I have never understood the love for Mega Man 2. Among many fans of the Mega Man series, as well as fans of platformers and retro games in general, Mega Man 2 is often considered the best game in the series. Of the original classic games for the NES, it sold the best by a considerable margin. Some would say that is reflective of the game’s quality, but to me, that sales figure just reflects why the game is so beloved. It’s the most popular, and most people’s first entry into the series before the Legacy Collection came along. I think Mega Man 2 is the worst of the eleven classic Mega Man games, and I will try to explain my numerous issues with this game. Unlike in Mega Man 1, where most of the issues were systemic and affected many different parts of the game, in Mega Man 2, a lot of the issues are caused by a single bad decision that just casts a wide shadow over the game.

Full review at https://queenemilyscorner.wordpress.com/2024/04/11/mega-man-2-the-worst-classic-mega-man/

The quality of this game varies wildly between playable characters.

With Maria, Rondo of Blood is an absolute blast, a 9/10, but that is mostly because she, differently from Richter, is equipped to properly react to the speed of the game's challenges.

Richter is just as stiff as the Belmonts that came before him, and while that control-style worked just fine for the games that came before, Rondo is often designed with reaction time in mind. Certain enemy-types are no longer predictable as they were in the NES games, and overall the speed of the game often feels like too much for that old control style, leaving quite a sour taste in the player's mouth the more challenging the game gets.

The early and mid game with Richter are mostly fine and quite fun, but as soon as you reach late game it certainly feels like it takes a nose dive in quality so harsh I almost dropped it there. None of that applies to Maria, this is just a great action platformer with her.

I love this game and I'll absolutely replay it... with Maria, someday. But since Richter is the starting character, and if you go into this game blind you might never unlock Maria and just play the game as him, I'll be judging the game as that.

So, you intended to use King to take care of me, did you? You dirty son of a bitch!

I promise I’m not just trying to be different. Am I missing something here?

Playing as Mega Man feels like, well, Mega Man 8, which was already one of the better controlling games in the classic series. Playing as Bass, on the other hand, turns Mega Man into Gunstar Heroes, and I’m not sure how it could possibly be more entertaining. The levels are astounding, the boss designs are deeply imaginative and memorable, the graphics are truly mind-bending for the SNES, and the shop/upgrade system is the best it’s been in any of these games so far. Capcom hits a difficulty balance that lies perfectly between intense and rewarding; it is truly a joy to hit one of this game’s many walls, only to finally overcome it through sheer tenacity. You have the tools, you just have to put it all together. I’m not sure where the mixed reaction for this game comes from, but my assumption is that most detractors played the terribly compromised GBA version (or died a lot). The ONLY real complaints I have is that the music could be better, and the absence of E-Tanks feels a little strange. If you play Rockman & Forte/Mega Man & Bass on the SNES, as it was meant to be played, you may see this in a whole new light. This is literally my favorite game in the mainline Mega Man series, and I don’t see a world where that changes. Next level stuff.

Played this game with Supper's Unworked Designs patch. You can download it here.

I've wanted to play this game for some time. It was always one of those Sega CD games, that I would bring up to other people as an example of games that looked cool on the console. I would always think about playing it but I never would get around to it. It always felt like it existed in the future but never in the present for me, which is ironic because the game is like 30 years old lol. It feels weird to finally have played it. But enough about that I gotta talk about the gaaame. Did it meet my expectations?

I love this game, it reminded me a lot of Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap. They're both side-scrolling action games with a focus on adventure, killing monsters, finding weapons and shops, etc. But Wonder Boy III was more of a Metroidvania. Popful Mail is a lot more linear, you mostly go from set-piece to set-piece beating bosses without ever really returning to previous areas. There are a few times where you are asked to backtrack but they're brief and unchallenging.

I think the game on the whole is on the easier side, though it wasn't so easy that I would have taken WD's difficulty changes lol. There is a noticeable difficulty spike towards the end of the game where the game asks you to do precise platforming. It's kind of weird because the platforming in the final area is way more advanced than any of the stuff you have to do before that. Thankfully you can use one of the two other characters, both of which are a lot easier to platform with than Mail. I think Mail controlled a bit awkwardly in general, but I ended up liking the momentum she carried when jumping. It felt really cool to have to keep my momentum so I could dodge an enemy while I shot projectiles at them. I, unfortunately, didn't really use Tatto and Gaw outside of very specific instances, but that was more of a me thing. I think each of them brings enough to the table to find them preferable to Mail game-play-wise.

The story is what you would expect from a 90s fantasy anime. Evil Overlord wants to take over the world and you have to stop them. I think where this game really shines writing-wise is the characters. I love Mail! I love her so much! She's just such a me-core character. I love how crass she is and how mean she gets with the other characters. And I love that she is motivated entirely by greed. She's just a funny little gal and probably a new comfort character tbh. I think Tatto is a good balance to Mail's high energy, but I wish they had more interactions outside of the animated cutscenes. It kind of sucks that he just disappears from the dialogue once he's added to the party. It's cool that he and Gaw have their own dialogue for cut-scenes if you play as them, but I just prefer Mail so it feels like they kind of disappear from the story mid-game. The characters Mail and Co. meet on their journey are all relatively funny and memorable. Slick has some of the funniest dialogue in the game by far and his English VA really kills it.

In fact, the voice acting is pretty good for a dub from the 90s. Mail and Slick probably have the best performances, but there weren't any voices I hated. Maybe because the story doesn't take itself too seriously, I can accept the goofier voices. Well, the script doesn't take itself too seriously in the English version at least. WD is a pretty infamous localization group and are known for being pretty liberal with their changes to the gameplay and scripts of the games they brought over. I've heard from people who have played both the original translation and the WD version that the original was already comedic in tone, so the way Popful Mail was handled doesn't bother me as much. But I know some others may feel differently and that's understandable. Thankfully, if the voices really annoy you, you can turn them off. I would like to play the game in its original language whenever I buckle down and finally get to learning Japanese (another future goal related to this game lol).

Would like to play the Super Famicom version of this someday since I hear that version has a different story, but for now, I'm glad to say I finally played Popful Mail.

A sequel that takes one step forward and one step backwards. Zero 2 is a weird entry to talk about, it sure does feel more like a Mega Man game in comparison to its predecessor, but it falls short in many other areas. EX Skills are a nice addition that complement the combat in a non-intrusive manner, not interfering with the guaranteed Elemental Chip drops, being obtainable through high ranking, and coming in pretty handy in subsequent playthroughs, encouraging replayability. But maintaining high ranks in this game fucking sucks due to the level design somehow managing to contain even more bullshit moments than last time. The Form system is also a bit ass-backwards since most of them aren't useful at all, crippling your triple slashes for absolutely no reason in exchange for insanely minor buffs. If you want to use Forms, stick to Rise and Active. They're the easiest to obtain and actually improve something. Oh yeah, by the way, obtaining all of them is a terrible decision. Most require doing very specific and repetitive tasks for the very first time you enter a mission. Fun.
Let's see, what else? Cyber Elves are a bit cheaper, Bosses are quite boring, uhhh...
Yeah this game is kinda just supposed to be a prequel to Zero 3, isn't it? I told you it's a weird entry to talk about.