Mega Man Zero reeks of bad game design: screen crunch, escort missions, unfair enemy placement and more. But because the game is so short and incentivizes the player to blast through at lightspeed, it never feels dull. Conquering the game with the speed and aggression it provokes allows for a lot of its shortcomings to fall into the background. Furthermore, the length means that none of the bullshit is ever present for too long. The levels are varied enough that each stage has a unique kind of bullshit. Part of the fun was finding something stupid to complain about before finding something completely different for the next level (or figuring out there was a really easy solution to my problem, but I am too ass to figure it out). However, this game just balances on the edge between stupid and plain unfair that powering through every obstacle still remained exhilarating rather than relieving. There is just enough stupid garbage to make beating it feel like putting a cheater in their place and not like you had to cheat to win. Mega Man Zero is the kind of brutal, ass-wiping game that I love to hate.