June 2025 was the month of Mega Man X2 - which was part of a poll by Steve, who completed last month's game first.

Released in 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Mega Man X2 is (unsurprisingly) the second game in the Mega Man X spin-off series. Let's see what everyone had to say about June's game.

Thrak

Mega Man X2 is the second game in the X series I've played (go figure). I've played X1 before and while I have yet to beat that game, I regard it as a masterpiece and the best Mega Man ever made. It represents the 16-bit transition arguably better than the rest with how it remains faithful to the classic games but adds enough new things to seperate itself and become a classic. X2, while having everything X1 has, does not hold the same reverence for me. I'm not sure what it is, but this game does not hit the same. It could be because the boss battles here are not that great with Wheel Gator in particular being a lame as hell boss fight. It does some neat things with primitive 3D graphics and has a great soundtrack, but the level design, weapons and backtracking just isn't as rewarding as its previous game. I have yet to play any other X game so I'm not sure where this would rank on my personal list, but suffice to say I liked it, but I didn't love it.

Poppy

I love this game. When I was little Nintendo Power mentioned the crystals in Wire Sponge's stage, but said it didn't know what they were used for. So when I rented the game and figured out that hitting them with different weapons could change the weather in the area, I was exhilarated. I KNEW SOMETHING THAT NINTENDO POWER DIDN'T!!! I was so proud of myself.

I mention that because the crystals in Wire Sponge stage are a perfect example of why this game rocks so hard. It goes all out on the little things. One of the stages actually lets you control its weather which affects how the enemies behave! When you use the Silk Shot in different levels, it gathers different items in different levels. X breathes heavy when he has low HP. Most bosses have unique animations if you hit them with the weapon they are weak to! At least one boss has a unique death animation! HOW COOL IS THAT!!?!!! Its not a perfect game by far. Some of the upgrades are crazy difficult to find/obtain, and the fact that you can very easily miss Zero's parts is frustrating, but overall this game goes above and beyond to give players so much to see and experience.

Tony

Mega Man X2 plays exactly like you would expect a Mega Man game to play, you select from a set of 8 robot masters and defeating them grants you an ability that can be used as a weakness against one of the other remaining robot masters. You will also need to use some of the powers to help find the energy tanks, health upgrades and power suit upgrades that are hidden in every level. If you really want to give yourself a challenge you could beat the game without finding any of the upgrades, but for most first time players it's worth finding them all. After defeating the initial 8 masters, you move onto the final stages of the game that put all of the skills you’ve learned to the test and bing bang boom you beat the game.

Mega Man X 2 is a perfectly adequate game, but it also kind of felt like it was playing things a bit safe and feels like a downgrade from X1, most notably is the level design. In MMX 1 defeating a robot master can make significant changes to the stage of a different robot master, it’s a nice detail that added a bit more variety to the game. This is something that MMX 2 is missing and just makes the levels feel a lot less interesting. On top of that I also felt that there were less memorable bosses, music and buster powers. Otherwise, it’s a perfectly fine game and far from the worst entry in the series, it just had the misfortune of being the follow-up to Mega Man X1.

Aaron

I'm going to keep it short and sweet: Mega Man X2 was good. It plays and feels just like any other Mega Man X game and didn't really offer anything different from the first game, other than the battles against the Mavericks who you can beat to recover the parts for Zero. Those were pretty challenging and fun, unlike the Reploids (the first 8 Robot Masters) who were pretty tame.

I didn't hate the the game by any means though! I actually enjoyed breezing through this game, and the music was excellent.

Matt

Mega Man is still very new for me. For years I would try starting one up and I just never got it. But this year I was determined and have (So far) beaten 4 Mega Man games, this one being the most recent. They are very tough games at times, especially if you don't know some of the secret bonus power ups sprinkled throughout, but the charm and creativity shines through all the frustration.

From what I've seen so far each Mega Man game tends to have (Mostly) their own sets of bosses and power suits, keeping each one fresh and interesting, X2 being no exception. That being said, outside of specific boss battles I almost exclusively used the spin wheel as it worked the best against the vast majority of mobs. Some bosses were definitely harder than others but I didn't start banging my head against the wall until Serges and onward.Unfortunately I didn't use a walkthrough or the search function at all so I got none of zero's parts or any of the extra powers, which made fighting zero a total slog but somehow I made it through. By the time I got past him to Sigma the rest was a breeze in comparison.

All in all I had a good time going through X2 and definitely plan to go through more Mega Man games (after a bit of a break) in my quest to eliminate as many gaming blind spots as possible.

Steve

Mega Man X is one of the best games ever made. Unlike the “original” series before it, series newcomer Zero was there to push you toward a goal beyond “Beat the Robot Masters, Beat Wily, Roll Credits” (not that there’s anything wrong with that). The stakes were higher, so X needed to get better as the game went on. Replays and exploration were encouraged toward that goal, and by the end, you weren’t trapped with Sigma’s Fortress, Sigma’s Fortress was trapped with you, presuming you figured out how everything worked. It wasn't the first game like this (Kid Icarus says hello), but it would stick out considerably, so what else can you do but do it again?

Mega Man X2 commits the horrible sin many games did at the time, and that was very similar to its predecessor. I need to emphasize this wasn't as big deal at the time, but when everything is neatly compiled together for $20, I get it. Kinda. But not really. Video games were expensive to make. They still are. If you can fill the calendar by making a second thing similar to the first thing for not as much money, you were doing great. But a loud minority jumps on that as a lAcK oF iNnOvAtIoN now and that's why we can't have Mega Man 12 even though the skeleton's right there in 11.

This is a long winded way of saying if you’re out there being pissed about these years-long-layoffs maybe we need to embrace the iterative sequel again. Maybe think twice before Metroid Prime 4 comes out this Christmas and it plays like a Metroid game and we think that's dunking on it somehow. JUST A THOUGHT.

That's it for this month. July's game has been chosen - it's Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku II, chosen by Matt. Look forward to checking out our reviews for that game next month.

Check out the Game Club page using the button below for more info about SuperPod Game Club!