another NES classic bites the dust. i’d played and beaten mega man 2 back when i was a tyke, and i think it was one of the few times my mom let me rent a video game. i really didn’t remember anything about it, but after the announcement of the completely retro, completely 8-bit-styled upcoming release of mega man 9, a brand new mega man game, that sent fanboys worldwide into conniptions, it seems like everyone’s been arguing about what the best game in the series is. well, it’s less like an argument and more like a chorus with a few naysayers, as it seems most everyone favors the second installment.
i had a good time playing through the game (on normal mode, b/c i just wasn’t in the mood for anything too taxing). this is a classic mega man game, so it comes with all the fun of getting to choose what order to tackle the stages in, and the graphics, music, enemies, and bosses are all as great as you’d expect. the added password feature def. made me more inclined to play the game in the first place, although i found the levels in MM2 to be noticeably shorter than the original game. the original was a game that i did own and knew pretty much inside and out, so it was hard not to compare them. and although most people prefer MM2, they also acknowledge that the first game is the more difficult of the two, and i’d def. have to agree. the only difference between the two difficulty modes that i’ve seen so far in MM2 is that the enemies take more bullets to kill, but otherwise the environmental puzzles (e.g. disappearing blocks, moving platforms, etc.), which seem to be the same, were rarely challenging to me. maybe the original game made me a pro at them, or maybe i’m just remembering the original as being more difficult than it actually is some twenty years later. in any case, with mega man back in my life you can be sure that i’ll be revisiting both games as well as reminding myself of the other games that followed and checking out the ones i never got a chance to play. rock on, rock man, rock on.
tons of mega man love means mega mega man links:
– mega man forever is a nice fansite that has a nice page for MM2 w/ sprites for all the enemies and a great section with in-game and official artwork of all the boss robots in the whole series.
– the creatively-titled mega man homepage also has loads of great info and sprites including a completely complete game list and the answer to the question: “so how many mega man games are there?“. (the answer: a heckuva lot.)
– this ultimate mega man retrospective at gamesradar.com actually lives up to its name and recaps practically every game and boss in the series.
– someone made some totally alsome mega man hats
– IGN’s list of top 10 mega man robots of all time (and no, the much maligned wood man with his leaf shield power didn’t make the cut)
– interesting interview with inafune, the man behind the mega man at gamesradar
– a skewering of a feature from the olden days of nintendo power in which readers could submit ideas for mega man bosses, on i-mockery.com
– PDF of manual at replacementdocs.com
– a look at MM2’s infamous european artwork
– entry at mega man wiki
– entry at wikipedia
video games rock 