Mega Man 2

"In the year 200X, a super robot named Mega Man was created. Dr. Light created Mega Man to stop the evil desires of Dr. Wily. However, after his defeat, Dr. Wily created eight of his own robots to counter Mega Man."

- Intro for Mega Man 2

Mega Man 2, known as Rockman 2: Dr. Wily no Nazo (ロックマン2 Dr.ワイリーの謎) in Japan, is the second game of the Mega Man series. The game was released in Japan on December 24, 1988, and in North America and PAL regions the following years.

Story
In the year 200X (the first decade of the 21st century), a super robot named Mega Man was created by Dr. Light to stop the mysterious evil genius Dr. Wily's ambition to conquer the world in Mega Man. However, one year after his defeat, Dr. Wily returns on June 9 with eight of his own combat robots to challenge Mega Man.

Mega Man, learning this, set out to defeat the eight Robot Masters which Dr. Wily had created, having to traverse their respective stages first. After Mega Man defeated these robots, Dr. Wily fled in his flying saucer to his fortress, the Wily Castle. Eventually, Mega Man made his way to the heart of the castle, where he once again fought the eight Robot Masters as well as the Wily Machine 2.

Dr. Wily fled Mega Man once again, this time escaping to a dank, moldy cave underneath his castle. Here, when Mega Man confronted him, Dr. Wily seemingly turned into an alien. After a fierce battle between Mega Man and the Alien, it is revealed that the "Alien" was actually a hologram being controlled by none other than Dr. Wily. The evil doctor, having no means of escape, begs Mega Man for mercy, and the world was rid of evil once again.

Development and reception
Making a sequel wasn't a corporate decision, but the team decided to work on it. Character designer Keiji Inafune feels that this game is the most memorable for him, both in that it was the most fun to develop and the most stressful. This is the first Mega Man game to have kids submit their own boss ideas to appear in this game. In addition, the boss character contest had 8,370 submissions in total.

While the first Mega Man had relatively low sales, Mega Man 2 is the game that caused the Mega Man franchise to become popular. Mega Man 2 sold over 1.5 million units since its release in 1988, being the highest selling game in the Mega Man series and Capcom's 33rd highest selling title. In the last issue of the gaming magazine Nintendo Power, released on December 2012, Mega Man 2 was ranked the 6th-best game released on a Nintendo platform.

Version differences

 * There is no difficulty select in the Japanese version of the game. There is a Normal mode and a Difficult mode in the English versions, in which Difficult is the original Japanese mode and Normal is an easier mode in which Mega Man's attacks cause twice the damage against bosses and enemies' HP amounts are halved. The difficulty select is only available in the American, European, and Australian NES, and mobile phone ports of the game.


 * In the Mega Man Anniversary Collection version, the "Normal" difficulty is treated like the Difficult mode of the original English version. The "Easy" difficulty, however, is not the same as the Normal mode of the original English version. Differences in the Easy difficulty of Mega Man Anniversary Collection's version include halved damage taken, enemies being removed from stages, and less hits required to kill enemies than the Difficult mode of the original version (although more hits are required to kill enemies than the Normal mode of the original version).


 * There is an iOS version of the game made by Capcom Mobile. The game on the iOS is fairly faithful to the NES original. However, unlike the original game, the player can now replay levels at any time, including Wily Castle levels, and when replaying a level, the boss also reappears at the end like in the first Mega Man game. There is also an "EXIT LEVEL" feature in the submenu - when the player selects it, they are sent out of the level and can select another one, while retaining the energy tanks and extra lives obtained in the level they exited. Also added is also an Easy Mode for newcomers to the series, in which the bosses and enemies die quicker and the player takes less damage. There are some problems, including the boss health meter sound being much shorter and the stage music stopping to start again, and the credits being removed from the end of the game.


 * Mega Man 2 was made into an incredibly stripped-down handheld electronic game by Tiger Electronics.
 * Every level is, in essence, the same; Mega Man must run to the right a specific distance while attacking or avoiding two differing enemies and leaping on two occasionally disappearing platforms until he reaches the area's boss. However, the player can still select any Robot Master level in any order.
 * This version had only six of the original eight bosses (Wood Man and Crash Man are not present) and the graphics art for Mega Man borrows from the cover art as well as the original graphic (he attacks with a pistol instead of an arm cannon which, strangely, has a limited amount of weapons energy). The bosses that exist also bear little resemblance to their NES counterparts.
 * Of the eight bosses to fight, only Quick Man, Heat Man, Bubble Man and Metal Man have their regular sub-weapons in check; Air Man and Flash Man fire out bullets similar to Mega Man's gun that can actually counter each other out. As a result, their sub-weapons are another batch of regular bullets.
 * The bosses do not possess any energy bars and can be destroyed by either fifteen shots with the regular shots or three hits with their specific weakness.
 * Once all six are destroyed, Mega Man then chases after Dr. Wily in his escape pod until he reaches the end of the level. However, like the original version, Bubble Lead is still his weakness, as no other weapon will damage him in the ensuing fight.


 * Mega Man 2 appears in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U as a playable "Masterpiece" demo. The demo starts on the first stage of Wily Castle, and like with other Masterpieces in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, gives the player a time limit before being returned to the Masterpiece selection, with three minutes in Mega Man 2's case, enough time to reach the Mecha Dragon.

Other Media
The game was adapted into the third story arc for the Archie Comics Mega Man comic, "The Return of Dr. Wily" In the arc, the Robot Masters are intended to either defeat Mega Man or infect him with a virus bit by bit as he absorbs their Special Weapons. All the Robot Masters are defeated but Mega Man ends up under Dr. Wily's control until the Mega Man Powered Up Robot Masters come to his rescue. Dr. Wily escapes and sets his course for the Lanfront Ruins in South America, foreshadowing an adaptation of Super Adventure Rockman.

Trivia

 * This is the only installment to have only 1 boss theme for all, even the final boss, Alien.
 * Dr. Wily's stage is shown in the stage select screen, but can't actually be selected. The player automatically goes to it after defeating the eight bosses.
 * Bosses have a short invulnerability period after receiving damage, allowing the player to quickly deplete their health with the Mega Buster. However, many can't be hit multiple times due to the way they act.
 * This is the first Mega Man game to:
 * Include a Wily Castle.
 * Have a difficulty setting.
 * Have Dr. Wily create his own set of Robot Masters, instead of using someone else's.
 * Feature the standard eight robot masters instead of six from the first game.
 * Use Robot Master mugshots instead of their sprites.
 * Have the "Teleport System" when encountering the Robot Masters (the original game had teleporters but you had to do them in a set order).
 * Have Energy Tanks, although the player could only carry four, instead of nine as in later NES (and NES-style) games.
 * The North American cover art of the game is referenced in Resident Evil: Resistance, one of the sprays in the game is a direct reference to the art with the words "Mega Martin 2".
 * Many ideas that were not used in the original Mega Man game, due to cart size limitations, were recycled for Mega Man 2.


 * This game and Mega Man 3 are the only ones from Mega Man to Mega Man 11 to use a final boss other than the Wily Machine or Wily Capsule.


 * Quick Man's stage is taken from this game and is used as Dr. Wily's fortress stage in the Game Gear Mega Man game.
 * Also, Shadow Devil's stage in Mega Man X5 and QuickMan.EXE's stage in Mega Man Network Transmission are similar to Quick Man's stage.


 * Despite the original Mega Man having an alternate music track for fortress bosses, Mega Man 2 lacks this feature, something not repeated for Mega Man 3 but brought back for Mega Man 4-6 and 8-10. (Although in the latter cases, there was a separate music track for the final boss, whereas in Mega Man 2, the boss music is the same for all bosses.)


 * Like the first game, using a Game Genie on Mega Man 2 will cause the music to be riddled with quirks and odd sounds.


 * Flash Man and Bubble Man are the only two Robot Masters from Mega Man 2 who did not appear in the Ruby-Spears Mega Man cartoon. Also, Flash Man is the only Robot Master from the game absent in Captain N: The Game Master.


 * In the stage select screen, if the player holds the A button and chooses a stage, the stars that sit behind the presentation of the boss will turn into Pipis.


 * At Wily Stage 5's boss rematches, if the player defeats a boss while not moving from the spot when teleported in, a glitch will occur and the boss' life meter will freeze and turn green momentarily and then lets the player go. It's easiest to do this glitch with Flash Man or Metal Man.
 * This game was the first one to have more than four Wily Stages. Mega Man 3 and 10 would repeat this later on.


 * A player can warp to a glitched version of the Wily Stages via the boss room of four Robot Masters in order of level. They are (In order in which stage the level shares data): Heat Man (Wily Stage 1), Air Man (Wily Stage 2), Wood Man (Wily Stage 3), and Bubble Man (Wily Stage 4). All except Heat Man require the Item-1 to perform the glitch.


 * Mega Man 2 is one of the video games that appear in the film The Wizard.


 * Promotional art for Marvel vs. Capcom Origins is heavily inspired by the U.S. boxart of the game.


 * At the end of Crash Man's stage, before the shutter, there is a pattern of stars in the background that resemble the constellation Big Dipper.


 * Wood Man's stage is given the name Titanium Park in the Archie Comics Mega Man series. Issue 55 of the series would also feature the design of Mega Man from the European cover of this game in its Short Circuits, which saw several different Mega Man characters and different versions of them appear.
 * Keji Inafune expressed a desire to remake Mega Man 2, similar to Mega Man Powered Up, but stated that such a project was dependent on the commercial success of the latter.


 * This is the only game in the franchise to be included on the NES Classic Edition.