MEGA MAN 2: THE LAST MEGA MAN

*DISCLAIMER: Since I am framing the article as a story about the last Mega Man game, which was made in Japan as Rockman, I try to use the Japanese title, however I do jump between the too. I'm sorry, please forgive me*

As I sit and watch the Mega Man 2 speedrun of GDQ 2019, followed by me booting up Mega Man 2 for yet another run myself, I can't help but think about how much I love this game. No, I don't just love this game, I adore it, it's my favorite game ever! Then I remembered: everyone else loves this game as well.

Maybe this was a poor choice for my first column.

What is there to say about Mega Man 2 that hasn't already been said before? Do I talk about the gameplay? The music? The impact on action platformers as a whole? The fact that this was a passion project and the developers thought this was the last game in the series?

Ya. Let's go with that.

Imagine you are working at Capcom in 1987 (good for you!) And Rockman (Mega Man) was just released on to the world. You were part of a team who wasnt used to "console games" yet. Despite your passion and hard work, the game was met with less than favorable sales. Capcom (who later in history will be famous for making sequels if there is even a little bit of money to be had) decided not to go forward with another game and splits the team up to work on other projects. No plans for a Rockman 2, the series has been shelved.

Now the story goes that Akira Kitamura went up to his superiors at Capcom and asked to work on a sequel to Rockman with his team. Capcom agrees, but will only allow you and the rest of the team to work on Rockman 2 if you keep working on the other projects assigned to you. Rockman is a passion project only. No talks of franchises, no other sequels, this is it.

The last Rockman game.

So what do you do? How do you prove to the world that this game idea is good, or at least make a send up to honor the blue bomber? In terms of the gameplay it is simple, you focus only on the parts of the game that were fun and kept the action going. The developers also made sure you had all of the tools to handle the obstacles in front of you by yourself. Sure, that sounds like a given, but this was the NES/Famicom era. This was an era of punishing level designs that were not meant to be defeated, but to pad the game's play time out. An era of secret manual codes, home made maps, and game saving tips in magazines that allowed you to actually finish the game you bought. Even Rockman 1 did this to a degree. There are way more enemies that you actually cannot shoot with your Mega Cannon, rather because they were too small or invincible. Enemies would swarm you from both sides at a speed the player could not respond to. Bullet patterns were not created with the players movement or placement in mind, instead just filling up most of the screen. It was artificial difficulty.

Rockman 2 ditches that level philosophy by allowing every obstacle in the game to be defeated with moving, jumping, or shooting. Levels were made so that the player can see the danger at a distance in which you can analyze and decide which aspect of your skill set you should use to get past this obstacle. This allowed for a more streamlined experiences that highlighted the strength of Rockman and what made the game so fun to play. This also inadvertently laid the groundwork for action platformers that followed.

Let's dive in the story and world building, because in terms of tone, this is a drastically different game than what came before or after it in the series.

It starts with a text crawl and an amazing pump up theme song, getting the player and Rockman excited. Sure, known supervillain Dr. Wily is back with 8 more robots stolen from Dr Light, but as the text just pointed out at the bottom of the screen, Rockman has defeated Dr Wily before. This is going to be easy. Rockman looks off confidently into the middle distance, puts on his helmet and the adventure starts.

The levels do a lot of world building to introduce you to the Robot Master you are about to fight. To best demonstrate this, image a Rockman 1 level, Bomb Man will do fine. Picture the light blue background with the two metal trees in the background. Try and remember the enemies, most of which were variations of ovals shooting bullets at you. None of that screams "a bomb master lives here" doesn't it?

Now remember Bubble Man? Do you remember all of the crabs, frogs, shrimps, and jellyfish you fought to get to the end?

Do you remember Metal Man? The orange gears in the background that felt like it was a part of the same machine as the orange clamps coming right down on top of you (look out!)?

Do you remember Air Man? How the music was filled with beautiful crescendos that made you feel above it all while you were riding the clouds? You felt like you were in their world, in their element and you are gonna have to fight your way through.

Wily even showcased his own personality in his levels. The music starts to build up into more of a faster pace, epic song to get the player excited. Not only that, did you notice how the level design for the bosses had no "cheap" tactics? Nothing you couldn't react to and figure out on a first try (heat man not included). Everything can be handled with the tools you have and basic critical thinking. But it is in these levels that we see bosses that can only be hit with a certain item, levels with invisible holes in them, an overabundance of spikes. These levels seem a lot more unfair. And two of the bosses (the dragon and the alien) are nothing more than a ballon and a hologram. There is a reason for all of this. Dr Wily, your arch enemy, is pulling out all the stops to make sure you don't get to him. It wasn't just a way to make the game arbitrarily impossible, it was thematic.

But no parlor tricks, gimmicks, or giant flying machines will stop you. You defeat Dr Wily and he begs for mercy and finds some way to escape. But instead of a "guess you'll get him next time" tease, Rockman walks away. He looks tired and defeated, thinking about how difficult the journey was (which you the player can agree with, since the game is famously hard. This creates a bond between the player and the character). Rockman realizes that even though he defeated Wily and his robot masters, Rockman lost. A far cry from the outward looking, confident robot in the game's opening, instead we see a defeated, inward reflecting robot who realizes that this isn't a game. His actions have consequences. Rockman then takes his helmet, a signal that was used to start this adventure, places it on the ground, and walks away. A somber, but respectful ending that feels final.

There are so many things to talk about when it comes to Mega Man 2: it's ability to allow you to choose the bosses, the art design, its characters, but what stands out the most is the passion and dedication of the team at Capcom to create an experience that shows their love for this character and this game.

So how do you create a final Mega Man game? Simple, you make the best Mega Man game.