never quite got the appeal of the NES megamans. i know that so many people hold specifically the second one in bizarrely high regard so it feels strange actually picking it up and playing it and it being just sort of serviceable and weirdly designed. dunno if it's nostalgia, or a genuine appreciation for the NES with it being one of the better looking games on it (admittedly, that's pretty cool), or if i truly am missing something with this one. it has always felt like just a game to me.
i never even felt the intensity of the jump from 1 to 2, or the superiority of 2 over every later one. my foggy memories are telling me that 1 was mostly frustrating with rancid level design and that the later entries felt more fun to play with the expanded movesets but then broke my enjoyment with some more unfun level design. design is the main element that doesn't click with me with this series - it just doesn't make sense to me (obviously easily explainable by just saying "it was the NES! they were still figuring things out!", but still). the bosses are incomprehensible unless you just use their weakness weapon in which case they're laughable, so to have an enjoyable playthrough you kinda need a level order guide. the levels themselves are just sorta filled with a bunch of gotchas, also characteristic for the NES and similarly unenjoyable for me.
there's a ton of charm to the character designs and pretty neat music, but other than that i kinda felt myself just rushing through these games to get to the end. i wanted to replay these games to reassess my opinions, but upon getting really bored not that far into the supposedly best one, i think i'd rather just do something else with my time. this review serves for every NES mega man game, since i have a hard time differentiating between them anyways - i suppose i'll leave this series behind me for the time being. i do intend to go through the later entries though. i feel like there could be at least something from this series that'll click with me.
i never even felt the intensity of the jump from 1 to 2, or the superiority of 2 over every later one. my foggy memories are telling me that 1 was mostly frustrating with rancid level design and that the later entries felt more fun to play with the expanded movesets but then broke my enjoyment with some more unfun level design. design is the main element that doesn't click with me with this series - it just doesn't make sense to me (obviously easily explainable by just saying "it was the NES! they were still figuring things out!", but still). the bosses are incomprehensible unless you just use their weakness weapon in which case they're laughable, so to have an enjoyable playthrough you kinda need a level order guide. the levels themselves are just sorta filled with a bunch of gotchas, also characteristic for the NES and similarly unenjoyable for me.
there's a ton of charm to the character designs and pretty neat music, but other than that i kinda felt myself just rushing through these games to get to the end. i wanted to replay these games to reassess my opinions, but upon getting really bored not that far into the supposedly best one, i think i'd rather just do something else with my time. this review serves for every NES mega man game, since i have a hard time differentiating between them anyways - i suppose i'll leave this series behind me for the time being. i do intend to go through the later entries though. i feel like there could be at least something from this series that'll click with me.