Mega Man 2 Review

The structure is the reason it endures. Picking a stage order is a puzzle laid over a platformer, since each boss weapon is a key for another boss and finding the chain is half the game, and it means a player who is stuck has somewhere else to go rather than a wall. The level design is tight and legible, every hazard is telegraphed exactly once before it can kill you, and the sprite work reads perfectly at a glance.

The music is the other reason, and Wily Stage 1 has outlived the console, the company's other franchises and most of the people who first heard it. The balance is not careful. Metal Blade costs almost nothing, fires in eight directions and kills half the roster on contact, so a player who finds it early can dismantle the game's carefully built weapon economy in an afternoon. The Wily boss rush is padding, and the disappearing block sequences are trial and error by design.