Been on this game for a while, and other than the major flaw of the yellow devil being infinitely harder than anything else before or after it, I'm really impressed. There's jank to be found all over the place, especially when it comes to the platforming: the speed of falls is comical, you fall through moving platforms half the time, etc. Regardless, combat is at the core of the experience here, and it is both intensely satisfying and surprisingly deep. Sometimes the bosses are a matter of use the right weapon->win, but when it comes to the regular levels, there's a lot of planning required that gets my brain moving more than I'd expect. With Mega Man's absolutely worthless maneuverability, getting a grip on the exact angle, size, speed, and distance of each weapon is necessary, along with strict positioning since enemy attacks cover so much ground and there's only narrow safe spots when there are any.

Don't let the reputation of difficulty keep you away. Aside from needing to glitch a single ridiculous boss, this is a fairly average when it comes to NES platformer difficulty. The stages and checkpoints are super forgiving and continues are infinite, thank god. It's not an easy play, but certainly doable enough without save states or rewind or anything like that if you're like me and feel weird when you use those.

Also, in the credits: "Sound Programmer: Yuukichan's Papa" I WANT TO CRY (●´□`)♡