Worlds of Power: Mega Man 2

Four hundred blogs. What a wild stat for something that I really thought I'd fizzle out of. I guess it shows just how much I get out of doing these. The two hundredth blog covered the interesting World of Power books. A series of books based on popular Nintendo Entertainment System titles, albeit none of them ones made by Nintendo themselves. Thankfully the NES library was strong enough to supply enough valid choices through Capcom, Konami, Jaleco, and other licenses. 

We talked about the bizarre Castlevania II book last time which was apparently an outlier in terms of what these books were about. No other book features a kid being brought into the video game world. Instead the stories we get were based more closely around the game in general. But given the game being adapted this time, thre's definitely a lot you can do with it. And given it's one of my all time favorite video games at that, this one will be fun if only to see how bizarre it gets. Let's talk about Mega Man 2. 

Capcom released the first game in the Rockman series to the United States in 1988 and it wasn't a massive hit. Blame that mostly on its infamously bad box art. So when came time for the sequel, there wasn't too many expectations, but ultimately, those expectations were blown away. The game was a massive success and greatly improved upon the original Mega Man. It even has a better cover even if it's still so clunky. It's not a deep plot. Dr. Wily returns and wreaks havoc with eight new robot masters that Mega Man has to defeat. But the world and concept is one I could easily see being adapted in so many ways. Let's see how F.X. Nine did.

The book starts by giving us the basics of the game itself. Dr. Light informs Mega Man about Dr. Wily returning with eight powerful robots and that despite being a super fighting robot, Mega Man might not be enough to stop Wily's plans. So Dr. Light decides he should clone Mega Man, of course! He has Mega Man stand in his obscenely expensive Robo-Transometer XZ-4000. But after activating it, it goes awry. Instead of cloning Mega Man, he turned the robot human instead as Mega Man can now feel pain for the first time ever. He also has feelings which he didn't have before. Ah, so this book is asking the age old question of if robots could feel emotions only watered down for kids. I'm down for that.

So Mega Man has been nerfed pretty much. He is a full on human. But he still has most of his robot powers so that at least is a positive-ish sign that he can take on the eight robot masters. Dr. Light's not convinced, but says he'll follow along with Mega Man and offer the passwords to access the domains of the eight robot masters. And me, being someone who has played this game a lot can follow along to see what glaring errors the author has when it comes to being an accurate walkthrough of sorts. So let's have some fun. Mega Man starts with Metal Man. He avoids the metal crushers and barrels in the loud factory and arrives at Metal Man's boss room. He battles with Metal Man, avoiding the blades and easily defeats him, getting the Metal Blade powerup in the process.

Next up is Flash Man AKA the stage that sounds an awful lot like "Seek and Destroy" from Metallica and when you first notice it you never get it out of your head. In the book it's described as a worn down city covered in blue. Mega Man advances on but runs into a giant robot named "Mr. Big." I'm assuming this is meant to be a Sniper Armor, the robots that Sniper Joes ride, but here it's just described as a lumbering giant robot that almost steps on Mega Man. Mega Man avoids it and uses a Metal Blade that destroys it instantly, which does not work in the game mind you. So already this "players guide disguised as a novel" is lying to the reader. Mega Man then finds an E tank, or "energy pellet" and then easily defeats Flash Man.

Up next is Bubble Man. He starts on a pier and keeps jumping over additional piers. He then encounters a giant frog called a "Croaker" which spits out tinier frogs. Mega Man just uses his metal blade to dispatch him as even the book is making it clear, the Metal Blade is OP in this game. About half of the Robot Masters in the game have a side weakness to it. He falls into the water and worries that he can't swim now that he's human. He then swims fine enough making that crisis a bit pointless, eh? He battles some of the crab robots and traverses through pipes until he makes it to Bubble Man who speaks every sentence with a "blurble" because he's underwater, you see? He has Mega Man on the ropes, but Dr. Light tells him to use his Energy Pellet. It restores Mega Man's health and he defeats Bubble Man. Which is funny to me given honestly Bubble Man's one of the easier robot masters, especially with the metal blade. 

Next up is Air Man. An interesting choice to do that one without the weakness weapon, the Leaf Shield, but okay book. He arrives in a pathway in the clouds and is blocked by a Cloud Tiki, or a "Cloud Climber" as the book puts it. The giant red monster heads with the drill horns. He gets past it and battles the tiny tiki heads. He then battles a "Robo-Chimp", which I was confused he meant the monkeys from Wood Man's stage, but it's a Kaminari Goro, the robots on clouds that shoot lightning. He rides the cloud and avoids the bomb birds before he makes it to Air Man. Described as a scary robot with a giant gaping hole of a mouth. He uses his Metal Blade to defeat Air Man. That's a no-no actually as Metal Blades bounce off Air Man. We also haven't seen like any use of the weapons outside of metal blade so I really hope we do. Mega Man gets Air Man's Air Shooter and "Air Man's jet ski", which is just Item-2, which is supposed to be an item Dr. Light invented. So we finally know Dr. Light's a hack that steals the inventions of others. He's the real villain.

Before Mega Man heads to the next robot domain, Dr. Light sends a recording of Dr. Wily taunting Mega Man and saying that things are going to get much more deadly. Crash Man is next and this actually is an accurate path to take after getting Air Man's weapon. The book describes it as a world of circuits and machinery that Mega Man has to traverse upward to make it to Crash Man's lair. He then battles some Prop-Tops (Hey look, the correct name of the enemy) who are described as boxing gloves with propellers? Uhh, if you say so, book. He makes it to Crash Man and avoids the enemy's bombs. And then just shoots him with the regular gun and not the Air Shooter. I know I'm ragging on this book in a very "I hope someone got fired for that blunder" way, but YOU JUST GOT THE WEAPON TO USE AGAINST CRASH MAN AND YOU DON'T USE IT!? I bet the author just wanted to write the Metal Blade again.

Heat Man is our next domain. A domain of hot lava and more Prop-Tops. He almost falls in the lava but uses the "Jet-Ski" to ride to safety. He even uses the Crash Bomber weapon to break walls. Progress! He arrives to Heat Man who is described as looking like a normal robot with a box-like armor that snapped open and shut. Making him look like, you guessed it... a square turtle? Okay, I guess since it's a kids book you can't just say he looks like a Zippo Lighter. Anyway he beats Heat Man with the regular blaster again, not the Bubble Lead. Wood Man is next. He battles a Robo-Rabbit that says "What's Up Doc?" because references. He then battles the "Bubble Bats" and the Robo-Chickens and other enemies from the level. He battles Wood Man. The Metal Blade doesn't work on the Leaf Shield (even though Wood Man is weak to the Metal Blade regardless), so Mega Man uses Heat Man's Atomic Fir-nah, I'm screwing with you. Gun again.

So we're finally down to one more Robot Master domain. Quick Man, AKA, you better get good at platform timing because this stage is going to be your downfall. It's described as an abandoned factory/power plant. As he rushes through, Mega Man dodges a bunch of powerful lasers, robots called "Hot-Heads" and Springers, which are described as Jack in the Boxes, which is kind of right. He dodges more beams by using the Flash Stopper and when he arrives to Quick Man, eventually uses the Crash Bomber weapon. We're finally getting some use of the weapons. Took long enough. But with that, Mega Man has felled all of Wily's soldiers. All that's left is his fortress, or as the book calls it, "Wily's Castle of Evil", which is honestly a metal as hell name for it.

He arrives outside of Wily's fortress and battles against many of his forces from earlier in the book, only now he faces Sniper Joes, which he uses Leaf Shield and Air Shooter for, which seems a waste, but sure. He then makes his way inside, only to be chased by a dragon, but some Quick Boomerangs make waste of the dragon quickly. Mega Man then heads to the subterranean area of the fortress with more Prop-Tops and lots of spikes and crushers which he has to use the jet-ski for. He eventually ends up in a square room with bricks launching at him, but he manages to easily dodge them. He is then in the watery moat of the fortress with giant fish coming after him, to which he uses the Bubble Lead to dispatch of them? Dude, just jump over them. It also makes no sense since the bubbles just bounce off the fish.

Mega Man then encounters the Guts-Dozer and... uses Crash Bombs? Dude, you need those for the next boss! Granted, they do damage, but not enough to be a worthwhile choice. He hears the voice of Dr. Wily taunting him in the next area and chases after him, eventually finding a maze of doors and blasters he has to use Crash Bomber on. He then finds a teleporter that takes him to a room where he has to face off with the eight robots again. Thankfully we don't get a repeat of the fights as Mega Man easily best them and makes his way to Dr. Wily himself in his giant skull ship. It gets felled easily to the metal blades, what else is new? 

Wily escapes in his Spaceship and Mega Man gives chase, eventually heading into a corridor with acid dripping off the ceiling. He makes it to a void where he sees an alien ready to attack him. Mega Man uses his bubble lead and that's enough to destroy the alien and defeat Dr. Wily who begs for mercy. He brings a captured Dr. Wily to Dr. Light who can't thank Mega Man enough. He offers to turn Mega Man back into a robot, but Mega Man says that he loves being a human now. He walks off to his home and removes his helmet on the ground to end the story, hey, just like the game. 

This one was fine, but I will admit, a bit too bland as well. I think what I liked about the Castlevania II book was that it tried to be its own thing, giving us a story that isn't exactly one to one with the game and a protagonist that isn't just the game protagonist. Tim Bradley, chocolate and video game nut over just Simon Belmont. Here, there's none of that. It's as straight a telling of the video game as possible without any of the weirdness that permeated in Castlevania II. And as such, it ultimately feels like such a bland experience. Being too straightforward and not having any time for fun. There are some fun set pieces and action, but essentially all steak but nothing ever feeling savory. 

As a walkthrough, it's half-decent at best. A lot of things that happen in the story do work in the game and do follow the events closely enough. But there are some confusing choices and things that don't line up correctly like using Metal Blade on Air Man for example, or the thing with the fish. Now, there are the hints in the book that give you a more correct way to run through the game, but if I just need those to play the game properly, the book doesn't seem like it needs to exist then. This feels like cursory stuff you'd probably already find in a Nintendo Power issue. 

And I get it. I nitpick, but I get it. This was likely an outline given to the author and not so much their experience with the game. Fair enough. And also likely that they have to stick to the concept as close as possible, likely as an edict by Capcom. But it leaves the book lacking in anything tangible. The whole humanity thing really doesn't matter and you could have done a lot of this with just Mega Man as a robot. He also never gets much to do other than spout one liners and battle the robots. If you saw that wrinkle of Mega Man becoming human early in the book and hoped you were getting Baby's First Asimov, you're going to be let down. Though, no lie, the author recommends I, Robot at the end of the book. Okay then, valid flex.

In the end, like I said, it's a fine book. Pretty inoffensive as a product based on Mega Man and probably one of the better handlings of the brand and the general game. It just really could have used a lot more personality to make it something special. Maybe there needed to be more of a human feel to this story and not something so robotic and straightforward. If you're looking for something more lively with a Mega Man story, look elsewhere, but if you want a quick breezy retelling of the game, then I guess it's a light recommend. Though, honestly, just play Mega Man 2. It's an easy game to find and a fun one to play and master. Definitely curious how the other Worlds of Power play out. How many are one-to-one like this and how many try something fresh. I've got to imagine that's at least the case for Bases Loaded II. But we'll see. Maybe sooner than another 200 blogs but no promises. Worlds of Power: Mega Man 2 gets a C+.

Thanks for following me to this 400-blog milestone for Raiders of the Bookmark. It's been a wild run so far and there's still plenty of things to talk about and cover and I know it'll be a fun ride to see what wackiness we run into next. To the next 400!