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Mega Man X2: 30th anniversary

Mega Man X reinvented the Mega Man series to universal acclaim, and X2 stays the course. The strength of the formula, which rewards you incrementally as you upgrade the robot hero X, sustained my interest despite the game's difficulty.

X again faces eight "Mavericks" (animalian robots) as well as, this time around, three additional "X-Hunters," named Violen, Agile, and Serges (a mistranslation of the French Sagesse, which means wise). Before you select a stage, you are shown in which stage each X-Hunter is hiding at the moment. Every stage has a secret boss room where they can be fought. Each holds a piece of the robot Zero, who nobly sacrificed himself in the previous game. If X finds and defeats all three hidden bosses, Zero is reassembled. This adds replay value to the game for anyone who doesn't hunt down all the X-Hunters in their first playthrough.

As in all Mega Man games, each robot boss has its own themed stage, with different enemies and a different sub-weapon to acquire. For example, Wheel Gator resides in the Dinosaur Tank, filled with robot enemies like triceratops-shaped tanks. After you defeat the Mavericks, five final stages are played in order. As in previous Mega Man games, these culminate in a boss rush, then the final boss, Sigma (returning from X1).

As in all Mega Man games, the bosses are much easier if you play the stages in such an order that the current boss is weak against the weapon X just acquired. You can change weapons at any time via the sub-screen (press START) or cycle through them without pausing using R or L. Enemies frequently drop energy recharges, so you don't have to worry about conserving a weapon's energy unless you use it a lot.

X can upgrade his arms, legs, head, and body, courtesy of a holographically resurrected (so to speak) Dr. Light. The arms upgrade lets X double-charge the X-buster, releasing two powerful shots. It also enables sub-weapons to be charged for special, powerful effects. The legs upgrade allows X to dash in mid-air. The head enhancement is a radar that identifies where secrets are hidden. Finally, the body armor cuts damage in half and also gives X the powerful Giga Crush attack, which charges as X gets health drops.

X can also find eight hearts (adding two ticks to his energy meter) and four sub-tanks. Sub-tanks are rechargeable batteries that automatically refill whenever X picks up a health drop while at full health, letting him store that energy for when he may need it. You can revisit stages to look for missed items (perhaps by using a necessary sub-weapon you didn't have the first time). Without some extra hearts and sub-tanks, boss fights can be tough.

Mega Man games are platformers, and it shows here. Expect to perform precise jumps, race up walls against a timer, dodge spikes, ride and jump between platforms, and do other tricky things. A few segments reminded me of the infamously difficult Mega Man 1. Honestly, I got frustrated several times and even considered giving up, which I never did with X1. The hardest of these segments (which I almost made it through) is optional and leads to the secret Shoryuken upgrade from Street Fighter II.

X1, like the NES Mega Man games, was no walk in the park, but the upgrades were not hard to acquire. In X2, by contrast, I resorted to a strategy guide. Sometimes, even when I could see an upgrade or an inviting pathway on screen, I didn't understand how to get to it. In several instances, this was because X has to dash through the air twice by doing a dash-jump and then releasing a fully-charged Speed Burner. This means you first have to get the arms upgrade and beat Flame Stag. There is no shortage of videos online showing how to acquire various hard-to-reach items: comments indicate I'm not the only person who has struggled! While I'm sure many players love figuring out how to get them all, I didn't have the patience for it.

Mega Man X2, like X1, has awesome graphics and music. The Mega Man X games could be the poster child for the 16-bit era. Like all Mega Man games, it uses a password system instead of a battery backup (in 1995!). The level designs are solid and, as mentioned, challenging. The hidden boss rooms are a great addition to the first game's excellent formula. I only wish they had made the upgrades a little easier to get. 

Grade: A-

Linked Reviews
"Decent level design, good visuals and a bunch of secrets make this a fun game to play through. It often feels like additional levels to the first game, but that's not really a problem."
— Dave Frear, Nintendo Life, 8/10

"A super sequel, maintaining core gameplay while trying twists for interest."
— Asheton Phinney, Ultimate Nintendo: Guide to the SNES Library, 4.5/5

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