And who's the lucky candidate this time? Why, Mega Man 2!
(yeah the PAL box art isn't that crash hot but its lameness is still worth a chuckle)
I never played any of the Mega Man games during the 8bit era. That still didn't stop me admiring it from afar. And as far as I was concerned controlling a robot guy with a cannon for an arm sounded pretty sweet to me.
This in turn placed me in a unique position when I finally got around to play it on the Virtual Console: I've never played this game and I don't have any memories playing it to influence my opinion So what did I think?
Well first off the bat, this would have to be one of, if not the most technically impressive game I've seen on an 8-bit system. Having grown up in the Commodore 64 era I was thoroughly impressed with this quality of the graphics: the sprites have loads of personality that I wouldn't have previously thought possible.
I also enjoyed the use of weapon upgrades and the level selection: As I've come into Mega Man blind (like all games should be approached), I was thought this was quite a neat feature and surprised that this type of thing was being implemented in it's day - particularly when player-determined paths are commonplace in games of today.
But then there is the difficulty: My God, is this game a challenge and a half. I hate how games offer cheap deaths (yes Burnout 3, I am looking at you) and I do feel that mega Man 2 belongs in this category. I've lost count how many times I yelled at the TV screen, ground my teeth in frustration and faced my will being broken.
If anything Mega Man 2 comes across as more a battle of wits between the player and the game itself with neither willing to back down to the other. And that's the thing: A game should be fun to play. And if a game is making me frustrated, angry and anything but having fun, then something has gone seriously wrong. Thus to hear people laud Mega Man 2 as one of the greatest games ever made is confusing to me.
Okay true Mega Man 2 is a product of a bygone era when games were allowed to be as nasty as they choose and anyone will go along with it. And I will admit that games of today being much easier may allow for complacency in gamers, but if a game leaves me yelling "BULLSHIT!" on several occasions then perhaps it may be better to move onto something else.
Ultimately I did find a lot to be impressed with Mega Man 2 but it hasn't really sold me on the rest of the series. I do respect Mega Man 2 for both it;s own merits and being the best in the series but I'm not in any rush to go and explore some more.
Oh well, easy come easy go I guess....
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