Sigma is, at the very least, the worst thing to happen to the collective Mega Man franchise. Just as he brought down the previous game, whatever little inclusion he had into X2 felt like an anchor weighing down this otherwise fantastic sequel.

I feel like this game added more frustrating elements than the original, but the sense of forward momentum and action that X2 delivers on mostly makes up for it. I think the music's better, and while the game doesn't look much better than the original, there wasn't much that needed to be improved upon. The transparency layered effects are more graphically impressive than the wireframe 3D elements. It doesn't matter how many graphical enhancement chips you include onto a cartridge, Sigma is still going to be active detriment to the experience. I hope that moving forward, he's replaced with anything else. Or nothing. If I had to choose between jumping down the pit to fight Sigma as the final boss or fight a stationary supercomputer, I'm choosing the later every day of the week.

Also they should make a Mega Man game staring Zero. Wouldn't that be neat?

Positives:

- Doesn't fix what isn't broken, making it very similar to X but still very good too.
- Overall good set of Mavericks... aside from Crystal Snail.
- One of the best upgrades to the armour the X series has seen.

Negatives:
- The X-buster being so strong reduces the effectiveness of all other weapons, making them almost pointless to get.
- No actual different ending gained from the X-Hunters.

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''After a very successful game, the Mega Man X series of games continuing was pretty much an inevitability. And as it goes with the Blue Bomber's previous adventures, sequels would never really mess too much with the established formula. Mega Man X2 is no such exception, being a new game with new stages, new mavericks, and a few quality of life improvements. So perhaps unsurprisingly, I'm not really going to talk about the core game mechanics since they are literally no different from Mega Man X, and instead focus on what this game does differently. That will probably be a disappointment to some as that means you need to be familiar with how Mega Man X plays, but there's only so many times I can say that X can dash, jump and shoot without me wanting to lose it. I can definitely recommend you to read my Mega Man X review for that. This is totally not a shameless plug, I swear.

Mega Man X2 has another set of 8 Mavericks to deal with, following the trend of the first game by designing them after animals like an ostrich and a centipede. It's a good set of mavericks overall, with some nice highs like Magna Centipede and Morph Moth being my favourites. But... it also has Crystal Snail. The less I say about Crystal Snail, the better. They all have good battles too with none really suffering from the ''Spark Mandrill Syndrome'', meaning that they definitely take massive damage from their weakness but won't end up staggered... well, aside from Crystal Snail. Stop ruining my compliments Crystal Snail, I swear. But aside from Mavericks, there are now also a few other robots running amok, namely the X hunters. They are additional bosses that randomly appear in any still-unfinished stage after two mavericks have been defeated, and they need to be defeated to get a uhh... slightly better ending? It changes literally nothing aside from an extra boss battle near the end if you don't defeat them, which arguably makes them fun not to defeat. I usually defeat them just because I like to though, and I'd rather take three unique boss battles over one right before the final boss.

Them randomly deciding in what stage they appear might annoy some people as it gives them the idea that they can't charter their own road, because they stop appearing after every Maverick is defeated, but I personally never really cared too much about it. I always forget the weakness chart for this game anyway, and often a charged buster is just as strong as the weakness of the boss. Actually, Mega Man X2 probably has some of my favourite armour upgrades in general, since the Mega Buster becomes so good with its two consecutive powerful shots, and the boots now give a dash in the air that can be chained together with Flame Stag's charged-up weapon for an extra dose of fun. The helmet reveals secrets which is not bad, although I prefer the X3 incarnation of that upgrade which I'll get to next review. Meanwhile, all other collectables like heart containers and sub-tanks are still available right from the get-go, continuing the trend of making X stronger through means other than just defeating the bosses and stealing their weapon.

The X-buster being this strong does reduce the effectiveness of the weapons gained from bosses, which is kind of a shame. If I don't use them in the stages themselves (which I generally don't anyway unless they have traversal options) and also not for the bosses, then... what purpose do they even have? I normally don't really talk about the weapons unless there are some very good ones that I would use outside of boss battles, like the Metal Blades from Mega Man 2, or just complete garbage weapons. Admittedly, I forgot to talk about them in Mega Man X for the exact same reason, but that game actually has some really nice charged-up variants like Sting Chameleon's weapon. This game though... I mean, I like Flame Stag's charged-up variant because it can be chained together with the dash for extra airtime, but that situation happens so infrequent to the point where the dash simply is all I need. Aside from that, I can't say I've really bothered using any of them. And yes, before you ask: Crystal Snail, yet again, has the worst charged up variant. It slows time which sounds great! ...But it slows X down too. Wow.

And just like last time, I can still assure you that the music is good. I prefer X's soundtrack personally, but the opening stage in this game as well as X-Hunters stage 1 are really good. Could play them on endless repeat and still not get tired of them.'