Takes the previous formula that worked and straightens a lot of things out. No doc robot stages, no terrible gimmick boss fights, just a decent mega man game. The addition of the charge shot is really nice, although it's whirring always distracts me a bit from it's soundtrack (yes I know this is a nitpick.) Speaking of, the soundtrack is also pretty good in this game, not quite as memorable as 2 and 3 though. The weapons in this game are also a little forgettable and even more situational than the previous games' weapons, mainly only being useful against bosses. Also speaking of the bosses, why does their health refill so slow and with this horrible ear-piercing sound? Just, why?
Even though the weapons are a bit lacking, I do like the optional items, being the balloon and the wire, which both come in very handy in the wily/cossack stages. Overall, most of the issues I have with this game are pretty minor, making this game a lot more fun to replay, with a lot less to dread.

This game made me want to ignite the 3d platformer phase I never had. It kind of plays like a bunch of interweaving fetch quests, which might sound like a slog but is executed really well. At first, you kind of have no idea what you're doing, and are just loosely directed by the different characters of where to go, as well as just exploring on your own. But by the end, you learn your way around the forest and know it like the back of your hand. I loved getting involved in everyone's little disputes and helping them sort out their issues, really getting to know the community of the forest by the end of the game. The art style is also absolutely gorgeous, and the game's overall aesthetic and atmosphere is so cozy. I wasn't sure if the bugs in this game were just me, but after seeing other people mention them, yeah this game has a few issues. There were a lot of points where I couldn't move my little guy and I had to go to the title screen and back in the game to fix it. A little annoying but absolutely not enough to ruin the overall experience.

I've generally had somewhat harsh opinions on this game but I actually enjoyed it quite a bit more than 2 on this playthrough.
The controls have been updated a bit, with mega man now being able to slide which feels really good and adds a lot more diversity to the movement and how you dodge enemies, and makes it hard to go back to the games where he can't. Also this game finally fixes the issue in mm1 and 2 where he just feels like, a little bit slippery for no reason, and thank god cause that could get really annoying at some points in those games.
Unfortunately the items are a little mid in this game. I like the search snake a lot, which is very helpful for killing enemies that are to small to be hit with you're regular buster. The shadow buster is also pretty helpful as well since there are some parts where you benefit from being able to fire in eight directions. Hard knuckle kinda sucks though and is slow as balls, and gemini laser fucking blows if you ever miss an attack since it just goes all over the screen for like 10 seconds and you can't pause or fire at all. Also the top spin sucks balls and you basically have to damage yourself to do damage to anything else, and is basically only helpful for a couple bosses.
And that brings me to the difficulty of this game, which is all over the place. The robot masters' stages feel very fair in difficulty, pretty challenging but in a good way. But then you get to the doc robot levels. I'm sure this was really cool back in the day, but now it just feels like a slog, and it also doesn't help that these levels are really long and have like hardly any checkpoints. Also, the attack patterns that these bosses reuse are clearly not designed for the size and hitboxes that they have. But then you get to wily's castle, where the game somehow goes to being wayyy too easy. I'm pretty my e tanks maxed out by the 3rd level here, so I literally just stopped using them at that point to make it slightly more challenging.
Overall, I liked this game a lot more on this playthrough. It introduces a lot of things that become staples in the series, such as the slide and protoman. Also I didn't really talk about it much, but the music in this game is really good, I might actually like this game's soundtrack more than mega man 2, or at least equally. However, this game apparently wasn't even finished by the time it was shipped to stores according to the developers, and I feel like it kind of shows in terms of its' uneven difficulty and overall jankiness. Despite this, I still think this game holds up really well.