The Mega Man 2 Worlds of Power book might be my least favorite book in the series. Primarily because of the strange decision to make Mega Man human. It doesn’t make much sense, and the logic behind the decision is bizarre.
This is a straight novelization of the game. There is no kid from the real world, and this doesn’t try to explain much about the world of Mega Man. It also exposes how thin the plot for many games on the NES was.
This is me looking at it as a 38-year-old. If I had read this book when I was a kid, I probably would have loved the book. It was targeted at kids who liked Mega Man or liked video games. It wasn’t meant for some older guy who likes to analyze stuff from the 80s and 90s.
However, I’m going to do that anyway! Let’s talk about the story and then get into what I liked and disliked about it.
Story
We’re introduced to Mega Man and Dr. Light right away. Dr. Light tells Mega Man that Dr. Wily is back, and Mega Man has to defeat him. There is also a plan to make a copy of Mega Man to beat Wily faster.
The experiment goes wrong, and Mega Man is turned into a human. This isn’t a problem for Dr. Light or Mega Man, even though Mega Man can be killed now.
I think this was added in to create a sense of danger. It doesn’t really come into play. Mega Man still moves like a robot, is vastly superior to the robot masters, and can use all of the weapons at will. I think they just saw the box art and figured Mega Man had a gun instead of the Mega Blaster being part of his arm.
The “E” tanks and energy pellets are still here. It creates a strange scenario where Mega Man is popping pills left and right while drinking an energy liquid that Dr. Wily is leaving for some reason. I guess this follows the game, but it makes me think Mega Man is a meth addict.
The robot masters (Air Man, Bubble Man, Heat Man, Wood Man, etc.) are all dealt with quickly. Part of me wishes there was more to the fights, but I also wanted the story to be over—you kind of know what is going to happen already.
Mega Man eventually makes his way to Wily’s castle and makes his way inside. This is probably the best part of the book. Mega Man has to fight a couple of mini-bosses on his way to Dr. Wily. Then he has to fight all of the robot masters again.
Finally, Mega Man quickly defeats Wily, and Dr. Light arrests him. I’m not sure how Dr. Light can arrest someone and lock them in prison, but it doesn’t have to make sense. Mega Man also decides not to turn back into a robot. This means Dr. Light created a new Mega Man because we have four more games on the NES.
Likes and Dislikes
Overall, this is my least favorite book in the series. There are more things that I don’t like in this book. It is a novelization of a game that doesn’t have much of a plot, to begin with.
I have no idea why Mega Man is turned into a human. It doesn’t make any sense because he is still essentially invincible. I think it was to add a sense of danger to the story because now he can die, but it never matters. Even when he almost lands in lava, nothing happens to him!
The special backpack is also a strange thing that wasn’t brought up until most of the way through the book. Mega Man carries all of his weapons and items in a backpack. You don’t find out about this until forty pages into a seventy-three-page book. It would have been easy to say this early on.
It’s also very odd that Mega Man doesn’t turn back into a robot at the end of the book. I’m not sure why the author did this. This might be hindsight because I know there were more games after the second game.
I have to think that there was some involvement from Capcom in this story. It feels weird that it was finished in the way that it was. I think it was an odd way to leave the story.
How Mega Man is traveling around to the different levels isn’t explained. It does mention passwords which is kind of cool, but overall, it doesn’t make sense. Mega Man will beat one of the robot masters, and then Dr. Light will magically teleport Mega Man to the next level.
I know this is supposed to be a technologically advanced future, but maybe say that Dr. Light is teleporting Mega Man around. Maybe they could have had Mega Man find the password after beating the robot master, have him transmit it to Dr. Light, and then have Mega Man teleport away. I guess it doesn’t really matter anymore, does it.
I liked how the different robots had been worked into the story. In each of the levels, Mega Man fights different robot enemies. They are primarily level-specific, and it is nice to see them mentioned.
The different mini-bosses are brought in nicely as well. In the game, you have one or two of them in each level, and I like how they get included in the story.
I think the weapons are worked in and used nicely. It follows some of the strategies for beating the game. I know there are different ways to beat Mega Man 2, but I think the way the book plays out is one of the more popular ones.
Final Thoughts
This story took a few chances with the game’s story. I don’t think it worked out. The story in Mega Man 2, and the other Mega Man games on the NES, are very basic, so they need to be beefed up a bit. Something could have been done to make it better.
It would have been better if the author hadn’t turned Mega Man into a human. Leaving him as a robot would have made much more sense.
Mega Man 3 came out in 1990. So, I don’t think the author knew there would be a sequel. This also makes me think that Capcom didn’t have much involvement in the final product. It reminds me of the Brazilian Mega Man comic books, but not as spicy.
Looking at the story now, I wouldn’t say I liked it that much. However, if I had read this as a kid, I would have enjoyed it for what it was. It is a fun little story for kids who started reading.