Mega Man 2

"Mega Man 2 has more humans in it, and Metroids are in it too!"

Mega Man 2 is a great improvement over Mega Man. For very many reasons. Yet again we must control the blue guy, defeating more and more robots, to stop that crazy Dr. Wily. What is up with him anyways!? Some things are the same, but some things are different, and some things have changed for the better of things. Or at least, to make the game better. But some things are a bit bad, Mega Man 2 just misses a 10/10 for a couple of reasons.

First off, you still have a gun. This will fire shots, to kill enemies, simple is it not? Some enemies take more shots then others, some just take ages before you can actually shoot and hurt them. Again, defeating a boss will get you a new weapon, just about all of them are new. Also, after defeating certain (or it might be once you have defeated a certain amount, although im sure you get them for defeating a particular boss) you can get whats called an item from Dr. Light, your creator (im pretty sure you never see him in Mega Man 1). These mainly aid you in your adventure, from making a platform that moves up, a platform that moves left/right, or a platform to help you out of small pits/holes. The other weapons are the same as the boss uses, apart from the freeze time one. Again, you have a certain amount of ammo for them, apart from your main weapon. Its either me, or normal mode (more on that later) or there are more ammo pick ups then Mega Man 1, and more health pick ups too.

Yet again, you get the platforming puzzles. One of them is pretty good, I forget which level, but I think its the fire one. There is a large pit of lava, and if you touch it, your dead (or it might be spikes :s). You have to jump across platforms above it. Ones that appear and disappear after a small amount of time. This is quite tricky, but surprisingly fun too. You more or less have to know where all of the blocks are, and when they will appear. The platform puzzles in Mega Man 1 aren't as good as Mega Man 2s platform puzzles. This game has more enjoyable ones.

Again some old platforming and action parts combined are back, but Mega Man 2 has some new ones, and better ones too. Basically, action and platforming are combined, and some are easy, some are hard. The only new one I can think of from the top of my head is a good one. You come into a new room, and there is a big white line, going in all sorts of directions. There is an exit at the bottom of the room (you appear at the top on a ladder) and loads of spikes every where, the solution? Jump onto a platform, which is going along the white line, whilst shooting enemies that keep respawning and coming out of the side walls. Its pretty fun, and not too hard either. Mega Man 2 has some great ideas. There are some others, but that one is most probably the best.

Some bad things. Mega Man 2 uses the same idea as Mega Man 1. You have some robots to beat, so you select one, and play the level, beat boss, get new weapon, go onto next one. Mega Man 2 has more though, with 8 enemy robots, and 15 levels over all. So the game is pretty similar in what you do. Fortunately, level design is a lot better. More better levels, more fun. All 8 robots are all different from the original Mega Man as well, although some are similar in terms of their weapons, this is good, it would of been a bit boring to see exactly the same bosses again. Another bad thing, is the length. Even with 15 levels or so, I am pretty sure this isn't as long as the original Mega Man, or at least, it didn't take me as long. I would of expected this one to be longer, for one reason, see the next paragraph. Also, you get a difficulty select. Normal, or Difficult. To be honest, I think they should of taken this out, and set it to default of Difficult. Playing Normal, the game is a lot easier, bosses can be killed in just 1 hit, without any form of cheating at all. But at least, for those who aren't as good, they should be able to complete the game on Normal difficulty. So its kind of good, but bad. Personally I expected a bit more challenge, so I played on Difficult instead.

So whats new? Well, there are more levels thats a start. That doesn't really matter that much though. Another new thing? PASSWORDS! Passwords are finally in, and they help a lot. You don't have to complete the whole game in one. Although Mega Man does seem shorter then Mega Man 1 in my opinion (I completed Mega Man 2 faster then Mega Man 1, even on difficult mode). If there are passwords, I would of expected the game to be even longer, not shorter or maybe the same length. Still, at least we get passwords, so thats good. Also, you can collect energy tanks. No, they don't increase your overall health. They can be used later to fully restore your health instead. Oh, and obviously the music is new.

So what about the graphics? To be honest, they are exactly the same as Mega Man 1. No, seriously. Absolutely no improvement, at all, what so ever. OK, so maybe with the NES it would be hard to improve the graphics, but everything just looks the same and can get a bit boring now. The music is better though. Same quality, but better. I like it more in this game. So the graphics have no improvement, but the sound does. This lets it down slightly, but I can't really blame Capcom THAT much about the graphics.

What is Mega Man 2 about? Well, Dr. Wily was defeated in the last game. Strangely, they must of let him loose again or something stupid like that. He has created 8 more big robots, who you have to defeat, before going for Dr. Wily again. The story is pretty much the same as the original Mega Man, but with more enemy robots to defeat. Still, its a NES game, not many NES games have a complicated story line to it. Story line is passable.

Overall, Mega Man 2 is a bit better, but some annoying things bog it down. It gets a 9, but its a very high, but not deserving of a 10. There are some new things, but maybe even more new stuff could be added, otherwise its more or less the same as Mega Man 1, but a bit more enjoyable, passwords are in for the better of things, and the levels and stuff are different. If you enjoyed Mega Man 1 and wanted more, get this. It might not be as good as Mario games, but its still pretty good. If you never played Mega Man 1, get it, this is better. If you have never played a platformer before, I wouldn't recommend this a lot because it might be a little too hard for you to ease into it. Still, this game is a classic, better then Mega Man 1, nearly as good as Mario platformers. And it has Metroids in it too. Well, they look like metroids. OK, so it has 2 humans in it, thus it is better. Play this game now.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/28/06