For reference, I played the NES version of Double Dragon.

Honestly, it could be worse, but it didn't age well. Now, the game is at least pretty short, which is good since there's no continues to speak of. When your hits connect, some of the moves actually feel quite fun (in particular I like using the one where you grab the opponent, knee them in the face repeatedly, and throw them behind you). The first two levels weren't anything special, but pretty fun as an intro stage.

Then level 3 happened, which is where the cracks really begin to form. For some reason, this and level 4 they decided to make way longer, but that's besides the point. They tried to throw platforming more into the mix by this point, and wow does it suck. The jumping itself feels awkward, and the landing detection is horrible, and it's way too easy to either fall because the game thinks having your toe poke over the edge is too much, or because the game decides it's time to fall through the floor even though it clearly looks like you should have been able to land. Add that with fall damage and instant death pits being a thing, and the experience is very frustrating. Level 4 is even worse; anyone who experienced the stone slabs at the beginning knows what I'm talking about. For those who haven't played but want to know, there's stone slabs that pop up at random to knock you down and deal damage, sometimes being able to combo you to death. Not gonna lie though, it's pretty funny that Willy was the only one smart enough to bring a gun.

Some parts of the game were pretty fun, but the bad aspects of this game outweigh those too much for me.

Not going to lie, I'd say this game is pretty underrated. The levels I thought were very fun. While some were pretty easy, there were some fun boss fights for the most part (Rush Adaptor Mega Man vs Super Bass is easily one of my top 10 boss fights in the entire franchise), and a fantastic soundtrack. The physics do feel a bit different than the NES games, partly because of Mega Man's sprite being bigger, but it didn't really bother me much.

I will admit though the final boss is pretty bullshit.

For an early NES game, this may have been pretty good, though to be honest, it definitely aged. I don't think it's a bad game per se; overall, I'd say the game is just ok. From a visuals standpoint, Mega Man looks quite good. They also did a pretty good job making all the powers feel useful in some way, which made it a lot of fun to experiment, like using the ice slasher on the Big Eyes to freeze them mid-air, or blasting the elec beam as you please or using the rolling cutter to take out some of those annoying airborne enemies like Bladers. Being an NES game that doesn't spit you all the way back at square 1 when you game over is also a big plus, instead allowing you to just continue from the beginning of the stage you were on. Being able to challenge the robot masters in any order you please was revolutionary for the time, and helped set it apart, as most games had a more linear progression system at this time.

Now onto the flaws. Mega Man himself feels slipperier in this game than the later titles, which combined with his mach 5 fall speed can make parts of the platforming feel janky (looking at you, Guts Man and Ice Man platforms). The shooting platforms in Ice Man's stage are particularly bad, and them reappearing in the first Wily stage made me… sad, to say the least. Like, I had a feeling they'd come back, but I was hoping they wouldn't. Another thing I wasn't a fan of was how the magnet beam was left in Elec Man's stage as if it were some secret little optional thing… only for it to be required in the first Wily stage. They probably should have made it something you get after say, 3 robot masters defeated, or after defeating Elec Man, or something else so that it's not as easy to miss. This same stage also has the Yellow Devil, so um… remember the pause glitch if you don't want to go through 8-bit hell.

In the end, it's an alright game, but I'd rather play most of the future titles instead.