[played on mGBA Wii w/ GBC Edition patch by SpecialAgentApe]
After playing through Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge recently and enjoying it a lot more than I expected, I figured the next logical course of action would be to play the second Game Boy game! I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this one considering its reputation, but I had a fairly decent time! There’s certainly a few issues and places where it falls flat in comparison to the first game, but I still mostly had fun.
Despite being handled by a different studio (Biox/Thinking Rabbit instead of Minakuchi Engineering), Mega Man II retains a lot of its predecessor’s DNA. The Robot Masters are still split into two groups, although the latter four get their own stages this time around, which helps make the game feel a bit longer. And just like Dr. Wily’s Revenge, II takes after the NES titles in regards to bosses and stage themes (pulling from Mega Man 2 and 3 this time), which means the slide, Rush and E-Tanks make their Game Boy debut! I’ll get more into Rush when I talk about the weapons, but E-Tanks are always nice to have for their convenience, and the slide’s still a fantastic movement option.
In terms of control, Mega Man feels a lot tighter, and closer to his NES self as a result. He does have an odd sense of rigidness that I never fully got used to, but it’s only a minor blemish since he still feels better in just about every other way.
The Robot Master abilities are a bit strange this time around. Due to the fairly high difficulty of Dr. Wily’s Revenge, I felt incentivized to use them often to deal with tougher enemies. But because of how easy II is by comparison, I didn’t use them anywhere near as often. Even with access to the Metal Blade, Leaf Shield and Magnet Missile, I barely touched them due to how effective the Mega Buster was. They do come in handy for quickly dealing with smaller enemies and ones hidden in weird spots, but that’s basically it.
By comparison, Rush gets a lot more mileage. There was a surprising amount of underwater sections that required the use of his Marine form, and due to Jet taking after its Mega Man 3 incarnation, it was really useful! An interesting change is that you have to unlock Rush Coil in this game instead of starting with him, which I honestly prefer since it makes jumping up to higher spots for items like E-Tanks and extra lives feel a bit more meaningful.
The Sakugarne item you get from the exclusive boss Quint is an interesting addition that could’ve been really fun, but it’s unlocked right before the final stage and there’s no real opportunities to take advantage of its unique functions in that stage. Maybe this could’ve been avoided if you fought Quint before the second set of Robot Masters, thus giving you more of a chance to test out Sakugarne and its quirks.
In regards to the level design, I think it’s both a step forward and a step back from the previous game. The stages feel more polished and nowhere near as rough, but they’re a lot more derivative of their home console counterparts, and are also far easier. Personally, I’m of two minds about this; on one hand, being more accurate to the levels of the NES games is nowhere near as interesting as the remixed stages of Dr. Wily’s Revenge. But if I look at it through the lens of the time, having closer renditions of these home console levels on a portable system is a massive plus!
Besides, the stages are still fun and enjoyable, even if they are more derivative. There’s still a few interesting and unique areas, like an underwater section in Wood Man’s level or Crash Man’s level being more winding and maze-like instead of a simple vertical ascent like its NES counterpart. The final Wily stage is also completely unique, and ended up being my favourite in the game!
Just like the level design, I think the visual quality’s a slight step back from Dr. Wily’s Revenge. The player and enemy sprites still look solid (although a few are crunched down and look off-model as a result), and the stage graphics are a closer match to their NES equivalents. I think the only category that’s flat-out worse is the backgrounds. Even with the Game Boy’s monochrome display, Dr. Wily’s Revenge still managed to have some fairly detailed backgrounds, which are mostly just solid colours with occasional secondary elements here. It’s not a massive deal-breaker, but compared to the original game, it still feels like a step down.
Probably the most infamous aspect of Mega Man II is its soundtrack, and if you’ve played the game for yourself or listened to it on YouTube, you already know why. Instead of reusing music from the NES games, each Robot Master stage gets an entirely new theme… which doesn’t mean much when they’re all incredibly high-pitched, screechy and grating, mostly due to the way they were arranged. But beneath all that, the compositions themselves are actually quite good! Several fans have rearranged these tracks to correct their pitch, and those versions sound far better. Overall, it’s a bit more somber than most Mega Man soundtracks, but still incredibly solid! My personal favourites are Crash Man, Air Man, Metal Man, Top Man and the title screen/Wily’s Fortress theme. If you want to play the game with this improved music, I’d strongly recommend Forple’s improvement patch, which is also included in the colourization hack.
On the whole, Mega Man II’s a bit better and a bit worse than Dr. Wily’s Revenge. It makes a few solid improvements in regards to controls, length and additions to the formula, but is a bit more derivative of its home console brethren. Regardless, I still had a fun time! If you’re just a casual Mega Man fan, I don’t think it’s necessarily worth playing, but if you’re interested in the series’ history or want to see if it really deserves the negative reputation, I’d say it’s worth a go! (And besides, it’s not even an hour long, so you won’t be wasting that much time.)
And if you want to play the colourization hack I’ve mentioned a few times throughout this review, you can find a link to that here! The colour palettes really help bring the game to life, and I’d highly recommend it just for the improved soundtrack alone.
After playing through Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge recently and enjoying it a lot more than I expected, I figured the next logical course of action would be to play the second Game Boy game! I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this one considering its reputation, but I had a fairly decent time! There’s certainly a few issues and places where it falls flat in comparison to the first game, but I still mostly had fun.
Despite being handled by a different studio (Biox/Thinking Rabbit instead of Minakuchi Engineering), Mega Man II retains a lot of its predecessor’s DNA. The Robot Masters are still split into two groups, although the latter four get their own stages this time around, which helps make the game feel a bit longer. And just like Dr. Wily’s Revenge, II takes after the NES titles in regards to bosses and stage themes (pulling from Mega Man 2 and 3 this time), which means the slide, Rush and E-Tanks make their Game Boy debut! I’ll get more into Rush when I talk about the weapons, but E-Tanks are always nice to have for their convenience, and the slide’s still a fantastic movement option.
In terms of control, Mega Man feels a lot tighter, and closer to his NES self as a result. He does have an odd sense of rigidness that I never fully got used to, but it’s only a minor blemish since he still feels better in just about every other way.
The Robot Master abilities are a bit strange this time around. Due to the fairly high difficulty of Dr. Wily’s Revenge, I felt incentivized to use them often to deal with tougher enemies. But because of how easy II is by comparison, I didn’t use them anywhere near as often. Even with access to the Metal Blade, Leaf Shield and Magnet Missile, I barely touched them due to how effective the Mega Buster was. They do come in handy for quickly dealing with smaller enemies and ones hidden in weird spots, but that’s basically it.
By comparison, Rush gets a lot more mileage. There was a surprising amount of underwater sections that required the use of his Marine form, and due to Jet taking after its Mega Man 3 incarnation, it was really useful! An interesting change is that you have to unlock Rush Coil in this game instead of starting with him, which I honestly prefer since it makes jumping up to higher spots for items like E-Tanks and extra lives feel a bit more meaningful.
The Sakugarne item you get from the exclusive boss Quint is an interesting addition that could’ve been really fun, but it’s unlocked right before the final stage and there’s no real opportunities to take advantage of its unique functions in that stage. Maybe this could’ve been avoided if you fought Quint before the second set of Robot Masters, thus giving you more of a chance to test out Sakugarne and its quirks.
In regards to the level design, I think it’s both a step forward and a step back from the previous game. The stages feel more polished and nowhere near as rough, but they’re a lot more derivative of their home console counterparts, and are also far easier. Personally, I’m of two minds about this; on one hand, being more accurate to the levels of the NES games is nowhere near as interesting as the remixed stages of Dr. Wily’s Revenge. But if I look at it through the lens of the time, having closer renditions of these home console levels on a portable system is a massive plus!
Besides, the stages are still fun and enjoyable, even if they are more derivative. There’s still a few interesting and unique areas, like an underwater section in Wood Man’s level or Crash Man’s level being more winding and maze-like instead of a simple vertical ascent like its NES counterpart. The final Wily stage is also completely unique, and ended up being my favourite in the game!
Just like the level design, I think the visual quality’s a slight step back from Dr. Wily’s Revenge. The player and enemy sprites still look solid (although a few are crunched down and look off-model as a result), and the stage graphics are a closer match to their NES equivalents. I think the only category that’s flat-out worse is the backgrounds. Even with the Game Boy’s monochrome display, Dr. Wily’s Revenge still managed to have some fairly detailed backgrounds, which are mostly just solid colours with occasional secondary elements here. It’s not a massive deal-breaker, but compared to the original game, it still feels like a step down.
Probably the most infamous aspect of Mega Man II is its soundtrack, and if you’ve played the game for yourself or listened to it on YouTube, you already know why. Instead of reusing music from the NES games, each Robot Master stage gets an entirely new theme… which doesn’t mean much when they’re all incredibly high-pitched, screechy and grating, mostly due to the way they were arranged. But beneath all that, the compositions themselves are actually quite good! Several fans have rearranged these tracks to correct their pitch, and those versions sound far better. Overall, it’s a bit more somber than most Mega Man soundtracks, but still incredibly solid! My personal favourites are Crash Man, Air Man, Metal Man, Top Man and the title screen/Wily’s Fortress theme. If you want to play the game with this improved music, I’d strongly recommend Forple’s improvement patch, which is also included in the colourization hack.
On the whole, Mega Man II’s a bit better and a bit worse than Dr. Wily’s Revenge. It makes a few solid improvements in regards to controls, length and additions to the formula, but is a bit more derivative of its home console brethren. Regardless, I still had a fun time! If you’re just a casual Mega Man fan, I don’t think it’s necessarily worth playing, but if you’re interested in the series’ history or want to see if it really deserves the negative reputation, I’d say it’s worth a go! (And besides, it’s not even an hour long, so you won’t be wasting that much time.)
And if you want to play the colourization hack I’ve mentioned a few times throughout this review, you can find a link to that here! The colour palettes really help bring the game to life, and I’d highly recommend it just for the improved soundtrack alone.
Honestly pretty good, I'm familiar with the idea of GameBoy Mega Man games crossing into several individual entries of the Classic Mega Man titles and even incorporating new bosses at the end, it's kinda fun.
The level design in this one wasn't as unfair as Mega Man I either, pretty neat.
The level design in this one wasn't as unfair as Mega Man I either, pretty neat.