Mega Man 6 is about on par with Mega Man 5 in terms of quality, but successfully manages to implement game mechanics that keep the Mega Man formula fresh through the rush adaptors. At this point, it seems general audiences got kind of tired of the Mega Man formula (though I never get tired of it because I'm insane), so something like the rush adaptors was definitely needed. The general formula is still equal to Mega Man 5 (which was equal to Mega Man 4) with 8 robot masters, a castle, a twist, and another castle. Despite that, the rush adaptors make it less bothersome as their constant use changes how you approach each stage. Admittedly the power adaptor is pretty flawed with its close range and lacking mobility but the jet adaptor on the other hand is excellent in every way. I found myself using the jet adaptor in pretty much every level at least twice.
Graphics are as stellar as you would expect from a later years NES title, and the sound is excellent like all previous Mega Man installments. There's no reason you should skip this title or fail to enjoy it if you already liked the last 5.

Specifics:
- It did take me a while to get used to the new Rush Adaptors. It took 2 failed playthroughs until I managed to complete the game without continues on my third go, and most of my deaths were a result of me not properly utilizing the jet adaptor.
- I really like that most stages now have branching paths. With this, I like that there are more secret collectibles in this title, namely the BEAT plates and the energy balancer. The energy balancer is a very useful and necessary item, as it automatically refuels energy for the emptiest weapon when you pick up a weapon refill item. I really appreciate the game saving my time like that.
- The weapons in this game are very useful, about as useful as they were in Mega Man 4. I found most use out of Tomahawk Man's weapon and Flame Man's weapon, thought Yamato Man's and Centaur Man's were also pretty useful in places. I rarely used Plant Man's weapon, but a shield is always needed. It's really just Wind Man, Blizzard Man and Knight Man's weapons that I failed to utilize, though I'm not against finding places to use them in a future run, as they seem pretty handy in their own ways.
- The plot is initially promising, with the 1st world robotics tournament being a nice initial setting, and a great way to work in robot masters not all created by Wily or Light. Mr. X is pretty cool too as a possible tier up above Wily. I just wish they stuck it through with Mr. X and didn't fall back on it being Wily again (Though I'm glad we finally put him in jail in this one instead of Wily getting away).

9/10

US Saturn Release #002 - Clockwork Knight

Played on a real American Sega Saturn with the Fenrir ODE

Clockwork Knight is a platformer that does most things very well. The controls are responsive, the actual physics of your character are comfortable to work with, levels are designed well enough to not be frustrating and each contains enough to stand out. However, Clockwork Knight also lacks challenge, and is extremely short. That's not bad, per say, but it prevents this game from really reaching the heights of action platforming you see in Castlevania, Mega Man, and Mario.

The benefit of those issues is that this game is super easy to jump into and it's super comfortable to run through. Nothing feels unfair but for someone like me, nothing feels exciting either.

I really enjoyed the visuals. This game demonstrates early that the Sega Saturn was well suited for 2D games. This takes a lot of what Donkey Kong Country did and runs with it in 32 bits. more colors, fully polygonal boss fights and levels, and no slowdown. It's not the kind of game that immediately stuns you with its visuals, but definitely shows off the Saturn's 2D potential.

Despite my gripes about difficulty and length, I do appreciate how everything is designed. There really are no bad levels. The whole thing of playing as a toy is used rather well in designing both how stages look and how they play (for example, the kitchen level is like an ice level, with extra polished kitchen counters, and the sink provides as a rising-falling water hazard level).

Clockwork Knight is certainly creative and well designed for pretty much anybody to jump into, but as someone who loves platformers and has played many of them, this doesn't really compare to most others. This is definitely a game I recommend playing, and it's very good, but I wouldn't expect anything amazing.

7/10

Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge is an interesting case. The game is clearly developed to be a translation of the excitement of the NES Mega Man games to the Game Boy hardware - Mega Man on the go if you will. However, it's not a one-to-one port of any of the NES titles like you would expect. Despite taking a whole lot from the console counterparts, this is definitely a unique experience. Rather than having just the 6 robot masters from 1, there are 4 from 1 and 4 from 2, a trend that would continue for most of the following game boy games. There's also a new robot, Enker, thrown in at the end.

Despite those changes, the game still does not stray far at all from the NES games. the core Mega Man gameplay is here, and it's translated surprisingly well for the first attempt. The gameplay is impressively barely affected by the screen size, which is impressive considering how massive Mega Man is on this tiny screen. Though, because of this smaller screen size, the game feels way more cramped than the NES titles.

If there's anything I've seen people say about this title, it's that this one is very hard. I can see where people are getting that, especially considering some of the tricks pulled in the Wily levels. Personally, I can hardly comment on this, as I've grown up with this title and have honestly played it more than some of the NES titles. Natrually, I'm pretty damn good at this one compared to others, so I'm not really feeling that same level of difficulty. Most of that difference is just knowing how to properly utilize your weapons. The core 4 unlocked from the Mega Man 1 robot masters are rather useful in this title. I often found myself using them far more often than I did in the NES game. Surprisingly, Elecman's weapon was the least useful here. The 4 weapons you unlock from the Mega Man 2 bosses are also very useful, though you only get to truly use them for 1 level, which really bothers me. I wish there were a couple more Wily Stages (or the robots were introduced earlier) so that you could get more use out of their abilities. Though, I do appreciate the brevity of this title as a result.

Back on difficulty, I think a lot of that is felt in the Wily Stages. There are a lot of falls that will throw you into spikes if you're not completely aware (though you can get around this with smart Carry usage) and the block sections in Wily 2 are really annoying for a first-timer. Though, I do really like these levels because of how they encourage weapon mastery. Every single screen was me using a different weapon to get by, and it felt wonderful to string together. I think that about sums up the difficulty, the game is tough for a newcomer but rather rewarding for a veteran.

Overall, Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge is a fun and impressive title for the Game Boy. I personally do not recommend it if you're new to Mega Man. It'll be too frustrating as a first game. Hell, it'll be too frustrating once you get into it for the first time anyways. Though, If you manage to stick with this title til the end, I believe you will enjoy it. I personally think this is one of the Game Boy's many classics.

[Played on Retron 5 with original cartidge]

Super Mario Land is super interesting considering its North American release. prior to Super Mario Land we had only Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 2. Super Mario Bros. 3 had been released in Japan but hadn't made its way to North America yet. I this makes Super Mario Land more interesting, because as of then, there was no clear formula for Super Mario. You had running and jumping but usually there was something unique and strange about each entry. Super Mario Land follows up on this, with gameplay far more in line with Super Mario Bros. but placed in a strange foreign land filled with unusual enemies, setpieces and level types. the general style pointed the series more towards Super Mario Bros. than Super Mario Bros. 2, but you still had a feeling that a Super Mario game could be pretty much anything.

Viewing this game as an attempt to convert Super Mario Bros. to a handheld console tells me that this game is a good attempt. It's certainly flawed, especially in the fast and jerky controls, but you do get the general feel of Super Mario Bros., and that alone is pretty amazing considering what else was out at the time in terms of handheld experiences.

However, I can't really say this game ages nearly as well and Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 2 did. As previously noted, the controls are really uncomfortable. I found myself running straight off of ledges because there was 0 momentum or acceleration in Mario's running. You hold B and Mario goes from 0 to 60 and when you stop holding a direction, you stop moving instantly. Coming off of the 2 NES titles, this is really strange and hard to get used to. Ultimately, I found the game far more approachable when you're taking it super slow, but it still felt pretty wrong. Additionally, the graphics are rather poor, though that's mainly in comparison to later Game Boy titles. Games were able to work with much larger a more detailed sprites in exchange for less visibility, but games were often always built around that trade-off. Super Mario Land works to show the same amount of playing space as the NES titles, and to achieve this, pretty much all the sprites are tiny and super simplistic. It ends up looking kind of ugly up against those later titles.

Overall, Super Mario Land today is a flawed and rather dated game. It's not anything you'll hate, but it's not going to capture the same amounts of fun the NES titles do. Though at the time of the game's release, this was a big deal and a major breakthrough for handheld gaming. I know we do not live in the past, but it's always worth acknowledging and retrospecting on the history so you can better understand titles.

6/10 - Okay

This is definitely a flawed NES action game, but it's definitely "one of the classics", and it still holds up despite its design.

I think the main issue is enemy placement. There are points where you're basically required to take a hit going through doors, and others where you just get slammed by enemies who go off-screen. See, enemies stop moving when they are off-screen and only go back into motion when their entire sprite is on screen. Not moving or even being shown based on partial presence may not sound like a big deal but it significantly lowers the reaction time you are given to avoid things, especially if you're not paying a lot of attention to this kind of thing.

Besides that the only major flaws I have for this game are the lack of any sort of progress save and the strangeness of grenades, but I can easily look over those. Modern platforms have save options for Blaster Master and either way, it's easy to blast through the first couple areas in less than half an hour to get to where you were. Also, it's just really fun to play so going through the early segments over and over doesn't bother me.

As an early metroidvania, it can be shakey at times, but this game really maintains the thrill of gaining more abilities and finding new ways to use them in your progression. I really like going back to previous areas to find entry to more areas, but I think a map would have been nice, because it can still be rather easy to get lost.

I highly recommend giving this a shot. I got this one for real cheap (10 bucks) so it's real easy to come buy and well worth the cash.

7/10

Castlevania III is a perfect evolution of the first Castlevania title. You get double, maybe triple the stages. You get multiple different routes to castle Dracula. You even get 3 new and completely different playable characters. It blows my fucking mind that this amount of replayability was put into an NES game, and it blows my mind even harder that this can actually compete against the original in terms of quality, and Castlevania was already one of the console's finest gems.

My only major gripe with the title is just how difficult the American release is. As far as I know, the original version of Castlevania on the FDS maintained the same level of difficulty that we saw in the west (minus a save feature cut out of the American release if you think that counts as difficulty adjustment). In Castlevania III, a lot of the game's balancing is altered to make the game tougher for you to beat. Like Castlevania, enemies all take away the same amount of health based on where you are in the game. It was definitely a flaw in the original, but it's way more noticeable here because the Japanese release was more fair, with health removed being determined by what you were hit by rather than your position in the game. Similarly, the western release alters where subweapons are dropped and what is given, but that's more of a case-by-case thing, and can actually end up helping in places.

So, after almost a week of grinding out the base American copy I own, I decided to apply a patch through my Retron 5 that would turn Castlevania III back into Akumajou Densetsu. I definitely think this is the way to go if you wish to play this game. The game has insane audio-enhanced sound and, as mentioned previously, is much more of a fair challenge.

And briefly on that music, man is it something else. The addition of the audio enhancements within the Akumajou Densetsu cart really makes a difference. It's probably one of the best soundtracks of any game on the console, possibly taking the #1 spot. Hell, even in the downgraded 5-channel American release, the songs still sound fantastic.

Visuals are also as brilliant as those seen in Castlevania. I think a lot of the backdrops look much better here though, most likely a result of more experience considering this is a much later release.

Honestly there's really nothing at all holding the game back from an easy 10/10 score. Even when I was being beaten by the American release, I was having so much fun with it. I think at this point I'm comfortable in saying that this is better than Castlevania. I'm at least confident that the Japanese Akumajou Densetsu is better.

Also lots of points for being the blueprint for the equally amazing Netflix series.

10/10

[Played on the Retron 5 with Original Cartidge]

Castlevania manages to deliver action platforming perfection merely in the console's third year (out of ten!) in north American territory. This is easily one of the greatest games on the entire console.

Reading through some reviews on here, it seems a lot of people are put off by the game's difficulty. I understand that, but I must note that this game is 100% fair. Sure, Simon's jumps cannot be corrected, but when you have 1 specific jump arch, you'll always know exactly where you're going to land, and the game is designed around that jump. Sure, the knockback can throw you into some pits, but that's only going to be an issue in maybe 2-3 levels, and you're always given tools to deal with enemies in those areas. You can complain about how the game controls in that sense, but you cannot deny that the game gives you plenty of tools to get around those.

And about those tools, the sub-weapons are excellent. My favorites were the holy water and the cross, but I ended up using every item in my final playthrough. I especially love how overpowered these items can get with shot multipliers. I think people tend to view cheesing bosses as some sort of crutch or flaw with a game, but I view it as a wonderful reward here, since you have to carry the item to the end of the level without losing it or dying, and those levels are often designed around using a wide array of items throughout.

On those bosses, they're again, exceptional. They're rather difficult near the end of the game, with the grim reaper and Frankenstein's monster being rather troublesome, but I found them all to be a thrill to learn and work around. The sub-weapons give you so many different ways to tackle them, too. For grim reaper, you can solo with the whip, whipping the sythes and attacking the reaper when you can. Or, you can go in with a triple cross and attack the reaper with a 6 hit barage every time, clearing out sythes at the same time. Or, you can go in with the axe and attack the reaper from below as he jumps around the room. Or, you can stun lock the reaper with a shot multiplier holy water before he even spawns any sythes. You have so many options with these bosses and it's always a blast to find new ways around them.

Man, do I love the graphics in this game. The backgrounds are absolutely beautiful, especially considering a lot of the other games out at the time, which would still go for pure black or single-colored backgrounds. And even games with proper backgrounds couldn't compare to the excellence of Castlevania's gothic designs. I especially love stage 3 where you can see the tower you'll fight Dracula in. That kind of graphical design is truly incredible for 1987.

The enemies are also rather great in this game. Each foe has its own moving and attacking patterns that you can work around if you pay attention. I know that's a rather expectable thing for an action platformer, but I mention this because of levels like 3, which are long straights of pure enemy battling. It truly makes you feel incredible when you learn the moves and read all those fuckers on your way to the boss.

So as a whole package, Castlevania is an astonishingly well-designed game full of exciting levels and tough but fair challenges. This is by far one of the NES's finest games. Right now it's sitting on the fence between 9/10 and 10/10. I'll settle with a 9 for now, but I might flip-flop after going through more of my collection, and further understanding how I view them all against each other.

Mega Man II is annoying.

However, the game is not annoying in the ways you would expect. You'd think I'm annoyed by some sort of unfair or uncalled-for spikes in difficulty, but I'd report the exact opposite; Mega Man II is annoyingly easy. The challenge I love and expect from a classic Mega Man title is nowhere. Levels are simple and bosses are absolute pushovers, even with the mega-buster. This includes Quint, who is supposed to be Mega Man from the future. From that title you'd expect him to be very tricky. A future Mega Man means a Mega Man with more technique and experience than you. Instead, he just hops around on a pogo stick until you shoot him enough. Similarly, the three-phase Wily fight is also a pushover. Attacks are relatively easy to get around as the boss patterns are not complex. Additionally, at this point in the playthrough you'd have maxed out E tanks, so i you actually had trouble here you could just power through it no problem. Nothing on display is at all challenging, and as a result the identity of Mega Man you want to see here is missing.

Another issue is the audio. I don't know if this was intentional or not, but all the music is pitched incredibly high. The ear-splitting noises are quite a shame because you hear hints of an ok melody through it all, and end up just wishing it were all pitched down. Maybe then it would sound good.

Besides those gripes, I find it hard for me to call this a truly bad game. At the end of the day, it's still mega man, just so easy that it's kind of boring. This is nowhere near as excellent as any other console of handheld Mega Man title as of the time this came out, but it's not like this was screwed up so bad that you must avoid it at all costs. If you really want to play through all these handheld Mega Man titles, go ahead. If you're looking for a Mega Man game that's miles easier than the others, pick it up (though Mega Man 2 on the NES is a better option with its normal mode). You won't be angry but you won't be ecstatic either.

Mega Man 4 is easily the best of the original 6 Mega Man games, and honestly, I think at this point it's the best game in the entire series. The newly upgraded Mega Buster adds a whole lot to the base formula, as its inclusion makes it a lot easier to fight Robot Masters with your base weapon, which makes the game more replayable as you're more capable of choosing new level orders if you get bored of the basic boss order. I found myself using just the Mega Buster to go through a lot of the later bosses in the Cossack in Wily Castles and had a whole lot more fun doing that than just spamming the weaknesses. This is easily one of the best games on the NES, and additionally one of the best games out there. Absolute must play.

Specifics:
- I found the weapons in this game to be extremely well done. None of them felt broken like in Mega Man 3, and I found myself using them all the time. I think the only one I didn't end up using much was Toad Man's ability because I wanted to keep it for when I most needed it, but my cautiousness led me to never actually use it in battle.
- The music in this game feels far ahead of Mega Man 3. My favorites were Cossack Stages 3-4, Wily Stages 1-2, Pharoh Man, Dive Man, and Drill Man.
- I'm happy to see another intro cutscene in this one after the surprising lack of one in the previous title. I really loved it.
- Rush Jet has been downgraded in this game, but I honestly don't have too much of an issue with it. Yeah, I missed being able to move more freely, but I still got plenty of use out of Jet here.
- I'm very impressed this game managed to work in 2 new utility abilities alongside rush without making the new abilities feel useless. The ballon, while basically the same as Item 1 and accomplishing much of the same things Rush Coil does, was very useful in my playthrough. Though more than Balloon, Wire was by far the most useful utility in the entire game, even more useful than Rush.
- My one big issue with this game is Phase 2 of the Wily Machine. I could not figure out how to hit Wily without having to use a utility like Balloon or Rush Coil and then immediately switching out of it. How was I going to beat him if I ran out of energy on those utilities? Maybe there was some other way that I was not aware of...
- While having to refill my Pharoh Shot for the final boss was bothersome, the final boss itself was very cool.
-I really like that this game relied on newer characters rather than just having Wily return from the jump. Works especially well since he "supposedly" died in the last game getting crushed under the rubble of the falling Wily Castle. That's something I really like in 5 & 6 too, even if they do fall back on Wily for a big reveal.

10/10

I feel like this game is a step up from most of what's been released up to this point, but it's still very flawed and kind of hard to enjoy at points. My biggest issue is how slippery controlling Alex can be. Precise platforming is extremely difficult to do, compared to something like Super Mario Bros, where it's much easier to make precise jumps. I just feel like I have much less control over where Alex is going, and I always slip off edges when I do land. Another issue that really bothers me is the Janken matches. I just think it's a terrible idea to make rock paper scissors be many of your boss fights. It hardly feels like I'm expressing any sort of skill when I win, and I usually lose out of pure unluckiness rather than lack of skill. Of course, having Alex die after the match is also pretty confusing and frustrating. I have a lot of smaller, more level-specific or mechanic-specific gripes, but those are the two most bothersome in my opinion, as they affect the game as a whole.

Besides those issues, I should commend the game for basically being the Super Mario Bros. of the console at this time. I just haven't really seen anything like this yet on the console and I really think Sega did well trying to make something similar to Mario (yet different in its own ways of course, just replicating the main gameplay). Overall I'd say I think this game is ok. It has it's moments but has plenty of flaws holding it back form being truly excellent in any way.

Mega Man 5 is an excellent title but compared to its predecessor, Mega Man 4, this is the first step down in the series. This installment fails to evolve the Mega Man series, mostly doing the same things Mega Man 4 did but changing some variables. Additions made to this title are questionable and don't really stand as memorable. Besides those gripes, The bosses are fun to contend against and the main gameplay is still just as fun. through. Very great game, but nothing new.

Specifics:
- Mega Man's (once again) enhanced Mega Buster doesn't offer much change besides an increased hitbox and maybe extra damage (I couldn't tell) but the increased hitbox does make it more viable to stick with the mega buster for the entirety of the game, which I ended up doing.
- The weapons in this game are a mixed bag. I ended up using Star Man's shield, Gyro Man's blades and Napalm Man's bombs plenty of times, especially throughout the Proto Man and Wily stages, but I couldn't find any places anywhere else where I wanted to use another weapon over my buster. This extended surprisingly to the bosses, where I defeated most with the mega buster, even the robot master refights. There are also downright questionable abilities like charge kicks and power stones, with power stones never actually hitting anything.
- The graphics in this game are excellent. It's around this time, late into the NES lifespan that it truly feels like developers are trying to push everything they can out of their games. That's the impression I get from seeing the massive detailed sprites and the lush backdrops.
- The theming in pretty much all of the robot master stages is excellent. The theming helped a lot in making each stage feel different and unique. Going through a train for charge man and diving into what appears to be an abandoned underground bunker for napalm man made the entire stage just a bit more fun and enjoyable.
- The big reveal of Dr. Wily pushing his crimes on Proto Man the entire time is really boring this time since this was already done in Mega Man 4. I will give this game's story some credit because utilizing Proto Man was a smart move considering just how mysterious he's been up to this point.
- Beat is a welcome addition to the Mega Man cast. Beat is super useful later on in the game and collecting the letters in each robot master stage to unlock him, while frustrating in points, was a nice challenge.
- The utility items in this game are strange. Firstly, this strange springboard jump that replaces the typical Rush Coil confuses me because it seems to cover the same height as Rush Coil already did in 3 and 4. The tweak adds basically nothing but confusion as to why the decision was even made in the first place since it goes away immediately after 5. It's also pretty sad Rush Marine is nowhere to be found because there are some tough water sections in this game that could have really used Rush Marine. Lastly, I didn't use the Super Arrow at all. I've just never been too enthusiastic about it.

9/10