January celebrates two notable dates in science-fiction history, “National Science Fiction Day” on January 2 and Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000’s birthday on January 12. Accordingly, I’m dedicating January to celebrating sci-fi with an event I call “Sci-Fanuary”.
Released: 24 August 2015
Originally Released: 24 December 1988
Developer: Digital Eclipse
Original Developer: Capcom
Also Available For: GameCube, Mobile, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Wii U, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PlayStation Portable, Tiger Electronics, Xbox, Xbox One, Xbox Series S
The Background:
In 1987, Capcom sought to move away from producing arcade titles and make their debut on the revived home console market with Mega Man (known as “Rockman” in Japan), a run-and-gun title inspired by Astro Boy (Tezuka, 1952 to 1968) that became notorious for its difficulty. Although widely praised and now regarded as an NES classic, Mega Man wasn’t successful enough to justify an immediate sequel. The developers were only permitted to work on a follow-up alongside other projects, creating a great deal of stress for all involved. Still, the small team was determined to improve upon the graphics, gameplay, and music of the original. Scrapped ideas from Mega Man made their way into the sequel, which also introduced support items to aid the player and address the difficulty of the first game. Contrary to Mega Man’s low sales, Mega Man 2 was a huge success, selling over 1.5 million copies and being met with unanimous praise. Reviews lauded the improvements to the controls and difficulty curve and the refined graphics and mechanics, and the game is renowned as one of the best in the series. In the years since its release, Mega Man 2 was ported several times, including a remake for the SEGA Mega Drive, before being released alongside the first five titles with this Legacy Collection release, which included quality of life features and additional bonuses to celebrate the long-running series.
The Plot:
After being defeated by Mega Man, the maniacal Doctor Albert Wily creates his own Robot Masters and constructs a new fortress to strike back at his foe, compelling Rock to once again confront the mad scientist.
Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Like its predecessor, Mega Man 2 is a 2D, sidescrolling run-and-gun action platformer that places you back in control of fighting robot Mega Man, now tasked with blasting through eight levels and defeating a Robot Master in each. As before, the player can pick the order they tackle each stage and boss, meaning Mega Man 2’s difficulty is placed in your hands (luckily, the Legacy Collection includes a helpful cheat sheet) as Robot Masters are vulnerable and resistant to different weapons. Unlike the previous game, the difficulty can be further increased if players select the “Difficult” mode on the title screen, though there is now a password system to save your progress (something negated by the Legacy Collection’s manual save feature). Once again, the Legacy Collection edition offers the US and Japanese versions and options to speed up the gameplay and configure the button layout to your liking, The default setup, though, is perfectly acceptable and exactly the same as before: you jump with A, fire your currently equipped weapon with X and use an autofire function with Y, and bring up the pause menu to select different “Special Weapons” with the Right Bumper. Each Robot Master you defeat grants you a new Special Weapon, and Doctor Thomas Light gifts three additional ones as you progress. Since you can’t replay previously completed stages this time, there’s no need to worry about backtracking for missed items, but certain weapons (such as the Crash Bomber and the Items) will open paths to goodies such as extra lives and the new Energy Tank power-up. You can store up to four of these and they’re great for restoring your health in a tight pinch, though you can still abuse the Legacy Collection’s rewind feature with the Left Bumper. While Mega Man gains some new Special Weapons, his default abilities are unchanged. He still can’t duck or slide, but levels are still created to take advantage of his platforming and shooting skills so this is more of a nit-pick.
As before, Mega Man is equipped with his Mega Buster, but this can be swapped out for a Special Weapon after defeating each of the eight Robot Masters. Each Special Weapon has an ammo meter that depletes with use and you’ll need to collect Weapon Energy capsules to partially or fully refill this, meaning you may need to “farm” the enemies that conveniently respawn right before each boss room. While some Special Weapons are similar to those of the last game (the Crash Bomber isn’t too dissimilar to the Hyper Bomb, for example, and the Quick Boomerang is very much like the Rolling Cutter), they are some of the most iconic in the franchise. Metal Man’s Metal Blade is super useful as you can fire it upwards, downwards, and diagonally, which is great for taking out aerial enemies or when climbing ladders. Wood Man’s Leaf Shield surrounds you in a shield of leaves that blast ahead as soon as you move, Bubble Man’s Bubble Lead drops a heavy bubble that rolls along the floor, and the Air Shooter acquired from Air Man sends mini tornados hurtling upwards. The aforementioned Crash Bomber has a bit of a delay, but its explosion is great for destroying certain blocks and dealing big damage. The Quick Boomerang is a great rapid-fire projectile, and Flash Man’s Time Stopper is essential for getting past the insta-kill lasers in Quick Man’s stage, though you’re left completely defenceless once it’s activated. Of them all, I found Heat Man’s Atomic Fire the most useless; in fact, I don’t recall using it once! The Magnet Beam from the first game is expanded into three additional “Items” gifted by Dr. Light after defeating certain Robot Masters. Used correctly, they’re invaluable for crossing bottomless pits, beds of spikes and rushing water, and scaling tall shafts and Dr. Wily’s tower. Item-1 creates a vertical platform and you can place up to three at once to create temporary bridges, Item-2 carries you horizontally across large expanses on a rocket-powered platform, and Item-3 bounces along until it hits a wall, then it crawls upwards to give you an extra boost.
If Mega Man was challenging, Mega Man 2 is tough! I probably made things harder for myself by playing on “Difficult”, but this was a hell of a challenge. The score system is gone and you get a few extra lives from enemies or within levels, and I’m sure the password system helped back in the day, but I’m not sure how anyone beat this game without the quick save and rewind features of the Legacy Collection. Bottomless pits, respawning enemies, insta-kill hazards, and projectiles are commonplace obstacles, with Mega Man 2 boasting more sprites than its predecessor. Falling, temporary, or hazard-strewn platforms dog your progress as much as vertical shafts forcing you to scale ladders or make blind jumps, often requiring split-second reflexes to avoid spikes or lasers. Conveyer belts push you along or work against you, slippery blocks send you careening towards hazards, disappearing blocks over bottomless pits will have you on the edge of your seat, and enemies surprise you from the foreground and offscreen. In Bubble Man’s stage and the third Dr. Wily stage, you’ll take a dip in water; this slows your forward momentum but increases your jump height, forcing you to rethink even simple jumps. The fourth Dr. Wily stage includes annoying false floors that are indistinguishable from the rest of the terrain and can drop you down a screen, while Crash Man’s stage features a lot of ladder climbing and alternate routes that can lead to goodies or enemies. Thankfully, the rewind and manual save feature can assist you, but it definitely pays to play the stages in an efficient order so you can make short work of each Robot Master.
Presentation:
At first glance, Mega Man 2 is more of the same 8-bit goodness offered by the original. Mega Man’s sprite is exactly the same, with no new animations or expressions beyond changing colour when a Special Weapon is equipped and some new sprites to represent those abilities. However, the game impresses from the start with its text-based story and dramatic pan up a large skyscraper to find Mega Man brooding on the rooftop alongside a far more impressive title screen. The game still struggles a bit when too much is happening on screen; sprite flickering, slowdown, and screen tearing are commonplace issues but, overall, the stability seems much improved and the very fact the game has eight stages, eleven new abilities, two difficulty settings, and a password feature shows it’s built upon its predecessor. One area where Mega Man 2 really impresses is its music; every stage is accompanied by a jaunty or rocking tune, with Crash Man’s being a particular highlight. There’s a little more story here as well; Dr. Light communicates to you every now and then to bestow a special Item and there are more cutscenes of Dr. Wily escaping in his UFO. There are also a few more graphical touches in some stages: Flash Man’s stage is a touch maze-like at times, offering higher and lower paths to take, and Quick Man’s has a lot of vertical drops where you’ll be biting your bottom lip to avoid the deadly lasers. Bubble Man’s stage has an (admittedly ugly) waterfall in the background of the opening section, and there are even moments where the entire screen goes black save for the character and enemy sprites.
In fact, while the eight stages aren’t exactly trendsetting for this era of gaming, the levels on offer in Mega Man 2 have far more visual variety than in the first game and better suit their associated Robot Master. Metal Man’s stage is a mess of gears and industrial aesthetics that’s full of drills and weighted spiked obstacles. Wood Man’s stage impresses for the time with its surprisingly detailed forest, which extends underground and to the treetops, as does Bubble Man’s stage (waterfall notwithstanding), which eventually drops you into the sea where you must rethink every jump to avoid death. Air Man’s stage takes place up in the clouds, and even behind them at times, with Mega Man hopping to small, hazardous, and floating platforms to progress, while Crash Man’s stage is a construction site that’s a mess of yellow pipes, ladders, and these little rolling platforms you ride to reach ladders. Heat Man’s stage is either in a sewer or some kind of lava-filled underground cavern, it’s hard to tell the difference, but I enjoyed the rushing liquid and the disappearing block platforms (especially as Item-2 allows you to completely bypass them). Flash Man’s stage has a blue sheen to it and slippery floors, while Quick Man’s stage is more mechanical and almost a prelude to the challenge offered by Dr. Wily’s castle. Yes, after besting the eight Robot Masters, you’ll travel to Dr. Wily’s newest fortress: six additional stages containing recycled and reimagined gimmicks and hazards from the previous levels. These exist alongside new aesthetics, such as the rocky/fortified exterior and lengthy outer wall, the industrial interior with its giant fans, dripping water, and teleport pads, and the final showdown in Dr. Wily’s control room, sadly relegated to the pre-credits cutscene in favour of a bland final battle against the rushing backdrop of space.
Enemies and Bosses:
A whole host of new robotic enemies awaits you in Mega Man 2, though there are a couple of familiar faces here: Neo Metall hides behind its hard hat and fires projectiles like its predecessor but is bold enough to rush you, too. A renewed Sniper Joe also returns, still hiding behind a shield but now staying completely still. However, they make up for this by controlling giant mech walkers that almost act like mini bosses unless you have the Air Shooter or Leaf Shield. Similarly, you’ll encounter gigantic robotic Lantern Fish in Bubble Man’s stage. These perpetually spit out shrimp-like Shrink’s and can only be destroyed by shooting the lure on its head. Another gigantic quasi-mini boss are the Hot Dogs encountered in Wood Man’s stage; while they don’t move, they breathe plumes of fire that are difficult to avoid in the cramped tunnels. Most other enemies can be destroyed in one or two shots and are largely more manageable compared to the first game, though the constant respawning can be a headage. Bubble Bats, crab-like Claws, Tellys, and Springers are all commonplace and good for farming ammo or health, while Crabbots, Robo-Rabbits, and Pierobots can cause some headaches due to their small size, versatile firing range, and suddenness of their appearance, respectively. Enemies like Croaker, Pipi, and Blocky should be taken out quickly to avoid them spewing up smaller enemies or spreading themselves as projectiles. Air Tikkis and Lightning Lords act as platforms in Air Man’s stage, where Fan Fiends blow you back, and Crazy Cannons shoot at you through the environment. I was very impressed by the visual variety and character in Mega Man 2’s enemies, with guys like the speedy Atomic Chicken, Hothead, and Mecha Monkey being fun standouts for their large sprites and toughness.
As before, every level ends in a battle against one of the eight Robot Masters in a specially prepared arena and is accompanied by an ominous boss theme and a helpful health bar. The Robot Masters will be significantly easier to battle if you have the Special Weapon they’re weak to on hand; without these, even the easiest Robot Master is a challenge, so I tackled Metal Man first. Fought on a conveyer belt floor that switches your direction, Metal Man tosses gear-like projectiles as he hops about the arena; he’s weak to the Quick Boomerang and his own weapon, but easily falls to the Mega Buster with enough patience. Armed with his Metal Blade, I then fought Wood Man (though Atomic Fire works well, too), who is invulnerable when his Leaf Shield is up. You need to carefully jump to avoid both this and the falling leaves to attack when he’s vulnerable, making for a tricky boss if you’re low on health. The Metal Blade also makes short work of Bubble Man, who’s fought underwater. While your jumping is restricted and he swims about dropping Bubble Leads, it’s easy to pick him off with the versatile Metal Blade or Leaf Shield. The Leaf Shield also makes short work of Air Man, though it can be hard to land a direct hit thanks to his mini tornados. Similarly, Heat Man is decimated by the Bubble Lead but only when you land a hit. When he’s enflamed or teleporting or you’re stuck in his flame pillars, the battle can go south pretty quickly. Crash Man may be erratic and dangerous with his timed mines, but the Air Shooter takes care of him pretty quickly. Flash Man is also quite easy, especially with the Metal Blade or Crash Bomber that obliterate him before he can even think of freezing you in place with Time Stopper. But Quick Man…he was a tough one the first time. It’s very helpful to farm ammo for the Time Stopper as a fully charged shot will drain half his health, then it’s just a case of timing your Crash Bomber shots, which can be tough as he hops about and fires a lot of projectiles.
When tackling Dr. Wily’s fortified fortress, you’ll rematch all eight Robot Masters before taking on the mad scientist. This time, they’re fought in bland arenas and drop large Health Capsules upon defeat, plus you have all the Special Weapons so they’re much simpler in the rematches. Before you can get to them, you must best four additional boss battles. First up is the Mecha Dragon, which chases you across an empty void, forcing you to hop to small blocks to avoid being one-shotted, then breathes fire plumes and fireballs at you. Fortunately, the Quick Boomerang cuts this beast down, but it’s still easy to fall to your death from knockback. Next, you battle Picopico-kun, which is essentially the walls and floor of a small arena coming to life to attack you, but they’re easily bested with the Bubble Lead. Guts Man returns as the mammoth Guts Tank, a large sprite that tests the game engine’s performance and spits both projectiles and Neo Metalls, as well as attacking with its large fists. By hopping onto its base and making liberal use of the Quick Boomerang, you can bring this foe down without too much trouble, however. The Boobeam Trap is a little tricker, though, especially if you haven’t got full Crash Bomber ammo. You need to destroy the walls protecting the five turrets, so you need all your Crash Bomber ammo for this; you also need to dodge the flurry of projectiles each first, too (though you can rapidly pause to glitch through them). Once you’ve cleared these challenges, you’ll face a two-phase battle against Dr. Wily’s newest machine. In the first phase, he fires projectiles in a low arc; hop over them and target the cockpit with the Crash Bomber or Atomic Fire and he’ll be exposed, adding a more sporadic bouncing shot to his arsenal. After enough hits, Dr. Wily retreats and transforms into an alien that saps your health on contact. The alien flies about firing easy-to-dodge projectiles and is vulnerable only to the Bubble Lead. With patience and well-timed attacks, Dr. Wily’s simulation (and plans for world domination) will be ended and he’ll be left begging for mercy once more.
Additional Features:
The Mega Man Legacy Collection offers twenty-four Achievements, with one being awarded when you complete Mega Man 2. Alongside numerous display options (such as applying borders and filters), the Legacy Collection offers a character database, production art, and sound test for the game. You can also take on tough, time-based challenges for additional Achievements in the game’s “Challenge Mode”, which tasks you beating remixed stages from Mega Man 2, tackling the Robot Masters once more, and taking on challenges set by the developers to prove your mastery of the game. Completing challenges unlocks yet more of these tests, with Mega Man 2’s stages and bosses being remixed into others alongside gauntlets. Otherwise, you may wish to return to Mega Man 2 to tackle the “Difficult” mode, where enemies have altered attack patterns, Mega Man’s attacks deal less damage, and the Robot Masters have more health.
The Summary:
There’s a good reason why Mega Man 2 is considered one of the best of the classic Mega Man games. It takes everything that worked in the previous game and expands upon it, adding new abilities to Mega Man’s arsenal (if not his base moves), more visual variety, and an absolutely kick-ass soundtrack. The difficulty may be cranked up a little, but the game does compensate for this: the password system, for one, and a slightly more linear progression system where the player doesn’t have to worry about backtracking. Unfortunately, you can still hit a wall if you don’t challenge the stages and Robot Masters with the right Special Weapons. My first time through, I couldn’t get past Quick Man and ended up starting over and saving him for last, for example. Insta-death hazards are far more aggravating this time around; those laser beams offer no quarter, forcing you to drain your Time Stopper ammo to survive and then farm mech-riding Sniper Joes to replenish it enough to battle Cut Man. Though the Legacy Collection mitigates a lot of these issues, I do wonder how gamers survived Mega Man 2’s challenge back in the day. While the stages are much richer and more detailed and I appreciate the added emphasis on story and the new enemy sprites, I think Mega Man 2 played things a little too “safe”. Sure, it’s technically bigger and runs a lot better and the visuals are tweaked and improved, but it feels like Mega Man was a proof of concept for this game, and this is simply Mega Man 1.5, adding minor improvements here and there. There are no additional playable characters, for example, and the stages didn’t feel longer or much more than expansions on what came before. I think I’d rather play Mega Man 2 than the original, for sure, though. It feels much more refined and laid the foundation for the games that followed and has earned its reputation. But, by repeating a lot of the same beats of the first game, I feel it doesn’t deserve to be rated any higher than its predecessor, despite being a noticeable improvement.
My Rating:
Great Stuff
Did you enjoy the improvements made to Mega Man 2 back in the day? Do you also consider it to be one of the best of the classics or do you prefer a different entry? What order did you tackle the game’s stages and which Robot Master gave you the most trouble? What did you think to the game’s difficulty and the new Special Weapons? Were you surprised when you fought an alien in the finale? How are you celebrating the science-fiction genre this month? Whatever your thoughts and memories of Mega Man 2, please leave them below and be sure to check out my other Mega Man reviews across the site!
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