History VideoGame / MegaMan2

* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: Quick Man's stage select icon is different in that the crescent on his head sticks out of the border instead of being inside of it. Keiji Inafune wanted Quick Man to have this unique feature as a subtle way of conveying the difficulty of his stage.

* RuleOfSymbolism: In the game's surprisingly somber ending, Mega Man's body changing colors as he equips the weapons of the Robot Masters [[https://twitter.com/ak_blueprints/status/1773755310987194713 is juxtaposed]] with the passage of the seasons. He then looks over and leaves his helmet lying on the ground, his battle over for the time being.

* BookEnds: The game starts with Mega Man putting on his helmet and ends with a shot of it abandoned.

''Mega Man 2'' (''Rockman 2: The Mystery of Dr. Wily'' in Japanese) is a run and gun {{Platformer}} VideoGame, released by Creator/{{Capcom}} for the [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]] in 1988 in Japan and 1989 internationally.

While the [[VideoGame/MegaMan1 original game]] was only a modest hit in Japan and an outright flop internationally, this sequel quickly put the series on the map worldwide and became the best-selling game in the entire series (over 1.5 million copies). To this day, critics and fans alike consider ''Mega Man 2'' not only one of the best [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]] games ''and'' one of the best games (if not ''the'' best game) in the whole series, but also ''one of the greatest video games of all time''. Even Keiji Inafune himself calls this one his favorite game in the series.

The game later received a [[UpdatedRerelease 16-bit upgrade]] for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis as part of the [[NoExportForYou Europe and Japan only]] ''Mega Man: The Wily Wars''/''Rockman Megaworld'' cartridge (as well as the Japan-only ''Rockman 2: Complete Works'' [=PS1=] port). The game eventually saw a major re-release as part of ''Anniversary Collection'' for UsefulNotes/PlayStation2, UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube and UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}}. The NES version has received a UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole re-release on the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}, UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS, and UsefulNotes/WiiU, with the latter two versions including a [[SaveScumming save state]] ability, and is part of ''Legacy Collection'' for UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, PC, [=3DS=], and UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch. The ''Wily Wars'' remake eventually saw an American release, first as part of the old "Sega Channel" service, then as part of a bundle with many other games in the ''Sega Genesis Mini''.

[[SimilarlyNamedWorks Don't confuse this game with]] ''VideoGame/MegaMan2ThePowerFighters'' for the Arcade or ''VideoGame/MegaManII'' for the UsefulNotes/GameBoy (the latter of which is a companion title to the NES version).

* EpilepticFlashingLights: The Wily Castle bosses in particular; when fighting the Mecha Dragon, Guts Tank, Wily Machine 2, and [[spoiler: the Alien]], the whole screen flashes white ''every time they take damage''. After defeating them, the screen continues to rapidly flash while they fade out. The screen does not flash while fighting the Picopico-kun and Boobeam Trap, although it still rapidly flashes after they're defeated. The [[UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS 3DS]] Virtual Console version tones down the screen flashing, though this is likely because of different screen refresh rates.

* UpdatedRerelease: The Europe and Japan only 16-bit upgrade included in ''The Wily Wars'' for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis (although it did get a Sega Channel exclusive American release), and ''Rockman 2: Complete Works'' for the [=PS1=] in Japan (this version was later incorporated into the ''Anniversary Collection'').

* BewareTheSkullBase: Starting a series trend that would continue across the series, Dr. Wily's fortress features a giant skull.

* BewareTheSkullBase: Dr. Wily's fortress features a giant skull.

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[Music/TheMegas "My name is Mega Man, and I'll do all I can to save mankind".]]''[[note]]'''L-to-R:''' [[BlowYouAway Air Man]], [[ExtraOreDinary Metal Man]], [[MakingASplash Bubble Man]], [[SuperSpeed Quick Man]], [[GreenThumb Wood Man]], [[HavingABlast Crash Man]], [[TimeStandsStill Flash Man]], and [[PlayingWithFire Heat Man]].[[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[Music/TheMegas "My name is Mega Man, and I'll do all I can to save mankind".]]'' [[note]] From left to right, [[BlowYouAway Air Man]], [[ExtraOreDinary Metal Man]], [[MakingASplash Bubble Man]], [[SuperSpeed Quick Man]], [[GreenThumb Wood Man]], [[HavingABlast Crash Man]], [[TimeStandsStill Flash Man]] and [[PlayingWithFire Heat Man]]. [[/note]]]]

* ArtEvolution: The game's art started to become more anime-influenced than the previous game, and the spritework is more refined, although Mega Man's sprite remains unchanged.

** The Metal Blade is the most powerful weapon in the game -- and one of the most powerful ''in the entire series''. It delivers high damage, cuts through multiple mooks at a time, has a machine gun rate of fire, travels fast and long, can be shot in eight directions, has [[RuleOfCool a cool appearance]], and comes with an ammo capacity so large (112 shots) that it takes a conscious effort to deplete it. On top of all that, besides Metal Man being very easy to beat (meaning you can get the weapon right at the start of the game), the Metal Blade is a major weakness for four of the robot masters, the second-to-last boss, and ''[[DeathByIrony Metal Man himself]]''. If it weren't for several enemies and some of the bosses being immune to the Metal Blade [[note]] Air Man, Crash Man, Quick Man, Mecha Dragon, Guts-Dozer, Boobeam Trap and the Alien [[/note]], it would make the Mega Buster all but obsolete.

* EasyLevelTrick: On the very last stage, hold right and keep going. You will be ahead of all the lava/acid drips that you don't need to time your movements.

* ElementalRockPaperScissors: This game toys with this. While there is a clear circular line of weakness, most of the bosses have at least one other weapon (typically the Metal Blade) that they're weak against. This is one of the few Mega Man games where it can be considered open-ended.

* EpilepticFlashingLights: The Wily Castle bosses in particular; when fighting the Mecha Dragon, Guts-Dozer, Wily Machine 2, and [[spoiler: the Alien]], the whole screen flashes white ''every time they take damage''. After defeating them, the screen continues to rapidly flash while they fade out. The screen does not flash while fighting the Picopico-kun and Boobeam Trap, although it still rapidly flashes after they're defeated. The [[UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS 3DS]] Virtual Console version tones down the screen flashing, though this is likely because of different screen refresh rates.

* HumongousMecha: The Mecha Dragon in Wily Castle 1 and the Guts-Dozer in Wily Castle 3 are the two largest bosses in the game, with both of them taking up almost the entire screen. In the latter's case, its fist is as big as Mega Man is.

* NotCompletelyUseless: The Bubble Lead is generally not a very good choice for a weapon, but is the only one that can reveal fake floors in Wily's Castle before you fall through them (and one of them has instant death spikes under it!), and is the only thing that works on the Final Boss.

* NothingIsScarier: The very final level has no music, and the only objects prior to the final boss are the echoing drips of acid from the ceiling.

* {{Oni}}: Air Man's stage features several floating oni heads as platforms.

* SmashingHallwayTrapsOfDoom: Presses, found in Metal Man's stage and Wily Castle 2. Somewhat surprisingly, they're *not* instant death if they hit you, though they do deal quite a bit of damage, and attempting to jump over them without waiting for them to come back up first will result in Mega Man getting hurt by their **chains**. Two of them in the Wily Castle have barely enough space between them for Mega Man to fit-- if you don't place yourself *just* right, you'll take damage (unless you used the Time Stopper to freeze them).

* ThrowingYourShieldAlwaysWorks: Wood Man's weapon of choice is a leaf shield that he hurls forward to damage Mega Man with.

** Quick Man's stage, as without the Time Stopper, knowing the room layout and positions of each laser before entering is key to getting out of the latter's way in time.

** The utility items in this game are generic, nondescript-looking devices simply called Item-1, Item-2, and Item-3. Mega Man's robot dog Rush would take their place from ''Mega Man 3'' onwards.
** Item drops from defeating enemies in this particular game are '''exceedingly''' generous, often giving the player more big health/weapon energy pickups than most of the other games would give out ''small'' pickups, even on Difficult mode. Subsequent games made item drops much more conservative to keep the difficulty high but balanced.

** Item drops from defeating enemies in this particular are '''exceedingly''' generous, often giving the player more big health/weapon energy pickups than most of the other games would give out ''small'' pickups, even on Difficult mode. Subsequent games made item drops much more conservative to keep the difficulty high but balanced.

* AdvancingBossOfDoom: The Mecha Dragon in Wily Castle 1 pulls double-duty as both this and an AdvancingWallOfDoom (since touching him has exactly the same effect as spikes or kill-beams).

* ArtEvolution: The game's art started to become more anime-influenced than the previous game, and the spritework is more refined.

* BlowYouAway: The main attack of Air Man, as well as the Matasaburo mooks throughout his stage, involves producing strong wings with their fans to blow Mega Man away from them.

* BossRush: Wily Castle 5 is a single-room level that makes the player fight all eight Robot Masters again before they can fight Dr. Wily. This also marks the series' first use of a one-room Teleport System to access the bosses, as opposed to each one being fought after another.

* ChargedAttack: The Atomic Fire weapon obtained from Heat Man can be charged for a more powerful shot by holding the fire button before releasing. There are three levels of charge, with the more powerful levels doing more damage and requiring more weapon ammo.

* ConvectionSchmonvection: Heat Man's level is covered in lava that instantly kills Mega Man. However, using Item 2 to fly above it does no damage at all.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The Metal Blade creates an awkward sense of balancing, being the effective weakness of no less than four Robot Masters, including Metal Man, the original wielder, himself. Later games makes the ElementalRockPaperScissors more strict, with a special weapon only being effective on one, two at most bosses and never the Robot Master you get it fron.
* EasterEgg: Holding B when you select a boss will cause the stars on the bosses intro screen to turn into birds.

* ItsAllUpstairsFromHere: Crash Man and Wily Stage 1 both have you climbing up to a high point. Crash Man's stage goes from having a blue sky to a starry black one as you progress, so who knows if it's a day-to-night transition, or if the tower's so high you're actually heading up into ''space''.

* KillItWithFire: Wood Man's biggest weakness is against the Atomic Fire, with a fully charged shot able to one-shot him on American difficulty.

* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: Quick Man's stage select icon is different in that the crescent on his head sticks out of the border instead of being inside of it. Keiji Inafune wanted Quick Man to have this unique feature as a not-so-obvious-way of saying ThisIsGoingToSuck.

** Mega Man can do this himself to several bosses (on normal difficulty). Wood Man can be downed by a fully charged Atomic Fire. Crash Man can be done in with a properly placed Air Shooter. Quick Man can be destroyed by [[ArtificialStupidity running into the same properly placed Crash Bomb over and over]]. And the second time you run into Metal Man, [[WeaksauceWeakness he can be downed by a single Metal Blade]]. (Bear in mind that, on Difficult, most of these one-hit kills require at least two hits)

** When using the Crash Bomber against Flash Man (who is ostensively weak to the weapon), ideally the shots should be pinned to walls and timed so they go off when Flash Man uses the Time Stopper and stands still in the bomb's explosion. Said tactic also works well against Quick Man.

** Beating the game with [[MinimalistRun only the Mega Buster (except in spots where you absolutely need to use a certain weapon or item)]].

* SmashingHallwayTrapsOfDoom: Presses, found in Metal Man's stage and Wily Castle 2. Somewhat surprisingly, they're *not* instant death if they hit you, though they do deal quite a bit of damage. Two of them in the Wily Castle have barely enough space between them for Mega Man to fit-- if you don't place yourself *just* right, you'll take damage (unless you used the Time Stopper to freeze them).

** The final boss is impossible to defeat if you don't have enough Bubble Lead ammo. As you're unable to farm for weapon energy in the final level, your only course of action in this scenario is getting a Game Over.

* WalkDontSwim: Mega Man can't swim, so he just sinks in Bubble Man's stage. However, unlike the first game, he can jump ''very'' high.

* NoPronunciationGuide: The Bubble Lead. Is it "Lead" as in "to lead" (since it trails ahead of Mega Man) or Lead as in the element Lead (since it's a bubble that sinks in all cases)? In the Japanese script for the weapon, they use the word "Rīdo", which means both "water reed" and "to lead".

[[SimilarlyNamedWorks Don't confuse this game with]] ''VideoGame/MegaMan2ThePowerFighters'' for the Arcade or ''VideoGame/MegaManII'' for the UsefulNotes/GameBoy (the latter of which is a companion title to the NES version and is widely considered to be on the opposite end of the quality spectrum).

* BossCorridor: Every Robot Master stage ends with one, and unlike the first game, they are all a single screen long and devoid of enemies. This style of boss corridor would go on to be used in every ''Mega Man'' game afterwards.

* DoNotTouchTheFunnelCloud: Air Man's weapon is a SpreadShot of mini-tornadoes.

* Scooby Doo Hoax: As previously stated (numerous times), the true final boss [[spoiler:is thought to be an extraterrestrial lifeform, but turns out (upon defeat) to not only be a hologram-emitting drone, but said drone also was being controlled by Dr. Wily.]]

* Scooby-Doo Hoax: As previously stated (numerous times), the true final boss [[spoiler:is thought to be an extraterrestrial lifeform, but turns out (upon defeat) to not only be a hologram-emitting drone, but said drone also was being controlled by Dr. Wily.]]

* WhamShot: The final boss, where [[spoiler:Wiley turns into an alien without warning, revealing he wasn't human! Subverted, because after you beat the alien it turns out it was just a trick on his part using a hologram projector.]]