The MegaMan 2 Challenge (New Wii VC release)

[LoneCynic]

MegaMan II was released on the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console downloadable game service today. A high point in a stellar series, and a favorite if not THE favorite of all MegaMan fans. How many times have you played it over the years? Do you ever deviate from your set path in level selection? A feature that made MegaMan a standout title in the 8-bit Nintendo days, choosing the stages in any order allowed for an incredible amount of replay factor in days when most games became stagnant after a playthrough or two. For the hardcore fans, I would like to present my stage order, and non-standard weapon choices for defeating each of the first eight stage bosses. Attempting this will not only increase the challenge of a game that many can beat easily, but also have you look at the game in a whole new light, as well as help you prepare for the release of MegaMan 9 next week. Without further ado, here is LoneCynic's MegaMan 2 Challenge:

From the main menu, begin the game on "Difficult", which is technically the "Normal" difficulty when compared to all the other games in the series. "Normal" setting is essentially a watered down, pansey mode for the un-initiated. Real men, "Mega" men, play on "Difficult".

Start with HeatMan, and suck it up. The disappearing block puzzle awaits you. No item 2 cheaters! Third block, jump and land on one directly above you, second block after that, do the same, then follow the sequence over the lava, and then over the ravene. Ignore the extra life, it is a trap, from which you cannot escape. When the pattern drops down above the ravene, the third block in a row will have one appear immediately above it, so be ready for that, then two more blocks, and you're accross. Fight HeatMan with Mega Buster, tag him, then jump him when he flame dashes towards you, turn, and imediately tag him again, this prevents him from throwing out the small flame pillars. He'll flame dash you again, jump over him, turn, tag, repeat. He'll be done in no time, and you'll be left wondering why you were ever so worried that you thought you had to have Bubble Lead and Item 2 for this stage. Playing it the way it was meant to be played will boost your confidence for the trials ahead.

Next up is QuickMan (You didn't think a MegaMan 2 Challenge would save him for last did you?) Keep moving and dodge the lasers, what a rush! When you make it to the end, don't think you've come unprepared for the fight. Switch to Atomic Fire and enter the door (Always Jump!) Your nemesis and mine, QuickMan aims to make quick work of your metal hide. Blast him with two fully charged Fire shots and you'll have him whittled down to a meager few bars of health, at which point you just laugh at his weakness and finish him off with the Mega Buster. Don't forget to throw in some insult about him not being as fast as he thought when his body explodes. You just killed one of the tougher bosses, and it always feels good to rub it in their faces after the fact. (If you want to really prove your mettle, you'll go after him with Mega Buster alone, and put him down in style, but for the challenge Atomic Fire is acceptable to help you out.)

Go ahead, you're dying to wield the Metal Blades already, go tackle that stage and grab your coveted weapon. You usually start with this stage and you know it, so it shouldn't be too difficult. You've got HeatMan's Item-1, so be sure to nab the extra life and second E-tank that you usually skip otherwise. Take MetalMan out with Mega Buster, you know what to do.

AirMan is next, take to the skies, and feel free to use your Metal Blades as you advance through the level. Be sure to pick up some extra lives from the birds that drop eggs along the way. AirMan won't die, in the Youtube Music video, but here you'll face him with Quick Boomerangs and waste him in style. Peice of cake, onto the next level..

Woodman's forest base is your next destination. Tear through this place with Metal Blades and enjoy the background drum beat. Halfway through, those pesky monkey bots try to swing up and smach you around, cut em down and laugh at their foolish attempts to attack you. "One step forward, two steps back", that old saying holds true at the home stretch when the atomic chickens try to claw your mechanical eyes out. You can dodge them all with style and impress anyone who happens to be watching your daring challenge run through the game. WoodMan waits at the end, and you're going to fight him with the Air Shooter. That's right, no Metal Blades, and certainly no Atomic Fire on this one. The Air Shooter does decent damage to him despite the odds, and that's what you'll blow him away with. The Level is a run and gun Metal Blade fest, but facing WoodMan with Air shooter is where the challenge lies. You'll be surprised how fun it is to fight him this way.

Next up is CrashMan, whose domain is full of networking pipes, and plenty of respawning enemies. I surely wouldn't send you here without the trusty leaf shield for the tower ascent at the end. There's no challenge in that, it's just plain annoying without it! Rush through to the end, climbing the left side of the tower to claim the energy tank near the top. Use Item-1 to access the ladder up to the 1up, and use Metal Blades to deal with the copter hoppers at the end. Finally, you will face CrashMan with Mega Buster alone. His pattern is simple, he runs to each corner of the room, then turns and goes to the other, and back and forth. When you fire, he responds by jumping at you and firing a Crash Bomb at the floor. Simply jump, firing a single shot at the height of your jump as he approaches you, and he'll jump right into it, launch his Crash Bomb at the floor, and land behind you, you'll land safely on the other side of the Crash Bomb. Go to the other corner opposite of him, turn and charge towards him as he charges towards you, jump, tag, miss the bomb, go to the other corner, turn and repeat. You'll waste him in no time, and probably not even get hit in the process. Makes the fight rather dramatic and enjoyable to say the least.

CrashMan is down, and two enemies remain. Head to the cliffs and accross the waterfall in search of BubbleMan's lair. Metal Blades, as usual, make the trip there a riot as mecha-frogs, giant fish and hermit crabs try in vain to stop you. BubbleMan waits at the end to be pummeled by the Quick Boomerang, which is what you will use in your encounter. It's over before you know it.

Last but not least, FlashMan's domain is your final destination. With Crash Bombs and Item-1 at your disposal, you can take any route you see fit, gathering 1ups and energy tanks as you go. When you reach the end, you'll bowl FlashMan over with the Bubble Lead. When the last one knocks him into a ten pin submission, don't forget to yell "Strike!"

Wily's fortress is up to you, finish the game as you normally would, but rush into battle knowing you tried something new and exciting on your trip there in this classic fan-favorite. Looking forward to discussions regarding your results of this challenge order, and talking about MegaMan 9 once it hits WiiWare next week!

[Ack]

Sad thing is, I always started with Flash Man...

Edited because I originally said Crash Man. Oops...

[glynnahab]

For me, it's always Metal Man first. Not very original, huh?

[Anubis]

I've gotten up to Wily's castle using just the Mega Buster before. No special weapons for me. This was also on Difficult mode.

[MrPopo]

You know, for all the years of playing Mega Man 2, this is the first time I've seen someone mention the idea of using the Leaf Sheild on the tower at the end. I always just climbed the thing.

I remember growing up, I never used special weapons except against bosses, as I didn't want to run out. Then around my forth time through Wily's Castle, at the second boss, I realized that the Metal Blade has a ton of shots. That severely changed the game for me.

[LoneCynic]

I was playing MegaMan II, and just wanted to have some fun writing something about it. So, how about returning the favor and telling me your stage orders and weapon choices, and I will try it out next time I play the game.

[D.D.D.]

I play MM2 all the time. Y'all should play every stage just with the pellet shooter, bosses included. It's fun~

[Ack]

The order I would usually play the bosses in...

Flash Man
Bubble Man
Heat Man
Air Man
Crash Man
Wood Man
Metal Man
Quick Man

Yeah, I know, I'd hit Quick Man last like most people. Sad thing is, it's not because of him, it's strictly because I hated his level so much. The only bosses I used weapons for would be in the later four, specifically Crash Man, Wood Man, and Quick Man. The others I tend to beat with just the Mega Buster. I have beaten those three before with no special weapons, but...well, it just makes it go by quicker. Mega Man 2 also had some great bosses in Wily's Castle. Man, some good times.

[MrPopo]

Yeah, the Dragon and the Guts Dozer were great. But that stupid room with the turrets, I hated that boss so much.

[Flashman85]

LoneCynic, the order you proposed is actually fairly close to what I would have suggested. Of course, I always like going through the stages in the reverse order so that you can never use the correct weapon on the boss you're fighting (which doesn't work so well for MM2 because some bosses have multiple vulnerabilities, but oh, well).

However, I might add a slight twist: play through the game using ONLY boss weapons (except when you have none or have no weapon energy left).

Ideally, you'll start off fighting the bosses whose weapons only use one bar of energy, and then diversify to the bosses whose weapons are real energy hogs.

There are two ways to do this: either switch to the Plasma Blaster when you run out of ammo and then switch back as you get some weapon energy powerups, or else just don't use the Plasma Blaster at all. Ever. If you run out of weapon energy, just dodge and hope to find a weapon energy powerup sitting around somewhere in the stage. All this includes using boss weapons on the various robot masters, whether you have the proper weapon to use against them or not.

I haven't playtested this order, but off the top of my head I think it might make for an interesting challenge if you're only using boss weapons:

Quick Man
Flash Man
Bubble Man
Heat Man
Air Man
Crash Man
Wood Man
Metal Man

Of course, be sure to continue to only use boss weapons throughout the Wily stages.

This is also interesting because the gameplay dynamic changes, and you can see which weapons are super effective and completely ineffective against certain enemies that you might never have thought to fight with the weapons at hand.

I, for one, prefer to use Mega Man's default weapon in any given game except when I really need a special weapon, so maybe you already play like this. Either way, it could be something different.