Mini Mega Man Marathon March Mania; Mega Man 2: The Brentalfloss quoting is extremely tempting...

And the reason it is tempting is because of his "What if 'x' had lyrics" series was some of the first exposure I ever had to Mega Man (aside from the Smash 4 announcement trailer). I knew of him, but not enough to start playing the series. Now, why is this so late? Aside from the "I thought it was Monday" that I posted to Twitter, the other reasons were a project I was working on over the long weekend needing major reworking (Yes its on that trailer. Since when was Mediaholics ever punctual when it comes to these sorts of things?) and personal commitments taking up today. This started writing as soon as I finished dinner. We're going back to old school Mediaholics writing, where I had no idea I could schedule these!

Starting with the story (which once again, is simple, but still relegated to the instruction manual). Dr. Wily has returned and instead of reprograming six of Dr. Light's Robot Masters, he built his own Robot Masters, 8 of them in fact which from here on out will basically become the franchise standard. Mega Man is no longer equipped with the powers of the first game's Robot Masters... for some reason, and so you have to beat the new Robot Masters, get the new powers, and stop Dr. Wily once again. Simple, yet effective.

In terms of gameplay, its the exact same gameplay as Mega Man 1. In fact, for the first six Mega Man games, not much changes at all. Some games add new abilities aside from the 8 new Robot Masters, there's a bit more padding, but especially with the visuals, there isn't much of a difference between Mega Man 1 and Mega Man 6 (so why I decided to do these one at a time is beyond me). That being said, I find this game to be a bit easier overall compared to Mega Man 1. It feels a bit fairer in terms of structure. One of the powers also breaks the game, which does not help matters. Metal Man's Metal Blades can fire in 8 directions, uses little ammo (not sure if I mentioned last week, the Robot Master powers have limited ammo, but your default gun has infinite ammo), and can fire through regular enemies. Basically, you have no reason to not use this weapon as soon as you get it, and it is entirely possible to beat Metal Man's stage first. The weapon is so broken that he's weak to his own weapon (as you'll learn in the Boss Rush part of the end game). A lot of the powers are extremely useful though, including Wood Man's Leaf Shield when on moving platforms, Quick Man's Quick Boomerang for those not wanting to use Metal Blades, Flash Man (no not that kind of flashing) 's Time Stopper (especially in Quick Man's stage), are a few examples of this. This game also debuts E tanks, an item to heal your health if you're low on health. These are limited but are very helpful later in the game.

Visually, the game's about on par with its predecessor... and its four NES sequels... and maybe 9 and 10 for the Wii... Mega Man quickly developed a visual style I'll put it that way. It's still very nice sprite work though, so it's not a problem especially for its time, but its a sign of these games having rushed development cycles. Thankfully more work was done to the music. WE HAVE A GAME INTRO THEME THIS GAME! And an excellent one at that. Other really strong songs for me are Metal Man, Quick Man, Air Man, Flash Man, Wood Man and Heat Man's themes along with Dr. Wily Stage one (naturally). Again, these soundtracks are really good on their own, and some of the things people have been able to do with them are amazing (need I point you any further than the Mega Man 2 Medley from Smash 4?).

I had a lot more fun with this game compared to Mega Man 1. It was still hard, but there were more times when I felt like I messed it up and not the game (though there are still some things that are a pain in the ass in this game, still not as bad as those conveyors though).