Mega Man II entered my life in 1989. A birthday present for my Nintendo game system, I spent months thrilled and frustrated as the minions of Dr. Wily thwarted me from reaching new levels.
Twenty years later, I’m back at it, aggravation and all, playing this iPhone version of the Nintendo classic. Mega Man II Lite is the free version and faithful to the original, right down to the controller-throwing difficulty.
In Mega Man II Lite, you take control of Mega Man in an action game that sees you running across the screen, killing enemies with your hand cannon and advancing to the final robot boss of the stage — a robot created by the evil Dr. Wily. The paid version of Mega Man II, for $4.99, features seven more robot bosses, as well as a final fight against Dr. Wily.
You can play Mega Man II Lite in portrait or landscape mode. In portrait, it appears as if the game is in an arcade cabinet. This is fine if you have tiny hands. But if you can palm a basketball, the controls are too cramped. In landscape mode, the directional pad is on the left and the buttons are on the right, a far more comfortable way to play.
There are limitations to the controls, however, as the touch screen doesn’t allow for both jumping and firing easily, something that comes in handy when shooting the bats that descend on you from trees during the Wood Man stage and against later enemies in the full game.
For a free app, Mega Man II Lite is a great way to pass a train ride. Hopefully, other developers will follow gamemaker Capcom’s lead and release more classic Nintendo games for the iPhone.
