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- This game is a game for the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Famicom. For the Game Boy game, see: Mega Man II (Game Boy)
Mega Man 2 (Japanese: Rockman 2: The Mystery of Dr. Wily , ロックマン 2 Dr.ワイリーの謎) is a video game that is a part of the Mega Man Classic series. It was released in the late 1980s on the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America and Europe, and on the Famicom in Japan. A Mega Man 2 Powered Up for PSP has been confirmed to be in the pre-planning stages, but Inafune mentioned at E3 2006 that plans may have changed.
Story
In the year 200X (which Capcom has said to be 2008), 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. Fortunately, he managed to only deactivate them, not totally destroy them, and they were repaired by Dr. Light, with the evil programming erased forever. When Dr. Wily's stronghold was discovered, Mega Man penetrated its defense and stormed it. 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. Finally, he had reached Dr. Wily and had destroyed his Wily Machine. He begged for mercy, and being a robot, Mega Man allowed it. After all, it was thanks to his efforts that the world was at peace.
However, just when everyone thought they could live in peace and that an age of prosperity had dawned upon them, Dr. Wily revealed himself to have built a new fortress and an army of robotic henchmen, led by eight new Robot Masters of his own design. Within an instant, he unleashed them on the world for revenge against Mega Man. Once again, the populace called on Mega Man to go out and 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 ultimately Wily himself. In the final fight, Wily morphed into an alien, but Mega Man revealed that it was a hologram. He let Wily go with Wily taking advantage of his programming as a robot. 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 |
|---|
Fortress bosses
After defeating all the Robot Masters, Mega Man is forced to face what are considered to be the final bosses.
| Boss | Weakness |
|---|---|
| Mecha Dragon | Quick Boomerang or Atomic Fire |
| Pico Pico | Bubble Lead |
| Guts Tank | Quick Boomerang |
| BubBeam Trap | Crash Bomber |
| Dr. Wily - Wily Machine 2 (Phase I) | Crash Bomber or Atomic Fire |
| Dr. Wily - Wily Machine 2 (Phase II) | Crash Bomber |
| Dr. Wily - Alien | Bubble Lead |
Notes
- As of May 2006, Mega Man 2 is top selling game in the entire franchise with a total of 1.5 million copies. In addition, it is considered by many fans as the best game in the Classic series, and was named by GameSpot as one of "The Greatest Games of All Time".
- The North American release of the title 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 the game easier by making enemies take more damage from weapons. The NES version is the only version to have a difficulty selection; every subsequent re-release of the game defaults to the "Difficult" setting instead.
- Mega Man 2 introduces the E-Tank, an item that will completely replenish Mega Man's energy when used. You can carry as many as four E-Tanks at one time. Later games allow Mega Man to hold more tanks of other variations, such as the W-Tank for weapons.
- A feature that Mega Man 2 possesses that the original does not is a password feature that allows the player to continue his or her game at a later time once they have shut off the system. After defeating each Robot Master, the player receives one of these passwords that he or she can input to continue his or her game. The passwords are not specific to either difficulty mode in the North American game, and can be used to resume the game in either difficulty mode.
- The password feature appears in subsequent titles, including the five Game Boy games, the rest of the NES games, and Mega Man 7, which was released for the Super Nintendo and the Super Famicom. The player's life count is reset to two if the player loses all of his lives in a stage, or restarts a game using a password. The password will reflect whether or not the player has any E-Tanks at the time he or she obtains this password. This condition also exists in Mega Man 3.
- Unlike the original Mega Man game, the player cannot go back to a particular stage once he or she defeats the Robot Master in that stage. The same condition exists in Mega Man 3. Lastly, certain robot bosses yield bonus items upon destruction (ie: Mega Man's creator, Dr. Light, will appear to grant an extra ability and explain how to employ this ability).
- The range in usefulness of the Robot Masters' weapons allows the greatest amount of versatility in any of the Mega Man titles. In a majority of the Mega Man titles, each weapon is effective against a single Robot Master. However, to illustrate the varying degrees to which Robot Master's weapon is useful:
- The Metal Blade is the most effective weapon for four of the eight Robot Masters, including Metal Man himself (upon the second confrontation in Wily's Fortress, one hit (or two when playing on the "Difficult" level) with the Metal Blade is sufficient to kill him). Likewise, the Metal Blade is the weapon of choice against three of the bosses in Wily's Fortress. Also since the blade can be thrown at angles, consumes very little weapon energy and is more powerful than Mega Man's plasma cannon, some players prefer to use it as their main weapon.
- By contrast, Flash Man's Time Stopper and Wood Man's Leaf Shield have little offensive usefulness and are preferable for their defensive nature. The Leaf Shield is useful to avoid damage while riding the moving platforms in Crash Man's stage and in the fourth stage of Wily's Fortress. However, it is also very powerful against Air Man, killing him in just 3 hits on "Normal" difficulty. The Time Stopper is useful to prevent the firing of lethal lasers in Quick Man's stage and the appearance of the giant mechanical dogs in Wood Man's stage. The Time Stopper does have one offensive power in that it is capable of depleting up to half of Quick Man's life energy.
- Crash Man's Crash Bomber is not so useful as an offensive weapon, but is used instead to destroy certain walls, gaining access to certain power-ups or alternative routes through a level. The cannons which serve as the boss at the end of the fourth stage of Wily's Fortress are vulnerable to the Crash Bomber alone, the only enemy with that particular weakness. Because of this, the fourth stage boss is one of the hardest in the game, as they are protected by walls which can only be destroyed using the Crash Bomber. The number of walls is the same amount of Crash Bomber energy that Mega Man can carry. Therefore, players who miss destroying a wall or enter the boss room with less than full Crash Bomber energy are forced to kill themselves in order to start outside the room and attempt to gain energy for the weapon. Quick Man is vulnerable to Crash Bomber; however, it's best to hit him directly, which can be difficult. A miss causes Mega Man to have to avoid Quickman's attacks, since he cannot fire again until the Crash Bomb detonates.
- The Quick Boomerang, while not particularly effective against any of the Robot Masters (save Metal Man, who can be killed in four hits on the normal setting), is the weapon of choice against the Mecha Dragon and the Guts Tank.
- The Atomic Fire can be used as an offensive weapon, and is particularly useful against Wood Man. One fully charged shot on "Normal" difficulty will kill him. Otherwise, there are few instances which would make this weapon preferable to any of the other weapons. The Atomic Fire is also the only weapon which can be charged.
- This game features the first of three instances in the Mega Man series where the side scrolling is steady and automatically controlled by the game, rather than the player, and Mega Man is not using any sort of transportation that causes this. This occurs at the end of the first stage of Dr. Wily's fortress, where Mega Man is forced to jump on a series of blocks while being chased by a giant flying dragon, which he then battles as the first boss (the second instance is throughout the duration of the third level of Dr. Cossack's fortress in Mega Man 4, and the third is the first part of Tengu Man's stage in Mega Man & Bass.)
- When facing the Robot Masters again in Dr. Wily's Fortress, Mega Man is presented with a teleporter room, where Mega Man uses eight teleporter pads to face off against the Robot Masters a second time, one after the other. This is used for almost all future Mega Man games, as opposed to the first which had the Robot Masters reappear at predefined points in Dr. Wily's fortress.
- The game also features the first major cameo of the series, that of Guts Man from the first game, now turned into a fortress boss.
- 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, Air Man, Metal Man, and Flash Man's themes are also very popular and often remixed.
- Mega Man 2 was re-released in 1994 with 16-bit graphics as part of the Sega Mega Drive game Mega Man: The Wily Wars and as part of the Mega Man Anniversary Collection in 2004. In both re-releases, the Japanese "Difficult" setting is the only level of difficulty that can be played.
- The first Mega Man game to have the artwork resemble more like his regular color in the game, although he still looks like a police officer with a handgun rather than his Mega Buster. The artwork would later evolve again in Mega Man III's artwork.
- Strangely, in the USA version's cover art, both of Mega Man's hands appear to be right hands.
References
- The Metal Blade is the most effective weapon for four of the eight Robot Masters, including Metal Man himself (upon the second confrontation in Wily's Fortress, one hit (or two when playing on the "Difficult" level) with the Metal Blade is sufficient to kill him). Likewise, the Metal Blade is the weapon of choice against three of the bosses in Wily's Fortress. Also since the blade can be thrown at angles, consumes very little weapon energy and is more powerful than Mega Man's plasma cannon, some players prefer to use it as their main weapon.
"Mega Man 2"