Review #7: Mega Man II

Okay, considering I reviewed the series-starter yesterday, I thought I would just review it's brilliant sequel today. Yes, I said brilliant.

So how is this game so much better than it's average predecessor? Well, for starters, they actually did a decent job on the box art this time around, with more relevant drawings.

Mega Man II is not a huge leap in the series, but it's still named one of the best games of the franchise, and the only one I'll play anymore. It's not as difficult, and even besides that, it's more FUN.

Well, let's start categorizing:

Graphics: Remember the boring blue background in MM1? Well, it's given way to much more detailed backgrounds, ranging from a factory, to sky, to woods, as seen in the picture on the right. The foreground graphics are only slightly improved from the first, though, but as long as the fg and bg graphics don't clash, it's all good. Graphics get: 9/10

Sound: Ooooooooh, great music. I've had Crash Man's theme stuck in my head since the last time I played this. All the other music is good too. Sound FX are pretty much what you'd expect, but they get the job done. Sound gets: 9/10

Story: Probably the only thing MM1 has over MM2. See, after being defeated, Wily went and built 8 robots that were made for combat, and sent them out to terrorize. You, Mega Man, have to go and take down those 8 robots and then Wily for a second time. So, compared to the first, it's not that great. Bummer. Story gets: 6/10

Gameplay: Nice work, Capcom, you kept everything the same for the most part. Yep, Mega Man runs, shoots, and gains other robot's weapons. But there's a couple of differences:

1. There are no longer 6 robots, instead, there are 8.





2. The score system (which I never mentioned in yesterday's review) is gone.





3. Every weapon has more than a couple uses in the game.

And the weapons and bosses are cool this time. FireMan is with the cooler-looking Heat Man, CutMan is replaced with the speedy Quick Man, and BombMan is replaced with the fierce Crash Man. So, all in all, bosses are very much improved.

Oh, and Dr. Wily bosses/stages are pretty cool as well, much better and more forgiving than the ones in the first installment, by the way.

A great new addition is the E-Tank, an item that will completely refill your HP. This comes in handy when you get totally pounded by a level and don't have enough energy to face the boss.

One thing that makes the game really easy, though, are the metal blade weapon. Taken after beating Metal Man (lower left), these are totally a godsend. Seriously, almost every enemy is beatable with these, with only one or two bosses invincible, but those guys are already a pushover as it is. Anyways, the metal blades are so usable that using them constantly can be considered cheating. But not on the higher difficulty level.

Oh, about that. There are now two difficulties you can play the game on: Normal and Difficult. In the Japanese release, "Difficult" was the normal, harder playing level, with stronger bosses and enemies. "Normal" is much easier, and if you're not up for the toughness, this is for you.

Finally, there are 3 special items you can get from beating 3 of the 8 robot master stages. Item 1 lets you create three rising platforms to get up to somewhere, and is collected in Heat Man's stage. Item 2, found after beating Air Man, is a hoverboard that will only go in ONE direction, but helps a lot to cross large gaps. The item is famous with helping in Heat Man's stage, which contains this painful part with a bunch of disappearing and reappearing block platforms, which have this totally random pattern in appearing. You can use item 2 to skip the whole thing and go after the hothead himself. But a lot of people complained that Air Man was too hard to beat, and it grew to be such a big thing that a group in Japan wrote a song about it, translated to "I Can't Beat Airman", which can be heard here.

Overall, gameplay gets a well-deserved: 9/10

Controls: Mega Man will shoot and run without any problems. This category gets a: 10/10.

FINAL SCORE:

9+9+6+9+10= 43. 43/5= 8.6/10

Verdict: Play it whenever you get the chance.