Difference between revisions of "Mega Man II (GB)"

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| Title    = Mega Man II
 
| Title    = Mega Man II

Revision as of 04:52, 28 May 2018

Mega Man II
Mega Man II - GB - US.jpg
Platform: Game Boy
Year: 1991
Developer: Japan System House Co., Ltd.
Buy: Amazon

Mega Man II is the second entry in the Game Boy Mega Man series, taking elements from Mega Man II (NES) and Mega Man III (NES). Dr. Wily has taken control of a time-travel machine, and brought back upgraded versions of some of his past Robot Masters, along with a mysterious robot named Quint, who bears an odd resemblance to Mega Man himself.

Unfortunately, Mega Man II is a case of one step forward, two steps back. This time we get full stages for the second set of Robot Masters, and the introduction of Rush, the slide move and energy tanks make things a lot more accessible than the punishingly difficult Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge (GB). However, developers Biox (then known as Japan System House) went a little too far in the opposite direction, making the game barely any sort of challenge at all. On top of that, the level designs are just heavily simplified versions of those from the NES games, and the collision detection is pretty faulty. Overall, it's certainly a playable game and decent enough by the overall standards of the Game Boy library, but it's a below-par Mega Man outing.

Screenshots

Mega Man II - GB - Title Screen.png

The title screen.

Mega Man II - GB - Stage Start.png

Taking on... uh, "Clash Man."

Mega Man II - GB - Sliding.png

Putting the new slide move to use.

Mega Man II - GB - Rush Marine.png

You could actually fight those enemies... or just bypass them all with the Rush Marine.

Mega Man II - GB - New Weapon.png

At least this game lets Rush appear on the "new weapon" screen.

Mega Man II - GB - Quint.png

In the future, Mega Man wears shades and attacks people with a pogo-jackhammer.

Music

In stark contrast to its acclaimed NES namesake, this game's soundtrack is often considered to be one of the absolute worst in the entire history of videogaming. This reputation isn't entirely deserved, as Kenji Yamazaki provides some good compositions - the themes for the Air Man, Crash Man and Hard Man stages in particular stand out - which the various fan remixes of the game's soundtrack have demonstrated aptly. The big problem is that they appear to be rendered an octave or two higher than intended, and with overbearing percussion, making it unpleasant to listen to at times. There are also signs that the soundtrack was rushed, as the theme for Quint's stage is a grating five-second loop, and the Dr. Wily stage just re-uses the title screen music. On top of that, the game just uses the Game Boy's PCM channel as a third square wave channel, making it sound like a Master System or Game Gear game (not surprising, as all of Biox's previous games were on those two platforms), and the game's sound driver seems to be flawed, as sound effects can sometimes change the music, and the drums occasionally go off-sync.

Unlike most of the other Game Boy outings, this game uses original themes for the most part, though a couple of Yasuaki Fujita's tracks from the NES Mega Man III are re-used here; the first is the "Get a Weapon" theme, which is rendered faithfully enough (though an octave higher for some reason), and the second is the "Password" theme, which is heavily re-arranged and barely recognisable. This game's Top Man theme also sounds oddly like the NES Needle Man theme at points, suggesting that Yamazaki may have started out intending to adapt the NES soundtracks, but ended up not having the time to do so and so produced an original soundtrack.

Recording

# Title ComposerArranger Length Listen Download
01 Title Screen Kenji YamazakiKenji Yamazaki 1:28
Download
02 Password Yasuaki FujitaKenji Yamazaki 1:07
Download
03 Stage Select Kenji YamazakiKenji Yamazaki 0:29
Download
04 Game Start Kenji YamazakiKenji Yamazaki 0:06
Download
05 Crashman Stage Kenji YamazakiKenji Yamazaki 1:44
Download
06 Metalman Stage Kenji YamazakiKenji Yamazaki 1:12
Download
07 Woodman Stage Kenji YamazakiKenji Yamazaki 1:16
Download
08 Airman Stage Kenji YamazakiKenji Yamazaki 1:38
Download
09 Boss Kenji YamazakiKenji Yamazaki 1:07
Download
10 Stage Clear Kenji YamazakiKenji Yamazaki 0:03
Download
11 Get a Weapon Yasuaki FujitaKenji Yamazaki 0:58
Download
12 Hardman Stage Kenji YamazakiKenji Yamazaki 1:40
Download
13 Topman Stage Kenji YamazakiKenji Yamazaki 1:17
Download
14 Magnetman Stage Kenji YamazakiKenji Yamazaki 1:16
Download
15 Needleman Stage Kenji YamazakiKenji Yamazaki 1:16
Download
16 Dr. Wily Stage Map Kenji YamazakiKenji Yamazaki 0:11
Download
17 Quint Kenji YamazakiKenji Yamazaki 0:34
Download
18 Ending Kenji YamazakiKenji Yamazaki 1:24
Download
19 Unused Theme Kenji YamazakiKenji Yamazaki 2:03
Download

Credits

(Source: Kenji's website [1]; game lacks credits.)

Kenji Yamazaki's website lists him as the composer for this game. A former Biox employee has said that Hiroto Nakamura supplied them with the sound drivers they used for most of their 8-bit titles. Kenji has also said that Nakamura was the sound programmer he usually worked with, so he almost certainly handled sound programming for this game.

Game Rip

Format

Download

GBS.png

Download

(Info)


Ripping Game Boy music is a very arduous process that is beyond the scope of this site. The soundtrack was recorded using the Game Emu Player in foobar2000.

Releases

  Japan.svg   Japan
Mega Man II - GB - JP.jpg
Title: ロックマンワールド2 (Rockman World 2)
Platform: Game Boy
Released: 1991-12-20
Publisher: Capcom Co., Ltd.
  USA.svg   USA
Mega Man II - GB - US.jpg
Title: Mega Man II
Platform: Game Boy
Released: 1992-02-??
Publisher: Capcom U.S.A., Inc.
  UK.svg   UK
BoxMissing.png
Title: Mega Man II
Platform: Game Boy
Released: 1992-07-31
Publisher: Nintendo Co., Ltd.
  Germany.svg   Germany
Mega Man II - GB - Germany.jpg
Title: Mega Man II
Platform: Game Boy
Released: 1992-07-31
Publisher: Nintendo Co., Ltd.

Links