NES box art for Mega Man 2, the cover of NEStalgia episode 190

190 · MEGA MAN 2

▶ Game info

VerdictEssential

GenrePlatformer

ReleasedJune 1989

SeasonSeason 5

DeveloperCapcom

PublisherCapcom

Ranked #3 in our Top 10 NES Games of 1989 →

October 8, 2021 · 1 hr 36 min · transcript available

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He's Back! And this time the evil Dr. Wily (once the supreme power in the universe) has created even more sinister robots to mount his attack. But as MegaMan, you've also grown in power and ability. Can you save mankind from the evil desires of Dr. Wily?

SHOW NOTES

Mega Man 2 Longplay

Mega Man 2 Gameboy

Mega Man 2 Tiger Electronics

MM2 NES 30th Anniversary Cart

Mega Man 1 Episode

Our verdict: Essential

Mega Man 2 is the rare sequel that keeps the formula and fixes what hurt. Sales on the first game were unimpressive, and we heard the sequel was made on the developers' own time from assets cut from Mega Man 1. It plays like Mega Man again, and that turned out to be the point.

What makes it essential

It learned from the first game. The soft-lock problem is gone: no more missing an item you needed and restarting. We also died less to knockback tangled up with platforming, and the game flows instead of stopping to make you think on every screen.
Easy mode. The English release adds a second difficulty, labeled Normal, with the original labeled Difficult. You get more health and do more damage, which let us learn the levels and then step up. Some enemies even change by mode: the stack of cans just blows up on Normal and throws pieces at you on Difficult.
Stages that fit their bosses. Bubble Man opens on a waterfall and then you swim. Quick Man's lasers are the best match of theme and design, and also took six or seven tries.
Weapons with a second job. The leaf shield wraps around you, then flies off in a direction you choose, and it was a favorite. Flash Man freezes time. The three platforming items (a hovering platform, a jet, a wall-crawler) mean power-ups are not only guns, though we barely touched the third.
Structure. Eight Robot Masters, then a long run of Wily stages that feels like cashing in everything you built. The Mecha Dragon and the Bulldozer guy look good enough to pass for Super Nintendo sprites.

What doesn't

Weapon menu. Switching means pausing, so we stuck with the plain buster. Select to cycle would have changed how we played.
Late ammo traps. The Crash Bomber boss and the final fight can leave you with no ammo and no way to get more, which means restarting the stage.
The Wily finale. He turns into an alien, only the bubble weapon hurts him, and everything else heals him to full. We argued over whether that's a great joke or a mistake, but nobody liked running out of bubbles.
Movement. Mega Man still is not Mario. We also decided a floatier hero would make the game too easy.

Beyond the game

Inafune joined the series here. Capcom reportedly got 8,370 boss submissions from fans in Japan, and we took the line about inspiration to mean the designs were reworked. The 2019 cartridge reissue is blue.

The bottom line

Essential. Everything we hoped for from the sequel is here, and we all voted it onto the Essential Games List. It improves on Mega Man 1 without replacing it, and Joe made that his argument for keeping both on the list, though we may take a hard look at Mega Man 1 when we get to the best of 1989. It is also friendlier than the NES-hard reputation suggests: play a level a few times and you have it.

Written from our conversation in this episode.

Click a timestamp to play from there. Landing a little off?

Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.

Mega Man 2, he's back!

And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. And I'm Joe. Guys, the sequel of sequels. No, that's not true. There are plenty of games that we've been waiting for that have gotten sequels. But a lot of times with these sequels, you know, Super Mario Brothers 2, Castlevania 2, Zelda 2, a lot of times it's like a completely different game. Now, I don't know what you guys know about Mega Man, but were you expecting a completely different game for Mega Man 2?

Absolutely not. I mean, I think I've played half a dozen Mega Man games and they all feel exactly the same. So, I was thinking Mega Man 2 is probably gonna feel like a Mega Man game. Yeah, I haven't played a ton of Mega Man, but I also just am aware that they're all very similar. And I think it would have been very surprising if this was like a totally different style game. It was like some top-down game or something. Yeah, it's like in this one year. It's an RTS now. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You're in an RPG and you have to travel from town to town taking down the Robot Masters.

What's interesting, though, is like that is a thing, you know, that we're seeing with all major beloved sequels so far is that they are different. And so, with Mega Man 2, it's actually just a lot of cut assets that they didn't have time for in Mega Man 1 that they were like, well, we got enough of this stuff. We can make a second game. And Capcom was like, all right, sounds great, but we're not really gonna pay anybody to make the game. Like, you guys have to make this on your own time.

And that's what they did. They said the sales were abysmal and if you guys want to make this, you'll have to do it, you know, like on the hours where you're not working on our other Capcom games. I guess I completely forgot that, like, if we talked about that in the first one, that it wasn't really that well received.

Because that's kind of crazy. Yeah, Mega Man is an essential game for us right now. And we're, you know, we're entering that with the expectation that, like, sometimes the sequels become essential games and other times they don't. Yet here, you know, because the sales were unimpressive and it had that weird box art. Remember, we did that whole thing about, like, the North American box art and then, like, the movie poster European box art. With Mega Man 2, it really does seem like a surprise that it's getting a sequel at all, let alone how many sequels it's going to get on just the NES.

Joe, any thoughts on the original Mega Man leading up to Mega Man 2? Well, I was going to replay it, but I ended up just playing Mega Man 2 right now. So in my memory of Mega Man 2, this feels very similar. But when I really, like, when I really think about it, like, I can sort of feel the, like, feel some improvements in Mega Man 2. So, like, there are some things in Mega Man 1 that I remember being almost unfair.

Not, like, just difficult, but I remember there were, like, there were items that you absolutely needed that you could miss that could make you have to restart the game and stuff. And I just noticed while playing this game, one thing it seemed to have learned from its original game was to not do that. But they didn't just take that kind of thing out. They, like, found an interesting solution to it, which I'm sure we'll get to later. But I think that maybe this is going off a little bit away from what you asked, but I think that as a sequel, this is, like, a really good example of how video game sequels often

are improvements on the originals, unlike movie sequels. So, like, so far we've had, like, you know, if we have Mario and Zelda, which both happen to have really good sequels, but, like, it was almost, like, in spite of themselves. Okay, okay, get out of here. But it was almost, like, in spite of themselves. Like, the way that they went about it, like, they could have easily failed at making a good game because they totally changed everything.

Where, luckily, they didn't. But in this case, instead of totally changing everything, it seems like they learned from what they did in the first game. They got better at game design, they added a couple new elements, and they made, they, like, improved inwardly instead of trying to, like, instead of trying to, like, branch out too far into something that makes it a totally different game. And I think that that's what I noticed from video game sequels.

Even, like, today, when a video game sequel comes out, it always feels like, okay, now they've taken that, like, base that they built in the first game and built on it. And I know that that is totally a long tangent not really answering the question you asked. No, I think that's answering the question. It's, Mega Man 2 is an iterative change from Mega Man 1. It's basically the same game, but the presentation's better. It's much more streamlined.

Like you said, like, those big flaws of, like, oh, this is something you might miss, and you're kind of soft-locked in the game. Like, that's all, that's all been fixed.

Yeah. It's, it's an iteration that improved upon the original. Yeah, I like that idea, too, of, you know, there are certain games that are doing their own thing. And then there's, you know, what we already know. I mean, we're in the future. Like, we know that all these Mega Man games are gonna, are gonna follow this. But in a, in some ways, Mega Man 2 is just another attempt at making the same game again, right? Like, okay, well, we learned from, like, Mega Man 1, and now we're just going to take

the parts that were, like, were good. Or, like, you know, let's, let's increase the scope. Or let's make the power-ups more, um, you know, more interesting to the platforming. We saw that in Mega Man 1 with, like, the magnet beam that would create platforms for you and stuff like that. In this game, they're giving you three unique power-ups that, granted, you have to clear a certain stage to receive. But these three power-ups are, are not, like, weapons.

They are for your platforming benefits. And I think that takes a whole new, uh, approach to what the Mega Man levels are about. Because in, in the first game, I really feel like the platforming challenges and just the design of the levels in general were more just about making sure that you either, um,

you know, survived to make it to the robot master to acquire his weapon. Or just a, uh, platforming challenge of, like, you know, here are some blocks that are appearing. Or here's, you know, you have to make sure that you jump at the right time or else the platform will disappear. Uh, there was a lot of that in the first game. And it's not completely gone in the second game. But it becomes more of a challenge in terms of, like, the, the core gameplay of taking down enemies and acquiring their power-ups and using those new power-ups than just, like,

you know, and I think, Joe, this is what you were saying, the, the ruggedness of the first game, which maybe at times felt a little unfair. Yeah, I can, I can see that. Not, you know, I actually hadn't, hadn't thought of it that way as far as, like, the, um, the gameplay loop being more based on, like, your combat and not quite as, I mean, it's still also very heavily based on platforming. But yeah, it, it feels like it got a little more, like, fluid in that sense.

Like, everything is very clearly still well thought out and designed, but it doesn't, doesn't necessarily feel like the whole time is, like, stop, think about what to do next. Do it. Stop, think about what to do next. Like, which I feel like there was a lot of that in the first game. It's like, hey, what do I do on this screen? What do I do on that screen? Whereas this game feels more just, like, you keep, you keep moving and you, and it's all happening. All that same stuff's happening, but, like, more fluidly.

Yeah, there's less situations where I, I died because, not so much because of the platforming, but because of the combat interfering with the platforming. Like, I, I remember dying a lot more from, like, knockback in Mega Man than I did in this game. Like, this, that definitely still happened. Um, but it seemed to be a lot less egregious here. Uh, and I think that's a good illustration of what I think you're talking about. Yeah.

so mega man 2 does you know like if we're gonna get into the story at all which is very brief uh it takes place in the year 20 xx just like it's just that's 200x hello 2000 x sorry 20 xx are the mega man x games that's why they're called mega man x because it adds the extra x

um so in the year 2000 x a super robot named mega man uh created by dr light was standing on a building yep just standing on a building being like this is my city and i you know doc uh dr wiley better not fuck up this shit and of course dr wiley after being defeated in the first game comes back although apparently and maybe we talked about this in the first one but i couldn't remember in this one it says he's creating his own eight robots to counter mega man in the first game

were they just like other robots of dr lights that they were no that's very interesting we had a pretty i think we were today had a conversation about how like yeah there was just like the construction robots and like the gun robots that definitely were there to were built for peace um right okay yeah uh yeah i guess that now that's that's some that's some plot development there wow and and it's like if those ones were built for peace but now you look at these ones and there's like a walking fan like you know that's built for violence

right or the leaf guy the guy the leaf guy he's like i'm gonna build my own my own mega killer robot and he's like leafs that's what we need although real real mega man fans will kill us if we don't refer to these guys by their names so that guy he's wood man wood man that's right i'm sorry and then what's the fan was he wind uh airman airman airman yeah you know it's always what you think it would

be and then just say the opposite right uh because obviously yeah you know uh trees have leaves which means that he's made of wood not leaf man wood man i guess so you know just one quick thing in my thought there on the story though is that like this and and other nes games are guilty of it too but like this is an example of a game that gives you like maybe just the right amount of story for

like what an eight-bit video game should be right you just kind of get a reason to be doing your thing you don't need like a whole a whole journey or anything like that although we do like the hero's journey i like that a lot in ninja gaiden um but you know you could take it or leave it with these plots right like am i gonna have to remember or care in mega man 3 what happened in one or two it may as well just be a unique game each time just like how super mario brothers may as well just be a unique game each time yeah but i feel like it's sort of it sort of is like i mean i don't know about what comes later but i feel like it's like a unique game each time with a small little through line

right yeah i'm not arguing i'm not arguing about the plot though i don't want you to think like i'm saying like did they even need to include this i'm just saying like you know it's a nice refreshing thing where like it's the sequel to a game and you don't need to know anything about the first one right i didn't need to remember that they were creations of dr light in the first

one and now they're made by dr wiley yeah in fact i didn't remember that so and when it worked out fine so right laura that's there for you if you want it right we're talking a lot about improvements though and i feel like you know for me the biggest improvement was just the addition of another difficulty mode so there is the easy mode and then the normal mode i was just shocked to see

this even included given the track record of north american games usually just getting the harder mode uh from from japanese games not an easier mode uh in this one i i you know i played the easy mode version just because i'm not really that good at mega man games i don't have enough experience with the levels playing them over and over again and getting that stuff right and i gotta say

this easy mode is such an improvement over any gripes i really had with mega man one in terms of the amount of health you receive and the amount of damage you do to enemies i really enjoyed just the pacing of the game a lot more under easy but was glad that normal was there too if i wanted a more difficult experience yeah and i i kind of agree with that too where i i feel like the

well first of all the um the easy mode is actually called normal on our game so it's like they it's like they you know they didn't trust us to be as good at video games so our normal mode is is what is the new easy mode and then the other the other mode is difficult which is their original mode

um yeah they didn't have there was only one mode in the original release right right right which is usually like the opposite of yeah usually we get the harder one yeah and and i also was like it was i was kind of happy to see the the easier mode and it was nice because i was able to just jump into it play it it was still it was still a challenge um but i felt like i could learn it and everything but i was i would have been upset if if there was just the easy mode because i you know i do want to like

when i play a game like this especially when it's well designed like this i want to get better at it and then i want to you know try to challenge myself more so like i you know i love having the option then to go play the the difficult mode even if i have to swallow my pride a little bit and remember that like that you know a whole country of people this is just their normal mode and i have to play on

the baby mode first before i can get to the hard mode but uh but it is nice to have that option and you know it was much more accessible to me with the easy mode to just pick it up and play it you know a couple minutes here and there rather than trying to practice um and then later i can try out the difficult mode when i'm like when i feel good enough at it where i want to challenge myself

i guess the one thing that i i didn't entirely appreciate about the difficulty setup was like some enemies just behave entirely differently like uh i forgot what level it's in but uh there's this like stack of cans basically and you have to hit the right can with the face on it and then it does damage to the enemy um where whereas in the normal mode uh it will just blow up and disappear when you shoot that in the difficult mode it'll actually sort of become a bunch of projectiles that get thrown at you and you have to dodge those too and i understand that like that is adding difficulty

but i think it's also adding just like one little interesting thing about an enemy and uh that's lost to the difficult mode i don't know i i sort of i sort of like that actually because that that also gives me another reason to replay in difficult mode that where the challenge isn't just that the enemies have more health or their projectiles do more damage to me you know it gives me more to like okay now

it's harder because things are happening differently i gotta think a little differently i gotta react a little differently i i sort of like that in games that do that like i've played other games uh kingdom hearts being a big one where like the difficulty mode is just okay you take you take three times the damage and you only do one quarter the damage and like that's great and that does make a challenge but it would be cool to see like bosses doing different things that are harder to actually like deal with

if it's done right you know if it's done well okay okay yeah and sean that's an interesting point too because i i'm just looking at that now um you know i admittedly only played on the uh easier mode than normal mode but uh that that is like a a rare example on the page here they actually don't have too many other examples of enemies that behave differently between the modes and i actually wish that they had more of that right like that is to joe's point like that's a cool thing that like adds to uh you know like oh you think you know this enemy but now they're behaving uh differently i do wonder

if like you know those birds that drop the eggs right if they would be more strategic on when they drop them because it's pretty easy to destroy the egg before it hits the ground right like if there's things like that in the more difficult mode that would make sense like that would be a cool thing to do i wonder how much of the inclusion of easy mode though comes down to just like well the sales of the first game weren't that impressive because word spread that it's hard like that's there's no way to verify that or anything like that but like it does feel like easy mode is a direct answer to like

people complaining about the difficulty specifically just the health though right like the you're really not given a ton of like health regeneration throughout very long levels in mega man one whereas in mega man two i actually found you know maybe this is only happening in the easy mode but i found they were giving just way too much health out especially like the bigger yellow balls that give you like almost like a full health bar back like yeah those were happening pretty often yeah i guess the the way that you look at like stuff like the enemy differences and the um the health uh compensation i

guess um it really depends on what what way you're looking at it as like normal mode being the the correct way to play or the difficult mode being the correct way to play because if you look at it as like what it is which is a sort of pared down version of the original design then you're actually sort of being shortchanged a bit by like the this uh like you're you're losing some stuff instead of like um it being a designed hard mode that adds these features um and i guess also messes with balance by just giving health out willy-nilly um so i guess i look at it more as like oh this is the stripped down version instead of like oh the difficult one is just the one that has more stuff going on

i don't know yeah i i guess it does like yeah to your point it does depend on like how it's done which i don't know i didn't play the difficult mode so like it does sound like maybe that that was just one where like they can figure out a way to make it easier so they're like i'll just make it just die when you kill it but like if it were done i meant more like just like the like just the perspective that you're using um uh it being like is this the the original way to play the game or is this the that's that's more what i mean i see what you're saying yeah yeah um yeah like like are they adding things to the to the difficult mode or are they taking things away from the easy mode yeah

you This time we also have eight Robot Masters instead of six. And, you know, in some ways that's just like a natural thing to like make a game bigger, right? Is like have more stages, have more enemies and stuff like that. But in Mega Man, that's an interesting like addition because now you're talking about a lot more power ups too. And, you know, this whole rock, paper, scissors mechanic of like some, you know, really do extra damage to enemies and others actually don't hurt enemies at all. Or they're the enemy's like own power so it doesn't do anything. It's very interesting to see, you know, the game expand with the additional two levels considering that there's also like a whole second half of this game.

I'm just curious, you know, first let's just talk about the Robot Masters here for a minute. Do you guys remember the Robot Masters in Mega Man 1? We really like those boss fights. They felt unique and challenging to each one. At a certain point, you even fight yourself as a cloned version of your own Mega Man where he switches to whatever power ups you are. Curious to hear if the Mega Man 2 Robot Masters are just kind of the same idea as the first one or if they improve upon them. I think that they're still just as unique. I still think that there's better and worse ones. Like I made the mistake of doing Bubble Man first and had basically a useless weapon for the first couple rounds, the first couple levels.

But I do think that like their design is different enough to still be compared to the original Mega Man of like, oh, these are unique boss designs, some more unique than others. I think they're on the same track.

Yeah, I don't remember exactly what the – I remember some of the people. I remember there was Cut Man and there was, I guess, Electricity Man or Electric Man. It's Elekman. Elekman? Yes, I think it is. Oh, they probably couldn't fit Electricity Man on there. I think that's just his name. Vincent Elekman. Elekman. Yeah, is his last name, Elekman?

Yeah. But it does seem like – I know people kind of like – people make fun of the Mega Man bad guys over time because there are just so many of them. And it's like when you run out of ideas. But if you really think about it, like if you're willing to get a little silly, you'll never run out of ideas. You can make anything, you know, an enemy. It's just – I think it's kind of cool the way that they keep coming up with, like, new things for the enemies to do. There was Flash Man, which I don't really fully understand why he's Flash Man and his power is to freeze time.

But that's a cool, like – that's a cool different, like, gameplay mechanic. It's like Flash freezing some Oreos or something. Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Some Oreos or something. But, yeah, like that's a different gameplay mechanic that totally, like, totally changes the way you think about the enemy. And once you get the power up, the way you think about the game.

And, you know, it's not just like – they're not just, like, re-skins necessarily of the original. Does anyone remember what Fire Man did in the original? I believe he – I think it was, like, made of fire. Did he, like, shoot just the – did he have the same power up as Heat Man? Or was it, like, different enough? I actually don't remember, to be honest. Like, that's one of the ones I'm wondering if it was similar, but I'd have to go back and play it. But for the most part, it does feel like these all are pretty unique. Yeah, and I think – I'm trying – the Heat Man one, you can hold down the attack button, right? And then throw, like, larger fireballs?

Yeah. You couldn't do that. You couldn't do that in the first game. Well, you know what? I didn't know that, actually. Okay. So I didn't use Heat Man correctly the whole time, but I still used him. No, no, no, no. It's fine. Yeah, he's still – I mean, like, as long as you used him in the correct appropriate battle, you're still winning the advantage. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But, yeah, it would have been – maybe I should have tested that out.

You know, the interesting thing here is, like, you know, and we can talk about the power-ups and things, I think that's different than talking about the Robot Masters. But I actually thought this time, for the most part, the stages thematically were a lot better for the, you know, for the Robot Masters.

So you have, like, Bubble Man, right? And his – first you see, like, a giant waterfall, and then you go into the water, and then, like, you're able to jump as high as you possibly want because technically that's just swimming. And I thought that was, like, really cool because then they have, you know, platforms that, like, if you hit them, it's immediate death. I think they look like sea urchins to me, but I have no idea what they're supposed to be. They're just spikes. Just spikes, sure.

And then you have Quick Man, which has those, like, laser beams, which, you know, it's like a two-side thing, right? One, it's really cool for the stage, but, like, man, was that not some of the most frustrating shit in this game. Like, that is – you're right. That is the best example of, like, the thematic use of level design going with the boss and just, like, how Mega Man games are designed. But I hated that fucking level because I had to play it dozens – I think, like, maybe six or seven times before I could get past all those lasers.

Yeah, I feel like you're screwed if you don't play Flash Man first to get the power up to slow down time. And I didn't do any, like, research about, like, the strategy of what level to go to first. Well, that's the correct way to do it, Sean, is to not have the strategy. You were playing the correct way. No, I think the correct way is to have, like, that metal blade. I don't know. You're not getting that, like, first – you know, you're not getting that, like, first experience.

Yeah, I agree, too, where it's, like, that trial and error kind of, like, learning it. Like, I think the correct way would be to go there – go there, you know, if you end up there without, you know, the time-stopping power up or whatever power you need. And then you realize, like, okay, I'll come back to this. Then you get the time power up. Then you're like, oh, my God, this will be perfect for that level. No, I do like that, like, aha moment. Yeah, for sure. I was just making a remark about that weapon.

But I think also in terms of comparison to Mega Man, not so much thematically, but the levels look just much more, like, designed to fit their boss more. Like, I remember the original Mega Man, like, just the look – the look of each level was kind of blandish.

Yeah, you're just kind of, like, outside of the city, right? Like, you can always see these buildings and stuff in the background, but you're not really anywhere. Yeah, there was never anything fun in the background. Like, in this one, like, you see, like, moving gears and, like, all the – there are better, like, matte paintings, I guess, in this game.

Yeah, and then there's also just, like – I don't know. Certain levels just have varying difficulties in sense of, like, you know, they always have enough health to go on, right? Like, you can kind of farm enemies in this game since they always just spawn if you move off stage. If you really need health, you should just wait it out and attack an enemy that's easy to defeat until you get the health that you need.

But, you know, I'm thinking about the ones that have, like – they're not bosses themselves, but they're harder enemies. Like, in Woodman's stage, he has those giant dogs. Oh, yeah. And it's like, what is going on? Like, those dogs are just so much more powerful than any of the other enemies. It's like, I thought that was the boss the first time I ran into it, and then I had to fight it, like, two or three more times. Yeah, and it took me a few times to come up with an actual way to fight those without taking an obscene amount of health – taking an obscene amount of damage.

But, yeah, those and the – I forgot the name of the guy. They're in a lot of Mega Man games. But the ones that are in, like, the mechs, like, those were kind of difficult, too. And I do – like, it's glad that these games have a wider variety of enemies and not just, like, a variety of, like, one sprite enemies like we've seen in a lot of other games. Like, there are some that could be seen as mini bosses, some that can be seen as just, like, just a common. But at least, like, a variety in presentation for enemies, too, is pretty cool to see.

Yeah, that is a good point, Sean. You're not just dealing with Goombas and Goombas with projectiles. Yeah. You know, like, the mech guy you're talking about, apparently his name is Sniper Armor. But, like, you can defeat the mech, and then he actually jumps out of the exploding mech, and then you have to fight him.

Yeah. You know, like, that's a fun thing. There's that other guy who's in the Metal Man stage where he's, like, on a gear, and you shoot the gear that he's, like, rolling on first, and then you have to kill him. Like, he's not dangerous or anything, but you have to make sure that you take out both of them. They're not just, like – they're not together. They're not a concurrent twin. Yeah, or you kill him, and you have to dodge the gear still. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Or, you know, in Airman stage, the fan thing, the guy who has, like, a fan for a body.

Not an annoying enemy, doesn't really do anything to you, but if you're just kind of rushing through the level and you don't notice him, he might blow you off the platform. Yeah, it was cool the way that they, like, interact with you other than just attacking you, or they interact with each other, you know? Like, it felt more – I don't know, more like a lived-in, like, real place.

Whenever there's giant fan-belly people, it makes me think of real places. Yeah. Mega Man definitely is designed for people. Yeah. Let's talk about those platforming additions, right? Because other than the main power-ups you get, there are three, you know, I'm going to call them platforming power-ups. You mean item one, two, and three? Is that really what they're called in the game? I can't remember. Yes. But that's funny.

We'll call them platforming power-ups. And one is, like, a levitating platform. The other one is, like, a jet that you get on and rides you across a stage. And then the third one actually can climb walls, although you kind of have to figure that one out a little bit by yourself because – or look at the manual, I suppose. Because when you first deploy it, it looks like it's just designed to, like, hop through the stage.

Oh, yeah. You just sort of throw it. Let me hear, Joe, what did you think of the addition of platforming power-ups instead of just, you know, weapons? Well, I think it was great. I think that this is their solution to the problem we had with the first game because wasn't it a platformy thing that you needed? Like a platform gun that you needed or something that would get you up higher? The magnet gun. The magnet gun, yeah. That's right. And, like, that – you needed that to progress, whereas this is, like, a similar thing where it's, like, interacting with the environment in a way that will get you through it.

But I'm assuming it gives you each of these items, like, every time you beat, you know, two or three stages, you get a new – you get item one. And then after three more stages, you get item two. And after the next two, you get item three or whatever. So that way, when you get to the stage where you need those things, you have to already have them. And it's all about just thinking about how to use them. I will say that I did never use item three. I never had a reason to. I never found a reason to.

So that felt a little weird. I think those are more for, like, shortcuts. Yeah, probably. Yeah, if anything, item two is the one, you know, the jet. That's the guy. But, Sean, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I guess mine's not really a complaint in more – more so I just wish that they had taken the opportunity to, like, not separate them out. Like, oh, these are the items you use to, like, do damage to enemies. And these are the items you use to move around the world. I would have thought it would be cool if they combined those. Like, I always like games that have abilities that have more than one use.

So sort of separating them out felt a little basic to me. But I did appreciate, like, that at least they were thinking about more than just how to inflict damage. Just could have been a bit more creative about it. That's a great point, though, Sean, because if you think about it, right, like the jet, the one that we all think is the most useful, that one you get for defeating Airman, right? So what's stopping you from instead making the tornado-like air projectile something that you can hop on and ride as well?

You know, so this way it's like it does damage to enemies, but you can also ride through it. But if you come into contact with an enemy on it, then it, you know, disappears. Like, you can't just continue to roll steam through it. It's like there's a – it does have two functions without being two op. Yeah. You know, that does make me think, though, like, what is the point of hiding these behind particular boss battles when you're already receiving a power-up?

Controversially here, but I kind of feel like you could have just started with these three, and it could have just been included in the story that Dr. Light's like, you know, Oh, shit, Wily's back, and this time he made his own robots, so I got to upgrade Mega Man and give him these three power-ups.

He should just start the game with them, so this way there's no, like – I still think that they should be sprinkled in just so that you're not overwhelming the player with all these new options. Yeah. Um, but I don't think they should be locked behind specific bosses, but, like, just whatever – after whatever the first two bosses, you get number one, and then after the next two, number two, and so on and so forth. Just so that, like, you have more options the more you go through the game, but it doesn't really have these weird arbitrary connections to any one boss.

Yeah, it also gives you the opportunity – it gives the developers the opportunity to put things into their levels that the player will say, like, Oh, how can I possibly get to that? And then later on when they get the power-up, like, next time they're playing the game, next time they're playing that level, they can be like, Oh, like, I get that power-up first.

I can come back here and ride that up to the – you know, it leaves room for little secrets and stuff. Yeah. Um, but also to what, you know, to what you guys were saying about, like, separating them out a little bit, I think that even if they had – I did also think it was weird that they – that it, like, this platform, whether you're talking about the vertical platform and the horizontal platform, they are, like – they replace your gun. So, like, while it's going, while you're on it, after you've shot it, even while you're riding it, you can't use another weapon.

So, like, I feel like it would have been interesting to kind of have those things separate so it's, like, you can use your platform and then pick your weapon and then, like, ride up and shoot at enemies from the platform and it could, like, add this whole other level of, like, the way you approach combat, too, not just navigation.

Yeah. I think that that would be – that would be the easy solve, Joe, right, is, like, making sure that it's just limited to – if you're using an item or a weapon, you can only use – you know, like, say you're using weapon. You can use an item or, say you're using item, you can use a weapon. But maybe they just weren't able to get around that and my worry there would be, like, then what's just stopping you from spamming item, item, item to, you know, to, like, almost break the platforming parts of this game. You can only have – because you have ammo for the items, right?

I mean – No, no, I know, but I'm saying, like, you know, the levels are only so long or so tall anyway, but, like, theoretically there are certain platforming challenges that if you can use item two as the jet and then spawn item one the platform, you're kind of always guaranteed both a horizontal and vertical advantage. Well, that's not what I mean. I mean if the jet, the platform, and the wall climbing thing are all items and then the weapons are weapons. You can be on the jet and you can still fire your gun, you know?

Right, and I agree with you there. I'm saying, like, I just don't think they could have programmed them to – Maybe. Because they're all on the same menu screen. Right. You know, I feel like it'd be impossible to be like, no, these ones can only be shot at the same time given that, you know, that you need to go into that menu and change to be in that form. But do we know – I mean is it – on the NES, is it asking too much? I really don't know.

To say, like, okay, well maybe just hit select and you can cycle through your platforms and then hit start and you can cycle through your things. I don't think it was a technical impossibility. I think it's a combination of they didn't think of it and game balance. Like, it's not – it's definitely not technically impossible to do both because there are moving platforms normally in this game. But regardless, I do think that it would – if they balanced the game correctly, it could have added another layer.

But it's not the end of the world that they didn't, I guess. Yeah, I agree. It feels like it is a step on – it's like, okay, they improved from the first game. Maybe in the next game they'll improve that. And like, okay, now how can we – you know, it does feel like it's like an iteration on something that will probably get better in later Mega Man games.

Yeah, because, you know, like, select as a – as like a cycle through your power-ups or even just your platforming power-ups is a great idea, Joe. And I'm kind of surprised that we're still, like, cycling through a long menu, you know, especially once you get to the Wiley stages that, like, you have every single power-up. You have all these different things, and they just have, like, one-letter attributes for what they are. And it's not that hard to remember that B is for bubble or anything.

But it's just, like – it's a little more convoluted, or they could have made it maybe a little dressier where, like, it actually takes you into a screen where you would see, you know, like, a description of what it does or something like that. Or see Mega Man's colors change or something. I don't know, something cool. But that's just a nitpick there. I feel like the select through the thing is a much more elegant way of dealing with, like, changing in real time.

And the menu screen is, like, a pause element and changing your item kind of prevents you from doing it, like, often enough. Like, I feel like if I was just able to cycle through the weapons while I was playing, I might use more. But because I have to make the active choice to pause in the menu, select which item I want to use, a lot of times I found myself just using the regular charge beam. Exactly. I mean, I remember back in – I don't remember how long ago, but the first Mega Man game I played was Mega Man 8.

And I think it was just, like, the shoulder button switched between your powers, and you would see his colors change in real time and the little indicator change. So, I mean, just by virtue of having all these things to play with, I would just, like, get crazy and, oh, I want to play with this thing now. Like, whereas you don't really have that level of creativity in this one because it's kind of a drag to go to the menu and come back. In this one, you're more like, well, I know that this is the correct strategy, or I have formulated that this is the correct strategy, so I'm going to change now. So, it's just, like, it sort of – it encourages different kinds of play.

I think it's time to talk about the most interesting part of any Mega Man game, and that is the power-ups that you get rewarded from the Robot Masters and stuff like that. But in this game, you have the air shooter, the crash bomber, the time stomper, the quick boomerang, the metal blade, the bubble lead, apparently. I just thought it was a bubble. I don't know what lead means. Bubble lead? It was lead. But would it be a lead? I mean, I don't know what that means either. It falls to the ground, right? Yeah, it falls to the ground, but then it's just like a bubble, right? It doesn't, like – It's a metal bubble.

There you go. I don't know. Okay, it's the bubble lead, and it's the atomic fire, and then finally the leaf shield. You know, say what you will about, you know, power-ups and shmups and stuff like that. But power-ups in Mega Man and specifically in this Mega Man game, you know, it's like they're a totally different type of beast because, like, you know, you really do feel like each one makes you a little stronger in a totally different way. Like, I'm kind of confused about which one I should go after first considering the usefulness of all of them, right? No, it's the metal one.

Why do you like the metal one so much? I feel like that one actually sucks, though, right? The metal one is, I think, strong. I know I just said they're all great, but, like, it doesn't take down metal enemies. Yeah, but it takes down almost every enemy, and you have a ton of ammo with it, and you get enough ammo pickups that it's basically unlimited.

And it's like the weakness of three bosses. Like, I went bubble first, and maybe just because I went in a different order than you, Sean, but I found it very useful on, like, the next, at least the very next level where there were a lot of enemies that I would just... Half the stuff I used the bubble on, it just bounced right off. I mean, same after that. But, like, yeah, I feel like there were... So, like, yeah, it does have the element of, like, rock, paper, scissors, where it's like, does this beat that kind of thing? But it also, to Mike's point, like, gives you other...

Like, it does more than just, like, hey, oh, bubble-type damage does good against, you know, fire-type enemies. It also, like, each, you know, bubble damage, you know, bubbles go along the ground and hit enemies that are along the ground, and you got the leaf shield, which is good against certain enemies, but also puts a shield around you, which I found really useful and interesting, and made me think about levels in different ways.

Like, it's cool that it's not just, like, type advantages, but there's also, like, a function to each of these. Yeah. No, I do like that. Yeah, the leaf shield, specifically, too, of the having a way to, like, you know, not have invulnerability, but to have a, like, a little shield for a second, and then choosing the direction that that shield, like, flies off in is also a cool thing instead of just... Yeah, no, I think this is the best designed one in terms of it having more than one use as, like, a defensive and an offensive weapon.

It has very different mechanics than most of them. Yeah, the leaf shield is my favorite. Yeah, it's up there for me, too. It might be mine as well. The one thing I didn't like about this bubble, that I think Joe just said bubble eight times. Bubble bubble. The one thing I didn't like about it is that when you get to, like, one of the later stages, I think it's, like, widely stage four or something like that, when you get to that, you have to use the bubble to detect where, like, the holes in the ground are, right? Like, that's the idea. It's, like, because the bubble goes right to the ground and then flies across the stage, it will fall through these pits, and then you'll know where the pits are.

Why wouldn't they just, like, gray them out a little bit or, like, you know, make you pay attention a little extra? Like, that to me is, you know, there's no consequence to the bubble design of the weapon or anything like that. Yeah, it's kind of a weak way to give a weapon another use. Right, exactly.

That's more what I mean is, like, yeah, it's still a cool weapon and everything like that, but now it's, like, a tedious requirement instead of, like, an actual fun part of platforming. I don't know. I sort of, I sort of, because when I first got to that part where you're falling through, I was, like, okay, this is one of those major flaws with this game where it's, like, okay, this is just kind of cheap. There's no way, there's just, like, it's just a way to make it harder without you knowing and you might just die until you learn the level.

But then, like, when I thought about it, when I, like, realized you can use the bubble, I actually thought that was kind of a cool mechanic, too, because it really, it makes you think about the levels and the power-ups you have and, like, what do you have at your disposal. Like, the whole game has these little puzzly elements, like, a little bit where it's, like, well, what can I use here? Like, why would this work on this enemy? But then it's also just, like, well, how can I learn this stage? I guess I'm thinking about it in a different way. Like, that would be a cool moment.

I guess I, like, watched enough things to know that, like, oh, this is how you know where the holes are. But if I'm just, like, trying to brute force this and then I realize, oh, I could just use the bubbles and this is, like, so much easier, I guess then I would feel a lot better about it.

But, yeah, it's satisfying, at least from my perspective, having not known anything about, like, I mean, other than it's a Mega Man game, about, like, what these power-ups do. It was satisfying to, like, stop for a second and be like, okay, how can I, like, what has the game given me at my disposal? And then, like, remember, okay, the bubbles hug the ground, maybe it'll fall through. And, you know, that was just a cool, you know, it didn't, like, they could have done more with it. It was just, like, two screens that, like, had that ability. But it was a cool little puzzle to solve.

Yeah, or you could just use the jet and fly across those platforms. Not all of them, though. Not all of them. Because some of them you couldn't, some of them were too narrow, you couldn't fire the jet out. I tried it. Oh. Or if you fired it out, you couldn't jump onto it because you were, like, you were, like, wedged in between a ceiling and a floor.

See, but now, like, even though I just found this out, like, you're revealing it to me, I'm disappointed. Like, it should be designed in a way where you can use, you know, like, Mega Man has such a huge arsenal. You should be able to use a multiple different combo of things to get across these stages. Now to find out, like, oh, well, your jet's not useful there. It's like, well, that's how I want to solve the puzzle. I guess you could also just guess.

But it's useful in, it's useful earlier in some of those parts. But then when you get to the top, there's one where now you can't use it anymore. So if you were using it, you'd have to think, like, okay, well, now what do I do? You know, it's like, I solved it that way. They're like, now what do I do on this one where I won't be able to use it? Well, now I love it again. But then, no, I'm just kidding.

Right, right, right. Now convince me I hate it. Yeah. Anything else to say about these power-ups? You know, obviously, like, we talked so much in the first episode about the rock, paper, scissors mechanic. I don't think we need to go over that again. But I will just say, like, the overall, like, amount of use these power-ups get from someone like me who doesn't think about the strategic matchup of enemy-to-enemy basis. I still feel like I'm underutilizing these power-ups. Well, that's also because, like, there are some that are just not all that useful.

Right, right. That's what I'm saying. I'm going to blame the game here. I'm not blaming myself. I'm not a bad player. It's the game that's not encouraging me to be more creative. It's the game that's wrong. I would say that, like, the boomerang, kind of dumb.

The explosive that you plant, I think it's got, like, four or five, like, environmental uses in the game. And it's kind of unwieldy otherwise. And there's that one boss that you have to have a full stack. Exactly. I have never gotten to that point, but I've watched enough about this game to know, like, that that's sort of the nightmare level.

And, yeah, some of them are just too situational. Like, the whirlwind is, like, only good in one direction. Like, they gave, like, again, the metal thing. They gave you the opportunity to shoot in eight directions with that. And the whirlwind is only good in one. So why not just use the metal thing? Unless you really just want that color that it adds that you're using a different weapon.

So I don't know. They could have done a lot better at making them all either just as useful or at least just as fun to use. Yeah. Some of them had that. I feel like most of them. I was pretty impressed that most of them I felt like I had reasons to use a lot. But, yeah, the wind one or the air one, not super useful. There were one or two times where it was nice to get that, like, weird, like, exponential curve angle of it. But, yeah, and widespread.

But then, yeah, the one that bothered me the most, I think, was the, I'm forgetting all the real names of these, but the bomb that, like, latched onto things. Because of what you guys were saying where it's, like, I think it was cool to use it in that battle where you have to, like, blow up all those little turrets on the wall or whatever those little bubble things are.

That was neat. But it felt so artificial of a reason to ever use that. Like, it's the only time you ever need to use it because they just designed a quick boss battle where you need it. Where there was no time in the actual game where I was like, oh, I could really bomb something right now. You know, except there, you know, once in a while there's some walls that you can bomb to get through to get to, like, some secret areas. Not often enough to make it feel like it's very organically implemented into the game.

Exactly. And why does bombing make that turret thing just, like, disappear immediately? Like, you don't even have to wait for the bomb to go off. It just makes contact with it. I thought at first because, like, the shape of the bomb that you placed, it looks like it was just, like, covering up the, you know, like, the...

Wherever the... The turret. Yeah, the turret or whatever the lasers are coming out of. But, yeah. And then it blows up. But, yeah, I wonder if that was just, I don't know, some weird limitation where, like, they couldn't get it to stay and have the thing on top of it and still fire or whatever. We've talked about a lot in the game so far.

And one big thing that I want to talk about, and big meaning I don't have much to say about it, but it kind of irked me. Is I still don't feel like the movement in Mega Man is as good as, you know, some of the other platformers that we praised on this show. And I don't know... I don't know what it is about it that's just not quite there. But it feels a little stiff being Mega Man. He's still a little sticky. His jump, unless you're underwater, feels like you should have, like, a few extra... A few extra pixels added onto the end of that.

I mean, it's still, like, in the top 10% of movement mechanics I think we've seen in NES games. But you're right. It's not at the level of Super Mario. Yeah, and I'm not asking for him to be, like, floaty or anything. But even just, like, you know, sometimes there are platforms that, you know, require, like, you know, being very close to the edge to jump to land on the previous platform. And that's fine. Like, that's just something that NES games do.

You know, a lot of games on the Essential Games list have that flaw as well. It's just that with Mega Man, you don't get, like, that... You don't get that running feel. You don't get that buildup, that momentum and everything. And I feel like maybe it's just throwing me off. But in games like Super Mario Bros. or Ninja Gaiden, you know, I just felt like I was more in control of my character.

Whereas Mega Man is really powerful. So it feels easy to just, you know, stand your ground and fight off enemies and wait to move on, right? There's no rush to move on. Whereas in Super Mario Bros., you kind of always want to move forward. Because every time you stand there, you're either at risk of running the clock or getting hit, which is, you know, you only have two hits. In Mega Man, you got a pretty sizable health bar. You can always get it back. And you are strong.

So I just feel like the movement is something that I can't quite put my finger on it. But I wish I was just more agile as Mega Man. I think it might have taken a bit away from, like, the actual shooting aspect of the game. Because if you're too agile, I think that that would make the entire game easier. And I think the balance of having the slightly crippled Mega Man boy that's got all the guns, I think that has, like, not a perfect balance. But it makes it feel like a Mega Man game and not Mario with guns.

Yeah, I think that, like, what, for me, it feels like he doesn't have, like, the type of, like, weight that Mario has. Where he's got, like, momentum and he, you know, and he skids to a halt, which oddly makes it feel more, like, easily controllable.

Whereas, like, for Mario, it feels like he's got this, like, weight that's combined with agility. Where he's, like, fluid and moving around. Where, like, Mega Man feels like, I guess, like, he's just got weight, you know? Like he's some kind of robot. So that's, yeah. So, like, that's maybe what they are going for.

But, you know, I do feel like, yeah, the motion could be improved upon. But I also agree that I think if they did improve on the motion, they'd have to redesign the game slightly to, like, account for that. Because I do think it would make it a little too easy and maybe it would discourage you from using power-ups. Because there were even times, even with this motion, where I was like, okay, screw this. I'm just going to try and run past these people. And I did a couple times. And I feel like if I could, if I were playing as Mario in this game, you know, like, with that type of movement, I feel like I could blow by a lot of these enemies.

Yeah. Yeah, that's an interesting thought. Because, like, any time that you're just struggling in a particular stage, provided that there's no, like, major pitfalls or platforming that you have to do, I feel like you have enough help that sometimes it's just worth it to take the initial knock, right? And then use your invincibility frames to just kind of get past everything. And that's not really a trick that we see often on these side-scrolling games. But because Mega Man is a, you know, it's moved in, like, a grid-like fashion, right? Yeah. You're in a square and then you move to another square, you know, like, Metroid style.

I feel like you get away with that a little more. And it's only later in the game where they make that not so possible given the platforming perils. But through a lot of the, you know, like, introductory stages, you could just run right through a lot of things to just make sure that you have, you know, just enough health to get to the Robot Master and take him down if you have the appropriate power-up. Yeah, I remember at least one situation where I kept dying at a certain point.

And, like, there was an enemy that kept hitting me. But then there were spikes. And I knew that if I touched a spike while I was invincible, it would just immediately take my life. But if I got hit by an enemy and then went into the spike, it wouldn't kill me. So I used that as a little bit of a workaround and just traded a little bit of life for a little bit of time. But, yeah, there's definitely strategy in taking damage. Wow, you're playing next level there. That's, like, real bad game. I was just lazy.

Okay, we've done enough talking about, you know, like, first... No, just the first half of this game. Isn't that crazy? Like, we've been mostly talking about just the Robot Masters and that stuff. We've occasionally mentioned Wily Stage 4 for some reason. That one really irks us. But, like, there is a whole second half to this game after you beat all eight Robot Masters.

Which is, you know, I'm not going to say that that's, like, hours of gameplay. But that's a pretty substantial, like, game in itself, right? Then you all of a sudden have to do, like, a, you know, a series of even more challenging platforming levels where the bosses are arguably much more challenging, only to be followed up with a boss rush of all the previous Robot Masters again. Just like they didn't learn their lesson from Mega Man 1. They were like, oh, let's do that again. That was exciting.

Yeah. And then you actually have to fight Dr. Wily, don't forget. You would think in a normal game, and this, I think we talked about this in the first episode too. In a normal game, you would defeat the eight Robot Masters and then just be, like, summoned to a boss fight with Dr. Wily. Right? Like, that would just be the center screen. In this one, it's like, you have reached stage one of, what, six? Right? There's, like, six Dr. Wily stages. I think so, yeah. It's crazy. It's crazy that there's that many.

I just, I want to get your opinion just on, like, the thought of that, right? That in a game where there is a password system and there's a lot going on to it, does, like, the game being divided between the eight Robot Masters and the six Wily Fortress stages, like, does that feel like a cohesive vision? Or does it feel like all of a sudden the difficulty and size of the game has just ramped up considerably? I think that it feels cohesive, honestly. I suspect we said something like this in the original game because it's the same thing in Mega Man 1, correct?

Yeah, but I think there's only four stages. Right, okay, so it's a little, a little, so, like, they went a little further with it this time. But I, it gives you this kind of cool feeling where it's, like, especially with the password system, where it's, like, at first you're, you're just going through, you're just getting stronger, you're fighting all these, it's like you're preparing to go on your actual mission, you know? And then, like, once you've beaten all of these Robot Masters, you might be, like, you might, you might have taken some time to do that.

You might have gotten, you know, especially if you're playing on difficult mode, you might have really been, like, learning and practicing. And now you, you have all these power-ups. You've, you've upgraded this robot to as upgraded as it can be. And now you're like, okay, now I'm ready to, like, go take on this mission. You know, it's like, it's like, that's all, like, the prep,

which is a fun game in and of itself. And then you go on and it's not just a boss battle. It's this whole, like, progressing through this, I don't know, castle or fortress or whatever, fighting more bosses, you know, revisiting old bosses and then fighting the final battle. But it's like, it gives you the feeling like, well, if I had come here before when I didn't have all these power-ups, probably would have done a lot worse. So, like, that makes it feel like a satisfying progression.

Yeah, I mean, I, I'm a fan of the structure of the game where, you know, beat these first eight and then, then you've got pretty much, like, the second half of the game that's a much more linear affair. Like, I think that's a cool structure. I guess my problem with, with it here is that there is, they don't really have as much fun with these levels, either aesthetically or design-wise than I think they were with the robot master stages.

I don't know how you guys thought about that. Yeah, no, it's like, I get what you're saying. It's mostly just a dungeon, a cave, if you will, and it's very closed off. And a lot of it is, like, there's no sense of, you know, thematic entry to, like, the, I wasn't expecting to fight a big dragon at the end of Wily Stage 1, right? Like, it just, all of a sudden, it just kind of happens. It's like, oh, you got to, you got to his big lab, and then in the basement, there's a dragon with a bunch of floating platforms. It's like, sure, why not? Big pot-bellied dragon. Yeah, big pot-bellied dragon. Like, you know, I think that's just, I think that's the idea of, like, just being in a,

in a dungeon, right? But it's just all very closed off. If you look at, like, the, the moment-to-moment gameplay in any of the Wily Fortress stages, a lot of it is like, oh, you really can't jump that high, or, oh, you really can only

fall this certain way, because otherwise there's spikes. You know, there's a lot of pits and stuff like that. It's not very, it's not very welcoming. And I guess, why would Dr. Wily's Castle be said to be welcoming? But it's not as fun as a result of that, either. Yeah, it's very much based around just, like, skill testing, and not like, oh, this is a cool idea. It's like, no, avoid the spikes.

Yeah, I can see that, too. I mean, I guess they were probably trying to, like, make it be like, okay, now it's all about, yeah, now it's all about what you've learned, and it's not about, I don't know, yeah. It does feel like it, it's straight away from that, like, really interesting level design, and it just kind of went for, like, okay, now it's just, now it's just difficult.

Which isn't the end of the world, but yeah, it would have been nice to have some, like, some, some new interesting curveballs to be thrown in there. But I will be damned if, you know, the Mecha Dragon, or whatever he's called, and the Bulldozer guy, if those two aren't, like, so much cooler than the Yellow Devil, and also more fun to fight than the Yellow Devil. I get it, the Yellow Devil has a pattern, if you figure it out, it's easy. Trust me, I've watched videos on it, I still can't do it, so I'm just bad at video games.

The Yellow Devil was the guy, yeah, first game, he appears, he's got like a bit, you know, he's like a cyclops, and then his body morphs over to the other side of the stage. Cuts up into chunks. Oh, right, yeah, it was awful. You have to dodge the blocks, it's awful. That's right, yeah. Yeah, whereas Mecha Dragon, it's like, yeah, you can only take damage in the head or whatever, and if he hits you, you could fall off the platforms and stuff like that, but as long as you're on the top platform, I feel like you're gonna fall onto the other platforms, so it's just a matter of coming back up to the top. It's not as much of a frustration battle.

Yeah, yeah, it's like, I don't know, it's just like, they look better, right? All of a sudden, like, the sprite quality, you could fool me with that Bulldozer guy, like, I would think that's a Super Nintendo graphic.

Yeah, it is. Yeah, really. It's very much, very much in the, keeping with the design that sort of went along, that this game went for going forward several decades, it's kind of timeless. Yeah, and I just, like, overall, I think the boss fights in Wily Fortress are great, with the exception of the one where you have to strategically use your crash bombers that you don't run out, only because, and here's my problem with that, Joe, before you tell me why it's good.

The problem is, is that there's no, like, way to get more of that, so if you screw up, right, it's like, it's just, it's just over, right? Like, you have to wait till the turrets kill you, and then you have to start that stage over, and I just feel like there's gotta be a better way to handle this. Like, you have so many other power-ups, and the only thing that can take them down is the crash bomber. It should have been a loophole. Yeah, I mean, I completely agree with that, too. That, and there's another instance in the final boss battle, where, yeah, it's the same thing, where I feel like, without any warning that this is what you're going to need for this battle,

it doesn't feel good to get there, realize you just don't have enough ammo to beat it, and there's no way of getting ammo, and then having to start the level over, and remember to keep the ammo. Like, you should have some warning, just so it's not just, like, get there, and then realize that that's actually some of the same type of problem that we had in the first game, where it's like you get to the point, realize you needed something earlier, and have no choice but to die and go back to earlier. Where it's like, well, yeah, it just feels like a waste of time.

I think that the easiest way that they could have solved this was, like, I don't know, have some easy mob also moving around the stage that you could kill, and, I don't know, half the time it would drop some of the ammo,

instead of you just sort of being alone with the turrets. Like, yeah, it makes the boss a little bit harder, because then you also have to deal with, like, just keeping an eye on these other little mobs running around, but at least it's beatable.

Right, exactly. Yeah, and Joe, you talking about, you know, if we just want to jump straight to the end here for a second, the Dr. Wily fight is so bizarre, right? In so many different ways, too. Like, all of a sudden you're in outer space, he's on a flying saucer, you're standing on nothing, and then he transforms into, like, an alien that, like, I don't know, I don't get, was Dr. Wily an alien all along? Like, I don't get this part. I don't understand it. Is Mega Man high as fuck? Like, what is happening here? But every item, every single item is useless, except for the bubble lead, or bubble lead, whichever one you choose.

There's just something wrong about that. The whole game wasn't building up to the, like, you know, the all-powerful bubble weapon. But, see, if it wasn't for the fact that you didn't know going in that you need the bubble and you could just run out of, like, when I first got there, actually, I'm still there now. I didn't beat it. I only got to the final boss, but I ran out of bubbles on, like, when he had, like, a little bit of health left, and that's the only thing that could hurt him. And, like, if I had known that, yeah, now I know that, now I can go back and go through that whole

last part of the fortress again and try and get a bunch of bubbles and save up. But, like, that's what bothers me. It doesn't bother me that it's the bubbles that beat him because it's just such a weird ending that he turns into an alien. Like, it almost feels like, of course, it's the last thing I would think, because he's, like, so not of this world. Of course it's, like, the one thing you would think wouldn't hurt him is what hurts him. Like, that's fine. Like, in Science. It's just that, like, I never saw it, but, uh, spoiler alert. Oh. Did they beat him with bubbles at the end? No, no, don't worry about it.

This game was the prequel to Science. I figured. Okay, Joe, wait, one crazy thought here, because, you know, you're a reasonable guy. I'm just gonna tell you, the bubble thing is ridiculous. It's not a good idea that it's the only thing that could take him down. The game is based around you acquiring all of these power-ups and becoming the strongest version of a mega man. You're a guy who has all of these different things. You took down all of his robot masters, right?

Why wouldn't... Like, honestly, I'm surprised that they didn't go the other route and say you have to have everything. Like, you have to hit him, you know, he changes color in an alien life form, and you have to make sure you use the crash bomber when he's this color, and the metal blade when he's this color. Like, I'm surprised they didn't do that, and that sounds like bullshit, too. I wouldn't enjoy that, but at least that would make more sense for the game. Okay, yeah. If your argument is that you think that you should have to use... You know, it shouldn't just be one power-up, I agree. Especially, yeah, the whole game took you through that. It shouldn't just be one power-up. You should have reasons to use them all to get there.

But if the argument is that the bubble thing being ridiculous is wrong, I disagree. I think that it's ridiculous, and that's great. I think it's hilariously ridiculous. I love that. Yeah, the bubble thing is fine with me because, like, that's water, and he's an alien, so he's not used to, you know, like, the bacteria in our water, and that killed him. Immediately. It killed him immediately. Yeah, exactly. Well, 14 shots of bubbles. But, like, bubble, water is life for us, but he is, like, this, like, weird alien. Water is death for him. I don't know. You should have. I mean, my opinion, you should have only been able to beat him with Omni Slash.

Yeah. Is that a flare? Is that a flare on me? Or, if they really wanted to insult the player, right, that, you know, Dr. Wily would strip you of all of your powers and be like, oh, you thought those power-ups made you stronger? Like, I control those power-ups, and I'm deactivating them or something, right? He created those robot masters. At least that would feel like a bit more of a fully formed idea. Yes. It wouldn't be fun. This just feels ridiculous.

Yeah. Yeah, I like the idea of, yeah, somehow the final battle should incorporate everything you've learned. I totally agree with that. Or not. Just, yeah, just make it this way you only have your blaster, or you only have the platforming power-ups. You have to keep dodging all of his shit until he depletes all of his energy by shooting so much of his life projectiles at you. Yeah, honestly, I think that the best solution is, to me, I think that it's actually not a bad idea that, like, when he changes color, you have to figure out what to use against that color or something. Like, that's not a bad idea,

in my opinion. I think that that would be better than the way they did it. But, you know, just to continue playing the devil's advocate, you could look at it as, like, the whole final fortress was to, like, learn to use all your power-ups.

And he's just the bubbles. And he's just, yeah, the bubble one, and he just happens to be the last one. But, like, yeah, I agree that the final battle should be like, okay, now put everything to use. I really think they had, like, a really, you know, and I'm speaking with hyperbole here, but, like, I feel like they had an amazing, like,

game here, and then they just threw out the playbook on the final boss. They said, like, they almost, like, took a break for six months and then said, like, oh, yeah, we never finished programming that final boss. I don't know, hit him with some bubbles. Like, it's just so far away from the ideas of what Mega Man is and, like, what the game was about that I'm just confused by it. And obviously, like, that's a little extreme,

but I have to say it. Like, I really think that the Dr. Wily final boss thing is just a mistake. The other five levels leading up to it are so much better. One of the biggest mistakes in game design. I mean, once you guys discovered the bubbles, did you ever switch to another power up?

Never. No, I'm serious. Like, in that battle, once you discovered that the bubbles are what hurts him, did you ever then go back? I didn't actually get to this point. What you realize once you've taken some damage down is that not only are all your other weapons useless, they all heal him back to full health. If you hit him with anything else, even your regular blaster, he's back to full health immediately. One hit.

Why wouldn't he just design the bubble to do that as well? Maybe it was an oversight of his part. His hubris is what killed him. He didn't think water could possibly hurt him. Also, here's the thing. If we're out in the vacuum of space, you can't have bubbles. It would just, like, non-bubble, you know? That's a great point, Sean. Maybe it's, you know, there's nothing inside it. It's just a circle of water.

It doesn't have to be filled with air, right? Well, what's expanding the bubble to be a bubble? Well, or the air that you, I mean, you generate this. Well, now there's too much air in the bubble and it's going to pop because of the vacuum of space. Yeah, it pops right on him. Think before you talk. It pops right on him. You can have some sort of bubble. Maybe there's a field around it, you know? It's a force field bubble. Is that what it is, Joe? A force field bubble, yeah. Yeah, lead. They're made out of lead. They're not going to pop.

Come on. You got me there. Tell me it is my brain. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. One thing we missed, we didn't talk about the energy tanks at all. And those are optional things that you can find across the various stages. They usually make it a little bit of a platforming challenge to find them. And you can bank these energy tanks, up to four of them, and they will completely replenish your health. And if you use them any time outside of a boss fight, you have to really question what you're doing. You have to really sit down with yourself and ask yourself, why am I replenishing my health now?

But if you're not, if you're just using it during a boss fight, wow, what a great addition to have these energy tanks. Kind of makes me wish that they also had power-up tanks that you could store in case you were going up against the crash bomber turrets or Dr. Wily's alien forms. This way it was like, oh, if I'm out of bubbles, at least I saved a power-up tank. Yeah. Right. This box, yeah, this convenient box of bubbles from Toys R Us, because that's where people buy their bubbles.

At least I have that. Well, see, I thought when I first saw those, because I actually didn't notice I was collecting those. Like, I didn't notice I was gathering those until towards the end. So I had a couple at the end, and I thought that they were going to let me, yeah, like you said, either give all my health back, or I thought I could, like, select it and then select whichever power-up I want. I thought I could just fill up one bar of anything. I did sort of think that's how it worked the first time I used it as well.

But, I mean, that was a godsend for me. I wouldn't have been able to get as far in this game if I didn't have those energy tanks. And I think it also speaks to, like, how the difference between Mega Man 1 and 2. Like, Mega Man 1 had a lot of weird, like, holdovers from an arcade experience that never existed. Like, you know, the points. And there's nothing, the points are just there.

And they drop that, and now they add something that is really only useful for consoles. That and the password system. It seems like, yeah, between 1 and 2, they finally figured out how to be a console game. But, like, having these energy things. Like, you would never see an arcade game where you could just use an item to get back to full health.

Right, yeah. You're losing money. Yeah. So, I thought that was just a cool little aside there. And what about that creative password system? No more remembering random strings of letters or numbers or a combination of letters and numbers. Instead, just fill out this .matrix. Remember this QR code. Yeah, I like it better now in the age where I have a camera in my pocket all the time and I can just snap a photo of it. It'd probably be easier to remember, like, a numerical or letter code if I was just committing it to memory, though.

So, not that I feel like anyone just committed it to memory. Yeah. Now, Sean, you're, like, the mathematician of the group. Mathmagician. Mathmagician of the group because you make magic with math. You killed it on Sesame Street 1, 2, 3. Yeah. That's true, except for your opinion on the menu. But, here's the thing. Am I wrong in thinking that, like, this is a pretty easy password table to brute force into, like, getting some kind of result? I, you know, you're right. Like, there are only two options for each field.

Right? It's, like, on or off. Yeah, on or off. Like, dead or alive. Instead of 24 or however many, I guess, 30, I don't know how many letters are in the alphabet. You don't know me. But, um... 26. 26 letters in the alphabet. Plus 10. So, 36 characters for a password system. Like, yeah, you could definitely brute force this to, I guess, end up at any random point in the game. But why would you do that?

Right, right. I guess, you know, it depends on what age you are. You know, if you're 6, that could be amazing. Yeah. If you're 36, that could still be amazing. It just depends on how you want to play the game. Maybe that's, like, a fun challenge. Is, like, enter a password and just see where you wind up and you have to do the rest of the game from there. That's fun. Nah, I don't know about that. But that could be, like, a fun speedrunning challenge.

Like, somebody starts a little bit ahead or different enemies or bosses are already defeated. So, like, then they have to race each other to the finish. Yeah, but that can lead to being, like, really unfair really easily. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Forget I ever said it. I will. Already done. Cool. One note on development because I don't want to get into, you know, like, the whole, like, making of the games and everything like that. Because, obviously, like, a game like Mega Man 2 has a lot of information about it. But this is the game where Inafune joined Mega Man 2. And he is now the guy who made that, like, Mighty No. 9 game that everybody hated but backed with millions of dollars.

He is, like, known as the creator of Mega Man. He is not the creator of Mega Man. He's just the guy who made Mega Man what we think of Mega Man today. So, I guess Mega Man 2 is a game a lot of people still really love because they would fund any project that this guy makes to the point where they let him make Mighty No. 9. And the developers allowed input from the general public in Japan for boss designs throughout the game. Capcom received 8,370 boss submissions for Mega Man 2.

And they kind of gave an answer that sounded like they went with none of them. But that would be, like, impossible. Oh, really? Somebody else comes up with Wood Man. I thought that that was really cool. And I just recently heard, I don't know if it was true or not, but I heard that ever since Mega Man 2, like, everything but Mega Man 1, all of the bosses were fan designed. Is that not true?

Well, I think what they're trying to say is, like, you know, that they don't say, like, you know, you're the winner or something like that. Instead, they, like, they look at the fan designs, draw inspiration from them, and then make their own. So, basically, that's their way of saying that they're stealing from them. Yeah, I assume that they, like, designed on top of it. But I thought that they were, like, hey, send us your idea and someone sends in Wood Man. And they're, like, oh, great. I'll make these couple changes and put it in. But, like, I thought it was, like, largely still that person's design. I could be totally wrong.

Got it. Okay. I don't have enough on that. So, maybe the friendship got a little bigger over time, you know, like the trust with the community. But in this game, they say that they took inspiration and made the designs their own. Gotcha. That makes sense. Sequels and spinoffs. I don't know what you want to hear from this because there's a lot of Mega Man games. And I think we've gone over them all and we're going to play a bunch more. Don't forget we have Mega Man 3, Mega Man 4, Mega Man 5, and Mega Man 6 still left to play on this very console. Isn't that crazy? We're not going to see another Metroid game on this console, but we're going to get four more Mega Man games. I love it.

Yeah, I guess that's good. Well, yeah, at least half of that is good. The Mega Man part. I'd be happy to see more Metroid games too, I guess. Do you guys, like, look forward to Mega Man 3, let alone Mega Man 6? Like, would you say that you're more excited for Mega Man 3 or Mega Man 6, if that makes sense? I mean, just knowing how little the core design philosophy of these games has changed, like, I can't say that, like, I can't wait to see what they improve on. But I guess I'm interested to see, like, oh, what kind of goofy weapons slash bosses are they going to have now?

So that's kind of how I'm feeling. Yeah, I mean, I'm excited for the next thing. And I do feel like that there is, like, a time and place, in my opinion, for, like, just making another iteration of your last game. Like, I think about this a lot with, like, I know people really want to, like, change, you know, some people really want, like, Pokemon to be, like, changed to, like, a new format. Add a defense button, like a defend button and things like that. Things that'll, or, like, make it, like, an action game.

And, like, I think things like that are cool. If you make a side game that's like that. But I think that there is some merit into, like, hey, let's keep all of the core gameplay elements, keep it the same game, and just make a better one. Or make one with different, unique things. So people can always come back. When you play a Mega Man game, you know what you're getting into. But you're still discovering all these new things. It's like, hey, it's just like the last Mega Man, but now I have this power up, so it lets me do this. Whereas I feel like a lot of other game, like, franchises sometimes try to evolve too quickly into a whole new direction.

And then that, like, makes it feel like it's a totally, you know, different game. I mean, Final Fantasy is another example. I mean, modern Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy XV, I'm sure it's a great game, and I'll play it at some point. But, like, when I sit down and play it, like, that does not scratch the itch of a Final Fantasy game. So, like, I respect that Mega Man will always be like, hey, more Mega Man with new ideas in it.

Yeah, I kind of agree, yeah. And I'm sure there are, like, seasoned Mega Man fans listening to the episode right now. They're like, oh, Joe, if you only knew. Yeah, I can't wait to be disappointed. I don't know where it goes either, but I'm sure there's got to be a point where they lost, you know, the trust of the fans. I think you know.

No, no, no. Well, you know, you have to think about it, right? Like, what Mega Man 8 was, like, PS1 times. Yeah. And then, like, Mega Man 9 took, like, all the way to the Wii to, like, get released. So, clearly, like, something happened there, right? Like, there was a rift, either whether it be sales or just design philosophy that, like, took them so long to come up with 9.

But then there's also a huge gap between 9 and 10 and then 11. But they had all the X's, too, right? Like, those were. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the X's also stop at 8. That's kind of interesting. That sounds like a conspiracy. Like, what's wrong with the number 8 in Mega Man? And that's why Inafune went on to make Mighty No. 9. To skip 8 entirely. Yeah, see, yeah, just skip the number 8 and go right to 9.

All right, and then, you know, in terms of Mega Man 2 stuff, there is a Mega Man 2 on the Game Boy, but it is not Mega Man 2. It is not this game. It is not these bosses. It involves Dr. Wiley coming back again in an attempt to take over the world, and this time he's stolen the experimental time skimmer from the world's Kronos Institute and uses it to travel 37.426, but that can't be right, right? Like, it's probably 37,426 years into the future. But I guess you could go 37.426 years. That might just be a European thing, because they use dots instead of commas. Got it. All right.

And, yeah, you know, Mega Man has got to go into the future as well and take down Dr. Wiley. A lot going on with this Wiley guy. He's an alien. He's a time traveler. Dr. Wiley. He sounds a lot like, yeah, he's like Biff from Back to the Future. Yeah. Wait, Biff was an alien? No, Biff was an alien in Back to the Future 4. He just didn't read the script. Oh, okay. No, no, no, it's not true. I didn't believe you. There is no script for Back to the Future 4. Don't look it up. What else? Oh, Mega Man 2 also got, in 2019 for its 30th anniversary, it got a re-release of the NES cartridge from Capcom. That's pretty cool.

Yeah. I like the actual... Like an officially licensed NES cart of Mega Man 2. What year was this? 2019. Wow. Oh, my God. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. I mean, what's the point of that? It's cool, I guess.

Why would I ever want to do that, Mike? Yeah. I don't know. I guess they made it cost a lot of money. So people thought, I'll buy this now while it's a collector's item and it will skyrocket in value. And then it turns out they made just enough for all the Mega Man 2 fans to have it. Yeah. So nobody else is seeking it.

But I think it's blue. I think the cartridge is blue. So does that intrigue you? I like blue stuff. It changes things. I mean, I guess it also helps preserve it a little bit in its hopefully original form. I'm assuming they didn't change anything. So, I mean, that's nice. Yeah. But don't you think they just put like a retro pie in there? Yeah, probably. In the cartridge? You don't even have to. You don't even have to put it in your NES. You just play it on the cartridge itself. There's a screen on it. On the back of the cartridge is an LCD screen and you just play right off of that.

All right. That's a bit of a tangent. But that's all I have for sequels and spin-offs really for Mega Man 2. I mean, this game has lots of re-releases but not that much changes. I'm sure there are subtle changes. I'm not going to get into it because we have gone too much into Mega Man 2. We've been talking for so long and we need to wrap this thing up on a thing we call the Essential Games List.

Sean, you first. Give me your vote for Mega Man 2 on the Essential Games List. Mega Man 2. Huh? Like, look at that. Like, this is Mega Man 2.

I don't know what I'm doing. I mean, we didn't even, like, talk about a lot of the other stuff with this game. Like, how iconic the music is and that's pretty much it. But I think that this is a game that sort of does live up to its reputation in terms of, like, why it has a legacy. I had a lot of, like, nitpicks with it. But I do think that quality-wise it is an improvement on an Essential Game. And it's not just, like, more of that Essential Game.

So, I would say that this is also an Essential Game. Thank you for your vote, Sean. Joe, your vote. Mega Man 2. Huh. I think that a lot of the things that we complain about in other games when it comes to enemy placement and, like, level design and, you know, just problems that other games have with pacing and just, like, feeling like a balanced game.

Mega Man 2 is, like, the antithesis of all that. Like, it is, I think that this is, like, a good example. Even today, you know, in 2021, to, like, point to as, like, as a template or, like, a good example of how to do good gameplay. And I think that that, like, that shows throughout the whole game. I mean, every level, you're, you know, you have to think about what to do next. But it never feels, like, impossible or rarely feels impossible.

And the enemies are all, like, thought out where they are. You have to really think about, like, how you navigate through this world. And I think that that adds so much to the fun, you know, than just, like, the power-ups and the enemy design and everything, which are all also fantastic.

And I also think, yes, we do have a Mega Man game on the Essential Games list. I know sometimes we kind of go in this direction of, like, well, do we need two of them on there? But I think that that is when one, like, makes the other obsolete. And in this situation, I feel like it is sort of what I was alluding to earlier, where it's, like, it's an improvement on that original game. It doesn't, you know, both are using this formula that works. And I think that it is better than the original game, but it doesn't take away from that. It doesn't replace it.

So I guess I'm also, like, explaining why I don't want to eventually take Mega Man 1 off the Essential Games list, while also saying that I want to put Mega Man 2 on the Essential Games list in a roundabout way. So, yes, I'm voting it Essential. Wow. And that means it's an Essential game. I still get to give my vote, of course. But you don't need to. It's in. Yeah. It's in. The only thing I guess I'll say is Mega Man 2. Huh. You know, here's the thing. Here's the thing about Mega Man 2. It's like a no-brainer, right? If Mega Man 1 is an Essential game and Mega Man 2 is better than Mega Man 1, well, then what do you have? Of course you have an Essential game.

Never, never since, like, I first sat down and played the game. And I played this game, you know, before Nostalgia, so I guess that's a little cheating. But I knew this was a good game. I knew it was a great game. And I knew it was going to be on the Essential Games list. I'm really happy that after playing it the last couple weeks, that reconfirmed it for me. Sean, you were talking about how, like, you know, we just didn't talk about, like, a lot of the iconic stuff that this game revolves around. And I think that's true, right? Like, yes, the music is amazing. And even, like, the Mega Man in Super Smash Bros.

is based off of the Mega Man 2. I mean, all the power-ups and stuff. That's where I saw all this stuff first. Right. It's like, you know, it's in the, like, this game is the DNA of a Mega Man game. And regardless of if, like, you know, we try to use the argument again for Mega Man 3, 4, 5, where it's like, yeah, it's Mega Man again, even better. It's like, something about Mega Man 2 is just, like, it's larger than just an improvement. It is now, for me, the Mega Man game.

That this is the standard I'll be holding them up against, too. And I don't know if I agree with Joe. I think Mega Man 1, you know, on my outlook, on my horizon, the best of 1989, I'm looking at Mega Man 1, and I'm saying, you might be next, kid. Because here's the thing. Mega Man 1 had a lot of frustrations, but was overall a great game for 1987.

Or 1988, I believe. No, 1987. I'm going to say 87. I don't remember. But that's what we'll go with. Mega Man 2 still has its frustrations, but I had to really reach out for them. We were talking about things like, you know, yeah, the final boss doesn't quite deliver, right? But, like, is anybody throwing Bioshock off the Essential Games list because the final boss sucks? Like, I don't think so. And we were talking about, you know, movement's not quite there yet. It's like, yeah, but, like, for where we are in game design, it's not really a noticeable difference unless you're playing in 2021.

The point here is that, like, the influence that this game has on this genre, on Mega Man games, and just on, like, if you're a fan of indie platformers that are coming out today, right? There's a good chance that you're going to love Mega Man 2.

Is it kind of hard? Sure. Is it NES hard? I don't really think so. I think this is the kind of game where, like, you just have to play through a level a few times, and you'll have it down pat, and they give you enough health, and there is that easy mode. Honestly, if I'm having a good time with this game, you can too, because I'm not that great of a video gamer, and I had a great time playing Mega Man 2, and I felt good as Mega Man. And that's the most important thing. You're the Mega Man. You want to feel mega, which is why when you fight Dr. Wily, all of your attacks should do damage. You should be thumping on his butt. Like, you should be all over him. It's just Sean's, like, quiet, like, whoa. Oh, that got me.

Mega Man 2 is absolutely on the Central Games list, and it only took us, like, 90 minutes to get there, but here it is. And I can only imagine that next week when we play Monster Party, we're going to go into just the same amount of in-depth analysis and reach the same kind of conclusions. Right, guys? I can't wait. Absolutely. Everybody's heard of NES's Monster Party. I haven't, actually.

Oh, interesting. By Human Entertainment, the totally not-robot. That sounds suspicious. I think the monsters made that game. Yeah. Monster Party is the game that we're playing next week. And the reason I bring that up so soon after a Mega Man segue is because you should always want to know what game we're playing next because we want you to play along with us. If you listened to 90 minutes of Mega Man 2 and you didn't play Mega Man 2 leading up to this week or following this episode, I'm not saying that you're listening to the show wrong. I'm saying you're doing yourself a disservice.

Mega Man 2 is a game worth playing, and next week we're going to find out if Monster Party is a game worth playing. Joe, anything you could say to the listeners to make them play Mega Man 2 this minute?

I think that knowing that Sean and Mike voted it on and they didn't even vote Zelda 2 on, that means that this game must be like, I mean, it must be doing like godlike feats because I don't know what could, I don't know. I just feel like I need to bring up Legend of Zelda 2 every episode. So, take a listen. Take a listen and then let us know if you agree that it should be on there and more importantly let Sean and Mike know that they're wrong about Zelda 2.

Yeah, I mean, Mega Man 2 is at least as good as Operation Wolf. Oh, at least. At least as good, according to our Essential Games list. Of course, that's not really how the list works, but if you have feedback and you want to write to us and let us know that we made a mistake or we didn't make a mistake and that we're a great podcast, the best way to do that is at NostalgiaCast on Twitter. That's where we're posting stuff all week. You better believe we posted some great Mega Man 2 stuff all week long and you better believe that people commented on that stuff too. Don't go and count the comments because, you know, we record the episodes in advance. I don't know how many people commented, but I'm sure we got some comments on some thoughts.

And Mega Man 2 is a game that we'll probably keep using as a reference point like we do with Mega Man 1 and Super Mario Brothers and Legend of Zelda 2, Metroid, you name it. That's the kind of game that this is and that's why it's just going to be like in our nostalgia dictionaries now. Sean, parting words for the audience. All right. Just because you had a bad day at the office, that doesn't give you the right to park in a handicapped spot. It's really not cool. Like, I think, like, anybody who needs it is going to tell you that, like, hey, I'd really appreciate it if you wouldn't park in a handicapped spot.

So, you know, just do that. Just be the bigger man and park in a regular spot. Is this something you've encountered recently, Sean? No, it's just something I've been thinking about. Oh, okay. Okay.

No, no, no, no. You're adding that. It's just that he's back. Yeah, he's back. But, like, he's back. This episode is posting on October. Also, what is he adding? I'm adding extra A's in the back? Okay. I think it's okay. You want me to say Mega Man 2, he's back? No. I want you to do what you did. I want you to say Mega Man 2, I'm Klu Klu for Gaga.

I still don't know. I have no idea what that means or what that's referencing. That's not even when we were reading the back of the box. I know. But what was it? I don't know. I just said that. I know, but I thought it was, like, a reference to something. Goo goo for Gaga. Oh, okay. All right. We need to start. That is. You