Anyways on to the game! The evil Dr.Wily has unleashed 8 robot masters to destroy the world, simply because nobody appreciated his science. Apart from being the worst motivation for world domination, Dr.Wily is apparently able to do so without much resistance. But! Dr. Light the old compatriot of Wily's has his secret weapon of his own, which if you haven't guessed by now you should leave (It's Megaman btw). So armed with your single arm canon, you set off to save the world against under an appreciated scientist. Story is standard and would never pull trough today's standards but nobody cared back then and they shouldn't now either.
Still, playing trough it I noticed how it has aged, not by much but it has (funny seeing a score meter for a stage based game). Another silly bit is how the modern market has made me soft, I remember being able to plow trough these games, sure it was difficult but I could still do it, now replaying it seems like I'm not in my prime anymore. Small confession tho, I do pay a lot of video games by I ain't that much good at them, makes trash talking at Halos that much more ironically satisfying in a comedic sense. I'm drifting off now, back on topic! There are simply some sections that seem impossible to pass trough without at least getting hit once, there is the small invincible blinking after you do get hit that you can take advantage of, and I think that in some areas you need it to pass trough Firewalls like in Fireman's stage. It is difficult but there isn't any curve in it either, since you pick which stage you want at first they can't exactly made a difficulty curve. There are some more difficult stages and bosses but that subjective in a way.
But for the difficulty, yes it is hard but its more of the fact that I've aged so I'm not used to it anymore or something, but as for the gameplay itself, it does seem dated because of itself and not the actual design. You only have you standard three shot blaster with no charge shot which every Megaman fan has become a costumed to after the sequels, and the lack of the Mega Slide is troublesome at times, pressing the combination with no avail can be frustrating. Another thing is that they haven't quite mastered the jump/fall mechanics yet, but I'm nitpicking now, there no real problem with it, still 100% playable and enjoyable. Still fun to see the start of all and the recurring annoying level designs (disappearing blocks!) and enemies, one of which still today survived each incarnation and even spawned fantastic fan game and a few cameos here and there. So here's to our little mini mascot the helmet wearing Met for the first time. Below, fear him, love him or kiiillll hiiiim.
One thing Megaman bought to the table which was truly original was with the boss battles. For once it felt like both robots of equal match, each had his advantages and disadvantages, mono-e-mono, a showdown. I found that they did that brilliantly and Capcom has held the title of best boss battles every since then. Annnnd lets not forget the truly unique ability to get the defeated robot masters weapon! So in total you can have 8 extra weapons, each with their unique attributes, and it's here where the whole rock, paper, scissors concept come into play. With each power up you gain from a robot master, another Robot Master is Weak against it or it could be utterly useless as well. Sure you can switch on the fly but it's still a small gamble.
This game for me was simply a taste of what the series could be at the time, it is one of the most memorable but not the best by far. Each game is upgrade to the next, then in some cases it falls into the curse of the series which is the always disappointing fall from grace, but as always new reincarnation appears to save it all! The good ol' classic Megaman you shall be cherished. Oh and one last pic of my favorite battles; Fireman!
Also doing the alternative text thing now, because I think I'm funny at times.
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