Lemon Drop: Mega Man 2
With our Lemon Drop feature, we here at GameLemon strive to bring you the usual Lemony humor you’ve come to expect, but in a shorter fashion, one more appropriate for downloadable content or smaller games. With that in mind, my review for Mega Man 2, an NES game made available for download on the Wii’s Virtual Console, can be summed up rather quick.
You need to get this game.
For those of you looking for some “reasons” behind my above proclamation, I shall oblige. And fear not – if you are among the millions that already own this game in one of its many incarnations (NES, Mega Man Anniversary Collection, mobile phone version, etc.) then you are excused from the mandatory download. But it is your solemn duty as a gamer and a human being to find someone who has never played this game and send it as a gift to his or her Wii.
While the original Mega Man is at times relegated to cult status, given its hyper-challenging difficulty and strange point system, it nevertheless laid the groundwork for one of the most successful series in gaming. Mega Man 2 took the basic concept – little blue dude, arm cannon, nasty robots to kill – and gave you 2 more bosses, cooler levels, a crazy-fun mansion of evil on the way to Dr. Wily, and perhaps the best music not only on 8-bit systems, but in all of video game history.
There are several orders in which you can beat the first 8 bosses, so you’re given a great amount of freedom right off the bat. The trick is to find out which of the power-ups given to you by defeating each boss presents you with the easiest method to beating the next, all preparing you for an attack on Wily’s castle. MM 2 also introduced the secondary items that would become mainstays of the series, allowing the Blue Bomber to collect a rocket board, wall-climbing contraption, and hovering platforms to help you collect all the 1-ups and Energy Tanks along the way.
The gameplay mechanics were also tweaked from the first game, as it’s no longer necessary to say a prayer before every attempted long jump. The Megabuster is smooth to shoot with, and all of your various power-ups give you that feeling of being a complete badass; in fact, the Metal Blade is one of the most perfect weapons ever created. (Special hint: Use the Metal Blades against Metal Man when you fight him the second time.)
With the upcoming release of Mega Man 9, playing (or replaying) MM 2 is a great way to get back into the 8-bit groove. The creators of the new game have even said that they looked to MM 2 for most of their inspiration, because of how well it was made and how much it’s loved by the fans. If you haven’t played it, you really owe it to yourself to give this game a try. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Grade: 10/10
