This is a surprisingly satisfying finale to the GB Mega Man series, and that it does it by being almost completely its own thing is wildly impressive!

Apocalyptic states for humankind as the Stardroids create mass destruction, and Mega Man can't even fight them! What a lead-in, and a great excuse to reinvent the wheel by giving Mega Man a rocket punch, an attack that isn't necessarily better than the charged shot he had in prior games, but has pros and cons to weigh against normal attacks, and upgrades that give you the ability to grab and tickle enemies to death, as well as retrieve items from behind obstacles and over greater distances. I don't know that I'd want this in every Mega Man game, but it's an immediate indicator that things are different here, and it only grows from there.

The boss order is... largely redundant. Some bosses are weak to multiple weapons, but also some weapons aren't available until after you've beaten the second wave of bosses, leaving weakness exploitation for the boss rush section, which is already how I prefer to play these games!! It's like they knew! What the focus instead seems to lay with is intense pattern-based fighting with your buster and nothing else, where correct sliding and jumping makes you feel like an absolute king taking on this tough new style of opponents. And when it inevitably turns out Wily is involved, it still feels fresh enough that he's just a familiar face. He's not even the final boss! What a choice!

I don't actually have that much to say about this game. It's just well-designed, and eleven games deep into classic Mega Man it's also the first game to really feel like it wants to reach out in truly new directions. An absolute high for the handheld era, and every bit as good as the better NES games.

The cat's shit.