(Like with Xtreme 1, I emulated this because fuck using a tiny ass Game Boy to play this game)
X1
X2
X3
X4
X5
X6
X7
X8
Xtreme
Mega Man Xtreme 2 is overall a pretty significant step up from Xtreme 1 in all aspects, but it still kinda falls flat in some others. This game is pretty much solely remembered in general for its continuity elements (i.e. that this is the first canonical appearance of Zeros love interest Iris prior to the plot of X4 or that the main event in this game, the Erasure Incident gets referenced in a line of dialogue from X6), but I'll touch into the plot in a later paragraph because for a portable game there's some hint of ambition here.
First notable point aside from the continuity is the fact that Zero is a fully playable character in this game while in Xtreme 1 he was kinda just a support character that X could summon to do a screen nuke or something. Fortunately his moveset pretty much stems from his playable appearances in X4 & X5 rather than in X3, so you can expect blisteringly fast and precise gameplay with his Z-Saber. He also still gets new techniques from bosses which are occasionally needed to grab collectibles. However his Z-Saber has the range of a fucking toothpick (compared to the PS1 games it feels WAY shorter) so you really have to get up close moreso than those games, and unlike X5 he doesn't even have his Buster, although you can attribute this to the limited amount of buttons on the Game Boy, so it is understandable. Not much else to say about playable Zero here as the rest of what I have to say ties into the next paragraph.
Next point of discussion is the progression. It's handled in the same manner as Xtreme 1 (fight 4 mavericks, beat the fortress stages, fight another 4 mavericks, fortress again then do Extreme Mode which has you do all 8 mavericks before doing the fortress), but this time they do something unique with it. At the main menu you can pick to play as either X or Zero which puts you into a new save file. Once you go through the fortress for the first time, you start the second half of mavericks as either Zero or X depending on who you picked on the main menu. This helps to freshen the experience, as you go from one distinct style of gameplay to a whole other style of gameplay, so you have to adapt again once you get to that second half. Furthermore, you have more incentive to go through Extreme Mode this time around, as not only does this allow you to tackle any stage as either X or Zero, but the true final boss (spoiler alert: it's Sigma) is locked behind it. However, in some godforsaken decision, only the hunter who lands the finishing blow on a maverick in Extreme Mode gets the special ability (say you beat Wire Sponge as Zero in Extreme Mode. He gets the Lightning technique while X gets jack shit). Fortunately if you still want all the collectibles then you can negate this by... fighting each maverick with whoever fought them previously (so have X fight Neon Tiger, Launch Octopus, Volt Catfish and Flame Mammoth while using Zero for Wire Sponge, Blast Hornet, Overdrive Ostrich and Tunnel Rhino). And because you have to decide who gets the Life Ups like in X5 it comes off as being a punch in the face to players who wanted to try doing a stage with a different character, especially once you factor in that some collectibles become impossible to get if you do a stage as the wrong character.
This then brings me onto my next point; the level design. Like with Xtreme 1, all the stage bosses in Xtreme 2 come from the SNES X games. I spoiled this in my last paragraph, but this time there's a few bosses from Mega Man X3 in the mix, including Neon Tiger, Volt Catfish, Blast Hornet and Tunnel Rhino. However, not all of the stages are ripped straight from their original games as they do a few things different, in some cases even going for an entirely new gimmick such as Neon Tigers stage having you go through a dense woodland akin to Sting Chameleons stage from X1, or Blast Hornets stage having you scale a fleet of aircraft akin to Storm Owls stage from X4, or Volt Catfishs stage being moreso based on Toxic Seahorses stage from X3, and they play with this pretty significantly, as in a few sections you have to avoid large waves of water which eventually become charged with electricity, making them go from simply pushing you back to being a straight-up OHKO upon contact. These are the kind of fun twists on the level design that Xtreme 1 was sorely missing (also Blast Hornets theme in this game is based on the PS1 version of it as opposed to the SNES version, thought I'd add that on).
Something else Xtreme 2 does well is the items. The usual 8 Life Ups are here alongside only 2 Sub-Tanks, and X & Zero both get their own separate sets of armor capsules to improve their abilities. X gets his Second Armor back from X2, complete with the vertical air dash from X3, and let me tell you, having an air dash makes getting Flame Mammoths armor capsule a total joke. Zeros armor isn't anything major to write home about, but the extra defense is nice to have. Again just beware that in Xtreme mode if you do Wire Sponge or Tunnel Rhino as X then some of Zeros armor capsules become impossible to obtain, and doing Flame Mammoth as Zero makes one of Xs armor capsules impossible to get, and because of a point I'll bring up later, it's important to balance out the heart tanks among both of them.
Next up I wanna talk about the plot, because as I mentioned in the intro, despite being a Game Boy title (and a Mega Man X game where the plots are generally hit or miss), there's an actual effort to be found here. If you care about spoilers for a 22 year old game for some reason, skip past this paragraph. Anyway a new phenomena known as the Erasure Incident has been occurring in Xs world, where innocent Reploids have been losing their spirits, essentially being left as empty husks.. X and Zero travel to the Laguz Island where this event originated from, and supporting them in this mission is none other than IRIS from X4, allowing us to see what the Maverick Hunters relationship with her was like prior to the Repliforce conflict from that game. It's then revealed that the ringleaders of the Erasure Incident are Berkana, a reploid designed to resemble and fight like a witch (also the only other female antagonist in the mainline X series aside from Iris), and Gareth, who resembles and fights like a knight. For most of the game they seem to be doing it on their own accord until you get to Extreme Mode where it's revealed that they were just doing Sigmas bidding. Predictable, but the new duo of antagonists are pretty cool and unique. A pretty solid plot overall, not unlike X4s dumb plot, but that's for a review at another stage. Also as I mentioned in the intro, this games plot gets referenced in X6, albeit only on a single line of dialogue.
Going on from that is the bosses, most of which which have received a few changes such as Neon Tiger losing the ultimate i-frame attack he loved to spam in X3 when he was at low health so you could barely damage him, or Launch Octopus overall feeling slower than he was in X1 alongside him no longer recovering HP if he caught you with his tornado. Those are the only real major ones with all the other ones not really changing the fight that much. The new bosses are all pretty neat as well, Berkana in particular stood out to me as she takes away some of your controls in a few specific attacks while still letting you use tools to survive her onslaught. The Sigma battle is pretty unique as well as not only is it an entirely original body, but it forces you to use both X and Zero to defeat him, something I'm surprised is only done for this single fight, and it's not even something that gets done in Mega Man X7 and X8 which brings back the switching mechanic (post review note: I forgot that X8s Sigma battle forces you to do a teammate switch to get out of a hard knockdown, but that's only a single instance of it). But then on the other hand you have the fucking tank boss in the second fortress stage, which makes Gate and Nightmare Mother look like nothing when it comes to discussing the worst Mega Man X boss IMO. At the start you have enough space to dodge exactly (1) attack before it closes in on you and strips away that breathing room while onslaughting you with projectiles. And because its attacks hit like a freight train, you have no other choice but to tank its hits and hope its health bar goes down before yours does. You can knock it back as Zero, but it only works for so long as it continues to pelt you with projectiles. And you have to beat this fucker THREE TIMES to get the true ending. For me its the worst Mega Man X boss by a landslide and it isn't even close, so it sticks out like a sore thumb when bringing up Xtreme 2s bosses.
Another gripe I have is that the wall jumping controls still feel pretty clunky. Sometimes X or Zero won't even move while I'm holding down the D-Pad and I have no idea why. That's the only real gripe I have with the core-gameplay, and it didn't really become a serious problem that much throughout the playthrough.
In the end, a pretty good step up from Xtreme 1 with having quite a few original ideas and an ambitious plot, as well as a (flawed) implementation of playable Zero. However fuck having to do the worst boss in the series 3 times to get the true ending, as well as having some pretty fucking janky wall jump controls (although this was present in Xtreme 1 too). It's serviceable enough as an actual Mega Man X game let alone a portable experience, so I can recommend this more than Xtreme 1 as it isn't a COMPLETE rehash of existing content.
X1
X2
X3
X4
X5
X6
X7
X8
Xtreme
Mega Man Xtreme 2 is overall a pretty significant step up from Xtreme 1 in all aspects, but it still kinda falls flat in some others. This game is pretty much solely remembered in general for its continuity elements (i.e. that this is the first canonical appearance of Zeros love interest Iris prior to the plot of X4 or that the main event in this game, the Erasure Incident gets referenced in a line of dialogue from X6), but I'll touch into the plot in a later paragraph because for a portable game there's some hint of ambition here.
First notable point aside from the continuity is the fact that Zero is a fully playable character in this game while in Xtreme 1 he was kinda just a support character that X could summon to do a screen nuke or something. Fortunately his moveset pretty much stems from his playable appearances in X4 & X5 rather than in X3, so you can expect blisteringly fast and precise gameplay with his Z-Saber. He also still gets new techniques from bosses which are occasionally needed to grab collectibles. However his Z-Saber has the range of a fucking toothpick (compared to the PS1 games it feels WAY shorter) so you really have to get up close moreso than those games, and unlike X5 he doesn't even have his Buster, although you can attribute this to the limited amount of buttons on the Game Boy, so it is understandable. Not much else to say about playable Zero here as the rest of what I have to say ties into the next paragraph.
Next point of discussion is the progression. It's handled in the same manner as Xtreme 1 (fight 4 mavericks, beat the fortress stages, fight another 4 mavericks, fortress again then do Extreme Mode which has you do all 8 mavericks before doing the fortress), but this time they do something unique with it. At the main menu you can pick to play as either X or Zero which puts you into a new save file. Once you go through the fortress for the first time, you start the second half of mavericks as either Zero or X depending on who you picked on the main menu. This helps to freshen the experience, as you go from one distinct style of gameplay to a whole other style of gameplay, so you have to adapt again once you get to that second half. Furthermore, you have more incentive to go through Extreme Mode this time around, as not only does this allow you to tackle any stage as either X or Zero, but the true final boss (spoiler alert: it's Sigma) is locked behind it. However, in some godforsaken decision, only the hunter who lands the finishing blow on a maverick in Extreme Mode gets the special ability (say you beat Wire Sponge as Zero in Extreme Mode. He gets the Lightning technique while X gets jack shit). Fortunately if you still want all the collectibles then you can negate this by... fighting each maverick with whoever fought them previously (so have X fight Neon Tiger, Launch Octopus, Volt Catfish and Flame Mammoth while using Zero for Wire Sponge, Blast Hornet, Overdrive Ostrich and Tunnel Rhino). And because you have to decide who gets the Life Ups like in X5 it comes off as being a punch in the face to players who wanted to try doing a stage with a different character, especially once you factor in that some collectibles become impossible to get if you do a stage as the wrong character.
This then brings me onto my next point; the level design. Like with Xtreme 1, all the stage bosses in Xtreme 2 come from the SNES X games. I spoiled this in my last paragraph, but this time there's a few bosses from Mega Man X3 in the mix, including Neon Tiger, Volt Catfish, Blast Hornet and Tunnel Rhino. However, not all of the stages are ripped straight from their original games as they do a few things different, in some cases even going for an entirely new gimmick such as Neon Tigers stage having you go through a dense woodland akin to Sting Chameleons stage from X1, or Blast Hornets stage having you scale a fleet of aircraft akin to Storm Owls stage from X4, or Volt Catfishs stage being moreso based on Toxic Seahorses stage from X3, and they play with this pretty significantly, as in a few sections you have to avoid large waves of water which eventually become charged with electricity, making them go from simply pushing you back to being a straight-up OHKO upon contact. These are the kind of fun twists on the level design that Xtreme 1 was sorely missing (also Blast Hornets theme in this game is based on the PS1 version of it as opposed to the SNES version, thought I'd add that on).
Something else Xtreme 2 does well is the items. The usual 8 Life Ups are here alongside only 2 Sub-Tanks, and X & Zero both get their own separate sets of armor capsules to improve their abilities. X gets his Second Armor back from X2, complete with the vertical air dash from X3, and let me tell you, having an air dash makes getting Flame Mammoths armor capsule a total joke. Zeros armor isn't anything major to write home about, but the extra defense is nice to have. Again just beware that in Xtreme mode if you do Wire Sponge or Tunnel Rhino as X then some of Zeros armor capsules become impossible to obtain, and doing Flame Mammoth as Zero makes one of Xs armor capsules impossible to get, and because of a point I'll bring up later, it's important to balance out the heart tanks among both of them.
Next up I wanna talk about the plot, because as I mentioned in the intro, despite being a Game Boy title (and a Mega Man X game where the plots are generally hit or miss), there's an actual effort to be found here. If you care about spoilers for a 22 year old game for some reason, skip past this paragraph. Anyway a new phenomena known as the Erasure Incident has been occurring in Xs world, where innocent Reploids have been losing their spirits, essentially being left as empty husks.. X and Zero travel to the Laguz Island where this event originated from, and supporting them in this mission is none other than IRIS from X4, allowing us to see what the Maverick Hunters relationship with her was like prior to the Repliforce conflict from that game. It's then revealed that the ringleaders of the Erasure Incident are Berkana, a reploid designed to resemble and fight like a witch (also the only other female antagonist in the mainline X series aside from Iris), and Gareth, who resembles and fights like a knight. For most of the game they seem to be doing it on their own accord until you get to Extreme Mode where it's revealed that they were just doing Sigmas bidding. Predictable, but the new duo of antagonists are pretty cool and unique. A pretty solid plot overall, not unlike X4s dumb plot, but that's for a review at another stage. Also as I mentioned in the intro, this games plot gets referenced in X6, albeit only on a single line of dialogue.
Going on from that is the bosses, most of which which have received a few changes such as Neon Tiger losing the ultimate i-frame attack he loved to spam in X3 when he was at low health so you could barely damage him, or Launch Octopus overall feeling slower than he was in X1 alongside him no longer recovering HP if he caught you with his tornado. Those are the only real major ones with all the other ones not really changing the fight that much. The new bosses are all pretty neat as well, Berkana in particular stood out to me as she takes away some of your controls in a few specific attacks while still letting you use tools to survive her onslaught. The Sigma battle is pretty unique as well as not only is it an entirely original body, but it forces you to use both X and Zero to defeat him, something I'm surprised is only done for this single fight, and it's not even something that gets done in Mega Man X7 and X8 which brings back the switching mechanic (post review note: I forgot that X8s Sigma battle forces you to do a teammate switch to get out of a hard knockdown, but that's only a single instance of it). But then on the other hand you have the fucking tank boss in the second fortress stage, which makes Gate and Nightmare Mother look like nothing when it comes to discussing the worst Mega Man X boss IMO. At the start you have enough space to dodge exactly (1) attack before it closes in on you and strips away that breathing room while onslaughting you with projectiles. And because its attacks hit like a freight train, you have no other choice but to tank its hits and hope its health bar goes down before yours does. You can knock it back as Zero, but it only works for so long as it continues to pelt you with projectiles. And you have to beat this fucker THREE TIMES to get the true ending. For me its the worst Mega Man X boss by a landslide and it isn't even close, so it sticks out like a sore thumb when bringing up Xtreme 2s bosses.
Another gripe I have is that the wall jumping controls still feel pretty clunky. Sometimes X or Zero won't even move while I'm holding down the D-Pad and I have no idea why. That's the only real gripe I have with the core-gameplay, and it didn't really become a serious problem that much throughout the playthrough.
In the end, a pretty good step up from Xtreme 1 with having quite a few original ideas and an ambitious plot, as well as a (flawed) implementation of playable Zero. However fuck having to do the worst boss in the series 3 times to get the true ending, as well as having some pretty fucking janky wall jump controls (although this was present in Xtreme 1 too). It's serviceable enough as an actual Mega Man X game let alone a portable experience, so I can recommend this more than Xtreme 1 as it isn't a COMPLETE rehash of existing content.