Those mega men.

While the game may not be a step back into my childhood like others, I can still find some sentimental value in Mega Man 2 on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Mega Man 2, in case you've been living under an 8-bit rock for the last twenty two years, is the second in the now classic Mega Man series made by Capcom. The game is an action-platformer with a semi-non-linear gameplay style, wherein the player can choose to tackle the eight robot bosses in any order they choose before being forced to plunge back into linearity to get through the final levels and defeat the evil Doctor Wily at the end.

The ability to be able to choose which level to play from the beginning allows the player to choose how difficult they want the game to be once they know what the easiest order is. For example, one could attempt to take on Quick Man from the get-go.

Standard to the Mega Man formula introduced in the first iteration of the series, Mega Man 2 rewards your victory over a boss with the ability to use their weapon for the rest of the game. Each robot master has his own weakness to another master's weapon, and the player can also use these aquired weapons to experiment of ways to beat levels quicker or make enemies easier to conquer. This allows for a deeper degree of strategy than one would come to expect from a seemingly standard side-scroller on the NES.

Being able to change weapons at any time also allows the player to limit themself as much as they want, gaining an even greater challenge from the game.
As well as all these self-regulated limitations, the game offers a hard mode, wherein Mega Man takes more damage and the enemies take less.

Of course, as is now standard with the Mega Man games, the most important aspect of the game besides the core gameplay is the soundtrack. Every track that is belted out by the old machine still holds up today as some of the best video game music of all time. Catchier than most pop music, each song in the game, once heard, will never leave your head.

While I wasn't even alive when Mega Man 2 was released (I was born five years later) and I did not play it as a child (I only got my hands on a copy last year), I can still find some nostalgic value in the game. Something about the graphics and presentation get me pining for my childhood days where I could play a game for days on end. Perhaps this is because I grew up on the 8-bit Gameboy, which was practically emulating the NES' graphical and musical style.

Mega Man 2, as a whole, is a game that, in my mind, cannot be matched by many others, past or present. This game is perfect. Any flaws in the game merely add to this, as it feels more real because of them. This game was designed and made by real people who really put their heart and soul into it, and you can feel this the moment you pop the cart into your Nintendo.
If you, the reader, have not already played this game, you have never experienced gaming as it was truly meant to be.