Review: Mega Man 2

Gameplay
Capcom took what was great about the first game and...basically kept it the same. The formula of fighting through a themed stage based around the distinguishing characteristic of a boss remained completely in tact. What was improved upon was the level design. Every level in Megaman 2 is more memorable than the last - partly because you had to play through them a hundred times before beating them, but mostly because they had geniuses designing the levels.

The difficulty stayed the same as well. While not quite as unforgiving on the whole as Megaman 1,  there were definite hair pulling moments. The upside of this, however, is when you finally nail the timing or right weapon, or just happen to get lucky, the sense of accomplishment in those situations is what gaming is all about.

Skip to the 3:00 mark to see "the jump"

The only thing that really felt broken was the platform tools, and only in one specific area. The platform tools are upgrades that allow you to travel great vertical or horizontal distances. The first level in Wily's Castle requires the use of these tools almost non stop, and there is one particular chasm that you have to lay out these platform in pixel perfect fashion or you fall and have to try again. The problem with this is that these tools are limited just like your weapon upgrades - and they don't recharge when you die - only after a continue. So if you missed this chasm jump, say, five times in a row (I must have missed it 50) you are now out of that tool. You can either keep leaving the screen and coming back to respawn the single enemy, kill him and hope for a power pellet, or you kill yourself three times so you can restart the level. The latter option was usually faster.

Presentation

Epic.

As I said about the first one, the game just bleeds style and creativity. Some of the enemy characters were bigger than anything people had ever seen in a video game. And everything was so unique and bold and recognizable. Outside of the weapon upgrade screen when you beat a boss, there were no noticeable upgrades to the visuals, but none were needed. Its just a disappointment that they thought the box art had to look like this instead of making showing the game's true style.

America is stupid

Europe is mentally handicapped

The music though. Ohhhh yeah. If there was a gaming music hall of fame, a few of these songs would be sitting on the throne. Specifically the song from the first two levels of Wily's castle is mother effing epic. It's the music in the video above. The video below shows off the coolest dude in the world playing the metal version.

Shred Town, USA

STUFF I LOVED

- Extremely memorable stages and boss characters - a testament to fantastic art direction
- Top notch music. As hummable as the Mario or Zelda themes.
- Challenging yet extremely rewarding gameplay. You just dont get that sense of accomplishment from modern games.

STUFF I HATED

- The forced use of the platforming tools in the later levels.


In the end, this game is everything the first one was, just polished to a pristine shine. It doesn't get much better than this in the 8-bit library.

REVIEW IN TEN WORDS OR LESS
Perfect challenge. Perfect level design. Cheap platform tools.