The game where the Mega Man series really began, if you could only start with one game in the series, make it 2 and skip 1.
1 is miserable by comparison, and that's odd because structurally there's not much different. But as a Mega Man fan, 1 feels like obligation when you're playing Legacy Collection and 2 feels like actual fun.
With tightened up control, improved physics, better level design, fun weapons, and even better graphics and soundtrack than the first, Mega Man 2 blows the original away.
My only real problem are the 3rd and 5th Wily Castle Bosses. The third requires you to blow through all your Crash Bomb ammo and Game Over if you can't do it right on the first go.
And the fifth can only be hurt by your bubbles with, again, no way to regain your ammo so it's an instant Game Over.
Save states are a must in those cases but other than those late game hurdles, Mega Man 2 has stood the test of time.

This is without a doubt a vast improvement upon the original Mega Man in practically every aspect. While I had an absolutely dreadful time with the original Mega Man, I actually had a pretty pleasant time with Mega Man 2. It wasn’t some stand out, blow me away type game, but for what it is, it’s honestly pretty fun.

Level Design is where the game vastly improves, though I definitely would say it’s not 100% perfect. There’s some areas that conceptually seem fun, having to dodge or avoid instakill objects, but they’re vertical segments, and the transitions between sections interrupt the flow of things. I think the parts of levels that I disliked most weren’t cause of platforming this time around, but more so enemies. That one bird enemy that drops an egg that spawns like, 10 baby birds is the bane of my existence. And as well, this is just a major pet peeve of mine, but enemies respawning off screen was annoying at times, especially if its one of the tougher enemies, like the Sniper Armors in Flash Man’s stage.

Almost every boss is pretty solid as well. Much like with the first game, typically the first robot master you fight is going to be the hardest, as you won’t have their weakness. I honestly can’t imagine not doing the fights without that robot master’s weakness, sometimes it feels absolutely necessary. Especially in the case of Quick Man, he feels way too fast to deal with without his weakness. The Wily Castle bosses are just as easy, aside from the boss of I believe it was stage 4, which that boss just feels cruelly designed. That boss requires some thinking to figure out how to hit all of the sirens, which is fine, but every so often each of the sirens will shoot at you, and it was way too fast to react to. Aside from this and the one robot master though, the bosses were actually kind of fun to figure out, even if they were slightly on the easier side.

And I’m so happy E Tanks are a thing. Just being able to heal back to full as long as you have one is really nice, and can help ease some amount of difficulty that the game has otherwise. They seemed somewhat generously placed throughout the game, which helps a lot too, even if you can only hold 4 at a time.

Yet again, this game is a vast improvement upon the original in practically every aspect. I actually had fun playing Mega Man 2, though that being said it didn’t blow me away in any degree. I do wonder what the next Mega Man games would be like, I’ve heard complicated things about Mega Man 3, but I don’t know anything beyond that. But Mega Man 2 was a pretty fun time overall.