Mega Man 2: A Great, But Flawed Sequel

Mega Man may not have the iconic reach that Mario has (very few video game characters do) but the Blue Bomber is still a pretty huge deal. Much like Super Mario Bros. made Mario a household name, Mega Man 2 is the game that put everyone's favorite blue robot boy on the map. You've already heard all of the praise there is to be said about this game. The genius level design, the weapons you score from Robot Master, the super catchy soundtrack; everyone knows all about that stuff. Instead of talking about why Mega Man 2 is so great, we're going to discuss the blemishes. Many critics and fans don't even point these things out. I find that rather odd because quite frankly, Mega Man 2 has some pretty glaring flaws.

These things are so OP, they make all the other weapons
pretty much worthless!

Each Robot Master has a weapon for you to add to your collection after you defeat them. However, they are all dwarfed by Metal Man's weapon, the Metal Blade. This thing is the very definition of over powered. You can throw three of them at once. They can be thrown in eight directions. Many mooks and bosses fall to this sharp metal very quickly, Metal Man himself included. Once you kill Metal Man and acquire his weapon, the Metal Blades can pretty much be your regular weapon for most of the game. There will be instances where you'll have to swamp to a different weapon to kill the few foes it doesn't work on but on the whole, Metal Blades will suit most situations. Mega Man 4 has been cited as the game that made the series start going downhill with the introduction of the Charge Shot, a powered up form of Mega Man's default weapon. The Charge Shot may not consume any ammo and does 3 HP of damage when fully charged, but to get the most out of it, it does have to be charged. It also only shoots in two directions contrasting with the Metal Blade's eight. Later games would beef up the size of the Mega Buster but punish the player for getting hit while charging up, forcing the player to restart the charge. Yeah, the Metal Blade consumes ammo but it does so at such a small amount that running out hardly, if ever, becomes an issue. The Metal Blades, while a ton of fun to use, completely throws Mega Man 2's weapon balance out the window.

Getting through without the Time Stopper
is doable. It just takes memorization. And really
fast thumbs.

One of the great things about the Mega Man games is that they let you choose your order of level progression. Of Mega Man 2's eight initial stages, only about two of them present some serious hurdles to jump over and depending on whom you take out first, said hurdles can be negated by any weapons or items you may or may not possess. The stages I'm referring to are Heat Man and Quick Man's stages.

Heat Man's level is infamous for containing what might be the most hated use of the series' staple Appearing Blocks (also know as Yoko Blocks). You run into these things early on in the stage but it isn't until a little after the halfway point that they induce rage. The Yoko Blocks start appearing over a long pool of lava and eventually lead to a long bottomless pit. You can either try to memorize the pattern of the Appearing Blocks or kill Air Man and get Item-2 to bypass the blocks altogether. The later option is highly recommended because this section of Yoko Blocks quickly overstays it's welcome. Novice players that go into Heat Man's stage before defeating Air Man? Sorry, you guys are so screwed.

Shortly after entering Quick Man's stage, you'll hear this obnoxiously loud noise. That annoyance would be lasers and they are deadly as they are painful on your ears. These things will kill you upon contact and you'll always have to deal with them during the stages vertical sections. The are two sections where you'll have to descend while avoiding loud, yellow death. The first section isn't too bad but a new player will more than likely lose several lives before they know how to properly navigate these areas. Section two is where it really gets crazy. The second section of death lasers go on for a total of seven screens. Unlike the first section where you could damage boost through, you are afforded no such luxury here. The lasers in Quick Man's stage are very much trial and error gameplay for those that wish to get through these areas without any sort of assistance. You can use Flash Man's Time Stopper to make it much easier on yourself but you'll still have to hustle while the lasers are frozen.

Using the blocks over this stupidly long section
isn't really fun or rewarding. 

Mega Man 2 does suffer from some bad game design but it really comes to a head in the last three stages. The fourth Dr. Wily stage is home to Boobeam Trap, one of the worst bosses in the entire history of Mega Man. A series of five turret guns, Boo Beam Trap has lightning fast fire and they shoot at the same time, causing massive sprite flicker, much to your annoyance. The shots are also very hard to avoid. Boobeam Trap is weak to only one weapon: the Crash Bombs. While there are only five targets, you need full Crash Bomb ammo to take this thing out. So if you come into the boss room and you're ammo isn't maxed out, you've already lost. Use a Crash Bomb on a the wrong destructable wall and you've already lost. Yeah, this boss loves to fool you into wasting Crash Bomb ammo. And least we forget, you're also gonna need Item-1 or Item-3 to help you reach those high ledges to plant those Crash Bombs on those out-of-jumping-range targets. Prior knowledge of this boss is mandatory to achieve victory as there are far too many ways to fail. And when you do fail, you don't start right outside the boss door. Nope, you're going back to the midway point. If you want to refill your Crash Bombs, you're gonna have to farm for ammo in the cumbersome section of Walker and Sniper Joes outside Boombeam Trap's door. Hooray.

If you didn't hate wall mounted guns before, well, today
is a good day to learn.

The final two stages of Mega Man 2 are boss battles with no way of refilling your weapon energy and in the case of the very last stage, can pose a serious problem. Dr. Wily stage five has you face off with all the eight Robot Masters again and concludes with a battle with the mad doctor who has two forms. You might be in trouble if you've exhausted much if not all of your weapon energy in Wily stage 5. Sure, all of the bosses can be won with Mega Man's default weapon but that's assuming you can keep all of your lives and power on through. Thankfully, each Robot Master drops energy refills upon defeat.

Dr. Wily stage 6, the final level is short but has this dropping acid that can cause major damage if you take a hit, much like the final boss himself. When you enter the boss chamber you see Dr. Wily change into some bizarre alien creature. This boss is only weak to the Bubble Lead and if you don't have much of it left or you used it all up, you're screwed. Not only do all your other weapons cause him no harm, they actually replenish his energy!

I may as well mention that getting a game over does replenish your weapon energy and you've got infinite continues. But a game over also wipes out your supply of Energy Tanks, which can make getting through those last few bosses even harder. Wily stages 5 and 6 have to Energy Tanks to be found.

Mega Man 2 is a lot of people's favorite Mega Man game. I myself, like the game a lot. However, no game, no matter how great, no matter its impact on a series is immune to criticism. For all Mega Man 2 does right, it gets a number of things wrong. Even the original Mega Man? Buggy and glitchy as it was, did not pull crap like Boobeam Trap. Heck, none of the later games have the late-game-halting-issues that Mega Man 2 does. Yes, they can all be prevented, but you have to know about them before hand and that isn't good game design. We wouldn't ignore these things today so, Mega Man 2, while great in many other areas, doesn't get a free pass just because of what it did for the series.