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Mega Man 2, known as Rockman 2: The Mystery of Dr. Wily in Japan, is a video game that is a part of the Mega Man Classic series by Capcom. It was originally released in July 1989 on the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America and Europe, and on the Famicom in Japan.

Mega Man 2 is the second game released in the entire franchise. It has been re-released on several consoles over the years and has most recently made its way to mobile phones. The game was added as a part of the Wii's Virtual Console service in Europe on December 14th 2007. The game is considered by many publications to be the best title in the series, and, by some, one of the greatest games ever made.

Story

Mega Man 2 takes place precisely one year after the original Mega Man, which was set in the year 200X.

Just when everyone thought they could live in peace and that an age of prosperity had dawned upon them, the evil Dr. Wily who had threatened the world once already, 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 the world's hero Mega Man. Once again, the populace called on Mega Man to stop the chaos before the world was engulfed in the flames of destruction.

With the aid of his creator Dr. Light, Mega Man crushed the eight new Robot Masters and then set out for Wily's new fortress, where he had to face more creations and Wily himself. In the final fight, Wily morphed into an alien, but Mega Man defeated it and discovered that it was merely a hologram. After the scientist once again begged for mercy, Mega Man let Wily go, then took a long walk to think things through and returned home.

Gameplay

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 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 eight 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.

New features

Unlike the original Mega Man, the game no longer keeps a running score for the player. This also removes the score pellet drops; drops only consist of health energy, weapon energy and occasionally extra lives. The player is also unable to return to Robot Master levels once they have been completed; although, unlike Mega Man, there are no hidden special powers that would make the ability to replay levels important.

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 any time.

Mega Man 2 also 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.

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.

Robot Masters

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 he or she would not otherwise. Item 1 generates up to 3 platforms that slowly rises in the air. Item 2 creates a platform that constantly moves forward, while Item 3 creates an elevator platform that climbs up walls.

After defeating the eight Robot Masters, the player proceeds to Dr. Wily's fortress, which consists of six levels that are taken linearly. These levels have restart points, such that if Mega Man dies, the player restarts from that point. Unlike the Robot Master levels, the area before the boss of the level does not have a restart point, so if the player loses while fighting a boss, then he or she must restart from the restart point halfway through the level. This process would be continued on Mega Man 3 and Mega Man 4.

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.

Development

Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune claims the development of Mega Man 2 was a "rogue effort". The first Mega Man game did not have a large enough success to lead to an immediate sequel. Inafune was given the chance to create a sequel on the condition that he work concurrently on other projects as well. The Mega Man 2 development team spent their own time on the project to improve upon the original by adding more levels and weapons, as well as improving the graphics. Due to the limited amount of cartridge space available for the original Mega Man, much of the leftover design elements from the game were transferred to Mega Man 2. In addition, a contest was held in Japan, giving fans a chance to design the game's eight Robot Masters.

Music

The soundtrack for Mega Man 2 was composed by a team of three people: Manami Ietel (Manami Matsumae), Ogeretsu Kun, and Yuukichan's Papa (Yoshihiro Sakaguchi). Yuukichan's Papa also composed the music for the original Mega Man.

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. Creator Keiji Inafune claims the success of Mega Man 2 is what made the Mega Man series a hit that continues to spawn sequels.

Legacy and re-releases

Many of the conventions of the classic Mega Man series were defined by Mega Man. Mega Man 2 added its own conventions, which were retained by the series. The traditional number of Robot Masters for Mega Man games is eight as used in Mega Man 2, rather than the six used in the original. The Game Boy versions used eight Robot Masters, but they were divided into two sets of four.

The E-Tank was used in most entries 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 become a staple of the games, replacing the preset sequence used by Mega Man. Mega Man 2 also 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. Rush's abilities, much like Mega Man 2's items, are acquired from defeating a particular Robot Master.

Mega Man 2 was re-released for the Sony PlayStation in the second of six Rockman Complete Works discs, in Japan only circa 1999. It is largely identical to the original NES release, but had a number of bonuses, such as a "navi mode" for beginners presents the player with a slightly re-made version of the game, detailed encyclopedic content, image galleries, and remixed music. Mega Man 2 was included with nine other games in the series in Mega Man Anniversary Collection for the Sony PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, and Microsoft's Xbox, released between 2003 and 2005. The game's emulation is identical to the re-release contained in Rockman Complete Works. Mega Man 2 made its way to mobile phones in 2007, and the Wii's European and Australian Virtual Consoles in December of that year (coincidentally, the VC release is 17 years after the original European release).

Novelization

Mega Man 2 was made into a novel in the Worlds of Power series and was published by Scholastic in 1990. The novel mostly follows the game, even offering game hints at the end of some chapters. Besides the added dialogue, the one major variation in the novel 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, a difficulty Mega Man must endure throughout the story. The book's cover also lacks the gun depicted on the North American boxart of the game.

References

^ ^a ^b Stern, Zack (April 13, 2007). Street Fighter, Mega Man on mobile phones. JoyStiq.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-15.
^ ^a ^b GameSpot (2003). The Greatest Games of All Time. gamespot.com. Retrieved on 2006-06-11.
^ ^a ^b "NP Top 200" (February 2006). Nintendo Power (200): 59.
^ (July 1989) in Capcom: Mega Man 2 Instruction Booklet (in English). Nintendo of America, 7.
^ (July 1989) in Capcom: Mega Man 2 Instruction Booklet (in English). Nintendo of America, 6.
^ (July 1989) in Capcom: Mega Man 2 Instruction Booklet (in English). Nintendo of America, 9.
^ (July 1989) in Capcom: Mega Man 2 Instruction Booklet (in English). Nintendo of America, 8.
^ ^a ^b ^c Hoffman, Chris (September 2007). "Playback: Mega Man 2". Nintendo Power (219): 82.
^ Oxford, Nadia (2007). Mega Man Retrospective: Getting Equipped With 20 Years. 1UP.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-10.
^ "Mega Man". Interviewee: Keiji Inafune. Game Makers. G4 (TV channel). November 20, 2003. No. 19, season 2.
^ GameSpot staff. The History of Mega Man. GameSpot.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-20.
^ Parish, Jeremy (June 22, 2004). Mega Man Anniversary Collection (PS2). 1UP.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-20.
^ Miles, Ellen (1990). Mega Man 2. New York, NY: Scholastic, Inc., 16, 23, 36, 39, 50, 57, 61, 66, 71. ISBN 0-590-43772-0.
^ Miles, Ellen (1990). Mega Man 2. New York, NY: Scholastic, Inc., 4-6. ISBN 0-590-43772-0.
^ Struck, Shawn (2006). 8-Bit Lit: Behind the NES' Worlds of Power Series. 1UP.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-09.

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