Charge Shot is very appreciated, but apart from that, this game is kind of just... okay. I have no idea why they felt the need to make boss HP fill up way slower.

I'll do the same format as my other Mega Man reviews and go game by game.

Toad Man Stage: The water gimmick is okay-ish; I don't like the instant death pits. Other than that, this stage feels shockingly short, and a really... really... REALLY mediocre boss doesn't do it any favors.
Bright Man Stage: I love the brightness/darkness gimmick with the darkness enemies and then having to light the area back up with a firework enemy, super creative stage. The optional pendulum platform section was also a highlight. Bright Man himself isn't too fun to fight; bosses that can just freeze you in place with no real counterplay aren't fun to fight. Fun stage, bad boss.
Pharaoh Man Stage: Love my Egypt, so this stage is... just ok. Sand is an interesting gimmick and the platform enemy section is fine. Pharaoh Man's fight itself is kind of lame if you use the weakness, it's more of a mash test than anything. Kind of a letdown, but at least Pharaoh Shot is a cool ass weapon.
Ring Man Stage: The platforms that disappear are just an okay gimmick, you can kind of tell they didn't have much for Ring Man. The hippo minibosses are a little annoying to deal with but nothing compared to the ring minibosses that are a royal pain in the ass and I honestly just ran into them and skipped them with I-Frames. Ring Man himself is actually a kind of interesting fight, so it's the opposite of Bright Man funnily enough. Bad stage, fun boss.
Dust Man Stage: Interesting stage with the trash presses and the forming platforms, definitely not bad. Dust Man is a pretty fun fight and it's fun to figure him out.
Dive Man Stage: It's a water stage with semi-interesting enemies and the whale miniboss is ok, but it's not really memorable. Dive Man is just like, one step above Toad Man and that's not really saying much.
Drill Man Stage: Interesting aesthetic, but otherwise a kind of boring stage. Drill Man's fight is also not really that good, you're mostly just waiting around until he pops back up to shoot him.
Skull Man Stage: I like the diverging paths in this stage, but that's about it.

Cossack Stage 1: First stage isn't really too memorable, though it is reminiscent of the first Wily Stage in Megaman 2. Boss is cool, love sliding under the boss.
Cossack Stage 2: The Rush Jet part is neat, game gets pretty generous and gives you a lot of free stuff here. The boss is also really cool, and it reminds me of the boss in Megaman 2 that was just the stage. Very nice.
Cossack Stage 3: You can do a funny Wire bug on the autoscroller parts which is fun. Other than that, not a big fan of the autoscroller section, and the boss is just really mediocre.
Cossack Stage 4: Not much to say about this stage. Cossack himself is a fun enough fight.

Alright, onto the Wily Stages.
Wily Stage 1: This stage is full of so many fucking Mets man. There's also a really cheap blind drop into water where there's a set of asshole spikes placed purely to spite the player. Kaizo blocks reappear and are kind of pointless since the player can just use Wire. And oh, the boss of this stage is a giant Met. Thankfully it's pretty easy.
Wily Stage 2: Fun platforming, otherwise not terribly memorable. The boss isn't really great either.
Wily Stage 3: Classic Robot Master rematches. Not much else to say until Wily Machine, where it took me an exorbitant amount of time to figure out I was supposed to hit him with fully charged shots. This fight sucked big time, I'm not going to lie.
Wily Stage 4: From a bad fight to a really fucking hype fight. This is probably my favorite Wily Fight? It's easy but it's so fucking cool and is a great victory lap.

Colorblindness Rating: A
By now, Megaman's menus are no longer confusing for the colorblind with much clearer labels. Thanks, Capcom.

Reviewed on Apr 24, 2024


2 Comments


10 days ago

To answer your boss hp filling up slow question. Since it's the first game with the concept of charge blast, it was to signal to new players your could charge during the boss intro and have a fully charged blast right from the start of battle. But obviously if you know that shit already then it becomes tiring.

9 days ago

@DoctorIssa WOW so that's why. dunno why they would do that when most people go into the fight with the robot master's weakness anyway