"Next Gen Mega Man Goodness!"

From its humble beginnings, Mega Man has become one of the biggest video game names in the world. Short of Cloud and Mario, Mega Man is a favorite of all ages across the world. He's the lovable little blue man that has a gun for a hand.

However, his humble beginnings rocketed into stardom with relatively little effort. In no time flat he had eight titles. Mega Man was a star, and everyone wanted a piece of the CapCom majesty. Naturally, they decided that they should keep pumping them out, and so that's exactly what they did; they pumped them out. However, Mega Man can only go so far before he becomes boring. With an eighth game, CapCom decided that Mega Man needed to soar to new heights and try different things. Therefore, Mega Man evolved. He became Mega Man X, the white dude, and a new series emerged.

This particular game is the second installment of eight. (Lucky number seven has been thrown out by CapCom- they favor lucky eight...) The game is fundamentally the same as Mega Man, but there have been a few changes to make it more interesting.

Regardless, it's sure to please.

Gameplay
Mega Man is a sidescrolling shooter, just like its predecessors. You walk from point A to point B and shoot everything in your way.

Well... that's not exactly how it works. It does get more complicated. Each level is comprised of a truckload of enemies. All of these enemies are simply defeated; all you have to do is fire your gun at them until they die. There are also mini bosses; these mini bosses are a bit more difficult than normal enemies, and often take more effort to kill. There are several mini bosses, and unfortunately they're all equally easy to kill, so no challenge there.

Your buster shot has improved since the early days of Mega Man. Those of you who played some of the later Mega Man titles on the NES know that the buster shot was made into a charging blaster cannon. Now, by holding down the firing button, you will charge your shot and fire a more powerful shot that can take out tougher enemies in a single blow.

As with all Mega Man games, the REAL power comes from bosses. Once you kill a boss, you transform and transmogrisuck the power out of the boss, giving you an attack that was their signature move, and does mega damage to certain enemies. Their main purpose is to kill other bosses, though- each boss has a weakness to the attacks of another boss. Therefore, once you've killed one of the bosses, the game becomes significantly easier.

Mega Man X is better than Mega Man, though- Now, he gets access to HP subtanks. That's right- he can store HP in an extra tank that'll refill his health when he runs low. How convenient, isn't it? Thankfully, CapCom said "Don't worry! We'll just make the bosses more difficult as compensation, so that you'll sure as hell need every single one of those subtanks." Good old CapCom, always looking out for us.

But, wait! We've got icing on the cake! You may notice that the cover of the box shows a white Mega Man, and yet the Mega Man you use is blue! That's because you have to find armor upgrades. Yep, you get to upgrade your armor. Upgrading your armor will give you jet boots and an improved gun, among other things.

One of the nicest things about this game is that the jumps aren't ridiculous. Anybody can make 95% of these jumps before they go insane. Unlike earlier games, CapCom finally realized that it was kind of stupid to make ridiculous jumps.

Story
The story is fairly simple: As Mega Man X, you defeated Sigma in the first game. However, now you must hunt down and kill all of his followers. You track them to their base only to find that they've spread themselves across the globe, awaiting your arrival.

Meanwhile, Sigma's followers have begun to put Mega Man Zero together to fight you, and Sigma isn't really dead...

Need I say more? If so, you'll be disappointed, because that's all there is to say!

Graphics
Going from NES to SNES, Mega Man has taken a total overhaul. He isnt' anywhere near as cute as he used to be, but instead has taken a more serious and menacing appearance. It makes him look more capable of kicking ass than he used to. (Personally, I like the cute one, but to each his own). The 16-bit graphics are very good, and very clean. Lots of cool visual effect,s especially the attacks that you and the bosses use.

Sound
Meh... sound effects were pretty good, but the music was pretty corny. Nothing really impressive about the music, to say the least.

Mega Man has come to a new generation, and he's better than ever!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10 | Originally Posted: 07/27/05

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