This one's really hard for me to go back to. I feel like every time I replay it, I like it a little less.

The main thing that gives Mega Man lasting appeal to me is its weapons. Being able to choose any boss in any order and try different strategies out in different stages, to me, is the entire core of what makes these games so special.

So if I whip out Air Shooter, which exclusively fires upward, and those little clown dudes that only ever spawn above you are immune to it, what the fuck am I supposed to do? When I whip out Crash Bomb thinking it'll wipe out a big enemy, and not only does it not explode but it doesn't deal any damage... why would I ever bother with Crash Bomb again? If I swap to Time Stopper, press the button at the wrong timing, and now I just literally cannot move past an enemy until it runs out.... and I can never use it again...... what's my conclusion going to be? "Oh, damn, better luck next time?" No, I'm just not going to bother.

I want to use the weapons, I want to experiment. So why is the game actively punishing me for having "a-ha!" moments and making enemies immune to the perfect firing arc to deal with them? It just discourages me from wanting to try anything else, makes it feel like there is a "right" way to play it. It goes against the entire idea of nonlinearity if trying a different strategy is actively punished.

Just doesn't make any sense. I don't actually want to use Metal Blade for everything.
I can appreciate what this game did for the series and what it did uniquely at the time, but that doesn't make it any more fun to play through...