Mega Man’s Worst 2s
Running on nearly 22 years now, there are a lot of Mega Man games out there. A lot are good, some are legendary, and some just kind of stink. However, there is an unwritten rule, so to speak, that Mega Man gets better the second time around. The most obvious of these examples is Mega Man 2. Mega Man likely would not be Mega Man without Mega Man 2. Another example is MegaMan Battle Network 2, which brought many improvements to the battle system, had better designed maps and even more interesting characters.
But there are exceptions to the rule! Not every number two in Mega Man is gold, but is more of a… number two. Yes, we may be Mega Man fans here, but it’s not all milk and honey. We’re discerning! Thus, I’ve picked three Mega Man successors that just don’t live up to the original that came before it, starting with the one I feel is the most abhorrent.
The winners!
Mega Man II
For: Game Boy
Released: 1992
Mega Man II (we use Roman numerals to denote the Game Boy titles) is possibly the first example of a truly awful Mega Man game in the series history, but since action platformers were so popular at the time, people may not have realized it right away. Granted, I can’t see anyone arguing that Mega Man II is awesome. Even Keiji Inafune admits that the game was outsourced to people who just didn’t “get” Mega Man, and apologizes for its awfulness.
Man, where to begin on this one? The game controls feel strange and sluggish, even compared to the rest of the Game Boy titles which could not be as fast paced as the NES games due to the restricted screen size. Hit detection is a bit off, making it impossible to avoid enemies sometimes. And this despite the fact that a lot of the enemies and bosses are oddly shrunken down in size, although Mega Man himself remains the same size. On the other hand, some oddities work in your favor: power up items restore more of your health than before, and bosses don’t have any period of invincibility when damaged. Many of the bosses can quickly be slaughtered with the Mega Buster. You can even shoot through Wood Man’s shield!
One of the worst points of the game is its sound. Almost none of the music is from the games Mega Man II borrows its content from, and all of it is high pitched and grating (though the melodies themselves aren’t horrible, and can be done more justice). Many sound effects suffer the same fate. They’re much too high pitched, or just sound otherwise lame.
However, the thing I despise most about Mega Man II is Quint. He is, in my opinion, the worst character in the entire Mega Man franchise. I could write a whole article just on how stupid I think Quint is. But instead I’ll just explain the story behind Quint. He’s actually Mega Man from the future, who Dr. Wily kidnapped by using a time machine and modified him into his own battle robot. Oh, and he uses a pogo stick to fight. Who honestly thought this was a good idea? Mega Man from the future? A pogo stick? I can see what it is they were going for. They wanted to make another enigmatic character with a surprising background to mirror Proto Man’s role in Mega Man 3. But seriously, a POGO STICK?
And if that weren’t enough, Bandai later made their own Mega Man game for their Wonderswan handheld where Quint is actually the main enemy. Except he’s not Quint, but the rejected robot Dr. Wily produced while trying to modify the future Mega Man. In other words, he’s the robot that was too crappy to be Quint. This makes Mega Man II worse by association.
The only good thing I can say about Mega Man II is that it ended up being the first Mega Man game I ever beat, and increased my confidence toward beating the others.
MegaMan Star Force 2
For: Nintendo DS
Released: 2008
The Star Force series really got it rough. It was rejected by many classic Mega Man fans for being different, and because so many classic fans are cynical, crotchety old men anymore. But it was also rejected by a good deal of Battle Network fans for simply not being Battle Network, even though the series is very similar. However, I thought the original MegaMan Star Force was a delightful game. It had an interesting storyline, a battle system that let people set up attacks more easily compared to Battle Network, and it still had vestiges from Battle Network such as Navis and being able to go inside of machines. Say what you will about Star Force, the game still managed to sell nearly a million copies worldwide, and that’s pretty good for a first time.
But then came MegaMan Star Force 2. What I dislike about Star Force 2 is how much it disregards what came before it. There are no more Navis, but instead weird, cartoony looking material wave things. There’s also no more going inside of machines – everything takes place on the wave road. While this might not seem like a big deal, it takes away from the game’s theme of how advancements in technology can also be dangerous.
Moreover, though, it disrgards its own predecessor. One of the neat things about the first Star Force is how we could watch Geo grow as a character as he helped other characters. They all came off as pretty integral characters, but now suddenly they’re either gone or unimportant. Remember what a big deal it was for Geo to start going to school? Well there is no school in this game! What about Aaron, who was a close friend of Geo’s father’s and the remaining link Geo had to his father? He just stands around now and offers little bits of advice. Oh, and then there’s Sonia. She wanted to create music from her heart, not to be a part of the industry. She was inspired by her mother, who had passed away. Geo showed her that that was alright. Well, now she’s fully back in the industry, and even appears on advertisements all over the place. Good going, you sell out.
Instead of characters which Geo had close relations with, we get dopey villain characters who like to be bad simply for the sake of being bad. And while the UMA angle was interesting, ultimately they’re characters no one’s really going to care about or remember. Even Rogue, who’s just a rip off of Bass, who wasn’t terribly interesting to begin with.
That aside, everything else just feels mediocre. They removed most of the touch screen aspect to game missions that the original had. The music is bland and cartoonish. There’s nothing really even space themed about the game. What happened to the satellites that governed the Earth? What happened to connection with the FM planet?
If there’s one thing I can say in defense of Star Force 2, it had a good battle system. Being able to combine the Tribe transformations was a neat idea, and it’s also the first game that lets people play wi-fi battles together. Furthermore, Star Force 3 would eventually come along and pull the weight of practically all of Star Force 2′s shortcomings. It was that much better of a game, and yet it failed to attract people to the series, probably because of how bad Star Force 2 was. Many stores didn’t even sell Star Force 3 because they still had copies of 2 sitting around in the bargain bin. It also doesn’t help that Capcom of Europe decided not to localize Star Force 3.
I truly believe Star Force 2 is what killed the series.
Mega Man ZX Advent
For: Nintendo DS
Released: 2007
I’m certain I’m going to catch some flack on this one, and truthfully ZX Advent isn’t a horrible game. But it does nothing to go beyond being medicore. Besides that, I feel like the ZX series was little more than a haven for die hard Mega Man X fans who weren’t going to join the Battle Network/Star Force crowd, so they took what they could get.
Yet, ZXA’s major let down is similar to that of Star Force 2′s: a lack of continuity. Rather than expanding on what happened in ZX directly, ZXA takes place years later and stars all new protagonists. And rather than use the new characters and settings to explain more about ZX’s history, it just adds more questions. At what point did Axl become a Biometal? How is it that Albert’s data got into the other Biometals? Weren’t they created by the original leader of Guardian? And why are the other Biometals working with Albert’s henchmen? When and how did they get stolen?
The boss copy feature was also kind of a letdown. While a neat idea in theory, many of the boss characters were no fun to play as. Their only real functions were for getting across specific areas made specially for them. Outside of those parts, I’m pretty sure everyone played as Model H or Z the rest of the time.
Everything else about ZXA is just meh. It’s music was good, but coming 20 years into the series it has a lot of other great Mega Man music to stand up against. The characters were interesting, but outside of Vulturon perhaps, none of them are very memorable. What probably stands out the most about ZXA is its Mega Man a minigame, which would serve as a harbinger for Mega Man 9.
But ultimately, ZXA’s major failing is that it didn’t do enough to warrent its continuation. It’s clear Inti Creates intended to continue on with the series, but the game was too bland for many people to care enough. Thanks to this, ZX takes the crown from MegaMan Legends of being the shortest lived Mega Man series.
Honorable mention
Mega Man X2
For: Super Nintendo
Released: 1994
No, Mega Man X2 is not a bad game. But is it any better than Mega Man X? It doesn’t really feel like it. The music isn’t quite as good. Sigma’s new henchmen aren’t as cool as Vile was (arguably the coolest of the three ends up turning into a hot dog). Don’t get me wrong, X2 is very fun, and is certainly way better than a lot of the more recent X titles, which really jumped the shark. But I don’t know if I can find anyone who thinks it’s better than the first X. That’s all I’m saying.
Filed under: Editorials
ZX Advent was a bit disappointing. it was even more disappointing that it was delayed in europe for over a year. check wiki if you dont believe me.
but the awesome 8bit mini game makes up for it.
I should know, cause I was foolish to wait that long and have the voices taken out of the PAL copy
have to think long and hard about MMX2 compared to the first one. there both good games but cant put my finger on which one is better though. hmmmmmm….
as a fan of the megaman games, I do get a bit concern when a megaman game gets milked to death.
Mega Man X 2 is the best Megaman game ever in my opinion.
I can t undertstand you, the sound is brilliant.
I play the game very often on the SNES.
No X2 is the best of the X series and the best of all megaman games.
I agree entirely in regard to Megaman II. I played it for the first time and I’m like “What happened?”.
I only ever played Star Force 1, and enjoyed it, but the second one didn’t change enough for me to be interested, so I can’t really say anything.
Advent was okay. It seemed rushed and it wasn’t near as difficult as I’d liked it to have been. I would have preferred a return to Vent and Aile instead of new characters.
And as for X2, I agree with every word Sesshomaru just said. My feelings are exactly the same
I agree with this list, except for Mega Man II only because I’ve never played it; So I’ll just take your word for it. Though the Starforce 2 section is spot on. It felt dumbed down in so many areas. Like Bud, who wasn’t so stupid in SF1, just easily pushed around by Luna. SF3 got a lot of things right, so much that I feel that it makes up for SF1′s shortcomings (i.e. the awkward adjustment period for BN fans). Heck, I think SF3 is how the series should have been right from the start. For me, SF2′s only saving graces are a few choice songs (Sky Wave, Under Loch Mess, Wave Battle) and the flashy transformation sequences and attack.
As for ZXA, I’ve yet to play the entire game as I don’t think I can sit through Ashe’s side of the story. Her weird booty fetish is (ironically) kind of a turn off. Please, someone get a thesaurus to Japan so we can stop having such bland and tasteless video game chit chat. Just look at what happened to Dissidia! (ConflictConflictConflictConflictConflict) Sorry, but I don’t think my appetite will be wet for booty any time soon.
Totally agree about MM II. MMZXA I mostly agree, although playing as the hedgehog model was fun too (cept you got him at the end of the game : ( ). MegaMan X is my favorite of the X series, so I agree about X2 not being an AWESOMe sequel as well.
Starforce 2, though, I think was better than 1. I did like some story elements in 1 like you said, but I think that’s also what made 2 cool for me. In the first one, Geo was depressed most of the time, and even the town music seemed sad. It’s much more cheerful in 2, and Geo’s icon is smiling a lot more. The battle system improvements were great, online battling/linking made it more fun to play through, and most of the bosses were monstrous in size, which is a welcome change from the usual bosses in EXE/SF games (besides the final ones of course). One thing I will mention that bugged me which got cut off from SF1 was the Gemini-guy, pretty much non-existant. But then he really WAS non-existant in 3 so, eh.
But yea, it does seem like most of the 2 games for MegaMan end up great. But MM3′s my favorite, and tons of people love MMBN3, so obviously Legends 3…
I won’t try to defend ZXA from a story perspective. I did, however, love its gameplay. I thought there were a lot of improvements over the first, getting rid of or improving on things that didn’t work in the first and adding new ones. It wasn’t perfect, but I loved it. In fact, I actually got one of my friends that normally doesn’t touch Mega Man games to get totally hooked on it. But hey, these are all just opinions anyway and its a-ok to have differing ones
Well, I have a few things to say here.
MegaMan II was the first Video Game I could ever call my own(Me and my brother shared other games), and since it was MegaMan, I loved it.
Sure, it had some flaws that you pointed out, but its more of childhood memory to me. Besides, How is it worse than MegaMan: Wily’s Revenge?
MegaMan StarForce 2 was in my opinion, indefinitely better than the first. Who cares if the Navi’s are gone, they shouldn’t have been there to begin with. Nobody uses Navi’s as they used to, so they were like lost souls from the now deceased BN series.
I thought that the UMAs were pretty cool, but the lack of anything even remotely space-related in SF2 sort of threw me off. But that was alright, it was still better than the first, to me.
better Cards, harder Bosses, and FINALLY… They got the system right.
Being able to equip the OOPARTs was just awesome.
I was so disappointed in the first game when I barely ever got a chance to go Green Dragon, where this game was DIRECTLY following BN6, where you could choose the Crosses from an in-battle menu, and not a random Card in your folder.
They really screwed that up, but they fixed it in SF2.
As for Advent, I completely agree that it was a serious step-down from ZX.
Plus, ever since MegaMan X7, I always thought that Axl was an annoying little runt.
Now, MegaMan X2. This one really got to me.
First of all, where do you get off saying the music isn’t as good? The OSTs of X, X2, and X3, are all very different styles. X seems to be more serious, X2 seems to be more fun/upbeat, and X3 seems more hardcore(sounds the most “metal”). If that makes sense.
Not to mention, like MegaMan 2 on NES, X2 introduced some cool things, such as X starting off with Dash(thanks X1 >__> ), Giga Attack, Air Dash, and along with Giga Attack, it generally introduced “bonus” gauges in the Pause screen(Such as the Helmet sensor-thing, X3′s Charge Attack spam, etc).
X2 could be declared better than X1 for a few reasons, but I agree that there aren’t too many. To me its more of a matter of opinion, regardless.
I honestly can’t decide between X1-3, but I know for a fact that all the other X games are discluded from No.1
In conclusion, I do agree that MMII could have been better, StarForce could have related to the storyline more, and so could Advent. That doesn’t necessarily make them bad games, though.
I agree when you say X2 wasn’t really better than X1. It definitely wasn’t as big an improvement as MM2 was compared to MM1, but I have to disagree about the music. Except for Morph Moth’s theme maybe, every single tune in the game is just brilliant. I can’t see why many people think X2 has a bad soundtrack (I’ve seen many who down right hate it); but well, who am I to judge.
Absolutely perfect list.
Mega Man II is just bad.
Starforce 2 really killed the series for me. I loved the Battle Network games, and I found Starforce to be pretty good, even if not as good as BN. But Starforce 2.. made me hate the series. And I didn’t purchase Starforce 3, even if I know it’s a good game.
ZX Advent is just meh. Really bad voice acting, uninspired level design, forgettable bosses. I don’t know what happened to Inti Creates with that one.. ZX wasn’t very good too (the lack of a map killed the game) but the bosses were much better, and the powers were more limited but at least useful.
I’d have to say that X2 was better than X1.
Magna Centipede’s level had in my opinion the best stage music in the entire X series. The hover bike was a nice touch. the powers were great, not too broken, nor completely worthless *cough* X3 *cough*. sure it wasn’t the best sigma boss, but the fight against zero was great.
About half of my sadness towards the Maverick Hunter X remakes being canned is because we’d never get the X2 soundtrack redone
I would have played every single one of those. Is anyone else as sad as I am about that?
ZX was better than ZXA, and SF2 was pretty crap also. The battle system in SF2 was upgraded, but everything else about it was awful. It introduced WiFi… but they let you use CODES to have Tribe King, which lets ALL of your cards do 2x damage, and not only that, you could also put more than 1 Giga Card in your folder. WiFi could’ve saved it somewhat, but it failed on all aspects. Never played MMII GB, and I’ve barely played X2, so I can’t really say much on those. But MMII GB is probably right. X2 is probably really good, but of course not as good as X1.
@DuoDynamo: I agree X2 has a fine soundtrack. I just don’t find it quite as nice as X’s. Sure it’s a matter of taste ultimately, but to me X’s music has that perfect balance of rock ‘n’ roll with action video game music.
Too me X2 goes on the top of the list but oh well.
Well well where to begin…as I have stated on other blogs on this site, I am a colossal Mega Man fan and I love all of the games and all of the series. Now no matter what it is, if its a series then there will be a best one and there will be a worst one, that is just the way of things. Personally I have always loved the Classic series best and Mega Man II as shown here falls under the classic series. While I agree that it certainly wasn’t the best of the series or even of the 5 game boy games I don’t think that it was the worst either (having Quint be an absolute pushover gives it extra points and it has my favourite Mega Man boss ever (Airman)).
I would probably call the X series my second favourite series and once again I disagree and would say (again) that X2 was not the best one but it was not the worst one either. The music was plenty bouncy (especially Overdrive Ostrich and Wheel Gator’s stages). The bosses are a tad frustrating but then they’re supposed to be, its the X series remember…harder than classic.
I didn’t play the ZX series too much but a friend of mine does and she seemed to think that ZX Advent was an improvement over the original (but again I can only speculate based on her opinions).
Finally, I think the Starforce series is fantastic, I will admit that Battle Network was better, but Starforce plays almost the same, the characters are cute and engaging and I love the story. I can’t really say 2 was better than one or worse, but I would rate them about the same actually. (I am still playing through 3) LOL.
I will post a list of best and worst games later tonight, until then all, keep Blue Bombing (corny I know, but what ya’ gonna do….).
I also meant to mention, but was remiss, than in contrast to Mega Man II’s poor production, Mega Man IV and Mega Man V are not just fantastic, but some of the best Mega Man games created.
Please don’t mention Star Force 2. It hurts to think about a series being so thoroughly run into the ground in one blow.
Hey, you forgot about how ZX Advent’s maps were only minutely less useless than the original’s!
X2 was awesome, except it needed longer stages. X3 fixed that, but to compensate it had god awful music.
I wholeheartedly agree about Gameboy MMII. The music sounds like nails scratching a chalkboard in hell. And it was way too easy.
Well this list is just based on someone’s opinion. . we all have different taste. I mean I totally disagree about this list.
Oh! Oh! Next, you should write an article on the number 6′s in Mega Man!
I disagree with your opinions on X2 and Zxa. I think X2′s music
was spectacular. The atmosphere was more entergetic and the 8
bosses were more interesting. True, Vile was more interesting than
the X-hunters, but they served the plot moreso than his character type
would have.
As far as zxa goes, it was better in EVERY single aspect than the first.the music,
graphics, map system, bosses,story, And characters were all more
interesting than Zx.
Okay…for starters, if you don’t like a game, that’s fine, but I think its a bit harsh to call Starforce “run into the ground” when its barely 3 games old. (Considering how classic has run for 9 consoles and 6 hand-helds (including Mega Man & Bass) and the X series is now 9 consoles (including Command Mission) and 3 hand-helds old) This isn’t even taking remakes like Mega Man Powered Up and Maverick Hunter X into consideration. Starforce still has much yet to convey ans as I said earlier, while it is merely Battle Network with a facelift in some respects it is still a great game series.
Now on to what I said I would post earlier. I read through the article above and I have to say that while I understand where they are coming from, I would not rate the games they listed as the worst Mega Man games ever. I also want to state again that I think ALL the Mega Man games are fantastic in one way or another, but there has to be a first place and there has to be a last place and here they are:
For Classic Series:
Best: Mega Man 2 (NES)
This one should be obvious, it is the most memorable of any Mega Man game. Anyone who knows anything about this game series can identify or remember some part of it (especially the music). Even the great Keiji Inafune has admitted that this title was his favourite one.
Worst: Mega Man I (GB)
This one gets title of the worst simply because it was still in its early stages of development for the Game Boy. The music was nothing special and you might as well have just played Mega Man 1 for the NES to make it feel better. Still I do understand that it was the first Game Boy title and it is difficult to be near perfect on the first try.
For X Series
Best: Mega Man X(1) (SNES)
Contrary to what I just said above, this time Capcom got it perfect (or at least near perfect) right off the get go. X1 was gripping, exciting to play with awesome music and stage design, heck it was even great to watch others play it! The problem with starting great right off the cuff is that the following games tend to go downhill, and they did (albeit gradually) but it eventually brought us to…..
Worst: Mega Man X6/X7 (SNES
Okay so its a tie, while these two were fun in their own way, they proved to be far too frustrating and not as thrilling as some of the other X titles X6 had a great story but the controls were a tad annoying (especially when using Zero) and the stages could be very irritating! (I did like being able to choose either X or Zero at the start of every stage however). X7 just made me groan however (along with many other fans) and this time it was the opposite from X6. The controls were relatively fine and the stage design was okay but the story was just awful and some of the boss fights were not so much hard but annoying. Its a shame too because contrary to what someone above has said, I love Axl, he is an excellent character and a nice compliment to the series; shame he had to premiere in this game though. I like him a lot better in X8.
For Zero Series
Best: Megaman Zero 4 (GBA)
This time its short and sweet, 4 was EASIER than the others. Don’t get me wrong, I love a challenge and 3 had some good ones but 4 really gave us the best mix of good weapons and great story.
Worst: Megaman Zero (1) (GBA)
Do you really have to ask why? IT WAS INSANELY DIFFICULT!!!! Again I know it was their first game in this series and they did want to challenge the players more but I want to know how well the game developers do when playing this game (did they tear their hair out too?) But still a good game if you have a lot of patience.
For Battle Network
Best: Mega Man Battle Network 6 (GBA)
I love this series and I was sad to see it go after only 6 games (well 8 technically…Battle Chip Challenge and Network Transmission). But they ended it when they finally got it right…Soul Unisons had been perfected, the story was awesome and it was challenging without being Insane (like Battle Network 4 was at some spots….grr..S-ranking Sparkman.EXE), truly a great game.
Worst: Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge (GBA)
Now I do this with some hesitation, while if you knew how to play it and liked the style it was a perfectly fine game, however, it was totally different from the other BN games and you didn’t really play it, you just built a deck, entered a battle and crossed your fingers. I like to play a game not watch it and hope for the best.
For ZX series
I can’t really say which one was best or worst since there were only 2 of them but I would probably rate the second one as being slightly better since they built on the first one and made more things for you to do. (Still take your pick neither one is significantly better than the others).
For Legends Series
Same as for ZX, there were only 2 games so its hard to rate them but I would place the first one slightly higher this time because the story drew you in a little better. I have some serious problems with the Legends series but I will get to those in a moment.
For Starforce
Well troubling again, there are only 3 of them out right now. But I would say that 3 is the best one so far and I guess 2 would be the worst. Not because the controls are bad or the story sucks but because you can get permanently stuck if you try to cancel or change certain missions that you take on. Other than that, it is still a fun game and I would rate the 3 starforce games on a similar level.
Okay, now that was very lengthy but I like to be thorough when doing a grisly task like rating games (especially ones I love so much). But here is the final awards for best and worst Mega Man game EVER:
BEST: MEGA MAN 2 (NES)
Read what I said about it earlier to see why.
WORST: MEGA MAN LEGENDS 2 (whole Legends series actually)
Now before you jump on me, I do love these games, they are very fun games, the problem is that they are not really Mega Man games as we know them. You fight no named or themed bosses, there is no Dr. Wily, no Sigma, nothing…They are fantastic and edgy games but the name “Mega Man” feels like it was just thrown on them for marquis value and they have no (real) ties to any of the other series. Sort of like how Super Mario Bros. 2 was not originally a Mario Bros. game but just got made into one. It was still awesome but stuck out from the rest of the crowd a little too much. Legends (or “Mega Man 64″ if you played it on the N64) suffered this problem as well.
Anyway, sorry for yakking for so long about it but I get very passionate about this game series and remember that these are just my opinions, please do not let it discourage you from trying any of these games if you haven’t already, they will not disappoint. Thanks Again and happy gaming!
See, the key to making a good sequel is making characters triumphantly return or die. And you have to KNOW they die too, not mysteriously vanish.
Now, if Gramps had died in DASH 2, it probably would have been a cooler game.. though, I deeply appreciate it’s dark, darker, darkest theme, growth of characters, an so on.
Can’t say much about StarForce, which I haven’t tried because I don’t much care for BN. RockMan.EXE’s design just isn’t as charming as Rock’s simple, blue, classic design.
It’s tough for one to say “this game is better than that game” because we all have different tastes.. however, I despise the fact that these things become collective agreements. “Said game is better than said game!” Yeah, well, not to everyone.. stop following the popular opinion. I think MegaMan X2 has enough merits to be equal, if not better, than the first MegaMan x. The music WAS awesome (break it down — Flame Stag, Bubble Crab, Morph Moth, and Crystal Snail all rocked. Open your ear and listen better) The story opens up an opportunity for exploration and choice. The characters are colorful and unique, not generically evil and cooool like Vile. They aren’t intended to be taken seriously.
I won’t deny that Megaman ZX Advent has a cheesy story (in my opinion pretty much every series after classic is filled with contrived plots). However, every single one of the plot holes you cited in the article is given adequate explanation if you actually pay attention to the dialogue, so the fact that you are so confused on these matters makes me think you didn’t give the game a fair chance or even play it to completion. Advent’s plot twist is even foreshadowed in the final moments of the first ZX game!
As far as I’m concerned, X2 was an interesting follow up to X1 from the story perspective. However, I Have to disagree wholeheartedly with Omar on its music because unlike him, I listened to it with both my ears. My grips are they all feel like it was improvised during the game’s 11th hour and rushed to be put in. Granted, some like Flame Stag, Bubble Crab, Morph Moth, along with Maverick Battle, X-Hunter Stage 3 & Final Battle tunes were good, but let’s face it: These same tunes were done better when they were redone (Bubble Crab in X5), slowed down (Flame Stag in Xtreme 1), sped up (Morph Moth in Xtreme 1), shortened (Maverick Intro in Xtreme 2), expanded (x-Hunter Stage 3 in X6), or even looped correctly (Maverick Intro and Maverick Battle in Xtreme 2).
Boy, this article has certainly generated some intense discussion. I haven’t played MMII in about 15 years and I didn’t find it all that bad back then, but one thing I do remember is it being intensely easy. It’s a stark contrast to the first Gameboy game, which is arguably the hardest MM game ever. (Quick Man, who was not all that challenging on the NES, is virtually UNBEATABLE here!)
Oh, and I TOTALLY object to you saying, “a lot of the more recent X titles, which really jumped the shark.” IMO, Mega Man X8 is not only the best MMX game, but the best game in the whole franchise. Aside from Gigavolt Man-o-War’s awkward chase through Megalopolis, the stages were very well designed for some fast, arcade-style action; the combo system and ratings gave players some extra challenge; X, Zero and Axl were very well balanced, not to mentioned the added bonus of playing as the navigators; and all competently voiced by Ocean Group. I’m part of the group crying out for Mega Man X9, because I think Capcom reached a new high at the end.
Um, bosses DO have a period of invulnerability in Rockman World 2. They just don’t ABSORB your shots during that time, so if you fire a shot too early but the shot is still overlapping the boss when the flashing wears off, they’ll take damage right away. This is part of what makes Leaf Shield so abusive in that game.
Now why did it make Crash Bomb so worthless? The blast doesn’t seem to extend beyond the size of the original bomb at all, and when anything touches the blast, it’s immediately absorbed, rather than doing multiple hits to the enemy as it should. The Wily Wars Megaworld similarly messed up Fire Storm’s shield by making it able to be absorbed, and Rolling Cutter couldn’t strike the same enemy more than once either.
There’s a lot of other weird stuff to learn about Rockman World 2 if you get into the nitty-gritty of it with emulation and hacking. Movement seems to avoid using fractional values of pixels, but your life energy gets decreased by fractional amounts in many cases. By watching the RAM, I found that while each notch on an energy meter is equal to 8 in its memory address, damage from enemies caused it to drop by multiples of 10. Was there miscommunication between programmers about how energy was stored? Who knows? Refills round up, so they can give you 3 or 9 units back sometimes, and a little less other times. And why do the weapons use as much energy as their NES counterparts? Other Rockman World games adjust the energy usage to compensate for the shorter bars, but not this one! You can fire 4 Crash Bombs, and then you can’t use the remainder!
Then there’s the weird fact that MegaRockMan can’t stop sliding early unless he falls off a ledge. If you turn him around, he continues sliding in the other direction for the remaining time. If he hits a wall, he stays stuck against the wall in sliding position for the remaining time. Even if he hits an enemy, he keeps sliding, then gets up and goes into his “ouch” animation for the rest of the time it would have had if he had started it right away. Why such a huge priority on sliding? Rockman World 1, 3, 4, and 5 form a natural chain of game engine evolution, but 2 is just weird.
Looks like the only game I’ve played from that list is Star Force 2.
It generally seems like everyone is agreeing with gameplay improvements. Hey, autocharging was the best thing they added. In the first game, you may rarely get the weak transformation with no real abilities and a Big Bang attack you’ll never get with a charge attack you’ll never use. At least they removed old, wimpy attacks like the Junk Cube.
The story and characters were lacking and I bet not many people noticed. But I did like how it changed from the previous game. No more Navis, because this isn’t Battle Network. No more Comps, because this isn’t Battle Network. Wave worlds and real world are one not separate, because this isn’t BN.
But if SF3 was the second or just the first, opinions could have been much more different.
On AX Advent:
1. Axl DIDN’T become a biometal. Model A is not Axl.
2.Model W was made to use Albert’s data, so when the Guardian commander *cough* CEIL *cough cough* made models Z, X, H, F, L, and P based off data from model W, that feature carried over to the new models.
3.Vent/Aile says the biometals were stolen from the Guardians.
…oops. I meant “ZX Advent” not “AX Advent”.
I just want to say I greatly disagree with what you said about star force 2. I felt that it improved upon the first in every way. The game also takes place during summer vacation so why would the school be open? And Rogue was awesome. Not as awesome as bass but still cool. So yeah I enjoyed star force 2.
I agree with pretty much everything you said about the others though. Megaman X2 was really good but not better then the first.
myeeeh, starforce series is my fav, (your talking to a major gemini and jack corvus fan) and starforce 2 was like sliding away from the whole “futuristic” thingy. and true the navis went poof, and not much inside comps, that i agree as a negative side. Plus, the characters look like they were made in uh, like, 5 seconds? (not speaking for bly and phantom) but like plesio surf, kinda was the stupidest starforce boss…. no offense lol.
i was so happy that starforce 3 was dynamite and one of the best games ive ever played. but i give CAPCOM credit for making this starforce 2 plot of theirs into a whole game for itself.
*sniff* i just want more starfoooooorce T^ T
I for one love Advent, and don’t blame it for ending the series prematurely as much as I do the overall gaming culture these deys–these days, if game #2 is the make or break point in the series, the first one didn’t do all THAT well to begin with. That said, I do think a little continuity would’ve helped a lot.
Oh, I played ZX and ZX Advent recently, and all points Cobalt make are accurate, but I also noticed something myself.
The only Biometals 100% confirmed to be created by the “original commander” are Models X and Z. (The others are heavily IMPLIED, but not so much that a retcon would be a flat-out plothole.)
And Albert being the creator of the Biometals to begin with, once stolen it wouldn’t be too difficult for him to ‘reprogram’ the others.
all im going to say is… ZXA is awesome and i loved it.. and fail to see anything wrong
I am giving you Flack for hating on ZXA.
This is flack.
I am flacking it at you.
I think this flack might have been a move from some short lived Genesis game about a ninja squirrel no one ever cared about.
*flacks*
BS, X2 was a lot better than X1
I have all the games in this list but Mega Man Starorce 2
(I don’t have any Mega Man Starforces games yet.) =(
Mega Man II, Mega Man ZX Advent, and Mega Man X2 have really good soundtracks. I like these games. Some of you think they stink….. Well, we all have different opinions on how we see them. However, the only things that are hard about Mega Man ZX Advent is getting through Alberts stage, and the most annoying thing of all is trying to pass Boss Survival! My favorite thing about Mega Man ZX Sdvent is when you use Model a, Grey and Ashe turned 8-bit! They look so cute! XD I would like to see what would Vent and Aile look like in younger and grown-up version in 8- bit!
I’m glad MMX2 was mentioned. Not to say it was bad, but it wasn’t better than MMX1. X1 was, and will always be, the best of the X series games. X2′s music, while not horrid, felt like they were trying to mimic the first series while veer off at the exact same time, if that makes sense, and the quality’s less than spectacular. X3 did a better job on music than X2… the SNES version of X3 (the Saturn and PS versions of X3′s music is murder to my ears). X1′s helmet upgrade is lost potential, because it’s never seen again. EVER. X2′s helmet upgrade was forgettable.
I do love X2, but X1 will always be better. Simple as that.
To be completely honest, X6 had some alright music but failed to back it up with enough fun game-play. I must deviate somewhat from Rock-X about his opinion due to the fact that, as opposed to him, I listened with both my ears, brain, and left hand. X6 was never a part of the discussion, but now that X6 came in, yeah, by a multiplication of 3 (X2!) it did have some pretty good renditions that were made in the 11th hour of it’s production.
This Editorial sucks, Heat.
I agree with a lot of this, with the exceptions of ZXA and X2.
I think it’s pretty safe to say that there’s a clear division between between the Battle Network/Star Force, Classic/X/Zero/ZX, and Legends games in their style of play. My first Mega Man game was X1, so I’m glad to see that that style of play is still not forgotten or dwarfed by the often times childish feel of the Battle Network and Star Force games. That’s not to say that I don’t like the BN games; as a matter of fact, I’m going through BN3 Blue right now! SF can rot in hell for all I care (I gave it a chance!)
On a side note, out of all the X games, X2 is definitely the LAST of the X games I’d ever play. My biggest complaint would be the sound engine. It made everything sound somewhat childish, and part of the draw of Mega Man X was that it made the whole series less kiddy, more gritty and serious. X2 damages the feel of the series, and X3 (like it seems to be across the Mega Man serieses, minus Classic and Legends), pulled the given series out of the hole the second game put it in.
X2 is ok. It has its ups and downs. But X1 is my second favorite game of all time (first is Super Metroid).
I agree with X2 completely. It was a good game, but X1 is far superior =)
Yeah…ZX Advent was leaps and bounds better than ZX. Also, Axl isn’t a biometal, the A stands for Albert. Dude, you need to know these things. Now don’t even get me started on Mega Man X2…you should be ashamed for even mentioning it.
I dunno, I must be the only one who legitimately hates Rockman 2. Rockman 1 was a better title, and Rockman 3 made large improvements upon the original formula.
Also, @Chris: Complaining about Zero 1′s difficulty? Deal with it. Some people like a bit of challenge in their games without it being the so-called Hard Mode. The Z-Series delivers a legitimate resistance on the first playthrough and keeps you coming back for more with the Hard Modes.
And Rockman World 1 is a wonderful game. I can’t believe anyone could like Rockman World 2 more than it, or anything, for that matter.
I liked the challenge of the Zero series, but I thought the enjoyment value was absolutely killed by the fact that you aren’t allowed to replay levels for higher ranks later in the game. If you wanted an A or S rank on every stage, your only option was to keep restarting the level until you got it or to start the whole game over again. The original point of Mega Man was to be able to choose the order of challenging stages, so I didn’t appreciate being locked into playing the same one over and over again until I got a score I was happy with.
I thought Star Force 2 was as boring as the first (In retrospect, 3 was the only one to get it right), and X2 is the best X game of them all. Also, ZX Advent was above average, and had the best Megaman villain in history.
@Regal X7
Lord, I hope you aren’t referring to Albert. Though I think I’m biased in that I hate his Livemetal V entirely because it looks nothing like Serpent’s Livemetal V
@Fishman
I wasn’t complaining about it, if you read my article I simply had to determine a best and a worst in each of the Mega Man series’. Zero 1 got the worst from that series due to its excessive difficulty (even amongst the other Zero series titles). I also proceeded to draw attention to the fact that I was well aware that the developers were trying to challenge the players more with this game and the Zero series in general and that these are merely my opinions, if you disagree with me then that’s fine, all the power to ya! I also said that I love ALL of the Mega Man games (Zero 1 and Rockman World 1 included) and that people should play what interests them and draws them in. If for you, an extreme challenge is what tempts you, then yes the Zero series and especially Zero 1 are the games for you. But try to remember that I am not knocking or dumping an any of the Mega Man titles, I just had to rate them and pick a best and a worst for each series since that seems to be what was at the core of this thread to begin with. So go forth any play Zero to your heart’s content.
Cheers all and keep Blue Bombing!