An absolute classic, with a hardcore level of difficulty.
After the giant success Capcom had with Mega Man, they decided to make a sequel. For this game they would ramp up the difficulty, and make it even harder than the first game, coming out 2 years after the original Mega Man, Mega Man 2 looks a lot like the first game, but does it live up to expectations?
The short answer to that is "Yes". Mega Man 2 gives us more of the same side-scrolling, hardcore platforming that we now expect from the series, while giving us a bunch of new robot masters to defeat, and in-turn giving us a bunch of new weapons to acquire from them.
The game is tough, probobly a little bit harder than the first game, and I got pretty frustrated with it. But that's makes it so satisfying. When you finally get past a stage and beat another boss, it's incredibly rewarding! I actually got up and did a brief dance on more than one occasion while playing through Mega Man 2, simply because I felt so accomplished at some points.
Overall, Mega Man 2 is a great game, and definitely a classic. Anybody who hasn't played it yet should, especially people looking for a great side-scrolling platformer. The game holds up today just as well as it did back then simply because, like most NES games, it doesn't rely on graphics to be good. For this game, it's all about the gameplay.
I give Mega Man 2 on the NES a 5 out of 5.