a massive improvement over the first. all of the levels are decent this time and are made better if you do metal mans stage first and get his broken weapon. robot masters are a lot more iconic and the music is pretty good. my main problems with this game come within the wiley stages which just suck. it all culminates with one of the worst bosses i have ever played with the one that requires the crash bombs. as an overall game though its pretty great and was a rad introduction to the series for me