A trio of Mavericks calling themselves the "X-Hunters" has arisen, intent on destroying X by luring him with bodyparts of his comrade Zero, who died in the conflict with Sigma's right hand robot named Vile.

Like the first Mega Man X, this game lets the player dash, scale walls, and obtain access to special abilities via optional pieces of armor.

Mega Man X2 is graphically similar to its predecessor as well, but Capcom included the Cx4 in-cartridge enhancement chip to allow for some 3D wireframe effects.

Mega Man X2 is set in an ambiguous year during the 22nd century ("21XX") in which the world is populated both by humans and mechanical beings known as "Reploids" (replicant androids).

The mass-produced Reploids are based on a complex, humanoid robot dubbed X who was discovered by the archaeologist Dr. Cain in laboratory ruins many months earlier.

The events of the first Mega Man X game entail the hunter X's fight to stop Sigma, a Maverick overlord bent on the destruction of humanity.

[11] If the player does not succeed, X is informed by Dr. Cain that the X-Hunters have attacked Maverick Hunter headquarters and stolen any collected parts and the control chip.

Unlike Mega Man X, the dash is a permanent ability at the start of the game, instead of being an armor upgrade found in a capsule.

The player must contend with countless robotic enemies and several platforming hazards such as bottomless pits, deadly spikes, and rising lava.

[13][16][17] When specific conditions are met a special capsule is unlocked in one of the game's final stages, allowing X to perform an attack that deals damage on every frame (the "Shoryuken"), making it almost insta-kill.

[18] Mega Man X2 was developed by a team at Capcom, which included artists Hayato Kaji and Keiji Inafune, as well as designers Sho Tsuge, and Yoshihisa Tsuda.

[2] According to Tsuda, it was Inafune's decision to bring Zero back to life in Mega Man X2 simply because he thought it would be "a shame" to keep him dead.

[2] In creating the eight, ancillary Maverick bosses, the development team considered holding public, fan submissions as they had done with several games in the original Mega Man series.

"[2] Mega Man X2 has an in-cartridge enhancement by Capcom called the Cx4 chip, a digital signal processor which allows for limited 3D graphical effects like rotation, enlarging, and shrinking of wireframe objects.

[23] Tsuge wanted the Flame Stag stage theme cut from the game, but the song was kept due to its popularity among the development staff.

[2] The Mega Man X2 soundtrack, featuring the original SNES instrumentals, was included as part of the Capcom Music Generation: Rockman X1 ~ X6 compilation released by Suleputer in 2003.

[4][5] Mega Man X2 was released on the Wii Virtual Console service in Japan on December 27, 2011, in PAL regions on May 31, 2012, and in North America on June 14, 2012.

Nicolella summarized, "The new C4 chip energizes the already great graphics, the extremely responsive controls are perfect and the levels contain more enemies and hidden locations than any MM cart yet.

"[33] Dave Halverson of GameFan likewise enjoyed the level designs and judged the new armor abilities and the music to be better than the original Mega Man X.

[17] GameSpot editors Christian Nutt and Justin Speer were appreciative of Capcom's attempt at expanding Mega Man X2 over its predecessor in all aspects, especially the story, which they called "involving ... with engaging characters".