The more I practice speedrunning this game, the more confidently I can call it my favourite in the original Mega Man series.

The simple and humble nature of this entry makes for a fantastic purity that (while perhaps not always intentionally) feels quite free and allows for tremendous player expression. Due to the lack of E-tanks, not to mention I-frames not serving as a crutch mechanic against spikes, everything must be approached with skill and tactics alone. Take for example the Copy Robot fight. Should players slowly pelt it with bombs for a safe strategy, swap between the buster and Guts Man's weapon to render it helpless, or go all out with the fire to quickly kill it?

What of the pillars in Fire Man's stage? Should they be skipped with the Magnet Beam, frozen with ice, or patiently jumped past? Or the platforms in Guts Man's stage? Should the player learn how to leap across them, or fight Elec Man twice to destroy the guts blocks with his beam? The concept of revisiting stages for items would not be revisited until Mega Man 4, and boy did I have fond memories of experimenting with every weapon so heavily with this game.

In fact, I still have so much fun experimenting with different ways to tackle enemies. Maybe I'll freeze the Big Eyes and rapid blast them with the Buster, or maybe I'll use the magnet beam to lure them into the pits in Elec Man's stage. Every weapon in the game feels overpowered in the right circumstances. While later MM games feature more weapons, the limited amount of robot masters meant the limited amount of weapons here needed to have more than one purpose, thus the shield bundled with Fire Man's shot or the multi-directional nature of the Elec Beam. It's something I greatly prefer to only a couple weapons being worthwhile, such is the case with the metal blade mostly making the other weapons in MM2 redundant.

Of course, I can't forget the atmosphere either. The almost cheerful nature of Bomb Man's theme mixed with an underlying melancholy is permanently engraved in my mind, heavily mirroring my feelings of excitement to explore such a colourful futuristic world despite it being in the back of my mind I was unfortunately forced to face my own robot brothers. The battle against Yellow Devil also sounds like a descent into hell as I do my best over countless attempts to finally learn its pattern.

Sure, the game isn't perfect; I really wish Ice Man's level had water physics from later entries and the RNG platforms didn't suck, but something about reaching my destination always makes me feel complete. Seeing the hero I played as the entire time was a kid with his own family to return to, it truly awoke feelings of motivation in my silly child self.

FIGHT, MEGAMAN!
FOR EVERLASTING PEACE!