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 24th, 1988, and in North America and PAL regions the following years. In this game, Dr. Light  and Mega Man's arch-nemsis Dr. Wily has returned and created eight of his own Robot Masters to defeat Mega Man and take over the world. Mega Man will have to stop Dr. Wily's robots and bring him to justice again.

Story
From the game:

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"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."===== ''
 * The X in 200X is used to symbolize any year in the first decade of the 21st century.''

Mega Man, learning this, set out to defeat the Robot Masters which Wily had created. After Mega Man defeat these robots, Dr. Wily fled in his flying saucer to his fortress, the Skull Castle. Eventually, Mega Man made his way to the heart of the castle, where he once again fought the robot mastrs as well as the Wily Machine.

Dr. Wily fled Mega Man once again, this time escaping to a dank, moldy cave underneath the castle. Here, when Mega Man confronts him, Dr. Wily seemingly turns into an alien.

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 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).

Trivia

 * 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 that shows the map of Wily Castle.


 * This is the first Mega Man game to have Dr. Wily create his own set of Robot Masters, instead of using someone else's.


 * This is the first Mega Man game to feature the standard eight robot masters instead of six from the first game.


 * This is the first Mega Man game to use Robot Master mugshots instead of their sprites like in the first game.


 * This is the first Mega Man game to have the "Teleport System" when encountering the Robot Masters again.


 * This is the first Mega Man game to have Energy Tanks, although the player could only carry four, instead of nine as in later installments.


 * 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.


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


 * 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. This is the only game in the classic Mega Man series to have the same music for all boss battles.


 * Many ideas that were not used in the original Mega Man game, due to cart size limitations, were recycled for Mega Man 2.


 * This is the only Mega Man game so far to have a boss that is weak to his own weapon. (With the exception of the Robot Masters from Mega Man 3)


 * This is the only Mega Man game where Mega Man can't receive any items in mid-air.


 * Flash Man and Bubble Man are the only two Robot Masters who did not appear in the cartoon.


 * Mega Man 2 is the game that caused the original Mega Man series to sky rocket in popularity.


 * 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 the easiest doing this glitch with Flash or Metal Man.
 * This game was the first one to have more than 4 Wily Fortress Stages. Mega Man 3, 6, and 10 would somewhat repeat this later on.


 * There is an iOS version of the game made by Capcom Mobile. The game on the iOS is similar to the NES game. There is an Easy mode 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 extremely shorter and the stage music stopping to start again. There is also an "EXIT LEVEL" feature in the submenu. When the player selects it, the player is sent out of the level and can select another one.


 * 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 US boxart.
 * At the end of Crash Man stage, there is a pattern of stars in the backround that resemble the constellation The Big Dipper.
 * The gaming magazine Nintendo Power Voted Mega Man 2 the 6th-best game released on a Nintendo platform.