This is a post in our Game of the Day series.
People bemoan game prices, but it was still sixty bucks for a NES cartridge back in the day. Instead of building up an owned stockpile, my brother and I got to rent them piecemeal from the country video store Nylas (which sadly closed down in the past year or two). They had squashed the box covers, put them in plastic sheet protectors, and collected them all in a single, awesome binder near the register. Here we would huddle over the thick, shiny pages and diligently deliberate over the qualities between our entertainment choices (they had a 3-day rental policy then, so you really only wanted one thing so you could maximize your use of it). And here, somehow, we chose Mega Man 2 despite its horrendous cover art.
Immediately it enthralled us with a superb opening sequence leading directly into an 8-way choice of foes to seek out and destroy. The drop-beat music kept our hearts thumping to the action as we delved deep into unique levels of fire and ice, wood and metal. Our imaginations sored with each battle and upgrade to his arsenal. You could change your weapon at any time!
Honestly, I sucked at Mega Man 2, but even I could appreciate the genius of it. Each baddie had distinct weaponry and weakness. Each level had different twitch and timing skills that had to be brought to bare. And the plot started transparently in a bit of introductory text and followed through to a very strange, almost "twist" ending. Wily's name was well-given! And with metal blades you could shoot in any direction (plus they made a cool sound)!
Finally, when my brother beat it (I could never get past the water level in Wily's castle with the insta-kill spikes) we got treated to a fantastic, bitter-sweet epilogue of our protagonist longing to (and seemingly becoming) a human (boy?). Mega Man 2 marked the beginning of an appreciation for later titles in the series as well as a baseline for thoughts on futuristic super-hero-esq. sequences. Later when I was in college, we would sit for hours and excitedly build up an entire movie concept from our conversations. Ah ... someday, someone will make an awesome Mega Man movie ...
There are many thriving fan communities for Mega Man: MMHP, MegaMan Storm, and Planet MegaMan to name a few.
Um ... a movie!?
