Mega Man 2, the second game in the Mega Man Classic series, is most likely the reason Mega Man is one of the faces of Capcom. The origininal Mega Man was a fun little game, but it simply wasn't exceptional enough to really capture the hearts and minds of the people. However, lead designer Keiji Inafune saw the potential in the series, and brought the Classic series to what many regard as it's highest peak. Additional bosses, punishing but signifigantly more fair difficulty, catchier music, and slicker graphics made Mega Man 2 a monumental success over the previous entry.

As with most NES games, the story's pretty light, but I'll give what I can. In the year 200X, the Big Bad of the series Dr. Wily has returned and constructed a new fortress. He bulds eight new robots to conquer the world. Dr. Light sends the titular robot Mega Man to defeat the Robot Masters and challenge Wily himself. As Mega Man Defeats these dastardly robots, he steals thei weapons and uses them for his own benefit on futre bosses. Some weapons work better than others, some don't work at all on bosses. Mega Man's original Japanese name Rockman reflects this rock-paper-scissors-like dynamic.

The original Mega man was a bit rough around the edges when it came to gameplay. there was a weird, pointless, scoring system, items didn't drop nearly enough, and some levels were very gitchy. Ice man's level is one of the worst Mega Man levels, because it's full of glitches and horribly broken platforming segments. Mega Man 2 cleans up every issue I had with the first game, perfecting an interesting but previously flawed formula. Every level design is distinct, fun, relatively challenging and game-breaking glitch free. Items drop very often, which is escessary, as the game has been rebalanced so you will be taking a lot more hits and using your weapons a lot more often. The jumps are definitely the best on the NES. I touched on the dificulty earlier, but I feel it should be mentioned thatdespite being quite challenging in some areas, the game is signifigantly easier than Mega Man 1, and the only things that really gave me trouble were the Wily stages. If you know the boss order, the challenge from the bosses disappears. It's still hard enough to be fun, though, so have no fear.

Mega Man 2 has positively stunning graphics for a NES game, with beautiful, distinctive levels, great enemy designs, and a smooth framerate. The music is all bloody fantastic, and the sound design is top-notch.

Mega man 2 is undeniably one of the finest games on the NES, in fact, of all time. The only real flaw is that the difficulty is undercut once you know the proper boss order. Everyone who plays games should experience this masterpiece. 10/10