Get equipped with Master Piece: Mega Man 2 | NES Works 127 

i remember my dad watching me play this, and i was explaining the rock-paper-scissors aspect "So, the air conditioning unit guy is killed when he gets leaves stuck in the vents, just like ours was last year."

Following this series is so interesting because sometimes you have to wade through years of games that, while not uninteresting, don't command the presence of the classics, then one day it's suddenly time to cover one of the most famous retro games of all time.

There's a hilarious drawing using the MM2 stage select to depict the chain of boss weaknesses, and Metal Man's is just him punching himself in the face.

I agree. One of the best aspects of Mega Man 2 is that it *wants* the player to break it. There are just so many ways to abuse the tools they give you. Like I remember first realizing the Wood Shield could farm 1UPs from egg-droppers... and then realizing the very first baddie in Wily 1 was an egg-dropper. The devs hid a restock point in plain sight, for people clever enough to spot it!

Been waiting for this episode ever since I found this channel a couple of years ago. Surprised you didn't talk about the soundtrack a bit more. It's arguably the greatest 8-bit chiptune soundtrack ever made

I'm turning 40 in a couple of weeks and am not ashamed to say recalling playing this game back in 1990 with my next door neighbor brings a tear to my eye. He was 3 or 4 years older than me and I felt so cool to have an older friend that treated me as an equal, we bonded over countless NES titles (including Kung Fu Heroes, one that we both enjoyed a lot and still holds a place in my heart) and the first three Mega Man titles were a big one. We beat Mega Man 2 countless times after we first managed the feat but I can still recall being amazed at how cinematic that ending felt to 6 year old me.

I can't stress enough the massive sentimental and emotional impact I have over this game. In Canada, the July/August issue of Nintendo Power with the Mega Man 2 cover story was the debut issue here and caused mass hysteria in school yards everywhere come September that year. It was the most sought after game that summer and fall. It truly is one of the greatest games of all time. For it's time, very little on 8-bit and even 16-bit consoles could match it's excellent gameplay, graphics and sound. Without question it still stands the test of time to this day making Capcom a household name. I still have that issue of NP and the accompanying Mega Man 2 poster proudly displayed in my game room. Looking back it was truly wonderful experiencing those gaming milestones first hand. I watched your recent stream of the game, Jeremy and it gave me incentive to replay it again as my 4 year old son watched.

There are a few games I feel honored to have played contemporaneously. Star Control II, Chrono Trigger, and Mega Man 2 are at the top of that list.

Mega Man 2 was one of the first action-heavy games that I ever beat without a Game Genie. I found the patience to keep playing the game over and over in order to learn its sequences and rhythms, largely because the game looked great, had great music, and had really tight controls. And as hard as it could get at times, Mega Man 2 was actually quite forgiving for a game of its era. You had a refillable life bar that could take several hits, you had infinite continues (which was never a given in the NES days) and checkpoints were generous. And on top of all this, you had the metal blade. This was my first true taste of a power fantasy in an action-based video game. Sniping bubble bats in Wood Man's stage is a delight. Most video game power-ups are woefully short-lived. Goemon's jutsu powers disappear when you move on to a new town, and a single hit is all it takes to lose Mario's precious hammer suit. But metal blades are practically inexhaustible.

A shining example of what every game should hope to accomplish. Each moment, stage or boss is a memory with a unique pattern.

"packaged in pure tragedy" lol perfect

Mega Man 2 and Buffalo Stance. Two of my favorite things.

Mega Man 2 is one of my earliest and most cherished memories. Especially the image and sound of the stage select screen, it blew my 4 year old balls off. The nostalgia is of epic proportion.

Oof, that ending... 1) Lie down. 2) Try not to cry. 3) Cry a lot.

I can see all the millions of pixels more than ever before. The analog fuzz is SO CLEAR

The first way I got to play the classic Mega Man games was through PS2's Anniversary Collection. I remember trying all of the games repeatedly, trying to just beat one of the stages, but it was tough. I probably tried every stage across every game at least once without success. In the end I managed to defeat Flash Man (presumably making use of auto fire) and it was so exciting to me, finally I could try and use one of those awesome powers! And of course all I won was the Flash Stopper. Still, I'll never forget either Flash Man or Mega Man 2.

Oh how i have waited for this day. Great episode Jeremy. For the longest time, MM2 was my favorite, but now I would say it's MM9.

Top class sprite work, SOOO much charm in every enemy.

I will never forget when I rented this as a kid. One of the best memories of my childhood.

Jeremy, I’m now convinced that you’ll be featuring every single NES/Fanicom release a la Chrontendo. You both do great work.

Every time I hear that title screen music it always give me a warm and fuzzy feeling. It also puts a tear in my eye, reminding me of a simpler time.

Just rewatched The Labyrinth last weekend with a girl I’m dating. I’ve never seen or heard the word “oubliette” used other than that film and this video

I think for the entire 30+ games in this series, this remains the absolute peak. It’s hard to fully describe the feeling of seeing some of these visuals on your screen in 1989, on a machine built in 1983 to handle Donkey Kong. I still have AND LISTEN to an actual band covering these tunes. It’s the kind of game that completely sets the bar a step higher than it’s ever been and remains unsurpassed in the type of experience it offers even 35 years later. (It’s a good’n)

Not sure if this was mentioned, but the Mega Man II issue of Nintendo Power was the first issue made available in Canada. It was sent for free to any Canadian kids who were subscribers to the Nintendo Fun Club at the time, which I was. Needless to say, once I got my grubby mitts on that magazine, I just HAD to get Mega Man II.

Yeah, MM2 has its issues and one of the worst bosses in the series (the Boo Beam Trap), but I think people are attached to it because it was a labor of love and not an obvious release. The sequels were taken for granted, and 6 entries of a franchise on the same system were objectively an unnecessary amount, although I'm glad they exist (and I've played each of them several times).

I knew Mega Man 2 was stellar of course, but I had no idea just what a class of its own it was standing in during its release date. Sure, 1989 had strong releases (and a bunch of duds), but Mega Man II just takes almost everything up to this point to the cleaners. No wonder it's so utterly beloved.

Can’t believe we Europeans only got Mega Man _One_ in 1990 due to NOA’s black box royalties shenanigans…

Neneh Cherry's Buffalo Stance is an ALL TIME banger

Still remember getting this from my grandparents on Christmas Eve in 1989 and getting up on Christmas morning when it was still dark out to play it. I always chose Bubbleman"s stage first. RIP, Grandpa.

Fun fact: The Mega Man 2 cover was the first issue of Nintendo Power available in Canada. It was sent, for free, to subscribers of Nintendo Powerflash (the free newsletter you got when you registered your NES, I believe). I remember receiving it by surprise. I happened to be home with chicken pox that week, and I went over every inch of that issue a dozen times. It convinced me I had to play Mega Man 2 and Faxanadu. Both of which would go on to be some of my favourite games. Fantastic video as always. What a wonderful breakdown of a masterpiece!

What a game. Easily my favorite of the entire series. It's such a beautiful game.

Talks about quality of 3rd party output, cuts to Hydlide (I assume it was for the "misses" comment after but the timing made me chuckle)

5:38 Interesting you made the brief aside mention about hardcore Mega Man fanatics re-interpating the quality of Mega Man 2. And you're absolutely right. Given us hardcore weirdos in the fandom... I get it. I think part of it is Mega Man 2 is the only game in the series that really gets all the attention, and that just, bugs the hardcore fans. So naturally it is the most nitpicked game in the franchise, because of all that attention. Maybe Mega Man X1 being up there when talked about series quality and sales, Mega Man 11 recently surpassing 2's sales and Battle Network Legacy Collection being a suprise and very fast selling hit are about the only ones that come anywhere near in terms of sucess... and 2 just surpasses all talk outside the fandom. Fans be fans. "Overhype" is a weird feeling when talking about a series made up of a absolute ton of games. Whilst I think there are much better games in the series, personally speaking, just because later entries did stuff better and often more balanced, doesn't mean this isn't a absolute classic. And honestly, I love the game, one of the ones I have several copies of in the collection of various releases. Fans just wish others would get to love the rest of the games. There are enough of them out there, hah. Great video.

My parents had divorced in the summer and it would be the first Christmas with just my Mum. Nothing made me feel better that Christmas morning than ripping open the wrapping and seeing the Mega Man 2 box.

I was obsessed with this game when it was new. But I have to admit, future games improved on it a lot. I understand peoples’ nostalgia, but I don’t agree with anyone who say it’s the best in the series.

"Creatively bankrupt kung fu heroes" WHAT A TROLL

I remember beating this game as a rental. Not sure how I did that.

I'm happy that you mention Airman ga toasanai but wonder why no mention of jamais project's okusenman. Either way this game deserve his legend status. Thank for your work.

1989. My favorite year for pop culture. My parents bought me an NES. Batman in theaters, Paula Abdul, Dragon Warrior, Sega Genesis... and Mega Man 2. Hard to pick between 2 and 3 as my favorite in the series... IMO Mega Man 2 has the best soundtrack on the NES.

So don’t you get fresh with me

Ah, the days when a 12 year old could save money to buy a video game by PAINTING HOUSES. And people were cool with that. They don't even let kids have paper routes anymore. Well, they don't really have papers anymore so much either to be fair.

I absolutely love this game even though I played 3 first, but I’ve always really loved 9! The return to basics was extremely welcome and it was the game that literally helped me survive organically chemistry at USC! While it was challenging, once you learn how to get past the difficult spots you can blow through it, and the classic strategy of “max out your energy tanks” works every single time 😁

Who else was like OOOOO HES REVIEWING THE GOAT!!!

Before i even watch, thanks for this. Mega Man 2 is the best entry in the series. It takes me back to that part of childhood when I subscribed to Nintendo Power and EGM. 🕹

Classiest video game channel on YT

Mega Man is my favorite series, and MM2 is indeed a great game, but I’m always surprised how it’s held up as the “best” entry. It’s a Mega Man game that’s missing the charge, the slide, and even Rush!

Not enough people know about Neneh Cherry and Buffalo Stance.

One of the reasons I love this game is the sense of humor of the looks of the enemies.

The lack of first party NES releases in 1989 probably wasn't due to chip shortages... Nintendo of Japan also didn't publish any 1st part Famicom games in 1989. The channel Famidaily has talked about this... the reason was that Nintendo was putting all of it's developmental resources into two areas that year 1) Gameboy games development and 2) Super Famicom development.

Jeremy I always consider you the foremost expert in all things with regards with retro gaming. I don't really trust anybody's intellectual insight as much as your powers of observation. I'll be perfectly honest, I am personally not the biggest fan of mega man II myself for the reasons that you highlighted in this video mainly with the overpowered weapons, weak robot masters, unfair stage design, and some highly annoying wily's castle battles but regardless of what my personal thoughts are about this game - I will never diminish those that actually enjoy this game and hold it in high regard. It may not have a personal appeal to me, and I do appreciate that for as much as you love this game you did cover many reasons why people such as myself may not enjoy this game a lot. I do think between all the nes mega man games, I think the greatest transition in improvement was definitely between the original mega man and mega man II, compared to every other nes mega man game after that. I understand that mega man II will always hold its importance in the mega man franchise and the music from this game will be absolutely timeless. It's just for me - it's one of my least favorite entries with regards to the nes mega man games but I do understand it's all a matter of personal taste.

The first Mega Man game I ever played, but not my favorite. My favorite is the original, but this one is right behind it.

This one sadly ends up being a rough play for folks who started the series with 3 (as I did) or later. Not as rough as 1 is for 2-or-later starters, but boy did it sting when 9 took slide away.

I have to disagree a bit on your assessment of Nintendo's releases in 1989. While Nintendo themselves would never talk about any of their business decisions, the impression I have is that after 1986 Nintendo identified that the real value of owning a console platform was licensing. Nintendo didn't need to make games for 1989 when they were getting 30% of every cartridge sold. They were happy to hand off all the risk of making games to other companies. In 1989, Nintendo was focused on getting the Game Boy moving and developing for the Super Famicom which wound up getting delayed until the fall of 1990. In the late 80s Nintendo seems to have been reticent to hand off early hardware for development to their partners which meant that they had to support system launches all on their own. Nintendo would shift on this in the 90s, suddenly remembering that it was important to support their own systems themselves and buying up controlling interest in several helpful developers to help with that. That's still a ways off, though.

Mega Man2 vs Ducktales for best NES game of 1989 shows how amazing Capcom was by that point!

The defacto classic, but 6 will always be my personal favorite.

I’ll watch this many times thx

All my life I've been waiting for this video

Mega Man 2 was my first own Nintendo game. I loved it but, I don't consider it the best of the best. That belongs to Mega Man 3.

nintendo tetris less interesting? uh-oh. what are you trying to start!? 😜

I disagree on the Metal Blade. It is such a boring weapon to use, no matter how many times people insist it to be THAT good. I learned to use the other weapons effectively. And when you play on difficult (actually normal difficulty as NORMAL is just an easy mode) the Metal Blade gets rendered useless most of the time. There are so many enemies that are easier to defeat with weapons like Air Shooter, Leaf Shield, Quick Boomerang etc.

The end credits got a little… shrunk while you were resizing the assets for 4K. oops

It’s crazy that a game that would be considered creatively bankrupt back then sounds like an interesting game today. A baseball murder Mystery sounds really interesting. But these big genres were basically nonexistent in the west, so that is also a reason why it might not sound as cynical from my western perspective

Similar to how Mega Man 9 is a throwback to Mega Man 1 and 2. I really hope they one day make a 16 bit Mega Man X9 to call back to X 1 and 2.

Learning Japanese here…what’s the source of those clips with the stage titles on the screen? Available on RU-vid (I did search the source credit note, but didn’t see any matches on RU-vid).

I thought I knew everything about this game. To find out it’s “bubble lead” (to go before) instead of “bubble lead” (the element) is mind-blowing. As a kid I saw that it was effectively a heavy bubble. A regular bubble would never do damage to anything, but a heavy bubble made of lead would. I didn’t know to question this understanding until today.

You should put that filter you put on the video of you talking on the footage of the games, so it looks like we're viewing the games on an old TV! That would be very nostalgic.

Yeah, despite me not being too nostalgic for this game as I only played it once years ago and no other Mega Man game besides 1, I decided to play all of the games in order recently, and while the other games added the slide, more balanced weapons and got rid of the slipperiness, there’s something special about this one. I think it’s the level design not having the lows of MM3, and it’s better level design over Mega Man 4 on average. I also love how this game has multiple weaknesses which was not as common in the later games. This game is just great and my favorite of the NES Mega Man games. Although I will never understand how people prefer Mega Man 5 over Mega Man 2, I totally get people preferring 3, 4, and 6; but that goes to show how amazing all of these games are.

a classic. Music is so gooooood. Woodman, Wily 1, Air Man...sheesh.

Actually the story I heard was that Capcom did let the dev team make MM2 as long as they did it after hours.

Mega Man 2 is one of those rare games that truly earned it's spot in the pop culture zeitgeist list of "Greatest Games Ever Made"

Mentions MM2's excellent music, cuts right to Wily state #1. Well done, sir.

Fantastic classic. The soundtrack especially is up there with Castlevania and, well, Megaman 3 in terms of the best compositions to grace the system. The graphics are vibrant and the gameplay solid and exciting. And it’s almost perfectly paced! Turret Boss: Not you! Edit: lol the video showing it at the perfect point

love this, props for the airman ga taosenai yo reference

This is a hall of fame game for me. This was the first game that I ever saved up money to buy as a kid and I was really proud of that, as well as how good of a choice that I made when I took this home. Played it all summer, my younger cousin was in rapture as he watched me beat the game and at the time I think he thought I was the coolest kid in the world. At the time, with such an exceptional game freshly beaten, it was hard not to agree with him.

Looking back on my young gaming years 1988 and 1989 were hands down my two favorite years of owning a NES. I had a Nintendo Power subscription and a grandmother that rented for me games from a video rental store every weekend those 2 years. What a time.

Possibly the greatest NES game of them all.

“Packaged in pure tragedy.” Lol

18:42 He's right about the whole player choice bit. For instance, if I remember correctly, quick man has more than one weakness: When you're done using the time stopper on him, he is also quite vulnerable to the explosions from the crash bombs you get from Crash Man, same as Flash Man. My problem is, I can never time those damn explosions properly, because like hyperbomb before it, it takes too long to explode it. Woodman, like the tree that he is, is also weak to the metal blades, which will come in handy when you inevitably mess up the atomic fire shots. Screw that weapon for its inefficiency!

Super Mario Bros. 2 released in North America on October 9, 1988, just two weeks before Super Mario Bros. 3 released in Japan. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link released in Europe three months before being released in North America.

I never thought to use the Leaf Shield against those robot-bird-things

I've been waiting for this for a LONG time. Thank you

You say you need all 3 items in order to complete the game, but I would argue that item 3 is borderline useless, due to being outclassed by the other two. The only time I even bother to use item 3 is to grab that extra life in QuickMan's stage.

I love how this video dropped right as I was heading into Wily's second fortress stage. This game really lives up to all the hype. I just finished Wily Fortress 3 and just love how the boss of that stage is a giant Guts Man on tank treads, establishing the Mega Man tradition of games containing easter eggs and callbacks to older games. While all the NES Mega Man games are good, I find that 2 is by far the most memorable. It has so many memorable set pieces.

By now using the background for big boss "sprites" (or even non-bosses like the anglerfish) was a common trick but damn if they don't make good use of it. Also, again, there have been NES games with pretty good music by now but MAN MM2's score is full of bangers. Crash Man's theme is ludicrously good and the Wily stage music is iconic.

As a teenager in the mid-2000s I had a frustrating time trying to get into Mega Man 2 and denounced it as overrated. But later on I came to actually appreciate it. While it's not my favorite Mega Man, I get why it's so popular.

I'm a big mega man fan and among the 6 nes mega man games, I rank MM2 near the bottom and consider it to be one of the worst. Best music however. But the worst mega man is still a great game. And I cannot deny what mega man 2 did for the franchise. Similar to mario bros 1, number two and three are far superior, but smb1 was a pioneer and influenced countless games. And still a great experience.

89, what a year. I was lucky enough to score Life Force, Blaster Master, SMB2 and Zelda 2 in 88, so I was wasn't hurting for new games early '89. And by then, the video store was in full-swing finally renting out games, so I was able to avoid buying some of the third-party shovelware. I remember buying Ninja Gaiden for a deal and just renting Mega Man 2. This all held me over for the juggernaut, Sega Genesis and Super Hang-On showing up one sunny Christmas morning. I was always chasing anything that could get me closer to true arcade quality gaming, so Gameboy was of zero interest to me. I do recall buying Tetris for pretty cheap in the spring of '90, so I hadn't entirely moved on from NES.

That last line hurts. I will forever mourn the loss of Mega Man Legends 3.

Um, yeah, Quick Man's the souped-up _Cut_ Man. Flash Man is the wannabe Elec Man with two weaknesses because of the BooBeam Trap boss right before the boss rush-and then they go and diabolically murder that show of mercy by making Crash Bomb the weakness of Wily Machine 2's second phase, requiring you to die to fully exploit it. Also props for the contradictory footage when talking about the other "hard" bosses. But "exploding mines"?! The only thing exploding there is Mega Man himself. How he and his successors are more deathly allergic to planted conical objects half his size than the Belmont clan is, and why their respective archenemies don't take full advantage of that, we will never truly understand. Meanwhile, Sonic and Co. can properly chill against and stand on the sides of such things no prob. No fair, huh? I guess it took Blast Processing™ to recreate realistic spike behavior. Sadly, none of those punks can match Doomguy and survive being crushed. Probably takes Intel Inside™ for that. In all honesty, I never really came to terms with how the Mega Man games executed their stage select gimmick. I'm no fan of "waste attempts just to scout" design. It makes overcoming challenges feel less earned because you're memorizing more than reacting. And Mega Man 2 is the WORST MM in that regard. Which is a shame because everything else about it is so good in spite, and sometimes BECAUSE, of that-they weren't afraid to make stuff hard, even if by accident, while still making room for easier stuff. I suppose if each MM game suggested a good first-timers' stage order, even if only in its manual, this wouldn't be an issue. This is doubtless why MM4 is a lot of hardcore fans', myself included, favorite classic MM; it's "fully featured" AND nicely balanced. Though you do lose some of the "stage order=difficulty" aspect, that's also a plus because you can mix things up more freely without boring or overstressing yourself. And I find both of those approaches to the MM stage select gimmick valid. So MM2 is a vital game regardless.

I'm still partial to the original, bad packaging and all, since that's where I started. But MM2 is still great.😊 I suspect that had Nintendo Power existed in 1987, the first MM would have sold well: there just wasn't a good way to advertise games except by their box art. Or... a TV commercial campaign ;-)

Me 5 years ago: "MM2 is so overrated, why can't I beat the game using only bubble lead? Why so many enemies are immune to so many weapons? People only like the game because of metal blade. So constrictive, leaf shield is only useful on very specific designated screens, hell most weapons are..." Me now: "I always had a choice..." In short, I fell back on the cult of the virtues of this absolute classic. It isn't the best game ever... but it is.

Thanks! Now I got Buffalo Stance stuck in my head! Anyway, I always liked MM1 so much more because of it's difficulty, it's hard, and it's also not easy! OH! The music too!

The NES equivalent of Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan, and just as beloved and timeless. One of the system's supreme killer apps, brilliantly made, challenging but not insurmountable, beautiful to look at, and impossibly fun to play. And oh yes, it boasts THE best musical score on the entire system, by lightyears. It took other series like SMB, Zelda and Castlevania three games to really perfect, but Mega Man only needed two. If you haven't played it, you should, anyway you can.

Hey Jeremy have you ever heard of Canadian legend BA Johnston “My Heart is a Blinking Nintendo (it’s never going to work again!)”? “And MegaMan 2 says, BA what’s wrong with you?? With your bad attitude!”

I still really love this game, but I also love MM3 and MMX pretty much equally. MM3's slide is great fun for getting around the levels, and I find that I enjoy its soundtrack just as much as 2's. Though I can agree with any sentiment that it's a little too long with the Doc Robot stages. MMX has this feeling of the Mega Man creators running wild with all the stuff they dreamed of doing on NES, but couldn't because of hardware limits.

I respect Megaman 2 for all it did, even if I played Megaman 3 as my first. But if it didn't release and wasn't as good as it was (and apparently got advertized to hell and back, 16 pages?!) then nothing after it would, and you gotta give it the credit it deserves, even if MY Megaman has always been able to slide and always SHOULD be able to slide. Still, I have seen so many retrospectives surrounding the Megaman games themselves that the parts I liked best here were the ones that discussed the context if the times, like the previews and how Nintendo was holding back and letting the third parties dominate. As for me I only really started becoming aware of video games around 1990-1991 up here in Europe, but even if most of what happened here was the same as elsewhere but later (when it comes to the NES at least) we too were bit by the Megaman bug. The Nintendo-affiliated magazines talked a lot about it, the games won the yearly "top games" rankings in sales and votes... good times to be a fan. Now we subsist of retro-compilations and look to the moon...

Thank you so much, Jeremy. Been waiting for this one.

I always find it hilarious when so called Megaman fans claim that later games were the "greatest" Megaman or that Megaman X was the greatest or whatever... The main thing is Megaman 2 or Rockman 2 is what redefined the game and gave Capcom some serious credibility as a reliable game company to buy their games outside of some Disney IP branding for casuals and way before Final Fight and Street Fighter II became part of the Capcom revolution where we forgave flaws in Final Fight only to gawk in astonishment for what SF2 did on Super Nintendo in the summer of 92 (including the phenomenon it became in Japan) because as later Megaman (Rockman) games came into being you had a far greater evolution of the game IP which was not possible if it weren't for Megaman 2 being made and doing well in both Japan and U.S.A. sales.

Woah, I always pronounced "Bubble Lead" as in the element. Like a lead balloon.

Mega Man 2 is the perfect 8-Bit game. By that I mean that the graphics, music and gameplay are perfect as they are. More detailed graphics (like future NES Mega Man games) and moves (slide, charge shot) actually worsened the games and not made them better. Mega Man 9 being so good is proof, they emulated MM2 and it worked. Mega Man 10 felt more like the last 3 Mega Man games: not as good. Most other series that started on the NES went on to have better games in future consoles, but not Mega Man.