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Worlds of Power

Mega Man 2

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Superhero Mega Man is up against eight of the toughest, meanest robots, the creation of the evil Dr. Wily

74 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1990

66 people want to read

About the author

F.X. Nine

16 books8 followers
F.X. Nine is a pseudonym used by Seth Godin for the Worlds of Power series. He was the creator of the series and wrote outlines for each book. Authors were hired to write the novelizations based on Godin's vision and outline.

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5 stars
17 (14%)
4 stars
20 (17%)
3 stars
45 (38%)
2 stars
25 (21%)
1 star
9 (7%)
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
Profile Image for Peter Derk.
Author 32 books405 followers
Read
December 18, 2014
Let me start with something that kind of blew my mind:

All these Nintendo books were a Seth Godin joint. Yeah, THAT Seth Godin. The Linchpin guy.

Don't be fooled, from what I'm reading, Godin didn't actually pen this one. All the Worlds of Power books were written under the pen name F.X. Nine, which was a name used by a collection of authors.

This one belongs squarely to Ellen Miles, who appears to be primarily a writer of children's books about puppies.

Now let me talk about a little something that pissed me the hell off:

This book has Mega Man 2 tips in it at the end of some chapters. Which seems awesome, and in a pre-internet age would have been helpful. However, these tips are bullshit!

I don't want to get all nerdy and talk continuity errors in the Megaverse here, but one tip tells players that beating the levels in the same order as they're written about equals success. This is a whole thing in Mega Man. You can pick the order you fight the other evil robots, and then use their powers to fight other evil robots. So I get a buzzsaw, see a guy who looks like a big tree, and that seems pretty simple. The problem, I looked at quite a few different orders you could use to beat the game, and NONE MATCHED THE ONE IN THIS BOOK! Now, at first I thought it was so cool that the book contained this secret. Maybe a good trick to get a kid to read. But you make the kid read, then punish the little dweeb with bad information? For shame. Here's a guide with SIX ways to go about it, all different from the one laid out in the book (http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/563442-me...).

There's also this subplot where Mega Man has somehow been turned human. Which doesn't make sense and also has no effect. He still drinks energy tanks, whatever the hell those are, and still has all his robobilities. It reminds me a little of the Japanese kid who drank gasoline in order to become a Transformer. "I wondered why the house smelled like petrol" his father said. Jesus (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newst...)

Okay, all that aside, my least favorite part was that Mega Man had to make with a terrible pun every time he beat a bad guy. "I guess you're all hot air, Air Man!" and stuff like that.

In honor of this great achievenemnt, and because I don't like to complain about things without taking a stab myself, here's my puns for all robot masters.

1.) Air Man: Looks like you got blowed, Air Man.

2.) Aqua Man: Aqua Man? More like Aquaman, the comic character people love to hate!

3.) Astro Man: Maybe you should call yourself Astro Boy. Wait, no. He's an awesome robot. Scratch that. You suck.

4.) Blade Man: I guess you're not...cut out for this gig.

5.) Blizzard Man: You're a blizzard, I'm the snow plow. Boom.

6.) Bomb Man: I'd say I'm da bomb now. Idiot.

7.) Bright Man: Not so bright without a head and hard-earned robot consciousness, are you?

8.) Bubble Man: You just got popped, son.

9.) Burner Man: Stick to warming up Hamburger Helper for the lonely, Burner Man.

10.) Burst Man: Pardon you while you burst.

11.) Centaur Man: Haha, oh god. Why even bother?

12.) Charge Man: Now I'm in...charge!

13.) Chill Man: The heat is on. Your face. Which I'm shooting with my gun.

14.) Cloud Man: [shoots head off, which goes flying] He always had his...head in the clouds.

15.) Clown Man: Joke's on you.

16.) Cold Man: It's about to be a cold day in hell.

17.) Commando Man: The only thing you're in command of is your own explosion!

18.) Concrete Man: Hit the bricks.

19.) Crash Man: You've just been bandicooted.

20.) Crystal Man: Lose to Crystal? Not even once.

21.) Cut Man: Maybe console yourself with self-harm. Wow, that's dark.

22.) Dive Man: Take the V out of your name and it's more accurate.

23.) Drill Man: More like Man Drill. A monkey. You, sir, are a monkey.

24.) Dust Man: When you get to hell, tell Dyson I sent you.

25.) Dynamo Man: Quit dynamoanin' and die already.

26.) Elec Man: Your life, like your name, has been shortened in a real weird way.

27.) Fire Man: Extinguished.

28.) Flame Man: Extinguished. Hell, he wasn't there for the Fire Man thing. I can use it twice.

29.) Flash Man: You've been flushed. Oh, it's FLASH man? Eh, still works.

30.) Freeze Man: You've just been put in the defroster, aka porch.

31.) Frost Man: Balls. Should have looked ahead before that frost line.

32.) Galaxy Man: Where's your guardians now?

33.) Gemini Man: Prepare to be Capricorned.

34.) Gravity Man: What goes up, must come exploded.

35.) Grenade Man: Somebody pulled your pin.

36.) Ground Man: You're grounded.

37.) Guts Man: Sorry to..spill your guts. Gah, that's gross.

38.) Gyro Man: Is it...like "hero" man? Like the sandwich?

39.) Hard Man: Looks like someone went limp.

40.) Heat Man: Jesus, how many fuckin' fire guys are there?

41.) Hornet Man: Go back to Charlotte and aqua Starter jackets where you belong.

42.) Ice Man: Hey. Chill. Chill out. Stay cool. No? Nothing?

43.) Jewel Man: Here's how 5 months blasting can last your whole death.

44.) Junk Man: I guess you should have left that junk in the trunk.

45.) Knight Man: Sorry to get so medieval
.
46.) Magic Man: Say these magic words: Hocus Blowupcus.

47.) Magma Man: That's uncomfortable close to Mega Man somehow. I'm glad you're not alive now.

48.) Magnet Man: A very polarizing figure.

49.) Metal Man: Metal's dead, man.

50.) Napalm Man: Nothing like the smell of no Napalm Man alive in the morning.

51.) Needle Man: This one's all sewn up.

52.) Nitro Man: You sound like an energy drink. SOUNDED. Sorry, you're dead. It's past tense.

53.) Oil Man: You've been greased.

54.) Pharaoh Man: Enjoy an eternity of rest with this charred cat.

55.) Pirate Man: Swashed his buckle.

56.) Plant Man: Maybe you should have made better plants. Like plans, but with a T.

57.) Plug Man: Like my favorite televised Nirvana concert, you've been unplugged.

58.) Pump Man: Next time you'll watch where you're pumping.

59.) Quick Man: 1-minute man is right.

60.) Ring Man: C-Ring man.

61.) Search Man: Looks like I seeked and destroyed. Is there a grammar man coming? I hope to hell there isn't.

62.) Shade Man: Lights out! Wait, ON!

63.) Shadow Man: You're a puppet now. Of a friend of mine. Perhaps you've heard of him. The Grim Reaper!

64.) Sheep Man: You followed me to your doom.

65.) Skull Man: I got through that thick skull of yours.

66.) Slash Man: Every rose has its thorn.

67.) Snake Man: I rattled his cage.

68.) Solar Man: You should have Begley'ed for your life.

69.) Spark Man: In the end, you just fizzled out.

70.) Splash Woman: Just a splash in the pan. Apparently I'm eating my enemies now. God, what have I become?

71.) Spring Man: Spring has sprung.

72.) Star Man: Just like a real star, you've been dead for ages already.

73.) Stone Man: Come together with your hands! SAVE ME!

74.) Strike Man: I 7-10 split this fool in half.

75.) Sword Man: The sword is back in the stone. Or, more accurately, this dude's groin.

76.) Tengu Man: Tengu un dia terible!

77.) Time Man: It's TIME you blowed up.

78.) Toad Man: There he goes. Warts and all.

79.) Tomahawk Man: Luckily I fought Diseased Blanket Man first.

80.) Top Man: Bottom man.

81.) Tornado Man: You've just been Bill Paxton'ed.

82.) Turbo Man: Turd-o man.

83.) Wave Man: WAVE bye-bye.

84.) Wind Man: I knew you'd always wind up dead. And if it's wind as in blowing, you should have been more specific.

85.) Wood Man: Who put the wood to who this time?

86.) Yamato Man: Er. Eat shit.



Profile Image for Keith Good.
480 reviews
January 7, 2024
I would love to give this a 5-star rave for nostalgia alone. I can practically smell the gradeschool book fair on every page. But this slim novelization of Mega Man 2 isn’t good for much more than the memories. It’s clear the author wrote it from scant information, some plot points/boss weaknesses/etc. are just plain wrong. Also Dr. Light, smartest genius in the world, presses the wrong button on his machine and turns Mega Man into a human? What?! Bonus points for an afterword suggesting kids who like Mega Man should try Heinlein, Asimov and the Phantom Tollbooth. All good recs.
Profile Image for Brandon.
112 reviews3 followers
May 4, 2023
Not going to change the world or anything, but I could totally see myself loving this as book as a kid.

I will say, Mega Man becoming aware he is human and having to learn to deal with the fear of mortality caught me off guard for what is an otherwise "Hero goes here, hero fights bad guys, hero wins." story.

8/10
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Wesley and Fernie.
312 reviews1 follower
December 30, 2020
As a piece of video game history, this is very intriguing. As an actual novel? It definitely reads like an early junior fiction piece of literature based on a video game from the late 1980s.
Profile Image for Paul Kautz.
54 reviews
March 13, 2022
The best thing about this abomination of letters, really the only positive thing there is to say about this for lack of a better word „book“, is the amazing cover picture which is directly taken from the NES game - but then censored so that Mega Man doesn‘t hold a gun in his hand anymore. Which results in him now happily shaking an empty fist in the general direction of his enemy.

Everything else is just very, very sad.
Profile Image for Curtis.
61 reviews3 followers
February 3, 2009
What's more awesome than a book about Mega Man? Fucking Mega Man 2!! OH HELL YEAH!!!!....well it would have been awesome if it wasn't for all the stupid puns and tarded catch phrases they made up. It was like playing the game, only combining one of the Roger Moore James Bond film lines, and then any line after what's-his-nuts from CSI Miami puts on his glasses. Other than that, great read, if you're 11.
Profile Image for Jeremy Maddux.
Author 5 books153 followers
October 28, 2018
Of all the Worlds of Power/Nintendo books I've revisited as an adult, Simon's Quest is the only one that even remotely still holds up as a good story that uses the game as a springboard to get going. This one just didn't feel written by a gamer, even with the boss tips at the end of the chapters. It would seem some articles of nostalgia really should remain firmly in the past. Oh well, there's always the Mega Man 2 game. That shit never gets old.
Profile Image for Kirk.
Author 32 books105 followers
February 25, 2022
I just picked up almost all of these in a lot online.

I had this one and Ninja Gaiden when I was a kid.

I was 9 when this book came out, and at the time it was pretty amazing.

These arrived the day one of my childhood friends died. This book, combined with all the memories former classmates were sharing, really took me down a rabbit hole. I have remembered things this week I haven’t thought about in years. I can piece together entire weeks of what my life was like at 9 or 10. This book was a part of that time.

So yeah, the writing isn’t great. It feels like the author was given a list of enemies with pictures attached, watched a few minutes of game play, and burned through this book.

BUT I learned a lot of enemy names. I saw the entire game as I read, remembered the music (some of the best NES music out there). And sometimes, as I read I processed this in first person, seeing almost a film adaptation of the game. It added a new layer to the atmosphere.

Not the greatest book, sure, but a book I read while carrying a lot of pre-existing knowledge into the experience. As such, it was a unique reading experience.

I’m looking forward to reading Ninja Gaiden again and checking out some of the others for the first time.
Profile Image for Othy.
469 reviews5 followers
December 3, 2018
Ahh, childhood. I read this as a grade schooler, and now in my mid-thirties for pure nostalgia sake. And so I'll post two reviews:

As a kid:
[5 stars]
I loved Mega Man games, not just because they were fun, but because of the whole atmosphere. The strange locations, the odd bosses who seemed so mysterious and alone, and the music, all joined together for a really otherworldly experience. This book, to my young imagination, fit this atmosphere perfectly.

As an adult:
[3 stars]
In many cases, my memory of the atmosphere strong and pretty accurate. The scenes of battle with the robot masters are usually really, really short, and most of the book is descriptions of Mega Man traveling through different locations. Levels for Metal Man, Flash Man, Wood Man, and Quick Man struck me as a kid, and I thought they were easy to imagine as an adult, too. It was fun to revisit.
Profile Image for James Kirby.
136 reviews2 followers
April 13, 2022
Mega Man 2 is my all-time favorite NES game, and if I had picked this up at a book fair as a kid, it'd probably be my favorite book. But since I snagged it on eBay as an adult, it's pretty damned cringe-y. I expected terrible one-liners and a ridiculous story, but did anyone edit or proofread this book? I couldn't overlook some glaring inconsistencies in spelling (Wily/Wiley), misplaced line breaks, etc.

To its credit, this is very true to the videogame. The boss order is similar to what I'd use, and at least a handful of the weapon weaknesses are accurate too. Apparently this was written as a sub-par strategy guide in novelized form.
Profile Image for Pixel Lit.
27 reviews4 followers
December 1, 2022
Listen: the Worlds of Power books hold a special place in our heart, but even for a kids' book, this one is bad. It reads like a person who is dictating essentially what happens while they watch someone play through the game (with an inexplicable subplot of Mega Man becoming human).

Yeesh.

Listen to our entire talkthrough of this book with special guest Scott Niswander (It's Probably Not Aliens, NerdSync) anywhere you get podcasts or here:

https://pixellitpod.com/mega-man-2-fe...

https://pixellitpod.com/mega-man-2-fe...
11 reviews
July 31, 2017
Would be OK for a young child to read, but they'd probably have more fun just playing the video game. There are better children's books out there.
49 reviews
May 9, 2020
A nice little fun read. If you like video games and robots, you'll like this book.
Profile Image for Michael B Tager.
Author 16 books16 followers
September 13, 2020
Even for middle grade and younger kids, this is pretty rote. If I'd read it as a kid, I would have wanted to punch it.
Profile Image for Nate.
817 reviews11 followers
April 20, 2021
Ridiculous. But it gives you the order you’re meant to beat the levels in Mega Man 2, which is useful information.
Profile Image for Paul.
157 reviews6 followers
July 5, 2021
Gotta collect them all.
Profile Image for Kyle.
5 reviews
September 7, 2024
Cute but obviously for children. Followed the game fairly closely which was a shot of nostalgia
Profile Image for E. Cornwallace.
1 review
Read
June 25, 2025
This book is somehow 83.62% accurate to the game (Mega Man just spams Metal Blade everywhere). The remaining 16.38% is not accurate to the game, however!!!!!!
Profile Image for Conan The Librarian .
452 reviews26 followers
July 16, 2025
Me gustó leer este libro. Tenía algunos detalles extraños pero no importan, podemos ver este relato como un Mega Man de algun mundo paralelo.

Fue una lectura interesante.
Profile Image for Nick Jones.
346 reviews22 followers
January 6, 2023
As a kid, I hated this book. It got most of the details of the world of Mega Man wrong, unnecessarily inserted a plot about Mega Man becoming human, and gave game tips that were often incorrect.

As an adult, I additionally note that the action is complete garbage. There's no cleverness to how Mega Man defeats his numerous opponents, it's basically "Mega Man shot the robot until it died," ad nauseum. The author could've at least used Mega Man's newfound fleshiness as a weakness, but the story proceeds in exactly the same way it would if Mega Man was still a robot.

F.X. Nine? More like... F... X... Bad Author?

...

I should've come up with a better insult than that. I'll workshop it and get back to you.
Profile Image for Mathias.
20 reviews
August 17, 2010
When I read this one as a kid. I thought it was the bomb-digitty.
Profile Image for Joey Cruz.
131 reviews6 followers
September 2, 2011
I remember this book being a surprisingly realistic take on such a cartoony character. Took a while to get into, though.
1 review
May 5, 2012
I HATED the cover art as a kid - Mega Man shooting Quick Man with a gun?!? In a non enclosed environment?!? Has the world gone insane?!?!!
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews

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