Mega Man 2 1989
Log Status
Completed
Playing
Backlog
Wishlist
Rating
Time Played
--
Days in Journal
1 day
Last played
April 8, 2023
Platforms Played
Played as part of the Mega Man Anniversary Collection for the Nintendo GameCube.
Boss order: Air Man, Metal Man, Crash Man, Bubble Man, Heat Man, Wood Man, Flash Man, Quick Man.
I've played Mega Man 2 a number of times in the past and have always found it to be a bit "mid" despite all its acclaim, but as I mentioned in my previous review for the first Mega Man, I've been playing these games like some kind of animal my entire life. Lemons only? Who would intentionally make these games worse to play (me, that's who.)
But I am a changed man. I've shed my old flesh and emerged as something new, skin pale and untouched by the sun. I have accumulated power from my enemies and now I will go MEGA on Wily.
Actually, this is still mid. Shit.
No amount of playing this game properly got me to like it any more than I already did, which is a pretty stark contrast from how I felt replaying the previous game only a week ago. Yes, platforming, movement, and visual design build on and improve over Mega Man, but not enough of its weaker points are smoothed out. The check-pointing can be comically vindictive at times and there's an over-reliance on challenging the player through rote memorization of traps (Quick Man and Bubble Man's stages in particular), but I suppose you could make an argument that it's an NES game and of course it's going to suffer in some ways from design elements that were popular at the time. My bigger issue with Mega Man 2 in particular is how sharp it drops off once you reach the Wily stages. These levels are, frankly, poorly thought out. You'll need to rely on certain powers to progress and often you'll need to employ them in very precise ways so as to not overuse their energy, but that takes a lot of practice and foreknowledge of the level, and so less familiar players will probably be farming weapon energy more than they are actually playing the game.
This is especially bad with the Boobeam Trap boss. You cannot afford to miss a single shot when every tick of energy is required to destroy the barriers and boss. Fail you'll be grinding Sniper Joe kills hoping to get a drop of energy. The game knows this so it sends you pretty far back, and frankly the amount of level leading up to the checkpoint is so minimal it's faster to throw Mega Man into spikes until you game over and just... try again. There's a lot of parts of Mega Man 2 that feel this defeating, and whenever you do succeed or gain mastery over some part of the game, it just doesn't feel rewarding enough to compensate. The rock/paper/scissors design of the robot masters and their powers made exploiting weaknesses in the first game feel good, but there's an absurd number of bosses in Mega Man 2 that don't require more than the metal blade to take out, and some weapons just feel borderline useless (including Flash Man's weapon, which only benefits you in a couple specific cases.)
The more I write, the more I feel like I'm almost making a case in Mega Man's favor over its sequel, but I promise I don't think that. Mega Man 2 has more polish, but for the longest time I was told this was the best one in the whole series and I just don't agree with that at all. The core 8 levels are a mixed bag, and every time I reach Wily's castle I want to throw my hands up, go "well, that's the game!" and go stare at the sun. I appreciate this game for what it means to the franchise, but I can think of several other Mega Mans I'd rather play before coming back to this.
Boss order: Air Man, Metal Man, Crash Man, Bubble Man, Heat Man, Wood Man, Flash Man, Quick Man.
I've played Mega Man 2 a number of times in the past and have always found it to be a bit "mid" despite all its acclaim, but as I mentioned in my previous review for the first Mega Man, I've been playing these games like some kind of animal my entire life. Lemons only? Who would intentionally make these games worse to play (me, that's who.)
But I am a changed man. I've shed my old flesh and emerged as something new, skin pale and untouched by the sun. I have accumulated power from my enemies and now I will go MEGA on Wily.
Actually, this is still mid. Shit.
No amount of playing this game properly got me to like it any more than I already did, which is a pretty stark contrast from how I felt replaying the previous game only a week ago. Yes, platforming, movement, and visual design build on and improve over Mega Man, but not enough of its weaker points are smoothed out. The check-pointing can be comically vindictive at times and there's an over-reliance on challenging the player through rote memorization of traps (Quick Man and Bubble Man's stages in particular), but I suppose you could make an argument that it's an NES game and of course it's going to suffer in some ways from design elements that were popular at the time. My bigger issue with Mega Man 2 in particular is how sharp it drops off once you reach the Wily stages. These levels are, frankly, poorly thought out. You'll need to rely on certain powers to progress and often you'll need to employ them in very precise ways so as to not overuse their energy, but that takes a lot of practice and foreknowledge of the level, and so less familiar players will probably be farming weapon energy more than they are actually playing the game.
This is especially bad with the Boobeam Trap boss. You cannot afford to miss a single shot when every tick of energy is required to destroy the barriers and boss. Fail you'll be grinding Sniper Joe kills hoping to get a drop of energy. The game knows this so it sends you pretty far back, and frankly the amount of level leading up to the checkpoint is so minimal it's faster to throw Mega Man into spikes until you game over and just... try again. There's a lot of parts of Mega Man 2 that feel this defeating, and whenever you do succeed or gain mastery over some part of the game, it just doesn't feel rewarding enough to compensate. The rock/paper/scissors design of the robot masters and their powers made exploiting weaknesses in the first game feel good, but there's an absurd number of bosses in Mega Man 2 that don't require more than the metal blade to take out, and some weapons just feel borderline useless (including Flash Man's weapon, which only benefits you in a couple specific cases.)
The more I write, the more I feel like I'm almost making a case in Mega Man's favor over its sequel, but I promise I don't think that. Mega Man 2 has more polish, but for the longest time I was told this was the best one in the whole series and I just don't agree with that at all. The core 8 levels are a mixed bag, and every time I reach Wily's castle I want to throw my hands up, go "well, that's the game!" and go stare at the sun. I appreciate this game for what it means to the franchise, but I can think of several other Mega Mans I'd rather play before coming back to this.