I enjoyed Mega Man 3 up to the Doc-Robot stages where it felt like the game took a turn for the worse. The robot master stages of this game are great, and finding out the optimal boss order by myself felt rewarding. None of the robot master fights felt like BS, at least with the correct weapon in my arsenal.
Too bad I can't say the same for the Doc-Robot fights. Bosses with unavoidable patterns are the bane of my existance, and the Air Man fight is a prime example of this. Dying and having to go back to the start of the stage for trying to experiment with the optimal weapon to use, merely because the tornadoes decided to form an unavoidable wall did not feel great at all.
The final boss was a disappointment as well. It was just bad.
This was however the first NES Mega Man game I've finished without the use of save states, and I consider that to be a great personal achievement, so yay!

The third entry is a series of improvements and a few steps backward. While the innovations the game brings do wholeheartedly make the series better, at some point there is some head-scratching game design that felt like a regression to the formula they have established.

To go over the improvements, the simple addition of a slide mechanic feels great to control and makes traversing each level feel more dynamic. I felt I had more options when dealing with enemies making running past them a viable option that doesn't result in me getting hurt. For the first half of the game, I'd say the levels have been some of my favorite of the game so far. The same goes for the robot masters where each fight felt very hectic but had a somewhat clear pattern. I wish some of these fights were not just trivialized by other weapons and were manageable with the mega-buster. Gemi-Man is a great example of a fight I like where figuring out the rhythm of the attack patterns is very satisfying but is harmed by the fact you can destroy him with a specific weapon. The final addition I enjoyed was transforming the special weapons into the adorable robot-dog companion Rush. He still pretty much serves the same purpose as the special weapons but I'd rather look at a cute dog than a random gadget.

Onto the missteps, I said I only enjoyed half of these levels because the other half felt like a test of patience with trial and error being the main method to get through them. I did not mind the added difficulty of the revisited stages, outside of instant death spikes, but the Doc-Robot fights were not that fun. The idea is interesting with you revisiting Mega Man 2 fights but with little knowledge as to what type of boss was coming and what their weakness is I ended up dying a lot in these sections. Finally the reliance on using Rush in the Wily stages is not necessarily a bad thing but similarly to parts of the last game as soon as you run out of energy for Rush you might as well get a game over.

I still enjoyed my time with this entry and was overall less frustrated with this entry when compared to the first one. Experimentation did lead the series off better in the long run but I was a little sad to see them slightly miss the mark.

Alright, so starting off with general gameplay changes; pretty much just an improvement on all fronts? The added now-iconic slide changes SO MUCH you can do with the game and makes everything so much unbelievably smoother than Megaman 2 (an already incredibly smooth game to play).

So, I'll be doing the same thing I did in my Megaman 2 Review and go through my experiences stage by stage.
Magnet Man Stage: Not a terrible start, and normally I don't mind the kaizo blocks popping on and out but having to deal with the magnetizing block was actually just kind of awful. As for Magnet Man himself, pretty fun fight; I do think his magnetizing attack lasts a tad too long sometimes, but it adds tension so it's whatevz.
Hard Man Stage: Not too memorable but I do like how some enemies are designed around the slide mechanic, like the Hammer Joes and the monkey enemies that jump around like they're on cocaine. Hard Man himself wasn't a bad fight either.
Top Man Stage: I dunno how this stage relates to Top Man besides the final section before the final boss. Still, pretty fun design and the cat bosses were cute. Top Man himself was kind of a pushover though.
Shadow Man Stage: Now THIS was a fun stage, I love how they play around with the enemies that take away the visibility and the long platforming sections; it's a ton of fun honestly. As for Shadow Man himself, he's fine. I think Top Spin kind of forces you to just get in his face so there's almost no point in learning his attack patterns.

Oh yeah, and I should probably mention Proto Man. Pretty fun fight as long as the ground is either completely flat or shaped like a... |---| stage. I don't know how to describe it. Again, completely love how you're supposed to slide under him when he jumps. The slide is so fucking cool.

Spark Man Stage: Not a terribly memorable stage, but I did like the weird stage hazards on the ceiling and floor that shock you and the conveyor belt platforms.
Snake Man Stage: Awesome stage theme, awesome stage visuals until you go outside for some reason? Not much else to say as at this point. Snake Man himself is decent enough as a boss.
Gemini Man Stage: Super strange visuals but I dig them, I like digging through the bubbles and sliding past. As for Gemini Man, I'm not sure his fight was very fun but at least he went down semi-easy.
Needle Man Stage: Not very memorable sadly. Needle Man is at least fun to fight though.

The Doc Robot fights are pretty similar to how I felt about the original bosses in Megaman 2 with a couple of exceptions.
Heat Doc Robot: Actually much more of a pain. I dunno why he's a lot harder here than in Megaman 2. I think he doesn't do his heat dash very often which is why?
Flash Doc Robot: The arena is AWFUL and I really don't know how you're meant to avoid not running into him. I had to use like 2 E Tanks on this guy alone.
And of course, Air Man came back to haunt me. I HATE AIRMAN SO MUCH

The Proto Man final fight was really cool, if short. I wish he got a healthbar though.

Well, that's that. Onto the Wily Stages.
Stage 1: The stage itself isn't too memorable, but the turtle boss is actually really fun. I was surprised by how I was enjoying myself after slogging through the Doc Robot fights.
Stage 2: Again, not much to say on this one. It's a short ride with Rush Jet. That said, you do get to fight Yellow Devil! I kind of gave up on Megaman 1, so it was nice that I still get to fight him, even if it's not the iconic fight where you have to memorize his pattern.
Stage 3: The darkness enemy comes back! Very fun. I was surprised at how fluid the platforms moved in the final section, definitely a memorable stage just for that alone. At first I was dreading the fight, but then I vaguely remembered something about how the Copy Robot didn't have any I-Frames and that you could supposedly make your Buster Shots do Top Spin damage if you're using Rush Coil swap in the middle of shooting. To my surprise, I actually pulled it off first try and the boss exploded in like 3 seconds. I don't feel bad about it because it seemed like an awful fight anyway.
Stage 4: Boss rematches, good ol' Megaman.
Stage 5: Wily Machine No. 3... is really mediocre?? I spent a good 5 minutes trying to figure out what the hell I was supposed to do until I tried Hard Knuckle and then it became just a really tedious waiting game.
Stage 6: I simply Rush Jet to the top right, popped a couple Hard Knuckles, finished the boss with Top Spin. I'm not sure what the boss is supposed to do, but I'm sure it's a fun boss if you do it legit.

Colorblindness Rating: A-
Again, you can confuse some abilities by the color of the armor if you forget the acronyms, but thankfully you have weapon icons that give you a pretty good indicator as to what they do.
This is a ginormous nitpick honestly, but I think it's still important to think about these things.