Betcha can hear the title music just by looking at this. If you can't, then listenanyway.
In The Year Of200X, A Super Robot Named Mega Man was created. Dr. Light created Mega Man to stop the evil desires of Dr. Wily. However, after his defeat, Dr. Wily created eight of his own robots to counter Mega Man.
Mega Man 2 (Rockman 2: The Mystery Of Dr. Wily in Japan) is a run and gun PlatformerVideo Game, released by Capcom for the NES in 1989 (1988 in Japan).While the core gameplay of beating bosses in a non-linear order while acquiring their weapons to use against another boss a la rock, paper, scissors is largely the same, many changes have been made to make the gameplay far more flexible and accessible to gamers than the original. Two difficulty settings and a new password function are present, three items and E-Tanks are around to make the game far more forgiving in difficulty. The new boss roster has been bumped up to eight robots rather than six, and the stage designs are far more ingenious than before. The presentation has also been taken up a notch, with lushly designed stages, better spritework, a cartoony plethora of enemies cribbed from design contests, and some energetic 8-bit tunes to top off the sundae. The scoring system from the original was permanently dropped, but it wasn't missed. All in all, it manages to top the original in just about every way.While the original game was only a modest hit, this sequel became the best selling game in the entire Mega Man series, selling over 1.5 million copies. To this day, it is considered not only one of the best NES games and one of the best, if not the best, Mega Man game, but also one of the greatest video games of all time. Keiji Inafune himself even said that Mega Man 2 is his favorite Mega Man game.The game later received a 16-bit upgrade for the Sega Genesis, as part of the Europe and Japan onlyMega Man: The Wily Wars/Rockman Megaworld cartridge, as well as the Japan-only Rockman 2: Complete WorksPS1 port. The game eventually saw a major rerelease as part of Anniversary Collection for PS2, GameCube and Xbox. The NES version has also received a Virtual Console re-release on the Wii, and then years later on the 3DS, the latter even coming with a save state ability.Robot Masters:
Mega Man himself gets to use bubbles, leaves and mini-tornadoes.
Many enemies use thematic ammo: Rabbit-shaped robots fire carrots, Pipis drop eggs that spawn small robotic birds, Croakers fire small frogs and Lightning Lords throw lightning bolts (not actual bolts of lightning, mind you, but javelin-like projectiles that look like lightning bolts).
Airborne Mook: Air Man and Crash Man's stages in particular are full of these.
American Kirby Is Hardcore: The US boxart features musclemen dressed up as Mega Man, Quick Man and Crash Man in a airbrushed futuristic setting. While cheesy, it's nowhere near as infamous as the first game's box art.
Animal Mecha: The bats, hot dogs, gorillas, rabbits and roadrunners in Wood Man's stage.
Awesome, but Impractical: Heat Man's weapon is very powerful and looks cool when fully charged, but it chews up so much ammo, and it's so easy to get its charge cancelled by an attack, that it's best used sparingly. Time Stopper is also only really useful in Quick Man and Wood Man's stage, as it consumes ammo quickly and Mega Man can't attack or change weapons while using it.
Awesome Yet Practical: The Metal Blade; high damage, can shoot in eight directions, very large ammo capacity. Goodbye Mega Buster!
Quick Boomerangs aren't a bad substitute. They too have a ton of ammo, and while the range isn't quite as good as the Metal Blade, the arc they travel in makes it easier to hit things above and below that the buster can't.
Bittersweet Ending: Though there is no text narration in the ending cutscene, the somber tone of the soundtrack suggests that Mega Man feels quite alone and confused, having shouldered the task of fighting his own kind "for everlasting peace."
Gainax Ending: Then again, your guess is about as good as anyone's...
Blow You Away: The main attack of Air Man, as well as a few of the mooks throughout his stage.
Bootstrapped Theme: The famous title screen music is generally regarded as Mega Man's main theme song.
So is the Wily Stage 1 music.
Boring Yet Practical: The Mega Buster, and the 3 "Items", which are essential for beating the game.
Boss Rush: Just before the fake final boss. And for the first time, the boss doors are all in one room, rather than one after the other.
Bottomless Pits: Notably in the Metal Man and Skull Castle stages.
Bubble Gun: Bubble Man's weapon of choice, Bubble Lead.
Difficulty By Region: The Japanese and Wily Wars releases are much harder than the US release, the latter of which included a "Normal" mode which doubled how much damage you did to bosses.
Dungeon Bypass: The numbered items. Item-2 in particular can be used to bypass several tricky obstacles.
Easter Egg: Holding B when you select a boss will cause the stars on the bosses intro screen to turn into birds.
Easy Level Trick: On the very last stage, hold right and keep going. You will be ahead of all the lava/acid drips that you don't need to time your movements.
Elemental Powers: This game (almost) has the five Chinese elements (Fire, Water, Wood, Metal) and the four classical elements (Fire, Water, Wind).
Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Played with in this game. While there is a clear circular line of weakness, most of the bosses have at least another one (mostly Metal Blade) that they're weak against. This is one of the few Mega Man games were it can be considered open-ended.
Emergency Energy Tank: This was the first game in the series to give you E-Tanks, which can instantly refill your health on the go, and were essential to toning down the difficulty of the original game.
Epileptic Flashing Lights: The fortress bosses in paticular; when fighting the Mecha Dragon, Guts-Dozer, Wily Machine and the alien, the whole screen flashes white every time they take damage. After defeating them, the screen continues to rapidly flash while they fade out. The screen does not flash while fighting the Picopico-kun and Boobeam Trap, although it still rapidly flashes after they're defeated. The 3DS Virtual Console version tones down the screen flashing, although it may be because of different screen refresh rates.
Joke Weapon: Bubble Lead, which is only useful for beating Heat Man, one of the Skull Castle bosses, and the final, final boss.
And for detecting the fake floor traps in Wily Stage 4.
Lethal Joke Weapon: And for defeating Robbits in Wood Man's stage. And for defeating Springers. And for defeating most enemies generally below you. Truth be told, the Bubble Lead isn't a terrible weapon. It just suffers from the same issues that most of the weapons in MM 2 do: whatever it can do, the Metal Blade can usually do better.
Kill It with Fire: Wood Man's biggest weakness is against Heat Man's weapon, with a fully charged shot able to one-shot him on American difficulty.
Kill It with Water: Heat Man's weakness, as well as the weakness of the actual final boss.
Laser Hallway: Taken Up to Eleven in Quick Man's stage, where the bulk of the stage has Mega Man evading giant, instant-kill laser beams.
Lava Pit: In Heat Man's stage, although that may actually be super heated water, due to the setting being a sewer.
Logical Weakness: Wood Man, despite being a robot, is weak to Heat Man's weapon. Heat Man, however, is naturally weak to Bubble Man's weapon. Bubble Man's weakness to the Metal Blades also makes sense- bubbles do not react well to sharp stuff.
Quickman, meanwhile, is weak against the Time Stopper.
Malevolent Architecture: The Skull Castle stages are a particular standout. Heat Man's stage also has this with its infamous row of disappearing blocks.
Misplaced Wildlife: Gorilla robots in what looks like a mid-western forest?
Musical Nod: The first part of the game's opening theme is a remix of the first part of the previous game's ending theme.
Nintendo Hard: While the games difficulty is much more forgiving than the original game, some parts of the game are still very challenging to beat, especially if you try to beat certain levels and bosses without the most helpful item or weapon. Difficult mode only ramps up the challenge even more.
This was unarguably a part of this game's appeal.
Not Even Human: The final boss reveals that Wily was an alien the whole time! Or not, since it was just a hologram.
Nothing Is Scarier: The very final level has no music, and the only objects prior to the final boss are the echoing drips of acid from the ceiling...
No Waterproofing in the Future: How Mega Man is able to defeat the Wily Alien (which is really just a hologram projector).
One-Hit Kill: The spikes as usual. The lasers in Quick Man's stage will do this to you.
One-Winged Angel: Wily pulls this by turning into an alien in the final boss battle! Of course, that was just a hologram.
Power-Up Letdown: Most if not all of the weapons the player obtains are less potent than their boss versions.
Time Stopper is the most noticeable example. While Flash Man can fire while using it and can use it multiple times, the player can only use it once before having to seek ammo and can't fire while using it.
Punny Name: The giant, fire-breathing dog robots in Wood Man's stage are called Hot Dogs.
Regenerating Health: Using the wrong weapons on some bosses will replenish their health. In the Alien's case, EVERY weapon but the Bubble Lead regenerates its health.
Sequel Difficulty Drop: Due to the addition of more utility items, Energy Tanks, and a password save system; plus an actual Easy Mode in the North American version (there called "Normal", but the "Difficult" mode is actually the original difficulty).
Shout Out: Heat Man looks like a human-sized Zippo lighter.
There are a batch of enemies in Bubble Man's stage that look uncannily similar to Metroids, especially since both games were released in the same year.
Though it was most likely a coincidence, as they're supposed to be Expies of the CWU-01P boss in the first game.
In the Japanese version, the Hot Dogs are called Friender.
Solid Clouds: There are solid clouds in Air Man's stage. Subverted because you can blatantly see a propeller under it and there is a solid platform one layer behind the cloud.
Spikes of Doom: Particularly in parts of Bubble Man's stage (and his boss room, where they're attached to the ceiling) and Wily Stage 3 (which has a 5-screen long pit lined with the same kind of spikes, with the water physics the only thing that can help you).
Spread Shot: Air Man's weapon, the Air Shooter. Flash Man fires out a Spray Burst variant after using the Time Stopper.
Temporary Platform: Both malevolent and benevolent, both of the "Timed" variety. Heat Man's stage brings back the infamous disappearing blocks (Yoku Blocks). The three Items you get in the game serve as helpful platforms.
Can be also considered as Noob Bridge, as most people find this long section of Yoku Blocks very difficult, and often chooses to use Item 2 to get through. It doesn't hel that an extra life is teasing you midway through it.
This is also the point where people get stuck in a loop: To get past the Yoku Blocks they need to get Item 2 from Air Man, Air Man is painfully difficulty to fight because he blocks your shots with an Air Shot wall that he sends at you (Some patterns being utterly unavoidable), Air Man's weakness is the Leaf Shield you get from Wood Man, Wood Man is nearly as painful as Air Man, Wood Man's weakness is Atomic Fire from Heat Man, Heat Man's stage has that Yoku Blocks section that needs Item 2 to get through easily. So, unless you can beat Air Man, Wood Man or Heat Man, you will find yourself stuck in a loop. Airman Ga Taosenai sums up this all.
This Is a Drill: The Mole enemies that pop up in Metal Man's stage, and later Skull Castle 2.
Updated Rerelease: The Europe and Japan only 16 bit upgrade included in The Wily Wars for the Sega Genesis (although it did get a Sega Channel exclusive American release), and Rockman 2: Complete Works for the PS1 in Japan (this version was later incorporated into the Anniversary Collection).
Unwinnable: The Buebeam Trap if your Crash Bomber ammo is not completely full. Also, the final boss is impossible to defeat if you don't have enough Bubble Lead ammo.
Utility Weapon: Crash Bombs are the only thing that can destroy those hard walls.
anyway.
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