 Last week, I looked at the arcade fighting game Mega Man Power Battle and I briefly mentioned the sequel, Mega Man 2 the Power Fighters and I just kind of said it was more of the same and I have to admit that was a mistake in my part. After spending more time with Power Fighters, I decided it needed it's own video because if you liked Power Battle, or if you just like Mega Man in general then you will love Power Fighters, it's everything a good sequel should be. It's just a lot more of what made the first game so much fun. And yes, I have to point out right away that this game, just like Power Battle, is to player co-op. In Power Fighters, the multiple paths are still here, but rather than dryly splitting them apart by game, instead they're split up into three different stories. The first path has you go after Dr. Wily, of course, but the second path has you rescue Roll, and the third path has you look for parts that were stolen from Dr. Light's lab. Yeah, it kinda goes without saying that each of these paths eventually lead to a fight with Dr. Wily no matter what you do, but the appearance of Roll, plus some additional cutscenes here, really help flesh out the Mega Man universe. Normally I don't care about that kind of stuff when it comes to Mega Man, but I make an exception when it comes to these arcade games, if only because everything looks so freakin' cool, and the music throughout is fantastic. Mega Man, Proto Man, and Bass are all back as playable characters, only now you can play as Duo from Mega Man 8 who functions as the big strong Zangief-style character. Unlike the first game, there are some notable differences between each character, mostly in the form of a special move. Just charge your blaster and press up to execute it. Mega Man will do a dragon punch, based as a flash kick reminiscent of Gile, while Proto Man has a close-range fireball, and Duo has an uppercut that'll launch your opponent into the air. You also get help from Rush if you play as Mega Man where he rockets around, or allows you to use him as a jump boost, plus Beat shows up to give shields to Proto Man and Duo, and Treble also shows up to help Bass, but there's not really any telling what triggers this, they just show up in the form of a power-up. The gameplay itself is mostly the same as Power Battle, defeat six robot masters in a one-on-one fight before moving on to face either the rock monster, the mech dragon from Mega Man 2, or the mad grinder from Mega Man 7, before you eventually face Dr. Wily. All the robot masters in each story path are all mixed together in varying order, for instance one path as you face Cut Man, Stone Man, Shade Man, Elec Man, Dive Man, and Slash Man. So right there we've got Mega Man 4, 5, and 7, along with the first game, all represented here. During and after each fight, you get weapon and health replenishments which is dearly unheard of for an arcade game, considering the goal of every arcade game is to, you know, eat your quarters. The boss weapons are all still here, and I should point out that unlike the first game, both players cannot use the same weapon at the same time. Whoever gets the last shot at the boss gets the weapon, and that's pretty cool if only because it introduces a little bit of competitive aspect to the game. The rock-paper-scissors structure is still here as well, although it's not as immediately as intuitive as it is in the regular Mega Man series. For instance, Shade Man is weak to Elec Man's weapon, and Stone Man is weak to Shade Man's weapon. Thankfully, and a really nice touch, Dr. Light will give you hints in between fights as to which weapon works best against certain robot masters. One oddity here is that some boss weapons like for Pharaoh Man and Centaur Man, they had to be changed just for this game. I guess to make them more apt for a fighting game? And they both worked pretty well. So yeah, I just wanted to make a quick video about this one. I love Mega Man stuff, so I really dig this game. The pixel art here is even better than the first game. The special moves for each character are awesome. The robot masters are great. The boss weapons are fantastic. And this game definitely feels a bit smoother and a little bit more balanced in power battle. If you want to play this one today, it's featured on the 2004 Mega Man Anniversary Collection for PS2, GameCube and Xbox, albeit as an unlockable option. But yeah, if you're a fan of Mega Man, definitely seek this one out along with Power Fighters. They're both fantastic. All right, I want to thank you for watching. And I hope you have a great rest of your day.