TL;DR: Controls - 9/10
Weapons/Mechanics - 7/10
Levels - 7/10
Bosses - 8/10
Overall - 7/10

Between school and just sheer writing procrastination, it was really hard to get this out. I hope you guys still enjoy this review, though.

Mega Man 3 is one of those strange games that, while notorious for being unfinished, is loved by many. Even to this day, people still proclaim it as one of the better Mega Man games and I would have to agree. It's not without its flaws, sure, but if I had to pick my favorite Classic Mega Man game, it would be this one by far. It may not necessarily be the best but as you'll come to find out, it is a damn good time.

Once again, the controls are the same for the most part. The big game changer in this title is the slide. It's an incredible breath of fresh air to be able to maneuver with such flexibility. For the record, this review is based on the Anniversary Collection edition on the PS2 which fixes the slowdown and removes the early Rush Jet glitch. The slowdown tends to hamper the slide quite a bit, even if it's not too common. Either way, let's touch up more on the slide in the next section.

The slide is not only pretty smooth, but you cancel out of it for better movement options. Some examples include jumping out of your slide or chaining into another one. This is balanced by the fact that you can't shoot while sliding and you're also vulnerable. It makes every movement you do actually matter instead of just making the game easier. I won't bring up slide canceling in other reviews unless it actually matters (and I think some people might know where it does). I'm sure people are more curious about the weapons and I'm glad to say there are plenty more hits than misses in this entry.

Top Spin is probably the most controversial weapon in this game, but there is more to this weapon than meets the eye. It is a very useful weapon for killing some small enemies that take quite a few hits from your buster and hell, even some medium sized ones. It still has little range so it's not like its the best weapon in the game. In my opinion, that honor has to go to the Shadow Blade. This is very similar to Metal Blade but it's actually balanced because you can only angle it in 5 directions and it acts like a boomerang. Magnet Missile is also really good, but the aiming can be wonky and it has quite a bit of ammo cost. Search Snake again takes another weapon from Mega Man 2, Bubble Lead this time, and makes it much better. Not only can you shoot up to 3, they also climb up walls and actually deal damage. I never thought I'd see the day.

Gemini Laser is the very definition of a gimmick. It's fun but it can be quite impractical if you miss. But if you don't, it hits like an absolute truck for good ammo cost. Another reason to play the Anniversary Collection as opposed to the original ROM. Needle Cannon is pretty good, but it's also really boring. It's just a better buster that can auto fire. Next! Oh... never mind, I'd much rather have an entire weapon roster of this than one of Spark Shock. That is easily the worst weapon in any Mega Man game. I'm not even going to explain why, so feel free to satiate your curiosity. Hard Knuckle is kind of bad but it is leagues better by far. It is nice that you're able to tilt it up and down.

And for the moment we've all been waiting for, Rush! I love his inclusion in the Mega Man series with him being like the Luigi to Rock's Mario... Just go with it. But as to be expected, he is quite broken in this game, both literally and figuratively. Rush Coil definitely isn't broken and is quite fun to use, making up for Rock's jump height. Rush Marine is pretty much worthless, since there are only three levels with underwater sections and it's only mandatory once. Rush Jet is an absolute beast in this game. It's an improved version of Item 2, in that you can move it up and down. In fact, you can move it in pretty much every direction possible. It drains a lot, unless you're constantly jumping while riding. You won't be knocked off so there's little to no consequence to doing this. So if you wanna make a hard game slightly easier, this is your safety net.

By this point, the team behind Mega Man didn't exactly have a solid track record for level design. Mega Man 1 had mostly good levels but cheap gimmicks that held back a good chunk of them while Mega Man 2 had levels that were pretty short and focused a bit more on style than substance. Mega Man 3 was a major turning point for the level design. Not only did the quality drastically improve, it also helped in establishing the formula that is still being practiced in Mega Man. Top Man's stage isn't crazy, but it's fairly nice to run through. The dreidles definitely needed more appareances though. Shadow Man has some neat gimmicks grenade like enemies whose deaths count as attacks, emphasizing keeping your distance, as well as some lightbulbs that affect the visibility of the environment. You can shoot them to tuen the lights back on which is great. There are also some enemies with parachutes that you can either lure out and pelt with your buster or use Top Spin to one shot them. With Magnet Man, the entire stage is littered with magnetizing obscales from the enemies and even the terrain. The Yoku block section can be annoying but it's not nearly as bad as Heat Man's. Still, they don't do much with this gimmick. Snake Man's stage is undeniably the best in the entire game. The first half is literally made up of giant snakes and there are some snakes along the way that shoot at you, combined with interesting enemy challenges. The last section does lose the theme, but offers up decent challenge nonetheless.

Gemini Man's stage is one of the most bizarre, unique stages we've seen so far and honestly one of my favorites out of all the games. Popping eggs isn't great, but over and done with pretty fast. Needle Man is also great and is objectively one of the most pleasing stages, aesthetically. And that score is beautiful, goddamn. Spark Man is fun but what is easily the most memorable part of this stage is the platforms that shoot up. They're definitely tricky but they give you such a nice adrenaline kick for overcoming them. Hard Man's stage is honestly one of my least favorites from this game. It's not bad but it almost feels like a Mega Man 2 stage in its enemy quality. The worst part is easily the bees which you pretty much have to scroll off the screen because they're abysmal to deal with otherwise, especially on original hardware. We're not quite done with the Robot Master stages yet, though, as it's time to pick apart the most controversial aspect of the game... the Doc Robots.

I won't touch up too much on some of these stages. If you liked Spark Man and Gemini Man's stages, then congratulations, there's not much different here if at all. One thing that is really annoying about all of these stages on your first run is that if you die to the first Robot, you have to go all the way back to the start instead of just the boss room. Thankfully, checkpoints are normal after that. The stages that are particularly worth note are Shadow Man and Needle Man. Shadow Man has a bunch of spikes at the start that are frustrating if you don't already know to just slide over them. Then later on, there's a section with those Castlevania-esque platforms that open when you jump on them. Not bad on the PS2, but the lag on the NES makes this section so much less fun that it lead me to switching on this run. And now, Needle Man. This one is a doozy. So it has a pretty long start and after the first DR, there's suddenly a section that requires the Rush Jet. At least if you keep jumping, you're less likely to run out of ammo. Either way, it's just not very fun to play through. And then, and then, you have to fight two Met mini bosses or something like that. They're not very hard but this is really stretching for content. For what it's worth, I like these stages minus the Needle Man revisit and I do think revisiting stages as part of the endgame is a cool concept. The execution isn't perfect but at least 2 or 3 of these stages are pretty solid. Thankfully, we're finally getting to Dr Wily. Unfortunately, we're not really working with a lot of content but let's just delve into it.

Like I implied, the Wily Fortress is definitely not the strongest but it at least has a pretty cool opening. You find yourself outside of the castle only to fall down into a sewer that has... penguins? Ok. There's not much else to comment on, but I find the position of the first Hammer Joe to be excellent. Nice stage. The next stage is sadly quite short. The bulk of it pretty much hinges on reusing the obstacles from Hard Man's stage, even those damn bees. To be fair, that means having to start all over if you die is rather painless. The third stage is also quite short and has some of the strangest enemy positions I've ever seen. At least there's a pretty cool moving platform climb to make up for it. And that's really about it, aside from the boss rematches and the final bosses. Quite underwhelming, but they don't detract too much from the overall score. Now for the best aspect in my opinion, controls aside...

I would consider the bosses here some of the most tightly designed in Mega Man. They definitely don't slouch in the difficulty department, for the most part. Top Man is easy but there are some times where he can trip you up with his spin. Shadow Man is the hardest fight in the entire game, it's not even a contest. He's not very consistent about when he jumps, slides, or shoots and he will give you nightmares for weeks trying to learn how to tackle him. When you do beat him, you feel like a rockstar climbing St. Everest. Sliding is almost an absolute must in Magnet Man's fight to avoid his magnets. It's another fight you'll likely feel anxious about, but he has a bit more leeway to his attacks in comparison to Shadow Man. Snake Man only has one attack, but the layout of his room adds some extra challenge to the fight.

Gemini Man is quite the interesting and hectic fight. It's a very enjoyable time even with the both of you running laps around each other. Needle Man is yet another hard fight but he's not quite as spontaneous as Shadow Man. Probably one of the better Classic fights overall. Spark Man is another case in which the room makes the fight more spectacular, as his spread shot poses quite the threat. Hard Man ironically might be the easiest Robot Master, as his fists are rather slow and his ground pound is not very hard to avoid. I won't be getting into detail with the Doc Robots, because I already covered their original forms in the last review. But the amount of contact damage they deal is fucking ridiculous, along with having such a huge sprite. Their weaknesses also tend to be pretty tricky to figure out even after the first run. Most fights are at least okay, but the worst ones have gotta be the Air Man copy and the Quick Man copy. They pretty much exacerbate the flaws of their original counterparts, combined with some lag here and there.

Oh yeah, Break Man... Does this even count as a boss? I guess if you forgot how to fight Proto Man by this point, there is some challenge here but the only difference is he can only be damaged by the Mega Buster. Probably one of the worst endgame bosses in any Mega Man game. In contrast to the Wily Fortress stages, the bosses are quite well done. Much like in Mega Man 2, these bosses have no I-frames but they are not nearly as exploitable. The turtle machine, while not a groundbreaking boss, is very enjoyable as you dodge the winds in the water to crush the turts. Yellow Devil makes a return in this game, but this fight is no doubt a big improvement especially with the aforementioned lack of I-frames. The hitboxes are questionable, though. Speaking of improvements over Mega Man 1, hello Copy Robot! This time it's split into 3 and they shoot homing pellets. It's a really fun and challenging fight, albeit random since they change places here and there. Before we get to the boss rush, we're greeted by fellows that throw huge piles of junk. They're technically not bosses but they deserve a shoutout for being so damn cute and nasty at the same time.

After the gauntlet, we're once again taken to face off against the new Wily Machine. This fight is actually quite imposing Buster only but still doable unlike the last Machine boss. Phase 1 is somewhat of a breeze but phase 2 is where the pressure kicks in. It creates quite the claustrophobic feeling as you wait for an opening to shoot while also sliding to avoid his impending legs of doom. Oh wait, this isn't Wily... shit! We're taken to yet another stage but its the last time this time, for real. Bravo to the game for giving us resources for this fight, but a health capsule? That's weird. Now, we have to fight Gamma, the peacekeeping robot that was compromised by Wily. Phase 1 is an absolute joke. While it can't be hurt by the Buster, it's weaknesses make rather short work of the head and it will almost never hit you with its pellets. Phase 2 is a bit damn hard though. You have to hit it either with Search Snake or the Top Spin, and you have to be really precise. One glitchy, fucked up weapon later and Wily is down.

And that was Mega Man 3. While it is my personal favorite Mega Man game, at least from the Classic series, it is definitely a flawed entry. If they had more time to iron out the glaring issues, it would probably be heralded as a masterpiece by more people. For what it is though, I think it's fantastic and definitely worthy of being part of this titan of a franchise. Logic would dictate that the next game I'd cover would be Mega Man 4, but nope. Instead, it's Mega Man Unlimited! ... See you in about another month (no, I am not joking).

TL;DR: Controls - 8/10
Weapons - 3/10
Levels - 4/10
Bosses - 2/10
Overall - 4/10

Mega Man 2 is commonly referred to as not only one of the best Mega Man games but one of the best games of all time. As you can see by my evaluation above, I don't share this same sentiment. Before we dive right in, this will be a more charged review compared to my Mega Man review (because this game inspires so much vitriol in me) so if that makes you uncomfortable, I understand if you want to skip. If not, sit tight as I tell you why your favorite game is bad.

Let's briefly touch on the controls. They are more or less identical to the original game's controls, except for the slippery factor. Still has some pretty steep jumps, though. Overall, the control is improved but still not refined to the standard that we hold for Mega Man.

As for the weapons, they are absolute dogshit in this game. Everyone already knows how broken the Metal Blade is. If you wanted to, you could practically beat the entire game this way. How no one on the dev team thought it was severely unbalanced to have an 8 directional weapon with such high ammo is beyond me. Quick Boomerang comes the closest to matching the Metal Blade, and it's not even a question. It has much more ammo, but is shorter and a bit weaker as a consequence. Still, it tears some enemies that the Metal Blade cannot. Air Shooter is almost a good weapon, but the tornadoes don't deal enough damage unless you have a big target or your buster is lodged inside their nose. Metal Blade covers diagonal trajectory anyway so don't even humor me with that. Time Stopper is ok here and there but is generally bad otherwise. Not being able to shoot and outright preventing certain flags while draining all of your ammo are such huge design flaws that this had to have been made as a joke.

Crash Bomb is just Hyper Bomb but slightly better since it can deal contact damage this time. Let it stick on a wall, however, and you have to wait for it to detonate just to switch to something more practical. Leaf Shield seems like a decent weapon at first glance, until you start moving around with it. Oh wait, you can't because it fires when you move. What the fuck is that nonsense? It's a shield! I guess it's useful for Crash Man's stage and Wily 3/4 but that's really about it. Atomic Fire has to be hands down the worst charging weapon in the Classic series. It will straight up not do anything until you hold down the B button for at least 20 seconds. Sure, it's powerful but in all that time you were charging, you could've been using something much better. LIKE THE METAL BLADE, FOR FUCK'S SA-! And last and definitely least, Bubble Lead. This weapon is worthless and is basically only useful against the bosses it's weak to (which is the bare minimum) and even that is questionable. By the time you kill one target that isnt a Met with this thing, you'll likely have run out of energy despite its generous ammo.

Before we move on, let's talk about the Item system in this game. Item 1 is a floating platform that rises up slowly. Doesn't sound great on paper but there are still a good few spots where this weapon is useful and you can have up to 3 at a time. Item 2 is the first jet of the series. Of course, you can't control it like you could with Rush in the later games but it's still a great tool nonetheless for just maneuvering around the game. Lastly, there's Item 3. All this does is cling on to walls and let you scale them if you're trying to conserve Item 1. Not bad but certainly seldom used outside of Wily 1. This is also the first game to feature E-Tanks. You can only carry 4 and unfortunately, you will lose them if you die.

One might think that with making the jump from 1 to 2 and having 8 Robot Masters as opposed to 6, the quality of the level design would drastically improve. Unfortunately, this isn't the case, as the levels are less inspired than in the original. Sure, there are the occasional gimmicks like the Quick Man lasers and the first truly underwater level in Bubble Man's stage but nothing truly profound. Flash Man's stage has ice physics for some reason. I guess it's because his weapon freezes enemies but that's a stretch. It's just more of a time waster for an otherwise fodder level. Quick Man, aside from the aforementioned lasers, has nothing interesting going on his stage whatsoever aside from some darkness mechanic that's haphazardly introduced in one screen and then absent for the rest of the level. Metal Man's is ok but the conveyor belts aren't much to write home about. It's neat that you can freeze them with Time Stopper but they're not as impactful to the stage as you might think. Wood Man's stage has very distinctive enemies, but none that offer anything all that interesting. P.S. you can skip at least two of the dogs completely.

Air Man's stage might actually be the best in the whole game. It at least has a little bit more challenge and complexity than the other Robot Master stages. It's still not hard but requires some precise platforming, which is absent in most stages. Crash Man's stage loves to waste your time by spamming Pipis and Tellies which I am definitely not a fan of. Also, with stupid wired platforms that have no challenge. Bubble Man's stage is fine. At least there are some spikes on the ceiling to check your jumping as most good underwater Mega Man stages should have, but the outdoor sections aren't all that intriguing. Heat Man's stage is also fine until the Yuko Blocks section. It is terrible design to have disappearing blocks to leap across over a long, bottomless pit. Not even Mega Man 1 would think of something like this.

Now to be frank, the Wily Castle stages don't get much better than this. Wily 1 is pretty mediocre and has a really annoying ladder section where you have to perfectly time your Item 1s just to reach the next one. The most challenging obstacle in Wily 2 is the drill section... which you can just use Time Stopper in. Even if this game were great, these damn drills are terrible to put in an endgame stage. Otherwise, you're dropping down a bunch of spike rooms with spikes you'll probably never touch even if you're bad. There is almost nothing interesting to talk about for Wily 3, except for jumping over sharks(?) in a pool of piss. How ironic. The last notable stage is Wily 4, which is probably the worst stage of the game. It once again introduces a mechanic in an uninteresting way and it simultaneously disappears just as quick. Ooh but this time, it's invisible platforms! They also recycle the stupid fucking Crash Man platform 3 or 4 times in a row. To cap it all off, a problematic room with Sniper Joes. This will be more evident in the bosses section. Wily 5 is not worth evaluating, because it's a graveyard stage (a trend that should've never occurred) and Wily 6 will be discussed along with the bosses.

So I've shit-talked this game plenty, but the bosses are the worst part of it at least to me. Flash Man is a joke until he randomly freezes time and sometimes catches you in an unfavorable spot. Quick Man is just really annoying to deal with because he zooms all over the room and makes him hard to hit in the process. Thankfully, you only need to hit him 7 times with your buster before freezing him. Fighting him under other circumstances is atrocious. Metal Man's patterns aren't tough to avoid but at least the conveyor belt gives the fight some personality. Wood Man's difficulty is quite oversaturated. Once you've figured out how to time your jumps, you've pretty much figured out the whole fight. Don't even bother with the Atomic Fire, just use Metal Blade as it deals 2 damage a shot anyway. Oh yeah, Metal Blade nukes pretty much half of the bosses in the game. Geez, you think it's powerful enough or what?

Air Man can actually be fun, but sometimes he'll just give you horribly stupid patterns to screw you over. If you're playing the original ROM, you can try persevering through his tornadoes and shoot until he reaches the left side, at which point, you can hug said side turning your back on him and spam Leaf Shield. Crash Man is kind of like Fire Man except he jumps like he's on crack once you make your move. Easy boss otherwise. Bubble Man's bubbles can hardly hurt you if you just stay close to him, and they are the hardest part of the entire fight. Heat Man is so tedious because every time you hit him with anything, he dashes at you. He will sprinkle some fire which is tough to avoid, but he'll only do it once if you catch him in a loop. Welp, the Robot Masters are subpar but surely, the Wily bosses have got to be better. Well...

Oh boy, the Mechadragon. Where do I even begin with this thing? To give it credit, it has a pretty cool setup with a semi-escape sequence. This all goes to shit when you realize just how little room you have to fight it. You get three little platforms and you have to juggle between the upper two. Fun. You touch it, you explode and if you get hit by its fire anywhere but the top, you fall. Spam Quick Boomerang in its face and it'll go down in a few cycles. I should mention that none of the Wily bosses have i-frames, even the dragon so go ham. Another side note: cover your eyes for when you take down ALL these Wily bosses. Game tries to give you a goddamn seizure. The next boss, Picopico is refreshingly simple. The room dismantles itself to make... whatever this thing is. The further you get, the faster it'll go. Just remember to keep calm and spam Metal Blades. You also get 2 E-Tanks before this fight, so don't worry if you have to use any. Guts Tank is the easiest castle boss by far, as Quick Boomerang once again makes quick work of him. He can shoot out Mets but good luck getting hit by them or his standard pellet. Now it's time to bring up the Sniper Joe room again. The Wily 4 boss, Boobeam Trap, requires pretty much a full set of Crash Bombs. So if you don't have enough of them, you need to kill the Joes. This is a problem for 2 reasons. 1: while the standard Joes are easy to kill, some are in tight corners which can make it hard to farm off of them in addition to 2: the Joes on the mechs will maul your ass if you're not careful. This is a problem because the Boobeam Trap does a lot of damage and you can't pause while the Crash Bomb is out. Brilliant. You pretty much have to have full ammo and some life insurance to guarantee your success. Even then, you need to know where you should aim. So yea, horrible design all across the border with this one.

As for Wily, phase 1 of Wily Machine 2 is actually pretty smooth. He shoots a pellet in a u-shaped direction and all you have to do is dodge it. I don't even wanna know what it actually is. Phase 2 takes the piss, though. He'll start off normally with just one shot, but then he'll suddenly fire three in a row. These three shots cannot be dodged which means this fight is not viable Buster only and you have to use the Crash Bomb. Oh yeah, you already used up most if not all of your uses on the last boss so time to die again. After that bullshit barrage, it's time for the real final boss. You're taken into this cavern where blood is dropping from the ceiling. Looks tough, right? Well if you use this frame perfect trick, you can pass this more easily. Here it is: hold right and jump when you face a wall. I have to ask, why the hell are there no energy capsules here? Seriously, how are you expected to beat this boss if you run out of weapon energy? Never mind. The ultimate final battle is... an alien? Ok weird but cool, I guess. This is actually a solid fight but you can only damage it with Bubble Lead. Everything else deals negative damage. His patterns are easy, just keep calm and attack when there's an opening. Ah so Wily was controlling it this whole time with VR. Could we have gotten this instead of the Virtual Boy?

And that's the game. I hope you'll at least understand my reasoning as to why I think this game is so bad. In the last review, I said if you do not like hard games, then don't blame the game. And I'm not necessarily trying to blame the game for being too easy especially for a follow up. There's just more to be desired in this entry. I can't entirely blame the devs, as this was more of a side gig. And I see the effort they put into this one. Unfortunately, effort doesn't always equal quality. And no matter how much effort you put into something, there will always be critics who can't derive the same enjoyment as the fans can. That is to say, if you love this game, more power to you. But don't go around saying it's the best Mega Man game ever. It's not a competition and it doesn't matter. Whether or not you hate this game or that game, no one can deny the massive impact Mega Man has on its audience, including me. Despite me hating the shit out of this game, I'm also glad that it happened because it allowed the series to grow and be better over time... and worse in some cases. But the next entry definitely isn't the latter!

TL;DR: Controls - 7/10
Weapons - 7/10
Levels - 6/10
Bosses - 5/10
Overall - 6/10

For the first game in the ever expansive Mega Man series, this is quite a good one. It may feel archaic at first, but the more you play the game, the more evident it's merits and charms become.

Mega Man controls simply and effectively, with the slight caveats of having a harsh jump arc and sometimes slippery landing. The enemies are adequately designed around only being able to jump and shoot, putting up a decent challenge to your platforming and shooting skills. You also sink like an anchor, though, so take caution before making decisive jumps.

The weapon balancing is also pretty solid, which is impressive. Thunder Beam is arguably the best weapon in the entire series, but has a well-balanced arc and is nowhere near as gamebreaking as it's redheaded sibling in Mega Man 2. Fire Shield is great as both an offensive and defensive tool, Ice Slasher is an excellent freezing weapon, and Rolling Cutter makes for a decent substitution for your Mega Buster in some situations. The two obvious outliers here are Super Arm and Hyper Bomb. While they have great damage output, Super Arm requires specific set pieces for any use and Hyper Bomb simply takes far too long to activate, as it does not explode upon contact. Lastly, the Magnet Beam is of course a great platforming gimmick that lends itself to a lot of fun skips.

For the most part, the level design is solid. Cut Man is a great place to start for beginners, as it teaches the player how the game flows, while my personal favorite first pick in Guts Man has a very satisfying platforming section in the beginning that thankfully doesn't overstay its welcome. Bomb Man and Fire Man, though not all that memorable, are fun stages to tackle and offer interesting gimmicks. My personal least favorite stage in the game is Ice Man, but that's mostly because of the annoying shooting platforms section that I tend to skip with the Magnet Beam anyway. Objectively speaking, the worst stage would have to be Elec Man due to tedious vertical sections as well as annoying enemies/obstacles and some rigid platforming sections. The Magnet Beam won't make this much easier as you get it in THIS stage... Oh right, the Wily stages! Apart from a few sections of the first Wily stage, this is probably one of the better Wily Castles in the series, or at least the Classic games. The levels are challenging but not too unfair for the most part, and the Robot Master rematches are nicely doled out unlike the following Mega Man games where they have a self-contained stage that offers minimal challenge.

On the topic of the Robot Masters, the bosses tend to be pretty hit or miss. Cut Man and Guts Man aren't the hardest, but the dynamics of their respective fights are engaging. Fire Man can blindside most players, as he's a reactionary boss but he becomes pretty easy when you get better at timing your shots. Bomb Man's fight is pretty middle of the road not being very good while also not being the worst. He's just there and then you get his almost worthless weapon. Ice Man is a fun boss to learn, though he is very punishing to mess up on, as his projectiles deal a whopping 10 damage. Elec Man is in the same boat when it comes to the projectiles, but the fight is way less fun with the telegraphs being pretty easy to miss unless you cheese him by timing your shots so that he can't attack. The weaknesses on these guys are pretty reliable for the most part, but Fire Man and Guts Man are ironically a bit easier to deal with if you just use your buster. Of course, the pause glitch mitigates any and all challenge but that's not intended so I don't count it. However, the biggest nosedive in boss quality has to go to the Wily Castle bosses before the big bad himself. Admittedly, they do improve in quality as you progress further into the fortress, but their design overall is lacking. Yellow Devil is the personal bane of my existence when it comes to these Mega Man games. This is a fight of memorization, not skill. I'm here to play Mega Man, not a damn card game. Again, being able to pause abuse this guy doesn't make the fight any better. Copy Mega Man should be fun but doesn't offer much in the way of a challenge, making it possibly the easiest boss in the game. The bubble machine is annoying and can be very tricky to react to when it goes "fuck you" levels of fast. Oh and if you misuse the Super Arm blocks, they do not respawn after dying. Have fun.

Last but not least, Wily himself. One could make the case that he is probably the best boss in the entire game and I would agree. There's no annoying gimmick here to oversaturate the finality of the fight and he is satisfying to take down once you've deciphered his patterns. Overall, I think this is a great game from start to finish, but it can be seen as rather lackluster due to its overly apparent shortcomings. If you haven't played any of the games yet (or even the spinoffs), I would suggest you play this first to get a feel on this franchise. This game is by no means easy, but if you put in the time to resist its ball-busting efforts and conquer the whole affair, it's extremely rewarding. If you don't think that is your cup of tea, feel free to skip it but do not blame the game.