I remember being enamoured with this game's aesthetic since I was a kid. I love the pixel art, the colour palette, the robot design, this game basically shaped my taste in art style. But unfortunately I could never get into it, since I really sucked at playing it.
This is no thanks to the game's structure and open-ended progression. On one hand, it's really cool to have the option to tackle the game's challenges in basically any order, it makes for great replayability. On the other hand, this really sucks on a first playthrough, since you could encounter difficulty walls on your first level, with your character having a puny health bar and no upgrades.
Of course this is a staple of the Megaman franchise, and this game makes some adjustments to mitigate this frustration: there is a non-optional, very well designed tutorial level for example. Not an overbearing, condescending one, but a subtle, silent tutorial that prods the player's creativity and helps them figure out the controls on their own, instead of telling them.
Unfortunately this is not really enough, in my opinion. After the tutorial you can choose any stage you want, but you really should start with chill penguin, since it gives you an upgrade (the dash) that is basically essential for every stage in the game. The game really should have at least hinted at this, but no, you just have to figure it out on your own by faceplanting on up to seven stages.
Nowadays, in the age of online walkthroughs it's kind of a moot point, and a frustrated player can just look up an optimal route. Doing so kind of robs the game of any challenge, though, since every robot master has a specific weakness that makes their fight a cakewalk. I would have appreciated if choosing the right weapon gave you a moderate edge in the fight, but here you can just hard-counter basically any boss with no challenge whatsoever.
The fact that every stage could realistically be the player's first also makes the difficulty curve pretty lopsided and front loaded, with later levels being extremely easy for a fully-equipped X.
Level design is quite inventive and varied, with little secrets cleverly sprinkled around. Some levels even drastically change if you defeat a specific robot master before tackling them, which shows an extreme lever of care and love from the developers.
This is no thanks to the game's structure and open-ended progression. On one hand, it's really cool to have the option to tackle the game's challenges in basically any order, it makes for great replayability. On the other hand, this really sucks on a first playthrough, since you could encounter difficulty walls on your first level, with your character having a puny health bar and no upgrades.
Of course this is a staple of the Megaman franchise, and this game makes some adjustments to mitigate this frustration: there is a non-optional, very well designed tutorial level for example. Not an overbearing, condescending one, but a subtle, silent tutorial that prods the player's creativity and helps them figure out the controls on their own, instead of telling them.
Unfortunately this is not really enough, in my opinion. After the tutorial you can choose any stage you want, but you really should start with chill penguin, since it gives you an upgrade (the dash) that is basically essential for every stage in the game. The game really should have at least hinted at this, but no, you just have to figure it out on your own by faceplanting on up to seven stages.
Nowadays, in the age of online walkthroughs it's kind of a moot point, and a frustrated player can just look up an optimal route. Doing so kind of robs the game of any challenge, though, since every robot master has a specific weakness that makes their fight a cakewalk. I would have appreciated if choosing the right weapon gave you a moderate edge in the fight, but here you can just hard-counter basically any boss with no challenge whatsoever.
The fact that every stage could realistically be the player's first also makes the difficulty curve pretty lopsided and front loaded, with later levels being extremely easy for a fully-equipped X.
Level design is quite inventive and varied, with little secrets cleverly sprinkled around. Some levels even drastically change if you defeat a specific robot master before tackling them, which shows an extreme lever of care and love from the developers.