It’s time for the return of Mega Man! This is my favorite out of the Game Boy titles. It has the perfect balance of difficulty where you don’t have to be absolutely perfect when playing. Granted, it’s still really tough so you should expect to lose quite a lot but this time you actually feel like you always have a chance. That’s not something that you can say for some of the other games. Already that’s a pretty good jump. The rest of the game is pretty similar to the others so by this point you either like Mega Man or you’re tired of him.

The basic plot is that Wily is causing some trouble so Dr. Light is forced to call in the world’s #1 defender, Mega Man. Mega Man is one of those heroes of legend who never backs down and is always ready to fight off his opponents. Unfortunately he didn’t keep the powers of the villains from the first game so he is back to his mega buster. That might be for the best though since for the most part the other powers aren’t that handy anyway. Perhaps when you’re an expert player who has optimized everything but otherwise the mega buster is always good for me. It’s basically ole reliable and is always around when I’m in a pinch.

Naturally like the first game the graphics aren’t great here. The green still absolutely destroys all of the art that the game is trying to pull out. It’s too bad they couldn’t filter the green somehow. It’s just not the best look for any game. The soundtrack is okay but again there aren’t really any tunes to write home about. As for the game’s length, it’s still fairly short. You have around 4 main intro bosses, the Wily fight, then 4 more bosses and then the climax. Each stage is fairly quick so the length will come about based on how often you die. Even though the game is easier than the first, I would still expect a lot of deaths which would definitely be extending the play time. Some of the jumps are just tricky or enemies are in a spot where you will end up crashing to your doom if you end up fighting them.

Try to grab any energy tanks that you can. They come in real handy because you can use them in the middle of a level or boss to replenish your health all the way to the top. It’s incredibly handy at all times. Usually they are in tough places to get of course but the journey for them is definitely worth it. I was certainly glad to have them. Also, don’t forget that you have the various Rush techniques at your disposal. This came in a lot of handy this time around and I think in some sections they were even mandatory. It took me a little while to figure out because I wasn’t used to opening the weapons screen since I was using the mega buster for everything.

As always I do recommend using the mega buster for pretty much everything though. Trust me, it will get the job done and it also forces you to move around a lot and get used to the stage. Unless you are absolutely sure which weapon is the most is the most effective then this is definitely something you should consider. It can also be hard to tell which weapon is the counter in these old games. A lot of the time the one you figure is correct ends up not doing any damage or being useful at all.

The game follows the same format as the other Game Boy titles with 4 bosses, then Wily, then 4 bosses, then climax. So you’ll be speeding through the game even with all of the deaths. I do recommend checking it out if you have the Switch Online though. No real downside even if it is over very quickly. It’s a fun game through and through so at the end of the day that’s the important thing.

Overall, Mega Man II is another fun game. I tend to prefer the other parts of the franchise more than the classic Mega Man series but it’s still consistently good. It really does help you hammer in the fundamentals of movement and how to get around obstacles. If you get lazy about this then you are going to absolutely get dominated when it counts. You have to always be shooting while managing to keep a good amount of space between you and the boss. If you get close then you are at a disadvantage because the boss will keep on bumping into you and taking out chunks of your health at a time. You have to prevent that from happening no matter what. Then if you pull it off, you get the satisfaction of knowing that you ended up saving the world.

Overall 6/10