Mega Speeds
This speedrunner, known on Twitch and Twitter as cyghfer, can beat the game in just 26:37!
When did you first encounter mega man ii and what did you think of it?
I knew of Mega Man as a kid, but since I started having an impact on our household’s videogame purchases during the N64 era, it wasn’t a series that was really on my radar. It was much later, during a period of exploring NES games via emulation, that I played through all six NES Mega Man titles. Mega Man II definitely made the biggest impression on me.
What makes the game well-suited to speedrunning?
Mega Man II is a game with simple movement on the surface but a wealth of deceptively difficult tricks when you attempt to push the game to its limit. The most fundamental trick used to progress quickly through the game is the horizontal zip, where you manoeuvre Mega Man into a ceiling in one of several ways and then kick off a sequence where Mega Man moves rightward one tile per frame – that is to say, very fast.
One of the other main attractions of the Mega Man II speedrun is its varied and interesting set of boss fights. Almost every Robot Master fight in the game requires interesting and difficult movement to take down optimally, or to react favourably to a wide array of random patterns. Mega Man II is among the most competitive speedruns from the 8-bit/16-bit era, and it is a game that demands persistence and rigor from the player.
How much practice have you put in to reach your personal best of 26:37?
I would estimate that my total amount of time put into the Mega
Man II speedrun is around 2,000 hours, give or take 500 in either direction. This includes initially learning the game, investigating possible strategy and route improvements, practicing the game, and doing runs. Probably around 40 per cent of that consists of practice.
What are the common stumbling points when you’re trying to put together a run?
The most notable sections in the run where run-ending mistakes occur are the ‘open air’ section in the Air Man stage, the start of the Crash Man stage, the three screens with the fire-breathing dogs in Wood Man, the major tricks in Wily 1, and many screens in Wily 4. However, there are many more spots that won’t usually outright ‘kill’ a run, but where significant mistakes still occur frequently: the rest of the Clash Man stage, the Quick Man stage fight, the ‘item-2 zip’ in the Bubble Man stage, more spots in Wily 4, and many spots in the Wily 5 refights. Really, the run can die anywhere.
Do you think there’s much scope for improvement on your time, and do you plan to try beating it?
A few years ago, these kinds of times would have been considered nearly unbeatable, and all competition would have more or less died out barring significant new strategy discoveries. However, our collective level of consistency and knowledge has risen to the point where the frontier for a realistic time in Mega Man II appears to be somewhere around 26:25.
When I returned to Mega Man II speedrunning late last year, my best was 27:01. I pushed hard to lower my best time to the 26:37 I have today, and I needed a break from the grind. But I’ve come to realize that pushing myself in Mega Man II is one of the endeavours that gives me the most meaning and joy in life.