Mega Man II (1991 video game)

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Mega Man II
North American cover art
Developer(s)Thinking Rabbit
Publisher(s)Capcom
Producer(s)Tokuro Fujiwara
Artist(s)Keiji Inafune
Composer(s)Kenji Yamazaki[3]
SeriesMega Man
Platform(s)Game Boy
Release
Genre(s)Action, platform
Mode(s)Single-player

Mega Man II[a] is an action-platform video game developed by Thinking Rabbit and published by Capcom for the Game Boy. It is the second game in the handheld series of the Mega Man franchise after Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge. The game follows Mega Man as he pursues his arch-enemy Dr. Wily, whose most recent ploy for world domination involves the theft of an experimental time machine. Mega Man confronts both Wily and a number of enemies from his past, including a new and mysterious robot named Quint. Just like other Game Boy games in the series, Mega Man II marries the features of two consecutive Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) titles, in this case, Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3.

Mega Man II received mixed reviews from critics, in part due to Thinking Rabbit's inexperience in developing similar games, and is considered to be inferior to its predecessor.

Plot

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The storyline of Mega Man II involves the hero Mega Man battling his arch-nemesis Dr. Wily as the latter once again attempts to take over the world. This time around the evil genius has stolen an experimental "Time Skimmer" from the world's Chronos Institute and used it to travel 37.426 years into the future.[2][4] Meanwhile, Mega Man is sent to investigate an underground passageway containing enemy Robot Masters from his previous adventures. Mega Man destroys them again and makes his way to Wily's fortress, which contains four more Robot Masters from his past. Once they are destroyed, Mega Man advances and comes upon Quint, a future version of himself. Wily had captured Quint in the future, remodeled him, and brought him back to the present.[5] After Mega Man beats him, Quint relinquishes his "Sakugarne" jackhammer weapon to the hero. Mega Man follows Wily to a space station and defeats him.

Gameplay

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Mega Man in a boss fight with Clash Man. The game continues the Game Boy series trend of recycling elements from the two consecutive NES titles: Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3.

As with other games in the series, Mega Man II is a standard side-scrolling platformer that lets the player take control of the hero Mega Man as he traverses stages and defeats various enemies and bosses. The player is able to run, jump, and shoot as in the previous game, but is now able to slide along the ground as well.[4] The outset of the game allows the player to choose among four stages to be completed in any order. Beating the Robot Master boss at the end of the stage allows the player access to its unique weapon for the remainder of the game.[6] These weapons have limited ammunition that can be refilled by picking up items dropped by enemies. Spare energy tanks can be obtained and selected to completely refill the player's health.[4]

Defeating some Robot Masters will grant Mega Man access to three adaptors for his canine companion Rush to be used in different environments. The Rush Coil allows Mega Man a very high jump; the Rush Marine turns the dog into a submarine for easy underwater mobility, and the Rush Jet lets Mega Man cross large distances.[4][6] Like Dr. Wily's Revenge, Mega Man II takes many elements from the NES Mega Man games. The first four stages and their bosses (Wood Man, Air Man, Clash [sic] Man, and Metal Man) come from Mega Man 2.[6] After traveling to Wily's fortress, four new stages become available via a teleportation room. The bosses for these stages (Top Man, Hard Man, Magnet Man, and Needle Man) are taken from Mega Man 3.[6]

Development and release

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Capcom outsourced the development of Mega Man II to Thinking Rabbit, developer of Sokoban, instead of prominent partner Minakuchi Engineering who worked on Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge.[2][7] Series artist Keiji Inafune admitted that the design quality of Mega Man II feeling different from the other games was the result of the developer having very little knowledge of the series. For the next game in the Game Boy line, they decided to return to the developer of Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge.[2]

Mega Man II has been re-released as part of the Nintendo Player's Choice line of budget titles in North America.[8] The game was made available on the Japanese Nintendo Power cartridge service on March 13, 2001.[9] Capcom had planned to release a full-color compilation of all five Game Boy games on the Game Boy Advance in 2004, but the project was cancelled.[10][11] On July 18, 2013, it was confirmed that Mega Man II was planned to release on the Nintendo 3DS's Virtual Console,[12] which released in Japan on September 25, 2013,[13] in North America on May 8, 2014.[14] and in PAL regions on August 7, 2014.[15] It was also released on the Nintendo Classics service for the Nintendo Switch with its predecessor and sequels on June 7, 2024.[16]

Reception

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Mega Man II received average reviews. Jeremy Parish of 1UP.com opined Mega Man II as "Not Worth It!", summarizing it as "a random assortment of enemies and stages from Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3 from NES, downsampled and downscaled for Game Boy".[23] Nintendo Power ranked the game 2nd in their top 10 Game Boy games of 1992.[20]

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The Archie Comics series incorporated elements of the game, though a full adaptation was not produced before the series went on hiatus. Quint notably appeared twice in issue 20, displaying elements of his own character as well as that of Rockman Shadow, the primary antagonist of Rockman & Forte: Challenger from the Future. He subsequently made appearances in issue 55, in which Dr. Light saw in a vision his conflict with the present-day Mega Man followed by Mega Man's transformation into Quint in the future.

Notes

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  1. ^ Japanese: ロックマンワールド2, Hepburn: Rokkuman Wārudo Tsū, lit. 'Rockman World 2'

References

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  1. ^ "Game Boy (original) Games" (PDF). Nintendo. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 15, 2011. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
  2. ^ a b c d Mega Man: Official Complete Works. Udon Entertainment. January 6, 2010. pp. 66–67. ISBN 978-1-897376-79-9.
  3. ^ "Game Music" (in Japanese). Yamazaki, Kenji. Archived from the original on February 8, 2013. Retrieved September 28, 2011.
  4. ^ a b c d Mega Man II Instruction Booklet. Capcom U.S.A., Inc. February 1992. pp. 5–12. DMG-W2-USA.
  5. ^ Capcom (March 11, 2003). Mega Man & Bass (Game Boy Advance). Capcom. CD Data: Dr. Wily has captured Mega Man when he came from the future, and has remodeled him.
  6. ^ a b c d Nintendo Power staff (March 1992). "Mega Man II". Nintendo Power. No. 34. Redmond, Washington: Nintendo of America. pp. 48–53. ISSN 1041-9551.
  7. ^ Kohler, Chris (October 19, 2011). "Broke in Tokyo: Retro Game Shopping on a Weak Dollar". Wired. Archived from the original on October 22, 2011. Retrieved October 19, 2011.
  8. ^ Nutt, Christian & Speer, Justin. "The History of Mega Man". GameSpot. Archived from the original on December 12, 2009. Retrieved April 17, 2010.
  9. ^ ゲームボーイ用のアクション系ソフト：4 (in Japanese). Nintendo. Archived from the original on February 3, 2003. Retrieved June 3, 2010.
  10. ^ IGN staff (February 4, 2004). "Mega Man Mania Change". IGN. Archived from the original on June 13, 2011. Retrieved June 1, 2010.
  11. ^ Driker, Brandon (January 26, 2006). "Mega Man Anniversary Collection Cancelled". N-Sider. Archived from the original on June 10, 2011. Retrieved January 29, 2011.
  12. ^ "Classic Game Boy Mega Man Titles Coming To 3DS Virtual Console". July 18, 2013. Archived from the original on July 21, 2013. Retrieved July 20, 2013.
  13. ^ "ロックマンワールド2 | ニンテンドー3DS" [Rockman World 2 | Nintendo 3DS] (in Japanese). Nintendo. Archived from the original on December 4, 2019. Retrieved March 29, 2022.
  14. ^ "Mega May". Nintendo. Archived from the original on July 5, 2014. Retrieved March 29, 2022.
  15. ^ "Mega Man™ 2". Nintendo of Europe. Retrieved December 4, 2019.
  16. ^ Romano, Sal (June 7, 2024). "Game Boy – Nintendo Switch Online adds Mega Man I, II, III, IV, and V". Gematsu. Archived from the original on May 23, 2025. Retrieved May 23, 2025.
  17. ^ "Mega Man II for Game Boy". GameRankings. Archived from the original on December 5, 2019.
  18. ^ Staff (March 1992). "Electronic Gaming Review Crew". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 32. Sendai Publishing. p. 32. ISSN 1058-918X.
  19. ^ Staff (December 27, 1991). クロスレビュー [Cross Review]. Famitsu (in Japanese). No. 158. Tokuma Shoten. p. 43. Archived from the original on March 24, 2019. Retrieved March 24, 2019.
  20. ^ a b Nintendo Power staff (March 1992). "Top 10 of 1992". Nintendo Power. No. 34. Redmond, Washington: Nintendo of America. p. 122. ISSN 1041-9551.
  21. ^ Reed, Phillip (May 12, 2014). "Mega Man II Review". Nintendo Life. Gamer Network. Retrieved March 29, 2022.
  22. ^ Miller, Zachary (May 12, 2014). "Mega Man 2 (Game Boy) Review Mini". Nintendo World Report. NINWR. Retrieved March 29, 2022.
  23. ^ Parish, Jeremy (May 10, 2007). "The Mega Man Series Roundup". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
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