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.

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:

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

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.