With Megaman 9 just around the corner, Nintendo finally let loose the well-respected classic NES title that is Megaman 2, widely regarded by many as the best in the series. How well does it hold up after all of this time?

From the first bite, creamy, nostalgic custard fills the mouth in the opening sequence, which is certainly one of the most well-known in gaming history to the point where it has been spoofed numerous times in pop-culture. Even today, the dramatic crescendo effect is still effective despite the technical age. Then the meat of the game comes in and it reminds us of why everyone is so excited for Megaman 9.

Megaman 2 puts Megaman against Dr. Wily's eight Robot Masters: in Megaman 1, the robot bosses were actually Dr. Light's creations, which Dr. Wily had turned bad. In Megaman 2, Dr. Wily creates his first batch of robots on his own. Not only did this set up the classic formula of Wily's robots vs. Blue Bomber, but Megaman 2 really pushed the series into its potential by fine-tuning and smoothing things out from the first. The then revolutionary choice given to the player as to which order to conquer stages in returned. An extra layer of polish was given to the whole game, from its visuals to its sound to the oft overlooked changes to its gameplay engine.

Megaman 1 could feel a bit glitchy at times in the gameplay department, but this rarely happens in Megaman 2 by comparison. The controls in Megaman 2 are very solid -- run, jump, and shoot. Back in the day, sonny, that was all we ever needed, and by golly, we were happy with it! And you know what? It probably handles better than a lot of more recent platformers do. Granted, there are definitely times when the controls can be frustrating -- a couple of portions where very precise jumping is required can be irksome for some, especially when the risk is death and replaying half the level again (and death is caused by an enemy spawning from the side of the screen and ambushing you). Overall, however, Megaman's running and gunning feels smooth and precise in the heat of battle. Timing is very key -- unlike Mario, Megaman's jumps are fast and short-lived. This creates some tension in certain areas of the game (which is mostly good) and also allows for greater maneuverability during boss fights.

And oh, what a good batch of bosses they are. Back on the NES, solid boss fights, especially of such variety, were hard to come by. Megaman 2 presents a well-polished set of bosses, each with unique patterns to be mastered. Some, like Heatman, are much easier to approach than others, like the infamous Quickman, but they all require some slick dodging and well-timed shooting and jumping if you want to overcome them without getting mauled. The feeling of mastering a boss's movements and beating him without getting touched after so many deaths? It is highly satisfying. Of course, maybe you're not a masochist and want an easier way out.

Megaman has you covered there, too. Before Kirby's pink fluff ever sucked up any powers at all, Megaman was stealing his foe's abilities. Megaman 2 brought this trademark element back, of course, with eight different weapons to use. Every enemy in the game, including the Robot Masters, are weak against and invulnerable to different weapons. One can really get into the flow of Megaman and figure out which enemies are weak against what and use this to their speed-running advantage (something that Megaman 9 seems to be encouraging, as well).

After defeating the bosses, Megaman is tasked with infiltrating Dr. Wily's fortress, defeating all eight bosses again (in a row!) and then taking on the Doc himself. This section of the game stands up well in that it really forces (or highly encourages) players to make use of all of the abilities they have collected, from battling the robots again all in a row to extra bosses to exploring and working through the hazardous environments. The special abilities Megaman obtains that help him explore his environments get heavy use here, which is usually good. That said, this last section of the game can be very frustrating, as well, because certain segments mandate the use of weapon X or Y. "What if I've run out of energy for my weapon?" you ask. In some cases (such as the final boss), if you run out your power, you have no choice but to kill yourself, sometimes even forcing a game over on yourself just to respawn on the start of the level with your weapon energy refilled. This is probably the biggest chink in Megaman 2's armor. Some will hate it, some of the aforementioned masochists will love it...Either way you slice it, it's there. I personally think that it is objectively a flaw in the game's design, but it ultimately doesn't harm the overall experience too much, especially since it only can be a potential issue in a couple areas.

Speaking of which, Megaman 2 is an NES game, and thus can be beaten very quickly in general, and even quicker if you're in the know on how everything works. Of course, it is also only five dollars and frankly, it deserves replaying. For starters, the game has two difficulties, and the Difficult setting is actually about twice as hard as the Normal setting. So right there are two playthroughs which will probably give you the same play value as many other five dollar purchases at the Wii Shop; but Megaman 2 is one of those games that's short and sweet enough that you'll come back to it later on just for the heck of it.

The graphics and the music are a big part of what makes Megaman 2 stand out from other NES games. While the graphics themselves are nothing mind-blowing (Super Mario Bros. 3 has more polished graphics) the character design is very distinct and the animations are pretty slick for NES graphics overall. A couple of glitchy hiccups pop up here and there -- the horns in Air Man's level, enemies spawning and magically vanishing, tearing, etc. -- which can occasionally damage the experience to the critical eye, but to many, these have a scent of rich lore radiating outward. Either way, Megaman 2 looks good for an NES game and presents a wide variety of locations to travel through.

Let's not forget the soundtrack. I can't even imagine anyone is reading this review without at least having heard some music from Megaman 2 in some form or another. The music in this game was made from passion, clearly (he was named Rockman in Japan after the music genre, after all), and it still gets remixed all of the time, from jazzy ensembles to rocking guitar solos. The music from Wily's Tower 1 is probably one of the THE most popular songs from video game history. Once in a while the music can suffer from the NES syndrome of "OMG too many different sounds coming out of me at once!" when certain sound effects happen in certain places; however, this was more a result of the composer really digging into the full potential of the chiptunes the NES could produce rather than any fault of the developers.

 So what's there to complain about in Megaman 2? Well, a couple of the bosses (I'm looking at you, Heatman and Flashman) are a bit too easy, even on Difficult mode, and certain portions of the game are somewhat too dang hard for their own good due to needless troubles. As a whole, however, it's really hard to come by any platformer/shooter on the NES as solid as Megaman 2. Unless it's Megaman 3, of course, which manages to outdo the second installment, if so slightly, in this gamer's opinion.