There were many games on the NES that were so successful they spawned sequels. While some of the sequels were disappointing like Zelda II and Baseball Stars II, others like Tecmo Super Bowl vaulted its name into gaming immortality. Mega Man 2 was one of those titles.

Mega Man 2 successfully improved upon the issues with its predecessor while adding in some interesting new features. The result was a great game that stood on its own as one of the most fantastic titles for the NES. The mesh of fantastic gameplay combined with a strong graphical engine and an updated musical score was the key to Mega Man 2's success on the NES and was one of the major reasons why Capcom created 6 Mega Man games for the NES, mostly in the twilight years of the NES's life span.


Story

The story of Mega Man 2 doesn't exactly break new ground in the history of video games. Dr. Light, the creator of the hero Mega Man, has an antagonist called Dr. Wily. Wily in turn has created 8 different robots in an attempt for the ever-popular world domination. It's up to Mega Man to stop him once again.


Gameplay

Mega Man 2 is your basic side scrolling platform shooter. You run around a collection of stages, shooting at baddies, while jumping on platforms and avoiding traps and obstacles. The goal is to go through each stage and to eventually defeat Dr. Wily before you run out of lives. You have a life meter that goes down each hit. When it runs out or you fall down a hole or hit an instant death trap, you lose a life. Each stage follows a specific theme that is wonderfully portrayed through the graphics, music, sounds, enemies, traps, and even the final boss. Stages can be selected in any order based on which boss you want to fight.

Stage layout is one of the best aspects of Mega Man 2. Despite the dissimilar themes, many stages follow a commonality in that they have different areas that change pace. In one series of screens you might be faced with a series of timed jumps that increase in difficulty while just around the corner you could face a small army of enemies that can be defeated in one shot, then just around the corner you could face off against a series of mini-bosses that take several shots to defeat. The stages have built in save points when the stage changes pace. At the end of each stage is the boss fight, but more on that later.

Mega Man 2 has many different enemies that can be defeated one of many ways. An particular enemy's difficulty is determined by their placement, toughness, and offensive attack. The littlest enemies can pose a problem when they attack in large numbers or from a hard to reach spot. Whereas other more formidable mini-bosses can be easily defeated when hit from a safe platform. The variety of enemies is good, but not the best I've ever seen. Many enemies can be found in multiple stages though there are quite a few that are exclusive to a certain area. Overall it's a decent variety with many different dynamics.

Bosses are a representation of the theme of the stage, however they require their own unique strategy to defeat them. They will attack, dodge, and move is specific and easy to recognize patterns. You're job is to recognize them and react to them properly before you lose all your energy. After you defeat a boss, you gain their weapon to use in the future and even on other bosses. The biggest stipulation is that it comes with its own energy bar that wears down after repeated use. In addition, some bosses have other utility items that allow you to access far away platforms. These platforms contain some useful powerups and items.

Speaking of powerups, there are many different kinds of items scattered throughout each stage. There are small and large versions of energy replenishment for both your life and special weapon. Defeated enemies most commonly drop these. Enemies also will occasionally drop an extra life as well. However, you can also find extra lives scattered throughout the stage too. Finally there are energy tanks that replenish your life energy. These are rare and take skill to obtain, though they are worth it if you can do it because enemies do not drop energy tanks.


Controls

The controls of Mega Man 2 are very basic, but extremely effective. The control pad moves Mega Man all around. The A button jumps, the B button fires your weapon, and the start button accesses the main menu where you can change your weapon, use an energy tank, and view how many extra lives you have left. There are a couple nuances with the controls. For instance, tapping the jump button will have Mega Man do a short hop instead of an extended leap. Also, some special weapons can be held down for interesting results.

The basic controls work because they are also very responsive. Controlling Mega Man is a breeze and very intuitive. The nature of the game can lead to many thrown controllers if the timing and responsiveness isn't great. Luckily, when you die, it isn't as frustrating because deep down you know you were in full control. Running and jumping and combinations of both are all handled very well. Capcom even threw in some momentum that is balanced perfectly. Overall I have to say that the controls are some of the best that have ever graced a console.


Graphics

When you first look at Mega Man 2, the graphics look rather simplistic. It doesn't seem like Capcom was pulling out all the stops, but the more you look at it, the game is very refined graphically. Mega Man is the right height in proportion to the rest of the screen. You can see enemies coming and can recognize them right away. The foreground and background are also very colorful and well laid out. I didn't quite notice this until I took a closer look at the foreground in Crash Man's stage with the piping platforms and how complex those tiles seemed when pasted together. The background is also very well done and can also play into the foreground as well as seen in Air Man's stage with the cloud layering.

The color scheme is perfect for a platform shooter. The pallet is bright, vibrant, and rarely clashes. Contrasts are great in that you don't have to worry about enemies or traps blending into the surroundings when they really shouldn't.

My biggest complaint about the graphics is movement slowdown. There are some areas that slow down due to the movement of many different enemies on one screen. Luckily this is only a problem in a few areas that do not require jumping over pits or instant death traps.


Sound

The sound is classic. The sound effects, while not as popular as Super Mario Brothers or Zelda, are clearly polished. Only a select few sound effects really are hard on the ears, but luckily they are few and far between. The other aspect about the sound effects is that they aren't as detailed as other more popular platformers of the time. For instance, certain chimes when collecting an extra life and/or energy tank simply aren't unique as say collecting a 1up mushroom in Super Mario Brothers or collecting a new item in Zelda.

The music is the clear winner in the sound department. Out of all the Capcom games, I think the music in Mega Man 2 is the best. The music fits the level themes very well. It's catchy, but not to an annoying degree. Sometimes I'll try and think of a Mega Man musical theme if I somehow get something horrible like a No Doubt song stuck in my head.


Replay Value

Depending on how you tick as a gamer, Mega Man 2 has tons of replay value or very little. There are many aspects to the game that can bring certain gamers back for more, whereas those same aspects can also provide only a limited amount of entertainment value.

The game is somewhat challenging depending on how you look at it. For me, I find that the first eight stages are easy, but the difficulty ratchets up good once I get to Dr. Wily's lair. Others will find the whole game difficult, especially the end. Whereas some gaming veterans will find the whole game a breeze. The right balance of difficulty is perfect for me and is a fun way to spend an hour or two in front of my NES.

You don't have to go through the easy parts because there's a password scheme that allows you to save your progress up to the beginning of Dr. Wily's lair. To some this can shorten up the gaming experience after a while, but it can also skip over the parts that are inane to some.

Finally, doing certain stages in different orders allows for a more interesting experience. Sometimes using certain weapons in different stages can make things easier or harder. For instance, the laser beam section in Quick Man's stage is much harder without Flash Man's weapon. Whereas having Metal Man's weapon can make several places much easier as his weapon can be shot in 8 different directions.

Overall this game is very good. I prefer Mega Man 3 to this version simply because it's more of a challenge and I like the different moves Mega Man can perform in it. This is a solid game though. If you have a NES and can find this game for a cheap price, it's worth your time to play it.


Recommended: Yes