The original-yet-overrealistic box art for Mega Man 2!
Mega Man 2 is a classic action side-scroller made by Capcom for the NES as a sequel to the ever-popular Mega Man. It follows the same typical plot of Mega Man games, that is, Mega Man having to put a stop to Dr. Wily's schemes to use his evil robots (Yeeaaaahhh, evil robots!) to take over the city.
I'm just going to step up right now and say that I've never liked the Mega Man series. It's not at all because of the plot or characters. In fact, I think the continuing plot of the series is totally awesome. I mean, it's a robot dude with different powers who takes on a bunch of other evil robot guys trying to take over the world! Epic.
What I usually hate about Mega Man is the constantly, unyieldingly cheap difficulty. Now don't get me wrong, I've never thought that video games should be completely easy; if anything, challenge is the only thing that adds fun and intrigue to them. But in Mega Man games, the idea of difficulty is undodgable, invincible enemies, multiple turrets tracking your every move and blasting you, and the occasional unbreachable jump that sinks you just because.
So I'm sure you're wondering, "Come on, EK, is there any stinking point to this review other than trashing Mega Man?" Yes. See, I decided to take a chance on Mega Man 2 because it was the only title in the series to make G4's list of the Top 100 Video Games of All Time. I learned that there was a basic approach you should try to take to any Mega Man game. Basically, you have to take on the most plain boss you can, like Metal Man, and then use the power-up you get to gain an advantage over another boss in the game. For example, you can take Wood Man out easily with the Metal Blades.
Thusly, just for fun, I decided to try that strategy to see if it would work. Surprisingly, it actually did! Not only that, I was able to manage it, with the challenge being easily noticeable but not unreasonable or just plain impossible to deal with. In fact, I was able to get through two entire levels before falling don a pit early on in the third. Which is actually way farther than I usually get in one of these games.
I especially like the fact that the game never really leaves you hanging in terms of items. You can get health and power regularly by killing enemies, and another thing I like is the fact that there are finally plenty of power-ups if you know how to get them. I just wish that there were some system, like in Mario games, that let you get another extra life after getting a certain amount of points. That way, you can have a merit-based system of being able to go farther in the game. Still, the fact that a home console game was finally made where you can get lives and health without having to make it to a particular, preset point.
In addition, this game does, in fact, have excellent music, like every single person on G4 said. Such that every moment I was playing, it felt like I was on a fast-paced adventure. If I was in the mood, I could listen to the Mega Man 2 soundtrack for hours.
This game achieved the incredible feat of giving me definite faith in the Mega Man series after all. It proves that as long as you know how to deal with each boss, you can have infinite fun and try conquer the ultimate challenge. As you may have seen, Mega Man 2 is on the Virtual Console right now, so I recommend you download it now.