(Import) An old classic FROM the days of the NES returns.....in Japan

Let me start this review by stating that Mega Man 2 was my favorite NES game of all time. When I was young I used to beat that game every single day before school. So when I read on my generic import page that Capcom was going to be porting this game to Playstation, I was first in line at the airport to receive my very own copy of this game. Now that I have it, I feel like I am in fifth grade again.<BR><BR>After destroying the evil robots and saving the city of Monsteropolis from the takeover of Dr. Wily in the year 200X, Mega Man (Rockman in Japan) could finally have some time to himself, and his girl-robot-friend Roll.....or so he thought. No sooner than he could put himself on recharge than Dr. Wily sent out eight new superrobots to wreak havoc in the land, air, sea and even space! Mega Man must now go out and take back control of these eight areas, or Monsteropolis is doomed!<BR><BR>One of the things that has made the Mega Man/Rockman series so popular is the choice to tackle the stages in any order you choose. While technically you can complete the stages in any order, if you don’t have the right powerups, certain stages may be nearly impossible to compete, and half the fun is trying different orders (FYI my preferred order is ****SPOILER AHEAD**** Metal, Clash, Flash, Quick, Air, Bubble, Heat, Wood (I just love taking out Woodman in one hit with the Atomic Fire at full charge.)) The other thing that has made the Mega Man series so popular is series of powerups that you collect after completing each stage. What is more fun than tackling the evil super robot, then taking its weapon to use against other enemies in future stages? Besides the eight different weapons, plus Mega Man’s regular Buster Gun (no Mega Buster in this one...sorry kids), you can also collect three different levitation devices to help you reach items that are out of the way. Other than that, it’s just standard run and jump, climb ladders, and fire your weapons left and right (and in some cases, up, down and diagonally), but simple is usually better. <BR><BR><br>Capcom has included some extras in this port that may help your gameplay. Probably the most helpful new feature is a turbo fire button; not all of us use turbo controllers and it’s a nice option for a game where turbo always helps. Another good feature is that you can now scroll thru your weapons with the L1 and R1 buttons, so you never have to stop to press start and bring up the menu anymore. There is now a third difficulty mode – ‘easy’. I never thought that this game was too hard, but the new easy mode really helps the novice player through some of the toughest areas – among other things, it allows the energy beams in Quickman’s stage to damage, rather than kill, and areas such as the beginning of the Heatman stage and the end of the Airman stage have had all the flying enemies removed. The normal and difficult modes seem to follow the same rules as the original NES version. There were also two features added in that just don’t make any sense – autofire and slow motion. The autofire prevents you from moving around very well and drains special weapons in seconds and I can’t understand one place in the entire game where the turbo button won’t suffice. The slow motion itself isn’t a problem; actually it runs very smoothly and keeps all of the audio sounding normal, but the only place where you can turn on or off the slow motion is the title screen, which basically means that you must choose between slow motion all the time or no slow motion at all.<BR><BR>All I can say is that this is a direct port from an NES game made more than ten years ago. However, one of the things this game was best known for was its beautiful, colorful graphics. While most of the moving characters are very small, with very limited animation, there are some very large enemies, and one of the bosses fills almost the entire screen. There have been some minor improvements to the graphics in the PSX version, including a new energy meter, which has tab marks at 75, 50 and 25 percent, and an indicator below it showing how many shots are left on the equipped weapon. The menu has also been updated to look more like Mega Man X’s, complete with meters and icons.<BR>The only regret I have about the visuals in this game is that Capcom has opted to not include any kind of animation or FMV. An animated ending, rather than the new, still, one they created, would have been much more appropriate in this day and age of gaming.<BR>NOTE: All of the graphics glitches from the NES version are still here, including the disappearing Airman stage enemies, the scrollback trick, and holding the jump button to make birds appear at the beginning of every stage.<br><BR><BR>The NES and PSX have very different sound systems. Capcom could have remixed the songs to make them sound much better, but instead opted to keep the PCM sound and put all of the songs into redbook audio tracks, so that they will sound exactly the same as the original game’s. For me, it is more nostalgic this way, but I am sure most people would prefer to hear higher quality music. The sound effects have pretty much been direct ports as well. The one major complaint I have with the sound is in the animation when Dr. Wily is flying in his UFO – it is high-pitched, loud, and plays havoc on your eardrums.<BR><BR>Overall the original Mega Man 2 was one of the highlights of the NES’s career, and is still loved by many of the players old enough to remember it. Yet, most of us either no longer have this game, or do not have a working system to play it on. This is why so many classic games are being ported to new systems. They usually carry a low price (Rockman 2 sells for the equivalent of $25 in the U.S., although you should expect to pay a bit more for import fees) and are typically aimed at the nostalgic market. I wouldn’t recommend that you import Rockman 2 if you still have a working NES version of Mega Man 2, as the new features are really not enough to justify the price (although the ability to finally save your game is here – 8 saves per block). However if you have been without this game for years, this is a great second chance to own and play this game again. While most new generation gamers will probably be quickly turned off by this game's 8bit graphics, PCM sound and old-school sidescrolling action, I urge you to look beyond that and play Rockman 2!<BR><BR>(NOTE: Rockman 2 also contains a PocketStation game, which was unavailable for review)</P>