I'd heard going in that this game was pretty hard but holy shit, this game can feel so cheap at times. Jumps are stretched as far as humanly possible, enemies can take way too many hits, and the final 2 castle stages are insane gauntlets that expect you to somehow fight 4 bosses and then 10 bosses all on one continue. It's absurd. The music is all very flat and forgettable in my opinion, and as someone who never cared much for 8's art style it's disappointing to see it pretty much all recycled. The only really strong part of the game for me was the weapons, they're all really fun to use and have a great variety. Outside of that though, it just feels like a low quality fan game or something.

This was the first classic Mega Man game I ever played as a kid, since it was the only one ported to GBA. I only wanted to play as Bass, but I struggled to actually beat any bosses as him because they tend to have lengthy invulnerability periods after getting hit by only a single one of his rapid fire buster shots, so I mostly just played the opening stage and the first three Robot Master stages over and over again on the school bus or car rides. (I did eventually get to the later stages of the game in middle school, though I don't think I ever beat King's castle.) As such I'll always be extremely nostalgic for this version and its crunchy soundtrack, even if the logical part of my brain knows it's the inferior version of what's already a pretty mid-tier Mega Man game.

I went in to this game expecting it to be brutally difficult, which it partially was. Tough platforming sections, spongey enemies, and incredibly unforgiving boss patterns were plentiful. However, I never found it unfair, every time I died or game overed, it was always my fault. The difficulty was also a breath of fresh air for a series I felt peaked in terms of challenge with the first game on NES, especially lacking in the seventh and eighth entries. The final gauntlet before Wily was particularly gripping, as it handled the boss rush in the same way as Mega Man X with some of the best disappearing block sections in the series. Weapons are also pretty useful, with the Ice Wall in particular actually being integrated in level design with Mega Man's campaign.