Mega Man II (GB)

Mega Man II

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. While the game adds more stages, and now-standard mechanics to the Game Boy Mega Man series, the gameplay itself lends itself as a very easy game with very little challenge at all; most enemies deal very little damage and health pickups are plentiful. While this isn't bad by normal Game Boy standards, when compared to the rest of the Mega Man series, it's lacking in polish.

Screenshots

The title screen.

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

Putting the new slide move to use.

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

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

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

Music

By far the most infamous aspect of the game, the soundtrack for MMII has gained a reputation for sounding grating and "screechy". However, the issue lies not in Kenji Yamazaki's compositions, rather the arranging job of Hiroto Nakamura. While the harsh arrangements are standard for Nakamura's work (such as Taiyou No Yuusha: Fighbird GB (GB) which was released in the same year), for the Mega Man series, it's a subpar job compared to both it's NES counterparts and the previous Game Boy game. Unlike the previous entry in the Game Boy series, which used mostly arrangements and only included a select few original tracks, Mega Man II does it's best to provide a fully original soundtrack, mostly in a unique compositional direction compared to the NES tracks. However, a few tracks, such as the password and "Get a Weapon" themes, take cues from their NES tracks, albeit with a unique twist by Yamazaki.

Recording

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

Credits

Ripper: Unknown
Recorder: OlfinBedwere
Game Credits:
- Not Credited Composer: Kenji Yamazaki
- Not Credited Programmer/Arranger: Hiroto Nakamura
Sound Driver: Giraffe Soft (Sound Driver)

(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
	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.