Mega Man 2

Mega Man 2 is, as you may have guessed, the second entry in a very long-running series. It introduced many new concepts while also improving on all the flaws of the original. This game is considered by a number of fans to be among the best of the series, which is quite impressive for a game made entirely in the developers' spare time while working on another game (said game being the Japan-only Pro Yakyuu? Satsujin Jiken!, for anyone curious).

Prerelease Info Bugs Unused Level DataTiles, Blocks, Palettes, there's definitely something left here! Unused RoomsLeftovers from the past...

Unused Sprite Graphics#

Unused graphics not related to the actual levels.

Mega Man 1 Leftovers#

A leftover tile of Mega Man holding something, just like in Mega Man 1 when using the Super Arm.

A leftover 8x8 tile of the Mega Man 1 weapon energy pickup.

Bosses#

Quick Man#

Sprite for Quick Man shooting while standing still. While this sprite IS used during normal gameplay, it only appears for a single frame right before he jumps after blocking a projectile, meaning it's unlikely players will see this sprite in-game.

Unused sprite intended for Quick Man's intro animation.

Flash Man#

Unused sprite for Flash Man. It appears to be either for falling off a platform, or for firing his gun when in midair.

Wily Machine#

Located near the graphics for the Wily Machine is an unused duplicate of the sprites used for the fight itself. The first one is an unused sprite that would've given Wily some much needed back support, the second is for the ball on his machine, which would've flashed for some reason, and the third is an earlier version of the debris that shoots off the Wily Machine at the end of the first phase of the fight. It should be noted that the sprite of the ball is present and identical on both versions of the sprites.

Enemies#

Friender#

This small detail was supposed to close Friender's front paw, but it was either removed or forgotten due to going out of the area the Frienders stand. Of note, in Friender's updated sprites from Mega Man: The Wily Wars, the opening in the front paw was just closed with a black outline, and its shading makes the difference between the other paws more apparent.

Acid#

Unused sprite for the Acid in Wily Stage 6.

Other#

These katakana symbols ("aki") were used to fill empty spaces in the enemy graphics. They mean, appropriately enough, "emptiness".

Unused Sprite Data#

Mega Man#

​​$1A

A leftover sprite of Mega Man stunned by Guts Man's earthquakes in Mega Man 1. Most of this sprite has been overwritten by the new energy pickup graphics.

$10, $11

$12

$0D, $0E, $0F

$13

Various remnants of Mega Man using the Super Arm. Like the stunned sprite, these have largely been overwritten by new graphics.

Flash Man#

​​$85

Flash Man never shoots while jumping in the final game.

Unused Item Drop Code#

Use Game Genie code VSUNLXKK to have enemies drop E-Tanks when they are destroyed.

There is coding in the game for enemies to drop E-Tanks upon death, but the code is typically rendered inaccessible due to its potential game-breaking effects. Footage of this in action can be found on a Capcom sales VHS tape, suggesting it was removed late into development.

Unused Sounds#

There are three unused sounds. Edit offset x3DC59 to any of these values, then select Flash Man's weapon to hear them.

Regional Differences#

Rockman 2: Dr. Wily no Nazo would release outside of Japan as Mega Man 2 in North America and Europe. In 2001, officially-licensed collections of the first six Rockman games were released in Taiwan and China. The version of Rockman 2 in those collections is based on the North American release, just with a few changes. In 2004, another collection would release this time in North America for the GameCube and PlayStation 2 including an Xbox version in 2005. The version of Mega Man 2 in that collection is based on the Rockman Complete Works version on the PlayStation.

Copyright Screen#

In the screen that appears when you boot up the game, the Japanese version starts with the publishing year (1988), then changes into the publisher's name (Capcom). The US and European versions on the other hand, contain the copyright information. In Mega Man Anniversary Collection, the Japanese version of this screen is used, except the year is changed to 2004.

Japan	US	Europe	Taiwan / China

Opening#

International	Taiwan / China

All instances of "MEGAMAN" in the intro were changed to "ROCKMAN" for the Taiwanese & Chinese release.

Title Screen#

Rockman 2 has a copyright tag and trademark symbol on the title screen. Mega Man 2 moves all copyright information to the start of the game, and also moves the building down a bit to accommodate the larger title graphic.

The title logo in the Taiwanese and Chinese release was reverted back to the original Japanese one sans subtitle, which is especially odd considering that other games in the collection simply edit the "Mega Man" logo to read "Rock Man". The edit was also done in a rather sloppy way as the right and bottom edges of the "N" end up getting cut off, since they were originally rendered as sprites in order to get around palette limitations. The rest of the screen is the same as the International versions, right down to the difficulty select.

Japan	International	Taiwan / China

Difficulty selection#

The Japanese version of Rockman 2 does not have a difficulty selection, and simply says "Press Start" in the title screen. Mega Man 2 and the Taiwanese and Chinese versions have the player choose between Normal and Difficult before starting the game; Difficult is the unaltered original game, while Normal doubles the damage dealt by all of Mega Man's attacks, effectively halving the HP of enemies and bosses. This is controlled by RAM address $00CB, which is unused and always 0 in the original version, but changes to 1 in other versions when Difficult mode is selected.

The Mega Man 2 port found in Mega Man: The Wily Wars has no difficulty selection for all versions, due to it being based on the Japanese game, as does Complete Works (whose only other change to the title screen was updating the copyright date to include 1999).

Password#

All instances of the word "Pass Word" were corrected into "Password" in Mega Man 2, but in the Anniversary Collection version, it still says "Pass Word".

Japan	International / Taiwan / China

Stage Select#

Crash Man is known as Clash Man in Rockman 2. However, in May of 2024, Mega Man director Akira Kitamura confirmed via Twitter that his name was always intended to be Crash Man instead of Clash Man. Mega Man: The Power Battle goes with the localized name in the international versions.

The "Clash Man" spelling also appears in a screenshot on the back cover of the US box.

Japan	International / Taiwan / China

Big Fish#

In the Japanese version, the player doesn't receive any damage if hit by the "Big Fish" enemy that appears in Wily Stage 3. While the damage animation is produced like normal, no health is lost in the interaction. This was adjusted in the international versions, and they inflict 10 units of damage.

Credits#

A couple of typos in the staff roll were fixed for the international versions.

Japan	International / Taiwan / China

Character Designer was fixed.

Japan	International / Taiwan / China

And so was Sound Programmer.

Japan	US	Europe

Also, the "Presented by" was altered due to the different Capcom divisions.

Revisional Differences#

Mega Man Anniversary Collection#

Title Screen (MMAC)#

Japan (Famicom)	International (NES)	Anniversary Collection (GameCube)

Like the other games in the collection, the title screen is based on the Japanese Complete Works version as such:

• The US Mega Man logo was used and stretched out.
• The "II" of the US logo was redesigned to mirror Mega Man 4 onwards, but without the backing shadow.
• The copyright information was updated, shifted, and oddly squished.
• The unique "trademark" graphics were replaced by generic text tiles.
• Due to odd screen clipping, the GameCube version cuts the left tip of the logo off.

Other Changes#

• Due to Anniversary Collection being based on Complete Works, it does not re-implement Normal mode either
• In addition, the title screen logo was achieved by overlaying a texture over it alongside redrawing the two.
  • Anniversary Collection also has a bug where skipping the prologue then waiting for the game to eventually reset will cause the former instance(s) to not be cleared and get overlaid with the new text.

Capcom Town#

Copyright Screen#

USA (NES)	USA (Capcom Town)

The Nintendo of America license is not present for obvious reasons, which is quite similar to the Taiwan/China version.

Other Changes#

• All the flashing light palette effects have been disabled; only the Atomic Fire and Weather effects in the final scene are present.

Oddities#

X Hidden in Password#

In-Game	Changing Palette

There are several Xs in the password table, as well as drop-shadows on the numbers. However, because they have a black palette on a black background, they are impossible to see normally.

Heat Man's Hidden Atomic Fire Sound#

Watch on YouTube

When fighting Heat Man, there are two instances when the sound effect for firing the Atomic Fire is called: when Heat Man encases himself in fire, and then again when he charges at the player. However, when Mega Man attacks Heat Man, the normal "hit" sound effect lasts long enough to cancel the first Atomic Fire sound- only successfully calling up the second in normal circumstances.

There is a way to hear the first sound, though: Pausing the game immediately after hitting Heat Man with any weapon that deals damage will cause both usages of the Atomic Fire sound effect to play successfully.

Easter Eggs#

Make Stars Become Birds#

Watch on YouTubeTo make the stars in the background turn into birds (Pipi), select a boss on the Stage Select Screen while holding down the A and B buttons. The stars will transform into birds on the following screen, which displays the boss and his name.

References#