NESessities of Life – Mega Man 2

Genre
Mega Man

Dominant Algorythm
Kill Boss/Become Boss

Gameplay
The game starts with the following screen, which pretty much just makes the user cream themselves with excitement.

After a couple geek-gasms, the main event commences. The ingredients start out standard enough: The titular man, who is indeed mega, must blast his way through the now-standard platform environments. These include lava, water, crystal, sky, and techno-spaghetti (seen below).

Mega is tasked with taking down 8 robot masters (plus a mountain of mini-bosses and previous bosses and then other bosses and other mini-bosses), all of whom will destroy you unless you have the right weapon on as he tracks down the nefarious Dr. Wily. The robot masters are all helpfully named to give the user some clues as to what he or she is going up against.

For example, that man is metal. You’re welcome.

What separates the Mega Man series, nay~ defines it, is Mega’s ability to absorb the bosses powers after he defeats them. These powers are then available to him for the duration of the adventure.

Sweetness
The inner-peace Mega Man achieves after obliterating a robotic adversary.

Weakness
None. And, that’s not even a nostalgia based analysis. I only recently got into the 8-bit entries in this series and the only thing that could be classified as weakness is Mega Man 1. To understand just how tubular Mega Man 2 is, we need to look at a screen cap of the game:

Spike balls, robotic jelly-fish, a techno aquarium, and gigantic saw blades. That image alone should put to rest any questions about why kids thought this game was rad.

Invaluable Life Lessons Which I Still Apply To This Day

1. Everything is strong against something, but nothing is strong against everything
2. Overcoming an obstacle will result in broader understanding of whatever was challenging you; use what you learn in all situations
3. No amount of thumb-aerobics will supplant the need for a turbo controller. Just get one.

But Is It Still Fun?
Duh. This is what fun is all about. Just a quick hint to keep the awesome up: Kill metal man first. His blades will greatly increase the likelihood of item drops, are more powerful than the P-shooter, and can be aimed in no less than 8 directions.

Relevance Satellite to the Paradigm Shift From my Youth
Last week, we discussed the concept of multiple protagonists, each with a different set of abilities. This game exemplifies the other side of the same coin: a single protagonist with a fluid skill-set.

Where-as the multiple protagonist game saw its evolution in fantasy worlds of RPGs, the concept of a fluid-protagonist was born in action games. Mario was the earliest example of the gaming community embracing a fluid-protagonist with Mega Man following quickly upon the release of this game (it should be noted that the first entry was not a financial success and the sequel was a back-burner project done as a labor of love by the programmers). The concept would reach a climax with a simultaneous fluid-boom from Mario and Mega Man (you kids in the back can settle down, simultaneous climactic fluid-booms are a natural part of the gaming industry) in 1988 with the release of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Mega-Man 2.

These games feature two distinct approaches as to how a single protagonist might change abilities. In Mario, up-grades were sprinkled throughout The Mushroom Kingdom. A user clever enough to find them could enjoy the spoils until Mario was touched by an enemy. Then, it was off to find more power ups.

Mega Man took a very different approach – Once Mega got it, he had it until the weapon’s energy was spent. After that, the user had to find energy packs to recharge it.

In these constant quests for energy packs, we see the birth of a phenomenon that has become common and loathed in its modern iterations – Spawn Camping.

In the earliest days, Spawn Camping was an innocuous affair, so mundane there wasn’t a name for it. Basically, the user would find a place where enemies generate constantly and are easy to kill. From there, it was as simple as blasting opponents to smithereens  and collecting whatever goodies the baddies left behind.

As two player experiences became increasingly rich, users found that the same technique could be used to blast the holy Jesus out of their opponent and win the death match even though they were really just a cheap-ass cheating fraggot only interested in climbing up leader boards but not giving a good god damn if anyone else playing the game is having any fun to begin with so it’s like what the hell is the point why did I even sign up for this on-line service anyway except that now the single-player campaign is balls because the developers only give a crap about the on-line experience anyway so fuck it.

Not that Mega Man can be blamed for what has become of Spawn Camping. But, it is interesting to trace the origins of the practice and see how innocently it began.

Mixed Media
Any series this long-running and successful is bound to inspire fan-art. For example, here is an excellent video making light of Wily.

Portraiture is common in the fan-art community. Let’s start off needlessly busy:

Pull back a bit:

After Mega Man and Kitty had a child:

An ironic take on the ass that was the Mega Man 1 box art:

More art picking on how crappy the Mega Man 1 case was:

Finally, to cleanse the palate, something that is not total ass:

Jesse Koester is a film producer working in Tokyo. His work can be seen at www.iceblockfilms.com. Jesse hopes to have his arm transformed into a gun before 20XX rolls around. We’ll see…

Give a hoot! Read a back entry in this series!
Friday The 13th
Nightmare On Elm Street
Fester’s Quest
Magmax
Toobin’
Castlevania
Rush’N Attack
Pipe Dream
Kirby’s Adventure
Marble Madness
Codename: Viper
Wario’s Wood
3D World Runner
Goonies 2
Punch Out!