Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters

"10 like the previous game. But this time it's a little lower..."

Let me point the first thing out: if you played and enjoyed MM: TPB, you'll not end up disappointed, either if you've played the first but found it a bit easy, you'll be fine with this one. Since MM: TPW is more difficult than the first title, but, as I love to say, hasn't the feeling the first title had.

The graphics aren't much different from the ones in TPB, but are a little enhanced. And don't forget we have a new character here: Duo, which we were able to play in MMVIII, d'ya remember? We find known bosses as well as new ones, and bigger ones. Effects now are just great, especially for all the flames. Just great. And the expressions of the bosses... toony at the right point. I don't think they could've improved them more, even if it's a CPS2, speaking of a Megaman game. Backgrounds are something great, also, as they were in the first game!

While musics... it's like the first game: those are all the bosses 'n' levels tunes, just enhanced a lot ...! Geez, I'd play the game just in order to hear countless times all the musics! I always loved Megaman musics, and I'm sure you do, too... and, you surely know that there are pre-final bosses... well, there is a super enhanced version of the "Wily Fortress" theme we were able to hear in MMII on the old NES... and it's something wonderful to hear... as for effects, they're a little enhanced, but here also they're nothing to yell at in happiness. Overall, however, a great work!

I don't think I've to spend words on gameplay, but let's say you never tried the first title: you can choose, now, between 4 characters: the unique Megaman (Rockman in Japan), the mysterious Protoman (Blues), the evil not-so-evil Bass (Forte) and the new one, fallen-from-the-sky-in-MM-8 Duo. Every character has its own power-ups, which appear when you deplete half a bar of the enemy's life. You can shoot with one button or charge a more powerful shoot holding it for a few seconds and you can jump with another. You can perform a special action by pulling down the stick and pressing the jump button at the same time. Speaking of power-ups, as I said before, enemies have a life bar: by hitting them you slowly deplete it. When you delete half a bar, Eddy (or Flip-Flop, whatever) will appear and will throw a power up. If you pick it, you'll powered up in certain manners: as for Megaman, Rush will appear and so it will be for Bass with the exception that it's Treble that appears (I always loved that robodog), Blues and Duo will become invincible, nice, isn't it? One thing I forgot to say for the review of the previous game, that counts here too: once you defeat an enemy, you're allowed to use his special weapon against other enemies (bosses) you'll face. You can switch between weapons.

Difficulty here... the game is harder than the previous one, I'm sure you'll at least die once, well, if you're trained, maybe you won't die in the easier mode, but surely you will in harder ones. If you want a nice challenge, this is the right game for you. If you still can happen to find it in pubs, arcades or wherever, well, just throw yourself in!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/10/04