Mega Man 2

This page is about the game for the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Famicom. For the Game Boy game, see: Mega Man II (Game Boy)

Mega Man 2
Box art portraying the protagonist, Mega Man, battling with rival, Quick Man, in a futuristic setting.
Developer(s)	Capcom
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Series	Mega Man Classic
Platform(s)	NES
Release	JPN: December 24, 1988 NA: July, 1989 EUR: December 14, 1990
Genre(s)	Action/Platform
Mode(s)	Single player

Mega Man 2 (ロックマン2 Dr.ワイリーの謎, lit. "Rock Man 2: The Mystery of Dr. Wily") is a video game that is a part of the Mega Man Classic series. It was released in July 1989 on the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America and Europe, and on the Famicom in Japan.

Gameplay

File:Mega Man 2 for NES screenshot.png

Mega Man battling through Quick Man's level.

Mega Man 2 is a platformer and action game like its predecessor, Mega Man. The player controls Mega Man, a boy robot who fights for peace, as he travels to defeat the Robot Masters of Dr. Wily. Mega Man gains the signature weapon of each Robot Master after defeating him. The Robot Masters have weaknesses to the weapons of certain other Robot Masters; therefore, choosing the order in which the levels are played is a vital component of the game's gameplay.

While matching the Robot Masters' weaknesses to one another is an important component of Mega Man 2's gameplay, an additional component is the superiority of many of those weapons to Mega Man's standard weapon. The Quick Boomerang, for example, is able to kill some enemies that no other weapon can. And the Metal Blades are capable of attacking in all 8 directions, and are much wider than Mega Man's regular weapon, making it much easier to deal with flying enemies. Either weapon, though particularly the blades, can make formerly difficult sections of the game much easier.

Unlike the original Mega Man, the game no longer keeps a running score for the player. This also removes the score pellet drops as well; drops only consist of energy and weapon energy. The player is also unable to return to Robot Master levels once they have been completed, though unlike Mega Man, there are no hidden special powers (like the Magnet Beam in Mega Man) that would make the ability to replay levels important.

Mega Man 2 introduced a password system. After defeating each Robot Master a password is displayed, allowing the player to return to that particular point in the game after restarting the system. The password stores the particular list of completed Robot Masters, as well as the number of E-Tanks that the player has accumulated.

Mega Man 2 adds a new item to the series, the E-Tank. The E-Tank allows a player to refill Mega Man’s health at the time of his or her choice.

After completing certain Robot Master stages, Mega Man is given, in addition to the weapon of that Master, a special item. These items are platforms that allow the player to go places that the player would otherwise not have been able to. Item 1, obtained after Heat Man, generated up to 3 platforms that slowly rose in the air. Item 2, obtained after Air Man, created a platform that constantly moved forward, while Item 3, obtained after Flash Man, created an elevator platform that would climb up walls.

After defeating the 8 Robot Masters, the player then proceeds to Dr. Wily's fortress, which consists of 6 levels that are taken linearly. Most of these levels have restart points, such that if the player dies, he or she is returned to that point. However, unlike the Robot Master levels, the area before the boss of the level does not have a restart point, so if the player dies fighting a boss, the player must restart from the level's restart point halfway through the level.

As in the original Mega Man, the player is required to fight each Robot Master a second time in Dr. Wily's fortress. However, in Mega Man 2, these battles take place in a single room with teleportation devices that lead to each Robot Master. The devices can be entered in any order, but the devices are not labeled. However, the order of the Robot Masters' weapons in Mega Man's inventory are the same order as the teleporters when taken counter-clockwise.

The North American release of the game has two difficulty modes: normal and difficult. The "difficult" setting is the standard difficulty level that was used in the Japanese version, while the "normal" setting makes all enemies and Robot Masters weaker. Re-releases in North America do not contain this feature. The choice of difficulty mode has no effect on the password system.

Story

In the year 200X, the robot Rock, a project by Dr. Thomas Light, was created. What followed in the series was a close sister named Roll, along with eight (six in the original) industrial brothers. It was an age where humans live side-by-side with robots. However, Dr. Light's rival, Dr. Wily, revolted and took Light's creations for himself, leaving the "useless" robots Rock and Roll. He reprogrammed those robots and used them in a robotic army to take over the world. Just when things looked bleak, Rock volunteered to be converted into a fighting robot. In this form, he became known as Mega Man.

Mega Man went after his brothers, though it was painful for him to fight them. He managed to only deactivate them, rather than destroying them. Dr. Light repaired them erasing the evil programming. When Dr. Wily's stronghold was discovered, Mega Man penetrated its defenses. He was surprised to see his brothers again, but he realized that they were clones once he had reached the Copy Robot. He had to face many powerful creations, but Mega Man still triumphed. He had reached Dr. Wily and had destroyed his Wily Machine. Wily begged for mercy, and Mega Man gave it. Because of his efforts, the world was at peace.

Just when everyone thought they could live in peace and that an age of prosperity had dawned upon them, Dr. Wily revealed that he had built a new fortress and an army of robotic henchmen, led by eight new Robot Masters of his design. He unleashed them on the world for revenge against Mega Man. Once again, the populace called on Mega Man to stop the chaos before the world was engulfed in the flames of destruction.

Mega Man crushed the eight Robot Masters and then set out to Wily's new fortress, where he had to face more creations and Wily. In the final fight, Wily morphed into an alien, but Mega Man discovered that it was a hologram. Mega Man let Wily go. Mega Man took a long walk to think things through, and later returned home.

Robot Masters

The following Robot Masters appear in this game. The character designer is listed after the robot.

#	Graphic	Robot Master	Designer	Weapon	Weakness
09		Metal Man	Masanori Satou	Metal Blade	Metal Blade (Teleport System Battle only) or Quick Boomerang
10		Air Man	Youji Kanazawa	Air Shooter & Item 2	Leaf Shield
11		Bubble Man	Takashi Tanaka	Bubble Lead	Metal Blade
12	File:Quick Man.png	Quick Man	Hirofumi Mizoguchi	Quick Boomerang	Time Stopper or Crash Bomb
13	File:Crashmanmm2.gif	Crash Man	Akira Yoshida	Crash Bomb	Air Shooter
14	File:Flash Man.png	Flash Man	Tomoo Yamaguchi	Time Stopper & Item 3	Crash Bomb, Metal Blade, or Bubble Lead
15	File:Heat Man screenshot.png	Heat Man	Toshiyuki Kataoka	Atomic Fire & Item 1	Bubble Lead
16	File:Wood Man screenshot.png	Wood Man	Masakatsu Ichikawa	Leaf Shield	Atomic Fire, Air Shooter, Metal Blade, or Crash Bomb

Reception

Mega Man 2 was named by GameSpot as one of "The Greatest Games of All Time". It was also honored in Nintendo Power's "Top 200 Nintendo Games Ever" list, ranked at number 33.

The music from Mega Man 2 is considered by many to be one of the best video game soundtracks. The music that plays during the first two stages in Wily's fortress are some of the most popular and remixed pieces of music in the Mega Man series. The stage themes of Bubble Man, Crash Man, Air Man, Metal Man, and Flash Man are also very popular among fans, and are often remixed.

Legacy

Many of the conventions of the classic Mega Man series were defined by Mega Man. Mega Man 2 added its own conventions, most of which were retained by the series. The traditional number of Robot Masters for Mega Man games, for most of the different games in the various serieses, is 8 as used in Mega Man 2, rather than the 6 used in the original. Even the Game Boy versions used 8 Robot Masters, even though they were usually divided into 2 sets of 4.

The E-Tank was also used in most entires in the series, though the Mega Man X series required that the player fill the tanks manually. The teleporter room where the player confronts all of the Robot Masters for a second time has likewise become a staple of the games, replacing the preset sequence used by Mega Man.

Additionally, Mega Man 2 initiated the idea of movement items. Though later Mega Man games would introduce Rush as a container for these different platforms and special movement modes, the genesis of the idea was in Mega Man 2's. Rush's abilities, much like Mega Man 2's items, are acquired from defeating a particular Robot Master. One of the pieces of music from Mega Man 2 has become a staple of the games. The theme played when a Robot Master is selected has frequently been reused in later games.

Novelization

Mega Man 2 was made into a novel in the Worlds of Power series. The one major difference is that Dr. Light fears Mega Man's chances against Dr. Wily's more powerful new robots and while attempting to duplicate him, accidentally turns him into a human being.