It isn't Rewind Time...?
Mega Man 2 felt a lot better to play than the original game, but it also came with its own set of glaring issues. The new stages look pretty (for NES standards) and the toned down difficulty compared to MM1 definitely helped my enjoyment too, as I no longer had to rely on the Legacy Collection's rewind feature as much to progress through the game at a normal pace. However this is still a Mega Man game at its core, which means you can't just have a good time like that.
In the case of Mega Man 2, my main complaints come from two stages, two bosses and the insane amount of flashing lights thrown into your face whenever you beat a boss. Heat Man's stage revolves around a gimmick forcing you to guess where an invisible block will pop up next, causing you to proceed with trial and error until you eventually manage to land on such a block, just to repeat it over and over. Not a problem with the rewind feature as you can just "know" where the next block will pop up, but this was NOT the case for the players in 1989. A pretty frustrating trial-and-error experience in theory, even if it didn't affect me badly because of my ability to rewind. Next stage complaint, Quick Man's stage has a cool concept with the level closing in on you over time, so you're supposed to rush through the level. While it does sound cool at first, Capcom's vision for this idea were insta-kill lasers, so now instead of shifting the focus on the speed of the level, it's now all about how precise you're about to control through these lasers (and the timing for some of these falls are really relentless).
Okay, so these two stages have some trial-and-error, but did you know there are also actual roadblocks in Mega Man 2 if you don't meet certain conditions? I'm talking about the Stage 4 boss of Wily's Castle and the final phase of Wily himself. The boss on Stage 4 is a glorified puzzle, you need to use the Crash Bombs at specific locations in order to take down multiple turrets in the boss room. The thing is, if your Crash meter isn't full enough, you won't be able to beat this fight - every other weapon gets deflected from the turrets and some are guarded by walls. As for Wily in his final phase, for some reason he's completely immune to all weapons except Bubble Man's bubbles. Same issue as with the Stage 4 boss, if your meter is empty you can't win the fight. I feel really bad for everyone who played this back then, got to the final boss and couldn't beat him because of this laughable restriction.
Nonetheless I did have a somewhat good time with Mega Man 2, as most levels are big improvements over the ones in MM1 in terms of gameplay and design, but the aforementioned issues make it hard for me to give this game a higher score. Atleast I have heard many good things about Mega Man 3, so I'm looking forward to playing that one in the upcoming days!
Mega Man 2 felt a lot better to play than the original game, but it also came with its own set of glaring issues. The new stages look pretty (for NES standards) and the toned down difficulty compared to MM1 definitely helped my enjoyment too, as I no longer had to rely on the Legacy Collection's rewind feature as much to progress through the game at a normal pace. However this is still a Mega Man game at its core, which means you can't just have a good time like that.
In the case of Mega Man 2, my main complaints come from two stages, two bosses and the insane amount of flashing lights thrown into your face whenever you beat a boss. Heat Man's stage revolves around a gimmick forcing you to guess where an invisible block will pop up next, causing you to proceed with trial and error until you eventually manage to land on such a block, just to repeat it over and over. Not a problem with the rewind feature as you can just "know" where the next block will pop up, but this was NOT the case for the players in 1989. A pretty frustrating trial-and-error experience in theory, even if it didn't affect me badly because of my ability to rewind. Next stage complaint, Quick Man's stage has a cool concept with the level closing in on you over time, so you're supposed to rush through the level. While it does sound cool at first, Capcom's vision for this idea were insta-kill lasers, so now instead of shifting the focus on the speed of the level, it's now all about how precise you're about to control through these lasers (and the timing for some of these falls are really relentless).
Okay, so these two stages have some trial-and-error, but did you know there are also actual roadblocks in Mega Man 2 if you don't meet certain conditions? I'm talking about the Stage 4 boss of Wily's Castle and the final phase of Wily himself. The boss on Stage 4 is a glorified puzzle, you need to use the Crash Bombs at specific locations in order to take down multiple turrets in the boss room. The thing is, if your Crash meter isn't full enough, you won't be able to beat this fight - every other weapon gets deflected from the turrets and some are guarded by walls. As for Wily in his final phase, for some reason he's completely immune to all weapons except Bubble Man's bubbles. Same issue as with the Stage 4 boss, if your meter is empty you can't win the fight. I feel really bad for everyone who played this back then, got to the final boss and couldn't beat him because of this laughable restriction.
Nonetheless I did have a somewhat good time with Mega Man 2, as most levels are big improvements over the ones in MM1 in terms of gameplay and design, but the aforementioned issues make it hard for me to give this game a higher score. Atleast I have heard many good things about Mega Man 3, so I'm looking forward to playing that one in the upcoming days!
MikoMango
1 month ago