The Basics
- Publisher: Capcom
- Developer: Capcom
- Release Date: Dec. 1988 (Japan), July 1989 (North America)
- Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System
- Genre: Platformer
The Good:
- Improves on the gameplay that made the original so good..
- Creative and engaging level design.
- Password Save Feature Added
- More levels and variety of enemies than the original.
The Bad:
- While improving on what was in the original, not too much else has been added to the gameplay.
- Still a bit hard to play, but not as much as the original.
History
The battlefield of the video game market is littered with the bodies of terrific, high quality games that flopped due to bad marketing. With new games getting little time on the shelf before they are shoved off by another new title, if a game doesn't catch on in a few months, no amount of positive word of mouth can save it.
This was the case of Mega Man (called Rockman in Japan), a terrific and innovative platformer coming out of Japan from a small team at Capcom. The first title was littered with problems, all of which caused it to be a financial stumble, due in no part to the actual game itself. The biggest blunder was that Mega Man's had the worst pack art of all time. The front of the box showed an extremely ugly image, making Mega Man look like an old fogy sporting an ill-fitting costume that make his arms and legs look dislocated. The art also included items that never appear in the game, such as the gun that Mega Man awkwardly holds and a background of ancient ruins and palm trees that are never seen in the game's futuristic setting.
The pre-internet world of the '80s didn't have a way of quickly looking up a review, so most games were purchased based on the strength of the pack art, and Mega Man's bad packaging simply didn't cut it.
This lack of success nearly caused the series to die right there, but the dev team was allowed one shot and one year to deliver a sequel, but had to fit it in while simultaneously developing another Capcom title, Pro Yakyuu? Satsujin Jiken! (translated: Professional Baseball Murder Mystery). This gave the team little time to focus on MM2, so instead of trying to develop a fully fleshed out sequel, they focused on improving what was already there and fixing all the problem areas.
When the game released to Japan in '88 as Rockman 2: The Mystery of Dr. Wily, and to North America in '89 as Mega Man 2, word of mouth on the quality of the original had spread throughout the gaming community. That plus the addition of the sharpened gameplay and a far better cover illustration allowed the game to be the hit the original should have been.
The success of the sequel made Mega Man one of Capcom's signature characters. Most fans first Mega Man experience was playing this sequel, and it still stands today as the most popular in the series.
