Mega Man 2, "The Mystery of Dr. Wily"

The first Mega Man game through word of mouth was a bit of a sleeper hit. People loved the game, but it was a bit hard to find, and didn't quite sell as well as Capcom had hoped. Still, it was enough to push on for a sequel using left over content not used in the previous game, as well as adding a few more things that would become staples of the series for years to come.

Mega Man 2 is almost universally recognized as the best Mega Man game of all time, and many people consider the best game of all time. The game sold much better than it's predecessor, and it help build Capcom into the multi-million dollar company it is today.

If you've never touched a Mega Man game, this is the one to play.

New Features

• 8 Robot Masters instead of 6
• A password system
• A new energy refilling pick up called the E-Tank
• The Robot Master Re-fights now consists of 8 teleporters before the final encounter with Wily
• Mega Man is much less slidey while walking
• Levels are not re-visitable anymore
  
• Score has been removed
• Spikes are not instant kill while the player is blinking from the Invulnerability time after taking damage

Story
Dr. Wily takes on his revenge from the last game and builds 8 new Robot Masters to take over the world. He deploys his team of Quick Man, Metal Man, Bubble Man, Heat Man, Air Man, Flash Man, Crash Man and Wood Man to various locations in which Mega Man must teleport to and stop them.

Eventually Mega Man catches up to Wily and captures him after destroying his latest machines. These games aren't meant for Pulitzers here people.

Aesthetics
Mega Man 2 is a much more colorful, brighter game than Mega Man 1. The levels look so much better with new environments, better backgrounds, and new enemies with a little more creativity behind them. You'll be attacked by fire spewing robot dogs, egg dropping birds, giant fan men, jester looking things riding cogs, etc. Compared to the last game, this one is a visual masterpiece. This is also the first Mega Man game with an opening cutscene.

Not much else has changed though. The animation is on par with the last game and we won't see any graphical improvements on Mega Man himself for a while.

Sound
Mega Man 2 is one of the best soundtracks to a video game ever made. The tunes just rock from each and every level. Few games come close to how good the music is for this game, let alone other Mega Man games. Don't be surprised if you find yourself humming some of these songs to yourself over and over again. While they are all great, in particular Wily 1 and 2, and the opening theme, tend to get the highest accolades from most of the fans. I personally think Mega Man 2 is one of the reasons Capcom eventually decided to put all of their games' music on CD's to buy. Nobody in the business does music better than Capcom.

Aside from the music, the sound is pretty much identical to Mega Man, but what do you expect from the NES?

Design
Of all the Mega Man games, this one is just designed the best. Almost all the weapons are useful in some way or another, and the stages are blended nicely to make use of them for each situation. The boss patterns are also a lot easier to figure out compared to the more random patterns of the first game.

That's not to say there aren't some dick moves and shitty weapons though. Crash Bomb is useless in every situation except the few it was shoe horned in to (more on that in a bit), and Quick Man's stage is the recurring nightmare of every Mega Man novice. Instant Death lasers come flying in from both sides of the screen giving the player very little reflex time to make it through the stage. There is no way to beat this your first time through, it's impossible. You'll just have to memorize the route you'll need to take. Luckily, you can use Flash Stopper to make this section incredibly easier, keeping it from being nearly impossible without direct memorization. Look at the screenshot... I'm about to die there.

The other real bullshit move is against the boss of Wily stage 3, The Boo Beam. My god... fuck that boss. This boss only takes damage from Crash Bomb and requires you to fire at it with at least 5 out of the 7 shots of you have available. It's also practically impossible to dodge without using a glitch as it shoots shots that home in on you from every direction in the room, all fired at the same time. Oh, and if you fuck up and die on this boss, you'll need to refill all your weapon energy up again to take him down. This is the worst designed boss in any Mega Man game, ever.

Thank god for E-tanks, which make the hardest parts of future Mega Man games so much easier. One of these babies will refill your health to full, essentially giving you a second chance mid-battle to deal with the trickiest of sections. Without this, the Boo Beam fight would have been a game breaker to all but the most skilled players.

There's also disappearing blocks in Heat Man's stage, but thanks to a utility weapon you earn from defeating Air Man called Item 2, you can bypass that section entirely. For the shit the game throws at you, it gives you some pretty good options to get past them. This is probably the best game design wise barring the Boo Beam fight in the series.

Playability
Control is a bit tighter this time around since Mega Man doesn't slide everywhere, and the usefulness of the weapons keeps any section from being too terribly difficult. Generally if you have a problem at some point, odds are you can find something to help you.

Glitches and bugs wise the game is a lot cleaner as well, but still has a few issues. You can use the pause menu to reset Mega Man's momentum in mid air, making some longer jumps possible, or even take the brief invincibility of the animation to dodge shots taken at you. The controls are smooth and tight like they need to be.

Extras

• There's no backtracking in this game so choosing a route this time means planning for how you want to deal with the challenges each level offers. Having Item-2 means getting across large gaps such as Heat Man's stage without any trouble. Flash Stopper has about a million uses, but it's a must have against Quick Man's lasers if you haven't memorized the route. Only Quick Man himself is particularly tough to buster duel in this game, so base your choices around the stages. My route is Air Man, Flash Man, Quick Man, Metal Man, Bubble Man, Heat Man, Wood Man, Crash Man. This ensures I have item 2 and Flash Stopper right away, while getting Metal Blade halfway through as well.
• Speaking of Metal Blade, once you get it you can practically throw away the plasma cannon. It has a huge number of shots, aims in any direction, and kills most things faster than the P-shooter as well.
• We all know the Flash Stopper works well against Quick Man's level, but have you tried it to get past the falling crushers in Metal Man's stage? In Wood Man's stage you can use Flash Stopper before encountering the Hot Dogs to keep them from spawning at all. Flash Stopper when applied correctly is a speed runners dream.
• Air Man's weakness is Wood Shield, but it's usually faster to just shoot him with the P-Cannon since the wood shield bounces off of Air Man's air shooter attack.
• The Mecha Dragon can be a pain in the ass unless you know the secret to defeating him. Stand on the top platform, that way any shot that hits you will knock you safely to the second platform below you.
• While going through the Wily stages, save up Crash Bomb and Item 1 for Boo Beam. You can't beat him without them.
• The final encounter with Wily requires you to have Bubble Lead as well, but it's unlikely that you'll use all of that up before fighting him.
• Speaking of Bubble Lead, it's pronounced lead as in Leader, not lead as in the metal.
• Air Shooter will take out the Sniper Armors in one hit.
• The original Japanese game has no difficulty setting, it just plays on difficult. There are some notable changes between the settings, but mostly it just means the bosses die faster and the player lives longer on normal.
  
• The box art is terrible again, but better than last time I suppose.

Even if you take away all the nostalgia associated with the game, it still stands up, and it has aged fairly well. This is the Mega Man game to play if you've never played one, and this is the one that might hook you into the series. Don't worry if it doesn't do it for you though, there's still a few more that might be closer to your own tastes. This, by world wide consensus, is the best Mega Man game, and I have to agree.

Playthroughs
Megaman 2: This is too much Megaman! by Oyster
Speed Demo's Archive
Duane and BrandO Mega Man 2 Rap