"A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one." Sometimes a game is 5 different games. Maze Spelunking? Box Puzzles? Bank Robbery? Tomb Raiding? Cow Abduction? Cooking? Torture chamber? We got it all, smella! Tron Bonne is based and so is her game.

I love the servbots!!! Every time they say "Yes, Miss Tron!" I mark out. Me, too, guys. Tron Bonne rules. She's such a dork but she's also a bad bitch. And she built this little bots. Loyal friends with empty yellow heads. I know I'm about to get cliched but fuck it. Cliches exist for a reason. Tron Bonne is a fucking mech queen and they stan. If you've never wanted to protect the cinnamon roll, you're lying to yourself. We say "smol" not just because its a meme but also because sometimes a friend really is a smol. And the servbots are smol. They're just tiny idiots who wanna help!!! What kind of evil pirate would build such silly little guys? Are they intentionally such goofballs? Were they supposed to be evil and just ended up like a little peachypies? How much yogurt is in their processors? I want no harm to come to them. When the mean bird robots say mean things to them I get angry and am ready to destroy the mean birds. Do not be rude. They're proof machine intelligence is a good idea. They just smile and say "yay" and I think that is a good thing. When people compliment them they nearly cry. They're trying so fucking hard and they can't do anything right. They can't do anything right and when they do do something right it's a triumph, a beautiful miracle that need be heralded and rewarded by trumpets, by a symphony that would make the sun weep. Dumb idiot babies. They're doing their best, please for the love of god be nice to them.

There is a tendency in lots of games these days to focus on one thing and doing that one thing well. It can be a good design strategy. But sometimes? Sometimes a game is 5 games. And sometimes that's good, too.

for me this is the coziest mega man game, mostly due to the toy-like visuals and generally softer yet varied soundtrack compared to other games in the series. to be honest i have a hard time describing the sound of the soundtrack... it feels like such a product of its time but it's also weirdly timeless? it really makes me feel at home even with the game's flaws (the infamous sled sections). that being said, getting through this game requires memorization, and depending on the player perhaps even some patience. but when do you not need to grit your teeth and memorize when it's a mega man game? that being said, some sections within the stages are really not that great, and i think if they were tweaked a little they would be more tolerable.

the sled sections tend to suffer from a case of way too many things to memorize with very little breaks in between the jumping and sliding sections, and this is especially evident in wily stage 1. i think the sections could be shorter with slightly longer breaks to attack enemies or collect items so that they don't feel as drawn out, with some variety in between to keep the player engaged.
the shoot 'em up stages i didn't have too much issue with, but i definitely was bugged by the steep turns i had to make in wily stage 2. i feel like the level design itself could be tweaked a little bit so that those turns are a bit shorter to compensate for the speed at which mega man travels in the cardinal directions, though i do find it weird that he can move faster diagonally?

all that being said though, i think if i played this game when i was a kid i would have been a mega man liker sooner. there's a lot of atmospheric potential this game has that future games never took advantage of! the soundtrack always plagues my head because of how unique its sound is, and i honestly wish more mega man games made use of those specific instruments. i also loved the art direction for this game; to me, it's the prettiest classic mega man games have ever been. had the franchise not suffered a case of spinoff fatigue, i wonder what the classic series would have looked like after this game?