The Game Boy Mega Man games tend to have a reputation of being nothing more than remixes of their NES counterparts. Barring Mega Man World 5, they’re often seen as nothing but poorly put together remixes slapped on inferior hardware to make a quick buck, and I really don’t think that’s very fair to those games. From what I’ve played of the Mega Man World games up to this point, they’re probably some of the most ambitious Mega Man games I’ve ever played, especially coming off hardware as limiting as the Game Boy. Sure, they use elements from the NES games and that can leave them feeling a bit samey if you’ve played the NES games a lot like I have, but they use these enemies and gimmicks in new and creative ways that still make them feel unique from the entries on NES. Hell, they even opt to go out of their way to add completely new elements to these stages, like, Cut Man’s stage in Dr. Wily’s Revenge is practically unrecognizable from its NES counterpart. And a lot of the time, I end up preferring the decisions made in the Mega Man World games, because there’s a good amount of thought put into the levels designs, especially for a remixed Game Boy game. What I’m saying is that the Game Boy Mega Man games don’t deserve the less than stellar reputation they end up getting, as they have a ton of passion and heart poured into them. At least… the ones made by Minakuchi Engineering do.

Despite doing a pretty decent job with the first Game Boy game, Minakuchi Engineering did not make the 2nd Game Boy Mega Man. Instead, development of this entry was outsourced to a different company, Thinking Rabbit. Upon looking them up on Wikipedia, they’re most well known for publishing the original Sokoban, a puzzle game where you push blocks around. On the surface, this change in developers doesn’t sound like a bad thing. I’m all for giving different developers a chance to craft their own take on a well-established franchise, while giving the main development team time to work on other projects. However, while a lot of Minakuchi Enginerring’s dev team (particularly the lead developer) happened to be huge Mega Man fans, Thinking Rabbit knew next to nothing about the Mega Man franchise, and hasn’t developed another Mega Man game since this one. This, along with the lukewarm at best reception towards the game and music (which I’ll get to later), made me a bit skeptical about this one going in. However, I still wanted to give this game a fair chance despite all the things seemingly going against it, and hey, it’d be interesting getting a look at Thinking Rabbit’s take on the Mega Man franchise. So after all is said and done, what did I think of it?

Yeah, I’m sorry, but this ain’t it. Mega Man World 2 didn’t click with me at all. None of it felt engaging or really that fun to me, and Thinking Rabbit’s lack of knowledge or care about the Mega Man series really showed in this one. But before I get to why I feel that way, I actually want to highlight some of the things that I feel like Mega Man World 2 does better than its predecessor. As you can already tell from the 2 star rating and from what all I’ve said so far, this review isn’t going to be very positive, so I figured I should at least give the game some merit and talk about what I think it does right before going into what it does wrong. The first thing I quickly want to highlight is the fact that they FINALLY gave the Mega Man 3 Robot Masters proper stages. This was one of my biggest criticisms of Dr. Wily’s Revenge, and I’m so glad to see that they fixed it in this entry. In Dr Wily’s Revenge, the Mega Man 2 Robot Master fights were kind of just shoved into teleporter rooms at the end of Enker’s stage, which not only made the game feel way too abrupt, but gave you next to no time to use any of their weapons, as you only got to use them for one stage. Adding the Mega Man 3 Robot Master stages near the end fixes all of these problems, not only by making the game feel more complete, but also by giving you more opportunities to use the latter half of this game’s weapon roster. And while it probably would be better to have all 8 stages available from the get-go, this is certainly a massive improvement over what Dr. Wily’s Revenge did. Another cool thing that Mega Man World 2 did (or, I guess, didn’t do in this case) was that they removed a lot of the spike drops present in Dr. Wily’s Revenge. In the first game’s endgame, you’d have a lot of situations where you’d drop down a screen, and then immediately get killed by a pit of spikes you couldn’t react to because you happened to be in the wrong position. While you could mitigate this with the Carry item, it’s something that you shouldn’t have to do if you don’t know the game. Thankfully, these were a lot less frequent in Mega Man World 2. There was one from what I recall in, I think Metal Man’s stage? Still, I didn’t die to it, and there weren’t any more death defying drops from that point onwards. So overall, Mega Man World 2 isn’t sounding so bad. I mean, it fixed my two biggest issues with Dr. Wily’s Revenge, so why do I feel like this game is so much worse?

To really go into detail on why I don’t like this game very much, like always, we’re going to have to start with the level design. And this is definitely my biggest point of contention with this game. Like I’ve said so many times you all are probably sick of it by now, the level design in Classic Mega Man is one of, if not, the defining factor in making classic Mega Man so great, especially since this is where you’ll be spending most of your time platforming, fighting all the enemies, using your special weapons, etc. So when your game fails at its level design, you’re not going to be having fun for most of your experience. Mega Man 8 is a great example of how poor level design can ruin an otherwise great game. It has a lot going for it, like great bosses, cool collectibles, and neat weapons and environmental interaction. However, the frustrating and boring level design just completely ruined it for me, and I just didn’t end up having much fun with the game. Unfortunately, Mega Man World 2 doesn’t fare much better here. The first issue I have with this game’s level design is some of the absolutely GOD AWFUL enemy placements in this game. I swear, in nearly every level, enemies are placed in a way where it’s either really awkward to take them out, or in a way where it’s damn near impossible to get by without taking damage. Like, good luck doing a no damage run of Air Man’s stage in this game. All of the fan enemies in this game are placed in a way where once they show up, you’re going to be taking damage from the cloud enemies around you because you’re pushed back into their drills. Or in Crash Man’s stage, where the tellies spawn below you, meaning that if you’re riding on the platform, you can’t even shoot them, forcing you to take damage unless you play around it in a really awkward way. Mega Man World 2 is full of awkward enemy placements like this, however, this isn’t my biggest issue with the level design here. While the bad enemy placements are annoying, they aren’t too big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. No, my biggest issue with Mega Man World 2 as a whole is that it is boring as SIN, in more ways than just one. Remember at the beginning of the review, how I discussed the undeserved reputation the Game Boy Mega Man games get? Like I mentioned earlier, the Mega Man World games tend to deviate their level designs from their NES counterparts in really creative ways, either by adding entirely new gimmicks, adding enemies from different stages, or just by using their already existing enemies in creative ways. However, Mega Man World 2 is basically the only entry in this series that opts not to do this. There are very few instances in this game where the levels attempt to deviate from their NES counterparts in any way. The only two that I can think of off the top of my head are some of the Needle Man elements in Wood Man’s stage, and the underwater section in Top Man’s stage. Hell, World 2 will often just shoddily port over rooms and even entire sections from the NES games! And, I’d at least be a lot more forgiving of this, if not for the fact that the levels themselves are insanely unmemorable and boring. Mega Man World 2’s levels suffer from what I like to call “Seven Sirens Syndrome”, where the levels of the game feel like nothing more than going through the motions, without attempting to take any risks or exciting the player in any way. And unfortunately, even with its original rooms and ideas, Mega Man World 2 doesn’t make me feel anything with its levels. Like yeah, it’s certainly a Mega Man stage, but it feels like nothing more than just shooting at enemies used in the most mundane ways possible while occasionally jumping across platforms. It also doesn’t help that this game is insanely easy. Even when you do take damage from an unfair enemy placement, it’s not much, and you’re probably not taking damage from anything else. The frequent health powerups appearing throughout these stages don’t help matters here either. And look, I don’t mind an easy game at all. Pokemon Omega Ruby is one of my all-time favorite games. But when your easy game starts to border on mind-numbingly boring, that’s where I start to take some issues. Mega Man World 2’s levels are just a whole bunch of nothing. Like the reputation of the Game Boy Mega Man series as a whole, they unfortunately remain nothing more than shoddy ports of much better NES stages that you’re better off playing instead.

I’m not going to go too in-depth on the bosses, because what did you expect? They’re, once again, exactly the same as their NES counterparts. I could go into detail again on how I’m not a big fan of the NES Robot Masters, but I’d like to take this time to discuss a change to one of the bosses that I liked. Specifically, Air Man and his tornado patterns. In the NES version, Air Man has a tornado pattern that is completely impossible for the player to dodge (unless they were to use, like, Item 1 or something). However, in Mega Man World 2, not only are all of Air Man’s patterns dodgeable without the need of a utility weapon, but they also make pretty great use of Mega Man’s slide. This is definitely a change I appreciated, as it makes Air Man’s fight a lot more fun to play than its NES version. As for the other fights, though, they’re pretty much exactly the same. And like their NES counterparts, they’re typically either way too easy to cheese, or rely on your inputs, making them way too hard if you don’t understand how they work. The overall selection of bosses is a bit better than Wily’s Revenge, but overall, I’m still not a big fan of them.

Mega Man World 2’s weapon roster is also not great, mainly because it suffers from a lot of the same issues that made Mega Man 2’s weapon roster pretty bad. I don’t feel like this is entirely the developers’ fault, as two of the weapons present in this game are Metal Blade and Mega Man 3’s Rush Jet, two of the most broken Mega Man weapons of all time. However, I do still feel like they should’ve at least attempted to balance these two weapons a bit, as they’re so overpowered, there’s basically no reason to use any of the other weapons. I did play the game without trying to use these weapons, as I wanted to give this game’s weapon roster a fair chance. Unfortunately, the other weapons are nowhere near as good, and only served to make the game’s weapon selection even more unbalanced. While there are some decent ones sprinkled in there, like Leaf Shield and Hard Knuckle, they’re situational at best and don’t see much use compared to your buster. What’s even worse is that they kept that dumbass immunity thing that 80% of Mega Man 2’s enemies had! Like, nearly every airborne enemy in this game is immune to the Air Shooter, and it’s like, where can I even USE this weapon then????? All this shitty mechanic serves to do is limit your experimentation with the weapons, which just doesn’t make any sense in a game series where you’re encouraged to do so. The weapon roster overall really did need some more fine tuning to make it actually balanced, because when you’re not using a weapon that breaks the game in two, you’re using a weapon that ranges from mediocre, to bad, to the Sakugarne. And let’s talk about the Sakugarne real quick. This is the weapon you get from the game’s special Robot Master, Quint, and it’s hands down the worst weapon in the game. It’s supposed to function like a pogo stick where you can bounce on enemies and traverse spikes, but not only can you NOT actually traverse spikes with this thing, but its damage output is laughably bad. Meanwhile, you’re still taking damage from enemies as you bounce on them while the energy gauge goes down faster than the short ass Wily stage where it’s your only chance to even use this weapon. Speaking of which, this seems like a good time to transition into the final part of the game, its endgame.

After beating the first four Robot Masters, like in Dr. Wily’s Revenge, you can move on to the Wily stage. After a cutscene with Mega Man and an oddly-chiseled Wily plays, you can actually get to the remaining 4 robot master stages from here, which is a pretty unique approach that hasn’t been done in a classic Mega Man game since. After you beat all 4 robot masters, you can finally face off against this game’s Mega Man Killer, Quint, a more powerful version of Mega Man sent from a distant future sent to destroy Mega Man. Oh man, this sounds so cool, I wonder how the fight is- aaaaand it’s the most miserable excuse for a Robot Master fight you’ve ever seen in your life. Like, I know I complained about the previous Mega Man Killers when talking about the other Mega Man World games, but at least their patterns are still well-designed, despite the less than stellar execution. But here, Quint just hops towards your location and just bounces on his pogo stick for like, 5 seconds. And that’s all he does for the entire fight! You might as well be handed Quint’s shitty weapon on a silver platter! It’s one of the most pathetic and lazily designed boss fights I’ve ever seen in a video game, and it’s over in like, 5 seconds on top of that. So much for a cool fight with your future self. Anyways, after Quint’s been defeated and you get his weapon, you can finally move on to Wily’s Space Fortress. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything positive to say about this stage. I don’t even have much to say about the stage at all. It’s insanely forgettable, because not only are all of the enemies and stage hazards just placed haphazardly with no real theme to them, but the stage itself is basically over before you know it. The same goes for all 3 Wily phases. They’re incredibly easy to dodge for a Wily fight, and forgettable to the point where I can’t even remember anything about any of the phases this time around. All I can recall about this fight is that after you defeat Wily, Mega Man chases down Wily’s ship and shoots him down with a missile, killing him and thus completely ignoring the very first law of robotics. And with that, the game’s finally over. I’m sorry, I know this part might feel completely anticlimactic to some of you, but this endgame has given me absolutely nothing new or interesting to say without repeating the same shit I’ve been saying about the stages for the whole review. Hell, I would’ve preferred the last stage be a little bit frustrating, or have spike drops like in Wily’s Revenge, because at least then it would’ve given me something, anything to talk about. Well, that technically is the end of Mega Man World 2, but I really don’t want to end off on a note as anticlimactic as this. So before we wrap this review up, I’m going to touch upon something that some of you have probably been clamoring for since the beginning of the review; the music.

I don’t normally ever mention the music when reviewing a Mega Man game, because good music is kind of a given when it comes to this series. Nearly every classic Mega Man track from 1-11 sounds amazing to me, on top of being extremely memorable and having a tendency to get stuck in your head quite easily. Because of this, I kinda find it redundant to mention the music when talking about this series because I mean, all of it sounds good! HOWEVER, Mega Man World 2 might be the only game in the series where this is not the case. You see, unlike the Minakuchi Game Boy games, Mega Man World 2 opts to create original tracks for its Robot Master stages as opposed to remixing them. And while this sounds like a good thing, man, these tracks sure are something. Nearly all of them “bless” your ears with incredibly jarring high pitched sounds that completely ruin the tracks, not at all helped by the awful high pitched sound effects that accompany you throughout the whole game. The thing is, the compositions themselves aren’t actually that bad, as composers like RushJet1 and Tpcool have made them sound great before. However, they’re completely ruined by the awful instruments that they’re cursed to be accompanied with. And with this, I feel like this is a perfect note to end this review off, because in a lot of ways, Mega Man World 2’s gameplay is a lot like its music. Because while Mega Man World 2’s great compositions still manage to sound like shit, its promising elements from Mega Man 2 and 3 still manage to be used in a way that’s both boring and frustrating at the same time. This game shouldn’t have been as mediocre as it ended up being, but it’s very clear to me that Thinking Rabbit put next to no care into this entry before releasing it onto store shelves. The stages are beyond bland and unmemorable, the weapon roster is unbalanced as all hell, and all the promising ideas it does have fall flat on their face. It kinda saddens me to say that out of all the Game Boy entries, this one really is nothing more than shoddily ported elements from the NES games with little thought or passion put into it. And while Minakuchi Engineering thankfully returned to do the rest of the Game Boy entries, there’s next to no reason to invest any time into this one. (4/10)

A really fun browser co-op game with some simple puzzles, gem collecting and speed based platforming that holds a lot of memories trying to play together with my sister on our laptop.
For a difficult challenge you could try is to play solo (if you're a masochist, like I am) but it's not nearly as fun as with a friend or sibling so play with someone else.
There isn't much else to talk about, but did you know they used a lot of sound effects from Zelda? The voices for both the characters are taken dierctly from the Wind Waker and the gem collect sound (a sword being unsheathed) is taken from the title screen of Twilight Princess, crazy huh?

Man, all of my recent reviews have been kind of downers. Let's fix that with a good game.
Megaman Zero takes place way after the Maverick Wars of Megaman X, which takes place after the Wily Wars in the original Megaman games. So, a lot of shit has happened that led to the events of Zero; thankfully, all you need to know was that X, the protagonist of Megaman X, ended the Maverick Wars and became some kind of weird spirit projection thing and he also created the city of Neo-Arcadia where Reploids (the humanoid robots, basically) and humans could live in peace. I would suggest playing at least the first Megaman X before trying this one out, but this game does a decent job at filling you in even if you don't.

I think the most striking aspect about this game is how solemn and dark it is.
The original Megaman was super cheery and made you think: "Dr. Wily's come up with a dastardly plan and hijacked Dr. Light's robots! You're the only one who can stop this evil mastermind!"
Then Megaman X came along and made you think: "Sigma's plan to destroy our society as we know it must not come to fruition; you have to stop him before he succeeds!"
However, Megaman Zero places you in a different state of mind, and I think it's because in this game, the worst has already come to pass. In any of the previous games, the story would begin with the Copy X's uprising and you'd have to stop him, but that has already happened way long ago by the time the game actually begins. You're suddenly thrust into being part of a tiny Resistance that has to fight against unsurmountable odds, you don't have the familiarity of the classic Robot Master select screens, this game took a massive departure from the classic formula and I think this was the best time for it.

So, that about covers the atmosphere and story. How's the gameplay? Well, it's tough as shit! You die 3 times and you're permanently locked out of the stage, which is a baffling decision honestly considering some bosses do crazy amounts of damage and have pretty sophisticated patterns that you're going to have to memorize. Want my advice? Use save states. There is no shame in wanting to actually play the content in the game. Oh, and also grind your weapon rank whenever possible to make things easier for yourself.
That said, the boss fights in this game are actually pretty fun. My favorites are Anubis Necromancess III, Fairy Leviathan, and Sage Harpuria; and it just so happens that they're actually pretty fun characters in this game.

This game oozes a lot of charm in general, from the Cyber-Elf descriptions to the little pre-boss interactions, you can definitely feel the passion put into this game and I really appreciate that.
So, overall? Pretty fun game.

Colorblindness Rating: A
I don't recall having any issues with color in this game. Thank god.

So we back in the miiiine YeAyEa yEaaaa and the first thing of note is that I have dug out the fossil that is Kirby's Adventure, modernizing the shit out of that shit. Embrace modernity! Yeah well, nuh huuh. This ii the Kiwami of Kirby's Adventure, by which I mean just play the original, unless you really loved The Amazing Mirror and Squeak Squad and you desperately need your fix with another entry in the graphics department. Kirby very bleeh eepy :p it's short enough I don't really mind, though, it's like watching that mess of a Lion's King remake. Dedede still plays the role of an unsupervised toddler pretty well, very impressive. Never give people like him an excuse because they'll damn well milk it for all it's worth. Yo ass is going to Brazil

The first sin of capital G Gaming is a remake that decreases the difficulty. Lo and behold who does exactly that. Imagine waking up and b like "uh huh yes sir, I've made the goal game easier for these babies... get me that raise NOW!!" and wow we have truly fallen as a human society, not in this economy bucko! Less will you see enemies go "GIVE ME YOUR HAT", the sentiment slipping their mind as Kirby completely obliterates them on the go. Aw nahw what da hell ong they removed da funny toortle 😭 for its controversial statemebts on immigration. Misstep lil bro. If you're wonderin which came first, the chicken or the egg, I'll raise a better question: Fountain of Dreams track from Melee or thid game. Ehhh who knows, both produced in-house they might have just been inspired by the GBA track and hired a whole ass concert!

The best use of the remake would be to sell it at a high price online, huuuuh or play it with 4 people for a truly undescribable experience (too much chaos to describe anything). Picture that Waddle Dee in the couch surrounded by 4 Kirbys "the council has decided your fate" oh he's DEAD dead, finna be sucked promptly. There's an extra mode for kino enjoyers however, Meta Knightmare lets you play a certain somebody (try to guess who) and it's kind of the "You can now play as Luigi" of Kirby games, like cool ig, nice moveset bro leave some women for the rest of us. You get to use the Meta Knight to beat the Meta Knight, very cool, game. Tbh this is second hand information to me, I could have cared less. I was busy reuniting with Ball Kirby and going through the stylishly static backgrounds.

Overall, weird time. The bonus modes are cooler, Kirby is absolutely shredding, and on the other hand they removed the rotating floor in Butter Building which was the most impressive part of the original game lowkey? There's always a "BUT" waiting. BUT no. What that frick does the title even suggests. Yes, he is in Dream Land. He do be yes. I guess Nightmare Adventure would sell less bcuz it sounds scary. It truly is Kirby's own Ohio.

This is a major step up from the original Castlevania Adventure on the Game Boy. It feels great to play this time and feels a lot like playing the original Castlevania on the NES which is honestly impressive for the Original Game Boy.

Slowdown is almost gone and the controls are very responsive. The levels themselves are designed fairly, in the sense where nothing feels cheap (besides the last few levels but we'll get to that). Enemies aren't whip sponges and are easy to take down. Visuals themselves have the sauce and look nice for a Game Boy game.

This time around the structure is more like Mega Man, where you are given the option to play 4 stages with a boss at the end. Once you complete all 4, you go Castlevania which is pretty much the Wily Castle of this game. It works very well for Castlevania and doesn't feel out of place, except for the fact that there really isn't an order advantage like there are in Mega Man games.

I was only soured by the last few levels as the ending bosses felt kinda unfair and some parts of the level were kind bullishit. Almost enjoyed this one all the way through if it weren't for the last few sections.

Overall, still a good solid Portable Castlevania title, and what the original Castlevania Adventure should have been. Mostly enjoyed my time with this one.

If I had remember this game to know the story, I would be complimenting it right how. But I alrsady have something to compliment with: The controls.

The controls are magnificent. Easy to learn, hard to master due to how you'll be slippery sliding all over thr place if you're not careful. Although in terms of length, that's it's weakest factor. At the end of the day, it's another great Mobile game (made in Unity!) that's easily able to be picked up, enjoyed, and played without ads hurting your progression.

Yeah I just added that coolio lil fangame into da database. Hooray me. I discovered the game when it was a babyyyy (2019, November to be exactamundo) and I've been an absent father. YIPPEEEE so yeah. By March 2023 the game was already out for almost a year, and I decided to be a responsible father and review my child. Not mine per se. Credits due to Mythridate as I quite like what they did as a solo project. The UI work is lickety-good 👌 (this is not a real word). I think they are now qualified... for this. GRAAAAA JOB APPLICATION JUMPSCARE sorry sorry. Not a slight at anybody! Echo should have hit the Walmart joint for a chunk of change, 3 pesos, we are SO in.

Anyway it's like a mini-Danganronpa, has some sci-fi elements that kinda come in unannounced and is pretty weird ngl ngl but otherwise the setting grounded. Echo Pine got a tall ass girl friend... but they (Echo is non-binary, like the game's developer! Reader will remember this) does not know, something malicious is brewing... they be like "Yummm I love the smell of gasoline in the morning" but uh oh, what is this? Hot people!! hi 😳😳 nobody's barking for such dirty reasons though, only directing the power of the voices (they remain) at the hidden cameras. Not so hidden now, are they? They deserve a standing ovation for mishandling of a gun, though. Bravo!

A closed setting with a bunch of students, building relationships with one another? This is my favorite time of the year. Cyrus kinda sussy he's using friend group A humor with friend group B. Missy kinda goofball too. She's a 10% but she can be 💯 if the situation calls. Why is Lyle all zesty likeeee brutha u zesty as hell brutha 😂 Artussy got him acting unwise. Art is very fun. He seems the type to share a banana with a monkey and make monkey noises to bond with the simian creatura. Kanon best girl... CANON. The most trans a trans has ever transed. She do be spittin fax rn. Forte is... 💔💔 😳🥰 Pandora homeschool she was cooked at home. Why don't we have Pandora at home? Because she is. She's homo I mean home ahah and the last student is Sei. What's there to say about Sei? There is a lot I'm sure but I respect her right to privacy. I think if I bumped on a wall she might have an episode and think about the dangers of wall in today's society.

Time between murders is short and the murders are pretty simple, but the writing and art are cozy despite how grim most of the plot is. I don't wanna say I'd live there because heehee be fr my life matters. But the juxtaposition between the presentation and the actual atmosphere, the feeling of the game quite lingers in the mind. The game does lack the substance you'd expect due to cutting down on the basic formula, but it does (buzzsentence incoming) achieve what it sets out to do. Not the type of protagonist I'm usually fond of, but Echo is a cool little feller. They have that puppi in them ong.