established the remaining series staples, is one of the best and most recognizable games of the NES, was a success story of the developers getting another chance at their passion project, stayed the best selling mega man game for decades afterwards, this is all true. but… is it weird to say i like the first one better? i can concede it’s probably entirely bias from this being the most talked about of the series, but its flaws just irritate me more and its high points feel overplayed. it’d be foolish to hold that against the game too much though, and i can’t ignore that it was my first mega man, too. overall, yes it’s good, but expand your palette beyond it if you’re truly interested in mega man.