ChristopherChandler.net

Mega Man 2 NES Box Art

I am on a streak of excellent game reviews, to give you the reader an idea of how I take into account certain things about a game.  By showing you what I think the BEST games are, I can show you some mediocre and horrible games later.  But not today!  Today we have one of the greatest entries in what may be one of the top 5 video game franchises ever, Mega Man 2.  A little background, the original Mega Man arrived on the Nintendo Entertainment System 18 months prior to this entry, and was well received by critics, but virtually unknown by players.  However, with the incarnation of Nintendo Power, Capcom made it quite clear that Mega Man 2 was THE game to have in the summer of 1989.  Full page spreads, maps, posters, colorful artwork; this game could not go unnoticed.  The game stars Mega Man the protagonist fighting off the evil Dr. Wily and his 8 Robot Masters: Bubble Man, Air Man, Crash Man, Wood Man, Heat Man, Quick Man, Metal Man, and Flash Man.

The Mega Man games were unique at the time, because it allowed the player to choose what level to start with. (Although if you started with Quick Man, he lives up to his name, and you quickly die.)  After a robot master was defeated, Mega Man could acquire his weapon to use against future enemies in other levels.  Trial and error was needed to find out what weapons the 8 robot masters were weak against.  There are energy and weapon power-ups scattered throughout the levels, and Energy Tanks which the player could collect and save when they needed an extra burst of health during battle.  A password feature using a unique grid system was also implemented, allowing the player to continue later and still leave the same robot masters as defeated.  This obviously takes away the challenge presented by the original Mega Man game, but I think Capcom may have done this on purpose….

Capcom knew that as a second entry in the franchise it had to do EVERYTHING right.  Marketing, gameplay, soundtrack, difficulty.  It all had to be balanced..  If something wasn’t right, it would get lost in the sea of other NES games that flooded the market at the time.  

Mega Man 2 - Stage Select for the 8 Robot Masters

You have to think, this game was going up against some big names at the time!  Super Mario 2, The Legend of Zelda, Ninja Gaiden, and Contra were all out before Mega Man 2.  This game had to be the best.  And it is.  The graphics are impressive by NES standards, giving us HUGE sprites, some bosses taking up the entire screen!  The gameplay is solid. Mega Man controls exactly how you want him to control, if Mega Man falls into a pit of lava, it’s because you made him fall. The soundtrack is excellent.  So excellent that I have it playing in my iTunes right now as I am writing this. All stages have a catchy tune from start to finish, there isn’t a dull one in the bunch.

The difficulty varies.  Most stages allow the player to blast through the level with basic run-and-gun tactics to get through, however others require the player to utilize logic such as to find the correct path of disappearing blocks over the Heat Man lava pool, or the correct pattern to navigate through those damn laser beams in Quick Man’s stage.  There is even one part in Dr. Wily’s castle where if you don’t conserve a certain weapon for use on the Turret Boss at the end of the level, Mega Man cannot defeat his rival and must start the stage over.  When you first play any Mega Man game it can be very overwhelming on what stage to choose first, what weapons to use on the boss, etc.  However, I think Capcom encouraged magazines such as Nintendo Power to include the level maps, secrets, and boss weaknesses on purpose.  They wanted you to progress.  They wanted 7-year old Chris and 5-year old Sean to see the giant dragon in Dr. Wily’s castle.  They wanted the public to say “This game is awesome, you have to try/rent/buy it.”  

Mega Man 2 - Wood Man's stage battling the Fire Dog.

And they succeeded. It was just right.  The password system worked well and had players coming back for more. However, Capcom was smart and added in a “difficult” game in addition to the regular mode.  This allowed pro-players to run through the game with harder enemies, and potentially take more damage.

The game as a whole is a masterpiece, and I hope that everyone who worked on it got a raise, which I am sure they did after sales of the game were phemonemal and eventually spawning many successful sequels on almost every console some of which include SNES, Game Boy, Game Gear, Saturn, Playstation, Nintendo 64, and an all new downloadable game on Wii, 360, and PS3.  This game is relatively easy to find as it sold millions of copies.  The NES cartridge will run you about $10-$12 but you can also find it on the Mega Man Anniversary Collection for Gamecube, Xbox, and Playstation 2.  Also, Mega Man 2 is available on the Wii Virtual Console for download for a measly 500pts. ($5)  Get equipped with Mega Man 2. 10/10 -C

Donkey Kong Country SNES box

Donkey Kong Country is one that is close to my heart. I believe that it was received by my brother for his birthday in November of 1994. Nintendo did a great job promoting this game for months, making me want it more and more every day that came closer to release. Finally, the month before the release of the game, a VHS videotape arrived in our mailbox covered in jungle green leaves. As I saw it was from Nintendo, we popped in the video and were dazzled. Before the Internet had streaming video, all we had seen of the game were pictures in magazines. This marketing tactic was the best idea that Nintendo had at the time. Seeing this game in full motion video had sold not only me and my brother on the game, but all the other neighborhood kids that had seen this video. It was better looking than any game we had ever seen, and at least twice as good as anything SEGA had put out on the Sega Genesis.

Donkey Kong Country VHS Tape

Now about the game, this game is a 2-D platformer that uses 3-D wireframe models to give the illusion of the game being three dimensional.  The game holds a basic premise that any player can understand: Donkey Kong (formally a bad guy in most previous games) has had his entire banana hoard stolen by the lizard Kremlings.  He grabs his buddy Diddy Kong and they need to get their bananas back with help of some animal friends around the island.  The entire adventure is fresh from start to finish with standard platform levels, barrel levels, mine carts, ice, swamp, jungle, and tons of bonus levels.  The number of secrets in Donkey Kong Country is astounding and all of them would be found unless assisted by a guide of some sort.  Collecting Bananas, letters that spell “KONG”, and golden animal tokens has never been so much fun.

Donkey Kong riding Rambi the Rhino

The music in the game is catchy and the ambience whether it be in a cave, water, or the jungle makes the soundtrack one of the best of all time.  (It can be purchased but it is quite rare, do an eBay serach for “DK JAMZ CD”)  There is a two player feature that allows two players to switch off like a standard platformer, or have one player control DK and the other Diddy. 

Overall this Nintendo designed and published game was revolutionary and sold over a million copies of the Super Nintendo cartridge alone.  It was so popular that Nintendo even packed it in with some versions of the Super Nintendo system.  It spawned two SNES sequels, three Game Boy versions, a Game Boy Color port, a Nintendo 64 unofficial sequel, and three ports of the SNES games back onto the Game Boy Advance, not to mention the Wii Virtual Console downloads of the SNES versions.  Most importantly, it revived a ten year old franchise and put Donkey Kong back on the map.  This game is one of the best that Super Nintendo has to offer, I highly encourage you to check it out, the SNES cartridge can be had for about $10 or you can download it from the Wii Virtual Console for 800 points ($8).  Now excuse me while I go eat a banana. 10/10 -C

Note: This is one of few reviews that were on the old site, but I want to import it to the new site for consistency. Enjoy! -C

Super Mario Bros. 3

The best selling game of all time. Over 18 million NES cartridges sold. Yeap. Were you surprised? I picked this masterpiece up at Toys ‘R Us following an elementary school Family Fair on a Saturday. I had reserved it, and I plopped down my $49.99 that I had saved for months with absolutely no problem in February of 1990. I knew this was going to be good. There was no question. This was MARIO 3. I mean come on, I had technically already played the game on a Playchoice-10 machine at a now defunct Ligi’s Deli down the street. I had seen the movie “The Wizard”. I had read Nintendo Power, I knew this was THE game to have of 1990.

Super Mario Bros. 3 may be not only the best selling game of all time, but also the

World 1-1

 BEST game of all time. This game has it all. Multiple Power-ups, mini-games, multiplayer, warp zones, perfect controls, beautiful graphics (for the NES), and a great storyline. So why is this so great? Everyone already had Super Mario Bros. because it was packaged with the system, and the 2nd one was different but still good. This 3rd title in the series took the first game and made it larger, better, but with the same Mario style that everyone loved. Mario and Luigi are in the Mushroom Kingdom when Bowser the King of the Koopas appears, snatches Princess Toadstool, and transforms the 7 kings of the land into Bowser’s villains. Bowser sends each of his seven kids to guard the magic wands of each land, whom Mario and Luigi must defeat before facing Bowser himself.

So the game plays just like the original Super Mario Bros. utilizing your standard run & jump platformer movements. However, a big twist in the game play is the new abilities Mario can gain when using the appropriate “suit” Mario can fly like a Raccoon, swim like a Frog, turn into a statue (Tanooki), and even throw hammers like the Hammer Bros. along with tried and true favorites like the Fire Flower, Star Man, Super Mushroom, and more. This game is easy for anyone to pick up, but difficult for anyone to Master. The later levels in Worlds 6, 7, and 8 get extremely difficult and present a challenge to even the most veteran players. The music has new catchy tracks, and remixed versions of the old tracks from the previous Mario games.

World 3 Fortress

On first play, there is something new always around the corner. Another secret to be had. Just when you think you have seen it all, this game surprises you. This game is still highly sought after, even being the 2nd or 3rd most common Nintendo game out there. A true piece to always have in any collection for collector or gamer alike. Remixed versions with additional features can be found on Super Mario All-Stars (SNES) and Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 (Game Boy Advance) and eventually will come out on the Virtual Console for Nintendo Wii. If you have never played this game. Track it down, and treasure it. It truly is a work of art. -C

Rating: 10/10