I’ve just beaten Mega Man II in a single sitting just over an hour’s playtime. It follows the same formula of Wily’s Revenge. You get to choose from 4 Robot Master stages from MM2 (Crash Man, Metal Man, Wood Man and Air Man), also in the mix are the Rush Coil, Jet and Marine. Metal Saw is OP in this, I initially had fun with the Air Shooter at first, Crash Man’s weapon is incredibly finite… all of them are useless when you reach Wily Stages.

The Wily Stages introduce the next four Robot Masters from 3, this time they each have a short stage before their boss fights. Top Man, Needle Man, Magnet Man and Hard Man. Ultimately you might use the MM2 powers initially, but once you figure out the weakness system it’s much easier to exploit each boss using the respective weakness.

I found much like in Dr Wily’s Revenge the weapons are really useless beyond their use against Robot Masters, the final Wily Stage doesn’t drop enough energy for you to use each power more than a few times each, forcing you to really optimise each weapon’s use. However, the game can be cheesed, at times I found taking damage and bolting through some rooms easier than actually engaging foes.

The Wily Stages have sections that can be easily navigated with the Rush power-ups leaving more difficult paths unchartered, it leaves the option open for a more difficult pathway for some form of honour. I’m playing all of these over a King’s Birthday weekend so the less time the better.

The new boss Quint is sorta funny, he looks like Mega Man or Proto Man and rides a Pogo Stick, which is the only weapon strong against Dr. Wily. I half think the reason there are so many E Tanks present in the game is so you can use them in the final Wily fight because only the P Shooter can damage Wily.

Overall, I think it’s easier than Dr Wily’s Revenge, but has a lot of general balance issues. I’ve read reviews To say this is a “bad game” is a poor statement, it’s a serviceable Mega Man on the Game Boy, however there are other options. Some preliminary research brought up this blog which details more of the feeling of what is missing compared to other Mega Man games. https://gameboyessentials.com/articles/dmg-w2

Edit: I forgot to talk about the music, some notes are pitched maybe octaves higher than they should be? Somethings up with the ost.

The Mega Man Game Boy games have just dropped on NSO, I’ve beaten all but V. However, the temptation to quickly re-evaluate each is strong. Maybe I’ll mark up a ranking of each at the end of V.

Dr Wily’s Revenge is a welcome affair that I reckon took less than an hour and a half to beat.

I to IV aren’t ports of the originals, but downsized remixes of the classic NES levels. You start with a smaller sample of 4 Robot Masters to fight, Cutman, Elecman, Iceman and Fireman. Each stage is reminiscent of their NES counterparts (same hazards, enemies), but are newly designed.

Mega Man is basic at NES proportions that I think it works most of the time. There are one or two hazards you really can’t anticipate during typical sidescroller segments, even worse are the blind jumps that rely on luck or rote memorisation to avoid 1 hit KO spikes. It’s an irredeemable game design that punishes players to pad out the game time. I have beaten this on original hardware, but this run I just used rewind.

Clear the first four stages and then following is a Wily Stage where you get to take on four Robot Masters from Mega Man 2, Bubble Man, Heat Man, Quick Man and Flash Man. It’s novel using powers from 1 against 2, but given how Rock Paper Scissors works your best bet is to use Mega Man 2 powers to prioritise weaknesses for an easier win.

This marks the first appearance of Enker too, his power is a reflective shield. Which alongside the Mega Man 2 powers only get a run through the second Wily Stage and final Wily encounter. It’s sorta like saying, here’s all the tools. However their use is extremely limited.