Mega Man 2

aka: Mega Man II, Rock Man 2, Rockman 2, Rockman Complete Works: Rockman 2: The Enigma of Dr. Wily
Moby ID: 5084
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Description official descriptions

After defeating Dr. Light's six robots that were reprogrammed by the villainous Dr. Wily in Mega Man, it seemed like the world was safe. But it was not to be. Dr. Wily has escaped from prison and is madder than ever, this time creating eight new Robot Masters of his own to take over the world and crush Mega Man! Is the world doomed?

Mega Man 2 is the sequel to the NES game Mega Man. In this game, Metal Man, Air Man, Bubble Man, Quick Man, Crash Man, Flash Man, Heat Man and Wood Man are Dr. Wily's eight prize creations that have been sent to take over the world. As Mega Man defeats these bosses, he can steal their powers and use them for himself. Each Robot Master is weak against another's weapon, and through experimentation, Mega Man can gain the upper hand by using the weapon they're vulnerable against.

Other additions to the game include the 'E-Tank' - an item that can be used at any time to completely refill Mega Man's energy, and a Password System, which allows players to continue their game by recording which Robot Masters have been defeated and how many E-Tanks they have. Mega Man 2 also removes the scoring system from the original game.

Spellings

  • ロックマン2 Dr.ワイリーの謎 - Japanese spelling

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Credits (NES version)

61 People (20 developers, 41 thanks) · View all

Box Cover Illustrator (USA)
No. 009: Metalman
No. 010: Airman
No. 011: Bubbleman
No. 012: Quickman
No 013: Crashman
No. 014: Flashman
No 015: Heatman
No. 016: Woodman
Character Designer
Sound Programmer
Programmer
Planner
Producer (uncredited)
Special Thanks
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 89% (based on 39 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.1 out of 5 (based on 181 ratings with 5 reviews)

The game that launched the franchise!

The Good
No, I am not mistaken. This is not only one of the best Mega Man games made, it is one of the best video games ever made.

"This reviewer lies," you say. "Never did such grace touch the Earth."

This is because you weren't there when the game originally came out. At the time, when you (or any of my friends when they came over) played Mega Man 2, the reaction was, "OH MY GOODNESS!! THIS GAME IS TOO GOOD!!" It is so charming that I would recommend this game to anyone who wants to experience the Mega Man universe.

So why was this game so darn good? Well, it took the strengths of Mega Man, made them better, cut out the bad stuff, added a password, and was extremely consistent with it.

-Password-

Although it wasn't a save feature, it did allow the player to stop anywhere in the game and resume. The password would remember what bosses you defeated, how many energy tanks you had, and if you got the special items.

-8 Robot Masters-

The original Mega Man only had 6 levels and bosses. Now there were 8!

-Immersive and unique levels-

Each level was oh so very different, had its own theme, and its own twist in the gameplay. Let's go through them:

Bubble Man (The stage starts you off battling robotic frogs over waterfalls. For the rest of the stage, you are underwater where your jump capability shoots you to the top of the screen! Unfortunately, there are spikes on top of the ceiling so you must be careful. Mega Man battles a fun variety of aquatic themed robots from shrimp to giant fish.)

Air Man (As you would expect, this stage takes place in the skies. Flying enemies are constant and they are mostly robotic birds. At the end, you move through taking over Zeus-imitating robots' flying platforms.)

Quick Man (There are only a couple of enemies in this stage. This is the strangest stage in the game and, indeed, it emphasizes 'quickness'. Beams of light would fast shoot from the sides of the screen and you had to move through the area as fast before they would connect as one touch will kill you. You jump, fall quickly as you rush to keep ahead of the beams.)

Heat Man (For most of the stage, you battle fire monsters and hop over lava. The latter part of the stage returns Mega Man 1's dreaded appearing platforms. However, these are much less frustrating this time. You must hop from appearing platform to appearing platform across a LONG area of lava.)

Wood Man (Ahh, the most innocent of levels. Robotic chickens, bunnies, bats, gorillas, among others appear here. The level goes through a forest, goes underground, and returns to the forest again. This is as close to a normal level you can get.)

Metal Man (The infamous Metal Man stage!! The entire level is composed of moving belts that either push you faster in the direction you want to go, or pushes you in the wrong direction which you must struggle to outrun. The vertical flying drills and the dropping weighted spikes also add nicely to the level, as do the clownish robots on giant gears. This level is genius.)

Flash Man (This level is all ice letting Mega Man slide around. What is unique about it is that there are multiple paths through this level, some featuring nice item rewards avoiding some enemies while others do not.)

Crash Man (Crash Man's stage is completely vertical. You start at the bottom and go up, and up, and up. You must ride lots of platforms and ladders to get to the top. Thankfully, this stage is no where near as insane as Gutsman stage was.)

-Very Useful Boss Weapons-

In Mega Man 1, some of the boss weapons weren't too useful or practical. Gutsman's strength? Even Cutman's weapon wasn't too useful.

Each weapon in Mega Man 2 (except for bubble man and flash man) is extremly practical. Quickman's shortrange boomerangs give small range, fast attacks. Heat Man's fire ball could be held down and released, unleashing a larger fireball! Metal Man's blade was the best weapon of the game as you could throw it in 8 directions around you. Woodman's circular leaf attack could be used as a type of 'shield'. Airman's tornadoes could get those annoying enemies on the ceiling. The weapons were very practical and are used throughout the game more than the other Mega Man titles.

-New Items-

In addition to getting weapons from each boss, three bosses gave you an extra item. These were not weapons but were used by Mega Man to overcome obstacles. One is a platform that climbs walls. Another is a jet sled. And a third is a flying platform. These were required in several puzzle like areas of Wily's Castle.

-Charm-

This game is very... HAPPY. The music is very strong and draws you in. The graphics are very cartoonish, colorful, and shiny. The game never gets frustratingly hard (unlike Mega Man 1. Those who complain about Quickman's stage are wimps.) The sound effects are very crisp. But more important the game stays consistant. The game stays fun throughout the very beginning to the very end, never losing momentum. While Mega Man 1 became a cult classic, Mega Man 2 turned into a red hot blockbuster. It is the game that launched the Mega Man franchise.

The Bad
Surprisingly little. There could have been more instances in the game when Flash Man's weapon was more useful. I really liked how they made Bubble Man's weapon useful by having it detect trapdoors (you would watch the bubbles fall into the spikes).

The game has quite a bit of content, yet you wish there was more because it was so good. There is nothing wrong with this title.

The Bottom Line
Just as some games reach a practical 'perfect' status such as Super Mario Brothers 3, Mega Man 2 reaches it with its consistant colorful fun that never wanes throughout the game.People argue that Mega Man 3 is superior. It may be, but it cannot be debated that Mega Man 2 is the most charming of Mega Man titles.

NES · by Jonathan Hollas (24) · 2005

Great game, great for beginners and polished players.

The Good
I loved the concept of having to defeat a boss, to move onto the next one. I also liked the music in this game, very original, and I loved how the tunes fit the levels perfectly. Every level had it's own music score, and even the boss theme had me tapping my toes and humming the tune as I fought the boss with everything I had.

The Bad
I didn't like the fact that this game was very short. I finished this game in less than 3 hours, so kinda short for my liking. But aside from that, still a true classic and a game that anyone can pick up and have fun with.

The Bottom Line
I would describe this game as a classic, a game that everyone should play. A game that gets the player excited, and really gets you into the action. And for it's time makes you feel as though you're there with mega man.

NES · by David Bryan (21) · 2007

Platform gaming in its finest, most pure form!

The Good
The Nintendo Entertainment System was where the platform genre reigned back in the late 80's and early 90's. The grey, 8-bit beast saved console gaming with Nintendo's own pack-in smash hit Super Mario Bros., probably the most recognisable game in existence.

Many companies tried to make their own platform gaming hits on the NES in an attempt to mimic the quality of Nintendo's game. Some were successful, many were not. One of the games in the first category was Capcom's Mega Man, a challenging action-platformer praised by gamers for its tight controls, pretty graphics, great music and challenging level design. It's most clever and distinguishing feature, though, was its rock-paper-scissors system, wherein each weapon you got from a defeated boss robot was strong against one of his companions in another level.

While a great game, the commercial success of the game was fairly moderate. Capcom didn't think it was successful enough to warrant a sequel. The game's creator, Keiji Inafune, however, still saw potential in the series, and begged that the company would allow him to produce a sequel. His wish was granted under the condition that he and his team would develop the game solely in their spare time, keeping the focus on more urgent projects.

Inafune agreed, and boy, was it a great decision. The result was Mega Man 2, released in 1988, a year after the first game. It was a game that improved upon its predecessor in many ways and quickly turned into the smash hit Capcom had been looking for a year before.

The story is simple: Dr. Wily, the evil scientist Mega Man defeated in the first game, has escaped prison to resume his plans for world domination. Mega Man goes after him. In order to stop Mega Man, Dr. Wily has built eight more Robot Masters, similar to the ones Mega Man fought in the original.

The game is mostly similar to the first game. Like in that game, Mega Man needs to traverse a series of levels at the end of which he must defeat the Robot Master. An important addition in this game was the fact that there are eight of these as opposed to the six in the original game. Ever since this game, eight Robot Masters has been the standard for the series.

The eight bosses include: Air Man, Wood Man, Quick Man, Flash Man, Bubble Man, Crash Man, Metal Man and Heat Man. Like in the first title, you can select which level to start with and beat all of them in whichever order you like. Each boss, however, has a weakness to at least one of the weapons you receive after beating one of his buddies, forcing you to figure out which item works best on which bosses. As a result, playing the levels in a certain specific order makes the bosses much easier to defeat than with Mega Man's basic arm cannon. The weapons range from a boomerang to a saw blade and from a bubble gun to bombs. This rock-paper-scissors system is something you don't see often in the platform genre. Figuring out this order is one of the most fun elements in any Mega Man game.

This element also comes back during your trips throughout the levels themselves. Each level has its own tricky parts but figuring out how to avoid certain difficulties using specific weapons is half of the fun and it adds up to the game's replay value. Each world reflects the theme of the boss that resides in it. From Bubble Man's stage, which is largely underwater, to the fiery bowels of Heat Man's stage and from Metal Man's steel factory to Wood Man's jungle, each stage has its own distinctive theme, traps and enemies. There is lots of variation and each level is unique and designed with care. They are designed in a way that is challenging but not unfair or overly frustrating.

An major addition is that you can collect certain items that allow you to create helpful platforms. While something slightly similar was available in the first game, this is the game that really worked it out as a game-changing feature. There are three to collect: a flying surfing board, inflatable platforms that stick to walls and platforms flying upwards. Later games would implement these kind of features in the form of the robot dog Rush, but this is the game wherein it first made its big mark on the series. Another addition that originates in this game are the collectible energy tanks, making the game more manageable because they allow you to replenish Mega Man's health.

Controls are tight and responsive, which is something you badly need in this game. While not as tough as the first game, Mega Man 2 is by no means an easy game when you first boot it up. It really feels like a platformer in its purest form. Mega Man can't jump as far or as high as Mario, but he has a trusty arm cannon and shooting is a much more important part of the game than in Nintendo's franchise. Quick reflexes and quick decisions are pivotal to survive, especially when you defeat the eight bosses and infiltrate Dr. Wily's challenging fortress, which is split up into several levels. Thankfully, this game also introduces a password system to the series, allowing you to continue where you left off.

Graphically, Mega Man 2 looks similar to the first game. That was a very pretty game for its time, however. While Mega Man's sprites and animations where reused, they are so well-designed you don't mind. Heck, his original design would be used in many sequels after it, spanning various systems. It is still to be found in Mega Man sequels in recent years, such as Mega Man 10, which is a testimony to how defining the graphical style in these early titles truly was. In an age when many games had empty backgrounds, Mega Man 2 impressed with detailed and animated background textures. The game has vibrant colours, detailed character designs and fluid animations.

Sound is just as impressive. As far as 8-bit music goes, there are few games that sound better than this one. The theme that plays in Dr. Wily stage 1 and 2 is a fan favourite. Mega Man 2 has one of the most impressive, if not THE most impressive 8-bit soundtrack.

The Bad
Certain items make some hard parts ridiculously easy. In Heat Man's stage, for example, there is a very difficult part wherein you need to navigate across disappearing platforms over a huge chasm. Anyone who's ever played a Mega Man game will recognize these sequences as some of the most challenging parts of the game. When you whip out Mega Man's surfboard, however, you can completely skip this whole sequence.

This also makes the rock-paper-scissors mechanic in this game unbalanced. Once you defeat Metal Man and receive his weapon, the Metal Blade, the whole game is a lot easier. The Metal Blade is incredibly powerful against half of the bosses, including Metal Man himself. It can shoot in eight directions and doesn't deplete as quickly as other items. Some bosses are weak to multiple weapons, while others have just one weakness. This makes the order in which to beat the levels really vague and not as clear as in the other Mega Man games.

Another weapon-related issue comes in the form of the Crash Bomber. This weapon is powerful against two of the later bosses but it depletes so quickly, it most likely forces you to lose all your lives and then choose continue. This replenishes your Crash Bombs but forces you to replay the entire level as well. And naturally, these later levels are anything but easy.

The western release has an easy mode for beginners, but the difference is barely noticeable most of the time. There are a few enemies and bosses that take a few extra hits, but that's about it. It feels like it was rushed into the game at the last moment, right before the western release.

The Bottom Line
Out of the enormous library of NES platformers, choosing the good ones can be difficult. With Mega Man 2, however, you can't go wrong. It is not the hardest game in the series but that makes it a good point to start and it certainly is not an easy game either. Many still consider this game the series' peak. While some say that Mega Man 3 is better, Mega Man 2 is certainly one of the most defining of the Blue Bomber's adventures, and a game that no platform gaming fan should be without.

NES · by Rensch (203) · 2011

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Trivia

Development

Keiji Inafune actually had to create Mega Man 2 on his own time, to a certain extent. The original game hadn't been successful enough to warrant a fully produced sequel, but he so wanted to create another Mega Man title, that he was given permission to work on it so long as it didn't interfere with any of his other scheduled work.

Reception

Mega Man's creator Keiji Inafune considers Mega Man 2 his favorite Mega Man game. Thanks to its creative levels, cool weapons, excellent bosses, and fantastic music.

Sales

According to publisher Capcom, Mega Man 2 has sold 1.51 million copies worldwide since its initial release (as of June 30, 2016).

Awards

  • Electronic Gaming Monthly
    • December 1989 (Issue 5) - Best Sequel to an Existing Game (tied with Ghouls 'N Ghosts)
    • November 1997 (Issue 100) - ranked #73 (Best 100 Games of All Time)
  • Game Informer Magazine
    • August 2001 (Issue 100) - voted #32 in the Top 100 Games of All Time poll

Information also contributed by Andrew Shepard and Nick Rycar

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Related Sites +

  • Howard & Nester do Mega Man 2
    A regular feature in Nintendo Power magazine, Howard & Nester was a comic strip about two game whizzes who would one-up each other, while disclosing hints and tips, in the settings of various recently-released games for the NES platform. In the September/October 1989 two-page installment, Nester competes against a robotic version of Howard in a trivia contest organized by Dr. Wily -- hints and tips abound.
  • Mega Man 2 Trivia
    10 question quiz to test fans' knowledge about Mega Man 2.
  • OC ReMix Game Profile
    Fan remixes of music from Mega Man 2.

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Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Satoshi Kunsai.

Wii U added by ResidentHazard. Nintendo 3DS added by CrankyStorming. Android, iPad added by Sciere. DoJa added by Kabushi. Wii added by gamewarrior. iPhone added by Ben K. Browser added by glik.

Additional contributors: PCGamer77, Shoddyan, chirinea, Alaka, gamewarrior, Pseudo_Intellectual, formercontrib, CalaisianMindthief, Thomas Thompson, A.J. Maciejewski.

Game added October 4, 2001. Last modified March 17, 2024.