boss order and use of special weapons. The 3 platforming "weapons" were cool but should have had more creative names than "item 1, item 2". Perhaps the special weapons could have used some balance, but they were all fun to use. The boss gauntlet at the end was a great way to try out every weapon to see which was best for each boss, for better planning for the next playthrough. My only real gripe about the game was the excessively difficult platforming at certain points. I would have preferred more combat and less platforming. It had some banging music too; I even let the Wily castle stage theme play for a while in the pause menu.

9.0/10

Mega Man 2 - Beloved classic and arguably one of the best action platformers of all time. This game was very difficult and often frustrating for me as a kid, but I still loved everything about it. I remember lying awake at night wondering what some of the bosses and later parts would look like. The revelation, sitting on the living room floor, that some of the bosses adapted attacks would work better or worse against another boss - mind, blown.

The music, level design and its rewarding difficulty is all timeless, still holds up, and while the original left a few things to be desired, the sequel definitely brought it home and still inspires gamers to this day and challenges new generations to play through it. I find myself humming the tunes every now and then as it never really leaves my mind. I recently played it again in the Mega Man Anniversary Collection as I'm playing through the series one more time, happily frustrated.

At first I worried I might like this game much more in theory than in practice. The early goings felt underwhelming at times, and I am left thinking of an alternate universe game that interests me more. But it's a memorable game that delivered some fun ideas, great music, and enjoyable challenges by the end.

The core of the classic Mega Man formula is a set of 8 levels, which can be tackled in any order and grant special abilities that may be very useful elsewhere. It's a great idea and makes routing your way through the game an interesting concept for replayability.

But because it's so open-ended, my abilities rarely seemed to mean very much in the levels themselves for much of the game. They can't, really, at least not like they do in Metroid or Zelda. If they did, it would inherently constrain the order. But a couple like Quick Man and Flash Man's levels did show the possibility of some cool interactions with your abilities, and I enjoyed those a lot more.

The main benefit to getting things in a certain order ends up being bosses' weaknesses to certain other bosses' attacks. Cool idea, but it's balanced and implemented in a way that often feels anticlimactic. You delete most of these bosses with just a few shots once you've selected the right weapon.

I wish they'd come up with more interesting interactions like the fight against Quick Man. Here, a time-stopping ability from Flash Man freezes him and drains a big chunk of his health. You get a big advantage, but it feels like a lot less of an auto-win than some other fights.

I imagine stuff like, maybe instead of erasing a third of Heat Man's health, the Bubble Man attack could just make him unable to shoot fire for some time. Part of the problem is that to switch abilities, you have to pause the game while none of your attacks are currently active. It feels a bit awkward for the flow of combat and exploration, and limits fun possibilities for swapping around mid-fight.

The later parts of the game (including a couple harder levels from the initial 8 like the aforementioned Quick and Flash) tend to be more interesting than the rest. They build nicely on some earlier ideas, and can be quite challenging in a fun way.

I found the main missteps later on to be two bosses in the final area. The fight against "Boobeam Trap"... I just imagine Angry Video Game Nerd's "What were they thinking?!". And the last one has you stuck using by far the game's worst-feeling weapon for a really tough encounter, which kinda sucks.

Overall, though, I was pleasantly surprised at how beatable the game was, compared to my expectations. I found it refreshing that I could find healing items so easily, for example, after just playing more brutal games like Castlevania and Ninja Gaiden. This game ends up being a pretty fun time almost the whole way through that is a solid entrypoint to this sort of retro platforming action.

I started going through the Mega Man games for the first time yesterday. I beat the first and now I just beat the 2nd.

Wow! Even better than the first in almost every aspect. The lack of a pause glitch makes the game harder which introduced me to the difficulty that these games are famous for. (Yes I used the pause glitch in Mega Man 1 Fight me)

Can't wait to play Mega Man 3

4/5

This is an excellent sequel. It took everything great about the original Mega Man and built upon it, while eliminating some of more tedious parts. For comparison, it took me almost 5 hours over the span of 2 1/2 months to beat Mega Man, whereas Mega Man 2 took me 2 1/2 hours over the span of 5 days. Big difference.

Granted, I played on Normal mode, rather than Difficult mode, but that's one of the great improvements: setting your own difficulty level. I feel like for a newcomer, Mega Man 2 is a better place to start than Mega Man 1.

This is the classic, definitive Mega Man, and also the only one I've played to completion. It's sad it took me this long to find, play, and beat a Mega Man game, but here we are.

Mega Man 2 is a great start for newcomers and also enjoyable for hardcore Mega Man veterans. It's not too hard, but several sections can be infuriating (Heat Man and the disappearing blocks). The final boss I found easier than any of the Robot Masters, but it was still a good finish.

History:

This was one of my favorite, if not my actual favorite, games as a kid, right there with Mega Man 3. I'll never forget Air Man and Bubble Man's stages and even now various music tracks from the game are running through my head. It's been over a decade since last I played it, and I'm looking forward to playing it again. Additionally, the copy I'll be playing was my actual copy of the game from ~25 years ago, so there's that, too!

Expectations:

I beat Mega Man 3, so I should be able to get through this one as well. Either way, it's gonna be awesome.

Day 1:

And I'm off! Metal Man was the first boss I decided to take down and... it was all pretty easy. Metal Blade in arm I then set off to go collecting more weapons!

I forgot how much I love the stages and music in this game. I also forgot exactly how this one plays. Mega Man 3's gameplay was air tight, whereas Mega Man 2 is somewhere between the third entry and first. You don't quite have the momentum you do in Mega Man, but you don't stop on a dime like you do in Mega Man 3 either. If i had to compare it to something, I'd so it handles almost like Super Mario Bros.

Still, it's tight enough to feel great, and i'm able to make short work of Flash Man and Quick Man.

When most people think about Mega Man 2 the first thing to pop into their head is Air Man's stage. For me, however, it's Bubble Man's level, and the accompanying track. I don't know what it was about this stage that made it stick with so strongly over the years. It could have been the transition from navigating a waterfall to running around underwater and back again, or those crazy frogs and fish... Either way, still a great level.

Speaking of Air Man...

I really wish I could get better action shots, but these will have to do. I remember everyone complaining about Crash Man back then, but for some reason Air Man proved the most challenging for me, at least in so far as coming the closest to actually killing me!

I saved Heat Man for last so I could cheat and use Crash Bombs and Weapon 2, making his stage MUCH easier.

After that it was off to Wily's castle and that oh so amazing music! I had a great time fighting that crazy dragon and dropping in on that wall... boss... thing... I did finally manage to die against the wall turrets boss as I ran out of Crash Bomb ammo and had to restock. I'm curious as to what the "right" way to handle that encounter is, so as only to need one attempt.

The boss gauntlet, my favorite part of every Wily's castle! After putting all the robot masters down for a second time it was off to fight Wily a few times!

The first two forms were very easy, just spamming buster cannon shots and boomerangs, and the thirst form just required some patience... and some bubbles...

I forgot that this was how the last fight ended, and literally laughed out loud.

Mega Man wins. Wily grovels. All is right in the world.

Conclusion:

I knew Mega Man 2 was going to be a one-nighter, but I didn't expect to be done in under an hour! While I'd love to say everything leading up to this point just made me incredibly good at video games, the truth is Mega Man 2 is, all things considered, a pretty easy game.

It's an amazing game, and there's still challenges to be found, but I'd have to say it's right about on par with Mega Man X in terms of difficulty, if not even easier.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, either. If I had to kill a bit of time and I had a Mega Man itch, I think I'd still take this one over Mega Man 3 any day. The slight drop in difficulty means I can relax a little and just have fun playing the game, rather than having my attention at 100% focus. Add to that the fantastic music and great 8-bit graphics, and the experience as a whole is immensely enjoyable. It's hard to think up too many complaints with this game. While it doesn't lag like Mega Man 3 the sprite flicker can get really crazy. In addition, the bosses tend to be WAY too easy in relation to their stages. Regardless, 25 years later and I still love this game!

Liked:

- While not pixel perfect, the controls where tight enough to create exceptional platforming experiences that were both fun and rewarding.
- Music is possibly best in series.
- Stages are all fun and unique, as are their robot masters.
- This was the game that really defined trends seen throughout Mega Man's 8 and 16 bit lifespan.
- Game was not so difficult as to require laser focus, allowing for a more fun, relaxed experience.

Disliked:

- Bosses tended to be way too easy, often going down in 1-2 hits from the right weapon.
- Sprite flicker could get really intense.

Personal Score: