A legend is not as such since the very start of ita journey, and kust like that Megaman 1 is not the best start of the Blue Bomber

But if we have to consider Megaman 1 is a vacuum... yeah it is janky but it is a cool janky. It introduce the concept of a run-e.-shoot game but with the ability to select the level you want to do next, something that alone makes it incredibly replayable. This, along side the idea of the different bosses having weaknesses, makes it a really charming idea.. in concept.

In realization, the gameplay is not really the most refined thing in the world: I imagine the devs tried to made it as fluid as possible (the reason why megaman is blue is even to add less "weight" to the hardware). but this doesn't make the game any less janky. Not to mention that the level design of megaman 1 feels kinda empty, and while has some decent ideas in some parts, it is mostly carried by the music (which is a banger since the first game).

This would have made it a kind meh but also not 100% horrible experience... until you reach the Wily castle. Once you arrive at these levels (I think wily castle 2 specifically), you find out that the game just.... presents you a literal wall. how do you approach or climb the wall? You legit cannot, unless you got the super secret powerup in Elec Man stage.... that you can only access if you got the guts powerup, that most of the time feels useless. This basically mean tha tthe game presents you with the premise of "make the levels in the orders you want", only to it you with "there was a specific order from Guts Man to Elec Man that you didn't made, so here a huge block you force on you".
The levels are already hard and frustrating to navigate as they are, so having also this huge "SCREW YOU" sign n top of it really bothered me.
Not to mention that the rest of the game is nothing that eceptional either

Again, not a horrible game, but definitely the little mega boy did a better job in later installments

Also I know the boxart has been done literally in like.... a day, but I will never forgive it for being the thing behind megaman in street fighter X tekken (even tho legitimately that was not even the fault of the SFxT fans)

The classic Mega Man series is what I'd personally classify as the quintessential old school 2D platformer series. They're usually fast and kinetic, while also being challenging, but fair. All while having just enough bouncy cartoony flair to appeal to my personal sensibilities. Unfortunately though, Mega Man 1 is definitely a game that suffers from "1st game syndrome", as a lot of it is very unpolished. There's a STUPID amount of glitches, tons of sprite flickering, and generally just extremely unfair and even bullshit level design. I know ancient ass NES games like this are now notorious for being extremely difficult but JESUS TAP DANCING CHRIST there are certain enemies and even BOSSES here that really test my patience. Of course, there's still merit to this first entry,. I still had an okay time playing it and, just like every game in this series, the soundtrack is really good at least. They were definitely onto something with this first one though, as each subsequent game in the classic Mega Man series improved (and sometimes nearly perfected) the formula that this one established.

Yeah, Mega Man 1 has first game syndrome, but that doesn't automatically make it bad. There's still some fun to be had here despite it being really, REALLY rough around the edges

Did not like this. The difficulty is obnoxious with enemies frequently flying around your head and generally in ways that make them hard to hit. Silly bugs where enemies that go off screen can just get deleted from the game (like the evil roomba thing in that one long block puzzle in ice mans level). The aforementioned block puzzles that arent hard but just plain obnoxious, especially without coyote time (yeah I said the c-word, fight me Kayin). Lots of slowdown. And bosses can be very hard, borderline impossible without the right weapon, since exploiting weaknesses does ludicrous amounts of damage. Some bosses are tough even with them, like flame man's shots going so fast that I could never dodge them all, or Ice mans being very close together and requiring precise jumping. I doubt I'll play again, but I'm glad I gave it a shot.

This is pretty good, kinda rough in some spots but I had fun.

Most of the time the challenge feels genuine, other times it just feels like the design of it holding it back.

Mega Man is a little stiff and a little hard to control the movement of sometimes, he can absolutely turn into the brick the same way the Belmonts do.

The way they made the Magnet Beam "optional" is kinda shitty but at least the manual mentions it (Old games helped you out too, you just had to seek em out lol)

Apart from that...it's pretty fun mostly, I don't know what to tell you. There isn't much to say about things that have already been said about this game.

Choosing the order is pretty damn innovative for it's time, music is great, I dig the anime style...uhh...yeah

I cheesed the Yellow Devil and even the repeat bosses and Mega Man clone cuz I couldn't just bother lol

Fuck those randomly floating things, give em a pattern goddammit.

I love how this game places some pickups to intentionally fuck with you.

I used Save States to save after each state since game has no passwords and a useless score system that doesn't even give you extra health or lives after a certain point.
Also on the disappearing blocks and the random flying patternless fucks and the repeat bosses and clone Man cuz fuck 'em and I can't be bothered....and also just to not having to fight them again after dying to Wily and finally after beating his first phase after a couple of tries. I'm not ashamed of it, this game is a little rough and can definitely get tediously repetitive at times.

Game can be quite generous too though, it has checkpoints if you have the lives and it has infinite continues...it could easily not do either and I'm glad they at least did this

Overall, nice start to a franchise

Played on the Japanese version with a hack that turns "Rockman" title screen and name to "Megaman" since the game is already in English in Japan (How did Japanese players never complain about this?...or did they?)

I did it in the guide order mostly:
Bombman > Cutman > Gutsman > Elecman > Iceman > Fireman