Game: Mega Man 2 [Mega Man Anniversary Collection] System: Nintendo Entertainment System [PS2] Developer: Capcom [Atomic Planet] Publisher: Capcom Player: Peter Gigliotti |  |
Game Overview
Mega Man 2 is seen as one of the best products in the original Mega Man series, and it has forever created the bar by which all Mega Man products are judged. However, when production began, the situation was not entirely positive. The original Mega Man had been rushed out of development in order to be released, and its release came to decent but not masterful reception. Despite this, Keiji Inafune and the rest of the Mega Man team wanted to create a sequel on which the engine could improve and expand into a greater product. Capcom management would allow this to go through, provided the team produce it on the side along with another project: Professional Baseball Murder Mystery. The team worked extensively on the project and even requested for fans to submit their own ideas for enemies in the game, a development concept used even today. After working hard on the project and adding a number of items and enemies unused from the first, the game was released and became the massive hit that helped propel the blue bomber into gaming popularity.
Mega Man 2 is an action side-scrolling game in which players control Mega Man as he ventures to defeat eight robot masters, designed by Dr. Wily with the intention to destroy him and take over the world. Players can choose any of the eight robot masters in any order, and after defeating each boss, Mega Man receives a power-up which can be used to defeat other enemies and bosses more easily, provided the player faces the right robot master. Furthermore, three of the robot masters contain special Items which can be used to assist Mega Man in venturing through the levels: a balloon, a jet, and a wall-climbing platform.
Once the eight robot masters are defeated, Mega Man can then rush into Dr. Wily’s base, a collection of levels requiring the use of several earned abilities and precise platforming to complete. At the end of the game, Mega Man must then face each robot master again before he can face Dr. Wily and his true form for good!
Since then…
Mega Man exploded in popularity following the second release, and as a result, Capcom quickly backed the development team, which produced an additional four Mega Man titles on NES. Part of the development team went on to move to the Super Nintendo, making Mega Man 7 while the original team worked with Keiji Inafune to create Mega Man X, a series which would reach 8 games and a number of spin-offs, itself. After X3, however, the original Mega Man team broke apart, most forming the company Inti-Creates. Some years later, that same developer would start to work with Capcom on newer handheld Mega Man franchises: Mega Man Zero (1-4), Mega Man ZX, and Mega Man ZX Advent. The Mega Man Zero Collection is available on DS alongside the ZX titles.
However, the old Mega Man franchise remained quiet as the X series grew, and it was not until 2008 that Inti-Creates and Keiji Inafune would begin to work on a new Classic Mega Man adventure: Mega Man 9. This game focused heavily on the game design of Mega Man 2, removing additional moves such as the slide and charge shot (available as Proto Man) and adding a collection of Mega Man 2 level design and musical references. Mega Man 10 would focus more on the gameplay design of Mega Man 4 than 2, but its classic 8-bit graphics still bring memories of the older NES classic.
As for rereleases, Mega Man 2 has seen itself on a myriad of platforms. Mega Man 2, along with 1 and 3, was remade for the Sega Genesis in Mega Man: The Wily Wars. Mega Man 2, along with the rest of the NES series, saw a rerelease on the Playstation with a changed soundtrack. Furthermore, the game is part of Atomic Planet’s Mega Man Anniversary Collection for PS2, Xbox and GameCube [this is, in fact, what we used to record this LP]. Recently, Mega Man 2 has seen releases on both Wii’s Virtual Console and even on iOS. It has certainly not escaped the minds of consumers, even today!
The compiler of Mega Man Anniversary Collection is Atomic Planet Entertainment, a UK-based developer whose products have varied in quality. The company had been working on a special handheld game which remade all five Mega Man handheld products (titled Mega Man Mania), but the game was officially cancelled, as the original game codes had been lost and unable to be copied correctly by APE. Since the release of MMAC, the company released a couple more collections, including both Taito Legends and Taito Legends 2. In late 2008, the company became redundant and is currently in administration. I guess their future is not so good. The company’s last product is The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep for PS2 and DS.
The Let’s Play
Our player this time is one Peter Gigliotti, and in his first venture into Game On, he decided to play through his most favorite game ever: Mega Man 2. As with previous plays, we heard promises of complete showdowns of epic proportions. He did not provide any specific goals, but he said he would feel pretty bad if he had to die or continue at all in the game.
He also noted that he would try to speed through the game as much as possible, and with the show’s two usual audience members, Pete would begin his epic journey toward Mega Man 2’s defeat.
Post-Mortem
We tried to gather up more people for the audience, but unfortunately the shooting was extremely close to Finals and cut away people from participating in the actually event. Even Chack, who had thought of joining us on the event, had to do other things that night. Thursday nights are usually not for Let’s Plays and more for drinking things down that contain alcohol.
This was the first Game On: Let’s Play filming in which Chack had no involvement. Note that our shoots used two cameras, a DVC Pro for the player and an HVX to capture the game footage.
Without Chack, it was a lot harder to gather up the equipment and set up for filming. Thankfully, the shoot was completed, but the episode would not be finished until the following semester, thanks to RTN’s open hours or lack thereof. Note that while the videos are HD, that is solely to ensure the original video quality remains intact; the game, being MMAC, is washed out moreso than previously recorded games, unfortunately.
As for the LP itself: Pete did alright, though he died in the first level he played, a bad sign. His initial start, barring the issues at the beginning, was fairly smooth, though he dilly-dallied quite a bit along the way. We still had hopes he would finish in less than an hour, though! However, our dreams were dashed when he got to Wily Stage 1. Glitches hit and problems arose against the boss, and ultimately be grew dangerously close to using a Continue. He also forced himself to die against the Boobeam Trap boss in order to destroy the walls. While there is a way to defeat the boss in one fight, his method was to destroy the walls and then destroy the boss the second go around. This caused a cut in the footage, resulting in added time on his part.
Where he fails the hardest is against the Final Wily boss. He fails to defeat him three times using the Bubble Lead ability, with only one shot needed to kill him in one instance. As a result, Pete had to off himself and forcibly use a Continue, after which he almost failed to defeat the Final Wily boss again. The failure of this end part is priceless, and while sad for Pete, certainly humorous to watch after the fact.
While discussion could have been better, Mega Man 2’s end segments make up for any dead space we had. And thus ends Game On: Let’s Play Season 1.
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