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.

Reviewed on Apr 10, 2023


13 Comments


11 months ago

I do have to wonder if I would like this game better had they given Mega Man the ability to pull out a damn glock like on the cover.

11 months ago

The primordial desire to play mega man but with their realistic proportions like on the cover

11 months ago

@Hilda Hyper-realistic Mega Man rendered in the RE Engine. No stolen powers, he just shoots everyone with a real, actual gun.

11 months ago

Mega-Man: Act Zero, it’s finally time

11 months ago

The fact that could have actually been something real that Capcom made during the end of the 2000's and the beggining of the 2010's is the funniest part. Hell, let's not forget the absolute unit that was Bad box art Mega Man in Street Fighter X Tekken

11 months ago

dumbass

11 months ago

unplug youre keyboard for ever

11 months ago

In light of Larry Davis' private threats to come to my home and chop off all my fingers, I have raised Mega Man 2's score from 2.5/5 to 3/5.

11 months ago

@Weatherby - What do you do to attract these childish lunatics? πŸ˜‚

11 months ago

This comment was deleted

11 months ago

@FallenGrace Well that's my best friend, we've got kind of a Herzog/Klaus Kinski dynamic. Kinski also liked the Leaf Shield, just one of his many hideous qualities.

11 months ago

We will turn you into a "Mega Man 1 > 2" truther someday. Just a matter of time...

11 months ago

@UnluckyLucky I think the scary thing is I know it's not true but I feel like I could gaslight myself into believing it.

11 months ago

Ah, I thought it was just a random person who hated your review, guess I owe them an apology πŸ˜