Unfortunately, the first game of the series is kinda bad. While this game has the control that puts mega man head and shoulders over the majority of NES platformers, none of the things that makes MM special are here. The level design especially suffers. The platforming gimmicks that make good MM levels are pretty lackluster here. The Guts Man platforms are the closest thing to being good, but the wonky way it shoots you down whenever a platform drops kinda ruins it. Plus, the music and boss fights are just kinda below the standard that the series would go on to set. Also requiring you to either play Elec Man’s level twice or beat the robot masters in a certain order to get the magnet beam and complete the game is very lame.
Particular lowlights are the yellow devil fight (though it's cool conceptually) and the footholder sections in the Ice Man and wily stages.