Mega Man II (Rock Man World 2 in japan) is the second Mega Man entry for the Game Boy released in 1992. This time Capcom has changed out the company who helped create the first game and have decided to work with Japan House Studio Corp for this latest entry. Will Mega Man II improve on the success that was Mega Man: Dr.Wily’s Revenge? Has this game stood the test of t- no, no it hasn’t. Let’s skip to the review:

Story

With a time machine he stole from a testing lab, Dr. Wily goes to the future to find new technology to assist him in taking over the present. Once there he managed to kidnap the Mega Man from the future, disarmed during a time of peace, and reprogram him into a super fighting robot (with a pogo stick) and brings him back to the past to destroy the present Mega Man.

General

Read the Mega Man Dr.Wilys Revenge review, the first game in the Game Boy line, to get a basic summary of what most of this game is like. A lot of it is identical except a few changes that really end up hurting this game. But before we get to that let’s go over some changes.
This game is a combination of Mega Man 2 and 3, the Slide from Mega Man 3 makes an appearance in this game as well as Rush. The first 4 Bosses in this game are, Air Man, Crash Man, Metal Man, and Wood Man. The Mega Man 3 bosses are Top Man, Hard Man, Needle Man, and Magnet Man.
The play control in this game has taken a bit of a hit. Sometimes Mega Man does not perform an action in a split second, and the stages feel designed for a smaller sprite. You’ll constantly be bumping in to things or just barely making jumps with the unresponsive controls. Enemy placements are just bizarre and a pain. The recreations of the Mega Man 2 levels are mixed at best except Crash Mans which I believe wasn’t fully tested before release, unless my game is just bugged.
In this game the “Mega Man Killer” is Quint. Quint is like a combination green Mega Man with Proto Man shades riding on a pogo stick. Apparently this is Mega Man captured in the future and turned into an enemy. In this hard fight you must stand in the corner of the room and shoot at him, then uh….
Once he is defeated you actually can use his Pogo Stick, called Sakugarne(It’s actually more like a jackhammer), but its mostly just novelty and doesn’t have real use.

Sound

As with the first game the sound effects are virtually identical (outside a small quality downgrade) to the NES versions of the series. However, music seems to have been rushed as you hear very tingy high pitched ice cream truck like music throughout the game. There isn’t really a stand out track in this game, and although not all are bad some are more tolerable than others.

Graphics

The graphics in this game are decent recreations of the NES games although unlike the first Game Boy game proportions seem to be off, the graphics are less smooth and more fuzzy, and certain images appear muddy. The graphics seem to have taken a downgrade despite the engine already being available, which leads me to believe that Capcoms new outsource company had either messed with the engine of the first game or created their own graphical engine. The difference is quite noticeable in motion as well, animations sometimes cut off or stay static.
The game also seems to have a bit more slowdown but a tad less flicker than the first game. I will admit however for a Game Boy game even Mega Man II’s graphics are something that will stand up to many other games on the system, but its a shame that the achievements reached with the first game were not expanded upon.

Conclusion

I am not sure why Capcom decided to work with another company for the second entry in the Game Boy lineup of Mega Man games. The first Game Boy entry had a solid foundation to improve upon, and the quality of this title has suffered by the staff change. Many of the highlights are now negatives, and some of the weaknesses have gotten worse. Granted, the game still has many good points, and although it is the worst of the 5 Game boy games it’s still not a terrible game even on its own. It’s got quite a few issues to make it less enjoyable to play through but it’s still an example of what the Game Boy can do if you put enough effort and resources into a project, despite the machines low specifications on paper. But even I would often skip this game when I would back to replay the GB games.
 

Score 2/5