These types of responses are so stupid because I have yet to even hear about anybody actually having a problem with this. It's people looking for good boy points pretending this is an issue.
@@SaddieMoon Why not both? Taking a safe route to not harm anyone, and getting some nice points to feed our egoism. (I believe egoism is overhated. Most people think of unhealthy egoism, while ignoring healthy egoism)
I met Marc Ericksen, the artist who created the US box art. Super nice dude! He signed my copy of the game and told me that Capcom themselves told him to draw Megaman like that. Wild stuff.
They did ask for something in a comic book style, and described Megaman as a guy dressed in blue with a helmet and a gun. They didn't elaborate on how old he was supposed to look, so Marc's more adultlike interpretation of the character was due to the character having "man" in his name.
I'm not surprised. Companies tended to think that muscular men were what the US-EU audiences wanted in the late 80s-90s. Like even if they didn't give a proper detailed description as you say, they would have still looked at it and gone 'yep, that's good' before using it. Like, as another example, look at the Ruby Spears Mega Man cartoon.
@@ShadowdaHedgie11I mean it was true with everywhere. The 80s was masculine fever everywhere around the world Shonen Jump and a lot of video games had macho men everywhere. Fist of the North Star and Castlevania are the clear examples
@@thomasffrench3639 That is a fair point but I think younger heroes were still definitely a thing in Japan as well. But yeah we do have Fist of the North Star, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and Castlevania as well as other stuff from that time. I honestly never saw the appeal but I guess people liked it XP
Yeah it's not just Megaman 2. On Contra in the first level the palm tree leaves kinda wobble on a CRT to mimic the original game's tree animation featured in the Japanese version. For some reason Nintendo wouldn't allow manufacturing overseas cartridges with japanese 3rd party enhancement chips and had to be built with Nintendo's only. That caused developers to often replace or remove certain graphics/audio in western releases and also why we sometimes had to wait several months to a year or more for a game to be released here.
@@thedrunkmonkshow They did it for quality control, but then they realized they could make a ton of money off it so tried to make Japanese manufacturers sign an agreement which made a lot of the developers move to the PC Engine. The PC Engine was like the Saturn of the 16 bit era, very popular in Japan, but not America.
1:10 for anyone interested the game that they were working on was a Baseball Murder Mystery. Which might sound interesting, but if you know anything about the Famicom, you would know that it is a blatant cash grab as it’s the most generic thing they could have made after Mega Man 1. Baseball games and text adventures were huge on the Famicom, and were inescapable. Watch any Famidaily video about a Baseball game on the Famicom and you’ll see how tired he is of baseball. And for anyone wondering the game is called Pro Yakyuu? Satsujin Jiken!
i think one of the funnier trivia of megaman 2 that not many people know of is that one of the composers just remixed his first ever tracks for an old CAPCOM racing game called "MAD GEAR" for some of the tracks in mm2... but those original songs had demo tapes with actual instruments and are heard in some old rockman 2 promo tapes! The composer left the game industry shortly after megaman 2's release but it sounded like this guy only knew how to make these songs on different audio systems...
The thing with MegaMan 2 is that while i personally think there are better MegaMan games even arguably within the original series. However the entire series would not exist if it was not for this game and i am forever thankfull for that.
I find Mega Man 2 overrated in the sense that some people act like it's the only game in the series that matters. Personally, I think it's really fun and would play it at any time, but I would like the spotlight to hit other entries from time to time. Great review! Looking forward to MM3
Yep, I am kind of sick of anything involving Mega Man, the franchise, just being reduced to Mega Man 2, 3, 1, and maybe X1. Like even Capcom does this crap too lol.
@@Xiado Yeah, it was frustrating that they canceled the Powered Up and Maverick Hunter remakes after one game each. Yeah sure Capcom, put them ONLY on PSP, a brand new platform that isn't selling so well. Not successful? Couldn't be because morons in suits decided to pick the worst possible platform to release on, has to be because nobody wants these games. Xbox Live Arcade was available at the time, they should have at least tried porting the existing two games to that and see how well they sell on a platform people actually own before giving up. But noooooo. Capcom's stupid. Capcom's always stupid. I partially blame this for Mega Man Legends 3 getting cancelled too. Some it was definitely Capcom spite cancelling everything Inafune was working on after he left, but some of it was also that they were planning to release only on 3DS, and 3DS was selling horribly at launch. They knew sales of their game would be terrible on a system that was selling terribly, so instead of moving development to another platform (again, digital storefronts on console that people actually owned were RIGHT THERE) they just cancel it.
Old man gamer here. I LOVED MM2 back in the day. What a perfect follow up. I remember when I first saw the Mecha Dragon I was absolutely blown away. I also thought it was really cool how quietly atmospheric the final stage was.
Yeah! For me MM2 and 3 win because of atmosphere. 3 is ofcourse upon closer inspection unfinsihed and flawed in obvious ways but the atomsphere is still there in level design, music and end credits, which for me makes the games stand out in the series. 4-6 might be more polished but the increasingly gimmicky bosses and the more quirky tone made them less enoyable. Even back in the early 90’s when I was a small boy I felt that way.
Honestly curious here, why do I see so many people mentioning how flawed MM3 is? I know it came out quickly following the success of MM2 but I've always found 3 to be a great step forward in many ways. Maybe not perfect but features like the slide, rush coil/jet, consuming the boss energy etc became staples in the series thereafter.
@phillipenriquez2325 MM3 definitely has some flaws owing to being rushed: Spark Man's weapon works on very few enemies, Doc Robot fights are cramped, Rush Jet is OP etc. But I do agree with you on 3 having lots of improvements. To me it's just as good as MM2 is.
Old school gamer here too! MegaMan 2 was one of the first few games I owned when I got an NES and absolutely loved it, so much so that I even feigned being too sick to go to school so I can progress and experiment with the weakness weapons on each boss. That game was the reason why I started keeping a notebook nearby (to jot down passwords mainly) and my love for MegaMan continued on with 3 and even 4!
I think that Mega Man 4 was when people got sick of the formula, and having the Charge shot sealed the deal. So Mega Man 4-6 are not as popular or well regarded by retro gamers. I honestly don’t find MM2 to be overrated, it’s more that MM4 and MM6 are underrated. MM3 however is overrated
@@gspgabesstudioproduction4265 I say is better than 2 and 3 in many ways sure, the story had a weak twist, and the game do spam spikes too much but is far polished and I say people didn't appreaciate it enough due to being the fourth game rather than it's goods sadly but yeah 4 is a great game and I say 6 is the only one that better than this game from the nes 6
Regarding the Metal Blade being overpowered, I think we have this backwards, and more non buster weapons should be stronger and be flexible as hell. When I played Megaman games I often tried out a new weapon during a stage and immediately switched back to the buster because it felt underwhelming or gimmicky on top of being fixed to a gauge meter.
Personally I do think it's overrated, not in the sense that it's bad, just that I don't think it's the best game in the series as a lot of its fans will say. Even in the classic series I find a number of the other entries more fun and interesting to play through. That said it is a good NES game with undeniably great music, and it does deserve credit for all the improvements it brought to the series going forward, some of which I didn't even fully consider until this video. I like the analysis made here about the ending too, it always did feel a bit somber, and it's very interesting to think about that being a reflection of the developers' feelings. I didn't know anything about this game's development, so I had no idea there was any uncertainty about the series continuing past the second entry at the time.
The problem is megaman5 and 6 did nothing to evolve the series megaman 4 is defintley the best of the og and megaman 9 would be my favourite if it had the slide and charge shot
I feel like 2 is a really solid game to the point of being one of the best. It felt like a total improvement over the last game compared to later entries that improved on one area but not the other despite fondness over certain elements. 2 lacked some things but the pros outweigh the misses and sometimes less is more with a game which is why I still favor X1 over X2 and X3 along with X4 compared to X5 and X6.
@@elibonham4388 I feel like with 5, it improved out some of the ideas previous games had resulting in a better experience. To me, 5 is an improvement over 4 with better charge shots, better weapons, a better non-Wily enemy to face. Though like Caddicarus, I feel like Mega Man 9 is what Mega Man 3 should've been plus the extra abilities.
Yeah, this is true. I mean the reason a lot of the other NES Mega Man games are great are because of Mega Man 2. People forget about that, but it is very important when considering Mega Man 2. Now that doesn’t mean that it has to be your favorite to play, that’s subjective. All of these games are some of the best platformers ever (except maybe 5)
@@thomasffrench3639 I don't personally believe in awarding a game for outside factors and future impacts, at least when it comes to the quality of the game itself. Sure, Mega Man 2 was a passion project and might have saved the series (or at least allowed it to continue) but those things don't make the actual game better or worse. I'm glad MM2 exists and allowed the series to flourish into one of my favorite game franchises of all time, but those things don't affect the game itself. Just as a game in a vacuum MM2 is good, but flawed. Definitely something I rate relatively highly in terms of the NES overall, but when it comes to Mega Man and many people considering it the best of the series, very overrated in my eyes. It's not peak Mega Man and not even one of the best NES games depending on where you draw that line.
@@ElecManEXE I disagree completely, because when we are discussing the best games ever influence is a very huge factor in that discussion. No one would mention an obscure game no matter how good it is, and plenty of mediocre games are considered classics because of their influence. Maybe personally it might not make it fun to play, but it is important in conversations. And at least it's better than most SNES platformers.
@@thomasffrench3639 Really depends on the person and what they look for in a "Best Game". When I talk about the best games, I really care about the quality above all above. I can acknowledge when a game had a lot of influence, and respect it immensely for it, but still.
Mega Man 2 had some balancing issues, but it was a tremendous improvement over the first game and for the most part set the standard for ALL the sequels.
@@konuralpyldzkan1495 MM3 is special to me because I was able to input one of the hardest passwords to input from memory AND I was able to intuitively do the glitch in Spark Man's stage that enables you to be invincible through the stage. I actually did not know the stage theme because of doing the glitch every time. I had to be shown what Spark Man was weak to because I never knew!
I don't know if I agree with all the "Mega Man 2 is the best one" opinions, but it definitely holds up. Honestly I don't even know which classic Mega Man game is my favorite. 2-6 all kind of blend together for me. I can remember big picture things: 2 is the one with Metal Blades, 3 introduces the slide and has the annoying Doc Robot stages that feel like padding, 4 introduces the charge shot and is the one with Dr Cossack and starts doing 2 sets of castle stages, 5 is the one with Proto Man (he was introduced in 3 but is the "main villain" in 5), 6 has the transformations and "Mr X". I can relate some robot masters to their games. The rest all kind of blurs together to me until I start one of them, see the selection screen, and it starts coming back to me. A while after playing, they all blend together again.
Doc Robot stages are actually one of my favorite things about 3 and I wish more games did something similar; darker, harsher remixes of the ruins of stages you just beat, with harder versions of similar platforming challenges and new bosses. The Wily Castle stages being vastly easier than not just the Doc Robot stages but most of the regular Robot Master stages instead of ramping up the difficulty further is what I consider a bigger disappointment, and the Doc Robots themselves could've used some fine-tuning. On some level it actually was padding. I heard Keiji Inafune quoted as saying that they added those stages because it was easier to make damaged versions of their existing assets and duplicate their existing stages than to make more assets for more stages, as they had a tighter budget, shorter staff, and shorter deadline than they did for Mega Man 2.
@@RoninCatholic The Doc Robot levels are definitelly more interesting than many of the castle stages in the future games. Dunno why so many people dislike them.
I can’t say MM 2 is overrated, i think what it’s fine, but the next series instalments do what 2 does but significantly better. Weapon balance, level design, etc. And yeah Metal blade is busted (no way), but there’s another problem: almost every other weapon in “2” sucks and not fun to use. I generally think what the second NES trilogy (4,5,6) was better in almost every way. Thanks for content. Very excited for what you say about 4,7 and 8.
The second trilogy is pretty fun to play and in many ways is a more polished version of the first trilogy. But if you see it in the greater scale, they were pretty much behind the times. Mega Man 6 came out in 1993 and it hardly stands out if you compare it to other late NES games (plus, 5 and 6 in general are like a watered down version of 4 in many ways, the series got really repetitive at that point). Whereas if you compare Mega Man 2, 3 and even 4 to other contemporary games, they do stand out quite a bit. I think that's an important factor to consider, to put the games in their historical context and what they gave to the medium as a whole.
I think 4 was the peak. 5 and 6 are a bit redundant, and I'd rather have had a SNES classic MM title released before MMX than MM5 and 6 on NES. Imagine Mega Man 7 as "Super Mega Man 5" (Castlevania style) in 1992 or 1993, but with a proper development cycle.
Mega Man 2 isn't the best game in the series (hell not even the best in the Classic era to me), but it's still a well made game that really pushed the franchise into being a platformer icon that it is now.
I've got to remind people that overrated does not mean bad. Yeah, MM2 is probably overrated, it's not a masterpiece, it's not flawless, and there are arguably better games in the same franchise even on the same console, but it's still a really fun game that, for 1989, holds up beautifly
I play through 1-6 at least once a year. My favorite games as a child, the series will always hold a very special place in my heart. 4-6 were and are the best games. Objectively honestly. (outside of music mm2 still holds the crown)
The Metal Blades actually has one minor drawback. You can't move when you attack with it and Megaman automatically stays put when he throws one even when he jumps. Regardless the pros of the Metal Blades still greatly outweighs the cons.
On the nes/famicom you could make the blades stand in place like a trap. You had to centre the controler and pres shoot. This usually messed up the controlers rubbers faster.
I haven't seen anything about it in the comments, but Mega Man 2 was the first game I played that just...didn't keep score? Every game I'd played before it had a score tracker, and this one showed me it was just extraneous. Also, it had a pretty good tie-in book, at least when I read it as a kid.
I mean, the first game had a score count and I guess the guys at Capcom quickly realized that Mega Man doesn't need it due to just how the game is and how it's played.
Megaman 2 is my 2nd favorite, so bias. I love this game. It's difficulty being on the lower end is a big reason. Not because I can't handle a harder game, but because an easier game allows for a more "perfectionist" approach to replaying it. You can make that jump faster, avoid that enemy, beat that boss without taking that hit. Other megaman games allow this as well, but it's alot harder to dodge a boss like charge man, elec man, or ring man than it is to dodge quick man. This, along with the game being shorter than those that come after allow for a easy and quick speedrun game. That, alot with staying consistent with one control scheme throughout. Games have evolve since the NES, and that's a good thing. But there still exists room for fun in simplicity. Now we move onto my favorite classic game, possibly my favorite megaman game.
Great game. Still very impressive that the developers dedicated all their free time to making it. Also glad that you covered both the normal and difficult modes. I definitely think the difficult mode allows for the most experimentation since the Metal Blade doesn’t kill every enemy right away
80s kid here. Back in the day I didn't know you could aim the metal blade, so I didn't end up using it often. it was kind of a pain for me to switch weapons, so I used to just go through the whole game with the mega buster. I got super good at firing off multiple shots in a single jump, and that satisfying whang whang sound of hits landing was great. Another thing I never realized as a kid: Heat man is literally a zippo lighter
I fully believe Mega Man 2 is the most replayable and accessable Mega Man game. The stages are short and simple, and every weapon is good. Personally i like to roll a D8 to decide which boss to take on, it's more fun that way than just steamrolling through in weakness order
That being said the GB games are also short and replayable, and MMIV and MMV are arguably better designed than some NES games. They deserve to be talked about despite the first four reusing content
“every weapon is good”. No. Not even remotely close and this is from someone who actively LIKES to use more than just Metal Blade. Crash Bomb takes too long to be practical. Atomic Heat has good power but has to be charged and (fully) charging it eats through too much energy Bubble Lead has terrible damage and has a similar problem to Air Cannon. Leaf Shield can’t be carried around with you. Flash Stopper can’t be manually turned off.
@@thehevandragon i didnt mean to imply every weapon is without flaws, just that they all have their place and are fun to use. i agree that mega man 2 would be a much better game if these weapons' issues were fixed. atomic fire uses a lot of energy, but the stages are all really short. there are only a couple of big enemies that justify using it, but it's generally an instant kill. granted, it's pretty useless in the wily stages because of ammo not refilling between stages. bubble lead is better than most give it credit for. you can mash it while up close to an enemy for some pretty good damage. not the best, but good. leaf shield, i would argue, doesn't need to be carried around. it tears through enemies, aims directionally, and has a really wide hitbox. if you could carry it around, it would be the best weapon in the game hands down. flash stopper is pretty much only useful if you know how and when to use it. like, for example, skipping the friender minibosses in wood man's stage. it would be better if you could turn it off and back on, though, and i can see why someone would not find it useful. crash bomb... okay you got me crash bomb sucks for combat
Mega Man 2 was definitely one of the most-frequently-rented games I've played... back when rental stores like Block Buster, Road Runner Video, Red Giraffe, and Video Vault still existed in the 1980's and 1990's. It was and still is awesome. However, it was when I looked through a Nintendo Power Magazine covering Mega Man 3 that I finally got fully hooked into the series! I started collecting them: 3, 2, 4, then 5... 1 was kind of hard to find by then, but I collected a used cartridge of it! Then the Game Boy games, X1, classic 6, and I've been playing and collecting them ever since!
As I once heard, "being a classic doesn't mean it is good". I think it is overrated in the sense of some people claiming it is better than it was compared to later games, down to 9 walking back to its mechanics, robbing us even of the slide. But I acknowledge its influence, place in history, and how it did in fact blew the rest out of the water in its day. Even the Metal Blade is still fondly remembered and referenced to this day (Tinker Knight in Shovel Knight), but would I suffer another Yoko Block gauntlet for it? Hell no.
I mean the slide and charge shot are controversial, and not everyone likes them, the charge more than the slide. You realize that just because people like Mega Man 2 is the best doesn’t mean that they haven’t played the sequels right?
I fail to see how the slide can be considered "controversial" charge shot maybe but the slide? That's rather odd. Though I agree with op, I'm not too big of a fan of what 2 does but I can respect it on what it establishes and improves on from 1. Though personally I think 4 improved on what 2 (and 3) established and makes it my favorties of the nes games with 6 as a 2nd but that's just me
@@BioMega96 not necessarily controversial, but I think for a lot of Mega Man fans it represents a move away from the simplicity of Mega Man 2. Most people if not everyone is fine with it, but it shows a step away of why a lot of people love these games. It’s cool, but I can see why people like Mega Man 2 the best. Which is why a lot of people love Mega Man 9, because it has the same mechanics as Mega Man 2 but with more balanced weapons and worse level design. It would be like Mega Man 4 without the charge shot.
@@BioMega96 I think Megaman X getting rid of the slide is proof enough that some people really didn't like the slide. And looking at it critically, I can see why fairly easily. Though to be clear, I LIKE the slide. I think that the slide is cool, but it's not really GOOD. It makes you move very fast for a brief period(great tool for dodging), but beyond that the only utility it has is passing under low ceilings that only exist to make you use the slide. So really, it is just a cool-looking dodge button. I'd probably think more highly of the slide if it did anything else. The charge kick is an experiment in that direction, and I'm a bit sad it didn't work out. X's dash keeps that same "short burst of speed" element, but it now also modifies your jump, which makes it INTERESTING. The concept has been tweaked just enough to elevate it from gimmick to tool, while still being cool as heck. You also retain the ability to shoot in a dash(it even applies a damage boost to an uncharged buster, in a cute flourish) whereas you don't in a slide, but I would argue that's actually a negative from an "interesting mechanic" standpoint, as it removes a major reason you might want to NOT dash.
@CptJistuce no offense, but the first statement feels a bit confusing. X's dashing = getting rid of sliding? Honestly, if they didn't want the slide, then the dash wouldn't have existed in the first place. Sorry, but that bit had me head scratch a bit. Though I get what you're saying for the rest. Personally, I saw the dash as an evolution of the slide, and honestly, looking back at it, I don't think it needed too much else since I felt the classic series always went with the approach of "simple, yet effective" in many ways including gameplay (granted some later games added a little more but the core is generally the same). Where as with the X series, it was meant to be an advancement of what classic established, including the concept of the slide (also the line of "just a cool way of dodging" would also apply to the dash as well?) Though honestly, at the end of the day, it's all personal preference, Some prefer the style of 3+beyond, while others prefer the style of 1/2. Let's just leave it at that
That was a good review. I was scared you were gonna get stuck on the "Metal Blade is imba"-mentality, but then you turned around and showed us the experience without Metal Blade as first. It's such an amazing game where the player input really matters and you can customize the game as you like. Just an enjoyable game all the way through. Also - been playing this game since I was 5 (I'm 35 now) and I did not know you could use Bubble Lead on the small springlike robots. That says a lot about the depth of the game.
Mega Man 2 was the first MM game I’ve ever played that got me into the franchise. While I think there were better games like X1 and Zero 3 that came about, I did find that 2 did well in setting the standard and easily made it into my top 5/10 favorite MM games.
A few things I wish you mentioned the Germany boxart for Megaman 2. You forgot that one. The weapon set in mm2 is pretty awful and I feel you didn't do nearly enough testing. I don't think you'll check it out but the atari demake of Megaman 2 fixes it and practically all the level design issues, like atomic fire draining almost half a bar in one shot when fully charged (half charge shots are also glitchy), bubble lead straight up not working on like half the enemies, leaf shield not working on enemy bullets and flying off when you move horizontally (even though it's a shield), item 3 being completely invalidated by item 1, etc. Also the game has a surprising amount of bugs, the chains in metal man can be jumped through as they have no hitbox when the chain is rising, your weapon ammo not depleting by pausing applies to every weapon that doesn't drain more than one "tick" on the energy bar, not *just* the metal blades, wood man can jump infinitely in the air if you press pause when he jumps, then repeat it, etc. To me this game was a sloppy rushed passion project that didn't get the time it deserved. It certainly improves and expands the established formula, but things such as weapon balancing, the new difficulty setting of normal actually messing with a few enemy behaviors (the enemies that are stacks of blocks don't break apart in our version of normal, so that function is completely unused) and needless progression gates potentially arising due to poor level planning that new players without outside sources are going to struggle with (like with the yoku blocks in heat man if they don't know how to get item 2 first, boo beam trap, etc.) keep this from being a timeless classic, personally.
Some things I liked about MM2: 1. The music (Wily 1 is iconic though it gets overplayed a LOT in MM circles). 2. Much lower bar of entry, with this being the recommended game to get first timers into the series. The first game had the Magnet Beam be required to finish the game but if you didn't know that the thing existed or where it was in the game, it could be easily overlooked and completely missed, and you are stuck wondering what to do in that game''s WIly 1 and still unaware that you DID miss something. MM2 rectifies that with each Item being an additional get in three of the stages. Alongside the addition of E-Tanks & the password system, many saw this as the entry point for people of the series. Some dislikes: 1. That Wily 4 boss can screw you over if you are not careful. 2. The seizure inducing flashes on the Wily boss kills. Yeah, anyone that's played MM2 knows how rapid and bright those flashes were when you killed the Wily bosses. The later MM games had the screen flash when you killed a castle boss, too, but those were more tolerable compared to how blinding these were.
I'm one of those weirdos who started with 9 and it's still my favourite. It does difficult design in that fun way that makes you want to improve because it keeps offering that challenge in new contexts that test you differently. It doesn't just place you in a bad spot and throw a bunch of enemies at you, instead it uses the level layout and composition of the scene itself to telegraph what's coming, sort of guiding your attention. MM2 occasionally does this and sometimes just throws flying enemies at you in questionable situations. 2 is rough, a learning step, but it's clearly where the series figured what it is truly going for and the following games built upon it more with occasional experiments. I feel mixed towards it, but I can't fully blame it for its faults since back then this stuff wasn't fully realised yet. These were the learning days for level design, experimenting to figure out what ideas work and what can be expanded upon.
@@ThunderDragonRandy so did I. I mean, I played the original console version first but that version was definitely better than nothing……..until they ruined it
@@Jackattack359 I have tried the Android versions of MM1-6 and yeah, those ports' suffered through frame drops . But my first time playing MM1-6 were the Mega Man Anniversary Collection.
I ponder if the reason this game did so well and so fondly remember is because it wasn't tough as nails, its not easy, but its not awfully difficult like weird movement in SMB, cryptic Nintendo Power sellers like Zelda, Metroid, and Castlevania 2, or just barely being cbt like contra and Castlevania.
for me 9 is the best game in the classic series, but 2 is the one i come back to the most. I've played it so much that if i ever want to just blast through a megaman game it's a good time.
@@THEGREATMAX I mean 9 is the one that tried to mimic 2 the hardest, i think it's more the core design rather than any technical advantage. both great games of course, i dont believe there's a single bad classic series game (yes including 8 though it's the weakest in the series) i just think that 9 manages to balance everything to near perfection.
9 was a fun return to 8-bit... however, it seemed to me that too much emphasis had been made on making the game difficult. It also seemed that skills that had been in Mega Man's repertoire had pretty much been removed for no reason. Being able to slide since 3, and charge his Buster since 4... why would those abilities suddenly be locked out? And then also for 10 as well - only that time without the excuse of Dr. Light being arrested and unavailable to do pre-battle maintenance on Mega Man! I mean, I kind of get it that there might need to be some way to differentiate game play between Mega Man, Proto Man, and Bass... but I'm really not sure that was the right way to do it. The programmers could have taken some cues from the Power Battle and Power Fighters arcade games - or even Mega Man 7 for that matter. But, I did enjoy the Robot Master fights in 9 and 10, and their stories as well!
"overrated"? Look at the EPIC sound track and the developements! To look at this game out of its context in how games were being created and how quickly they were created is a mistake that no argument can recover from. The game may or may NOT be flawed in some people's comparisons with other games, but on its own, the music is unforgetable and the GAME IS FUN!.
As someone who played NES games when Megaman 2 came out, I want to say that one of the extraordinary virtues of this game was it's accessibility. Many, MANY NES games back then were way, way too hard. We weren't tryhards, we were just 8-year olds. No save-states. No guides on the internet. Sure maybe you had a friend who had a Nintendo Power about a game but that didn't always help. But Megaman 2 helped out its players a lot. You could find weaknesses in enemies to the various weapons. Metal Blades could really help you progress when you were struggling. And snagging an e-tank for a bossfight could make the different between progressing or having to put in a password. By contrast, Megaman 1 was just totally brutal. Just getting to the Yellow Devil was super challenging, to say nothing of THAT fight. Hell, Gutsman stage was brutal. Loads of places there where one screw-up cost you one of your precious lives. Megaman 2 was easier. But some of the best and fondest games of that era were the ones you could actually beat! Anyways, sorry for the rant. Great vid!
@@playbossthebest936 I mean I saw his ranking and 9 being number 1, 2 being below 3 and 1, and 7 in the top 3, I find it hard to take him seriously. But I guess he's an expert and I'm wrong.
Yeah it is, I’ve played this game so many times so I’ve really gotten to know all of its flaws. It’s extremely bare bones compared to other entires as well, it’s got good music, robot masters and is iconic. But those are pretty shallow positives when it comes to actually being a superior game if you compare it to its successors. I honestly consider 2 to only be better than 1, 5 and 8. It definitely isn’t the peak of the series.
The fact that it is barebones is why a lot of people think it’s the best one. Just simple jump n shoot you can finish pretty quickly and isn’t as dragged out as the sequels. That’s the appeal of Mega Man 2.
@@Jackattack359 I’m not talking challenge, I’m talking number of levels. I feel that most of them are on the same level of difficulty, at least the ones I played on their original version.
Mega Man 6 is my favorite NES Mega Man, followed by 2. I personally think 3 is the most overrated, since it feels the most rushed and has some of the worst design elements. One reason that helps 2 be beloved is that it is probably the easiest Mega Man, with the added easier difficulty, some of the best weapons in the series.
I suppose overrated probably isn't the right word for it. No matter how you look at it, Mega Man 2 will always be a legendary game since it's VERY iconic and was the most contributing factor as to why the Mega Man series exists. I personally think half of games in classic series are better (hell, I think I prefer Mega Man 1 to Mega Man 2), but Mega Man 2 is still a great game and one who's issues can mostly be blamed on the circumstances surrounding its development. Mega Man 3 had limited circumstances as well, which is why, in my opinion, Mega Man 4 was the first game in the series to be properly refined. Mega Man 9 is my favorite Mega Man game, and much of that game was based around Mega Man 2's energy, so to speak. It feels like a very well refined Mega Man 2, actually. But yeah, Mega Man 2 is still a great game that did so much for the series and video games in general.
I am glad that you are now covering the classic series! I'm looking forward to when you cover 3 and 7, as those are my two favorite games in the classic series. Regarding the weapons in MM2, MM2 features the first dedicated shield weapon in the series (the Leaf Shield). Also, don't sleep on Quick Boomerangs- they can fire very fast, you get a lot of ammo for them, and can hit at angles that the regular buster can't.
Yes! I think it's crazy that after having so many other Mega Man games come out people swear that 2 is the best entry, It's definitely great and iconic but there is definitely some better ones out there. Also to paint a target on my head Mega Man 7 is my favorite entry!!!
I’ve seen a lot of people who are more “general” NES gamers, they definitely feel MM2 is the best. Jeremy Parish and RndStranger are two guys that catalogue the NES and Famicom respectively think that Mega Man 2 is the best entry.
@@Jackattack359 it was just an observation that on the Mega Man subreddit I see a lot of people say 4 is the best, and I think for some reason die hard fans are more interested in 4, while the general retro gaming space prefers 2.
@@thomasffrench3639 I mean, I’m a diehard fan but I don’t think it’s the best. But that isn’t because I think there’s anything particularly better than it. I think each game in this series has its own unique merits that make it stand out from the others and it just so happens that the most popular one to the general public is the second one. And they don’t necessarily need to play any other game in the series to come to that conclusion
@@Jackattack359I feel like Mega Man 2 stands out because it was one of the best platformers ever when it came out, and the other games were released when the hype of the SNES was at its height. So 4-6 are just forgotten due to that. Not to say that Mega Man 2 doesn’t have any traits that would make someone say it’s the best one, because it’s one of the best in the classic series. I’m also noticing a trend, and not everyone is part of that trend.
MM2 was the first MM game I played. I was addicted. Played through all the rest afterwards. I honestly think ZX and Advent, minus some issues, were the most perfect of all the Mega Man 2 sequels.
My Megaman enthusiast friend passed me a buster charge and slide mod when we got to this one. Let's say that, while very good and memorable on its own, these vastly enhanced my time with it.
I honestly think the weapon balance in 2 ruin the game. The metal blades remove almost all the challenge, and over half of the others are hilariously useless. The only ones that are actually worth something are Leaf Shield and Quick Boomerang. 2 definitely has the worst weapon set of the classic series and hurts replayability because of that. The game has its iconic moments and I can't deny the soundtrack is one of the best, but I don't think it would be nearly as popular if people couldn't trivialize the game with metal blade spam. It doesn't hold up to what the sequels have improved later.
It doesn’t not have the worst weapon set when Mega Man 3 and Mega Man 5 exist. Mega Man 3 has two of the worst weapons in the series, and Mega Man 5 has a lot of bad weapons and no good ones. All of the weapons in Mega Man 2 have their uses, and they are fun to use. Also the thing about Metal Blade is that at least everyone uses it. I know so many Mega Man fans that only use the Mega Buster besides bosses (which is stupid because you won’t need a special weapon that’s not a boss’s weakness, but whatever) use the Metal Blade in Mega Man 2. All of the other weapons are good, it’s just that the Metal Blade is too good.
@@thomasffrench3639 In MM3 only Spark Shock is useless, even Top Spin can one shot many enemies in the game. MM5 does have decent weapons, but they're outshined by the charged buster. If you want to play through the entirety of MM5 with only special weapons you can do that. This definitely doesn't apply to MM2. Half the weapons are useless even in a vaccum, comparing them to the metal blades is just adding salt to the wound. Most enemies have immunity to Bubble Lead. Crash bomb only exists for Boobeam Trap, it does nothing for combat. Atomic Fire runs out of energy with 2 charged shots. Air Shooter is effective against a single enemy type. And Time Stopper is only useful on 2 spots of the game, one of them makes you run out of weakness for the hardest robot master. All other classic games have at worst a couple of useless weapons, not half of the set. Metal Blade isn't the sole reason why the weapons in 2 suck, it's just the cherry on the top. The only well designed weapons are Quick Boomerang and a shield that doesn't even work as a shield.
@@bulb9970 spark shot is way more useful than top spin. I never found the spark shot to be that bad, yet the top spin is way too hard to use, so you may as well use a mega buster. To say that too spin is better than 5 out of the 8 weapons is very hard to take seriously. Crash bomb can help with some of the heat man platforming and can be useful if you want some extra goodies. Airman is good at killing big enemies in a flash. I agree that Flashman and Bubbleman kinda suck, but besides that it’s a solid roster.
@@bulb9970 air shooter is outclassed by metal blade as an anti-air, but it's decent as an up-close cluster attack. also, time stopper is good in a couple of other places if you know how to use it. in wood man's stage. it lets you skip the dogs if you use it before moving to the screen they're on. it's also good in air man's stage, since it makes the goblins easier to cross. i assume the one other spot you were talking about is probably crash man's stage.
@@thomasffrench3639 Mega Man 3's weapons are weird. Thinking about them now, it really feels like the devs assumed that anyone using them would be able to use them with precision, cuz when you actually hit your target with them, they're actually not that bad. The problem is that when you whiff with half of MM3's weapons, it's pretty ugly. Hard Knuckle's awful in general. Gemini Laser is actually pretty effective, but if you miss and wanna switch weapons, you pretty much need to hope it doesn't happen in a precarious situation cuz the laser stays on screen forever. Magnet Missile can be weird with its targeting. Top Spin is pretty much a 50/50 if it kills an enemy or makes you take a bunch of damage to the face since it's usually better to get hit by a projectile if you need to damage boost past something. Shadow Blade's range isn't as big as it probably should be, but they didn't wanna have a repeat of Metal Blade. At least it won't screw you over that much if you miss? I'm trying to think of things to say about Search Snake, but I pretty much never use it. Needle Cannon is pretty much the only exception, but it's odd in a different way. It's more or less just the buster but with a higher rate of fire in exchange for limited ammo. I don't know why they made it this way.
With the Crash bomber wily room, a trick you can exploit is that the crash bomber walls **do NOT regenerate** when you die. So you can blow up all the walls, then die. If you have enough lives, you respawn and can finish the room.
@@sidnew2739 You can farm weapon energy off of the respawning enemies on the way to the boss. It's rather time consuming, but you can do it fairly easily. The only issue with this strat is that you're doing it in an area that's already long and annoying to get through when you're just trying to get past it normally.
10:45 Good video overall, but a strong disagree here. I think the devs were *fully* aware of the weapons' abusability. For example: they clearly knew the Wood Shield can be used to farm 1UPs, because the very first bad guy on Wily 1 is an egg-dropper. That can't be a coincidence. SMART players get a refill point that others would miss. Being OP is your reward for being good at the game. Or at 13:40, you could have used Item 3 to climb those walls, if you had it and thought to use it. Which, again, I just don't think was coincidental. They wanted you to have a lot of different options for tackling the challenges. That said, they did probably take the Metal Blades a bit too far, haha. Never been quite sure why it's SO overpowered.
Megaman 2 had everything going in its favor, it’s the sequel to a series that had the funny boxart from the first game, it had amazing music which even I’d say that’s overrated as well. It was so good Megaman 9 was based entirely on it removing Megaman’s sliding and charging which I myself don’t like and see it as a regression.
I swear I remember reading somewhere that some of the Metal Blade stuff was to entice gaming magazines to write about it, though whether that was just the trick to take out Metal Man with his own weapon or it's general bustedness, I can't recall.
@@Jackattack359As much as I respect him, he's still fucking wrong. Mega Man 2 is one of the worst cases of overrated games ever, people judge it with rose-tinted glasses and think it's "the best game ever!1!!11". I mean, they happily ignore things like Boobeam Trap (Which was REALLY done in a rush by the developers) and the shitty weakness order
@@mortenera2294 “He’s still fucking wrong.” You’re seriously getting this worked up over someone who has a different opinion than you. So worked up that you can’t even do a proper spellcheck when you type 1 and not an exclamation point. That’s honestly embarrassing man. Deal with it
@@mortenera2294 you seriously think that your opinion matters more than his? You couldn’t possibly be more delusional. Doesn’t help that you’re so worked up that you can’t even do a proper spellcheck
If Mega Man 2 is overrated, then this title isn't engage bait. The fact that the game boots up to the end credits music from MM1 gives you a level of continuity for fans of the first while refining the gameplay and core mechanics enough to ensnare new players. It may not be the best game in the classic franchise, but it's the perfect sequel.
Just wanna say that while I enjoy watching your videos for their content, you also have a very professional and easy to listen to narration style that makes me much more inclined to watch your videos in the future.
It's funny if you watch most video essays or older reviews of the game you'll see people talking about the weapon balancing while rocking Metal Blade throughout the entire video.
Something like Flash Bomb or Jewel Satellite is overpowered. Metal Blade is just fucking broken. There needs to be a reason to use a strong weapon other than "i just don't want to deal with what's ahead of me"
I would argue Mega Man 2 is so fondly remembered because you can not only see the passion the devs had for it, but also because its the most consistently good. At no point in Mega Man 2 am I dreading whats coming next like i do most of the other classic Mega Mans.
Mega Man 2 was probably one of the best entries in the classic series. I've just never been able to really get into classic Mega Man. Maybe if I was around in 1988, things would be different, but X is where I got my start
Great vid man! I remember waiting for this one to come out when I was 10 years old after playing Mega Man 1. My friend and I loved it! I remember fighting the robot dragon in one of the Wily Stages and dying over and over. I finally killed it for the first time but fell in the "bottomless pit" off the bottom of the screen at a frame perfect moment. It froze the game. I was SO angry! Thanks for the awesome vid... wish my 13 year old son could get into Mega Man like me. Such a great series! X in particular.
What's always funny to me is when I was little I only used the Buster outside of boss fights because I never wanted to run out (like hoarding potions in an rpg) so I had like a WAY different experience than everyone else who figured out how OP the Blade was.
I've come to think of the ending of MM2 as melancholic because Mega Man stops Dr. Wily but, due to the nature of robots, is forced to let him go if Dr. Wily asks. So, Mega Man can stop Dr. Wily's robots, but he knows he can never really stop Dr. Wily himself.
After playing some mmx games, I decided to go and play all of the classics. Played mm1, finished it and almost gave up on continuing with the rest (It was annoyingly hard even with save states); mm2 saved my classic playthrough as a more "relaxing" experience
It was the first Megaman I've ever played and one of the first ever games I've played in my life. What I remember about the time was that it was so above everything else that existed back then. This is probably why it is remembered as one of the best games of all time.
It's kinda funny to me that the built in difficulty modes don't have near the same impact on difficulty compared to simply whether or not you fight Metal Man first
Before Mega Man 2, I cannot recall a single game where the soundtrack was so well designed that it made me want to play at a tempo that aligned with the music. Like, I would hit the part of the Metal Man stage when the hook would drop and the clowns that dropped onto the rolling gears would sync perfectly with the notes, so I would wait. Or Wood Man's music compelled me to simply run without stopping. And of course the track on Dr. Wily Stage 1's frenetic pace sped me up, even when it wasn't smart. That'll always stick with me when I recall what I loved about this game.
I got the first game when I was 8 in the summer of 1988 a full year before the second was released so I was amazed at how much they improved with the sequel,lightened up on the difficulty a little plus added a password feature .It took me 6 months to finally complete the unforgiving first game and a weekend rental to beat the second.I never bought any of the sequels I just rented them all and beat them over a weekend as they were released.
The last time I played MM2 was directly after beating MM1 and honestly, having played both multiple times, I think MM1 has better gameplay overall. I understand why MM2 was better received, (better presentation and music, normal mode making it more accessible, and the inclusion of energy tanks) but it boggles my mind how often the game blindsides you with attacks you couldn’t possibly see coming and there are some portions that I don’t enjoy regardless of how used to it I get (quick man’s stage, air man’s stage, some of Wily’s castle..). MM1 on the other hand felt surprisingly comfortable to go back to even though I’ve played it less times. The final section of Ice man’s stage is the only part that still gives me trouble and I always have the magnet beam by that point anyway.
I used to share this opinion of MM1 being better than MM2, but the more I played both of those games and just the classic series as a whole, I've soured on MM1 quite a lot. The main thing that I really enjoy about Mega Man is the ability to choose the path you wanna take in both the level order and how to deal with situations. I'm also someone who really enjoys being able to defeat robot masters with just the buster whenever it's worth the effort. MM1 feels like it goes against both of these things to me, cuz it definitely seems like they designed the game so that you don't have much choice other than to go in weakness order and half the robot master fights kinda go in a way where doing it buster only is just absolutely inconvenient and detrimental to both winning and enjoyment. And this is on top of some of the other jank the game has that has not aged well. I really, REALLY hate that Mega Man in both of those has this annoying momentum, and it's much worse and also way more noticeable in MM1.
If you fire crash bombs between the walls on the right side, you can destroy both at the same time. You can also do same with the wall and canon on the top left side, but that requires showing off a bit more than needed.
I can only talk for myself here, but having played it soon after release i was blown away by how good everything was, the music, the large enemy sprites and the replayability. It definitely carved a mark as one of the best games ive ever played.
Fun fact: The lead in bubble lead is actually "leed" and not "led". The katakana script for the weapon reads as バブルリード (Baburu Rido) which would be bubble lead (as in leading something). Most of megaman's character names and weapons are written and pronounced in katakana rather then the usual hiragana. Not many people know this so thats why I consider it a fun fact.
Man I get confused when people say 2 has sharp movement because the game has permanent ice physics. Let go of the D-pad and you'll slide forward a few more pixels. I also get confused when they say it has great stage design when half of them are some of the worst in the series. Air, Crash, Flash, Heat, Metal, Wily 3 and 4, all of these are very questionable (Flash mostly in that it's got nothing to it). At best I'd say the stages are average. 2 is definitely overrated when it comes to how people remember it and hail it has the best purely based on nostalgia (doesn't mean it's wrong to like it or have it as your favorite). I'd encourage those people to replay it without using Metal Blade as well because it seems a lot of that stems from having that weapon. However I do know it did improve things some from 1, it did make good steps that helped create a better baseline for the series, that is for sure. Chocks are important for getting a good start to a race after all.
The Wily Stages of Mega man 2 have really kept me from replaying the game over the years. Only being able to get through certain sections through the use of specific weapons almost always makes it impossible to complete the stage if you make a single mistake and, because there aren't enough weapon refills when you die, it always means I'll have to play EVERY Wily again.
No one back then said MM2 was overrated. People today might say it is. Judging it from today is quite a bit different then judging it from that time period
I seem to be in the minority, but... for me, MegaMan 3 is the best. Yes, it learned lessons from MegaMan 2,... but in learning those lessons and implementing what was learned into the game,... doesn't that make it the better game almost by default? The bosses are more memorable for me, as is the soundtrack. The stages are once again a visual upgrade, and we finally get the true form of Item 1, 2 and 3 in Rush. Also, the slide. Something I absolutely missed when MegaMan 9 reverted back to the MegaMan 2 style. Also, it remains the only MegaMan game where you had to revisit altered versions of previous stages. I thought that was a really neat spin, and I wish they had been able to take it to the next level and run with it in subsequent games. But instead, all subsequent games would recycle the same structure - 8 stages, red herring castle, actual boss castle. The the SNES games would remove the red herring boss and just stick with Wily or Sigma. I guess I just like experimentation with the formula.
14:39 - 14:47 17:06 - 17:18 18:12 - 18:24
Seizure part
I am just going to pin this and add it to the description. Wish I had thought of that while making the thing. Thanks for writing this out.
These types of responses are so stupid because I have yet to even hear about anybody actually having a problem with this. It's people looking for good boy points pretending this is an issue.
@@SeveredLegs To put it simply, we aren’t doing it for points, we doing it because we want to be safe and to potentially not give others seizures.
@@SaddieMoon Why not both? Taking a safe route to not harm anyone, and getting some nice points to feed our egoism. (I believe egoism is overhated. Most people think of unhealthy egoism, while ignoring healthy egoism)
@@KeyleeTamirian That’s true I guess. 😂 But I just wanted to mention them since they weren’t in the video.
I met Marc Ericksen, the artist who created the US box art. Super nice dude! He signed my copy of the game and told me that Capcom themselves told him to draw Megaman like that. Wild stuff.
They did ask for something in a comic book style, and described Megaman as a guy dressed in blue with a helmet and a gun. They didn't elaborate on how old he was supposed to look, so Marc's more adultlike interpretation of the character was due to the character having "man" in his name.
I always liked how weird it is!
I'm not surprised. Companies tended to think that muscular men were what the US-EU audiences wanted in the late 80s-90s. Like even if they didn't give a proper detailed description as you say, they would have still looked at it and gone 'yep, that's good' before using it.
Like, as another example, look at the Ruby Spears Mega Man cartoon.
@@ShadowdaHedgie11I mean it was true with everywhere. The 80s was masculine fever everywhere around the world Shonen Jump and a lot of video games had macho men everywhere. Fist of the North Star and Castlevania are the clear examples
@@thomasffrench3639 That is a fair point but I think younger heroes were still definitely a thing in Japan as well. But yeah we do have Fist of the North Star, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and Castlevania as well as other stuff from that time.
I honestly never saw the appeal but I guess people liked it XP
I had no idea the CRT monitor would make it look like the trees were moving. That's awesome!
Yeah it's not just Megaman 2. On Contra in the first level the palm tree leaves kinda wobble on a CRT to mimic the original game's tree animation featured in the Japanese version. For some reason Nintendo wouldn't allow manufacturing overseas cartridges with japanese 3rd party enhancement chips and had to be built with Nintendo's only. That caused developers to often replace or remove certain graphics/audio in western releases and also why we sometimes had to wait several months to a year or more for a game to be released here.
@@thedrunkmonkshow They did it for quality control, but then they realized they could make a ton of money off it so tried to make Japanese manufacturers sign an agreement which made a lot of the developers move to the PC Engine. The PC Engine was like the Saturn of the 16 bit era, very popular in Japan, but not America.
Same here, I never knew
Gemini Man’s stage has effects that are only visible on a CRT and IIRC to this day nobody knows how they work.
You can see it in the legacy collection with the tv filter, but I hurts my eyes so I use the monitor one instead
1:10 for anyone interested the game that they were working on was a Baseball Murder Mystery. Which might sound interesting, but if you know anything about the Famicom, you would know that it is a blatant cash grab as it’s the most generic thing they could have made after Mega Man 1. Baseball games and text adventures were huge on the Famicom, and were inescapable. Watch any Famidaily video about a Baseball game on the Famicom and you’ll see how tired he is of baseball.
And for anyone wondering the game is called Pro Yakyuu? Satsujin Jiken!
I dunno. It sounds like a parody of both overused genres.
i think one of the funnier trivia of megaman 2 that not many people know of is that one of the composers just remixed his first ever tracks for an old CAPCOM racing game called "MAD GEAR" for some of the tracks in mm2... but those original songs had demo tapes with actual instruments and are heard in some old rockman 2 promo tapes! The composer left the game industry shortly after megaman 2's release but it sounded like this guy only knew how to make these songs on different audio systems...
Track 10 from the Mad Gear soundtrack sounds like a general midi remix of Crash Man.
Do you mind sending me some of those demo tapes by link?
@agentblackbird9435
Dr wily stage 1 [Remix of Mad gear BGM number 6] ua-cam.com/video/uqMa67tkBH4/v-deo.htmlsi=CrrnlyhEHy3cbnpS
We need links!
ua-cam.com/video/wmARUk5d5OA/v-deo.htmlsi=gT5CFNwwjPjAwr_T
An upload of the wily 2 Demo tape
The thing with MegaMan 2 is that while i personally think there are better MegaMan games even arguably within the original series. However the entire series would not exist if it was not for this game and i am forever thankfull for that.
Exactly. Critics that want favoritism in games in a series like to forget that the series was a WORK IN PROGRESS, not all put out at once.
I find Mega Man 2 overrated in the sense that some people act like it's the only game in the series that matters. Personally, I think it's really fun and would play it at any time, but I would like the spotlight to hit other entries from time to time.
Great review! Looking forward to MM3
Yep, I am kind of sick of anything involving Mega Man, the franchise, just being reduced to Mega Man 2, 3, 1, and maybe X1.
Like even Capcom does this crap too lol.
Same. Good game but I wish people talked about other Mega Man classic games besides MM2.
you're right. my all time favorite mega man game is mega man 6, but nobody talks about it because mEga MaN 2 iS tHe BeSt mEGa MaN gAmE
@@konuralpyldzkan1495I mean it’s canon that Mega Man 2 is the best game of the series.
@@thomasffrench3639 With the worst concept of bosses who's weak of one weapon? Nah... it isn't the best of all time.
A Mega Man Powered Up 2 with a sensible weakness table and no softlocks among other things, would've gone a long way.
I wish they'd done Powered Up versions of all the NES Mega Man games. The first one is so fun.
*Mega Man 2 Powered Up
You wouldn't say "Mega Man Remake 2" if that was the title instead of Powered Up, so don't say "Mega Man Powered Up 2"
@@Xiado Yeah, it was frustrating that they canceled the Powered Up and Maverick Hunter remakes after one game each. Yeah sure Capcom, put them ONLY on PSP, a brand new platform that isn't selling so well. Not successful? Couldn't be because morons in suits decided to pick the worst possible platform to release on, has to be because nobody wants these games. Xbox Live Arcade was available at the time, they should have at least tried porting the existing two games to that and see how well they sell on a platform people actually own before giving up. But noooooo. Capcom's stupid. Capcom's always stupid.
I partially blame this for Mega Man Legends 3 getting cancelled too. Some it was definitely Capcom spite cancelling everything Inafune was working on after he left, but some of it was also that they were planning to release only on 3DS, and 3DS was selling horribly at launch. They knew sales of their game would be terrible on a system that was selling terribly, so instead of moving development to another platform (again, digital storefronts on console that people actually owned were RIGHT THERE) they just cancel it.
@@PygmySurferwell, unfortunately that’s what happens when you put your game on a handheld not many people supported
@@PygmySurfer No please, Powered Up artstyle is bad.
Love that the Metal Blades became so iconic that they were first weapon shown in the Megaman Smash reveal trailer.
What would you say is X’s most iconic weapons? Copy X in Zero 1 did use some weapons from X1 iirc.
@@squallleonhart9387 I say X and his armors are more iconic than his series of special weapons
@@squallleonhart9387 Storm Tornado, without a doubt
@@thegoblin4948that and shotgun ice
And the MM2 theme became Mega Man's theme in Marvel vs. Capcom.
Old man gamer here. I LOVED MM2 back in the day. What a perfect follow up.
I remember when I first saw the Mecha Dragon I was absolutely blown away. I also thought it was really cool how quietly atmospheric the final stage was.
Yeah! For me MM2 and 3 win because of atmosphere. 3 is ofcourse upon closer inspection unfinsihed and flawed in obvious ways but the atomsphere is still there in level design, music and end credits, which for me makes the games stand out in the series.
4-6 might be more polished but the increasingly gimmicky bosses and the more quirky tone made them less enoyable. Even back in the early 90’s when I was a small boy I felt that way.
Honestly curious here, why do I see so many people mentioning how flawed MM3 is? I know it came out quickly following the success of MM2 but I've always found 3 to be a great step forward in many ways. Maybe not perfect but features like the slide, rush coil/jet, consuming the boss energy etc became staples in the series thereafter.
@phillipenriquez2325 MM3 definitely has some flaws owing to being rushed: Spark Man's weapon works on very few enemies, Doc Robot fights are cramped, Rush Jet is OP etc. But I do agree with you on 3 having lots of improvements. To me it's just as good as MM2 is.
Old school gamer here too! MegaMan 2 was one of the first few games I owned when I got an NES and absolutely loved it, so much so that I even feigned being too sick to go to school so I can progress and experiment with the weakness weapons on each boss. That game was the reason why I started keeping a notebook nearby (to jot down passwords mainly) and my love for MegaMan continued on with 3 and even 4!
I enjoy Megaman 2, but I think Megaman 4 is probably the best for me. But I can understand why it's overrated.
Megaman 4 is the GOAT
I think that Mega Man 4 was when people got sick of the formula, and having the Charge shot sealed the deal. So Mega Man 4-6 are not as popular or well regarded by retro gamers. I honestly don’t find MM2 to be overrated, it’s more that MM4 and MM6 are underrated. MM3 however is overrated
@thomasffrench3639 Yeah, I can agree with that, mate.
Megaman 4 is pretty UNDERrated, if you ask me. That’s also my favorite of the classics.
@@gspgabesstudioproduction4265 I say is better than 2 and 3 in many ways sure, the story had a weak twist, and the game do spam spikes too much but is far polished and I say people didn't appreaciate it enough due to being the fourth game rather than it's goods sadly but yeah 4 is a great game and I say 6 is the only one that better than this game from the nes 6
Regarding the Metal Blade being overpowered, I think we have this backwards, and more non buster weapons should be stronger and be flexible as hell. When I played Megaman games I often tried out a new weapon during a stage and immediately switched back to the buster because it felt underwhelming or gimmicky on top of being fixed to a gauge meter.
Agree that most Boss weapons are way too weak. But still MB is a bit op.
in buster we trust
Personally I do think it's overrated, not in the sense that it's bad, just that I don't think it's the best game in the series as a lot of its fans will say. Even in the classic series I find a number of the other entries more fun and interesting to play through. That said it is a good NES game with undeniably great music, and it does deserve credit for all the improvements it brought to the series going forward, some of which I didn't even fully consider until this video. I like the analysis made here about the ending too, it always did feel a bit somber, and it's very interesting to think about that being a reflection of the developers' feelings. I didn't know anything about this game's development, so I had no idea there was any uncertainty about the series continuing past the second entry at the time.
The problem is megaman5 and 6 did nothing to evolve the series megaman 4 is defintley the best of the og and megaman 9 would be my favourite if it had the slide and charge shot
Actually the fanbase have lowered this title in the classic series. 4, 5, 6 and 1 are held quite highly now.
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy So weird considering 5 used to be considered the worst with 1.
I feel like 2 is a really solid game to the point of being one of the best. It felt like a total improvement over the last game compared to later entries that improved on one area but not the other despite fondness over certain elements. 2 lacked some things but the pros outweigh the misses and sometimes less is more with a game which is why I still favor X1 over X2 and X3 along with X4 compared to X5 and X6.
@@elibonham4388 I feel like with 5, it improved out some of the ideas previous games had resulting in a better experience. To me, 5 is an improvement over 4 with better charge shots, better weapons, a better non-Wily enemy to face. Though like Caddicarus, I feel like Mega Man 9 is what Mega Man 3 should've been plus the extra abilities.
Mega Man 2 is not overrated. The other(superior) games in the classic series are just underrated.
Now that I can agree with.
Yeah, this is true. I mean the reason a lot of the other NES Mega Man games are great are because of Mega Man 2. People forget about that, but it is very important when considering Mega Man 2. Now that doesn’t mean that it has to be your favorite to play, that’s subjective. All of these games are some of the best platformers ever (except maybe 5)
@@thomasffrench3639 I don't personally believe in awarding a game for outside factors and future impacts, at least when it comes to the quality of the game itself. Sure, Mega Man 2 was a passion project and might have saved the series (or at least allowed it to continue) but those things don't make the actual game better or worse. I'm glad MM2 exists and allowed the series to flourish into one of my favorite game franchises of all time, but those things don't affect the game itself.
Just as a game in a vacuum MM2 is good, but flawed. Definitely something I rate relatively highly in terms of the NES overall, but when it comes to Mega Man and many people considering it the best of the series, very overrated in my eyes. It's not peak Mega Man and not even one of the best NES games depending on where you draw that line.
@@ElecManEXE I disagree completely, because when we are discussing the best games ever influence is a very huge factor in that discussion. No one would mention an obscure game no matter how good it is, and plenty of mediocre games are considered classics because of their influence. Maybe personally it might not make it fun to play, but it is important in conversations. And at least it's better than most SNES platformers.
@@thomasffrench3639 Really depends on the person and what they look for in a "Best Game". When I talk about the best games, I really care about the quality above all above. I can acknowledge when a game had a lot of influence, and respect it immensely for it, but still.
Mega Man 2 had some balancing issues, but it was a tremendous improvement over the first game and for the most part set the standard for ALL the sequels.
I think 4 is best, replaying them again.
4 and 6 I put up there. I still have not fully played 7 or the rest above that. Are they any good??
4 is the best with 6 right behind. 6 is a tad too easy. It’s soundtrack, though, is underrated!
my favorite one is 6. my rankings for the nes mega man games are:
6. mm3
5. mm
4. mm2
3. mm4
2. mm5
1. mm6
@@residentgreyi didn't like mm7 as much as the first 6 games
@@konuralpyldzkan1495 MM3 is special to me because I was able to input one of the hardest passwords to input from memory AND I was able to intuitively do the glitch in Spark Man's stage that enables you to be invincible through the stage. I actually did not know the stage theme because of doing the glitch every time. I had to be shown what Spark Man was weak to because I never knew!
I don't know if I agree with all the "Mega Man 2 is the best one" opinions, but it definitely holds up.
Honestly I don't even know which classic Mega Man game is my favorite. 2-6 all kind of blend together for me. I can remember big picture things: 2 is the one with Metal Blades, 3 introduces the slide and has the annoying Doc Robot stages that feel like padding, 4 introduces the charge shot and is the one with Dr Cossack and starts doing 2 sets of castle stages, 5 is the one with Proto Man (he was introduced in 3 but is the "main villain" in 5), 6 has the transformations and "Mr X". I can relate some robot masters to their games. The rest all kind of blurs together to me until I start one of them, see the selection screen, and it starts coming back to me. A while after playing, they all blend together again.
I wonder if megaman 8 is best?
Doc Robot stages are actually one of my favorite things about 3 and I wish more games did something similar; darker, harsher remixes of the ruins of stages you just beat, with harder versions of similar platforming challenges and new bosses. The Wily Castle stages being vastly easier than not just the Doc Robot stages but most of the regular Robot Master stages instead of ramping up the difficulty further is what I consider a bigger disappointment, and the Doc Robots themselves could've used some fine-tuning.
On some level it actually was padding. I heard Keiji Inafune quoted as saying that they added those stages because it was easier to make damaged versions of their existing assets and duplicate their existing stages than to make more assets for more stages, as they had a tighter budget, shorter staff, and shorter deadline than they did for Mega Man 2.
@@RoninCatholic The Doc Robot levels are definitelly more interesting than many of the castle stages in the future games. Dunno why so many people dislike them.
I can’t say MM 2 is overrated, i think what it’s fine, but the next series instalments do what 2 does but significantly better. Weapon balance, level design, etc. And yeah Metal blade is busted (no way), but there’s another problem: almost every other weapon in “2” sucks and not fun to use. I generally think what the second NES trilogy (4,5,6) was better in almost every way.
Thanks for content. Very excited for what you say about 4,7 and 8.
Mega Man 5 has worse weapons and blander level design (except gravity stage which is good)
The second trilogy is pretty fun to play and in many ways is a more polished version of the first trilogy. But if you see it in the greater scale, they were pretty much behind the times. Mega Man 6 came out in 1993 and it hardly stands out if you compare it to other late NES games (plus, 5 and 6 in general are like a watered down version of 4 in many ways, the series got really repetitive at that point). Whereas if you compare Mega Man 2, 3 and even 4 to other contemporary games, they do stand out quite a bit. I think that's an important factor to consider, to put the games in their historical context and what they gave to the medium as a whole.
@@JoseSala04 instead precision platformers, Platformers had terrible momentum controls hopelessly trying to rip off Mario 3.
I think 4 was the peak. 5 and 6 are a bit redundant, and I'd rather have had a SNES classic MM title released before MMX than MM5 and 6 on NES. Imagine Mega Man 7 as "Super Mega Man 5" (Castlevania style) in 1992 or 1993, but with a proper development cycle.
Mega Man 2 isn't the best game in the series (hell not even the best in the Classic era to me), but it's still a well made game that really pushed the franchise into being a platformer icon that it is now.
I've got to remind people that overrated does not mean bad. Yeah, MM2 is probably overrated, it's not a masterpiece, it's not flawless, and there are arguably better games in the same franchise even on the same console, but it's still a really fun game that, for 1989, holds up beautifly
I always do Quick Man first and I do Heat Man before Air Man, forcing me to go through those blocks without Item-2. I like the extra challenge.
I play through 1-6 at least once a year. My favorite games as a child, the series will always hold a very special place in my heart. 4-6 were and are the best games. Objectively honestly. (outside of music mm2 still holds the crown)
The Metal Blades actually has one minor drawback. You can't move when you attack with it and Megaman automatically stays put when he throws one even when he jumps. Regardless the pros of the Metal Blades still greatly outweighs the cons.
On the nes/famicom you could make the blades stand in place like a trap. You had to centre the controler and pres shoot. This usually messed up the controlers rubbers faster.
@@peterplaatjies9267 I think that's a glitch than an actual feature of the weapon.
@@bumbayker ja.. cant hold down every direction at once like normal.
I haven't seen anything about it in the comments, but Mega Man 2 was the first game I played that just...didn't keep score? Every game I'd played before it had a score tracker, and this one showed me it was just extraneous.
Also, it had a pretty good tie-in book, at least when I read it as a kid.
I mean, the first game had a score count and I guess the guys at Capcom quickly realized that Mega Man doesn't need it due to just how the game is and how it's played.
Megaman 2 is my 2nd favorite, so bias.
I love this game. It's difficulty being on the lower end is a big reason. Not because I can't handle a harder game, but because an easier game allows for a more "perfectionist" approach to replaying it. You can make that jump faster, avoid that enemy, beat that boss without taking that hit. Other megaman games allow this as well, but it's alot harder to dodge a boss like charge man, elec man, or ring man than it is to dodge quick man. This, along with the game being shorter than those that come after allow for a easy and quick speedrun game.
That, alot with staying consistent with one control scheme throughout.
Games have evolve since the NES, and that's a good thing. But there still exists room for fun in simplicity.
Now we move onto my favorite classic game, possibly my favorite megaman game.
Great game. Still very impressive that the developers dedicated all their free time to making it. Also glad that you covered both the normal and difficult modes. I definitely think the difficult mode allows for the most experimentation since the Metal Blade doesn’t kill every enemy right away
80s kid here. Back in the day I didn't know you could aim the metal blade, so I didn't end up using it often. it was kind of a pain for me to switch weapons, so I used to just go through the whole game with the mega buster. I got super good at firing off multiple shots in a single jump, and that satisfying whang whang sound of hits landing was great. Another thing I never realized as a kid: Heat man is literally a zippo lighter
I fully believe Mega Man 2 is the most replayable and accessable Mega Man game. The stages are short and simple, and every weapon is good.
Personally i like to roll a D8 to decide which boss to take on, it's more fun that way than just steamrolling through in weakness order
That being said the GB games are also short and replayable, and MMIV and MMV are arguably better designed than some NES games. They deserve to be talked about despite the first four reusing content
“every weapon is good”.
No. Not even remotely close and this is from someone who actively LIKES to use more than just Metal Blade.
Crash Bomb takes too long to be practical.
Atomic Heat has good power but has to be charged and (fully) charging it eats through too much energy
Bubble Lead has terrible damage and has a similar problem to Air Cannon.
Leaf Shield can’t be carried around with you.
Flash Stopper can’t be manually turned off.
@@thehevandragon i didnt mean to imply every weapon is without flaws, just that they all have their place and are fun to use. i agree that mega man 2 would be a much better game if these weapons' issues were fixed.
atomic fire uses a lot of energy, but the stages are all really short. there are only a couple of big enemies that justify using it, but it's generally an instant kill. granted, it's pretty useless in the wily stages because of ammo not refilling between stages.
bubble lead is better than most give it credit for. you can mash it while up close to an enemy for some pretty good damage. not the best, but good.
leaf shield, i would argue, doesn't need to be carried around. it tears through enemies, aims directionally, and has a really wide hitbox. if you could carry it around, it would be the best weapon in the game hands down.
flash stopper is pretty much only useful if you know how and when to use it. like, for example, skipping the friender minibosses in wood man's stage. it would be better if you could turn it off and back on, though, and i can see why someone would not find it useful.
crash bomb... okay you got me crash bomb sucks for combat
how weird that you dropped this WHILE I was watching your MM1 video and subbing!
Mega Man 2 was definitely one of the most-frequently-rented games I've played... back when rental stores like Block Buster, Road Runner Video, Red Giraffe, and Video Vault still existed in the 1980's and 1990's. It was and still is awesome. However, it was when I looked through a Nintendo Power Magazine covering Mega Man 3 that I finally got fully hooked into the series! I started collecting them: 3, 2, 4, then 5... 1 was kind of hard to find by then, but I collected a used cartridge of it! Then the Game Boy games, X1, classic 6, and I've been playing and collecting them ever since!
Megaman 5 is the best stand alone title in the NES library but 2 is the darling because the base game play is perfect.
As I once heard, "being a classic doesn't mean it is good".
I think it is overrated in the sense of some people claiming it is better than it was compared to later games, down to 9 walking back to its mechanics, robbing us even of the slide.
But I acknowledge its influence, place in history, and how it did in fact blew the rest out of the water in its day. Even the Metal Blade is still fondly remembered and referenced to this day (Tinker Knight in Shovel Knight), but would I suffer another Yoko Block gauntlet for it? Hell no.
I mean the slide and charge shot are controversial, and not everyone likes them, the charge more than the slide. You realize that just because people like Mega Man 2 is the best doesn’t mean that they haven’t played the sequels right?
I fail to see how the slide can be considered "controversial" charge shot maybe but the slide? That's rather odd.
Though I agree with op, I'm not too big of a fan of what 2 does but I can respect it on what it establishes and improves on from 1. Though personally I think 4 improved on what 2 (and 3) established and makes it my favorties of the nes games with 6 as a 2nd but that's just me
@@BioMega96 not necessarily controversial, but I think for a lot of Mega Man fans it represents a move away from the simplicity of Mega Man 2. Most people if not everyone is fine with it, but it shows a step away of why a lot of people love these games. It’s cool, but I can see why people like Mega Man 2 the best. Which is why a lot of people love Mega Man 9, because it has the same mechanics as Mega Man 2 but with more balanced weapons and worse level design. It would be like Mega Man 4 without the charge shot.
@@BioMega96 I think Megaman X getting rid of the slide is proof enough that some people really didn't like the slide. And looking at it critically, I can see why fairly easily. Though to be clear, I LIKE the slide.
I think that the slide is cool, but it's not really GOOD. It makes you move very fast for a brief period(great tool for dodging), but beyond that the only utility it has is passing under low ceilings that only exist to make you use the slide. So really, it is just a cool-looking dodge button.
I'd probably think more highly of the slide if it did anything else. The charge kick is an experiment in that direction, and I'm a bit sad it didn't work out.
X's dash keeps that same "short burst of speed" element, but it now also modifies your jump, which makes it INTERESTING. The concept has been tweaked just enough to elevate it from gimmick to tool, while still being cool as heck.
You also retain the ability to shoot in a dash(it even applies a damage boost to an uncharged buster, in a cute flourish) whereas you don't in a slide, but I would argue that's actually a negative from an "interesting mechanic" standpoint, as it removes a major reason you might want to NOT dash.
@CptJistuce no offense, but the first statement feels a bit confusing. X's dashing = getting rid of sliding? Honestly, if they didn't want the slide, then the dash wouldn't have existed in the first place. Sorry, but that bit had me head scratch a bit.
Though I get what you're saying for the rest. Personally, I saw the dash as an evolution of the slide, and honestly, looking back at it, I don't think it needed too much else since I felt the classic series always went with the approach of "simple, yet effective" in many ways including gameplay (granted some later games added a little more but the core is generally the same). Where as with the X series, it was meant to be an advancement of what classic established, including the concept of the slide (also the line of "just a cool way of dodging" would also apply to the dash as well?)
Though honestly, at the end of the day, it's all personal preference, Some prefer the style of 3+beyond, while others prefer the style of 1/2. Let's just leave it at that
That was a good review. I was scared you were gonna get stuck on the "Metal Blade is imba"-mentality, but then you turned around and showed us the experience without Metal Blade as first. It's such an amazing game where the player input really matters and you can customize the game as you like. Just an enjoyable game all the way through.
Also - been playing this game since I was 5 (I'm 35 now) and I did not know you could use Bubble Lead on the small springlike robots. That says a lot about the depth of the game.
I learned yesterday that you can also use Quick Boomerang on them, but you need 3 of those instead of 1 Bubble Lead.
Mega Man 2 will always be remembered as the one that made the series what it is today. And I certainly respect it for that.
Mega Man 2 was the first MM game I’ve ever played that got me into the franchise. While I think there were better games like X1 and Zero 3 that came about, I did find that 2 did well in setting the standard and easily made it into my top 5/10 favorite MM games.
as a kid i always thought megaman died at the end lol he just vanishes and his helmet is the only thing left.
It’s really nice to see you slide Cooper reference in your videos again
_Sly_ Cooper.
A few things
I wish you mentioned the Germany boxart for Megaman 2. You forgot that one.
The weapon set in mm2 is pretty awful and I feel you didn't do nearly enough testing. I don't think you'll check it out but the atari demake of Megaman 2 fixes it and practically all the level design issues, like atomic fire draining almost half a bar in one shot when fully charged (half charge shots are also glitchy), bubble lead straight up not working on like half the enemies, leaf shield not working on enemy bullets and flying off when you move horizontally (even though it's a shield), item 3 being completely invalidated by item 1, etc.
Also the game has a surprising amount of bugs, the chains in metal man can be jumped through as they have no hitbox when the chain is rising, your weapon ammo not depleting by pausing applies to every weapon that doesn't drain more than one "tick" on the energy bar, not *just* the metal blades, wood man can jump infinitely in the air if you press pause when he jumps, then repeat it, etc.
To me this game was a sloppy rushed passion project that didn't get the time it deserved. It certainly improves and expands the established formula, but things such as weapon balancing, the new difficulty setting of normal actually messing with a few enemy behaviors (the enemies that are stacks of blocks don't break apart in our version of normal, so that function is completely unused) and needless progression gates potentially arising due to poor level planning that new players without outside sources are going to struggle with (like with the yoku blocks in heat man if they don't know how to get item 2 first, boo beam trap, etc.) keep this from being a timeless classic, personally.
Some things I liked about MM2:
1. The music (Wily 1 is iconic though it gets overplayed a LOT in MM circles).
2. Much lower bar of entry, with this being the recommended game to get first timers into the series. The first game had the Magnet Beam be required to finish the game but if you didn't know that the thing existed or where it was in the game, it could be easily overlooked and completely missed, and you are stuck wondering what to do in that game''s WIly 1 and still unaware that you DID miss something. MM2 rectifies that with each Item being an additional get in three of the stages. Alongside the addition of E-Tanks & the password system, many saw this as the entry point for people of the series.
Some dislikes:
1. That Wily 4 boss can screw you over if you are not careful.
2. The seizure inducing flashes on the Wily boss kills. Yeah, anyone that's played MM2 knows how rapid and bright those flashes were when you killed the Wily bosses. The later MM games had the screen flash when you killed a castle boss, too, but those were more tolerable compared to how blinding these were.
I'm not a particularly huge fan of MM2, but I do acknowledge the game for what it did for the rest of the series going forward.
As always, nice vid.
I'm one of those weirdos who started with 9 and it's still my favourite. It does difficult design in that fun way that makes you want to improve because it keeps offering that challenge in new contexts that test you differently. It doesn't just place you in a bad spot and throw a bunch of enemies at you, instead it uses the level layout and composition of the scene itself to telegraph what's coming, sort of guiding your attention. MM2 occasionally does this and sometimes just throws flying enemies at you in questionable situations. 2 is rough, a learning step, but it's clearly where the series figured what it is truly going for and the following games built upon it more with occasional experiments. I feel mixed towards it, but I can't fully blame it for its faults since back then this stuff wasn't fully realised yet. These were the learning days for level design, experimenting to figure out what ideas work and what can be expanded upon.
I remember playing MegaMan anniversary collection as a kid with my older brother and dad all the time, and MegaMan 2 was always my favorite by far
I still have my ps2 copy
Metal blade go brrr
ITS BEEN 8 years since the lets play? Crazy. You have become a staple of my youtube watching for so long now
Just replayed MM 1-6 for the first time in over a decade. Definitely good memories here, since I had MM 2 when it was brand new for NES. Thanks!
I first played Megaman 2 on the IOS port and enjoyed it. I even beat it on hard mode somehow.
Which version? The original IOS port or when they eventually released all 6 NES games albeit with choppy frame rate?
@@Jackattack359 I had the original iOS port that had an arcade cabinet-like overlay.
@@ThunderDragonRandy so did I. I mean, I played the original console version first but that version was definitely better than nothing……..until they ruined it
@@Jackattack359 I have tried the Android versions of MM1-6 and yeah, those ports' suffered through frame drops . But my first time playing MM1-6 were the Mega Man Anniversary Collection.
@@ThunderDragonRandy oh yeah. That’s a good way to start (and play both arcade games I might add)
I ponder if the reason this game did so well and so fondly remember is because it wasn't tough as nails, its not easy, but its not awfully difficult like weird movement in SMB, cryptic Nintendo Power sellers like Zelda, Metroid, and Castlevania 2, or just barely being cbt like contra and Castlevania.
for me 9 is the best game in the classic series, but 2 is the one i come back to the most. I've played it so much that if i ever want to just blast through a megaman game it's a good time.
New game with modern technology and design advancements compared to a game that came out in 1988
@@THEGREATMAX I mean 9 is the one that tried to mimic 2 the hardest, i think it's more the core design rather than any technical advantage. both great games of course, i dont believe there's a single bad classic series game (yes including 8 though it's the weakest in the series) i just think that 9 manages to balance everything to near perfection.
9 was a fun return to 8-bit... however, it seemed to me that too much emphasis had been made on making the game difficult. It also seemed that skills that had been in Mega Man's repertoire had pretty much been removed for no reason. Being able to slide since 3, and charge his Buster since 4... why would those abilities suddenly be locked out? And then also for 10 as well - only that time without the excuse of Dr. Light being arrested and unavailable to do pre-battle maintenance on Mega Man! I mean, I kind of get it that there might need to be some way to differentiate game play between Mega Man, Proto Man, and Bass... but I'm really not sure that was the right way to do it. The programmers could have taken some cues from the Power Battle and Power Fighters arcade games - or even Mega Man 7 for that matter. But, I did enjoy the Robot Master fights in 9 and 10, and their stories as well!
I wanna agree, but Wily 3 exists
"overrated"? Look at the EPIC sound track and the developements! To look at this game out of its context in how games were being created and how quickly they were created is a mistake that no argument can recover from. The game may or may NOT be flawed in some people's comparisons with other games, but on its own, the music is unforgetable and the GAME IS FUN!.
The Short answer would be yes.
Funnily enough, The long answer is also yes
Personally I favour MM4 out of the NES games
As someone who played NES games when Megaman 2 came out, I want to say that one of the extraordinary virtues of this game was it's accessibility. Many, MANY NES games back then were way, way too hard. We weren't tryhards, we were just 8-year olds. No save-states. No guides on the internet. Sure maybe you had a friend who had a Nintendo Power about a game but that didn't always help. But Megaman 2 helped out its players a lot. You could find weaknesses in enemies to the various weapons. Metal Blades could really help you progress when you were struggling. And snagging an e-tank for a bossfight could make the different between progressing or having to put in a password. By contrast, Megaman 1 was just totally brutal. Just getting to the Yellow Devil was super challenging, to say nothing of THAT fight. Hell, Gutsman stage was brutal. Loads of places there where one screw-up cost you one of your precious lives. Megaman 2 was easier. But some of the best and fondest games of that era were the ones you could actually beat!
Anyways, sorry for the rant. Great vid!
Anyone watch nico evaluates? He was the first time I heard of 2 being overrated, definitely made me consider it, he made some good points
Of course he makes good points, he has over 500 years of experience with Mega Man
He's the guy to listen to when you want a proper analysis of those games. He's pretty much studied them extensively throughout the years 😅
@@playbossthebest936 I mean I saw his ranking and 9 being number 1, 2 being below 3 and 1, and 7 in the top 3, I find it hard to take him seriously. But I guess he's an expert and I'm wrong.
@@thomasffrench3639 he articulates his thoughts well. That's what matters (plus I agree with him, but that shouldn't even matter)
@@playbossthebest936 You said proper analysis, but articulating is basically the bare minimum.
This was the first mega man game I ever interacted with as a kid and etched the legacy of the character into mind!
Yeah it is, I’ve played this game so many times so I’ve really gotten to know all of its flaws. It’s extremely bare bones compared to other entires as well, it’s got good music, robot masters and is iconic. But those are pretty shallow positives when it comes to actually being a superior game if you compare it to its successors. I honestly consider 2 to only be better than 1, 5 and 8. It definitely isn’t the peak of the series.
The fact that it is barebones is why a lot of people think it’s the best one. Just simple jump n shoot you can finish pretty quickly and isn’t as dragged out as the sequels. That’s the appeal of Mega Man 2.
He still said it wasn’t. Doesn’t really matter if it’s peak or not
@@thomasffrench3639you say that like the game has no challenge. Why not just play the difficult mode instead?
@@Jackattack359 I’m not talking challenge, I’m talking number of levels. I feel that most of them are on the same level of difficulty, at least the ones I played on their original version.
@@thomasffrench3639 I see. Well, perhaps more experimentation is in order. No offense
So you’re finally going to make a video about ranking every single classic mega man stages from 1 to 11 so I’ll stay tuned for that!
Mega Man 6 is my favorite NES Mega Man, followed by 2. I personally think 3 is the most overrated, since it feels the most rushed and has some of the worst design elements.
One reason that helps 2 be beloved is that it is probably the easiest Mega Man, with the added easier difficulty, some of the best weapons in the series.
Megaman 6 definatly gets my respect. Especially considering it came after 4 and 5 and is definitely better than those two.
You have to judge it in comparison to the games available at the time. That’s why we love it
I suppose overrated probably isn't the right word for it. No matter how you look at it, Mega Man 2 will always be a legendary game since it's VERY iconic and was the most contributing factor as to why the Mega Man series exists. I personally think half of games in classic series are better (hell, I think I prefer Mega Man 1 to Mega Man 2), but Mega Man 2 is still a great game and one who's issues can mostly be blamed on the circumstances surrounding its development. Mega Man 3 had limited circumstances as well, which is why, in my opinion, Mega Man 4 was the first game in the series to be properly refined. Mega Man 9 is my favorite Mega Man game, and much of that game was based around Mega Man 2's energy, so to speak. It feels like a very well refined Mega Man 2, actually. But yeah, Mega Man 2 is still a great game that did so much for the series and video games in general.
I am glad that you are now covering the classic series! I'm looking forward to when you cover 3 and 7, as those are my two favorite games in the classic series.
Regarding the weapons in MM2, MM2 features the first dedicated shield weapon in the series (the Leaf Shield). Also, don't sleep on Quick Boomerangs- they can fire very fast, you get a lot of ammo for them, and can hit at angles that the regular buster can't.
To be honest I liked the rolling cutter in Mega Man better than the Quick Boomerang, I used that weapon a LOT
Quick Boomerang would be talked about a lot more if Metal Blade didn't steal its thunder from Day 1
Yes! I think it's crazy that after having so many other Mega Man games come out people swear that 2 is the best entry, It's definitely great and iconic but there is definitely some better ones out there. Also to paint a target on my head Mega Man 7 is my favorite entry!!!
I’ve seen a lot of people who are more “general” NES gamers, they definitely feel MM2 is the best. Jeremy Parish and RndStranger are two guys that catalogue the NES and Famicom respectively think that Mega Man 2 is the best entry.
@@thomasffrench3639and…? What’s wrong with that exactly?
@@Jackattack359 it was just an observation that on the Mega Man subreddit I see a lot of people say 4 is the best, and I think for some reason die hard fans are more interested in 4, while the general retro gaming space prefers 2.
@@thomasffrench3639 I mean, I’m a diehard fan but I don’t think it’s the best. But that isn’t because I think there’s anything particularly better than it. I think each game in this series has its own unique merits that make it stand out from the others and it just so happens that the most popular one to the general public is the second one. And they don’t necessarily need to play any other game in the series to come to that conclusion
@@Jackattack359I feel like Mega Man 2 stands out because it was one of the best platformers ever when it came out, and the other games were released when the hype of the SNES was at its height. So 4-6 are just forgotten due to that. Not to say that Mega Man 2 doesn’t have any traits that would make someone say it’s the best one, because it’s one of the best in the classic series. I’m also noticing a trend, and not everyone is part of that trend.
The gravity in NES Mega Man games is what I can't stand.
I remember someone else saying 2 was the favorite because it was the easy one.
Anyone else?
mega man 5 is also relatively easy, so i don't think that's the only reason
They probably played it on "normal".
Even on Difficult it's still the easiest. I think it helps that it doesn't have 4 extra stages to pad the game out like 3-6.
MM2 was the first MM game I played.
I was addicted.
Played through all the rest afterwards.
I honestly think ZX and Advent, minus some issues, were the most perfect of all the Mega Man 2 sequels.
11:35 ...bags?
My Megaman enthusiast friend passed me a buster charge and slide mod when we got to this one. Let's say that, while very good and memorable on its own, these vastly enhanced my time with it.
I played something like that once. It didn't really enhance the experience for me. The game wasn't designed with those in mind and it shows.
I honestly think the weapon balance in 2 ruin the game. The metal blades remove almost all the challenge, and over half of the others are hilariously useless. The only ones that are actually worth something are Leaf Shield and Quick Boomerang. 2 definitely has the worst weapon set of the classic series and hurts replayability because of that. The game has its iconic moments and I can't deny the soundtrack is one of the best, but I don't think it would be nearly as popular if people couldn't trivialize the game with metal blade spam. It doesn't hold up to what the sequels have improved later.
It doesn’t not have the worst weapon set when Mega Man 3 and Mega Man 5 exist. Mega Man 3 has two of the worst weapons in the series, and Mega Man 5 has a lot of bad weapons and no good ones. All of the weapons in Mega Man 2 have their uses, and they are fun to use. Also the thing about Metal Blade is that at least everyone uses it. I know so many Mega Man fans that only use the Mega Buster besides bosses (which is stupid because you won’t need a special weapon that’s not a boss’s weakness, but whatever) use the Metal Blade in Mega Man 2. All of the other weapons are good, it’s just that the Metal Blade is too good.
@@thomasffrench3639 In MM3 only Spark Shock is useless, even Top Spin can one shot many enemies in the game. MM5 does have decent weapons, but they're outshined by the charged buster. If you want to play through the entirety of MM5 with only special weapons you can do that. This definitely doesn't apply to MM2. Half the weapons are useless even in a vaccum, comparing them to the metal blades is just adding salt to the wound.
Most enemies have immunity to Bubble Lead. Crash bomb only exists for Boobeam Trap, it does nothing for combat. Atomic Fire runs out of energy with 2 charged shots. Air Shooter is effective against a single enemy type. And Time Stopper is only useful on 2 spots of the game, one of them makes you run out of weakness for the hardest robot master. All other classic games have at worst a couple of useless weapons, not half of the set. Metal Blade isn't the sole reason why the weapons in 2 suck, it's just the cherry on the top. The only well designed weapons are Quick Boomerang and a shield that doesn't even work as a shield.
@@bulb9970 spark shot is way more useful than top spin. I never found the spark shot to be that bad, yet the top spin is way too hard to use, so you may as well use a mega buster. To say that too spin is better than 5 out of the 8 weapons is very hard to take seriously. Crash bomb can help with some of the heat man platforming and can be useful if you want some extra goodies. Airman is good at killing big enemies in a flash. I agree that Flashman and Bubbleman kinda suck, but besides that it’s a solid roster.
@@bulb9970 air shooter is outclassed by metal blade as an anti-air, but it's decent as an up-close cluster attack.
also, time stopper is good in a couple of other places if you know how to use it. in wood man's stage. it lets you skip the dogs if you use it before moving to the screen they're on. it's also good in air man's stage, since it makes the goblins easier to cross. i assume the one other spot you were talking about is probably crash man's stage.
@@thomasffrench3639 Mega Man 3's weapons are weird. Thinking about them now, it really feels like the devs assumed that anyone using them would be able to use them with precision, cuz when you actually hit your target with them, they're actually not that bad.
The problem is that when you whiff with half of MM3's weapons, it's pretty ugly. Hard Knuckle's awful in general. Gemini Laser is actually pretty effective, but if you miss and wanna switch weapons, you pretty much need to hope it doesn't happen in a precarious situation cuz the laser stays on screen forever. Magnet Missile can be weird with its targeting. Top Spin is pretty much a 50/50 if it kills an enemy or makes you take a bunch of damage to the face since it's usually better to get hit by a projectile if you need to damage boost past something. Shadow Blade's range isn't as big as it probably should be, but they didn't wanna have a repeat of Metal Blade. At least it won't screw you over that much if you miss? I'm trying to think of things to say about Search Snake, but I pretty much never use it.
Needle Cannon is pretty much the only exception, but it's odd in a different way. It's more or less just the buster but with a higher rate of fire in exchange for limited ammo. I don't know why they made it this way.
With the Crash bomber wily room, a trick you can exploit is that the crash bomber walls **do NOT regenerate** when you die. So you can blow up all the walls, then die. If you have enough lives, you respawn and can finish the room.
No, you can't.
Because if you blow up all the walls, you won't have enough ammo for the wall-thingies.
@@sidnew2739 You can farm weapon energy off of the respawning enemies on the way to the boss. It's rather time consuming, but you can do it fairly easily.
The only issue with this strat is that you're doing it in an area that's already long and annoying to get through when you're just trying to get past it normally.
For the record, it's Bubble "Leed". As in, being led to something by the hand, someone is leading you.
Literally have never heard anyone ever call it "bubble leed"
@@jeffb.6642 if you dont believe it then you can look up the original japanese pronunciation
*both is good El Dorado meme*
Looking up the Japanese name, you are right. I've been pronouncing it wrong the whole time in the metal definition lol.
10:45 Good video overall, but a strong disagree here. I think the devs were *fully* aware of the weapons' abusability. For example: they clearly knew the Wood Shield can be used to farm 1UPs, because the very first bad guy on Wily 1 is an egg-dropper. That can't be a coincidence. SMART players get a refill point that others would miss. Being OP is your reward for being good at the game.
Or at 13:40, you could have used Item 3 to climb those walls, if you had it and thought to use it. Which, again, I just don't think was coincidental. They wanted you to have a lot of different options for tackling the challenges.
That said, they did probably take the Metal Blades a bit too far, haha. Never been quite sure why it's SO overpowered.
Megaman 2 had everything going in its favor, it’s the sequel to a series that had the funny boxart from the first game, it had amazing music which even I’d say that’s overrated as well. It was so good Megaman 9 was based entirely on it removing Megaman’s sliding and charging which I myself don’t like and see it as a regression.
I swear I remember reading somewhere that some of the Metal Blade stuff was to entice gaming magazines to write about it, though whether that was just the trick to take out Metal Man with his own weapon or it's general bustedness, I can't recall.
Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: Yes, with examples.
He still said no, it isn’t
@@Jackattack359As much as I respect him, he's still fucking wrong. Mega Man 2 is one of the worst cases of overrated games ever, people judge it with rose-tinted glasses and think it's "the best game ever!1!!11". I mean, they happily ignore things like Boobeam Trap (Which was REALLY done in a rush by the developers) and the shitty weakness order
@@mortenera2294 “He’s still fucking wrong.” You’re seriously getting this worked up over someone who has a different opinion than you. So worked up that you can’t even do a proper spellcheck when you type 1 and not an exclamation point. That’s honestly embarrassing man. Deal with it
@@mortenera2294zoomer moment
@@mortenera2294 you seriously think that your opinion matters more than his? You couldn’t possibly be more delusional. Doesn’t help that you’re so worked up that you can’t even do a proper spellcheck
If Mega Man 2 is overrated, then this title isn't engage bait. The fact that the game boots up to the end credits music from MM1 gives you a level of continuity for fans of the first while refining the gameplay and core mechanics enough to ensnare new players. It may not be the best game in the classic franchise, but it's the perfect sequel.
The cover art for the european version of Megaman 1 is awesome, what were they thinking when choosing the abomination that is the NA cover art?
He literally explains that in the Mega Man 1 video
It was released in Europe way later than it was in America
@@zachzap9987 Ok chill, didn't watch that video, I get it now
It was a rush job iirc.
Just wanna say that while I enjoy watching your videos for their content, you also have a very professional and easy to listen to narration style that makes me much more inclined to watch your videos in the future.
Where did you find that megaman 2 title theme remix you used at the end. That theme is awesome!
Mega Man 2 has the best music in the series. I’m not sure how they managed to make the songs so catchy and emotive but it’s amazing
The fact that metal blade is the objectively best item in the game sort of disqualifies it from masterpiece ranking imo.
It's funny if you watch most video essays or older reviews of the game you'll see people talking about the weapon balancing while rocking Metal Blade throughout the entire video.
Overpowered weapons are fun options to have, underpowered weapons add nothing to the game
Something like Flash Bomb or Jewel Satellite is overpowered. Metal Blade is just fucking broken. There needs to be a reason to use a strong weapon other than "i just don't want to deal with what's ahead of me"
@Tingletonttu
Neither does having a shoddy weapon selection, that’s the keyword SELECTION.
I’m a mega man 3 guy. But I’m definitely impressed that’s you just put out this content and got this many views. 👊👊
I would argue Mega Man 2 is so fondly remembered because you can not only see the passion the devs had for it, but also because its the most consistently good. At no point in Mega Man 2 am I dreading whats coming next like i do most of the other classic Mega Mans.
If you’ve seen what game they working on you can see why they held onto Mega Man 2 so tightly.
I dread the wall boss.
I HATE BOOBEAM TRAP I HATE BOOBEAM TRAP
Mega Man 2 was probably one of the best entries in the classic series. I've just never been able to really get into classic Mega Man. Maybe if I was around in 1988, things would be different, but X is where I got my start
No. It's not.
Now, to watch the video!
Great vid man! I remember waiting for this one to come out when I was 10 years old after playing Mega Man 1. My friend and I loved it! I remember fighting the robot dragon in one of the Wily Stages and dying over and over. I finally killed it for the first time but fell in the "bottomless pit" off the bottom of the screen at a frame perfect moment. It froze the game. I was SO angry! Thanks for the awesome vid... wish my 13 year old son could get into Mega Man like me. Such a great series! X in particular.
No. End of debate.
Have you played it?
You must not have been there at launch day for MegaMan 2. It was amazing.@@Bundor8D
it really is
It's a fantastic game!
@@evanwademan5602the question is: was it overrated? The correct answer is no. Lol
What's always funny to me is when I was little I only used the Buster outside of boss fights because I never wanted to run out (like hoarding potions in an rpg) so I had like a WAY different experience than everyone else who figured out how OP the Blade was.
I've come to think of the ending of MM2 as melancholic because Mega Man stops Dr. Wily but, due to the nature of robots, is forced to let him go if Dr. Wily asks. So, Mega Man can stop Dr. Wily's robots, but he knows he can never really stop Dr. Wily himself.
After playing some mmx games, I decided to go and play all of the classics.
Played mm1, finished it and almost gave up on continuing with the rest (It was annoyingly hard even with save states); mm2 saved my classic playthrough as a more "relaxing" experience
It was the first Megaman I've ever played and one of the first ever games I've played in my life. What I remember about the time was that it was so above everything else that existed back then. This is probably why it is remembered as one of the best games of all time.
It's kinda funny to me that the built in difficulty modes don't have near the same impact on difficulty compared to simply whether or not you fight Metal Man first
Before Mega Man 2, I cannot recall a single game where the soundtrack was so well designed that it made me want to play at a tempo that aligned with the music.
Like, I would hit the part of the Metal Man stage when the hook would drop and the clowns that dropped onto the rolling gears would sync perfectly with the notes, so I would wait. Or Wood Man's music compelled me to simply run without stopping. And of course the track on Dr. Wily Stage 1's frenetic pace sped me up, even when it wasn't smart.
That'll always stick with me when I recall what I loved about this game.
I got the first game when I was 8 in the summer of 1988 a full year before the second was released so I was amazed at how much they improved with the sequel,lightened up on the difficulty a little plus added a password feature .It took me 6 months to finally complete the unforgiving first game and a weekend rental to beat the second.I never bought any of the sequels I just rented them all and beat them over a weekend as they were released.
The last time I played MM2 was directly after beating MM1 and honestly, having played both multiple times, I think MM1 has better gameplay overall.
I understand why MM2 was better received, (better presentation and music, normal mode making it more accessible, and the inclusion of energy tanks) but it boggles my mind how often the game blindsides you with attacks you couldn’t possibly see coming and there are some portions that I don’t enjoy regardless of how used to it I get (quick man’s stage, air man’s stage, some of Wily’s castle..).
MM1 on the other hand felt surprisingly comfortable to go back to even though I’ve played it less times. The final section of Ice man’s stage is the only part that still gives me trouble and I always have the magnet beam by that point anyway.
I used to share this opinion of MM1 being better than MM2, but the more I played both of those games and just the classic series as a whole, I've soured on MM1 quite a lot.
The main thing that I really enjoy about Mega Man is the ability to choose the path you wanna take in both the level order and how to deal with situations. I'm also someone who really enjoys being able to defeat robot masters with just the buster whenever it's worth the effort. MM1 feels like it goes against both of these things to me, cuz it definitely seems like they designed the game so that you don't have much choice other than to go in weakness order and half the robot master fights kinda go in a way where doing it buster only is just absolutely inconvenient and detrimental to both winning and enjoyment.
And this is on top of some of the other jank the game has that has not aged well. I really, REALLY hate that Mega Man in both of those has this annoying momentum, and it's much worse and also way more noticeable in MM1.
If you fire crash bombs between the walls on the right side, you can destroy both at the same time. You can also do same with the wall and canon on the top left side, but that requires showing off a bit more than needed.
I can only talk for myself here, but having played it soon after release i was blown away by how good everything was, the music, the large enemy sprites and the replayability. It definitely carved a mark as one of the best games ive ever played.
13:25
The footage here was so funny, help-
J just freaked out!
Fun fact: The lead in bubble lead is actually "leed" and not "led". The katakana script for the weapon reads as バブルリード (Baburu Rido) which would be bubble lead (as in leading something). Most of megaman's character names and weapons are written and pronounced in katakana rather then the usual hiragana.
Not many people know this so thats why I consider it a fun fact.
ロックマン2 is definitely not overrated. If it were overrated I wouldn't still be watching these videos and learning 日本語.
Man, I just realized that I can learn Japanese with the Chewbacca method. I know what each of the words you had before looking it up
Man I get confused when people say 2 has sharp movement because the game has permanent ice physics. Let go of the D-pad and you'll slide forward a few more pixels. I also get confused when they say it has great stage design when half of them are some of the worst in the series. Air, Crash, Flash, Heat, Metal, Wily 3 and 4, all of these are very questionable (Flash mostly in that it's got nothing to it). At best I'd say the stages are average. 2 is definitely overrated when it comes to how people remember it and hail it has the best purely based on nostalgia (doesn't mean it's wrong to like it or have it as your favorite). I'd encourage those people to replay it without using Metal Blade as well because it seems a lot of that stems from having that weapon. However I do know it did improve things some from 1, it did make good steps that helped create a better baseline for the series, that is for sure. Chocks are important for getting a good start to a race after all.
Finally a comment of somebody who knows what they are talking about. And of course it could only be a guy with a Blizzard Man pfp
The Wily Stages of Mega man 2 have really kept me from replaying the game over the years.
Only being able to get through certain sections through the use of specific weapons almost always makes it impossible to complete the stage if you make a single mistake and, because there aren't enough weapon refills when you die, it always means I'll have to play EVERY Wily again.
No one back then said MM2 was overrated. People today might say it is. Judging it from today is quite a bit different then judging it from that time period
I seem to be in the minority, but... for me, MegaMan 3 is the best. Yes, it learned lessons from MegaMan 2,... but in learning those lessons and implementing what was learned into the game,... doesn't that make it the better game almost by default?
The bosses are more memorable for me, as is the soundtrack. The stages are once again a visual upgrade, and we finally get the true form of Item 1, 2 and 3 in Rush. Also, the slide. Something I absolutely missed when MegaMan 9 reverted back to the MegaMan 2 style.
Also, it remains the only MegaMan game where you had to revisit altered versions of previous stages. I thought that was a really neat spin, and I wish they had been able to take it to the next level and run with it in subsequent games. But instead, all subsequent games would recycle the same structure - 8 stages, red herring castle, actual boss castle. The the SNES games would remove the red herring boss and just stick with Wily or Sigma. I guess I just like experimentation with the formula.