Mega-Man 2: The Power Fighters was a two-dimensional one-on-one arcade fighting game that was released in 1996, one year after its predecessor Mega-Man: The Power Battle.
Whereas The Power Battle was one of the last four games released for the first Capcom Power System arcade board, or CPS-1, The Power Fighters was released for its successor, the CPS-2. The primary purpose of the CPS-2 was to add encryption to the games that ran on the system board to prevent piracy. The graphics and sound were essentially the same, as The Power Battle also employed the three-dimensional sound processing algorithm known as QSound.
That's not a bad thing however, as The Power Battle already stood toe-to-toe with the graphics seen on the Mega Man games for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The cartoon-style is really beautiful. It remains a treat to see the blue bomber in all of his fighting glory. The mundane punching and futuristic sound effects return here. The music also remains a fantastic blend of Mega Man and Street Fighter II, making great use of the QSound technology.
The real draw to this game compared to its successor is the addition of a fourth character. Mega Man, Proto Man, and Bass return, but this time they are joined by Duo, a robot that made its debut in the then-upcoming Mega Man 8. The shooting and the capturing and firing of boss weapons also return. New moves make their premiere here in the form of unique special moves for each character which can be activated by holding the direction of the joystick up and releasing a full buster attack.
Assist characters also make their debut here, appearing when the enemy health is halved or after using a credit to continue. Mega Man has the assistance of Rush, and Bass fittingly has Treble. Proto Man and Duo both gain the assistance of Beat. These assist characters will use their blasters against the enemy, but the drawback is that special moves can not be used while they are active.
Like its predecessor, there are three stories in the game. The first involves fighting through robots to find Dr. Wily. The second has the heroes battling to rescue Mega Man's sister Roll. The third involves finding robot parts that were stolen by Dr. Wily.
As before, each story contains six robots and a penultimate boss. The first story pits the heroes against Bubble Man, Heat Man, Shadow Man, Gyro Man, Centaur Man, and Plant Man with the boss being the Mad Grinder from Mega Man 7. The second story has the abominable Yellow devil as the penultimate boss after the heroic robots defeat Cut Man, Elec Man, Dive Man, Stone Man, Slash Man, and Shade Man. The final story contains Guts Man, Air Man, Quick Man, Gemini Man, Pharaoh Man, and Napalm Man. The boss for this story is the Mecha Dragon from Mega Man 2.
Like the game that came before it, Dr. Wily is the final boss. He must be defeated in one of his robotic inventions, as always. The Wily Machine returns. It once again must be defeated in multiple parts before finally revealing Dr. Wily floating around the room in a Wily Capsule. Defeating the evil doctor reveals the ending, which is different for every character.
Mega Man: The Power Fighters is a fantastic follow-up to the unique Power Battles. It is still a lot of fun to play the robot battles from various games in the Mega Man series as a one-on-one fighter. The artwork, sound effects, and music are just as excellent as its predecessor. The biggest draws of this game are the new-to-the-subseries character Duo, the unique special moves, and the assist characters. Those alone make this one as much worthy of play by both Mega Man and fighting game fans.
Final Verdict:
4½ out of 5
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