Although all the flaws this game has, I can say that it has an identity for sure. The last 8-bit entry (for now) brings everything we liked on the formula without changing too much, that's also a usually bad point reported by many, as the franchise became a bit stale at this point.
I really like the bosses here, the country-themed robots and the tournament thing bring a nice fresh to the game, shame that Plant Man boss battle is extremely underwhelming, glad the Power Fighters brought him some justice.
The graphics are the most beautiful from the NES era, and the music is again great as always but does not top 2 and 3.
The new power and flying upgrades are good additions and would pave the way for the ones we have on the next entry.
The Mr. X plot is a little bit dumb but it works somehow..
The charge is satisfying here but it's too powerful, and in addition, the game is too easy, with just rare sections of real challenge.
But, why in the hell they've removed the slide-jump mechanic here? It annoyed me a lot since I was trying to do it several times due to my muscle memory and ended up killing myself, that's a downgrade for me.
It's a nice goodbye to the NES era and a good way to introduce new people to the series without having too much frustration by the difficulty.