This was… rough. I remember playing this game on my phone when I was kid, and I honestly don’t know how I beat it then. This time around I played the game in the Mega Man Legacy Collection, and I can’t deny that this was one of the most dreadful experiences I had in a game recently. I completely believe that later Mega Man games heavily improve upon this one, however god, this one was a pain. I think one of the few positives I can note is the game’s short length.
The big problem with this game is absolutely the level design. In some areas, the game feels poorly designed. In that regard my first immediate thought of this the dropping platform sections in the Guts Man stage. If you don’t jump soon enough, you’ll fall immediately, and likely a lose a life because something is wrong with the game’s gravity. Though while I see some areas of the game being poorly designed, a lot of feels designed maliciously. Thin corridors with jumps you need to make to avoid taking damage, pits you have to fall into and hope there aren’t spikes underneath, enemies spawning in platforming sections that if you get hit by them, you get knocked back into death pits. With how often it occurred, it felt less like a skill issue on my part, and more so the game being maliciously designed. I’m so glad that the Mega Man Legacy Collection allows you to save at any point, while yes I did save scum a lot, it felt like an absolute necessity.
Bosses are an interesting case I’ll say. The 6 robot masters are a joke. The first one is usually the hardest as you wont have their weakness, but it’s not too challenging. Then the other robot masters are jokes because of having their weaknesses. But then comes the bosses of the Wily Castle stages and they’re rough. I only got through a majority of them because of a pause exploit with Elec Man’s ability, where spamming the pause button makes that ability do damage again. I can’t imagine even trying to fight Yellow Devil normally. I don’t even know what the final boss is like because I just used the exploit, at that point in the game I was so tired I just wanted to beat the game, whatever it took.
Genuinely, I have zero clue how someone would beat this normally, without the saving thanks to the Legacy Collection, and without the pause exploit to fight bosses especially Yellow Devil. Though ignoring the bosses, the game just has really frustrating level design, and sometimes it feels evil with some sections of the game. I’m glad I got the legacy collection for this, it makes things so much more tolerable. Is that wrong of me? Maybe. Though I’m confident that later games wont have this problem, I know that later games improve a lot upon this one.
The big problem with this game is absolutely the level design. In some areas, the game feels poorly designed. In that regard my first immediate thought of this the dropping platform sections in the Guts Man stage. If you don’t jump soon enough, you’ll fall immediately, and likely a lose a life because something is wrong with the game’s gravity. Though while I see some areas of the game being poorly designed, a lot of feels designed maliciously. Thin corridors with jumps you need to make to avoid taking damage, pits you have to fall into and hope there aren’t spikes underneath, enemies spawning in platforming sections that if you get hit by them, you get knocked back into death pits. With how often it occurred, it felt less like a skill issue on my part, and more so the game being maliciously designed. I’m so glad that the Mega Man Legacy Collection allows you to save at any point, while yes I did save scum a lot, it felt like an absolute necessity.
Bosses are an interesting case I’ll say. The 6 robot masters are a joke. The first one is usually the hardest as you wont have their weakness, but it’s not too challenging. Then the other robot masters are jokes because of having their weaknesses. But then comes the bosses of the Wily Castle stages and they’re rough. I only got through a majority of them because of a pause exploit with Elec Man’s ability, where spamming the pause button makes that ability do damage again. I can’t imagine even trying to fight Yellow Devil normally. I don’t even know what the final boss is like because I just used the exploit, at that point in the game I was so tired I just wanted to beat the game, whatever it took.
Genuinely, I have zero clue how someone would beat this normally, without the saving thanks to the Legacy Collection, and without the pause exploit to fight bosses especially Yellow Devil. Though ignoring the bosses, the game just has really frustrating level design, and sometimes it feels evil with some sections of the game. I’m glad I got the legacy collection for this, it makes things so much more tolerable. Is that wrong of me? Maybe. Though I’m confident that later games wont have this problem, I know that later games improve a lot upon this one.