The North American cover art for Mega Man 2 is slightly better than for Mega Man, but this Japanese art is still way better.
Mega Man 2. Simply saying the words will get essentially every retro gamer short of breath. One of the finest NES games of all time, the second game in the Mega Man franchise is held up by most as the best in the series. So how did I like it?
The game builds on the brilliance of the first game by adding in a few new features and polishing up some old ones. Mega Man can now get E-tanks, items that he can hold on to and activate when low on health to survive tough boss battles. The game also has 8 robot masters rather than 6, resulting in a longer and more enjoyable experience. To compensate for the longer length, the game has a password system which enables you to pick up where you left off, the most important innovation of any in the series.
As far as polish, the game is simply gorgeous in every way. The sprite work is again excellent, but the backgrounds for each stage are far better than in Mega Man. The game features plenty of bigger sprites, and the tech is mostly capable of handling it. The music for the game is my favorite soundtrack on the NES, bar none. Each stage has a catchy and enjoyable tune, and there are probably five truly exemplary songs on the game. The robot masters are well designed, and several are among the pantheon of the most beloved in series history, including my favorite Air Man, Wood Man, and Metal Man.
Despite the hype, however, Mega Man 2 is not perfect. The game is far too easy for a Mega Man game. Extra lives drop early and often, and the game gives you tons of health and energy drops to make rushing through the game too simple. While the robot masters are tough with the basic arm cannon, once you have their weapon weaknesses, each is a snoozefest. Some bosses can be killed with as few as one hit (charged fire weapon against woodman) from their weakness, and the low degree of invulnerability each boss gets after being hit makes it easy to spam these weapons and rack up quick kills. What's more, the concluding bosses are just as easy. No longer are there challenging humps to get over like the Yellow Devil. Even the end bosses are extremely simple, taking little more than a few attempts to beat. While the difficulty would perhaps be acceptable with limited continues, the unlimited continues in Mega Man 2 make it so that there is little challenge in beating the game.
What's worse, the challenge that does exist in the game is completely arbitrary and based entirely on you knowing what's coming, rather than giving the player any chance. One classic example comes in the section in which you must drop down a stage, avoiding laser beams that will kill you in one hit. If the obstacles aren't navigated nearly perfectly, you'll get killed immediately, and there's no chance to assess the lay of the land and develop a plan. If you never died once on these lasers, I'd be stunned. This is bad level design that does nothing to reward good reflexes or skills, and requires pure rote memorization and replication. But these moments are relatively few, and could be more easily forgiven if they were accompanied by true challenge, which they rarely are.
The game is also plagued by slowdown at times, a function of the increased detail of the stages and enemies, I'm sure. While it's annoying, I find it worth the investment, but wish they'd been able to make it this beautiful without sacrificing the play quality.
So Mega Man 2 is a wonderful creation, but not the perfect creature than many Mega Man fans pretend. It has its warts, but it's really a fun experience that every video game fan should enjoy. I'll give it a 9.5.
My next What I'm Playing probably won't come tomorrow. I just reached Wily Castle in Mega Man 3, so I doubt I'll be able to clear out the entire castle tonight. But I think it safe to say that Monday should bring a review of Mega Man 3 and the definitive resolution of the 2 vs. 3 debate.
-TRO
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